Gina had just started the task of moving the living quarters down a level when yelling came from the cavern. It was a bruised, scorched and pitted Shale. One arm hung limp and mangled.
Shale hobbled into the cavern, barely without a whisper of energy left. "Scuffle.....danger" slumping to the wall to rest for a minute.
Gina immediately called Szef over, remembering seeing Healing magic when she assessed his skills. Szef arrived quickly and pressed blazing hands on Shales mangled arm, eyes glowing brightly. A small figure of flame walked out of the blaze and onto the arm, pausing on the wounded areas, filling them with flame that solidified into clean new flesh. The process was slow and gave time for Gina to find out what had happened.
When Shale came running in Gina had felt beyond worried, there was no way to go out and help the workers, all she could do is to prepare for them to come back. She hoped they were bandits, if they were, they would no doubt use prisoners to negotiate for the location of their loot before killing them all. She had heard stories from the dwarves and had even worked on lockboxes designed to maim those who didn't open them right.
She remembered the times she was escorted to the forge, they always had her walking out front, not that they worried she would attack but more because training had taught them that was the right way to transfer a prisoner. This made pitfalls, spikes and just about everything else impossible to use. She desperately looked through the options under Traps in her book. She found just the thing.
She pulled up the schematics for the rockfall trap from Master Catalogue, as she summoned it she adjusting the shape and the size before letting the magical swirls of light solidify into matter. She also replaced the unreliable peg and loop release, the weight of the rocks would pull on the eyebolts on the board down, pinching the peg that held it between the two eyebolts anchored to the wall. She added two more catches to distribute the weight of the rocks, that would reduce friction. The peg was replaced with a hook that pivoted just above the wall anchors, curving through all three eyebolts on each catch so that when the one end of the hook was pulled down the other end would spin out dropping the trap. The end of the hook where the tripwire was tied trailed up and out for a good 10cm, acting like a lever to combat the remaining friction.
This design reduced the effort to trigger the trap but also meant the tripwire would have to pull a full 5cm before it activated. With the primitive design it was the best option, the pegs meant someone walking slowly might trip on the wire before tripping the wire.
Sapana had come back to inform mother of what was going on before dashing down the river again to check on the battle, Gina had to hurry. She took her heaviest rock from Inventory and formed a caltrop. Caltrops were simply four spikes connected in the center, each point the same distance apart so no matter how it fell one point was always facing up. One of Goburi's dwarf friends had accidently dropped some in her cell, they laughed about it together on his next visit.
She turned to Pappi "Do you have anything to make these more dangerous?"
Pappi, who had come over once the commotion started simply nodded, then grabbed one of the ever-present bottles from the sash of identical bottles. Once every spike had been coated pappi stepped back, then went over to Shale, rubbing a fluid from a second bottle on the wounds that Szef had decided were not life threatening.
Gina sure hoped Pappi had a good method to tell the identical bottles apart. She absorbed the spike, then expended energy to replicate it until the trap was complete. As she looked at the trap Pappi came along, stepped over the wire, then looked at it from the other side. Another shake of the head and pappi pointed to the wire.
Gina understood what he dryad was trying to say and gave instructions to her team. As soon as Sapana came back with the news that the bandits were coming everyone got into place.
The bandit leader followed the trail to the waterfall, it was only ten minutes away, but the gagged, hobbled and bleeding pagnos was slowing them down. He shoved her roughly, while noticing the trail was now paved. Maybe this was more than just a temporary stash, maybe there was an entire storeroom of loot, he smiled a grim smile of greed and revenge.
They group stopped outside the edge of the meadow around the waterfall. Normally the Shaw would scout it out, but regrets won't help them get into the cave at the end of the trail. They moved round to the cliffside, staying in the woods, then walked along the base until the cave entrance was just ahead of them.
The pagnos went in first, the leader following while holding the rope trailing from her bound hands that were firmly secured behind her back. The leader’s other hand held the spear, drawing blood in the skin right behind her kidneys. The shield user was next, looking for archers. They held a tight defensive formation, on the lookout for the summoner and any other guards.
The leader had flipped up the darkened glass in his helmet as they traded the daylight for shadows, then pulled the pagnos up short, the spear digging in a little deeper. In front of them was a thin black tripline tied to an anchor in the stone at the edge of the waterfall, then ran through a rung on the wall then up behind the shelf. If his eyes were still adjusting to the change in illumination it would have been too late.
He looked up and saw a wide wooden plank a meter above their heads. The plank had three holes on the side nearest to the falls, three ropes knotted on the ends fed through holes in the board and anchored to the ceiling. He couldn't see what held up the other side of the board to the cave wall, but whatever held it was designed to fail once the tripline pulled tight.
The leader laughed, "Novice work" Cutting the knot that fastened the tripline to the anchor in the stone. The tripline went slack, so did the prisoner’s shoulders. Was that really their only defense?
"Nice try! I have your guard, if you don't want to die I am going to need you to come out now." His voice echoed around the cavern; his eyes brightened as he saw the sturdy door ahead of them. definitely not a temporary storage area.
Stolen novel; please report.
As he pushed the prisoner forward towards the door he was looking out for the summoner, the two summons in the bag hadn't disappeared so they had to be strong, stronger than anything he ever heard of. If that was the case though why would they be hiding? There was a chance the pagnos was the summoner and if that was the case the loot was already theirs.
