Chapter 41: Plans Part 1
Near the midpoint of the north side of Trinity Mountain lay the Queen lamias lair, where previous queens had lived for generations. This cave was separated from the other lamia cave networks and it held the countless stolen riches of naïve travelers and the corpses of brave adventurers. The queen's layer was made up of thirty-four segmented area, each of which housed a mighty Lamia general. In the deepest part of the cave lived the Lamia Queen, who would normally be seen sitting upon the golden throne, made by the Duergar generations past as a gift. The throne was elegantly crafted for the comfort of lamias and its shape allowed for a lamia to sit upon it like an ordinary chair with enough space to allow for their long tails to extend to the red rug below. Contrast to the other cave networks owned by the lamia territory, the queen's lair appeared to be more castle then lair.
During the short month before the war with Mern would begin, The queen could be seen speaking with one of her informants and Ambassadors, the much beloved Lain.
“My queen, I have word from the Duergar.” She lowered her gaze towards her queen’s mighty tail. The queen noted her subordinates voice was calm, but her muscles twitched with an uncontrollable tension. It was an emotion brought about the sudden excursion in the new god's territory. Ordinarily, this wouldn't be a problem, but his envoys had been talking to every major leader in the area, everyone except the Lamia. This brought along with it a sense of foreboding, they needed to know what the New God was planning, so they made contact with their old allies the Duergar for clarification on the deal they made with the New God.
“The envoy I spoke to tells that 12 goblins, an ogre, and a human arrived to speak with them. ” a human? she thought. That was incredibly strange. The humans and goblins had especially strained relations among the humans, especially those that lived in the oasis. She recalled the 12 annual goblin subjugations that many nations joined hands in accomplishing. The goblins that weren't killed were enslaved, or the lucky few managed to find sanctuary in the Oasis. She remembers the day they arrived, thousands about thousands of goblins traversed the oasis in search of a home. By the end of it, many goblins carried their families' corpses on their backs, even the most savage of monsters took pity on the goblins that day, a species so weak that it was a miracle that they were still alive.
The queen looked down on her subordinate, her eyes shined of great intellect and arrogant superiority. “What were they offered?” It was not a question, it was a demand by the lamia’s queen. “in exchange for important information, the Duergar will open trade with the new god.” The queen turned her head to look at the great portrait that the previous queen installed in the throne room.
“this is important information.”
"he would not say, my queen." The queen suspected that they were offered something other than just information, otherwise, they wouldn’t have held their tongue on that information. The Duergar and Lamia ties were not deep, but deep enough that some secrets were shared among them. Gods were a force to be feared, but in the Oasis, their power meant very little. This very reason is why so many monsters and forsaken beings lived in the Oasis in the first place. This meant that the Duergar were not coerced but convinced to keep a secret. Another troubling thought was them opening trade, something that was an exclusive right only the lamia and harpies had. Unlike the Dark Elves, the Duergar had been considered monsters for as long as history had been recorded, to them, gods should have been something of disdain. “what convinced them?”
Her thoughts were interrupted by the sudden arrival of young Lamia. Their age was determined by the wrinkles on their face for their skin and face remained young till near their end. Instead, their age was determined by the thickness of their scales, with age they would grow thicker and harder and the shade would change shift to something called, "rozen" a deep scarlet red color that most lamia, especially strong ones, got at the age of thirty-five. this subtle difference could be seen by other lamias or those in battle with them.
The lamia that entered was even more obviously young. Her face was that of child's and the length of her tail was just barely suitable for combat, nonetheless, she was a woman as all fifteen year old's were considered in the Lamia kingdom.
She entered with great hast and slithered up the steps. She stopped right before the last step and bowed her head.
“The New god’s envoy has been spotted heading towards the Medusa” the young lamia had just received word from the spies.
The Medusa were the sworn enemies of the Lamia. Unlike the Lamia who had the lower half of a snake, the Medusa were women who had snake-like hair, they were not actual snakes of course but they may as well have been. Another dangerous aspect of them was their ability [petrifaction] that turned anyone that met their gaze to stone. The blood feud between them had lasted generations, so queen made a decision, “Lain,”
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Lain raised her head and met her Queen’s eyes, Yes my queen!!” her voice was loud as if to say that she would obey her queen. “Intercept that Envoy, we must make sure that the Medusa’s don’t obtain the New God as an ally.”
“Understood!!!” with that that Lain left the chamber and slithered at an alarming speed towards the envoy, making sure to ask their direct whereabouts from the scouts who stood at the entrance of the cave.
