Once they had their roles settled they all made their way out of the ship and to a nearby clearing away from the prying eyes of those waiting to get into the city. The humans carried a few bags of grenades and other explosives to teach the others how to safely use them as well as show them just how dangerous they could be.

In addition to the excitement over explosives Zilta had a large two handed chain sword over her shoulder. Her tail wagging with pure excitement as she eyed some of the trees nearby. Jack and John had been nervous at first about giving her such a large sword, but Zilta had insisted that the average dungeon had more than enough clearance to swing such a massive slab of death around. Besides, she was trained in using two handed weapons and never had quite gotten the hang of a shield.

With that they had given in and given her the two hander and basic instructions on how to activate it. They also reminded her that the teeth on the blade were capable, and would, cut through anything, including the person wielding the sword. After seeing what a smaller one had done to those attacking the caravan as well as after getting a feel of it as she turned it on she had no doubt at all about what they were saying.

“Alright! First things first.” Jack called out to the trio of nonhumans as John started to lay out the explosives. “These are dangerous. As in if you mess up with them it might end your delving career if you are lucky. If you are unlucky they will kill you.” He explained as he picked up a grenade. “For example: This is a fragmentation grenade. It explodes sending bits of sharp, hot metal everywhere on top of having its own explosive force that is capable of ripping something apart.” He nodded down to John who deployed a couple of temporary metal walls that came up to waist height, just in case.

“Now, since I know you will not fully understand without a demonstration I will show you one of these first before I tell you how to use it. That way you can pay better attention to the instructions without focusing on seeing what it does.” He then slid his finger through the ring. “Ready?” He asked them as his eyes looked into the trio’s clearly excited faces. He chuckled and pulled the pin and turned around before letting the handle pop off. He counted to three before he chucked the grenade at a small bush in the clearing.

The girls watched as the metal ball flew through the air before landing in the dried out shrub with a loud rustle. They watched, curious at first as to why nothing had happened before the grenade finally went off. The thud shook the ground as dust, smoke, and the remains of shrub were flung into the air. All three jumped in shock as the bush was turned into a cloud of sticks and leaves. The spot it had been was a circle of dirt and scorch mark.

“Well… shit.” Zilta wimpered out. “I may be tough but that would have easily taken off a leg. If I was lucky.” She thought out loud as she watched some of the leaves fall slowly to the ground. “And that didn’t use any magic or anything either.”

Nelva shivered. “Yeah. That would be very lethal to just about any magician. I could see some throw up magical barriers to block it like a spell only for it to… not be magical and ignore the shield. Fuck. They wouldn’t stand a chance. I remember what those things did to the rats in the dungeon where you found me, but I didn’t get a good look due to being in cover.” She looked at the ring of dirt and shuddered. “Pretty glad I listened now and ducked rather than tried to put up a shield.”

Tezira still had the sparkle of wonder and interest in her eyes, but it was also met with a cool headed approach clearly recognizing the dangers of what she had just seen. “That is quite some weapon. No magical training, a fairly short activation process, and silent and practically unseen until it goes off.” She thought out loud. “That would be devastating in the hands of quite a few people. An assassin could slip that into a pocket of a victim. That, or a guy could toss it through a window and run destroying everything inside with ease.” She mused as she rubbed her chin.

“Correct. All of you.” Jack said as he picked up another. “Now, before we get on to questions I will briefly explain how it works then walk you through the steps.” He held the new grenade up. “It is a metal sphere with an explosive charge in the middle. The pin holds the handle in place. When the pin is removed and the handle flies off a fuse starts inside of the grenade that can’t be stopped until it explodes. When the fuse hits the explosive charge the charge…well.. explodes. The force of the explosion tears the metal apart and throws the bits of metal around the area at very high speeds. It is the metal shards that do just as much, if not more, damage than the blast itself. Think of it as a metal ball that when it explodes creates hundreds of burning metal darts that tear apart everything around it.”

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He then paused and looked at the trio’s reaction. They all showed clear discomfort as they imagined what that kind of weapon would do to any soft flesh it hit.

“Some metal armor might help block the fragments.” He admitted as he picked up another grenade. “However, we have more than one type of grenade. This one has some chemical between the metal wall and the explosive that leads to this.” Once more he pulled the pin and let the handle fly away. After waiting a few seconds he threw it into the clearing and waited. What followed was a massive fireball with a splash of almost liquid fire coating the area around the blast.

