Chapter 21

Roden made his way silently through the dark of the cavern. The dank air smelled of stagnant water and the musty odor of an all too moist basement.

The fact a nerdy wizard had lurked in the basement of this already dark place made Roden chuckle while he scouted the cave. The group hadn't seen any evidence of the gremlins from the outside, so they had decided to have Errrkkkk and Riakon guard the entrance. Roden was automatically the only choice to search the cave considering he was the only one who could see in the dark. Roden was on his way to the main chamber when he realized he didn't have Sight of the Magi available to check the other chamber.

He could have dosed himself with the mushroom spores Errrkkkk and Riakon had used on their first visit, but the prospect of being alone in the dark while tripping on alien mushrooms didn't seem like a recipe for success.

After he gave the main chamber a once over and found nothing, Roden worked his way back to his friends. He found the two men lounging on the grass beyond the mouth of the cave.

“Are yall really just out here chilling, while I'm in there working?” Roden said mockingly while approaching the two.

Without missing a beat, Riakon spoke, “I'm working. I am supervising.”

“Supervising?”

“Yeah I'm supervising Errrkkkk while he is watching for gremlins.”

Both men looked at Riakon flatly

“Just another time where I’m doing all the work, cacaw.”

Roden rolled his eyes, “division of labor aside, we have two problems. First, I don't have the spell prepared to get in the lower cavern and second I can't prepare it until tomorrow.”

“Sounds like we will have to watch from all directions tonight, cacaw.” Errrkkkk said while putting talon to chin in a thoughtful pose.

“I've actually been thinking about that and I think I have an idea.”

“Well please enlighten us.” Riakon said while lounging in the lush grass.

Roden took a deep breath and started his explanation, “Well my idea is to conjure my treehouse in the…”

Roden trailed off when he saw Errrkkkk gave Riakon a smug look, which engendered a groan from the Dragonkin.

“What was that all about?” Roden said irritation laced in every word.

“I bet Riakon that whatever plan you came up with would involve your treehouse, cacaw.” He stifled a laugh before continuing,

“Now he owes me some of his Fireweed, cacaw.”

Roden glared at his briefly, “unless you have a better way to close off the cave entrance, I'm pretty sure that is our only option.”

Errrkkkk chuckled, “oh no, it's definitely the best choice. Which is how I knew it'd be your plan, cacaw.”

Then was Roden’s turn to laugh.

“Okay smart guys, how are you supposed to make a treehouse fill in that hole, huh?” Riakon said with a hint of indignation.

“I'll just make it a bush.”

“He'll make it a bush, cacaw.” the men said simultaneously.

With that it was settled. Roden wondered the area around the cavern looking for an appropriate shrub or suitable specimen of vegetation to mimic in his spell. He eventually settled on a thorny shrub. He chose that one not out of any illusion that thorns would keep the gremlins out, but in the hope that it would keep them from even looking in its direction with any great attention to detail once they saw its unsavory thorns.

Deciding on which plant to use as his muse was simple compared to the arduous task of casting the spell. Typically, the spell was easy to cast once he had an idea. However, he had never had to work inside of such a restricted space. Roden started the spell as he had dozens of times before. First, he had to lay the spell matrix down, that step created a space for him to build the spell in three dimensions. From that point, he would draw out the various lines that created the architecture of the spell and the desired result.

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His first attempt had gone as normal. He crafted everything just as he imagined it, but when he attempted to complete the spell, the spell's matrix refused to collapse, completing the casting. Roden puzzled at the problem for a few moments before noticing the shifting lines that represented the various boundaries of the spell were too close to the walls of the cavern.

He hypothesized that if the spell were to collapse into existence then it would impact the walls of the cave. Thus he had to rearrange the spell’s matrix over and over until every last branch, thorn and leaf did not touch the walls. He imagined the task would have to be much simpler for a wizard or literally anyone even a little trained in the execution of magic of this variety.

His ward spell had no such limitations. It was an area that only triggered against things with hostile intent. No need for it to trigger against a squirrel looking for a nut or a curious raccoon. In theory, Roden could place a ward covering the area of dirt beneath his feet if he chose. That spell was unimpeded by physical boundaries. Which Roden realized a bit late into his ranting thoughts was because it didn’t produce anything tangible.

After over an hour of working at it the spell’s matrix finally collapsed in on itself and produced his treehouse. Although this time it might be more accurate to call it a bush bunker. The result of his ministrations was a mostly round structure of gnarly thorn covered branches with thick waxy leaves.

The outer door was likewise covered to conceal its existence, but to him as the caster and architect, its location was obvious. Roden then took the time to show the men everything he had put together for their bunker.

Starting from the outside, the first inner room was the size of a halfway decent closet. It was a small half circle about six feet wide and five feet high. All of the men had to crouch to even get in.

“What the fuck are you doing to us Roden?” Riakon griped.