…………….
At a small field of grassy plains walked twelve goblins and ogre and someone that resembled a human. The goblins were of the Spartan core, the leaders were Alexander, the goblin that carried the stone corpses, and Titan, one of the two elder worthy goblins. The ogre was Simon, a cousin of Rey, he was adamant about joining the army because unlike his cousin he felt fighting was his only good trait. Titans comrade did not join that army but instead chose to help Maximus work, this work would eventually culminate in him becoming the first Lawyer.
The goblins formed a circle around Hera as if to make themselves her fortress. Hera was as beautiful as ever as she walked elegantly with her noblewoman's dress, square-rimmed glasses and black hair that fell just below her shoulders. On her left hand was a small umbrella to cover her from the beating sun. The attire was nothing more than a show she put on, she found it amusing to where such strange attire in the middle of the forest.
She had her jokes but never allowed to interfere with her true mission. She was in charge of making alliances on the west side of the oasis, as she did that Sia would make alliances on the east side. Sia’s mission held greater dangers. The eternal elemental war, the sleeping dragon and corrupted core all lay on the east side of the oasis.
Her dear father had a different mission, a mission that worried her. He would scout his own territory for potential dangers and near outskirts of it to investigate strange rumors told by the fairies. The sleeping doll the called it, “I don’t like the sound of that.”
Hera shook her head and looked to the south. The lamia hadn't noticed that she was already spotted by one of Heras camera drones. Convincing the other races was simple, it was the lamia and Medusa the posed a greater problem. Their hatred of one another prevented her to speak to one kingdom without having the other kingdom shuts its doors. Knowing this, Hera planted several goblins from the kingdom into all the goblin tribes on the west side and used them as spies. They would whisper here and there about the envoy and speak their plans. The lamia and the medusa would grow worried that she was speaking to every race but theirs and that's when the second phase of her plan would begin.
The Medusa and the Lamia were in a blood feud that would not be easily fixed by an alliance. Plans with them would end in failure because they would be at each other's throats. For this reason, Hera chose to trick the Lamia and Medusa spies by splitting herself and forming a hologram that looked like it was heading towards the other's kingdom. This sent them scurrying back to report to their queens. If she couldn't speak to their queens without angering the other, she would force their people to listen by force.
The goblins soldiers at one time did not believe she was Scitus’s daughter but her terrifying cunning proved otherwise, the Goddess Hera was a woman to be feared they thought. They shivered as they thought of the kobold and Goblin blood feud that ended a week prior.
The memory was still fresh on their mind. The young goblins thought that they would head to their colonies and say that the New God would protect them, this was the plan from the very beginning for them. if they found a worthy god they would return and tell the other colonies, at least this was the goblins intentions. The reality was very different, what happened instead was Hera's total domination over all the colonies. She traveled to major food resource area and claimed it as the Scitus's territory and in scitus's territory, no fights were allowed without his permission.
The kobolds had wanted the land as well because they lost the previous war and summer was the best time to gather food. But her expressive claim of the land prevented the goblin colonies from moving and the kobold were much the same. Both kobold and goblin alike had to grovel for permission to gather food on the grounds. She agreed to it on the condition that they would swear loyalty to Scitus. very few kobolds or goblins refused and with everyone under the kingdoms banner the blood feud was stopped at for at least that moment. Hera knew that it wouldn't end as easily as that but the killing would end and with techniques taught by the Spartan knights, hunting became many times easier for both kobold and goblin alike, this increased the ease in hunting. The inability to hunt was what had caused the food shortages and the constant wars that followed in the first place; both races preferred to collect berries and fruits because hunting would often end in death.
Hera had been right, the feud would not end in the generations following, but hatred would evolve into rivalry and rivalry in a strange friendship. No longer would they fight for food or revenge but rather their fights would evolve into sports and then to an event known as the knowledge wars. A Time period in which many species wished to be deemed the most intelligent of all.
Hera then traveled to the ogre colonies and a few Minotaur colonies. With a small show force and a compelling story detailing the many grand deeds Scitus had already done, she convinced many of them to join. The other races, she deemed to difficult to convince with their current reputation and political strength. But she knew it was only a matter of time before Scitus would want to control of the Oasis.
By the end of the second week, the Kingdoms total population had grown to 4472. The monsters that joined were 2231 Goblins, 1631 Kobolds, 300 ogres and 70 minotaurs.