1 Soul Bound
1.1 Finding her Feet
1.1.5 An Inscrutable Mastermind
1.1.5.24 Hidden property
A calm voice came over the raid's private voice chat channel that quashing the panic with just a few precisely chosen words, because they were delivered with the absolute confidence that almost never came without years of experienced. But the voice wasn't from one of Fra Gamal's veterans. It was Wellington, who'd been appointed by Nastya to be her backup and Kafana knew he'd never even been part of a raid in a game before. She made a smart turn to face him, doing her best to appear alert and ready to follow his lead.
Wellington: {Bungo, grab aggro, then kite it East along the river bank.}
Wellington: {Kafana, you’re with Bungo. Keep a speed buff on him, and ensure he keeps aggro.}
Bungo yelled something at the troll, it might have been “Never fear, Flash Gordon is here.” Kafana imagined Bungo being a flashing moon, and the troll a moth, then poured mana into it, no verbals, just a wordless cry as high pitched as she could make it, modulating it into the annoying sound of a mosquito. She maintained the speed buff on him and herself, then ran after the fleeing taunting Bungo who was being chased by the enraged troll mother who was throwing rocks the size of sofas as she ran.
Wellington, meanwhile, was snapping out orders so fast that nobody had time to question them.
Wellington: {Alderney, find me the steepest most unstable scree slope you can. Don’t bounce on it. When you’ve found it, survey the site and put it on the shared map.}
Wellington: {Blaze, Char, you’re going to be painting an enormous rune diagram on that slope. Go down to the river bank and use your inventory spaces to store a large quantity of mud, then follow Alderney’s directions.}
Wellington: {Crimson, Tomsk, we’re going to dump the troll in the river at one point. Pick a bridge, and start weakening it. Cut out some key blocks from underneath if you can.}
Wellington: {Bulgaria, can you raise one of her kids as a zombie or skeleton and make it walk onto the booby trapped bridge?}
Bulgaria: {Yes. It will take about 10 minutes.}
Wellington: {That’s fine. Get started. Bungo, there’s your schedule. I want the troll coming back up the far bank of the river no sooner than 15 minutes time. Take it across the bridge closest to the city. I want to surprise it, so keep it out of sight of our preparations.}
Wellington: {ChocolateTrain, you’re on chumming duty. Head West, fill your inventory with chopped troll, then drop half of it from the middle of that bridge. Then return to the booby trap site with the other half.}
Wellington: {Mary-Lynn, what sort of talismans can you make, besides healing?}
Mary-Lynn: {Think of them as touch-range songs that are faster to cast, but are not reusable. And the material component takes about 10 minutes to craft, if I have a rune pattern for it.}
Wellington: {Here’s a pattern for affecting weight. If the two trolls together are not enough to break the weakened bridge, I want you to use a talisman that triples that mother’s weight. Tomsk will use his vulnerability sight to show you the exact spot.}
Alderney: {I’ve found a good site. Maybe a little larger than you wanted, and it is a good 10 minutes distance from the river, but I guarantee that if we can bring this lot down, it would crush even a dragon.}
Wellington paused a moment then spoke: {Looks good. Here’s the rune design for it. I hope Blaze and Char have enough mud.}
Char: {I hate you. You know that, right?}
Blaze: {Yes, we have enough mud and are on our way. We’ll get the rune painted in time, if I have to threaten to burn all Char’s dresses.}
Wellington: {Ok, I’m putting the plan in the queue now. Check your roles, and keep updated the traffic light I’ve put for each of you indicating ‘green for on schedule’, ‘yellow for problem or delay possible’, ‘red for can’t do, need a re-plan’.}
{Sys, I’m busy here and the plan is complex. Can you summarise what I have to do?}
[Kafana, you’re the key. Wellington wants you to do final buffs on Bungo, then cross over to the North bank and get back to the ambush site and meet up with ChocolateTrain. You’re to go down to the water and try to communicate with the fish that have hopefully been attracted by the chumming. Offer them more food. Ask them to bite the troll where the troll is wounded, put lots of poison in its system. That’s stage 1.]
[Stage 2 is dropping a mountain on its head. You’ll have a sound amplifier at the focal spot for the scree slope, and a backing group. Your role there will be to find the resonant frequency of the slope then make a long loud noise at that frequency.]
Kafana put on a burst of speed. This was their craziest plan yet. They were going to need skill levels, a luck buff and prayer to Cov.
When she got to the prepared bridge, Tomsk looked satisfied. Large hunks of bridge were missing, and the gaps covered with picnic blankets. The zombie troll stood just beyond them, with CrimsonMoon and Mary-Lynn hiding behind it, ropes attached to their waists. Bungo indicated he was 5 minutes away, which gave Kafana time to cast several buffs, which she did, before scrambling for the river.
As she approached the water, she grew calmer. What was she doing up here with all the air beings? She walked further in, until she felt at home, the roof of her home a pretty green.
Kafana: Hello friends!
Fishies: Hi, hi, hi, hi, hi
Kafana: bad green monster coming
Fishies: Run? Run away?
Kafana: Monster can’t swim in water. Monster weak! We eat it!
Kafana released some of the chopped up troll into the water.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Kafana: Taste the monster. Tasty enemy. Tasty victim.
Fishies: We bite. Bite bite. Big bite. Mine venomous bite.