“You’ll see, just hang tight. This room ain’t for us.” Roden assured the man as the big Dragonkin struggled to fit into the too small space.

The wall opposite the door looked to be plain stone. Roden tried his best to imprint onto the structure a similar stone as the cave and cliffs, but it definitely wasn’t exact, especially when examined under any great scrutiny.

He intended for that room to serve two purposes. First, he intended for that room to be their buffer in case the gremlins got through the door. Without any obvious sign of entry to the rest of the structure he figured it would at least slow them down.

Directly above the front door was a trapdoor in the ceiling. When Roden was showing Errrkkkk and Riakon his creation he pushed open the hatch and pulled himself onto the next level.

When it was Riakon’s turn, he stood up and everything above his shoulders seemed to pop out of the floor of the upper loft. Once all of the men were up, Roden locked the hatch effectively sealing off that first room from the rest of the rooms.

The loft was a little nest tucked into the branches. It was tight and there was just enough room for Riakon to sit upright. Roden wanted to make it taller, but at that point in the cave he only had a nine foot clearance. He had to lower the ceiling of the entry room to even have enough room to sit up.

That nest room was still a room with a ceiling unlike some of his other iterations. From that room someone could keep watch using the very carefully concealed peep holes. When crafting that portion of the room Roden had wished he knew more about mirrors and optics.

He really wanted to have telescopes, binoculars, or something to help them keep watch, but he couldn’t make the spell produce something he didn’t understand. A spa was simple, all it took was water and a heat source. Basic furniture was no problem, but apparently a tube full of mirrors and lenses was too complex to create with only a passing understanding of what was going on.

From the loft, there was a set of stairs that led to the main room. It was an eight by eight sitting room with all the basic amenities. Roden felt they needed the room to at least have some level of comfort while on their mission so he included two beds for whomever wasn’t on watch that night and a small kitchen area for them to make something better than travel rations.

The next and final room was of course everyone's’ favorite. Roden had made the room into his spa. He had decided on that for two reasons. First, was the selfish reason, he just wanted to be able to soak in the hot water. The second reason was more strategic. He felt he would have an advantage in that room if it came down to fighting gremlins.

Beyond the spa was another small room similar to the one in front just in case any gremlins came from within the cave. Roden had gone through the trouble of covering the entire hedge shaped house in leaves and thorns even though its presence to anyone coming from inside the cave would be out of the ordinary. Additionally, he had not placed a door to the house on the inside of the cave, instead he created a hatch from the rear loft that dropped a ladder they could climb if they needed to go deeper into the cave.

Once the walk through was complete the men took seats in the sitting room to discuss their plans. Errrkkkk took the lead by addressing Roden first.

“So will this thing stand up to the gremlins on its own, cacaw?”

Roden shrugged his shoulders, “I mean a bit. I don’t actually know for sure. The spell and my instincts tell me it can absorb some punishment, but I don’t think it can handle much.”

Errrkkkk nodded, “I figured as much, cacaw.”

“If it's any consolation, I included those small rooms on either end of the house to take the brunt of any magic they throw at us. I’m pretty sure unless they have a spell with the piercing ability of my Lightning Burst, we are pretty safe in this room.” Roden added.

“That’s good thinking there Roden!” Riakon said, perking up a bit.

“It’s good to hear that, but what do we do if it comes down to a fight, cacaw?” Errrkkkk said pointedly.

All three gave the dilemma some concerted thought.

Roden took a deep breath before offering his insights. “My thought was to hold them back in the narrow caverns. Riakon and I can form a shield wall in a tight space and we can take away their number advantage.”

Roden left off, ‘just like the Spartans!’ That part he kept to himself.

“Yeah boys ahhh we have a small problem.” Riakon included nervously. “In all the excitement of getting my magic back I forgot my hammer was ruined back at the dragon.”

The news was met with tandem face palms. When a thought occurred to Roden.

“I may have a solution.” He rose and started rummaging through his pack until he found it coiled at the bottom. He produced and presented the weapon he had selected so long ago before tossing it onto Riakon’s lap.

“A whip!?” Riakon said with a mix of incredulity and astonishment.

“Yep, that’s the best I got.”

Riakon groaned, “brother, let me use your staff.”

Errrkkkk shook his head, “no way, you’ll break it just like you did your hammer.”

Riakon moved to rebuttal, but knew he had already lost.

“To be fair, the goal isn’t to have to fight them in here at all so you’ll only really need it if we are out in the open.” Roden offered to sooth the big Dragonkin.

Riakon nodded begrudgingly, “yeah I suppose.”

“Besides, if it gets to that point Roden and I are going to be doing most of the work anyway, cacaw.”

Roden couldn’t help, but chuckle at Errrkkkk’s jibe.

“Well, is there anything else we need to cover?” Roden said with a standing stretch.

“I’m good, cacaw.”

“Same.” Riakon’s lack of enthusiasm evident in his response.

“In that case, I’m going to hit the spa.”