Chapter 34

The party’s spirits were high after leaving the Library. Errrkkkk had found a handful of books that detailed common sentient plants and even a few on some of the more rare ones that popped up under special circumstances. They had concluded the little branch in Errrkkkk’s pack would likely grow up to be some kind of treant variant.

Roden had noticed Errrkkkk was pretty confident it would become a Druwidaent, but that didn’t seem right to Roden as they were speculated to only arise from a treant blessed by the gods, but Errrkkkk seemed so sure Roden couldn’t bring himself to burst his bubble.

On their way back to the Silver Wind Inn, they were in such high spirits they stopped into the Adventurer’s Outpost to check out the notice board. They had all simultaneously decided it was time to get back out there and take on a mission.

As they skimmed over the available listings Roden had a thought bubble up to the forefront of his mind. He realized they were off track. They had deviated from his original story by more than he intended. He started to dismiss his concern as unnecessary when an attendant came up to the board and pinned a job fresh off the presses.

The title of the posting read “*Rush Job*Gremlins in Pescatin.” Beneath was a small map that denoted Pescatin’s location up the east coast along the Fisherman’s Gulf. Roden’s blood ran cold when he finished reading the notice.

Errrkkkk pulled the notice off the board and held it up.

“This one looks perfect, cacaw!”

Roden raised an eyebrow, “How so?” He was doing his best to remain calm and act normal.

“Because it’s a rush job, which means we can go immediately, cacaw!” He said while rolling his shoulders.

Riakon nodded his head, “I do believe it is time for us to get back out there.”

Roden’s suspicions were vindicated, they were off track and he wasn’t ready for what was going to come, but it was upon them and he couldn’t stop it now.

“Okay well let’s do it then.”

“Cacaw.”

Once they squared away the job with the attendant at the Outpost, the party headed back to their rooms to pack for their trip.

Roden took some time and stopped in by his mother and let her know their plan. He found her in the upper sitting room watching the waves. She smiled and closed her book when Roden entered the room.

“Hey mom, we took a job up in Pescatin. So we are going to be heading out here.”

“Oh okay dear, I was wondering when you boys would get back out there. Just be safe.”

Roden nodded, “We will, as usual.”

Miriana stood, placing her book on the end table, and walked over to give Roden a hug. While she held him she said into his ear, “Just do your best and everything will work out just fine.”

Her words were innocent enough, but Roden couldn’t help, but feel there was something more behind them. He had yet to figure out exactly what his mother’s role was in his situation. His mind raced with questions.

‘Is she really Zamira? Is she just Miriana? What does she know? Is it all just me being overly suspicious?'

Roden took a chance, “Hey mom?”

“What is it dear?”

“What would you do if you knew something terrible was going to happen and you could stop it, but knew if you did, it could make things much worse?”

Miriana’s face revealed nothing. She put on a thoughtful expression.

“Well depending on the situation, I might say it is best to go with the more clear outcome. Why set yourself up for a possibly worse consequence?”

Roden scrutinized her every word, “But what if the terrible thing was truly terrible?”

Miriana sighed, “Well then you would have to decide if you are ready to live with the potentially worse consequences of intervening. I can remember a story I once heard of a man who fought a valiant battle against a great dragon. In the end he lost, but had weakened the monster enough that his brother was able to step in and win the day. The victorious brother was vain and didn’t want to share the spotlight with his younger brother and so he claimed his brother was no help and had betrayed him to fight on the side of the dragon. The first brother knew he had little chance of convincing anyone his brother was lying after seeing how happy his victory had made everyone. So instead of refuting his brother’s claims, he owned it. He became the villain his brother had made him.”

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Roden was confused, “Why would he do that?”

Miriana gave a knowing look, “Because he knew if he fought back it would destroy everything he had fought for. By becoming the villain he gave his people the gift of solidarity. He allowed his brother to be the great hero his people could rally around.”

“So he allowed the terrible lie to be known to avoid a civil war?”

Miriana nodded, “Exactly, he knew some of his people would stand with him and that civil war would destroy everything, so instead he took the path with a more clear result.”

Roden considered her words very carefully. Of course, nothing stood out to him that confirmed any of his suspicions. It all sounded like motherly or at least priestess-ly advice to him.

“I think I understand, thanks mom.”

“Anytime son, don’t worry yourself over such things. Fate is an ever guiding hand on our journey of life. I will say a prayer to my lady to watch over and guide you.”

When they finally stepped out of the gates of Port Sept they had everything they felt they would need. Roden wished they could’ve waited for their magic items from Pa’teem, but he needed a few days to get everything enchanted and they were on a rush job after all.

Roden beat himself up for nearly the entire journey to the small fishing town of Pescatin. He berated himself for coming up with gremlins all those years ago. Gremlins were his answer to the conundrum of what happens to the collective unconscious fears of the people on Mir.

Everything he wrote about Mir took into account the idea of the Magisphere. An extra atmosphere of magic that permeated everything on the planet. In his mind, the gods were a direct result of the collective unconscious imaginings of the people of Mir until they coalesced enough through faith to become a true magical apparition that could become more powerful through the faith of the people.

