The wizard had fainted. Vevic was a little disappointed (and secretly a little proud) that coming face to face with her in dragon form had clearly been too much for the little wizard who was now lying unconscious at her feet.
The dwarf, on the other hand, had proved to be far more troublesome. So far, he and the goblin had fought their way into the courtyard, maiming and killing her gnolls and goblins as they went. The bloodshed continued even now as the two adventurers were trapped along the north wall between the kitchens and the barracks. The goblin, armed with a spear, was fighting back to back with the dwarf who had hewed his way through any goblin or gnoll that came within striking distance. It was annoying, and she was thinking about just burning the two alive with her breath weapon, but before she did that she wanted to find one of her lieutenants to transport the mage to somewhere more … discreet.
“Aackzor!” she caught the bugbear striding across the courtyard. “I need you to transport this prisoner to … my … er … the … interrogation room, please. I mean now. Do it now. And gently, do it gently. He’s not to be harmed.”
Aackzor’s shoulders slumped when he saw the mage lying in the dirt. He was clearly disappointed she wasn’t allowing him to enter the fray. However, after a long sigh, the bugbear dutifully ordered a pair of gnolls to pick the wizard up. Sullen, Aackzor then led the procession across the courtyard toward her keep.
Uhg … what do I do with these people? These men are all so violent and honestly, the women aren’t much better. This was true, gnoll women were actually worse. She had found this out the first night after recruiting them when, after a few rounds of ale, the alpha female had actually killed two of her rivals in lone combat to re-establish dominance over the pack. Vevic had known then that Shiela was likely an ever greater asset than Aackzor and so had purposefully kept the two of them apart in the interest of maintaining peace.
As she walked through the gate and approached the fight, cry of pain and fear went out from the crowd of goblins and gnolls and a moment later, a pair of gnolls emerged with one of their comrades in tow. The wounded gnoll had lost his arm at the shoulder and a trail of blood followed him as his fellows dragged him across the earth.
Staying in dragon form, she walked to the center of the courtyard where she could see the dwarf and the goblin better. A half-circle of goblins had them cornered against the wall with no hope of escape, but the dwarf and his goblin ally had not yet given up. Eight goblins and two gnolls lay dead at their feet, while two morewounded goblins were being drug away. As Vevic looked on, her little horde of monsters were gibbering, howling, and yelling threats at the two brave souls at the center. Meanwhile, the dwarf had a dozen cuts, bruises, and wounds across his body while the goblin was favoring his left leg while he nursed a knife wound on his side.
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What to do. What to do. She could see several members of her horde look back at her as if she were the solution to this particular problem. She was a dragon, after all. Shouldn’t she simply burn these two pesky adventurers alive?
Another charge. This time a half dozen of the goblins got brave and made a go of it. Using the wall, the dwarf and his goblin ally managed to keep all of their foes in front of them. The dwarf got the first kill as his axe split the skull of the lead goblin. Wrenching his blade free, he beheaded a second on the backswing.Then, as a third goblin tried to duck past his blade, the spear point of the renegade goblin caught his foe in the throat. That ended the fight as the three remaining goblins backed off and the crowd began to jeer and taunt once again.
This is a waste of resources. She chided herself for not having a better end game to this plan. Perhaps I should have asked Aackzor to deal with this instead of the mage. Whatever, what’s done is done. She had thought that once the adventurers were trapped in the courtyard that they would quickly surrender. Obviously, she had forgotten how pesky and stubborn their lot could be.
The crowd was getting restless. The faces looking back at her were looking more and more desperate. Someone here needs to make a decision and that someone has to be me. She had no doubt that if she threw enough goblins and gnolls at these two that they would die, but at what cost to her army? More importantly, what would it cost her in reputation among her followers?
She realized her soldiers expected her to simply roast the two heroes alive. However, something about that just didn’t feel quite right. No, she needed to interrogate this lot. Find out why they were here. Find out what their game was. Who had sent them? And why?
Besides, if she had these two as prisoners, she could use them as leverage against the mage. Silently, she congratulated herself on thinking like a real queen of darkness.
Flipping through her spell list, Vevic scanned her options. She was powerful enough to do this, she just needed to figure out which bit of magic would work best. After a moment of thought, she finally picked the one that looked the best.
“Finikus invisibilus,” she said with a wave.
A moment later, a magical rope appeared and she manipulated it with her mind to whip it around the goblin and dwarf and bound them together. With a twist and a shake, the dwarf and the renegade goblin were sitting in the middle of the courtyard with their hands and arms stuck to their sides.
There was a surge from mob of angry goblins and gnolls, but when Vevic shot a gout of flame over their heads, everyone stopped.
“Enough!” She shouted. “Take these two down to the dungeon. I’ll see to them shortly. I want to know why they came before we execute them.”
As the goblins were leading away the two prisoners, Vevic suddenly realized she had no idea where the duck or the little red headed rogue had gone to.