I don't think Skylark and Zane took the whole 'swear an oath to the goddess' thing seriously, because they both shrugged and Skylark said, "So, you do the spawn point change, and we swear an oath not to say anything about it?” 

That drew a nod of agreement from me, but I added "Goddesses are real here, and these oaths have teeth" I was also thinking that this might be useful in Telina's push for more recognition by eternals. 

The two of them looked at me a little funny, and Zane said, "Couple of people in the capital were talking the goddesses, and some guy that got cursed, but they said it was a paladin of your goddess that did it" 

"You saw the goddesses at the start right?" I asked, and at their half shrug/half nod, said, "Well, it was Telina that cursed Carlos, and it's Telina that'll enforce the oaths" I shrugged, figuring they would have to learn on their own, and asked "So where are you wanting to put your spawn points?" 

The sly smile warned me a second before Skylark said, "An Island off the west coast"

Well, could have been worse. Maybe. Possibly. I sighed and asked "An Island?"

"Yep" Skylark said cheerily "Big place a day's sail west of Larinal, but outside the elves normal sea lanes. Nothing there but monsters and old ruins. I plan to call it Tortuga and set up my own kingdom. Zane and I visited a few months ago and we think we can put together a fleet and build a town" she laughed and asked "How does "Dread Pirate Skylark" sound?"

Wow, someone had plans. It sounded like they would be building from scratch, and do it without the empire providing at least some security. Hmmm, it would be interesting to see if they were trustworthy. A lot of possibilities in having allies that far out. I shrugged and said, "About as good as Loser Dragonsbane" drawing a laugh from Zane.

"Well, it's a work in progress" Skylark said with a grin "but I have time. I have a ship and crew in Larinal hauling trade goods north and south along the coast, so as long as the damn elves don't sink her, we'll have our ride to the island"

Andulin excused himself at that point and headed out to do whatever it was he did all day, but not before I thanked him for the advice. It was getting close to the evening meal, and people were drifting in, meaning Mary was too busy to join me right away. I settled back with another drink as Zane said, "What's the deal with the pictures?"

He was pointing at my drawings that were framed and hanging on all the walls. He nodded toward the one with Zac and Maria and asked "That the ranger from the story?"

"Yep" I said with a grin "Maria Dragonsbane, the Laughing Ranger, Queen of the Guardians of Tarinath"

"The Guardians!" someone behind me yelled, getting the rest of the crowd to hold up their mugs and yell back "The Guardians!"

Ok, that was new. I looked around and caught Mary laughing at my confusion, but she didn't stop working to explain it.

"This side of the continent is pretty strange" Zane said, eyeing the crowd as he leaned up to a plate of food that one of the ladies slid in front of him "Ran into some of those Guardians. I think they're the first ones to get a guild to work. A bunch have tried out our way, but none of them lasted long before infighting broke them up"

"Who did the pictures?" Skylark asked, and when I pointed at myself, she added "All of them happen?"

"Draw them in my free time" I said with a shrug and a nod. The rest of the evening was spent swapping adventure stories, and I told them that I wanted to give Shadow a couple more days to see if she showed up. I didn't mention it, but I also wanted to knock out one more resurrect spell for Maria's people before I left.

It was interesting to hear that during there various adventures they would basically team up with a couple of other eternals for the duration of the quest, but then the two of them would move on, not seeming interested in forming a group. Their biggest gap was in a useful rogue or ranger to do the trap and lock work for them. Zane seemed pretty comfortable with his choice of ice mage, and he didn’t have the happy go lucky attitude that Siril had, but I had to wonder if the ice mage thing was as useful as the defensive mage was.

Somehow, the two of them hadn't found out about the portals, but I figured that wouldn't last. I planned to have them swear the oath of silence by Telina's Cup of Charity, then do a couple blessing spells for the capitol to save time on the trip. The risk of them using the portal to cause me any harm seemed pretty small. At one point that evening Zane pointed at the drawing of Ariel and the werewolf and asked "Is that the werewolf castle east of the capitol?" At my nod, he said, "Didn't go there, but heard it was super tough. Couple groups got their asses handed to them trying it. Any good loot?"

"Our mage did well" I said, thinking back to that trip. Now that I thought about it, it had been pretty tough and the diadem and robes that Sienna got were the only really good things. I was pretty sure that Telina had said she had influenced those two things, so the only really good thing had been the experience. Well, that and the fight. I had a lot of fun, and Dalmar had commented a couple of times how much he had enjoyed it. Shrugging, I added "But that was about it. We did it for experience, but it's a good one to do if you like tough fights"

"Hard to build a good team" Skylark said, "To many type ‘A’ assholes in here, so you end up arguing about shit all the time"

I was about to make a comment about not having that problem, then remembered Jeff's group. I had been lucky with Dalmar and Maria, and pretty much everyone else was sort of filtered through them before I dealt with them. Even Bob was influenced by them on our first trip. But total strangers? Yeah, that hadn't been a thrill a minute. I nodded agreement, then ended up spending a half hour talking about the dragon fight when Skylark asked about it. Dragons seemed to be everyone's dream fight. I should talk to Maria about forming a tour. Visit the forbidden lands, fight a dragon, get eaten by a dragon! Probably make a lot of gold coin.

That was enough for me, so I drained my mug and headed upstairs, waving or nodding to the various greetings from people in the inn. I settled in upstairs and started a drawing of Mary holding the rose I had given her, planning to take my time on it and make it as perfect as possible. 

Before heading to Maria’s castle the next day, I spent part of the morning on something I had been practicing since I got back. Getting Sam to respond to me. Having him appear when enemies were around was nice, but I liked the glowy gauntlet thing, and had begun mentally urging Sam to form it on command. The first couple of days I just got a sulky feeling, but when I started picturing how it would look to others, and how super cool Sam would be, the darned thing started responding. I think after a while that Sam actually got to where he liked being the gauntlet, or at least didn’t resist the change. I was really hoping that as time went by he might come up with another weapon form. 

Maria and Dalmar were at the upper courtyard of Maria's castle when I stopped in, and they waved me over to the West side where they were discussing Dalmar's forge. It turns out that since he was a smith, he could build his own forge, but as he put it "I don't know a damn thing about building one, so I'm having those people you blessed for Maria build it. They'll start tomorrow, and should be done in a couple of days. I'll head to Marisian to buy the tools and pick up some ore"

"What does it take to actually make stuff?" I asked "Is it like repairing things, you just tap it and wham, you have something?” The whole repairing thing had gotten so commonplace I didn’t even think about it anymore. It was kind of like a daily chore when you were on the road. You know, find a place to stop for the night, make dinner, set up guard rotations, repair stuff in ascending order based on skill, go to sleep.

Dalmar shook his head in response to my question and said, "No, not from what Seth says" That surprised me since I hadn't realized they had spoken about it. "I'll actually have to work the metal, but most of it is picturing what you want to make as you pound it with your hammer. Supposedly I'll know when and what needs to be done as I work" he shrugged and added "Won't really understand until I put the first block of metal into the forge"

"What are you going to make?" Maria asked, grinning in excitement. Reminding me of someone waiting to get a Christmas present.

"Simple stuff at first" Dalmar said with a chuckle "just to learn how to do it right. Then I need that Focus Siroka mentioned if I'm going to make anything good" he grinned up at Maria before saying "But you will be at the top of my list once I have it"

I laughed along with Maria, but then told them about the trip west, knowing Dalmar wasn't going to be interested in going anywhere right now, but giving Maria a chance to go if she wanted to. She frowned in thought, then sighed and said, "I have a couple things to do with my people, but I might fly out and meet up with you in a few weeks?" The last came out as a question, which I had to smile at and say, "Of course. Send me a note if you can, and I'd love to have you join us"

"What are Susan and Ariel's teams doing?" Dalmar asked as we headed back across the courtyard.

"Working their way around the empire" I said, "They're doing dungeons and stuff for experience, but still hitting the eternal held cities" I shrugged and added "Susan sent a note a while back and she made it sound like they were having fun. Somewhere on the Southwest coast I think. This city I'm heading to is on the coast, but up on the northern part, so I doubt I'll bump into them, though it would be nice if they did show up"

"Couple of my people are with them" Maria said, "and they keep in touch. They're planning to head east when they reach the southern border of the empire" 

Dalmar nodded at her words and said, "Tell them to hit the dwarves cities in the southern mountain range. Some pretty good weapons and armor if you stop in the right store” he looked up at me and added “I’m going to drop the book off with Welden after the forge is finished and go to pick up supplies,  you want to go?”

“Sure, if I’m still here” I said, "send me a note when you’re going”

Maria gave me a questioning look and asked  "My people on Bob's team think they should be getting pretty close, you want to wait for him?"

I shrugged, having not really thought about Bob going along. "I figured he would be focused on the blight, and I'm heading the other way”

Most of Maria's people seemed to be gone, but four or five always seemed to be in attendance, so I did another spawn point change for one of them, then stopped in the throne room to check out the hammer. Maria had laid it across a stone pedestal on the right side of the room, and it sounded like everyone had given it a try and like me, failed to claim it.

"I'm hoping Diana being  Tarra's paladin will make the difference" Dalmar said as we shook hands. I passed a couple of gems charged with the Holy Fire spell and a bunch of healing and Restore potions to Maria to give to Bob. ”Send me a note periodically to let me know where you'll be headed" Maria said as she gave me a hug "I might catch up before you head out to sea"

"Yeah, I will" I said with shrug "If you do come out, it might make it feasible for me to get a portal set on the west coast. I'd need to get from wherever I set it to the capital in twenty-one days to make it work"

I didn't waste any time returning home, and as luck would have it, Shadow was sitting with Skylark and Zane when I got back to the inn. They had a table in the center of the room, and they were all laughing at something, though that stopped when I stepped into the room. Mary wasn't in sight, so I waved at Darla and walked over to grab the last chair at the group's table.

"Shadow" I said with a nod by way of a greeting, relaxing back to see who would open things up. 

"Jake" Shadow said with her own nod "Why the hell do they call this place Mudtown? Christ, you have a good thing going if you have a spawn point here. How the hell did you work that?"

The question drew a laugh from me before I said, "When I first got here the place looked like it would sink into the mud at any moment. Things kept improving as time went on, and we've grown a little, so yeah, the name doesn't really match anymore" I shrugged and added "And I was sent here by the guy everyone calls Tennant. I think it was supposed to be a punishment"

"Getting a spawn point away from everyone else isn't a punishment" Zane said with a frown "What makes you think it was meant to be one?"

I waved a hand dismissively before saying "Long story, but I kicked him in the balls and he made me a priest and sent me here" I was interrupted by Shadow's laugh, but I finished with "I get the impression that if this place wasn't so weird, it would have been a punishment"

They picked up on the fact that I wasn't interested in rehashing the whole story, so Skylark said, "Shadow was just telling us about the crawl you guys did, and how you cursed them. How's that work?"

"Goddess" I said, not really expecting them to believe me. This was however, a good time to start Zane and Skylark on the path to understanding the goddesses were real. Before Skylark could do more than frown, I added "They are real. I'm Telina's priest, and she's the one who actually did the curse, so it wasn't like I have a curse spell or anything.” 

I nodded toward Shadow and asked "You interested in a trip to the west coast?"

"We were talking about that before you came in" Shadow said, gesturing at Skylark "It sounds like fun"

"All right" I said, then considered things for a moment before saying again "All right. Mudtown has a portal to Mairisian City..." I paused as they expressed various levels of surprise, with Zane giving Skylark a superior look and saying, "Told ya. Why else would they need stones like that?”

The discussion wandered a little as I briefly told them about portals, but eventually waived away the questions and said, "We have weeks to talk about it once we get going, so let's move on"

I got everyone to agree to meet in the square in the morning to get their portal blessing, and in Skylark and Zane's case, their oath, before excusing myself to do the initial blessing for a new portal and do a round of blessings to the farmlands around town before leaving. After that, it was all Mary.

....

