Niobe had clearly been beaten and had probably fought when they caught her. I could see three weathered looking men leaning on bows off to the side. They were probably the hunters she’d been assigned to shadow. One of them wore a stained bandage around his head and had a black eye.

Instructor Goldo looked grim. He stood beside the cat woman with a long whip, pulling its length through his hand. The post Niobe was tied to had a hole in the top of its roughly ten foot height. A rope was run through that loop and tied around her hands. That rope was all that was keeping her upright. There was another post right beside her with a rope through its top loop.

She was a felinoid of the caracal type, a type of slim, sandy brown great cat native to Africa. She had oversized erect ears on the top of her head with little tufts of black fur at the point. Normally, black markings defined her face. At the moment, one of the woman’s eyes was bruised closed and swelled up. Her lip had been cut on her fangs. Bruises and scrapes were all over her torso.

The platoon was directed to march over and face her. Once we’d done that, Drill Sergeant barked, “Third squad. This is one of yours. March over here so you’ll all get a good look.” Elyse looked grim, but led the squad over to where Bidlack pointed, at a right angle to the rest of the platoon. We were close enough to the castle wall we could hear the creak and scrape of the guard’s armor.

The night shift of the guard was all midniss sauroid, I’m guessing because of their night vision. They had all been turned out for this. The mixed human and sauroid contingent stood expressionless, surrounding us.

“I am so disappointed in you trainees.” Doctor Mingelt said sorrowfully. “One of our number attempts escape, clubs her trainer over the head!” His short arm pointed to the group of weathered men leaning on their bows. “She denied her part in our Great Work.” You could hear the capitalization every time he said great work. “You’ve forced me to do this. I beg of you, please, please don’t make me do it again.” He bowed his head.

“The trainee is not eligible for further punishment. If we did anything else to her, she’d die.” Drill Sergeant said to the completely silent platoon. “So all of you will take the remainder of her punishment. Five lashes each.”

“Oh, hell no.” Conan the ogre said, backing out of his spot in fourth squad. “I didn’t do the crime. Let her do the time.”

“Guards, we have our first volunteer.” Bidlack pointed to the ogre. A grinning cadre of guards moved in towards Conan. He stepped forward and juked left, starting to run towards one of the towers. A midniss brought him down with a club to the knee. Conan howled, hitting the cobblestoned surface of the parade ground hard enough to dig little ruts with his tusks.

A big dark complected human, I think Gideon was his name, stepped out of fourth squad and kicked the midniss that had clubbed Conan. The lizard man hissed and cracked him across the head. He went down like someone had turned off his switch.

I looked at Jackson. He shrugged. We both turned on the nearest guard. I charged him, hitting the unsuspecting human just like my old high school football coach taught it. Except in ball games there wasn’t a stone wall right behind the guy you were hitting. His ribs crunched. Jackson grabbed his halberd. The other guards started to move in on us.

Everything devolved into a general riot about that time. I summoned my rabbit and he started hopping around skewering guards left and right. I snowballed one of the midniss, to no noticeable effect. Then I candleflamed a fist and started punching.

Jackson hit the ground and Elyse bared her fangs, biting deep into the chest of the human guard that hit him. Another midniss punched her with a mailed fist and she was down. Hera charged guards like a little bowling ball, knocking several off their feet. She got tripped and beat down.

I set one of them on fire and was swinging at another when I felt a crunch and the lights went out. I came to a bit later. I could tell it was later because the suns were fully up. Instructor Stethyr had doused me and the others in the pile with a bucket of water. “Wake up. Time to take your medissin.” He hissed.

Two of the guards dragged an unconscious Conan to the vacant pole. There were slipknotted loops on either end of the rope and his wrists were put in them and they were tightened. Ogres were big, Conan was a few inches over seven feet tall. With their long arms, he could probably have flat footed touched a basketball rim. That meant his knees were almost on the ground and his head hung down. I noticed one of his tusks had broken off.

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Instructor Goldo wound up the whip. He laid the long lash across the ogres yellow tinged back. A red weal appeared instantly. Conan woke up, shaking his head and looking confused. The lash hit him again. He yelled. By the fifth lash the ogre was sobbing. Two guards got him down and threw him to the side. Niobe stared, her one cat’s eye that would open unblinking.

My hit point bar was halfway full but had changed color indicating lots of temporary damage. Ugh, it felt like a drumline was practicing in my head. One eye wouldn’t really focus, so I closed it.

Gideon was next. He was awake and tried pulling away. A guard punched him in the head and he let himself be walked, staggering, to the pole. His bruised and battered face never left Niobe, even as he shuddered from the pain of the lashes. He sagged when they untied him and led him over to Conan.

