My first group of adventurers. This is so exciting. She set down her wine as she stood from her chair. Okay, try to act cool. Like you’ve been here before. Even though you haven’t. She smoothed her dress and took a few breaths. “So, uhm … where are they?”
Brightfeather remained bowed, “Coming up the path, your darkness. They’re still outside the gate. We believe they’re scheming a way to enter the fortress undetected.”
Oh, they think they’re being sneaky. That’s even more exciting. I wonder if they have a knight? If they do, I hope he’s a good looking one. I’ve always wanted to take a knight prisoner, especially a good looking one. If he’s ugly, I’ll probably just eat him. Smoothing her dress again, she did her best to maintain her evil visage, “And how many are there?”
“Three madam. Two humans and a dwarf. One of them looks like a mage.”
A dwarf. I don’t care for dwarfs. Far too hairy. “What did the mage look like? Is he old?”
“No, your mercilessness. He’s quite young, for a human that is.”
How exciting. “And the other one?”
“A woman. Red hair. Leather armor. We’re thinking she’s a rogue.”
Well I could use with a snack. “And you said they’re still outside the gate?”
“They were when I left, your mercilessness.”
She found herself flipping her hair and had to stop herself. She wanted to ask more about the mage, but didn’t want to spoil the surprise. She straightened her dress one more time. “Okay, take me to them.”
She followed Brightfeather off the balcony, through the hallway and out on to the battlements. As she looked down into the courtyard, she noticed the gnolls were still working on furnishing their offices, none the wiser to the danger that lurked outside.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Whispering to Brightfeather, “Just who all have you told?”
“I told the sergeant of the watch to notify me and only me if anything suspicious came up, your grace. We didn’t want to raise the alarm unnecessarily.”
You mean you wanted to make sure you got the credit for letting me know. She took note that there was already some rivalry among her lieutenants. She would have to find a way to deal with this. But first, the adventurers.
Circling around the southern wall, they came to the southwest tower where she followed Brightfeather up the steps to an empty room. Here, a pair of goblins were hunkered down behind a broken wall with their bows ready as they looked down on the mountain path.
Dropping into a squat, Brightfeather nodded to one of the watchmen. “Lumpjack, where are they now?”
A cruel looking goblin with a scarred nose smiled, “Hiding behind a pair of rocks. They’ve been there a good minute now, talking. The cutters don’t know we can see them.”
Which means I have a moment to think about just what I want to do with them. She leaned carefully up toward the wall, careful not to leave the shadows, as she looked down on the little party. They were well hidden, placed between a pair of rocks with a small piece of brush between them and the fortress. However, she could see their shadows shuffling between the leaves. She had to congratulate herself, she had raised an army, taken over half the valley, and taken control of a lair atop a mountain and now she would get to do battle with her first group of adventurers and she had the drop on them. Her mother would have been so proud.
The goblins were looking at her with the kind of expectations that came when a leader arrived on the scene. They were looking for her to come up with a plan. They needed her to take action. Okay, okay, breath … She breathed. Don’t look nervous in front of the lackeys. Why don’t I know what to do with my hands. I need to come up with something to do with my hands.Vevic finally settled on putting her balled fists against her hips and frowning. She hoped that would let the goblins know she was still thinking even if she was thinking less about a plan and more about the small band just outside her fortress.
Oh, I really want to talk to that mage. I bet he’s full of all kinds of funny quips and banter. He’d look wonderful hanging from the dungeon. And that redhead. Are they a couple? They don’t look like a couple. I wonder if I should burn her alive or just give her to Aackzor? I think the bugbear might enjoy her …
The goblins were getting restless. Brightfeather in particular was looking nervous. The light was almost gone. Everyone in the tower could see the little party of adventurers were almost ready to move. She needed to take action. Decisive action. And soon. Okay, what do I do? Do I send out the gnolls? What if they get too bloodthirsty and don’t take any prisoners?
She didn’t want to hurt the mage, but the rest of them could fall off her mountain for all she cared. Maybe it would be better to simply dispatch the gnolls with instructions to take the lot of them prisoner and that the mage in particular was not to be harmed, but deep down in her heart, Vevic knew that wasn’t what she wanted to do. No, what she wanted to do was to take wing and buzz the group of them with a few good breath weapons to show them who was boss.
Standing on her tip-toes, she looked out over the wall again. Is that a duck? Why do they have a duck? Perhaps the mage had taken a familiar. What a cute little bird. Perhaps I’ll take that prisoner as well.
Speaking of familiar, something was familiar about the red headed rogue and the little mage. Looking closer now, she realized she had seen them before. My goodness, is that the very same Delver? It is. I remember them now. They were in the dungeon before it collapsed.
That settled it. She had to take them captive. All of them. Dropping down behind the wall again, she pulled Brightfeather aside and began to lay out her plan.