It was mid-morning before we gathered beside the cup of charity and I did the portal blessings first thing, the three of them not blinking an eye at the light show caused by the blessing. After the last one I did a Restore, then faced Skylark and Zane, sending a thought Telina's way to get her attention.

"In exchange for my granting you your request, do you swear in Telina's name to not reveal it was done or that it can be done?" I asked, using my formal priestly tone. Shadow looked confused, casting a questioning look Skylarks way, but Skylark and Zane ignored her, just grinning as they simultaneously said, "Yes"

The two of them lost the grin as the cup let out a flash of white light a second before the two of them got their own glow. It faded a second after appearing, getting Shadow to say, "Oh man, you two are so screwed"

I let out a short bark of laughter at her disgusted tone, but said, "No curse this time, just an oath" I shook my head and added "And no, we won't tell you what that was about"

Zane was giving me a serious look as I waved at a grinning Seth and led my group through the portal.

Rabin was lounging by the front door, with Narn standing just outside when I stepped out of the portal. Rabin looked back at the sounds I made, his calm expression telling me he was used to people appearing out of thin air. When he recognized me he straightened up and gave me the head bow thing and said, "Lord Loser, greetings"

"Hi Rabin" I said, gesturing behind me as my group came through one at a time and said, "Friends of mine. We're just passing through"

Rabin gave the other three nods, then turned back to say, "As you requested we have been bartering for magic items in exchange for your potions, but they are usually sold within a day of word getting round that more have arrived"

I looked around, realizing as I did so that there were no potions on the shelves. A lot of other goods though, obviously being sold by the people of Mudtown. I shrugged and asked " Anything good?"

The question got Rabin to lead me to a room upstairs that had a chest with a handful of rings, amulets, and a bracer. I wasn't expecting anything better than I already had, so wasn't disappointed that while it was all usable by priests, none were better than anything I already had.

Shrugging, I let the lid drop and headed back downstairs, telling Rabin "Go ahead take what you and Narn can use, then pass it all to Andulin in Mudtown. He can sell it if he doesn't need it"

Rabin stuttered out a thank you as we came back down to find Shadow at the front door, talking with Narn. She looked up as I joined them and she said, "Skylark and Zane are getting horses" At my nod, she jerked her head toward a group of dirty children getting coins from Narn, and said, "Is that wise? The money doesn't help them you know? It goes to their handlers"

"Perhaps" Rabin said, nodding to Shadow "But not giving assures that nothing will go to aid them"

"What's their story” I asked, grinning at the sight of Narn fending off a ten year old pick pocket.

"Orphaned" Rabin said, "with no family to take them in. It is hard for the children to trust those who offer aid, and few are willing to take in a child of the streets"

I nodded, having seen much the same in every country I had visited in the old reality. Shadow asked a couple of questions I didn't pay attention to as I considered if there were any ways to help. At a pause in their conversation, I asked Rabin, and Narn when he joined us, "Could you talk to Telina's priest here and ask him if he can buy a large building that could be used to give shelter to those children and families that need it? Maybe offer food to any that come by but don't want to stay?" 

At their doubtful looks I added "Give him some of the gold I earn here to help pay for things"

"Sucker" Shadow muttered, but threw me a grin to show she didn't mean it "We've done something similar. Siril set it up"

Hmm, wouldn't have pictured Siril as the type for worrying about other people. My thoughts must have been clear because Shadow said, "He's a self centered butthead, but he has a soft spot for kids”

I spent a few minutes talking with Rabin about things needing my input, but it wasn’t long before Skylark and Zane came back leading horses.

“Ready?” Skylark asked as she handed me the reins to one of the horses. At my nod and Shadow’s “Yep”, she turned and led our small group back along the street to the West. The city was fairly crowded, but very few people had horses, so it was mostly a matter of wending our way around groups of people or vendors trying to sell us stuff. The other three seemed to be pretty familiar with the city, and I figured most eternals probably headed here at some point, since it was kind of the center of civilization.

Skylark had on her hat, but was wearing a hoodless, dark blue cloak that went along with her whole swashbuckler image. Zane wasn’t carrying his staff, so it must have been in his inventory, which made sense as the staves seemed a little awkward as simple walking sticks. He did have a knife sheathed on the belt around his waist, and it was probably a pretty strong one as daggers went. He’d had time to find a decent one.

Shadow was wearing her black leathers, but she also was wearing a cloak, a dark brown, hooded version. We kind of matched, what with the black leathers and the grey cloak I had on. I had scrounged mine up from one of the stores at home, wanting something for dealing with cooler weather that seemed to be creeping in.

Weather had been pretty consistently warm the last few months, but I could tell that winter was heading our way based on the slight chill in the morning air here in the capital. Marisian City was supposedly farther north than Mudtown, and based on what Skylark had said, Larinal, the city we were headed to, was even farther north.

It took a good half hour to reach the western gates and found ourselves in a steady flow of traffic heading out of the city. 

“A traffic jam” Shadow said with a grin, standing on my right as Zane and Skylark paired up to give us more room and keep from straggling along. There were more horses, and quite a few wagons lined up and moving forward at a slow walk. The gate was wide enough across for traffic to flow both ways, but it was predominantly outbound this early. The gate was actually a double one, with the standard barred, raisable gate on the outside of the twenty foot thick walls, and huge double doors, that were swung inward and pressed against the walls on the inside. I couldn’t see any advantage to having doors like that, and wondered what the point was. 

The guards weren’t searching anyone going out, but they stopped the few coming in to ask a question or two before waving them past. When we finally reached the gates, one of the guards nodded respectfully at me, but didn’t say anything. I was finding it really weird to be recognized by so many people. It was a kind of in your face way of pointing out that this place operated on a different set of rules.

As soon as we cleared the gates we mounted up and moved to the right and began trotting past the slower moving crowd. Skylark turned her head slightly to say over her shoulder “Always a bit of a morning rush, but we’ll be out of this mess pretty quickly. Area’s pretty tame for the first couple of days, but you get the odd bandit group or pack of goblins once we get into the forest a day’s ride from here”

It would be a chancy thing being a bandit in this world. You never knew how powerful  a small group like ours might be. I could see a bunch of bandits stopping Susan and Ariel’s group and getting their asses handed to them. I grinned at the thought of the four of them ending up robbing the robbers.

The city was in the middle of a large plain so our first day of riding mostly involved little in the way of sightseeing, though I rather enjoyed seeing the various groups we passed. The merchants appeared to travel in small groups of three or four wagons, though in one case we passed a group of ten that were heading toward the capital. They had two outriders for each wagon, all wearing the same gear like a uniform, and the whole group appeared more than ready to defend themselves. The wagons were about the size of the ones the videos showed for the American western movies, but only had two horses, and were carrying boxes and bags covered with tarps on the back. The riders eyed us, but Skylark gave them room and just touched the brim of her hat in a half assed greeting as we rode by, but said, "You can keep your stuff today”

“From the coast” Zane said after we passed. “Recognize their gear. A big merchant guild that controls a lot of the trade out of five or six of the larger cities along the coast. Skylark and I refused to pay their tariffs, so we’ve been avoiding their cities for now” he frowned and gave a bit of a shrug before adding “Every city charges some kind of tax, but these guys were a little aggressive about it, and they pissed Sky off from the start and things went downhill from there”

“When we docked, they came to the ship with ten sword swingers and a couple of mages, then this fat little shit stood on the dock and told me to pay the hundred gold tax or take my stinking scow out of their harbor” Skylark said in a growly tone, not looking back as she spoke. “A hundred gold! That was flat out extortion!”

Shadow and I exchanged grins at the aggravated tone, and Zane let out a laugh before saying “We left, but Sky told the guy the next time she visited, he would be paying her”

“A scow” Skylark muttered “I’ll show him a scow. I’ll burn that damn town down around his ears next time”

The words got another laugh from Zane, but he let it drop as we rode on. It warmed up and became comfortable very quickly and made for a pleasant ride the rest of the day. We stopped for the night in a small village that had an inn with a couple rooms that we shared, guys and gals. I wasn’t sure about Skylark and Zane’s relationship, but was a bit surprised when Skylark suggested the rooms be gender specific. 

We all had dinner downstairs that evening, and I decided it was probably a good time to try and arrange a good return on my potions. Pulling out a heal and magic Restore potion, I set them on the table and leaned back to sip on my ale as my two new partners realized what they were looking at.

“Holy freaking hell!” Zane whispered intensely, grabbing the Restore potion and holding it close as he read the tag associated with it. Skylark surprised me by letting out a loud laugh before shaking her head and saying “Punishment for a kick in the balls huh?” the words got a laugh from Shadow, but Zane waved his hand to shush the women and stared at me as he asked “This is…a…hell I don’t know, a god damn game changer. What are you asking for them?”

“He trades them in the capital for magic items usable by priests” Shadow said before I could respond. 

“But…” I said, pausing to give Shadow a look to tell her to let me do my own bargaining. Darned if she didn’t hit me with a giggle like Maria’s. I grinned back, but turned serious again as I faced Zane and Skylark to say, "I make them daily, so I’m thinking I let you guys have any I make during this trip for first refusal on magic items usable by priests”

“Whoops” Shadow sitting straight and shooting me a look before saying to Skylark “You might want to think about this. It sounds great until you find an uber magic weapon you’d love to have”

I shrugged agreement at Skylark’s look, and didn’t get mad, actually agreeing with Shadow that these guys needed to be serious about this. 

“It’s a good point” Skylark said, grinning at the desperate look Zane shot her. She waved a hand dismissively and said to him “I’m not turning it down dude, just wanting to be sure we aren't setting ourselves up for something that will bite us in the ass later. I mean think about it, what if we find a necklace of dragon control? Is that worth having potions you’ve done without since the start?”

Zane sighed, but nodded agreement and slid the potion back my way. He said to me “She’s right. That’s a little to opened ended for what you’re giving us. I don’t mind letting you have stuff useful to you, but the legendary stuff is too valuable to barter it away before we see it”

“Sounds reasonable” I said, "but using your example, who gets your super magic item if we find one now?”

“Its come up a couple of times” Skylark said, "but we’ve always managed to reach an agreement within the group. So far there’s been one or two people who couldn’t use the item, and we let them be tie breakers. Some hard feelings left over sometimes, but if you’re friends it shouldn’t be an issue”

“Don’t count on it” Shadow said with a frown, but followed it up with “I trust Jake, if that counts for anything. Yeah, his curse screwed my team up, but it was Jeff’s fault for being an asshole”

“I’m not worried about getting cheated” I said with a shrug “so you agree in principal I get first consideration and we can discuss as a group anything that someone else wants”

“I’m good with it” Shadow said with a grin “You guys haven’t seen it yet, but Jake will be a lot more useful to you than you will be to him”

That was actually true, so I was happy when the other two agreed to the deal. 

We got an early start the next day, hitting the road as the sun began to peek over the horizon behind us, and that set the tone for the next three days. Start early, ride all day, and spend the night in a convenient town or village. The third night we spent in a town at a crossroads, with another branch of road heading more northwest than the western oriented one we were on. 

Over a hot breakfast in the inn, Skylark said, "We’ll be taking the northern road out of here. It will take us directly to Larinal, though most people follow the western road, then head north from the coast. Barbarian tribes tend to raid into the empire from the northern lands, and we’ll probably have to deal with some of them here and there, but it’s an extra week of riding if you go the other way”

“What are they raiding for?” Shadow asked as she leaned back, sipping on her mug of hot coffee. I sent a silent thank you to the gods that coffee existed as Zane said, "Slaves and horses mostly. I think they’re based on the Conan games, so lots of really big people swinging very big weapons. I talked to an eternal, rogue type, that was grabbed up in one of their raids. They had him chained up and used him as a pack animal until he managed to kill himself. He said they were kind of like orcs in the way they fight, but they have some pretty good magic users, though they call them shamans”

“I think most of the monsters and barbarian type groups call their magic people shamans” Skylark said. “I don’t think these worlds paid the programmers to use much imagination.”

