Spine followed me out of the tent, “You good?”

“More or less,” I lied. I considered, “you want to help me with something?”

“Sure,” He replied without hesitation.

“Not to be rude but what level are you at?” I asked him

“The fight with the mobs bumped me up to level 8,” He said quietly. He glanced around and when he saw no one was all that near he added, “I am now rocking 27 hit points.” so he had gotten the highest roll possible 3 times in a row. A 1 in 216 chance. Honestly the fact that everything was working out so I was going to spending a night in camp with nothing to do was way more convenient

Convenient… that was the word I was going with.

I saw Brand and Aiko through the crowd. It is fairly easy they were not goblins.

The crowd parted as Spine and I made our way toward Aikoa and Brand.

Brand smiled as I approached. Aiko was unreadable.

“Everyone behaving?” I asked.

“Yes, the goblins are very polite,” Aiko said.

I turned to Brand.

He nodded, “We have reached an understanding.”

“Cool. If I head out for like two hours will that understanding hold?” I asked bluntly.

“I believe so,” Brand said.

Aiko looked between us, “Are you implying you are concerned about me harming Brand?”

“Yep,” I admitted tactfully. No wait, that was the other thing.

“Doug, I am alone in the heart of your power, while being hunted by an angry god. Why would I provoke you?” Aikoa asked. She was completely calm, almost conversational. I double checked my prompt history. No skill rolls listed. Then again, would a failed skill roll show up?

This had two possible answers. One option was Aiko was manipulating so well that she was convincing me to do what she wanted, all while allowing me to feel anxious about being manipulated. Presumably she was capable of allowing this unease to sell the idea I wasn’t being manipulated. The other option was I being paranoid. Which is probably what they wanted me to think… or it was the likely situation. Mental Resistance had been a great asset throughout my life so far. One of its best qualities was I could feel it working. Not a tingle dealing with Aiko.

“I see your point,” I admitted. “I am going to be in a few hours. Try to stay out of trouble, and don’t let any of the goblins pressure you to let them touch your feet.”

Brand nodded without question, “Understood.”

Aiko looked concerned. Cool she does express emotions.

Spine being the helpful sort added to this, “They will probably try something. Stay on your toes, unless they ask you to be on your toes. In that case stay flat footed.”

We started heading back to Mandir. I was getting a little tired of this specific walk. Tomorrow when we head out, was I going to get to ride in a car? That would be neat.

“So what are we doing?’ Spine asked.

“I need you to be my heavy.” I said.

“That makes sense,” Spine said sarcastically.

“I need you to beat up the Mystic Troopers,” I elaborated.

“Do you get off on organizing child fights?” Spine asked.

“What? No!” that was a hell of an accusation.

Spine grinned, “You get my confusion. This is the second time you have arranged for me to fight someone.”

“I would say this is the first time,” I argued, “I lobbied like hell to stop you and Howard’s duel.”

“Also we didn’t actually fight,” Spine agreed.

“You probably will have to actually have to fight this time. Do you think you can take them?” I was growing less certain about this as we walked.

Spine considered, “No idea. That is kinda a long train to run on someone Doug.”

“You need to come up with a better turn of phrase,” I told him.

“You need to figure out a way to help me kick the shit outta moderately bigger kids,” Spine insisted.

“I figured I would juice you up with Unrelenting Glacier and hope health regen covers the rest.” I said.

Spine scowled up at me, “Have you actually looked at your Warlord perks and traits? Actually, no. Doug, select perks and traits.”

I thought and opened the prompt as we walked

Select Warband Perk? Yes/No

Note: This list is filtered to only showing Titanic Scale Perks. Other Perks are available.

Level 1 Warband Perks

All For One

The warband empowers the warlord. A great leader can often accomplish more than thousands of lesser minions can achieve. For every 1000 soldiers on the field the warlord gains +1 [Attribute point].

Note 1: attribute points must be assigned at start of battle. Attribute points cannot be reassigned once battle begins.

Note 2: Common scale soldiers count as one soldier. Uncommon Scale soldiers count as 2 soldiers. Rare Scale soldiers count as 5 soldiers. Epic Scale soldiers count as 10 soldiers. Heroic Scale soldiers count as 50 soldiers. Demigod Scale soldiers count as 250 soldiers. Divine Scale soldiers count as 1,000 soldiers. Titanic Soldiers count as 10,000.

