“Come, you must meet Duskar before we can sleep,” Dorv paced off down the street as soon as we left the administration building behind us. The sun had completely set and enchanted lights kept the entire streets fully lit.
“Come on,” Gary stepped off towards the hobgoblin and I followed along a moment later with the rest of my team. I spent the walk lost in thought as I tried to come to terms with this situation we found ourselves in. It looked like the hobgoblins were telling the truth, and we wouldn’t be tortured or sold into slavery or anything like that. Just conscription for their war, although the hobgoblin did say we would train for four months before leaving.
“Every single hobgoblin we’ve walked past had enchanted gear,” Aaron said idly as we walked through the busy street. I nodded tiredly, it felt like we were sinking deeper and deeper into a dungeon well beyond our capabilities. In the crowds of seven or eight-foot-tall hobgoblins covered in engraved equipment, our burnt rags and steel-tipped wooden spears stood out. As we walked behind Dorv everyone walking to our sides slowed and stared at us as we passed.
At the end of the busy street, we entered a tall building with many floors that resembled a large inn. Dorv waved at the five of us to take a seat at a table and I saw him leave towards another room. I took a seat at one of the empty tables in the common room along with my team.
“How are they all so strong?” Zack shook his head, “How have we never heard these other places?”
“The nobles probably know,” Gabrielle sneered, “but why would they tell commoners?”
“It doesn’t matter, we just need to stay alive. One way or another, we’ll make it through this,” Gary said seriously.
“As long as we don’t have to kill other people,” Gabrielle shook her head worriedly and I sighed.
“We’ll find our way out of here,” I said. We spent the next twenty minutes worriedly talking about the Warband until Dorv came back.
“Hey, humans,” Dorv yelled at us from across the room. “Come,” he waved towards the door he was standing in front of. We followed him into another large room, and then through another door into a hallway that led to an open office with a hobgoblin sitting behind the desk. As I entered the room I studied the seated hobgoblin and the aura I could feel as we got close. The hobgoblin had a darker skin tone than most of the others I had seen and he wore a beautiful set of leather armor that was hard not to stare at.
“Duskar,” Dorv tapped his fist on his chest casually as he took a seat in one of the chairs in front of the hobgoblin's desk. Duskar glanced at him and nodded before he continued studying each of us as we sat down. There was an uncomfortable silence as Duskar looked back and forth between my team and Dorv.
“All right,” Duskar spoke with a deep, curt voice and I shifted uneasily in my seat once he talked. “I’m not going to ask, Dorv. Welcome to the Dusk battalion, humans. My name is Duskar of the Dusk, what are your names?”
“Gary,” Gary replied first and the hobgoblin nodded slowly as it turned to face him.
“A spearman, I see. Early Bronze and with Flurry already, impressive,” the hobgoblin listed his class and skill as if he read it from Gary’s status. “You’ll serve in the third squad, with our other skirmishers. ”
“How do you know that?” Gary asked and I saw him worriedly glance towards me.
“When you address me in public you will refer to me as chief, understood?” Duskar responded calmly and he waited for all of us to nod our agreement before he continued. “A spell called Analyze lets me see the details of anyone's status, provided they don’t have a way to hide it. Your name, Pyromancer?” the hobgoblin pointed at Gabrielle.
“Gabrielle,” she replied quietly.
“I see, you will serve in the second squad, along with our other casters,” he replied casually before he looked at Zack.
“We’re going to be separated?” I asked hesitantly after I heard Gabrielle would be in a different squad. Duskar looked at me for a moment and laughed while Dorv snickered loudly.
“Where exactly are you from, that you don’t know how a Warband works?” the hobgoblin chuckled again and waved his arm to stop me from answering. “It doesn’t matter. You’ll be separated depending on your capabilities when we train and fight together as a battalion, during the campaign. While we train here you’ll be training with your team, mostly.”
“Eli,” I replied after a moment.
“Druid,” Duskar said musingly as he studied a paper on his table. “You’ll serve with the first squad, the vanguard.” I nodded and turned to Zack after he said his name.
“First squad for the Bulwark, as well,” he replied before turning to Aaron last. “And you, Archer, will serve in the second squad, too,” Duskar continued without waiting for his name. “I will assign you your training every day while we’re here at the eastern edges of the territory. I’ll see you all here in the morning,” he said before dismissing us with a wave of his hand. I stood up and followed Dorv out of the room.
“You can get rooms from an attendant in the lobby,” Dorv pointed. “I’m leaving, but I’ll see you two in the first squad. Good luck.” The hobgoblin ignored our cold faces as he turned and left towards another hallway. Gary led us back into the lobby where we entered the buildings and we quickly agreed to pay one contribution point a day for rooms and meals while we were at the building, which only housed the Dusk battalion.
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“I’m just going to sleep. I’ll meet everyone in the morning,” I said as soon we got our keys from the attendant. It had been a long hike from the other side of the mountain across the valley and I was tired mentally, as well. I left my team while they went to search for a table and headed up four flights of stairs and down a hallway until I arrived at my room. The room had a small table with two chairs, a large bed, and a few large dressers spaced throughout. I quickly dropped my pack, undressed, and went to sleep.
I woke up and headed down to the common room on the first floor after I changed into some new clothes and grabbed my pack. Most of the tables were empty and I sat at the one closest to the staircase while I waited for a server.