She gave Shadow a look and added, “These guys are the ultimate chauvinists, so no women warriors, and they get their hands on you, it will get ugly”

Shadow made a knife appear in her hand, then caused it to disappear again before saying, “Men and pigs, they squeal the same if you stick a knife in just the right spot”

Ouch! Zane and I both winced, but didn’t ask her to expand on the thought.

The mornings were getting seriously chilly, and I was thinking we weren’t far from freezing some mornings. While the cold wasn’t comfortable, its major effect was to sap your endurance. I played around with it a bit as we rode, pulling my cloak off and watching my endurance slowly reduce, then putting the cloak back on and watching the drain slow down. I never actually started shivering, but it was uncomfortable, and the endurance drain affected my movement speed.

“Yeah,” Skylark said after watching me experiment, “it works the same in hot, desert environments; uncomfortable, but not deadly. The big impact is how much it slows you down by draining your endurance. Got to watch it if we get into a fight when it’s really cold.”

For the hell of it I cast a Heal spell on myself and was pleased to note the discomfort disappeared and my endurance bar filled up again. Everyone looked over at the sudden glow, so I hit everyone with one, and said, "Heal spell. Looks like it counteracts the endurance effect”

“Damn,” Skylark said, giving me a speculative look, then grinned and nodded at Zane to say, "Ice mage. Cold doesn’t affect him, so don’t waste your magic” 

Zane gave us a superior look, then grinned and said, "But I take a double endurance hit in hot environments”

“Always a trade off,” Shadow said with a nod, “wouldn’t want anyone getting to powerful”

The group had seen me doing magic since I’d been doing potions, and had even given Skylark a fire rune for her sword, so my Heal spell wasn’t a surprise. I had put a lightning and fire rune on Sam while I was home, and with Bruce all runed  up, I was in pretty good shape. But it was the first time Skylark and Zane had felt one, and Skylark asked Shadow, “Was Jake’s healing as useful as it seems when your group had him?”

The question got a bark of laughter from Shadow, and she leaned to her left and punched me in my right arm as she said, "Well, don’t want him getting a big head, but it’s a totally different ball game if he’s with you. Only reason we lost anyone is because Jeff is a dufus, otherwise those Heal spells completely change the game balance”

I nodded agreement when she said dufus, but said, "Heal about eighty points a pop, so you’re good until you get into it with something than can do a one or two hit kill”

“Sounds about right,” Skylark said, "they’ve got the settings on this world so screwed up I’m surprised things still…work.” The last word came out in a distracted tone as something caught Skylark’s attention. She was looking intently at something in front of us, so I moved out to the right from behind her, and saw a large group of people on horses ahead of us.

“Soldiers” Skylark said, "Looks like a mix of archers and warriors. All of them mounted”

I squinted, but couldn’t make out any details as the group was still a long way off. I glanced over at Skylark, but didn’t ask what kind of magic allowed her to see that far away. 

“Must be empire troops,” Zane said, "raiders wouldn’t be that organized”

“They’re Empire,” Skylark said, then looked around the group before shrugging and saying, “Shouldn’t be an issue. So far the soldiers have left us alone as long as you don’t do something stupid like attack them”

The soldiers were trotting along only a little slower than we were, so it wasn’t until late afternoon that we caught up with them. They had been aware of us of course, but they waited until we drew near before calling a halt and spreading out to either side of the road. A quick count came to around eighty men, with the leader and a mage waiting on the road.

The troops didn’t draw weapons, but I could see about half of them had shields, and the other half had unstrung longbows held by loops on their saddles. All of them had swords, so it was a fairly versatile mix, though I was surprised there weren’t more magic users.

The troop leader was a middle aged man, with salt and pepper hair and a tanned, seamed face with hard eyes that studied us as we rode up. Like the rest of his troops, other than the mage, he had on leathers. The mage, a human like the rest of the soldiers, had the standard robes and staff, but he just appeared bored with the delay, and was the first to speak.

“Why delay for four eternals?” He asked. He was a young guy, and the leader totally ignored him as we came to a stop, the four of us lined up to face the two men. 

The leader blinked in surprise after studying my face, and he said, "Loser Dragonsbane?” the tone almost questioning, but he quickly followed it up with a head bow and, “It is an honor to meet you my lord”

My group all looked at me in surprise, but I just nodded back and said, "Thanks….” My questioning tone drawing, “Lenten Mal, Captain of the Northern Mounted Patrol.”

“Captain,” I said with another nod, but didn’t add anything else, since I wasn’t sure what to say.

He took a second to give the other three members of my group interested looks, then turned back to me to ask, "Do you ride to the aid of our people?”

The question got the four of us to exchange confused looks, before Skylark took the lead to say, "We are headed to Larinal”

“Doubtful” The mage said, then after seeing his Captain’s glare, added, “The northern tribes are raiding, so you won’t find passage along this road.”

“We ride to meet them,” the Captain said, "but my mage is correct, it would be perilous to attempt traveling further west on this road”

“Want some help?” Zane asked, which surprised the living hell out of me. Offering to help? I had been half expecting them to just ignore the soldiers completely.

The captain was as surprised as I was, because he seemed confused for a second, then looked at me for some reason to say, "It would be a blessing of the goddess if you were to do so.”

“This ought to be fun,” Shadow muttered quietly, but Skylark grinned at her and said, "It can be. Barbarians are tough, but good experience if you don’t get killed”

The exchange seemed to confuse the captain and his mage, but he ignored it to turn his horse and nod for us to follow. Raising a hand, he said loudly, “Forward!”

Somehow I ended up riding beside the captain, with my friends and the mage behind us. When the whole troop was in motion, the Captain turned his head and said to the mage, “Scry ahead. There is a northern road intersecting ours an hours ride ahead, and a small village another hour north from there. If we are lucky we will get there before the raiders.”

The mage did a surprisingly long spell casting that involved repeating a long phrase a couple of times while he waved his hands and fluttered his fingers. He definitely wasn’t ever going to cast the spell in a fight. I would guess it took over a half a minute to cast, but when he was done, there was a flash of light and he suddenly had what appeared to be a round mirror clutched between his two hands. An actual wooden framed, two foot in diameter mirror. It took a second for me to realize he was watching something in the mirror, and Shadow, riding slightly behind and to the right of the mage said, "Like a drone video. He’s watching as it flies down the road.”

Well now, that was just cool. That would be one hell of a useful spell for scouting out enemy forces.

The area we were in was mostly forest, with periodic areas that were open fields, but the land rose to the north, and small hills in that direction gave way to very tall mountains; way, way off in the distance. It made for a deceptive view, giving you the impression of openness, but having areas of forest and hills that could hide a force fairly easily.

Zane brought his staff out of inventory, carrying it across his saddle, so Skylark and Shadow both strapped on their swords, though I had never seen Shadow use one. I shrugged, but didn’t pull Bruce up, figuring Sam would give me enough notice for anyone close enough to be within Bruce walloping range.

The captain moved into a quick trot and I realized he must have some idea of the raiders movements if he felt he was cutting it close on reaching the village. I looked back to gauge how big the crowd was, then turned to the captain and said, "Keep going, I’m going to move back and cast a blessing to give the horses more stamina” He looked back like I had, then turned to give me a nod and said, "Thank you”.

I moved to my left and slowed down, waving my people onward when they gave me questioning glances. The whole patrol was spread out enough that I decided to cast multiple spells, and slowed down even more so I could start at the back. When I drew even with the last two riders I drew on Telina and cast the first blessing, trying to encompass as much of the crowd as possible.

The soft glow of the spell moved outward, lighting the men and horses for a couple of seconds, sweeping forward to encompass the last third of the group. My horse perked up immediately, and I could tell the other ones affected by the spell had benefited as well. Nudging my horse forward, I trotted forward and began casting the spell in batches of ten or so. Some of the soldiers received a second blessing, but they don’t add, so they just got to enjoy the second light show as the spell took effect on each group to finally encompass my people and the captain and his mage. I had to do a Restore about half way, but that had become so common it took almost no concentration.

“Nice” Zane said, his eyes unfocussed as he obviously studied his stats. When we had joined as a group I’d learned he and Skylark were smart enough to realize health was important because Zane had 100 and Skylark had a whole 200. I wasn’t sure if they had benefitted from Tennant’s cheat buffs, but it was nice to have partners who weren’t one hit kills. We had gone through the normal astonished exclamations at mine being over 300, but Shadow had just laughed and told Skylark, “You’ll be happy Jake can take the punishment when it gets bad enough he has to join the fight.”

“The raiders have not reached the village,” the mage said as his mirror faded away. He looked up at the captain to add, “The shamans are still blocking my mage’s eye from getting close enough to see them, but the area they have blocked is near a half day from the village”

That was a damn useful spell, though I was already seeing ways to use it against someone by focusing their attention on what they expected to see. From the thoughtful look on Skylark’s face, I figured she was thinking along the same lines I was, and her follow up question proved it when she asked, “Did you verify they didn’t have any outliers or forward scouts?”

“Speak not of things you do not understand eternal,” the mage said with a scowl, and he probably planned to launch into a whole tirade, but the captain turned his head to give the mage the hard eyes and said, "It is an astute question Mage Benton. The barbarians are obviously expecting us to scry their position, and only a fool expects his enemy to conform to his plans.”

The mage was probably in his early twenties, and the Captain’s words drew out a sulky look, but the mage eventually said, "I did study the land between the village and the grey zone, but the spell did not last long enough for me to scout the surrounding country.”

The Captain just nodded, but didn’t say anything else until we reached the crossroads he had mentioned. A single lane road went almost due north off the main road we were on, and disappeared into a forest a quarter mile away. We had been on open ground the last half hour, with a thick forest paralleling us on the right side, so it wasn’t a surprise to find we would be traveling into it now. 

When we reached the intersection, the Captain held up his arm and brought the patrol to a halt, then did a hand signal that brought eight of the riders forward to join us at the front. When everyone had drawn close enough, he said so all of them could hear, “We will reach the village within an hour. I have been through there before, so am familiar with the ground. The village has a three man high, wooden wall that surrounds it, but there are only twenty or thirty of the villagers who would be useful on defense. The whole of the wall encompasses some three hundred feet, with most of the homes outside the wall. The people will have retreated to the fort and will have prepared as well as possible to hold off a quick raid, but will not be able to withstand a concerted effort.”

He paused to let that sink in, then said, "We will by necessity be forced to aid in the defense of the walls, but I do not intend to be forced into a purely defensive position, so will be separating a small force that will stay mobile.” He looked at two of the soldiers, a man and woman, the woman having one of the bows, and he said, "Wen, you and Kayla will lead this force.” Then he turned to me and asked, "Lord Loser, where would you feel you would best serve?”

Good question. I looked over at Skylark and said, "I’d love to be part of the spoiling force, but I need to be in the town to be the most use”

“Yeah” she said, looking over at Zane to have a silent conversation that involved a questioning look and a couple of nods, before Skylark said to me, “Zane and I will go along with the outside team.” Then she looked at Shadow and lifted an eyebrow in question. 

“I’ll stick with Jake,” Shadow said, "I’m not very useful on horseback.”

Skylark nodded and turned to the Captain and asked, "Will that work for you?”

“Most assuredly” he said with a nod before looking back at Wen to say, "You will lead, but the eternals can bespeak each other from great distances, so give respect to Lady Skylark’s words and allow her to relay information when needed.”

Huh, someone was pretty darn knowledgeable about eternals. But he was right, using us as his commo team would be damn useful.

“Captain.” Wen said with a sort of hand to the chest salute before turning to Skylark and Zane to say, "We will divert from the main road here and travel to the east some distance. If possible, I will want to engage the enemy after they have begun their assault, but we must be prepared to take advantage of any opportunity that presents itself.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Zane said a second before Skylark said, "We’ll follow your lead.”

 The four of them pulled out of the informal grouping, and after a few arm signals, ten of the shield holders, and ten of the archers peeled off from the larger patrol and followed their leaders and Skylark and Zane into the forests, angling west to stay off the road.