One For All

A Titan Spawn is not just a living weapon but an uplifting force on the battlefield. To march under the Titan Spawns banner is to gain some of its power. Common Scale Soldiers gain +10 to all Attributes lower than the Titan Spawn’s Attribute and grants them three additional levels of scale. Uncommon Scale soldiers gain +5 to Attributes lower than the Titan Spawn’s attributes and grant them two additional levels of scale. Soldiers of Rare to Divine Scale gain an additional level of scale.

Dammit that was going to be…

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I had a rare moment of insight. I was being dumb. I checked my menus and found a breakdown of my soldiers. I could see their scale as well. Things broke down statistically I think. I had six Heroic Scale soldiers in my warband. I had almost 150 Epic Scale soldiers, just over 1250 Rare Scale soldiers, and the rest were Common or Uncommon scale. The math for that meant for the purposes of All For One I would get 47 Attribute points, roughly 4 levels worth the points.

Technically it was better than that because I could assign them. Between perks and gear I could crank my Mobility up to one hundred and eleven. I might rival Celeste’s speed at that point. Or I could up my Power to the point that maybe I could just knock the tower over… maybe.

The thing is that was good for me, and the benefit for everyone else that followed me into a fight was limited by my ability to protect them. Whereas All For One raised the floor for everyone. The average level in my warband was 24 but that was misleading as hell. The Median was 16, but then there were folks like Philip, Grimset and Toad with levels in the thirties. The thing is that wasn’t overly helpful either because while those three had similar levels, they were all different Scales. Toad was the highest leveled at 38 but was Rare Scale. That meant he had less raw killing power than Philip who was level 32 and Heroic Scale. Not sure where Grimset and his 34 levels at Epic Scale fit in the mix.

I was fairly certain the second one was the better option over all. It gave the majority of my army the Common Scale Soldiers ten levels of Attributes and effectively elevated their rolls to Epic Scale. Not that would tip the scales against huge things like me or massive level discrepancies but it gave the most people the best chance to survive.

What about traits?

Select Warband Trait? Yes/No

Note: this list is filtered. Only showing Titanic Scale Traits. Other Traits are available.

Level 1 Warband Traits

Army of Darkness

The Titan Spawn is not just the leader of their warband but a source of its power. Taking this trait will cause all Soldiers within the warband to gain Elemental Affinity Darkness. This elemental affinity will affect all damage and resistance rolls for the entire army.

Note: Taking this Trait will have Consequences

A Force of Destruction

A Titan Spawn moved to war is not to be taken lightly. The warband is a manifestation of the Titan Spawn’s wrath. All soldiers in the Titan Spawn’s army gain a Scale appropriate variation of the Destruction Skill. All Soldiers will also gain Titan Spawn’s [Magic Attribute] Free uses of granted skill per day. Last all damage dealt by the Titan Spawns warband also deals and addition 20% damage to structures, minimum D10 damage.

That triggered my paranoia immediately. The traits were mysterious thing with caveats and literally the perfect trait for an upcoming situation. I needed to dig deeper into the perk and Trait list.

We were rapidly approaching the Mandir. Gisele waved at us. She looked happy to see us. All of the Mystic Troopers had large packs full of gear. Shit… Zarina was there too. She did not look happy. She didn’t have a pack though.

Sunit was also there. He was packed up like the Mystical Troopers. “Good to see you again. Are you prepared to go battle demons?”

Now this is the point I screwed up. I answered Sunits question, “That’s the plan we head out tomorrow morning. You should probably talk to Nanny Shank to get things figured out.”

“Awesome!” Gisele cheered. She adjusted the shoulders of her pack and fell in line with Sunit.

“Wait!” Both Zarina and I said at the same time.

Sunit stopped and Gisele walked right into his pack.

“I am not sure you following Doug into a war with demons is a good idea.” Zarina said. She crossed her arms as she gazed at me dubiously.

“Were you the one who told us we have an obligation to help people,” Valorie asked Zarina.

Zarina frowned at her students, “You have your mission, the demons are a problem but not necessarily your problem.”

“By that logic us Goblins should just fuck off out of here into the Dark and the Deep,” Spine said.

I nudged him to be quiet. Yeah he was right, but I had too many irons in the fire and these five weren’t soldiers nor were they high Scale fighters. It didn’t seem to add up to include them at the possible expense of army cohesion. I basically planned to let Sunit, Brand, Angelica and Brunhilda do what they thought best. Other than communicating their plans in the upcoming fight I couldn’t really justify any further control over their actions.

