The village of spring wall was a tiny place, barely noticeable in the grand scheme of things. It was filled with mixed emotions regret for those that had fallen and jubilation at the salvation of those that survived. The four people instrumental for its defence slept within the hallowed ground of the church.
Alice woke from her sleep, her mind was still disjointed. She was slowly getting better she had rested enough to regain the mana she had expended fighting the constructs yesterday, it was a comfort only one in touch with the mystical could draw comfort from. There was a physical and mental exertion rattling around inside her head. Her body suffered the same to a lesser degree. It felt like she was learning to use her mind and body again. In essence after the vampires disrupting mental attack she was doing precisely that.
She had never felt so helpless in her life, it was something she hoped to never repeat again. The vampire had tried to destroy all that she was as casually as a thought a gesture. She could feel a pressure in her temples the grind of her teeth her anger rising. She would need to have much stronger magic to do something about it. She had to thank Martin at some point for saving her life. The best way to do that would be to find some vampires and dissolve them into slop. And if no vampires were present a few of their minions would help to relived Alice’s slowly rising anger.
Still she could claim the rare privilege of having faced one of the truly terrible and powerful creatures in this world and living to tell the tale of it. The master of the mages tower in Northport claimed to have survived such an attack. Perhaps it was a common response for a high level vampire against the threat of a powerful mage. Her thoughts were a little clearer after her brief rest. Her mind still seemed to be for want of a better word learning how to work again.
Vivian woke up her right eye spun round in a circle, it was disconcerting to say the least. After a second of concentrating the eye snapped into place doing exactly where it was meant to. Vivian concentrated on the eye she wondered if she could use it like a telescope. She focused on a far corner of the room the rest of her field of view blurred while that one spot became crystal clear. Vivian would be able to sharp shoot from a much greater range once she adapted.
She got up and almost fell over her own feet, it took a second for her vison to return back to normal she would have to practice using that ability. She needed to practice anyway she felt the scar and eye patch, it would be some time before she was back to normal, and at least she could function with her wounds.
Martin woke up he felt the lycanthropy seeping back into his veins. He held his holy symbol to his skull and bit down on his fist “purge soul”. After ten seconds of rolling around on the floor in soul shredding pain he slowly got up and adjusted his clothes. He checked his hand where he had bit down it would heal in a while. A villager was roasting some meat for them. He moved forwards “please serve it now I can’t wait we have to move soon”. “As you say but it’s practically raw still you hunters are a hardy bunch”. Martin just wolfed it down, he needed the calories a bit of bloody meat was as good as any other to him.
David grabbed a bowl of stew and gobbled it down. He picked up his sword in his right hand and went through a series of practice cuts. It felt like the first time he had used his sword arm, the strength was there if a little hesitant but the skill and speed were lacking. He would leave it for now, with his left hand he had a good strong grip. He still had some improvements over yesterday his fingers were far more responsive. He would not stake his life on it. He would get some mithral armour, then let’s see that vampire have as much luck. Well maybe some octium plate armour before he was quite ready to take on Bismarck again.
The village elder spoke to some people, the emissary that had been looking around for signs of archanists or any magic had headed away from Spring Wall. They were heading for Sand Point a small beach fishing village, a day’s journey away by horse. The coach driver did his job without flaw. The horses were rested and feed. A brief word from Vivian and he prepared for them to head there with all due speed.
David came up to the village elder, “what is the reward for saving your people for killing those things”. The elders posture dropped, “this is one poor village I am sure the local lord can reward you afterwards” David took a step forwards an edge to his voice “you are too cheap”. Vivian was over to diffuse the situation standing beside him.
“David these people have suffered enough leave them alone” she emphasized this with a slap to the back of David’s helmet, it clanged like a bell. He spun round pointing a finger, “that is the last time you do that to me, understand we are not raw recruits any more”. David found himself pinned to the ground with Vivian twisting his arm. “Ouch shit my new arm, ok I’m sorry for being a greedy asshole let me go”. Vivian helped him stand up, “some professionalism, look about, this place is poorer than Broken Gorge”.
With a little shame he nodded, he did manage to more politely ask them for a small barrel of oil. The villagers gave them some supplies and a bit of wine. The coach driver got the horses moving as fast as he could. The road to sand point was a meandering one, moving through a rough rocky terrain on a path barely wide enough for the coach. Martin rode up front with the driver, they were near the village when the coach driver noticed something. His horses didn’t like it, there was something on the road something moving. He stopped the coach and they got out.