“It’ll take them a while to get there through the forests.” Shadow said, giving the Captain a questioning look.

“The edges of the forest has much undergrowth, but it will clear considerably as they get deeper. But yes, it will take them twice as long, so it will behoove us to ensure the enemy is focused on us.” The Captain said, speaking to the group as a whole, rather than just Shadow. “Jola and Pavrick, when we reach the village, I want your squads to ensure the surrounding homes have evacuated to the fort. Any left outside will be used as hostages and as bait to entice us into sending out a champion to fight for them. They butcher the hostages in front of you if you decline the challenge.”

“Sounds like some real winners.” Shadow muttered

The words got a considering look from the Captain, and a few seconds later he said, "The northern people have no mercy in battle, but were you to visit their lands, you would be treated well as long as you showed you were strong enough. I have fought them some dozen times now, but have also visited the same groups I have fought. They hold no antipathy toward those who they fight, but you are either of them, or you are other. Unless you prove your strength, you are considered…lesser.”

He flicked his fingers and shrugged before focusing back on his planning. “Hil, take the southern wall. Cross, the east. Effa, the west, and Yossal, you will have the North side.” His gaze flicked around the group as he said each name, but stayed on the last as he added, “We have arrows to spare, so allow your archers to shoot at any target they can identify once the initial challenge is over. It will gain us nothing to delay as the northern people do not call for surrender.”

Looking back at the first two, he said, "Pavrick you and Jola will be sent to support whichever wall receives the heaviest attack. Pair your soldiers up, bow and shield, and have them prepared to respond in groups of four.” He looked around the group and added, “Telina’s priest will be where he can see and respond the best, but he and mage Benton are our defense against the raider’s shamans, so protect them and speak out if you encounter hostile magic.”

“How good are they at detecting rogues?” Shadow asked.

The question drew a thoughtful look from more than one of the group, with the Captain eventually saying, “If you are speaking of moving amongst them unseen and attacking the leaders, I would say your chances would be good. But…” he paused for emphasis before adding, “they are renowned trackers, so you would have to move carefully to leave no sign of your passage.”

Shadow didn’t say anything else, just nodding thoughtfully as the group broke up. The Captain waited for the squad leaders to join their squads, then raised a hand and yelled, “Forward”

I guided my horse next to Shadow’s as we moved into a fast trot, and asked her, “You thinking of staying outside the fort?”

She nodded, the thoughtful look still showing, then said slowly, “Yeah, yeah I am. I get a lot of experience moving around enemies unseen, and even more if I rob or kill them while doing it. Moving through a whole army should be pretty epic, and I’m thinking I might be in a good position to take out their shamans if needed.”

Well, I had said before that Shadow would be a great mage killer, so had to agree it made sense. I did the odd reach while opening my inventory and pulled out one of my shock grenades, then handed it to her saying, “Put this in your inventory” 

She seemed confused for a moment, but did the same hand twist and the gem disappeared. Nodding I told her, “It’s one of the shock grenades I used against those ogres. Pull it out, say ‘Cowabunga’ to arm it, then throw it at the enemy. It’ll shock and stun any enemy within twenty feet.”

“Yeah, that was pretty nice,” she said with a nod “Thanks. Might come in useful.”

Since I had already shared out my healing potions, she was in as good a shape as I could make her, though I would do another blessing spell when we got to the village.

The Captain pressed hard, and we moved through the forest at a near gallop until reaching another section of plains. I could see the forest a couple of miles to the north and to the east, so the area was basically a huge clearing in the forest. The village turned out to be more of a farming community, with houses scattered around the clearing, which had a few dozen fields of various crops growing.

In the middle of the open area the villagers had built a fort that looked a heck of lot like the ones I had seen the orcs use. Twenty foot wooden walls, with four sides, each about seventy-five or eighty feet. It looked sort of small in the middle of the huge clearing, but I guessed it would work if you were only using it for a short term defense. Our sixty soldiers, and the twenty or so of the villagers the Captain thought would fight, sure seemed minimal when I pictured having them trying to protect that much area.

Two of the squads peeled off, one right and one left, and headed toward the nearest houses as the Captain led the rest of us to the open gates. A dozen people and a couple of wagons were outside the gates, appearing to wait for their chance to enter, all of them loaded down with sacks and equipment.

A pair of men dressed in partial plate, with sword and shield in hand, stepped toward our group as we thundered to a halt, the soldiers splitting evenly to the right and left of the group around the gate. No one seemed scared of the soldiers, which boded well for the empire, but I also saw a couple look doubtful after gauging our numbers.

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“Captain Mal, it is a relief to see you,” the older of the two guards said as his eyes went around the group like the farmer’s had, and he added, “though I was hoping for a larger force”

“The raiders are attacking many places this season, so our forces are stretched thin defending them.” He gestured for everyone to dismount, then gave a wave that sent his men moving in orderly lines into the fort, chivvying the farmers out of the way as they did so.

Turning to the local warrior, the Captain said, "My people are deploying along the walls, so ensure your warriors coordinate with my squad leaders.” He turned slightly toward me and Shadow, and said with a slight head bow, “Lord Dragonsbane, Priest of Telina, and Lady Shadow, an eternal and his friend. They are here to aid us.”

The words got gasps of shock from every one of the locals who heard him, then a sudden rush of whispered “Priest," “Telina," and even the odd “Dragonsbane”. The Captain surprised me with a grin at the humor of the situation, but he sobered before saying, “We have much to do, and little time to do it. The raiders are within a few hours of us, so let us see to our defenses.”

Shadow and I stepped to the side to be out of the press of bodies, then watched as the Captain and the two men headed into the fort, the two men throwing many a quick glance our way as they did so.

“You’re a popular guy,” Shadow said with a laugh. She looked around with an odd smile, then said, "You know what’s weird?” She didn’t wait for me to answer, just adding, “this whole place is a prison, and it seems like most of us end up acting like the good guys.”

When she didn’t say anything else, I eventually said, "I haven’t put much thought into it, but it makes sense to me I think. I mean, it’s not like most people think of themselves as evil or villains. I was a criminal sure, but it was kind of the path of least resistance, and I imagine most of the people put here were the same. The whole place is so different, we get new bodies, magical powers, so it really is a chance to start over.” 

Shadow was giving me a pensive look as I kind of did the same thing she had, looked around at the situation we were in, then I said, "Some of us got power drunk and did shitty things, but I think that most people, if they know their peers are watching, would prefer to be…trusted.”

“Trusted?” Shadow said doubtfully. I shrugged and said, "Yeah. I don’t really care to much if people like me, but it matters to me that people believe I’m…trustworthy.” I had been trying to think of a different word, but ended up with trustworthy. 

“Maybe,” she said, but gave her own shrug before saying, “I’m not sure people are worth much deep down, but you are right, we all seem to be wandering around looking for other eternals we can trust.”

“Or,” I said with a grin, “We’re all a bunch of selfish assholes, and we’re afraid to be out and out villains because we’re afraid some other asshole might take that as leave to be one too.”

“Fear,” she said with a grin as she moved toward the gate, her horse behind her, “that makes sense. Being the bad guy is riskier than being the good guy.”

“Seems like were in a good position to study it,” I said as I followed her. “Whatever real human nature is, a couple of hundred years here should bring it out.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” she said with a snort.

The fort itself looked like it was meant as both storage facility and defensive structure. The walls had a double stack of open faced sheds, with the top one ending about five feet below the wall top, giving them a place to stand. The sheds had families sharing space with hundreds of bags of…stuff. I was guessing it was the fruit of the fields they had outside, but I was happy to see two wells placed on opposite sides of the fort. Water might be really good to have around if these guys threw fireballs around like eternal mages did. There were probably twenty crude ladders scattered around the inside of the fort, which back in reality would have meant a lot of carrying stuff up down, but here…who knows, maybe they just threw two hundred pound bags like they did dirt when digging holes.

Our horses ended up being lined up down the center of the fort, and after dropping hers off, Shadow turned back toward the gate, stopping long enough to say, "Ok, I’m off to do my thing. If I get into a bind I’ll try to drop you a note, otherwise I’ll be trying to get close to the shamans, so don’t blow me up.”

The last sentence drew a laugh from me, and she was grinning as she disappeared. Man, I really wished I could do that. 

The Captain and the mage were talking to a crowd on the other side of the fort, so I picked a ladder and started climbing, not wanting to deal with the whole ‘Lord Loser’ thing. It still sounded irritating, something I had hoped I would get used to over time. Maybe I should just embrace the stupidity and paint an L on my forehead. Sort of make it my symbol. 

Just kidding.

The top layer of sheds were high enough my shoulders were above the top of the wall, which was probably useful when the fighting started and we needed to shoot arrows or stab the enemy, but it also made it easier for their archers to target us. Always a trade off.

I had ended up on the eastern wall, so I turned left and headed toward the North wall, figuring the raiders would come in from that direction. The soldiers were spaced pretty evenly along the wall, with the odd warrior scattered amongst them. Most of the village warriors seemed to be bowmen, or bow women in some cases, which would probably be more useful in the long run. If it came to swords, we were already in trouble.

The gate was on the southern side of the fort, so if the raiders wanted to hit that weak point, they’d have to move around the clearing to gather warriors for an assault. I nodded back at the various greetings, which was a mixed bag of ‘Lord’ or ‘Priest’. When I reached the northern wall and found a spot to rest my forearms and lean, I was surprised how reassuring the height was. When you looked down and realized that twenty feet was high enough to not want to jump, it kind of gives you a bit of confidence in the wall as a barrier. Of course that was all based on having people defending it. A wall without people on top was just a geographic feature.

I caught motion to my right, and turned slightly to see the troops that had gone to round up the rest of the villagers were herding a dozen or so people toward the fort. 

Looking back toward the North I realized these people were looking at the loss of their homes and possibly their carefully cared for crops. Best they were probably looking at was being alive to rebuild from scratch. It had sounded like these raids were fairly common, so I wondered what made people take the risk.

My thoughts must have shown, because one of the village warriors, a younger guy in a mix of leather and chainmail, holding a bow, said quietly, “We risk this so we can stand on some land and say, ‘This is mine.’”

I turned left slightly to face him and asked “Why not deeper in the Empire? There’s a lot of land that seems unclaimed.”

“True enough,” he said, a frown forming as he studied the far tree line. “But that land, while not directly owned by any one person, is still claimed by the various governors and other races. Each homestead is the responsibility of the regional governor, and so they restrict land owners to a small region they feel comfortable defending. Here…” he kind of looked around before saying, “here the Empress has said anyone may settle as long as they accept that the empire may not be there to aid them in their time of need.”

“Farming here or farming there,” I said, "You’d still be farming, right?”

“But here, the whole of the harvest is ours,” he said with a chuckle. “There, the empire gets its share. The regional governor claims a small portion for the support of the defenders. The local guild claims its small portion for…” he shrugged before adding,“For whatever it is that guild does. By the time your crops have portioned out, you might have enough to see you through the winter. Unless of course, bandits take some, or knolls and goblins raid you.”

His cynical tone drew a grin from me as I nodded my understanding. The security of the empire was a bit of an illusion, and these people had decided they would face the risks on their own.

“Crap,” I muttered, realizing I had planned to cast another blessing on Shadow. Too late now, but the thought got me to doing my armor spell, then I wandered the wall doing blessings. I had to do a couple of Restores, but found myself back at the North wall about an hour later and did a final Restore.

The Captain and his mage were there when I got back, so I joined them as someone yelled “There!” The guy was pointing straight north, which, since everyone was already looking that way, was kind of a waste of time. 

“They moved faster than I had anticipated,” the Captain said thoughtfully. The road had ended at the village, so we were watching people walk out of the forest, gathering in small groups, not seeming to organize in any type of formation.

There seemed to be a lot of them, and there was quite a crowd by the time the flow of people quit. A quick guesstimate was around five hundred, but counting the number of people in a crowd a mile away was iffy at best. 