That part was easy and he felt good about that when he wrote it, but then he just had to decide what negative imaginings would look like and he got gremlins.

They were short primitive creatures that were a manifestation of negative emotions. Everyone on Mir knew about gremlins as they filled folktales and nightmares. They weren’t a true species, they only came into existence through spontaneous manifestation in places with vast amounts of negative emotion. Which wasn’t really a problem, as they could only really manifest a few at a time. They were mean, hairy, doll-like creatures with red eyes and a mouth that took up half their face and was full of needle-like teeth.

The problem with gremlins is that if they are able to reach a large enough population they can manifest faster than they can be killed. With gremlins it is always a matter of morale. The mission they were currently on was a worse case scenario. A band of gremlins had appeared and attacked Pescatin. There were few enough, the townspeople were able to drive them off, but the militia took a few deaths leading to an overall drop in the town’s confidence, which left them at greater risk of another larger gremlin attack.

What Roden couldn’t figure out is the timing. The timing was wrong when he compared it to his game back home. There were some, for lack of a better word, filler missions that should have taken place after they arrived in Port Sept.

Roden had a sinking suspicion something more than he knew was going on with the gremlins and he didn’t like that thought a single bit.

By the time they reached Pescatin, on the third day since leaving Port Sept, he was in complete despair. Between the terrible thing he knew was to come and his uncertainty with the gremlins, Roden wanted nothing more than to just set up his wards and get this mission over with.

He let Riakon go speak with the mayor of the town and gather the details of the previous attacks. While he went out to start setting up wards. Roden figured he could set up wards all along the northern edge of the town as he knew that was where the gremlins were going to come from or at least that was where he had them come from.

He conjured up his treehouse just on the edge of the town giving them a great vantage to see the gremlins coming, especially from Errrkkkk’s nest at the top of the tree.

The town of Pescatin was shabby compared to the other cities he had visited. Pescatin was a fishing town whose only purpose was to supply fish to nearby settlements such as Port Sept and Sentima. The town was slowly built up to house around a hundred hard working salt of the Mir people.

The houses weren’t fancy and most were at least a little crooked in places, but the people here were generally happy with their humble lives. One could even say they were just starting to get a taste of real prosperity. Which is probably what made the gremlin attack so devastating. Nothing is worse when things are looking up than getting knocked back down.

When Riakon returned from speaking with the mayor he climbed up to the nest of the treehouse and sat with the rest of the group.

“Well what did the mayor say, cacaw?”

“Not a whole lot. The gremlins came under the shadow of night and just started destroying things. When the people came to the defense of their homes they were attacked and some didn’t make it.”

“I’ve never fought gremlins before, cacaw. Are they strong, cacaw?”

“Not from what I remember and I think if the townsfolk can handle a couple. I can’t imagine they will give us much trouble.”

Roden tried hard not to let his despair leak into his response, “I guess we see when they get here.”

“Yeah if they even come tonight.”

'Oh they were coming tonight,' Roden thought, but kept to himself.

The moon had long passed the midway point in the sky by the time Roden started thinking he was wrong. By then he was the only one still in the nest. Down in the room Errrkkkk and Riakon were teaching Grok to play Go Fish with some limited success. The tricky part seemed to be when they had to tell him to “go fish”, he would get a confused look on his face, put his cards down, and look towards the water. It took hours to get him to grasp the words meant to draw a card.

Roden sat in the nest fuming. He couldn’t believe the gremlins hadn’t come. Not a single of his wards were tripped and he never saw a single hint of movement, not a squirrel or even a bird…

Oh shit, was the first thought that crossed his mind. He stood and looked across the houses towards the other edges of town. He couldn’t see anything. A cold sweat ran down his back. He dropped into the room beneath the nest disrupting the game.

“Hey what?!”

“Guys I think we should take a patrol of the town.”

Errrkkkk perked up, “Why did you see something, cacaw?”

“No, but that’s kind of the problem. I’m not even seeing squirrels.”

“Hmmmm that could be something.”

“I’m in, I could use a chance to stretch my wings, cacaw.”

Grok stood as everyone else did and stretched his little wings, which were growing out nicely, but were still too little for him to fly.

“Oh no Grok, you stay here and do not leave the treehouse.”

The garg narrowed his big eyes at Riakon, but still sat down on his haunches.

“Should we split up to cover more ground or should we stay as a group?”

“I’m flying so yall can stay together if you want, cacaw.”

“That works, Errrkkk can try and spot them from the air with his nonexistent ability to see in the dark and Riakon and I will patrol together.”

Errrkkkk rolled his eyes, stepped out the door and took flight into the night air. Roden and Riakon climbed down and set off down the nearest road that wrapped around the outer edge of the town. Their patrol took them around to the front of the town with no sign of any gremlins when a buzzing went off between Roden’s ears, one of his wards had triggered. What came next was a cacophony of mental alarms that he killed immediately.

Riakon looked at his wincing friend, hefted his hammer, and rapidly searched the area.

“Where are they? What is happening?”

“It’s my wards… they all triggered.”