I was not an expert in war, or really anything. Hell, I didn’t know how food worked.

“He raises a fair point,” Valorie seized on Spine's words. “We can’t just stay here training. At some point we need to do something.”

Zarina continuing her tradition of not helping me relented, “You are right. I won’t stop you.”

They all cheered.

I guess I had to piss on their parade, “I haven’t agreed to let you come.”

Gisele stuck like a coiled snake, “but you just said-”

I had dealt with a toddler and a preteen so I knew this move. I cut in, “That Sunit was welcome to come to war with us.”

Gisele hit me with doe eyes. I was unmoved. After seeing this she asked, “What do we have to do then?”

I should have just said they couldn’t come to war with us. Trouble is I knew what it was like to be excluded so I wanted to let them save face. I may have also veen indulging in a chicken shit impulse to not be the bad guy, “Do any of you have permission from your parents?”

Everyone looked at me for a long moment.

“My parents are dead?” Valorie said flatly.

“Same,” Tobias added

“Me too,” Tamara chimed in.

“My parents abandoned me when I was twelve,” Bob said, staring at his feet.

“You don’t need them,” Gisele told him. She then turned to me with a near psychotic leer of victory. “I got a note from my mom and dad.”

Fuck me running. Gisele stuffed the paper into my hand.

I read the note.

Dear Mr. Left Hand of the Titan,

All of these kids may not be blood, but we raised them the best we could when no one else was around. While we support their choice to go with you, we must ask please watch out for them.

Sincerely,

Davi Carvalho

Rosie Carvalho

I looked up from the note. “Let’s confirm some handwriting.”

The signatures of the Mystic Troopers were all different from the one on the note.

I really should have just said no, but I more or less planned on this. “Okay now that we established that I am not going to be accused of kidnapping you. I am still not convinced I am going to let you join the Alliance of Green.

“Doug, I spent the last eleven hours with my parents as they bawled their eyes out because Bob and I were leaving. Don’t move the goalpost on me now. I am emotionally exhausted. I can’t take anymore frustration.” She leaned in closer, “Bob and I haven’t had a chance to be intimate in way too long. I am not even talking about sex. I haven’t gotten to just hold him and I am over sharing again.” she stepped back.

Tobais frowned, “Wait a minute! All of us are over eighteen. We don’t need parental permission.”

“Barely meeting a minimum the standards isn’t exactly a reason to include you,” I pointed out.

“What do you need to see for us to come with you?” Valorie pressed me. She looked up into my eyes unintimidated.

“What does going to war mean to you?” I asked them.

“Fighting for what is right,” Valorie said instantly. The rest of the trooper seems to agree with her.

“Spine, what does going to war mean to you?” I asked.

“Needing to kill someone so they don’t kill my friends. After that you then have to deal with half your friends being dead anyway, it being cold, there is no food, and the mobs are coming.” Spine said, counting things off on his hand.

“So you are assuming you are going to win?” I asked him.

“I am an optimist,” Spine said, as he scratched at his ear.

“We’re not dumb kids,” Tobias said calmly.

“Are you actually prepared to kill or die?” I asked them.

“Y-yeah,” Bob said. “We need to be ready.”

“So you are willing to step outside the Mandir and fight Spine?” I asked them.

This caused them to pause and consider.

“Don’t you mean fight you?” Tamara asked. She didn’t quite look at me. She kinda gazed in my general direction.

“Fighting me doesn’t prove much. It is easy to fake killing intent when you know you can’t actually succeed.” I explained. I was also terrified I would botch a dampen check and render one of them into paste.

I almost thought I had them. They did this sort of huddle thing and talked back and forth for a long time.

Spine gave me a thumbs up as he showed me he still had the daggers. Oh shit did he plan to use the Extreme Agony condition to shut the fights down?

That would do it. It occurs to me that child fights may not be a moral thing to do.

“Okay I will fight Spine, but does winning mean we can go to war?” Gisele asked.

I thought for a moment, “how do you like your odds?” I whispered.

Spine shrugged.

“What do you mean?” I mimicked his shrug.

He gazed up at me, “You are the child fight promoter. I am just an extremely smart and handsome child. My success is on you.”

Zarina called over, “Are we doing this or what?”

I sighed. “Yes, and yes.”