A smaller group separated from the mob and headed our way, but was followed by the rest when they had about five hundred feet of separation.

“They have captives,” the Captain said with a sigh, “otherwise they would have just attacked. They will come closer, but stop just outside of bowshot. The captives will be brought forward so we might see them, then a challenge is given. If I refuse, they will cut the captives down.”

“Who do you send?” I asked, fascinated by the whole idea, despite the barbarity of it.

“No one,” he said gruffly. He shook his head sharply when I started to say something and added, “Their champions train for this, and are gifted with their most powerful weapons and armor. It is possible I might beat him, but the risk is to great when considering that I will kill many more than that from these wall.”

“I’ll do it,” I said. His doubtful look got a laugh from me before I said, "Yeah, I’m not that impressive looking, but their guy is going to think the same, and I didn’t get to be a dragon’s bane because I sweet talked the thing.”

That drew out an actual bark of laughter from the man, and he nodded slightly as he said, "Granted, and it is true you do not risk your…existence. But, your presence within the fort would be missed when they begin their assault.”

“As long as it’s one at a time, I should be fine,” I said confidently. And I was confident, but I’d fought to many times to not take precautions. Pretty much the only way I could lose is if he killed me with one blow, or somehow managed to keep me from hitting him at all. I had a buttload of dexterity, so the odds were pretty good I would manage at least one hit.

We worked out the details as the horde sauntered our way, and by the time they got within yelling distance, I was waiting at the southern gate for the Captain’s wave. I could hear him yell something a couple of times, but couldn’t make out the words. That went on a couple of minutes, then he turned and waved to let me know I should go.

Sam graciously agreed to form into a gauntlet, so I pulled Bruce and held him in my left hand, (Sam would just turn back into a snake bracelet if I tried to hold Bruce in the gauntleted hand), as I headed out of the gates and turned left. The gates shut with a thud behind me as I walked away, and as I cleared the West side, I could see the barbarian horde starting to encircle the fort.  Now that they were closer, and as I walked north along the wall and had a better look, I was thinking my original estimate was a bit high. They might have enough warriors to attack all four sides, but they would be pretty thin if they did. It looked to be a mixed bag when it came to arms and armor, with the majority in leather, with the odd few in chain or chest plate. The vast majority had some kind of two handed weapon, with maybe one in ten holding a bow. Beards appeared to be a requirement to be a barbarian since I didn’t see a single person without one. 

The main crowd was about two hundred yards away, but as I came around the northern side, I found the captives and their captors half that distance. It looked like a family had been swept up by the raiders, so there was a man, woman, and three young children, the group dressed in the standard farmer’s clothing. All of them looked pretty rough, but they were still alive. I was tempted to throw some healing spells their way, but I had a full charge, and if worse came to worse, I was going to hit the horde with my death shout.

Three of the raiders stepped forward as I walked up, all of them dressed pretty damn close to the way Jeff had, which made me wonder if Jeff had gotten his armor from these guys. All of them were carrying battle-axes, were wearing fur rimmed chainmail, and two of them had on horned helmets. The axes varied from a two-bladed type the middle guy had, to one that had single blade on one side and a spike on the other. 

The middle one had on an actual wolf head. It was a wolf pelt, but made up like a hat. It was kind of cool, but the interesting thing was that the guy was at least seven feet tall. He didn’t look as heavily muscled as Jeff the Jackass, but he was pretty darn big. 

“They have sent out a tiny elf woman,” the big guy said, laughing loudly at his own joke. His buddies joined in a second later. I grinned as I came to a stop, then squinted up at the big guy for a second, a confused look on my face, then looked over at the barbarian on the left and said, "Why does this guy have his head stuck up a wolf’s ass?”

I didn’t have my own laugh section, so just kept the grin as the three stopped laughing and glared at me. The big guy scowled at me for a second, then said, "This wolf I killed with my bare hands.” He held his hands up to be sure I understood which hands he meant, then said, "Why does SwiftSword do this? Does he hope for mercy? It would be an insult to have such weak blood on my axe.”

The guy’s tag read

Barbarian Warrior

Level 18

Health 280

The health was a bit of a relief, because I had hoped humans as a whole followed the same health levels the eternals did. Done right, this guy was a one shot kill, and I had no plans to dick around with him. The armor and axe looked pretty formidable, but that would only matter if the fight were to drag out.

I waved my Sam gauntleted hand dismissively and said, “No insult intended. The Captain didn’t think there was much chance of any blood getting on your axe.” I grinned at the synchronized scowl from the three stooges, then asked, “So, are we here to talk, or are we here to fight?”

Wolfhead had been holding his axe in his left hand, kind of hanging by his leg, but at my words he lifted it up and held it across his chest before growling, “We fight little girl.”

“Good,” I said, crouching a little and getting centered. “Because I want to introduce you to something called the electric slide.”

The guy was fast, and he kind of punched out with the axe, though he wasn’t quick enough to hit me. I had been expecting some kind of instant response, so slid to the side, and as his axe swept by, slapped his arm with Sam before ducking and spinning past him.

I had expected him to bring the axe back around in hopes of catching me on the return swing, but the bitch slap from Sam had left a flare of Fist damage, as well as a small lightning show from Sam. The whole thing caused the guy to stagger a couple of steps and let out a bellow of anger before spinning to face me again. I grinned as I called Fist, then crouched again as I waited for his next attack. I had wanted to bring him down enough that one hit from Bruce would finish him off, and it looked like the Sam slap had probably managed that. His arm had a blackened palm print, and he flexed it as if testing if it still worked.

The guy eyed Sam warily, then matched my crouch and began edging closer, his axe cocked back to threaten me with a sudden swing. A couple of fakes on my part didn’t draw him out, so I took a couple of quick steps back. My sudden retreat getting him to move forward to match me, and as he slid his leading foot forward, I charged. The guy was slightly off balance, and he did a full extension swing, so I managed to get inside the arc of the axe head. He was swinging from his right to left, and I was swinging from my left to right, so my arm swept under his as his axe handle hit me in the head. 

His hit actually added a little to my impact as Bruce swept around and hit him just below his armpit. The combination of the lightning rune, Bruce’s own lightning, and the Fist spell, was explosive, and the guy sort of flew sideways as I fell to my right. I rolled back to my feet, grimacing at the major headache and had to do a quick wipe to clear blood from my left eye. The Heal spell was pretty much instinctive as I looked for my opponent, so by the time I found the pile of gear ten feet away, the damage to my cranium had already disappeared.

Bruce for the score! I rose from my crouch and turned back to the two very surprised barbarians staring at the pile of gear. Gesturing at the big eyed captives, I asked, "Are we done?”

The barbarian guys were still kind of gaping at the wolf guy’s leftovers until the one on the right kind of shook himself and looked at me, then at the family. He gave a dismissive shrug and said, "They are yours.” Gesturing at my hands he asked, "What magic is this?”

I held my gauntlet out and pointed at the family to get their attention, then waved them toward the fort, saying, “You five head toward the fort.” As they all clutched each other and began shuffling toward the fort, I turned back to the one who had asked me the question and held up Bruce as I said, "The goddess Telina. These farmers are blessed by the goddess for their hard labors and sacrifice, and she curses those who would assault them.” I lowered Bruce, but held Sam up and slowly made a fist as I added, “and as her priest, I take great pleasure in bestowing that curse on those who have earned it."

Oh yeah, who’s a badass priest?

“You are a priest,” the guy said, the surprise in his tone clear, but saying it as a statement rather than a question. I nodded and said, "Of the goddess Telina. These people are under her protection, so when you come against us, you will be facing her wrath.”

I didn’t want to let this drag out until these guys decided to test me more, so I nodded to the two of them, then sauntered over to wolf boy’s gear and grabbed up weapons, armor, wolf pelt, and a handful of gold. No one said anything, and I wasn’t sure what they were doing since I figured glancing back would just look weak. As I started walking to the fort a cheer went up from the soldiers along the top, so I held Bruce up to acknowledge them, then did a steady pace all the way back. Having a few hundred people watch you walk that far is surprisingly disturbing, and I was constantly worried I was going to trip or something, which made the whole walk feel stilted and unnatural. If Maria were here, she’d probably be yelling jokes or whistling at me as I walked.

As soon as I slipped through the partially open gate, they slammed it shut, dropped a thick log across the middle, then began pounding two more at an angle to brace the doors. It was probably stronger than the wall was, at least if you wanted to batter your way in.

I had to deal with a lot of back slapping and various congratulations as I walked across the fort, then went up the ladder to join the Captain. I did see the family being cared for in one of the sheds, so I stopped long enough to throw a healing spell at each of them, though I didn’t wait around to listen to their thanks. 

“Well done!” The Captain said as I stepped off the ladder and joined him at the wall. I shrugged the praise off and told him, “Eternals have many advantages, so I risked very little.”

The raiders appeared to be having a discussion, but as I looked out at them, a knot of ten or twelve of them broke up and began trotting to the right and left. I figured they were leaders of some kind since large groups of fighters would follow one or the other of them, and it was clear they were strengthening the East and the West sides. I didn’t see any of them working their way south, so it looked like a three pronged attack. I took advantage of the time to do my armor spell and knock out a Restore before things got hairy.

I was considering their tactics, thinking that even a couple of dozen archers and warriors attacking the southern side would be a bigger drain on us than them…when Tarinath’s version of an artillery section made themselves known. A green cloud formed over the group in front of me, centered on a group of five or six raiders, then began moving our way.

“Acid,” The mage grunted next to me. The Captain nodded and added, “Painful and distracting, but will not kill unless a person is already weakened. They will charge when it hits us.” He looked to the left and right, and seconds before the cloud hit, said in a satisfied voice, “They lack shamans or they would be using them on all sides.”

The cloud hit, and contrary to my expectation, commenced to burning me. “Son of a bitch,” I muttered as I realized my transmutation spell must not consider the gas as a magical attack. It was doing steady low level damage, but it did sting like hell and you had to squint against the pain in your eyes.

The raiders let out a thunderous yell and charged forward en masse. I blinked my eyes and tried to keep my focus on the crowd that the gas came from, and a few seconds after the cloud hit, I brought Holy Fire down on one of the figures in the middle. 

Holy Fire is always pretty cool, but outside like this, watching it form a ring in the air, then flash down in a column of white flame is darn impressive. The raider I was eyeing got pounded flat, and a ring of people around him got knocked off their feet. I had wanted to follow it up with another, but the damn gas made my eyes water to much, so I did a Heal spell on myself, then began tossing healing at everyone I could see on the wall. I did about ten, then crouched to do a Restore as arrows began slamming into the wall and into some people, or zip past to fall inside the fort. Man, the horses were in for a rough time.

 A thunk close to my head made me look up and to the right to find a grappling hook dug into the wood at the top of the wall. The acid cloud began to fade, so I hopped up to deal with whoever was coming up the wall. A quick glance down showed me a raider climbing up the rope, but it was going to take him a few seconds to reach me. Sam had formed a whip, so not taking time to call Fist, I just brought Sam overhand to strike the top of the guys helm. The electrical damage Sam does isn't that strong, but it does cause enough of a spasm that the guy let out a grunt of pain and lost his hold on the rope.

The next couple of minutes was basically a weird version of whack-a-mole, as I moved back and forth along the northern wall bopping raiders as they poked their head over the top of the wall, or slashed out with Sam to hit one still coming up. The Captain was on my left, thrusting with his sword periodically, but mostly yelling commands that had his men and women adjusting to raiders gaining any kind of foothold on the top of the wall.

Attacking the eastern side in one minute.

The message popped up as I called Fist, then swung Sam forward to hit a raider about twenty feet to my right, who had rolled over the top of the wall and managed to knock a defender into the courtyard with a thrust of his war hammer. Sam hit the guy’s right cheek with a crack and flash of electricity and white flame, slowing him down long enough for two other defenders to engage him. Spinning back to the left, I swung Bruce sideways to hit a bearded face as it poked over the wall and looked over at the Captain to yell, “Wen’s group attacking the eastern side in less than a minute!”