Pappi waited in the shadows under a tuft of moss, waiting for the prisoner to move outside the danger zone. Gina had been right, they would be pushing the prisoner ahead of them, how did she know so much about prisoner transfers? When Uden was clear of the trap a flower bloomed on the moss concealing Pappi, that was the signal for Shale to pounce from a small rock shelf above the trail.
The bandit's greed was so strong he didn't notice a still battered Shale leap from the ledge towards the bag containing his brothers, and he definitely didn't notice a dimly glowing crack in the wall pull another wire tied to the trip line that was hanging next to it.
Shale jumped down, no longer on deaths door, but nowhere near fighting condition. The goal was to rescue the other two right as the trap was triggered. There was some movement from the bag slung over the shoulder of the Langden with a sword, that was the target. Shale jumped, the new dagger mum made easily slicing into the bag, fortunately the integrity of the bag gave out and all three tumbled over the edge of the ledge into the water below.
The shelf gave way, a large pile of rocks that looked like oversized caltrops fell on the three bandits, one of the four sharp spikes on each of the heavy stones finding flesh as the heavy objects drove the bandits to the ground. The leader tried to get up, but his vision started to swim... "Poison?"... he waited for the shaw to come with his assortment of antidotes and healing potions, like he always did. Two angry and wet gnomes crawled over the ledge, one of them had a knife, wasn't the knife the river? The gnome dashed for his throat; all went dark.
When the battle was over Szef ran over to Uden and started healing, she was pale but breathing. Shale walked into the cave, looking at the three bodies that evaporated where they lay., then started eating stones as wounds started to heal. Sapana had nothing else to contribute after rescuing Shale from the water and instead explored the deeper parts of the pool that dissapeared into a sunken cavern of its own. Gina decided they needed a scout to prevent further incidents.
A rush of energy filled Gina, she felt extremely energized, she could barely focus as she looked into the Creature Summons book. There were no newly unlocked creatures but gnome, nyad and dryad had new options, lvl 10 summons for 250 energy. Even though they didn't unlock new options, they apparently unlocked stronger versions as they leveled up.
"My monsters are growing up, I will have to asses them later" she thought as she summoned a sylph.
The sylph was pale and ghost like, translucent wings flittering on its back. It had a very short, disorganized haircut with long bangs, the white strands moved in the wind of the wings. it was thin and just as short as Szef at 10cm. The face was oval with a sharp chin and small nose, the eyes were like melted silver that drew you into the matte black pupils. The skin seemed to match the level of light as it dashed through the shadows in the room, now a light gold, then a pale pink, dusky blue, powder grey. The outfit was loose and simple, made out of a rough woven gray fabric that seemed to reflect the light without being reflective, a sleeveless shirt hung low in the back to accommodate the wings, long loose slacks with wide bottoms and grey slippers finished the look.
Gina assessed they sylph. The sylph had 5 in each stat, except 8 in Intelligence and 7 in Influence. For skills there was 5 points in Throw, Acrobatics, Math, Solve, Bargain and Inspire. For magic Elementalist and Telekinesis had 5, Teleport had 3
Status Sheet:
Status Race Sylph Level 1 Age 1 Days Height 20cm Physical Health 150/150 Strength 5 Agility 5 Toughness 5 Mental Alertness 180/180 Intelligence 8 Deduction 5 Focus 5 Social Resolve 170/170 Influence 7 Slyness 5 Willpower 5 Racial Traits Omnipresent, INT+ 3 Dictator, INF+ 2 Elementalist + 5 Flight
Magic Summoning Inanimate 0 Animate 0 Telekinesis 5 Teleport 3 Industrial Elementalist 5
Abilities Throw 5 Acrobatics 5 Math 5 Solve 5 Bargain 5 Inspire 5
Nothing that would make a good scout, but could definitely help with the work with Teleport and Telekinesis. She gave the sylph a name, Kawn was old dwarven for Universe.
The sun was low and that problem could wait. Meanwhile she dissolved the bodies and absorbed the weapons and armor. There was another body of a lizard-like being in the pool, after asking Sapana it turned out to be spoils of war.
The packs of the enemies had more objects in them as well as a good bit of Gold. "My fortune is building already" Gina couldn't help but revel in the windfall. As soon as the road is done she would send Uden out for food and metal. She took note of the healing potions, ropes, daggers, arrows and other useable goods. There was some food, she left that for Uden, but anything needed for an extended stay was missing. They must have had a camp nearby.
She smiled looking around her, her family was growing. They all sat in the warmth of the brewery. Uden had brought the mattress out and was laying it, propped up by the straw pillow and eating fish stew right out of the kiln. Shale sat on the left sharing a pile of pebbles. Pappi was on the right, teaching beetles how to build a house made of twigs. Szef was sitting in the fire making tongues of flame chase the embers that sparked up with the smoke. Sapana leaned against Uden, humming a soft song. Kawn floated in the air, trying to keep the embers away from Szef's flames.
She had never imagined she would have people to care about or people that cared for her. If she could cry, she would have now out of pure joy. She moved her focus closer to the small group as they sat around the happily burning fire while the barley roaster creaked, sharing tales of the dungeon's first victory.