The trio watched as the blaze burned hot and bright with the fire sticking even to rocks. The trio squirmed a bit once more imagining the liquid fire sticking, or even getting into, armor and burning the poor things inside alive.

“That… is a bit more violent somehow. That could burn out a barracks and more.” Tezira pointed out now a little worried at just how potent the humans’ weapons were. She could only imagine what one of her specialists could do if armed with that kind of firepower on demand.

“That fire is more powerful than some of the fire spells I read. How does the chemical make it work like a liquid?” Nelva asked showing more than a bit of concern herself. These attacks rivalled medium, or higher, tier spells with no clear downsides at all!

“Just relax. We are the only ones that have them and as long as you don’t let them be stolen nobody else will have them.” He pointed out. “Now. How to use them. Since you know how they work it pretty much lays out how to use them as well. You first hold the grenade so that your hand is ON the handle.” He held up a grenade to show how he was holding it.

“Then, you pull the pin to unlock the handle. As long as your hand is on the handle it will not come off. As long as the handle does not come off the fuse will not start and the grenade stays safe. At this point you can even do this.” He slid the pin back into the handle and let go. “Putting the pin back in at this point makes the grenade safe. However. Once the pin is pulled and you let go of the handle you have three seconds to throw the grenade. Throw it early and it has more time to roll or fly, but it also has more time to be dodged or even thrown back at you. Throw it too late and it could blow up too early, including in your hand.” He explained before gripping it tightly with his fingers on the handle.

He yanked the pin back out and then let go of the handle letting it fly off into the grass before counting out loud. Once he hit zero he leaned back and chucked the grenade towards the treeline. There was another thud followed by the rustling of raining dirt and torn up plants.

“Who is up first?” He asked as he lined up a few grenades. “You will all be throwing real frag grenades since we don’t really have any training ones on hand. That means they are live and dangerous so be careful when you throw them.” He explained.

Tezira was the first up of course. She did just fine up until the throwing part. The grenade was thrown far enough for it to be safe, but not much further. She ducked behind the wall just in case as the grenade went off with the same thud. Afterward she practically skipped around VERY happy with both how well she had done and how fun it was for her.

Nelva went after her. Everything went well until she tried to throw the grenade where it bounced off the ground WAY too close to the wall. She let out a panicked ribbit before quickly casting a spell causing the ground beneath the grenade to shoot up launching the grenade over the treeline. All five of them watched it fly high into the sky before it went off with a pop.

“Huh. Mortar.” John rubbed his chin as he thought about what just happened. “RPG. Rock propelled grenade. Lets uh… probably not give you many though.” He admitted getting a sigh and sad nod from the frog. “That is a fair assessment. I never really was good at physical activity due to focusing so much on my books and magic.”

“I don’t really mind.” Jack chimed in as he made it very clear he was looking her body over. She let out a small ribbit and shot him a flustered, but angry, look.

“Not the time.” She shot back before they all looked at the gnoll. They all were very curious as to how their large, strong friend would do.

She had a little trouble pulling the pin, but the moment the handle popped off she leaned back and put her weight into the throw. The group watched as the grenade pretty much made a straight line towards the trees before the crack of metal hitting wood echoed across the clearing. Soon after the thud sounded out and the tree fell over having been blown in half by the grenade.

The four others looked at the gnoll then nodded. “Alright. So Tezira and Zilta get grenades.” Jack decided with a nod. “We will have to work on distance with Tezira and helping Zilta arc hers, but both have advantages and can throw them far enough. We will not be giving Tezira any incindiaries or gas ones however.”

They all nodded and started to figure out ways for the two to carry their new explosive payloads. Once the small balls of death had been given out they all got on TK and relaxed as the ship slowly took off and began to make its way towards a clearing by the easiest of the city’s dungeons. Everyone now very much looking forward to see how their companions would do in combat.

In no time at all the ship set down in a good landing spot nearby the dungeon. A few delver groups stopped to watch the large ship set down just outside the dungeon, but were so used to weird things going on they just shrugged and kept walking.

Everything was now ready for them to go into the dungeon for the first time as a group.