“Morning,” Gary sat down at the table and nodded towards me. I nodded over my breakfast of eggs and steak, the only meal they served, not that I planned on complaining, and the rest of my team trailed down to the table over the next few minutes.
“All right, let’s head back to chief Duskar,” Gary said once we had all finished eating.
“I wonder if we’ll be training as a squad…” I trailed off as I headed towards his office with my team.
“I hope not, I’m the only one who’s alone in my squad,” Gary frowned and I winced.
“Sorry, hopefully we’ll be able to spend these contribution points on some gear first, anyways,” I trailed off amusingly as we approached Duskars office and everyone nodded fervently. The door was open and Duskar gestured for us to take the seats as we entered the room.
“Humans. You will head to the contribution hall after this and purchase what equipment you can afford,” the hobgoblin glanced down at a paper on his desk. “After that, head down the western path over the mountain and go to the Demon’s Wasteland dungeon, you’ll need to get directions from some people on the way, it’s hard to find. Come back in a week or so, after you’ve gathered a good amount of resources.” Duskar nodded and waved us towards the door before he turned to write on an artifact on his desk. I quickly got up and led the way out of the room.
“Are we supposed to be so grateful for the gear they give us that they expect us to die for them?” Gabrielle asked with a frown as we walked back to the lobby.
“At least they’re treating us well, this could be much worse,” I shrugged. “They could have killed us more easily than they recruited us.”
“Yeah, they treat us great until we try to leave,” Aaron said quietly and I saw the anger in his eyes as he looked around the lobby. Gary quickly got directions to the contribution hall from the server who brought us our breakfast and headed out of the building.
“It’s just down the street. Cheer up, it sounds like we’ll be out of this outpost in a few hours,” Gary said once we joined him outside. I saw that he didn’t look as lost or depressed as he had the night before, and he took off down the packed street without waiting for anyone to comment.
“I guess we can talk once we’re out of the city,” I said to Aaron who was glaring at Gary’s back.
“Does he think it’s that simple?” Aaron looked at me with disbelief clear on his face. I shrugged, I just wanted to make it through the thick crowd of hobgoblins. I finished pushing my way through the street and joined Gary as we walked inside another large stone building. Inside the building, there were dozens of other hobgoblins waiting in line behind some nearby attendants and we moved to the back of the line.
“This line is for appraising resources, if you're spending contribution points head into the market,” the creature in front of us in line said after a moment. The creature was shorter than me and looked humanoid, but his dull-gray skin stood out as he pointed to the open doors on the other side of the room.
“Thank you,” Gary nodded to the creature and we followed its advice. Through the doors was an indoor market area with at least a hundred different stalls and booths. I followed Gary to the closest stall and ignored the drow elf sitting behind the counter to stare at the weapons on display. I could feel an aura from the large two-sided hammer he had sitting proudly above the rest of his weapons. It gave off a faint feeling of blood as I walked closer and I tore my gaze away from the impressive hammer to look at the rest of the weapons. I quickly walked towards a dark green spear that had engravings spiraling up the length of the shaft until it ended in a leaf-like tip.
“Humans in Ascended Skorv’s Warband, incredible, incredible,” the drow elf stood and walked over to stand by me. “I see your team looks to be newly enlisted?”
“We are,” I said cautiously while the rest of my team glanced over curiously while they looked through the weaponry.
“In that case, you must have a small number of contribution points and many things to buy,” the drow elf nodded slowly. “I will allow you all to purchase a late bronze weapon for fifty points or early bronze for thirty points.” he pointed to the two sections as he named them and I dismissed the green spear to walk towards the early bronze section with my team. The weapons were all still clearly enchanted in both sections and I realized other than being enchanted I didn’t know what the weapons would do.
“What are the enchantments on the early Bronze weapons?” I asked the waiting merchant.
“A few different ones, although we may not have each enchantment on each weapon type. Lesser strength, dexterity, spirit, willpower, vitality or perception are available on the early Bronze weapons while there are some improved enchantments such as enlarge or imbue on the late bronze products.” The drow elf explained as he lifted one weapon or another for each of the examples. I found a short-spear a similar length to mine that was made of Orichalcum, a green metal that was extremely sharp in the early Bronze section. As I picked up the weapon a notification appeared.
Orichalcum Short Spear
Lesser Spirit (+2)
I joined the rest of my team after they joined me outside of the drow elf’s stall a few minutes later. Zack carried a steel mace enchanted with strength, while Gary had a long orichalcum spear-like mine, except with lesser dexterity. Gabrielle had a steel short sword enchanted with spirit and Aaron eventually decided to buy a late bronze short bow enchanted with strength, instead of lesser strength. The drow elf happily pointed us in the direction of a nearby stall that would sell us early bronze armor after thanking us for our business.
We spent the rest of our fifty contribution points on early bronze armor at the next merchant, and I left the stall in shock with an enchanted troll hide brigandine and greaves that covered my shoulders to my boots.
Trollhide Brigandine
Lesser Dexterity (+2)
Trollhide Greaves
Lesser Spirit (+2)
With all of us receiving enchanted gear like this we would easily pass for nobles in Satar, and I was pretty sure most of the equipment here was superior to what I had seen in the kingdom. I waited for the rest of my team to finish shopping while I tried to understand how I felt about the Warband and chief Duskar.