David advanced forwards with his companions ready with spells arrows and pistol at whatever was in front of them. There was some new sort of archanist construct moving backwards and forwards on the road. It would get to one edge of the path turn around and head to the other.
It looked very much like a copper mask, a woman’s face with a creepy smile glowing crystals where the eyes would be. The creature was like a scuttler in some regards, a low level archanist construction. Eight tubular brass limbs that could lock together entwined like fingers. At their base was what appeared to be two halves of a stout iron collar or clamp below them. This thing even had a tail of animated chain and sinew, it appeared to be designed to latch onto someone's face and remain there. The simple construct seemed to have no way to attack, other than leaping on a person’s face, it aptly demonstrated the strength of the springs in its legs.
David had no intention of letting it for fill its purpose. He knocked it back to the ground with his shield as he defended himself. It landed on its back showing an underside filled with needles and syringes hooks and gears. David didn’t want to see if this could penetrate his thick helmet. As the device tried to right its self he brought his sword down chopping it in two pieces. A lot of green fluid leaked out it whirred and went still. It certainly surpassed the other archanist devices that he had seen in terms of complexity even if it was fairly low on strength.
They moved further down the path on foot a hundred feet closer to the village. Around a turn there were eight greater walkers and a dozen of the masks, outside the walls of the settlement. David assessed them to be no threat to him and charged in. He sliced into the first greater walker it recoiled back, there was a static hiss and an electrical current flowed inside the creature allowing it to slowly start regenerating. David was having none of this he delivered a powerful cut that shattered a limb, he cut again and again rending the walker into mangled pieces too small for the regeneration to matter. The generator inside it died and down it went.
Martin was not hesitant to start the fight, focus throws with his knives and shots with his pistol he cleaned up the remaining mask constructs. Martin was not sure if they could successfully grapple someone around the face, could they affect someone of a higher level? He had no desire to find out, elimination was the best course.
Vivian sent arrows into a construct, it started to regenerate. She put two more arrows into it until she hit the generator or battery inside it, destroying the creature. Martin finished off the last few of the small constructs and set about reloading his four barrelled pistol. Alice concentrated on one greater walker using her acid strike spell, its upper half slowly dissolved into slop. By the third strike it collapsed destroying whatever enchantment or spell that was keeping it together.
The remaining five greater walkers lumbered forwards Alice hit them with a fire ball to soften them up. David paused for a second that was a bit close for Alice he could feel the heat through his armour. In her state he was not entirely cautious of friendly fire. With no second spell he changed in hacking into the first walker blocking its strikes with his shield and carving its limbs off. Vivian let lose another barrage of arrows felling a second. Martin unloaded his pistol all four barrels at almost point blank range to slay a third walking mass of flesh and iron.
Finally David was sure he knew where the power generators were inside the greater walkers. An adrenalin power strike with his blade smashed down through its armour flesh and into something else metallic. The construct stopped struggling its remaining limbs stopped flailing. The remaining two constructs didn’t last much longer. A strike from David to knock them down and Alice melted one with two acid strikes while Martin and Vivian shot the second one down.
They moved another hundred yards towards the second village. Sand Point was probably in a much worse situation than the first village, considering the presence of these mask constructs. Destroy a few greater walkers would mean nothing if an archanist was harvesting the entire village ahead. They could see the wall surrounding the village, it was high reinforced with stone and earth at the bottom.
There was a woman who had fallen victim to a mask crawling across the floor, perhaps she had fallen from the wall trying to escape the mask. That would mean the enemy was already inside the little village. The mask was now firmly clamped across her face, was she still in command or was the mask?
Looking closer there was dried blood around the bottom of the mask. It was not a good sign what terrible fait had affected its unwilling host. As Vivian approached the woman tried to crawl away Vivian tried to communicate with her “can you hear me can you understand me”? The woman’s skin had a slight green tint to it. Similarly to the preservative chemicals the archanists used in there constructs. Vivian reached out and the woman tried to hit back at her. The crystals in the mask were acting as eyes, the mask was in command! what was left of the person under it?