He waved a hand to show he heard me, and did a quick look around the fort. My own look showed the raiders had gained a foothold on the eastern side, though they presently only had four people on top. The other two sides being attacked were under pressure, but clear of breaches. Arrows were still going by with a ‘thwip’ sound, then falling into the center of the fort, or hitting one of the defenders. A few people were down, either dead or severely wounded, and lying on the upper walkway. 

The battle around me was a continuous wave of sound that seemed to push you to action, and I was as susceptible to it as anyone else, so I raised Bruce and called Holy Fire down on the group of raiders on the eastern wall, a second before being hit by a lightning bolt. The bolt came from the field to the north, where a group of raiders stood out of bowshot, and hit me on my left side. Or tried to hit me. I was sort of holding Bruce up, pointing toward the eastern wall, when the lightning flashed across with a thunderous boom, but flowed into a crackling ball of plasma around me, then suddenly spiraled in and seemed to get absorbed by…me. A message popped up:

Lightning Bolt

140 points of damage, 10 second stun

then disappeared. Nice! I punched a raider in the face with a gauntleted hand as he poked his head over the wall, laughing out loud when Sam channeled the lightning bolt into the guy, causing him to be flung twenty feet away from the wall before turning to ash and leaving his gear to fall to the ground. I turned and pointed Bruce at the group to the north and called down Holy Fire again. As the fire flashed down and over the shaman’s group, I checked my mana and decided a Restore was in order. A damn arrow thunked into my right shoulder then, causing me to let out a few bad words, but I was already healing the wound as I ducked down to gain the seconds necessary to reach out to Telina and let the mana flow back in.

As I stood back up, I could hear the sounds of a horse charge to the east, and the sudden screams and clashing of weapons on armor, letting me know Skylark had arrived. I did a quick scan as I popped up to make sure no raiders were about to brain me, then a slower evaluation of the overall battle.

The Captain had moved to the western wall, and my Holy Fire seemed to have helped the defenders on the eastern wall regain control. I could see our horse squad riding north to south along the back of the raiders group on the east side, and took a second to watch. It was easy to make out Skylark, her hat with its feather blowing cockily in the wind making her pretty distinctive. She was leaning to her right, sword rising and falling as she swung or thrust at raiders as she rode past. The horsemen were all using swords, with the exception of Zane, who was sending spikes of ice with his right hand. I had been hit with them before, but except for Susan’s battle in the capital, never actually watched them being used. 

They kind of reminded me of ice arrows that formed in front of his hand, then streaked across to actually impale his target. They were much faster than fireballs, and even the fire bolts that Mirabeth used. I don’t think they were strong enough to actually kill anyone he hit, but they seemed to freeze some of them for a couple of seconds. Maybe they didn’t make a saving role or something, but it left the frozen ones susceptible to sword swings from the soldiers following Zane. All in all an interesting use of magic.

I did a quick check of the shaman group, but found them acting distracted, with a part oriented toward our riders, another part facing north for some reason, and only a few still looking our way. A swarm of magic missiles zipped out from the wall, then swooped down and around to impact on one of the two raiders in the group not wearing armor. The one that was hit dropped, then turned into a gear pile, drawing a yell of rage from the rest of the group who all faced our way again. I let out a laugh when the last shaman kind of stretched up onto his toes, then followed his compatriot by turning into his own pile, revealing Shadow’s cloaked form before she disappeared once again. I couldn’t see it, but I could easily imagine the grin on her face.

That situation appeared to be handled, so I turned back to the fort and began sending healing spells to any wounded defenders I could see on any of the walls. The raiders had been a lot less effective than I had expected at topping the wall, but there were still a considerable number of wounded. The healing spell is probably the most cost effective spell in this world, so I had the mana to cast quite a few before hearing a noise behind me and turning to punch a raider in the side of the head, causing him to grunt out some kind of bad word before falling out of sight.

I think the combination of the loss of their shamans and the knowledge that we had a mobile force behind them caused the raiders to lose confidence, and I heard a few start yelling, “Fall back!”, which got picked up by others and very quickly the whole horde was retreating out of bowshot. Skylark’s team rode hard for the tree line as the raiders began moving in her direction, and within a moment or two, we had a lull in the fighting.

A quick look around made me think the raiders had lost about a quarter of their force, and we had suffered maybe ten or fifteen casualties. It was harder to tell our losses since the Captain had been moving people around, but it looked like we had come out of it pretty well.

“Mage Benton,” the Captain’s voice came from behind me, causing me to turn as he continued. “Please attack with whatever offensive spells you have left.” He had been walking over from the west side of the wall, bloody sword in hand, and stopped in front of me to say, “Lord Dragonsbane, if you would send your fire down upon them, it may encourage them to decide there is easier prey elsewhere.”

The mage sent a version of Sienna’s vine spell at a group to the west; a spell that had a large group yelling in pain for about ten seconds. I watched that spell form as I considered the raiders, finally sending a Holy Fire spell into a group to the east that appeared to be having a bit of a conference.

The mage didn’t follow his spell up with anything, so I figured he must have shot his wad with that one spell, but I had my mana restored a moment after his spell died. The raiders weren’t waiting on us though, already gathering in two large groups, one focused on the northern wall, the other the eastern wall. 

I looked between the two groups, gauging the distances, then said over my shoulder to the Captain, “If you wait until they are grouped at the wall, I might be able to cast a spell that will do considerable damage to all of them.”

He made a “Hmm?” sound, so I glanced back to see him studying me, but he finally nodded and said, “Very well. I will have our people remain in cover if you will let Wen’s group know to attack after your magic.”

I nodded, getting him to turn and start yelling orders as I sent a quick note to Skylark.

After they get to the wall I’m going to use a large area spell. Attack while they are still stunned.

I got back,

Ok

As I walked to the corner of the eastern and northern walls. I wanted to be as centered to affect as many raiders as possible.

Everyone ducked down as the raiders began a loud chant that probably meant something, though I couldn’t make out the words. The two groups surged forward, axes and hammers raised as a swarm of arrows arced over them to begin thunking into the wall or zipping over it. Everyone was crouched down, with most peeking over the top like I was, so there were only a couple of screams as arrows found a target. 

I waited until the grappling hooks began flying over the wall and getting yanked back to bite into the back of the wall, then a few seconds more, before bringing up the spell

Telina's Beneficent Word

Shouting this holy word will cause all who hear it to do the following

Friends:

Heal 50% +1%/level of accumulated damage.  

Restore 50% +1%/level of used mana

Dispel all enemy spells presently active.

Enemies:

Do 8 points/level of damage (Double damage to undead)

Stun for 1 second/level

(Cannot be silenced)

Mana: 200 (One day cool down) 

The word came into view as I stood up, so I drew a deep breath and yelled as loudly as possible

Telina Ras!

Like the other times, the words rolled out much louder and deeper sounding than I could have done myself, and the white fire swept outward in an expanding circle. The defenders closest to me were hit first, but the attackers were less than a second behind, and their screams of pain became on odd chorus as the wave moved outward. 

I could see Skylark’s squad riding hard to attack the raider archer’s, but their charge became disorganized as they watched the white fire sweep their way, then over them, their surprise causing more than a few to yank their horses to the side or to a complete stop. Luckily they realized it wasn't causing them harm, and as I turned away, I could see them begin attacking the raiders, who were frozen in whatever position they were in when the fire hit them.

“Archers!” The Captain yelled from my left, his words getting everyone on the wall to stand up, and the archers to begin sending arrows down at the paralyzed raiders.

Mage Benton took advantage of the mana restoration to send another vine spell at a group to the north as I did a Restore.

The spell released before the Restore was complete, but the raiders had had enough, and almost every one began fleeing for the wood line, with only a couple of clumps pausing as if intending to continue fighting. Those groups were only a few seconds behind their buddies as arrows from the wall’s defenders began seeking them out. Skylark’s group rampaged through the demoralized raiders for a few moments, but eventually pulled back toward the fort as the raiders began gathering into more organized clusters as they fled.

I think the sudden end took everyone by surprise, because there was a period of silence until someone let out an excited yell that was quickly picked up by everyone on the walls, then the people inside the fort. I turned to look around, then began sending healing spells at anyone I could see who appeared injured, giving nods of acknowledgement to the warriors who shouted my name.

“It has been many years since the power of the goddesses has been wielded so directly,” the Captain’s voice said from behind me. I turned to see him studying me as he added, “and I believe most have forgotten how it can change the fates of even empires when brought to bear.”

The words got a shrug from me as I said, “Telina isn’t interested in who rules what Captain, as long as they treat her people as they themselves want to be treated.” 

“You represent power Lord Dragonsbane,” the Captain said, a rueful smile breaking through, “and regardless of your intentions, those who have power, or those who crave it, must account for not only what your stated intentions are, but what you could do if you chose to do it.”

Huh, Captain Mal sounded just like Andulin. It made me wonder if Captains had some kind of special role in Tarinath. Regardless, his point was valid, though it seemed kind of irrelevant as I told him, “True enough, but there are a couple of thousand other Eternals they’ll probably be to busy dealing with to worry about me.”

“Perhaps,” the Captain said with doubtful glance my way as he turned and walked to one of the ladders. I took another look around, a little tired from all the spell casting, the endurance drain more evident after the continuous spell use. The sun was getting lower to the west, making me figure it would be night before to long. The riders, including Skylark and Zane, were walking around the fields, sorting through dropped items. It took me a moment to find Shadow’s cloaked form doing the same thing, but it looked like this fight was definitely over.

I had a lot of, “Thank you Lord Loser,” or my preferred, “Lord Dragonsbane,” tossed my way, though everyone appeared hesitant to approach me. The rest of the evening mostly involved tossing around a couple of healing spells, then finding my team and setting up a half-ass camp for the evening in one of the open front buildings inside the fort. The horses were taken outside the fort, and the locals put together a communal dinner/feast that resulted in the best food of the trip so far.

When we had settled in to our building and I had my first free moment of the day, I pulled out the stuff I had gotten from the raider I had fought, and took a look at what I had won. The fur-edged mail had a strength and stamina bonus associated with it, but it was a warriors only piece. The big, two-handed axe was of course a warrior weapon, but it had a bleeding spell that did five points of damage per second, for five seconds after a solid blow. The wolf’s head though, was a bit of a surprise for something the guy had said he killed himself. 

Spirit of the Wolf

The one who wears the Spirit gains some of the fierce determination and powerful senses of the Alpha wolf, but those whose soul is bound to the forest will be able to call upon the Spirit as a companion and protector.

All:

+2 Dexterity

+1 Stamina

+15% chance of detecting hidden people or items

Rangers:

Summon a spectral wolf companion. 

Usable by: Warriors

Summon a ghost wolf? That sounded pretty cool, but it looked like I would be passing this on to Maria to give to one of her Rangers. I put the thing back into my inventory and turned back to swapping stories with my partners.

The next day we got a slow start, taking the time to have breakfast with the Captain and a couple of the farmer’s warriors. When Skylark mentioned our destination was Larinal, one of the men said, “Being you have a priest with you, you should take the river road.”

Skylark perked up, her eyes focusing on the guy, and her nose almost twitching as if she was a cat watching a mouse run by. Zane and I exchanged grins as Skylark said, “River road? Why would we need a priest to use it?”

“Yanif speaks of the Path of Wisdom,” Captain Mal Said. “There are rumors that more exist, but this is the only one I am aware of. They were supposedly used by the goddess’s disciples before the Blight to travel the lands of Tarinath, but this entrance is blocked and none have found the key needed to enter.”

“Bugger that,” an older warrior on the Captain’s left said. “The Captain be making it sound more than it is. The entrance be open, but an…invisible wall blocks the way.”

“Aye, he’s right,” the warrior who had first spoken said, “and no one is knowing where the river goes, at least not for sure. Stories say it goes to the sea, and that only one of the goddess’s people will be knowin how to enter.”

