Based on the gear I had with me, I would have probably starved to death before I ran out of air, but it wasn’t going to come to that. If they had refilled the entire hole with stone or pumped in a bunch of lava, I would have had to get creative, but as it was I still had my full range of motion. The sides of the newly formed well that I was in had hardened and were very smooth, but that didn’t present a problem as I wasn’t going to try to climb up the now sealed shaft. A quick flip of the lenses on my goggles allowed me to see through the ground to the elves as they resumed their sneak around to my team. Since we were so close and I was below them, I also had a pretty good angle for a shot.
There are a number of thorny moral and ethical issues involved here. What I was dealing with and the solutions I was running through had no place in the world in which I had grown up. In either world avoiding violence was unequivocally the right path, as it was more efficient, more productive and morally the supportable option. Unfortunately, the environment of our new world was most certainly less forgiving than the old with respect to physical threats. The culture and laws were different as well, so conflict was to be expected. In the end you can just seek the best solution in the moment and try not to judge others as we all make mistakes.
The upgraded buster rifle version of the magic particle gun could use a fuel pack made of Giantspire blue crystal to fire a sustained beam at max discharge for perhaps forty-five seconds. A small fraction of that time was plenty to punch a tunnel to the surface, evaporate three elves, fell a couple of trees and blow away a couple more tree tops. Knowing what I do now, I can’t really say that the threat from the tutorial elves was completely over then and there, but the elves themselves definitely were. The staff I had my eye on was gone too, but on the brightside I had a convenient exit from my watery grave. I was back above ground less than thirty seconds later, so I partially reactivated my stealth skill and slipped through the forest to rejoin my team. I did have choices other than violence, but I couldn’t protect what I wanted to without it at this point. I know, it is a total super villain talk track, but I decided to ensure that they gathered the power to have better options next time.
I found my team facing down our old party mates and what remained of their crew of goons. Erin had joined her brothers and Lyle at the front of their group and I dropped out of stealth at the rear of my party. My full skill had been deactivated long enough ago that no one was confused about who I was or what side I was on. I announced, “Phraan, Elen and Ruven won’t be coming. You can bide your time and hold out hope as long as you like, but it is just you and us now. I also like to point out that you couldn’t win in an ambush with over thirty people, so you aren’t likely to do better in a straight fight with less than half that. You should probably surrender or retreat if Sarah, Karen and Jim will let you.”
I don’t think that Erin, Lyle, Lando and Karl had a way to communicate with the elven instructors at range, so I don’t know if they tried to reach them and couldn’t, but we all gave them plenty of time. I had the airship descend until it was hovering just above the clearing in which we were still standing. In my mind it was time to wrap this up and get back to the Emerald Sea, but it wasn’t my call.
Karen addressed our former party mates, “I don’t know what happened with you all and what hardships you faced, but I think that the only solution is for you to surrender yourselves to the authorities in the Emerald Sea and face up to the consequences. We are still your friends and we can all move forward together once you have put this behind you.”
Erin responded immediately, “I don’t think that you are in any position to tell us what to do. We still have superior numbers and even if what Harris said about Elen, Phraan and Ruven were true, which I doubt, I believe that we still have the advantage.”
Jim jumped in with an interesting idea that I wouldn’t have thought of myself, “Let’s have a duel. You, Karl, Lando and Lyle versus Me, Karen, Sarah and Kelly. If you win you can go free. If we win you turn yourselves in. Either way, we agree that this conflict ends here and we walk away friends. No killing blows. First to yield loses. Agreed?”
“Absolutely,” agreed Lando.
“Wait a minute,” said Karl. “We have the advantage in numbers. We should use it.” I got the feeling that Karl would be much more comfortable leveraging the elves, who were definitely not coming, and their minions over his own personal skill. Either way, it seemed like Erin and Lyle were considering Karl’s suggestion.
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Lando, who would no doubt have been critical to any action by their party, put his foot down, “We do the duel or I surrender. Decide now. This madness has gone on long enough.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” said Leirin as she glided out of the woods at the head of a defense force unit from the Emerald Sea. The group was primarily fae, but it included a few representatives from the human kingdoms and the draconic descendants. Everyone had matching cream colored armbands with a stylized green wave sewed on them. I thought it was a nice touch. Before I could even ask, Leirin continued, “We came to explore the source of a massive magic particle spike in the area and when we spotted your airship, I guessed what might have caused it, Harris.”
“Great timing, Leirin. We were ambushed out here and were looking for a way to resolve things peacefully, but earlier I overheard the tutorial elves discussing a plan to bring down the safe zone before the goblin horde arrived at the Emerald Sea.” I figured that Leirin would want this vital information as soon as possible, but she just smirked.
“The plot is old news Harris. I would like to question these elves though. They may have valuable evidence about other conspirators that we haven’t yet unearthed. Plus, you never can be too careful when dealing with a plot like this against public safety. If the safe zone were deactivated before the Unseelie Court attacked the civilian casualties would be exceptional and we may even lose the outpost,” Leirin continued.
“Oh. Sorry Leirin. None of them survived the ‘massive magic particle spike’ that you picked up. I think that these guys want to turn themselves in. They might know something. Please make sure that our friends are treated fairly though, where we come from everyone is entitled to a fair trial,” I answered plainly. No one looked like they were crazy enough to try to fight Leirin and her defense forces. A duel would have probably been cathartic for my party, but Leirin was right that we had some public safety issues that should take precedence given the large enemy army approaching.
In the end, that is how things worked out. Our former party mates and the remaining goons were escorted back to the Emerald Sea and put into a stockade. They wouldn’t be doing any fighting until after their trial unless the safe zone fell, which I was expecting Leirin wasn’t going to let happen. Leirin’s patrol had apparently been making a last minute sweep and inspection of the surroundings of the Emerald Sea before the goblin horde made it to the plateau. We joined them and were back in town by the late evening.
My party was assigned to work with a defense force unit that would be on the frontlines of the outpost’s defense. They requested the assignment and I had planned to go with them, but I was assigned to a position on the southwest corner of the temporary rampart that had been assembled to defend the town. I would be a ranged fighter for this conflict, which honestly was probably a better use of my time. I had confidence in my team and they were loaded down with defensive gear, so I expected that they would stay safe during this conflict.
***
I had a late dinner that night with Galan and Leirin in a private room at our board game cafe. The food was good and so was the company. Galan was alternatively fired up about the conflict and wistful that he would not be participating directly. Leirin would for all intents and purposes be the commander of the allied forces. The beastkin had not answered the call for the town’s and were in line for the combined retribution of the other three powers, especially in light of the participation of a number of beastkin in the plot to sabotage the safe zone.
It was hard for me to understand their exact game plan, but it seems like they were going to humiliate Leirin and the fae while curtailing their own losses and then expanding their presence in town. Apparently, Leirin and the others had already received approval for the sanction from the administrator for the district and the remaining powers were working on how to distribute the areas claimed by the beastkin after their effective ouster from the Emerald Sea. That is where my role on the battlefield really came into play, as the human kingdom, draconic defendants and fae had agreed to apportion the resources and territory confiscated from the beastkin based on the relative performances of a designated individual from each faction.
Each faction would choose a champion whose performance in the conflict would be tallied and compared against the other champions. The beastkin’s territories and resources would be divided in proportion to the contribution of each faction’s champion in the conflict. The fae had chosen me to represent them in the fight. I was flattered at the time, but Leirin wasn’t being sentimental and that little brownie knew exactly what she was doing.