Chapter 36: Final War Council
“Karen, has that morphling arrived?”
“Let me check, Father.” Karen mounted a horse to exit Kharb. She pointed to a random soldier. “You, come with us. Jonathan, come along now.”
Jonathan sighed. “Yes, dear Sister.”
The three rode to the monster portion of the encampment, dismounting a few paces from DM. The horses whinnied nervously, still not used to being in the presence of monsters.
“Creature, has the morphling arrived?”
DM shook his tentacle vertically.
“Good.” Karen turned to the soldier. “Tell my father that we are ready to question the creature.”
The soldier nodded, mounted his horse, and rode off.
“Where is it?” asked Karen.
“…Here,” answered an approaching soldier.
She narrowed her eyes at the soldier. “Hm, good, I suppose. Just wait here quietly for a few minutes.”
Lord Burger soon arrived.
“Father, where is Andrei?”
“He’s too busy now… Let’s get this out of the way. We need to leave soon.”
“Very well.” Karen pointed a finger at the soldier. “That there is the morphling. Say hello to my father.”
“…Hello.”
“I’m Chuck Burger. We met down south but didn’t exchange words. I’ll cut to the chase. We’re about to invade the capital and unseat the man who usurped the throne. Your monsters will play a role in the invasion. Karen will issue your orders which you will convey to your forces. Are you following?”
The morphling did not respond, so Chuck turned to his daughter, eyebrow raised.
“Creature, answer his questions honestly.”
“…I am following.”
“Good. An elf named Ardreth recently provided some advice about how to engage the usurper’s army. In particular, his suggestions on how to utilize monsters were quite thorough. He seemed quite familiar with your capabilities, specifically. Do you know why that is?”
“…No.”
“Any ideas?”
“…None.”
“You sure?” Lord Burger paused dramatically. “Because he seemed to recall learning a great deal from you. Why might that be?”
“…I don’t know why the elf would mislead you like that.”
“Gah, enough of this. Andrei was supposed to be here with me anyway.” Chuck turned to leave.
“Father, wait. Did the elf really say that?”
Chuck only snorted, ignoring his daughter’s question before mounting his horse and departing. He shouted over his shoulder, “Have the monsters ready to depart within an hour.”
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The nice thing about an army of monsters is that it’s ready to go when you are. DM didn’t need to do much to prepare for departure. As DM guided the diverse mass of creatures to the north, Karen and Jonathan rode horses side by side at a point in the formation halfway between the monsters and the leaders of their army. Their conversation was relatively hushed.
“Jonathan, what do you think?”
“What do you mean, Sister?” He was surprised she actually wanted his opinion.
“Father’s questions about that elf, weren’t they odd?”
“Clearly he and Andrei don’t fully trust the monsters. I think it was just a test.”
“Well, monsters are hardly reliable. Recent events have… shown that.”
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“Yes, Sister.” He decided not to poke fun or argue.
“But old man Vagoso’s claims about Noah…”
Jonathan hesitated. If he tried to nudge Karen toward the conclusion that Noah’s reign is legitimate, it could backfire. He decided to remain neutral and allow her thoughts to land where they may. “His claims?”
“He certainly made it seem like Andrei is hiding something. Possibly that Noah wasn’t even responsible for Emperor Leo’s fall.”
“That’s how it seemed to me.”
“Jonathan, what would Andrei do if we succeeded in kicking Noah off the throne?”
“Hm.” Jonathan just gave a noncommittal acknowledgement, leaving Karen to answer her own question.
“Wouldn’t he insist on maintaining order himself while a successor was found?”
“That does sound like him,” he agreed.
“Our father’s influence would increase back home, wouldn’t it?”
“Yes. Our family would become the de facto leaders of the central region, with close ties to Vosk in the north.”
“No,” she suddenly objected. “We must be overthinking this.”
“We are?”
“Of course we are, Jonathan. I won’t entertain the idea that Andrei led us around by the nose like this.”
“I see…”
“Why did I even ask you for advice?” she asked rhetorically.
He just rolled his eyes.
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Vosk’s tactical approach to Gazahanar very much resembled DM’s mental simulation from days prior. The formation of humans, monsters, siege gear, supplies, and everything else lined up fairly well with DM’s original guess. However, there was one major difference. The Emperor’s forces never came over to meet Vosk’s army. Somehow, the defenders were all stuffed into the capital.