“Can you take us there?” Skylark asked after a quick glance around our group and receiving nods from everyone.

“Sure’n we can,” the first warrior said with his own grin. “Be interestin to see if’n you get in.”

Our guide’s name turned out to be Eric Redburn, which sounded kind of prosaic for Tarinath, but he was friendly enough, and managed to come up with a horse of his own. The Captain followed us outside and waited until we had gathered our horses and prepared to leave before exchanging arm grips with all four of us, saying, “Our Empress’s gratitude for your aid. If you travel the northern lands again, my soldiers will offer aid in return if you should need it,”

“Our pleasure Captain,” Skylark said, touching the brim of her hat with a finger in a casual salute, before twitching her reins and leading our group to the west. Eric trotted up beside her and acted as our guide as we headed toward the forest, and I spent the time until we entered the forest casting blessings on the various fields we passed, figuring every little bit would help.

The entrance to this ‘Path of Wisdom’ was a couple of hours ride to the northeast, but we had been riding an hour when Shadow asked the group in general, “So, why is this river of interest, other than the tie to Jake I mean?”

Skylark turned slightly in her saddle to grin back at Shadow and said, “Because of how these programs work. We basically just completed a kind of quest right? Helping defend the fort?” When Shadow and I nodded, she said, “Well, from what I know of these programs, the AI uses these kind of scenarios to build a personality profile for each of the players so it can improve the players experience and…rehabilitate them. It has a sort of simple carrot and stick method of encouraging players to conform to the societal rules, and this would be our carrot. Any time you do something and a local offers up a bit of useful information, it’s the system offering a reward.”

“Which means,” Zane said with a laugh, “This river road will probably have something pretty damn useful for us to find.”

“Eternals be strange folk,” Eric muttered, giving Skylark a befuddled look that got a laugh from Shadow. Skylark grinned at Eric and said, “I agree totally”

“How much do you know about these places Sky?” Shadow asked Skylark

Skylark shrugged before saying, “Not much really, just what I picked up from talking to our sales people and some of the other engineers. But when I agreed to accept being transferred, I asked a couple of people about it, which is where I heard about being able to bribe the game administrator for enhanced stats.” She shook her head, a frown of disgust showing as she added, “Of course, most of what I was told appears to be bullshit. Eternals preying on eternals was something the system was supposed to stop, and I don’t think anyone has found the creation skills like enchanting, alchemy, or smithing yet. The kind of stuff that gives the players…purpose.”

I decided Dalmar’s smithing skill was his to share and didn’t offer to let the group know we had found at least one of what Skylark called ‘Creation Skills’.

“Yeah, the place is screwed up,” Zane said, “but it’s still better than sitting in a cell for ten years.”

“Amen to that,” Shadow said with a nod.

The entrance to the place, when we finally reached it, was a white stone building sitting in the middle of a grove of fir trees. The trees were covered in green needles from the ground to the top of their thirty foot height, and so neatly shaped it looked like someone spent a lot of time tending them, and kept you from seeing the building until you rode around to a gap in the  northern part of the circle.

The building itself was twenty feet around, with a conical, black slate roof, and an open doorway on the northern side. It was so plain looking that I found myself oddly disappointed.

“There she be,” Eric said in a satisfied tone, gesturing toward the building as we sat our horses at the opening in the trees. “No one been able to walk through that openin as long as anyone knows.”

We slid off our horses and gathered at the opening in the trees, with the exception of Eric, who just sat and looked interested. We all studied the building for a moment, then Skylark said, “Shadow?”

Shadow nodded, made a knife appear in her right hand, and slowly walked forward, eyes sweeping back and forth as she studied the ground ahead of her. The rest of us waited and watched, Zane leaning on his staff and Skylark and I warily watching the surrounding area.

When Shadow reached the building, she paused as she studied the inside, then she reached forward and appeared to rest her hand against…nothing. It looked exactly like when Maria did the same thing at Lor Frell. 

“Looks clear,” Shadow yelled back at us, her hands moving across the opening. Skylark immediately walked forward with Zane and I beside her, joining Shadow in her touch search of the opening when we reached it. 

It wasn’t until I was standing to the right of the doorway that I saw the rune on the floor and received a message that told me why we couldn’t get through the doorway.

You have acquired a Rune

Rune of Safeguarding 

Creates an impregnable barrier across an opening that prevents access to any who do not meet the entry requirements set by the caster.

Access requirements determined by Caster

Requires 10 mana/square foot

That, and the tag on the floor that said:

Access requirement: A priest must say the words “By the Goddess’s will” to allow his party to pass.

The messages left me distracted for a half a minute while I absorbed it all. The first thing that hit me was that this doorway was meant for priests, and that probably meant the odds of finding something useful had gone way up. The second thing I focused on was math. Yeah, how much darn mana would it take to block a doorway? Let’s see, one square foot with a doorway being, say five foot wide, meant fifty mana for something one foot high. Multiply that by the height of say, six foot, and you got…well shit, that’s not good. Be a while before I started keeping anything but mice out of my stuff.

“By the goddess’s will,” I said in a mockingly deep voice, then chuckled at the squeak of surprise Skylark let out when she staggered forward through the doorway.

“Holy shit.” Zane said, surprise in his tone. “How’d you know to say that?”

Shadow and Skylark were both giving me questioning looks, so I said, “It’s got a tag that can only be seen by priests.”

“I knew it!” Eric yelled from the tree line. “I done won me a bit’a coin on this one!” He was grinning as he waved and rode off to toward home.

“Well, someone’s already made money, and we haven’t even entered the building yet,” Zane said, then waved us toward the opening and added, “Let’s go see what our reward is.”

Shadow flipped her hood up and stepped through the door, pausing for a moment before saying, “Stairs down. No traps I can see. Only wide enough for one person at a time, so take it slow.”

Skylark looked over the group before saying, “I’ll follow Shadow. Zane behind me, and Jake brings up the rear.” When everyone nodded, she tapped Shadow on the shoulder and we moved forward. Skylark pulled a round shield out of her inventory and slipped it on her left arm, unsheathing her sword and holding it in her right hand. Zane had his staff, and I pulled Bruce out, then cast my armor spell. I said, “Casting a Blessing,” a second before I did just that, then did a Restore as we made our way very slowly down the dark stairwell. Light came in through the doorway behind us, but the stairwell was only six inches or so wider than my shoulders, and about a foot higher than the top of my head, so we blocked most of the light as we moved down.

Zane mumbled a phrase, then made a flipping gesture with his right hand, causing a ball of light to form and drift forward and slightly above Skylark, getting a muttered, “Thanks,” from up where Shadow was leading us down.

“How long does it last?” I asked quietly. 

“About twenty minutes,” he whispered back. 

The stairwell went down probably eighty or ninety feet, then did a right turn and continued another hundred before we exited the stairwell and found ourselves on a small balcony that overlooked a cavern. The cavern was lit by some kind of glowing fungus that ran in strips and swirls along the ceiling and wall, casting a greenish light that was dim, but fully illuminated the place. The balcony came out of the wall close to the ceiling, and a stairwell on our left went down to the floor of the cavern. Overall the place was a few hundred feet long, and half of that wide.

A twenty foot wide river ran in a channel through the cavern from right to left, and the water was flowing at pretty decent pace. A boat was sitting in the water, snugged up close to the wall of the channel on our side, and as far as I could see, was the only thing in the place.

“Looks like our ride awaits,” Skylark said as she stood close to the edge of the balcony to look down and around the cavern. Straightening, she turned to the stairs, but paused and said to Zane and I, “Let Shadow and I go down first, and you guys cover us from here. I’ll wave if it’s clear.”

 At my nod, and an affirmative grunt from Zane, she and Shadow headed down the stairs. I pointed for Zane to watch the left, and I kept my eyes on the right side of the cavern as the two women took their time working their way down the stairs, then across the cavern floor to the side of the boat. They seemed to have a little conference, then Skylark turned and gave a large wave with her sword, getting Zane and I to double time down the stairs to join them.

The boat reminded me a little of the ones they used to show in the biblical type movies. Pointed at both ends, fairly narrow, with a more rounded bottom than I would have expected. It was close to twenty feet long, with six narrow benches evenly spaced down the length of the boat. A long pole extended aft, looking like an extra long oar, but was obviously used to steer the thing. 

“It’s not tied up,” Shadow said doubtfully, “it should have floated away.”

“Magic of some kind,” Zane said with shrug, then pointed at a small pole, or column that was sticking up from the center of the boat. It was only a few inches higher than the sides of the boat, so I hadn’t seen it at first, but it was so out of place that it had to have some function.

“Unless Shadow sees a hidden door somewhere, this is our ride out of here,” Skylark said, sheathing her sword and making her shield disappear just before stepping into the boat. Zane followed a second later, using his staff to stabilize himself as he stepped over the boat rail. Shadow and I exchanged looks, then shrugs before joining the other two. Shadow showing off a little by doing a graceful leap and balancing on one of the seats. 

I stepped over and into the boat close to the column, which put Shadow at the front, me in the middle, Zane behind me, and Skylark at the aft end by the rudder. The column looked like it might be made of silver, but was unmarked in any other way. If I was sitting down, the top of it would be about shoulder height, and if it had had a wheel on it, I would have thought it was used to control the boat.

“I’m going to try a couple things,” I said, still studying the pole. “Brace yourselves in case it does something weird.” Something weirder than magic anyway. I reached out and wrapped my left hand around it, twitching a little in surprise when the thing began to glow, and a faint thrumming feeling went through it. 

‘Go’. I willed the thought, and wasn’t very surprised when the boat began moving forward at a slow, but steady pace. Skylark must have been ready, because the boat swerved away from the wall and toward the center of the river.

“Just told it to move,” I said, speaking to everyone. 

“That kind of makes you the equivalent of car keys doesn’t it?” Shadow asked with a laugh, getting a chuckle from Zane. Skylark didn’t laugh, but I heard the humor in her voice as she said, “Looks like we’ll lose the light in the tunnel. Zane, set a light at the prow so Shadow can see.”

Zane did his mumble, hand wave thing, and a ball of light floated forward to position itself a couple of feet above the point at the front of the boat. He adjusted it a little higher when we entered the tunnel and it was clear the ceiling was high enough. The tunnel was clearly natural, though the width was pretty consistent. Small stalactites poked down here and there, and Skylark had to steer us clear of a few in response to Shadow’s, “A little right,” or “Close to the left bank,” commands.

I didn’t have anything to do other than hold the stupid pole, since taking my hand off it showed that the boat would stop right there, holding position even against the current. That left me time to admire the view that Zane’s light revealed as we swept by. There were seams of quartz, and what looked like gold and a silvery metal, as well as chunks of gemstones of all colors clearly revealed as we went past, flashing and flickering in the light, making you want to stop and take a sample or just inspect it closely. I’d never spent any time spelunking back in reality, but doubted if this abundance of riches was the norm. I bet the dwarves did pretty well for themselves if the whole world was like this.

Like my trip through the Underroads, the darkness and enclosed space caused everyone to speak quietly and avoid excess talk. The water made a continuous sound, but it turned into white noise after a while, so any changes in it was obvious immediately. That’s why we could all hear the change a few hours into the ride, and a couple of seconds before Shadow yelled, “Hang on, rapids ahead!”

The tunnel and river began descending, with the requisite increase in speed and turbulence. There were no rocks to run into, but we seemed to drop in sections, so there were sudden drops of a couple of feet that left all of us floating above our seats for a second. Skylark started laughing and letting out whoops of sound every time we hit them. After the first couple, Shadow started yelling, “Incoming!”, then laughing when the nose dropped and she would get splashed.

“Just like a waterpark,” Zane said from behind me after another round of laughter from the two ladies.

There was no way to judge how far down we went, but the rapids lasted an hour or so before the last drop left us in a wider cavern and slower moving river. The glowing fungus reappeared, giving us a view of the surrounding walls and ceiling. The area looked a lot like where we originally arrived, but went as far as we could see. The banks of the river also had some kind of mushroom like growth that made five or six foot high forests that spread along both sides. 