David held the woman while Martin used an octium blade to pry the mask from the woman's face piece by piece. He broke the limbs the collar and the chain tail but the mask was still fixed. Martin didn’t like where this was going. He gripped the mask firmly and pulled there was a creaking scream form the woman. Then blood oil and green preservative fluid oozed out from around the mask, as it surrendered its grip on its victim. Alice used a healing spell but it was far too late the woman went limp.
Martin looked into the mask he gripped the edges bending it, “she was dead shortly after the mask latched onto her. These needles dug into her eyes into her brain, it injected an alchemical soup into her skull. It converted her into a sort of weak walker, her body controlled by this thing a rapid way to turn a population into constructs. There has to be more a construct this weak is no good for the vampires’ purposes. I presume we will find an archanists workshop or a foundry mother around to convert these masked people, these unfinished constructs into something tougher”.
The gates to the village had been opened from the inside not the outside, there were foot prints. A mass of foot prints leading from the village to the beach. Usually there was only two dozen small fishing boats dragged up on the beach. Now upon the sand the missing residents were clustered.
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They found a foundry mother, one of the pinnacles of archanist technology. She resembled a spider made from iron brass and flesh stitched together. She could rapidly convert a human or a dead body into a construct with the right materials. Her abdomen would open up like a coffin or a flowers petals depending on your perspective, then clamp shut to begin its grisly task. The foundry mother’s body was made from an unlucky woman who had been stitched and riveted to the construct. Her mind altered to be an amicable servant encased in brass and copper.
Around 350 masked people vacantly waited in an irregular line ready to be processed by the foundry mother. There were stocks of raw materials in a few crates left by her, as if someone had dropped them off by boat. There were already about 25 processed masked people. They now looked like some sort of grotesque spider, two additional pairs of spindly arms sprouted form there back. They sported armoured bracers gauntlets, they were far more mobile than the greater walkers and probably cost far fewer resources to build.
Hoverer they lacked a certain solidity to them, they could move very fast. The foundry mother noted the approaching group, she anticipated the numbers she had. Her own worth then started to move away as fast as she could. The spider constructs barrelled towards the party, with hundreds of masked monsters that used to be people following right behind them at a brisk jog.
The spider constructs were exceptionally fast, but still susceptible to ranged fire. Martin got three together with four shots. Alice hit them with a fire ball destroying three and damaging twice as many. Vivian picked of another five, they went down to cheap iron broad heads. With the power in her bow it was easy. David carved the first ones to meet him into pieces, his power attacks cut through them like a guillotine. Alice cast her shield spell in time to stop the ones targeting her, David and Martin finished them off.
Martin watched as the masks that survived tried to disengage from their hosts. A quick boot or blade finished them off before they could separate. Martin took a deep breath and drew his mallet, “I think that these things should react like low level undead. No hire reasoning no thought just crushing numbers”.
The former village folk were mostly unarmed, however a few still clutched the tools of their trade. A butcher with his knife a wood cutter with an axe, what would have been a town guard with a short spear there last attempt to defend themselves arming them. Alice threw fire balls into the mass's left flank Alice picked off the tougher looking targets armed with weapons David ploughed into the right flank cutting away swaths of the former villagers. Each strike to the head destroying both the puppeted body and the mask attached to the face.
Martin was angry so many people lost so quickly, he ran into the middle of the mass. He had his holy symbol out. The blessings he could call on he was reluctant to. They hurt him as much as those he was fighting, still he gritted his teeth. “Aura of faith hallowed earth circle of consecration sphere of consecration”. His own body was racked with blinding light burning against his flesh, it was a lot worse than Alice clipping him with a fire ball. It was doing as much damage to every dam one of the constructs and masks within the range of the blessings.
He ran right through the mass of unfinished masked constructs as they toppled over like tipped dominoes. He walked over the pile smoke and steam coming off his own cursed flesh. The foundry mother was panicking the mass of spider constructs and unprocessed masks should have given her enough time to escape, this was not good for her part of the plan. She risked a look back and saw the hunter emerge from the sea of collapsed constructs. If they could recover the bodies they could be put back together. She would not be so lucky he strode forwards like a farmer with a scythe cutting down the reanimated villagers like stalks of brittle wheat.