“Hah, how foolish.” Andrei called together all his allies and field commanders for a discussion. Normally, such a leisurely meeting wasn’t possible on the battlefield, but it would take the Emperor quite a while to deploy his forces to the fields south of the capital. Vosk could host a tea party right now without endangering his army.
“Well, the Emperor’s young,” said Chuck. “Perhaps he’s going against his advisors out of fear for the monsters we added to our ranks, or just plain over-relying on the ability to resupply via merchant ships. An ability he’s about to lose, of course.”
Another noble DM didn’t recognize weighed in. “Could it be that he learned about the hidden armies approaching from the north and opted to weather a siege?”
“Even if that’s so,” Andrei answered, “he’s just delaying the inevitable. I had hoped to settle this on day one to minimize the suffering of noncombatants, but the Emperor is so selfish that he won’t allow that.”
“So, how do you want to play it?” asked Chuck. “We only have a few hours to take independent action before the hidden armies from the north arrive. Also, won’t our fleet come into view at about the same time?”
“Yes, but my plan assumed they would place the majority of their forces outside the city. It didn’t even occur to me they would let us pen them in like hens. There’s no longer a rush to draw them into battle. The arrival of allied forces will surely shock Noah’s defenders, but it won’t force them into a hasty fighting retreat.”
“Do we wait, then?”
“You know, Chuck, I don’t think that’s necessary either. We should feel them out. We’ll begin establishment of a siege and monitor their response carefully. If we can lure them out of the city, we’ll give them just enough room.”
“Any word from the north?”
“None yet. Zaranar is supposed to send word via Kharb when the fleet embarks. The two armies in the Union are supposed to send word via Kizibuzarah when they cross the border. We may not receive any of those messages here prior to seeing the units with our own eyes.”
“It’s a shame we can’t monitor them the way our dungeon master monitors his monster armies.” Chuck glanced at his daughter, who was attending the meeting alongside Jonathan.
“Sir, what do you mean?” asked a field commander who had been silent until now.
Chuck gestured to his daughter to explain.
“Ahem. We’ve learned that the creature is able to see through his monsters’ eyes and issue them telepathic orders to control them.”
There were some murmurs from around the assembled group. Not everyone was up to date on the events involving monsters.
“Ma’am, why were monster armies wandering all over the Empire before now, then?” asked the same field commander.
“That was because… we restricted the creature’s ability to monitor its monsters and communicate telepathically in order to maintain secrecy regarding this invasion. We’ve only recently returned its ability to operate normally now that we’re ready for the invasion.”
“Ah, I see.” The field commander’s puzzled look contrasted his polite acknowledgement of the answer. He opened his mouth to speak, hesitated, then ultimately proceeded to ask what he was thinking. “If the dungeon master creature is able to monitor its monsters from afar, couldn’t we have embedded a monster with each of the hidden armies to the north, and placed another at Zaranar harbor, for real-time information?”
“Th–That…” Karen stuttered. “That would be too risky. We couldn’t risk revealing the location of those armies all while trying to keep the creature’s abilities restricted.”
“I see, please forgive my impertinence, Ma’am.”
“Hmph” she grunted in response.
Andrei re-entered the conversation. “You know, Chuck, I think your daughter’s right that using monsters like that would have been premature given how quickly events developed, but once we’ve booted Noah off the throne we should give some serious thought to updating our methods. He’s right; instant information from afar is incredibly useful, even outside of war.”
“But Andrei, to my knowledge, the monster Karen is commanding is the only one capable of anything like this. Isn’t that right, Karen?”
“Yes, Father. This creature is capable of speech and monitoring and giving commands to its monsters. You know how little success we had at the dungeon south of Nabilgat before this one came along.”
“Even if it’s just temporary, adding that capability to our own would be a tremendous aid,” said Andrei. “Make sure the dungeon monster survives this battle. We can always replenish the fodder from the various dungeons.”
Karen shook her head. “You heard what I said the other day, Andrei. I’m not going to babysit this monster after the battle and I don’t recommend we keep exploiting it anyway. The creature was a means to an end. Nothing more and nothing less.”
“Y–Yes, of course…” Andrei didn’t seem convinced but showed no sign of arguing the point further, at least for now. “In any case, let’s iron out these details. I’d like to get started by noon.”