“Almost expect some oompa-loompas to start singing,” Zane said as we drifted down the river, all of us studying the odd forest.

Zane still had a ball of light floating above the prow, adding a little more light to the scene, but we probably could do without it as long as the fungus lasted. Skylark steered us to the middle of the river and I hadn’t let go of the pole, so we continued slowly forward. 

“Look there!” Shadow hissed, making us look at her, then following her pointing finger to the right bank to see a moth like shape fluttering above one of the mushroom. It looked to be about the size of a large bird, but the sight of a living creature down here kept us all fascinated until Sam slid into my hand and formed a whip.

“Watch it!” I yelled, looking around, expecting something to be flying down to attack us. Everyone tensed, but when the attack came, it was from the water and not the air. A shape surged up from out the water and two hands locked on to Shadow’s cloak and pulled her overboard in the blink of an eye. It was so quick that I only had the impression of two human like arms and a scaly body, but I reacted immediately, snapping my whip forward, yelling, “Grab her Sam!”

The creature had pulled Shadow over backwards, so her arms and feet were the last things to go under, and Sam managed to wrap around her right wrist. Shadow’s hand convulsively gripped the whip when it snapped around her arm, and Sam yanked, forcing me to lean back, and pulling Shadow halfway back into the boat. I leaned forward to grab the back of Shadow’s cloak, bunching it and her shirt up in my Sam covered right fist. I hadn’t even realized he had wrapped himself in a gauntlet as I moved until I was gripping Shadow, but it didn’t slow me down as I fell backwards, pulling Shadow up and on top of me in a surge of water.

A second wave of water followed as the creature rose up and reached over the side of the boat, giving me an excellent view of its flat, scaled face, lipless, round, teeth-lined mouth, and gray, dead looking eyes. I was stuck under a floundering Shadow as the thing grabbed her ankle and Zane reached forward while shouting a couple of words. A white, sparkling stream of mist shot from his hand to envelope the creature, and just like that, we had a frost covered statue of the Creature from the Black Lagoon frozen to the side of the boat.

Zane didn’t pause, rising to his feet as he grabbed his staff in both hands, brought it up and over his head, then down on top of the creature with harsh yell. I’ve seen this in movies, but watching the frozen villain explode into a thousand chunks of…meatcicles, was a lot more impressive from a foot away.

“Holy crap,” I mumbled as Shadow managed to pull herself up and off of me, more than a little impressed by that neat little bit of magic. “That was…impressive.”

“You ok Shadow?” Skylark asked as Zane gave me a hand up. Shadow did a quick self appraisal, then looked up to grin at our group and say, “Am now. Thought for a second I was going to be fish food.”

“Jake, you want to get us moving?” Skylark asked, nodding toward the pole when I looked back at her. Yeah, no Jake, no move. I sat down and put my left hand on the pole, keeping my right hand free…just in case.

“Thanks guys,” Shadow said as she sat down again, watching the water a little more warily than she had been. “That would have been a problem.”

Bit of an understatement in my opinion. I’m pretty sure drowning was about the only thing any of us would do in that situation. All this armor, weapons, gold, and other sundry items, made swimming a no-no.

Things got quiet for a while, everyone watching carefully, but also casting quick glances my way, aware now of how useful Sam was as an early warning device. It was Skylark who finally asked, “So, does that thing warn you of all kinds of attacks? How about traps and stuff?”

I held my arm up to look at the silver snake wrapped around my forearm, then said, “Not traps, but pretty much anything that directly attacks me. I’m still learning what he can do. Grabbing Shadow like that was new, but it’s kind of an offshoot of one of his abilities.”

We talked about weapons in a desultory way for a while, but mostly focused on our surroundings as we continued our slow drift down the river. The cavern continued to widen, though the river channel stayed about the same, which left more area on the banks for the strange fungal growths and even periodic sandy areas, one of which had the broken remains of a wooden boat scattered along it.

Skylark steered us closer, and Zane sent a ball of light to float over the area, but it appeared to be just the pieces of a rowboat sized vessel. Nothing resembling skeletons or anything worth stopping for, so we just drifted past, leaving the light floating over the spot as we departed.

“Looked pretty old,” Shadow said as Skylark steered us back to the center of the river. “Looked like they landed there and the boat has just rotted away where it was sitting.”

The slightly greenish light the glowing fungus cast was fairly dim, but easily bright enough for us to have seen any caves leading into this one, or any manmade buildings or anything else people could have taken shelter in. 

“Could be they were grabbed by one of those scaly creatures and the boat just drifted to a stop there,” Zane said, his tone conveying his uneasiness with the whole thing.

“No way to know at this point,” Skylark said from the back, “but if things stay like this, in a few hours we’ll stop at one of those beaches and give Jake a chance to take a break.”

A message popped up as she was speaking:

Jake, I’m going to see Wendel tomorrow. If you’re still in the area let me know. Dalmar

Huh, I’d have thought he would have dropped the book off days ago, but I didn’t ask what took so long, just sent,

I’m on a boat a week to the west, so let me know how it goes.

I hoped he got some serious experience for that book seeing how much effort it took to find the darn thing. Of course, now that I thought about it, he was probably pretty busy starting his smithing career. I was interested to see what he would be creating by the time I got back.

We ended up stopping four or five hours later at a long sandy beach that was large enough we wouldn’t be crowded by the mushroom forest. The boat stopped parallel to the beach when I took my hand off the pole, and I stretched and shook out my hand, glad to be able to get away from the stupid thing for a while.

“Shadow, take a look around, but stay in shouting distance,” Skylark said as she jumped lightly to shore, her eyes studying the surrounding area. “We’ll take a few hours here to rest if anyone wants to. Zane, you and Shadow keep watch, but wake Jake and me in three hours and I’ll relieve you.”

We set up a basic camp half way up the bank, and I rolled out my blanket and took Skylark’s advice and took a nap.

Of course I got a visit from Telina and found myself sitting in my spot at the Burning Mage Inn. It was kind of nice to be back in our normal meeting place, so I was smiling and sipping an ale when Telina came through the door. She gave me her own smile as she did one of Maria's boneless flops into her chair and took a drink from a mug that appeared in front of her.

When she set the mug down she said, "So my dear priest, I am pleased with how things have progressed. My influence grows daily, and my sisters have no cause to be angry with the steps we have taken" 

"It's been a while,” I said, "anything I should know?”

She nodded as she relaxed back, studying me as her finger circled the top of her mug, saying, “The hammer you found is destined for Tarra’s paladin. I believe it is intended to make her more acceptable to the dwarven folk” she made a dismissive gesture with her hand as if shooing the issue away, and said, "but that will not impact our own plans as long as the Guardian Queen rules. Bigbob will move against the blighted lands soon, and with the aid of the guardians, should make some progress in pushing the blight back. You will need to be present when he confronts the full power of the blight though.”

I gave a shrug of assent at that, saying, “Figured. I’ll see how things go and talk with Maria when we have more information.”

“Good,” Telina said. "What are your intentions for this trip with these eternals?”

“Mostly just a chance to tour areas I haven't seen yet, though I like their idea.” I answered. “I’m interested to see how they do without the Empire providing order. I might see about allying with them if they turn out to not be a couple of assholes.” I shrugged, then turned the conversation to something I had wanted to talk to her about.

“I’ve tasked your priest in the capital with setting up a place to offer aid to the poor, but I was thinking it might make sense to see whether any of them would like to relocate to the Abandoned lands. Long term I’d like to see about setting up a couple more towns close to Mudtown and plan to expand toward the blighted lands when we get rid of the blight.”

“Ambitious,” Telina said slowly, eyes narrowed in thought, “You see a kingdom forming from this?”

I gave a doubtful grunt and nodded my head side to side before saying, “Well, maybe. Right now though, I’d like to get the poor families and orphans moved our way and give them a chance to become mages, rangers, or other useful skills. Beyond that, I’d like to start building the infrastructure we’ll need to launch a campaign into the blighted lands. If I can locate more relics, they would be the center of cities we build on the eastern coast and the lands between. Once the blight is gone, I imagine there’ll be a land rush, and the dark elves might make a push to return from wherever they went.” I frowned and added “I don’t want those assholes coming back thinking they’re going to reclaim a single damn rock from lands they ran away from.”

Telina let out a bark of laughter, then grinned as she said, "The Dani’Alakar could always be counted on to alienate those they met, but to have angered you in only two meetings is truly impressive.” She kept the grin as she leaned back to study me for a moment, then asked, "You would build cities of those loyal to you?”

I shook my head no and said seriously, “To you. If we set the groundwork now, we can influence how the blighted lands end up being ruled, and if Telina’s paladins and priest are the ones to free the lands, ensure you are the goddess of choice for those living there.”

“My sisters would resist this,” Telina said, her eyes thoughtful as she considered my words.

“Likely,” I said with a shrug, “so we’d need to include them, or at least some of them. The Guardians will be an integral part of defeating the blight, so they’ll know they have some level of influence on things. The other goddesses must have realized you having the only priest has already disturbed the balance of things, so they’ll have to find some level of accommodation with us.” I leaned forward and told her, “Maria and Dalmar form a counterbalance to our own influence, and I’d hope your sisters are smart enough to realize I won’t do anything to hurt my friends. I need Maria and Dalmar because no one can stand alone here.”

“I will have to consider this,” Telina said, lips pursed, eyes squinted as she kind of looked into the distance and thought about what I’d said. “Tarra is moving to use your dwarven friend and her paladin to gain back the influence on the dwarven race that was lost when our priests were sacrificed.” She nodded to herself before adding, “Which would not affect our plans as I have never held any sway over her people.”

“But it will make it appear as if we are willing to aid your sisters if they help us,” I said, "and I sure as hell don’t intend to be part of any ruling structure, so having Maria’s people involved means we have a ready made defensive force.”

Telina nodded slowly before saying, "There is considerable potential here, but I will need to approach my sisters carefully as this develops. The Guardian Queen will be the focus of my sister’s efforts, so you should be wary how you present things to her.”

I grinned at the suggestion and said, "I intend to be honest with her. She’s smart enough to realize that unless they trap me in a pit yo-yo, you’re inevitably going to gain influence. So working with me will gain her a lot more than working against me.”

“You do not see your present companion’s efforts eventually coming in conflict with our own?”

That made me pause, and she took a drink as she watched me. I eventually answered, my words slow as I considered things, “I suppose it’s possible. If Skylark’s plans actually work, she’ll end up with a small kingdom, but we’ll have the whole empire between us. I’ve been seeing her as a foil to the light elves if they take an interest in their old lands. I don’t want to deal with both elf races at the same time, so having an ally on the western coast would help.”

“It would be better to gain the Lani’Alakar as allies.” Telina said seriously.

“I’d prefer not to interact with them at all until we’ve consolidated our hold on the Blighted Lands,” I said. “We need people who will follow you, and we’ll never get the elves onboard with that. If we gain the Empire and Dwarves as allies, we’ll be able to hold Tarinath. After that, we can see if the elves want to be friendly or not.”

“Ambitious,” Telina said with a laugh. Shrugging, she waved a hand and said, “But we have time before the Lani will need to be dealt with.” She frowned as she added, “You and your friends are following one of the paths used by our priests before the Sundering. They lead to places where our priests would meet, and where many items of value to me and my sisters were stored. To touch those things that belong to my sisters would mean your, or your friends deaths. Enter only those areas that are mine.”

Telina was big on getting the last word, so the tavern faded as she stopped speaking, and I found myself back in the cavern, lying on the ground, looking up at the glowing fungus lit ceiling. Skylark and Shadow were having a quiet conversation somewhere behind me, and with the soft lapping of the water on the bank, made the whole thing kind of peaceful. At least until Sam twitched into his whip form and one of the scaled creatures surged out of the water. Of course he didn’t stand a chance, but it served to get us all up and moving, sort of this world’s version of an alarm clock.