Martin gritted his teeth for the oncoming pain, he raised his holy symbol to the heavens “hand of judgement” he almost fell over himself. The foundry mother was stopped in her tracks as a hand materialised above her. It was made of divine light it clenched into a fist and struck downwards flattening the factory on legs into the ground. David stayed to finish off the last of the stragglers.
Vivian fired off her bow, five mithral arrows struck the foundry mother. Alice hit her with a fire ball then a series of fire bite spells. Martin drew and loaded his four barrelled pistol the foundry mother tried to get up dribbling green preservative fluid and oil from various wounds. One of her arms was limp. The back chamber opened and a spider construct scrabbled out Martin shot it dead.
The foundry mother held one hand out to ward them off “please mercy I was just following ord...” “Who is leading this where are they”? “the professor didn’t release that much information to me” Martin emptied the three remaining barrels into her face and lion hearts hammer pistol as well to be sure. David approached them sword in hand.
The level up hit their eyes or what passed for an eye in Vivian’s case glowed. Despite the numbers of enemy’s that they had killed most would have been only equitant to a low level zombie and the masks not much stronger than a bone spider. In the greater scheme of things chaff to be eliminated before it could grow stronger. Martin reckoned the foundry mother would be missed though, it was expensive and time consuming to make one of those.
Alice reached level 57 getting the greater version of her illusionary allies spell, she could now appear to be almost a dozen mages. Vivian reached level 55 gaining a class level. Her comprehensive training ability reached level 9 so that she could train baronial guards a type of elite guard with an intensive training regime allowing them the equivalent of three ranks of the intensive training perk. David reached level 53 he raised his counter armour skill to level 3. He would be more effective against the greater walkers and any other tough constructs.
Martin reached level 66 he gained a single rank in a skill poisons, allowing him to use neurotoxins. It would boost the effectiveness of his blade coatings and allow him to recycle poisons from creatures such as the basilisks they had killed a few days ago.
Martin looked about the sea of carnage, “Right let’s start the clean-up”. They grabbed the foundry mother’s remains and dragged her back to the village once Vivian had removed her arrows. Alice rather thoroughly made sure that the foundry mother could not be salvaged, using her acid strike spell. Alice kept guard while slowly Martin David and Vivian carried and dragged the bodies of the dead villagers back to the village. They laid them out as neatly as they could and started to pry the masks off, making sure that they were thoroughly destroyed. After half an hour the church doors opened up and a few weary militia men emerged to see the sight.
A priest emerged Martin looked at him “greetings father we came from an attack on spring wall”, “An emissary came through hear we were expecting an attack but not this”. Martin met his eyes, “start performing the last rights and the cremations, get some volunteers to help us recover the bodies a cart or two if they are available”.
The priest got into a rhythm one person was taken from the pile of corpses he identified them then perform the last rites with any family that they had. A prayer then wood and a cremation the ashes into a labelled urn. Then it would start again, it would take days to finish this grisly procedure. Vivian handed a mangled mask construct to a militia man “take word to north port, tell them of this tragedy at an archanists hands”, he nodded nervously checking with the priest then taking a plough horse to use as a mount starting the journey.
The corpses of the greater walkers were not locals or could not be identified as such. They were piled up with the organic parts of the foundry mother and burnt. The masks were stripped from their victims and placed in a pile. Several locals with hammers and shovels and anything else to hand made sure to thoroughly smash every piece of archanist tech that they could reach.
The party combed the village from top to bottom, they found a couple of stragglers a mask locked in a larder by some desperate person. An unfinished construct that had fallen into a ditch and could not get out. One defective mask that looked like someone hit it with a shovel, it was scuttling in a circle they finished it off. Alice could feel the magic from them even after the last one was dispatched, she still felt something.
A second search of the village revelled nothing they used an empty house as a base of operations a place to have a meal and talk. Vivian turned to Martin “have you ever herd of this professor that the foundry mother mentioned”? “I can only assume that they are an archanist in the service of the empress of shadows we fought a level 50 archanists creations before, these were much more powerful much more flexible. The one we face must be a grand master or even an exalted master probably a supreme skill user with plenty of tricks in there bag”.
Her eye focused on him “I remember you describing the battle with the veteran archanist, the brass doctor wasn’t it. How he had implanted devices to reanimate himself as a construct, could we be facing something similar”. “From what I have seen archanists are not opposed to experimenting on themselves so yes we probably do, I wish I had been able to grab some thermite before we left North port I only have a few flash and smoke bombs left”.
