Rolling, rolling, rolling...
The traveling music was nonstop and often hilarious, as naturally half the Bards and Minstrels (the ones not totally intimidated by the idea) scrambled for a chance to sing and play for us while we ran. To solve the whole 400x thing, they played out the songs and then Tremble recorded and played them back for us.
AA was leading, Briggs was second, I had the rear. Bonescythe and Mountainhammer were to the left, and Firesword and Waterspear were to the right. Lightscepter, Mindring, Shadowknife, and Windarrow had decided to move on ahead of us, and create some introductory havoc while disposing of any interesting opponents popping ahead to face us, mostly meaning demons.
The wonders of a Chaotic and Evil society were laid bare before us in the absolute lack of anything resembling a coordinated opposition. Sure, some of the half-stoned drow mushroom-eaters took action, relayed alerts, sent off demons, or at the very least followed us with some choice curses.
Then they, and everyone else, went back to what they were doing. After all, it was bloody apparent we weren’t sticking around there, so what did they care?
You just have to love that attitude in your opponents.
That goristro that Errant had stumbled across must have been a big surprise for the border fortifications, as we didn’t run across anything else quite that impressive on our way. Of course, once the lads went zooming up ahead and disposed of annoyances with extreme prejudice, us back here only had Cleave-trains to run through in artful style. Wayfair was absolutely loving all the music and madness, and sincerely regretting that she couldn’t be out there adding to it.
Void Brother lethality was bound up into their Cutting Life, which meant the more attacks they got, the more damage they did. As that damage was tied to their Sneak Attack damage, they could do even more if they could also get actual Sneak Attack damage on attacks.
Like, Sneak attack on surprise. Sneak Attack on Charge. Sneak Attack on Attacks of Opportunity. Sneak Attacks if opponents moved. Sneak Attacks if they were moving. Sneak Attacks if an ally hit the opponent first. Sneak Attacks if they flanked with themselves. Sneak Attacks if an opponent was suffering from fear effects...
So, yeah, they were pretty much dishing out +30d6 with every attack, and not much was resisting them.
Now, our team was only given time to hit our foes once, so we had the bigger Weapons and were focused on larger hits than the other team. Still, getting hit by two Brothers in passing was basically a death sentence for anything dumb enough to get in our way, as we weren’t trying to swarm anything, we were just motoring along.
Dragging the Wake of the Land behind us.
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The leagues flowed past. Great walls were scaled. Hapless drow and their minions and slaves were fed to vivus to help anchor the Wake down. The final wall closed in over the hours.
Mountainhammer and Waterspear took turns resting, as long-distance running was not something Brothers who usually operated underground or at sea usually did. Still, they’d all participated in the Three-Day training, and were much more buffed and rounded out than before. They also complained about not being able to Veilwalk, before looking up at the Wake and sighing.
The other team used Veilwalking to keep their lead, basically moving from site to site of potential conflict, nothing more than shadows along the edge of reality, coming out together in the midst of enemies and commencing a one-sided slaughter.
They’d built up quite a rep in this Zone-ring when they’d been doing their Three Days. They weren’t at all shy about adding to it, either.
But, finally, a good thousand miles of running later, we were at the last wall, and the massive, solidly built city-fortress-brothel-drug parlor beyond.
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She knew we were coming. The Wake in the sky would have told her even if the various magical alarms and messengers did not. So, she’d mobilized her forces somewhat frantically, as the speed we were coming didn’t actually give her a lot of time to do so.
The Brothers ahead were happy to inform me that whole armies had been dispatched to the walls to stop us. That was great stupid news, confirming that the shellycoat in charge was an arrogant idiot who knew jack-all about the military. Having armies at the walls meant fewer armies in the middle, where we’d actually be fighting.
Getting up the walls, packed with fungi-blessed drow ready to die, and not a few demons and daemons, wasn’t actually that hard. The vanguard team simply Veilwalked into the chosen location, and commenced a wall-clearing slaughter at impressive speed, handily ignoring the very great amount of magic blowing shit away all around them.
Before we had even arrived, the hundred-foot wall was half-destroyed by mass spell bombardment that didn't affect the Brothers at all. Applauding the intellects of our foes, we went up and through the gap, likewise ignoring all the magic flying around us, hit the legions all starting to morph and warp on the ground as they hastily ate their toadstool Potion chasers, and kept going.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
It turns out that moving at twice normal speed, having multiple arms, claws, tentacles, being twice normal size, breathing fire, morphing into bestial forms, and flying around doesn’t really mean squat. If they didn’t have a hundred HP, they were still in one-hit-keep-Cleaving territory. If they had more than that, maaaaaaybe they could slow us down. That basically meant only the most elite of them, or some of the tougher Evilborn around... who were usually the first to jump out of the way when they saw the exploding bodies in front coming right at them.
There were a lot of them, and then we were through a quarter-mile of scattered body parts burning vivic, a swathe of dead about forty feet wide that left the drow reeling in disbelief... and left the Wake nice and firm.
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Lucky for us, they hadn’t enclosed the Obelisk, just put more walls around it. Walls were fine, they could be scaled in normal circumstances. However, Ten Mile Walls were incredibly annoying, with spatial compression done on walls borrowed from the Pits to make demon-cursed stones that were literally ten miles high, compressed down into seeming a mere hundred feet, along with a moat that literally went down to another plane. Something of a theme here.