One by one, every member of the platoon was led to the pole and tied up. Crack, crack went the whip. Instructor Goldo’s expression never wavered. It remained a grim mask of determination. Crack, crack. Some cried, lots swore. A few never even regained consciousness. Niobe looked every one in the face, tears leaking slowly from her eyes.

At last the entire platoon except third squad had received punishment. Drill Sergeant Bidlack looked at us. “Yours is a special failing. Third squad will receive eight lashes for not reporting Trainee Niobe out of ranks or absent without leave.”

Fistandantilus the gnome, call me Dan, tried to cast a spell but Drill Sergeant slapped him. The little guy passed out again. He was taken first. He woke back up after the fourth lashing and started screaming. His sniffles and sobs tore at my heart.

Marko the ogre pushed the guards away from him and walked to the pole, putting his hands around it. He took his lashes without crying out, though he did start grunting around the fifth one. Tears streamed down his bloodshot eyes but he walked back over to Dan and sat down by him.

Tomaz the human had to be carried. It looked like one of the guards had broken his leg. Inspired by Marko’s example he leaned against the pole, putting his own hands in the loops. He chewed his bottom lip bloody, but didn’t make a sound. He had to be helped back and lay on the ground, moaning.

It took four guards to carry Hera over to the pole. She was barely sensible after the beating the guards had given her. The dwarven woman never came fully back to consciousness during the whipping but did groan in pain.

Zeke the dark hair Fae Elf tried to walk to the pole but something was wrong with his legs. He seemed pretty seriously injured from the fight with the guards. He passed out after the second lashing, hanging insensible from the rope.

Wendy walked, though she’d picked up a pretty bad limp. The white haired fae elf put her own hands in the straps. She winked at Goldo, “Don’t threaten me with a good time, big boy.” And tried to do a hip grind. He smiled but she got her lashes all the same, starting to cry out after the third one.

Deniz the halnaak had to be carried to the pole. She fought and hissed, to no effect. As each lash came down on her light brown scales she swore but didn’t cry out.

Drill Sergeant Bidlack said, “The remainder of you were the trainees roommates or squad leader.” He pointed to Elyse. “You’re fired. I’ll appoint a new squad leader later. All of you will receive ten lashes.”

I’d love to say we all handled the punishment with grace. None of us did. Izzy passed out. Elyse cried. Jackson swore like a sailor. I chewed my lip to through to keep from screaming. It didn’t work. I yelled my throat out as the last few lashes came down.

They tossed buckets of cold water over our backs. It did wash the blood and sweat off, but stung something fierce. As we were able, everyone slowly made their way back to the rooms. I carried Izzy. Jackson went and got Niobe. She was babbling, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” She kept repeating it over and over the whole way back.

I gently lay Izzy down on her stomach. I painfully made my way to my trunk and got out the bandages. There were a couple of clay jars of a sharp smelling unguent that hadn’t been there last time I checked. Each was labeled “Healing Paste”. I closed my eyes in thanks.

“Jackson, we’re going to do some healing training.” I told the big blonde. He looked at me listlessly. “We’ve got to help everyone.” I think it finally registered what I was saying. He nodded.

“I bought these bandages during character creation. It would do everyone good to have some.” I showed him how to cut them to the length of the injury. With the healing unguent, my skill told me to just slather it on. I applied it very thinly. It would have to go a long way.

Jackson and I went trainee by trainee. We ran out of unguent about halfway through the platoon. Ran out of bandages with a little more than one squad remaining. Some of the others had bandages as well and donated them. Several more had the heal skill, so we made our slow, painful way from one room to the next.

I got a notification as we worked on the fifteen or sixteenth trainee. Heal skill +1 point. I’d been successful in my Heal checks about a third of the time. That helped me bring it around half the time.

Niobe fought me. She slapped my hands when I tried to bandage her wounds. I had Jackson hold her down. She’d been savaged. There were deep cuts on her legs and forearms along with several deep bruises around the face and torso. She passed out before I finished bandaging her wounds.

Izzy finally came around. She weakly motioned us near. “I have pheromonal healing. It isn’t much, but if you smell it, you’ll get a couple of hit points back.” We helped her over to Niobe and all put our faces close together. She chanted the words and a scent hit me, like spruce on a cold day.

+2 hp

That was a huge relief. Izzy went back and lay down, going to sleep right away. Jackson lay on his stomach, bloodshot eyes staring at nothing.

Rage came over me. These bastards had kidnapped us and were beating us so we’d become their murder squads. I’ll become their hit man alright, but one day… One day.