Vivian got out a wet stone and began to hone her arrows, “do you think we can take on something level 100 or more”? “Remember there is an emissary a witch hunter level 80 or more around. If we link up with them we have a good shot of taking out this professor, we are getting better each day”.
She put the arrow back, “you say that but if there are more foundry mothers around. If they have converted entire villages to walkers and these spider constructs. We might have more than we can chew. We were lucky to get hear, if there were more of those spider constructs we would have be overwhelmed”. Martin reached for the stone and started to check one of his own octium blades,
“We have a message going back to Northport, we will have back up in a few days, and we have a coach so if it all goes bad we can beat a hasty retreat”.
David and Alice were outside practicing with sword and spell. A deranged farmer eyed them up “oh we are saved, hail our righteous saviours”! David advanced towards him his fist raised, “insolent...” the priest stepped forwards arms out, “You just cut down what became of his family, pay him no mind, don’t hurt him please my son”.
David lowered his fists, “are you the only one in charge hear”? The priest looked to the pile of bodies. “The mayor and trade guild clerk are gone. The local lord will assign another mayor or headman and a new trader will set up shop. But it won’t be soon, if my tally is right about 120 people have been saved out of a population of 500. Two are missing probably fled or hiding in an attic or something. We might find them eventually but it’s very bad day for Sand Point”.
The implications of his future hit the priest they would not be easy times. “If they didn’t crawl over the wall in the dead of night. If we had some warning then it would be different, any Levi with a big stick is more than a match for these things. These masks are something new something stealthy, you can’t fight them if they surprise you. One thing that the archanists have never been before is stealthy right? David looked to Martin who was attracted by the villagers shouting, Martin looked through his book of monsters “yes I do believe your right father”.
The coach driver pointed up towards a blank spot on the horizon. He was a local, the group didn’t immediately get it so he explained “The light from Lighthouse Hill has gone dark, they are probably being attacked as well.
The coach driver looked at them, “the horses need rest I need rest you need rest, certainly that mage she looks like she is ready to drop. We are not archanists automatons we need to sleep and eat and rest.” Martin approached him the coach driver got his meaning “You have massive endurance you could jog over there yourself tonight, see how well you fair on your own”. Martin nodded “they will either stand or fall, we can’t reach them tonight”.
Vivian had set up some targets some close to her and some far away. She was getting used to her new eye targeting close by then far away in rapid succession she hit the wooden logs every time.
Martin approached, “How is it going Vivian how are you holding up” she grinned wryly, “it’s better to be a cyclops than a blind woman, don’t call me that or you get an arrow somewhere that that will really hurt”.
“I hope that’s a joke”? She nodded “Yes as much as I have a sense of humour, you seem to have the beast under control”. “I have been fighting and all the bodies smell like preservative fluids nothing for it to feed on, no emotions to stir it, I just feel kind of dead and tired”.
He kept going “Alice how are you holding up”, “not so good... I hate vampire bastard... afraid to go to … sleep ... at this rate no rest”. “Well at least you sound better than you did yesterday aren’t you afraid that I was bitten by a werewolf”? She shrugged, “Can kill, one spell”. “A fair point I suppose”. He left her staring at the candle.
David was practicing his sword play with his new hand it was still a little off but from Martins perspective it was much better than the morning. “David how are you holding up? “The bishop did good work I’m still having to fight left handed but a few more days a week and I will be back. These are not smart opponents I don’t need my best, they are just dumb monsters to be butchered. One or two critters with a brain leading them, we are not stupid enough to take them one on one all four of us can outthink the smart ones”.
Martin held his holy symbol to his head he gritted his teeth “purge soul” it burnt, it hurt but it was not as bad as the last time. After a minute he got up from the floor he could manage things for a time. Fighting killing seemed to soothe the beast, as long as he was aiming at archanists constructs he was fine. He dozed off to sleep Vivian and David joined him soon in the abandoned house. Something clattered along the floor Alice moved throwing a spell out into the darkness the acid strike found its target. She nodded, “thought felt … one more”. With the last thing nagging at her gone for now she regrettably turned over and drifted off to sleep.