*splosh*
Tomsk’s voice broke in: {Kafana, are you drowning? Should I jump in to pull you out?}
She replied, annoyed: {We feeding. I bite troll. My troll, my food. Stay away.}
Kafana: Yay, food. We feast!
Fishies: We feast!
The fish around her swarmed towards the mother troll, nibbling every exposed part, biting and chewing. There must have been several thousand of them, big and small, ugly and beautiful.
Wellington: {Kafana, we need you! Snap out of it. You have to come to the bank right now. We need you to sing.}
Bulgaria: {The show must go on.}
The show must go on. She’d miss her cue. She never missed a cue; sick, hurting, grieving, she’d always hit the cue. She rose out of the comfortable river and walked across its surface, back out onto the horrible inhospitable land, paying attention only to making her limbs take each next step, ignoring even the system prompt about having uncovered her ring's remaining hidden properties:
The Ring of Francis the Navigator (UNIQUE ITEM, HOLY ARTIFACT)
+50% attunement to the element of water
Water breathing
+15 to the skill ‘Swimming’
Sea Friend
Water shaping
This ring was a gifted to Francis in person, by the deity Mor
Durability: INDESTRUCTIBLE
Tomsk gathered her into his arms and hugged her. She was quite dry, but feeling a little disoriented. She’d stay in his arms just a bit longer. To steady herself.
CrimsonMoon and Mary-Lynn had climbed back up the rope and Mary-Lynn was laughing in exhilaration, while Crimson calmly used her sword to free them. Alderney was retrieving the remains of the troll’s club. Judging by the frost covering it, she and Wellington had managed to successfully make use of Alderney’s liquid nitrogen grenade to shatter it. Bungo was on the bank near them, waiting to pull the troll mother if she survived the river.
Wellington: {Kafana, watch your cues please. Time to rebuff, and then you and I need to get to Char and Blaze on the double, to set up the finale.}
Tomsk reluctantly released her, and everyone grouped on her. It took 30 seconds to finish clearing her head, but she got the buffs cast, and left Mary-Lynn with Bungo to pull, with Crimson as alt tank. The rest of them ran for the ambush site, where Bulgaria had already gone ahead with the zombie. Her mana was low and she spent the travel time meditating to get it back.
Bungo: {It is on half hits and not regenerating. It is pissed and moving damn fast, though. Estimated time of arrival, 7 minutes.}
Blaze: {I’ve constructed a fire trap. It is marked with a big red X and will activate 5 seconds after someone stands on it. Be careful when you arrive.}
Kafana and Wellington arrived at a dell on the mound opposite the big slope. Char had artfully arranged some branches to stop the troll spotting them too easily. Wellington did a calculation and then inscribed his sound amplification spell at the focal point, setting Bulgaria to provide mana to it. He would take on activating the big rune painted in mud upon the slope itself.
Kafana warmed her voice up. Maximum power? She cast a buff on herself, increasing not skill levels (which she’d already buffed) but specifically lung capacity and volume.
She checked the action clock, and saw that in 10 seconds she was due to give Bungo the weightless buff and make it last a minute. Phew, Wellington wasn’t asking for much, was he?
Bungo charged towards the base of the slope, narrowly followed by the troll, who was in turn followed by CrimsonMoon carrying one of Mary-Lynn’s talismans, and Kafana buffed him draining most of her mana, then using a high mana potion to get back to full. 5 seconds, prepare visualisations, 4 seconds, position herself by the amplifier and focus upon the slope, 3 seconds, Mary and Crimson were retreating full speed, 2 seconds, Bungo put his shield on the middle of the red cross and stood on it, 1 second, Wellington activated the big rune, 0…
Wellington had asked for loud. She’d picked a folk tune she was familiar with, "Izlel ye Delyo Haydutin". It was one of the first pieces of music ever sent into space, on Voyager 1. It was also one of the loudest pieces suitable for acapella ever written.
> Came out rebel Delyo;
>
> rebel true grit;
>
> with fellow Dumbovtsi and Karadjovtsi;
>
> asking Delyo warning;
>
> the opressors and the tyrants;
>
> Izlel ye Delyo haydutin,
>
> Haydutin yan kesadžie,
>
> S Dumbovtsi i s Karadzhovtsi.
>
> Zaračal Delyo, poročal,
>
> Deridanskine ayene,
>
> Ayene kabadaye,
[You have taken 800 hit points of sonic damage.]
The whole slope vibrated. Rocks at the top started sliding down. She pushed more mana into her vocal enhancement spell, tried for sharper, purer, more elongated notes, imagining the slope a wine glass, and tried to shatter it.
> I have two aunts in the village;
>
> don't you dare convert them;
>
> don't you dare convert them;
>
> don't make me come for you;
>
> your mothers will mourn you;
>
> and more so your wives
>
> V selono imam dve leli,
>
> Da mi gi ne poturčite,
>
> Da mi gi ne počarnite.
>
> Če ga si slezam v selono,
>
> Mnočko štat mayki da plaknat,
>
> Po-mnočko, mladi nivestni.
[You have taken 1200 hit points of sonic damage.]
With a chest vibrating thump, the whole slope came loose and rolled down towards the troll. The troll tried to flee but found itself temporarily paralysed by the talisman Mary-Lynn had activated upon it while it was distracted.
A much small *boom* sounded, launching the weightless Bungo high into the air above the onrushing wave of rock, his shield on fire. In his arms, bleating piteously, he still carried a dazed and severely traumatised goat.