Unfortunately for them, they needed to keep strong connections to the Land to conduct the Formation power of the Obelisks, so while the seat of power had these nice restrictions, the Obelisk itself was literally sitting out in the middle of this open square, currently packed with all sorts of elite troops.
The Brothers gave me a nice view of the place as we closed in. The Obelisk was twice the normal size, bringing it down would require some hacking and pounding, and in the meantime, there were a million drow down there being excitable.
There was also a large wolf chained at the foot of the thing, surrounded by a moat of blood. A Spear had been driven into its side, and it was seething there, unable to move, bleeding out into the moat.
-That looks like an exemplar Wolf,- I /noted, although it was hard to tell under all the chains. -They are using its blood for the Obelisk?-
Brother Shadowknife zoomed in on several batches of drow, one after another.
The first couple of groups were furry. Since elves couldn’t contract lycanthropy, that was pretty telling. They also looked pretty strong.
The second batch had tentacles, eyes in the wrong spots, mushrooms at odd angles, and space shivered around them.
Third batch was oozing shadows and didn’t seem all that material.
-Huh,- Briggs /commented, as Endure exploded through a couple skulls in passing. -That looks like Lesser Exemplar Werewolves, Pseudo’d Drow, and Umbral Drow. That’s a pretty intensive line-up.-
-I want that ring of blood. Lesser Exemplar Template is pretty boss,- I /stated firmly. -Freeing the Wolf is definitely on the agenda, would it recognize any of us?- There was silence. -Right. What’s the way to bring the Obelisk down? I assume it’s nigh-invulnerable.-
-That pool of blood is probably one of the defenses. Scrap it, dig out one side, and it can probably be tipped. But we don’t know how far down it goes. If it can be damaged, I’m sure Mountainhammer could pound through it eventually,- the Firesword /remarked.
-Ahem!- Briggs /coughed.
-And you too,- Firesword /agreed without blinking. -But to do that, we’re going to have to kill a whole lot of stuff.-
-It’s not often you get so much high Karma stuff just packing themselves in for you. I feel kinda bad for Hazé not being here. Her AoE’s would be taking out acres of stuff,- I /mused.
-It is a lot of killing. Happily we can actually undertake such a task now,- Lightscepter /pointed out. -I do not see the Hag herself. Anyone?-
-She is in her boudoir, possibly watching to see how things go. If she comes out, there will be combat. What do you think, Sama?- the Shadowknife /asked coolly.
-I’m assuming she’s a Pseudo or an Exemplar with Class Levels and serious Spell Penetration. She may be able to affect any or all of us if she’s got those Templates, so don’t assume you are immune to her magic.- Breaths hissed out together. Not very good news. -On the other hand, there won’t be anything else nearly as strong as her, so non-Legendaries besides her. Maybe other Templated Hags, maybe not. If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say Lesser Exemplar Psuedo’d Shellycoat Hag. Her lesser Hags will either be Lesser Exemplars with some Health Qi, or Pseudo’d.-
-They are NOT going to like Beyond Law and Chaos,- Brother Mindring /mused, and everyone chuckled darkly.
-Any hints of undead?- I /inquired.
-Massive necromantic energies beneath the plaza. Unsure if they are undead or just fallout from their Formation.- Windarrow /reported. -Brother Bonescythe would probably be able to tell.-
-If undead, we’re looking at Banshees or Witchfires, as well as Ecorches or Vampires.- Eyes moved to several other sets of drow without all the fungus, waiting unnaturally still. -Oh, yes, this is indeed going to be exciting... I’m expecting the Evilborn are shape-altered and blending in for the moment...-
-Confirming the presence of daemons and demons,- Lightscepter /stated firmly.
-You’re welcome to start, given the amount of killing we have to do and the time crunch of the armies coming back from the wall. You may want to wait until I’m on site for healing backup. I don’t think there’s much that can be a threat to you, but bronze and coppers can still wear you down,- I /told them.
-We can certainly retreat if we must,- Brother Mindring /said, and the others agreed. -Stay close and simply start the killing, sound out any special surprises. How long before you are here, Axe?-
-Two minutes.- We were currently running through some half-abandoned streets, only random demons loitering about, casually wrecking stuff. Those who would fight looked to have been sent off to get in our way, and the rest were indoors sucking ‘shrooms.
-What kind of pattern?- Mindring /asked. It took me a moment to realize that this was a completely new experience for them. Assassins didn’t typically hold an objective against zillions. They killed the person at the heart and got out. Taking down Obelisks is where they went looking for allies.
-The goal is the center of the plaza. Drive through the middle, and then start rotating around it, killing as they all converge on you. However, their toughest units are there, and we have a lot of killing to do. Start circling just before you reach them, going around them and killing until we arrive. They aren’t going to like our late arrival, especially with you taking the attention. We’ll drive up and meet you, and then start grinding through all their special surprises.-
-The Land is going to be feeding very, very well,- Waterspear /said solemnly, to grim agreement all around.
-Take off. We’re coming.- I /told them, and they did.