Chapter 283. Falling Empire.

Kobold screams broke out behind me, and I readied my weapons as I turned to face the threat. The two kobold warriors that normally stood guard outside the map room in my headquarters were fighting. One had transformed, an arm replaced with a tentacle-like appendage that was latched around the other kobold’s throat. The other kobold was pawing at his waist, fumbling at his attempt to draw his dagger.

Before I could charge forward to help, a blur appeared from deeper in the headquarters, slamming into the mutated kobold. It was the war lizard assigned to my headquarters, and it had closed its jaws around the mutated kobold’s throat. A moment later the sickening snap of bone was heard, and the mutant went limp.

All throughout the cavern, the battle was raging as many of the kobolds, both warriors and common workers, mutated into forgotten one hybrids. I needed to get my cavern under control, then see about the rest of my crumbling empire. The headquarters was now quiet, and I ordered my minions out to first clear the barracks, then work their way out from there.

Turning back to the headquarter map, I used it to watch the progress of the battle inside the cavern. The few mutants inside the barracks had already been dealt with by the defenders there, so my minions headed to the quartermaster’s hut, while I sent the squad defending the barracks to clear the crafters area, then the marketplace.

Deeper in the cavern, my workers on the farms and at the housing complexes were having trouble. They weren’t warriors and had more trouble fighting off the mutants that had appeared in their ranks. The mobile reserve I’d set aside in the cavern went to work, and the goblin wolf riders were soon on the scene. With their help, housing and food production would be secured shortly.

On the wall protecting us from the interior of the mountain, it was a more precarious situation. The transformed kobolds there seemed to have a unified purpose other than sewing chaos throughout the cavern. They moved to overpower the guards at the gate, killing three and then attempting to open the doors.

The horde of forgotten ones pouring from deeper in the mountain had only grown as the gnomes sought to escape the zone. That horde now pressed against the gate, ignoring the horrible losses they were taking as the defenders on the wall above rained missiles down upon them.

The spells I’d used against the attackers at the dungeon had replenished by now and cast several Flame Bursts to wipe out the mutants trying to open the gate. My troops at the walls regained control quickly after that and redoubled their efforts to punish the forgotten ones still massing outside the gate. A few of the larger forgotten ones started to climb the walls, their odd appendages proving remarkably suited to the task.

I had heavily reinforced the walls with troops earlier, and even with a few forgotten ones trying to climb, my defenders were holding well. Throughout the cavern, the uprising of creepy mutant kobolds was put down. Despite victory here, the cost had been high. I estimated about 10% of the population had been transformed, and they had killed an equal number before finally being killed off. My population was down by a total of 20% and the fight had a long way to go.

Just in case, I had my mobile teams not wait to respond to threats, and instead, had them begin patrols of the massive cavern we called home. I kept my minions closer at hand now as well, ordering them to remain just outside the map room door while I was in there. My cavern was secured, but my holdings outside weren’t in quite as good a shape.

Norber’s traveling merchant caravan has arrived in your zone and wishes permission to trade. Do you want to allow Norber free access to trade in your zone? Y/N.

Before I could even answer a new system prompt appeared.

Norber’s trading caravan has been overrun and will no longer offer goods to yourself and your allies.

That was quick. I could see that the hapless merchant had appeared on the trade road just outside of Shoremarch, and right in the midst of the attackers using the road to reach my cavern.

Out at the dungeon, the tariff station had fallen. I didn’t get to watch the whole thing, just the aftermath as the last adventurer inside, their healer, fell under a mound of forgotten one creatures. The door was open but still intact, so I assumed one of the kobolds inside must have mutated, then thrown open the door to the attackers.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The watchtower was also about to be overwhelmed, as even larger and more powerful forgotten ones had started to emerge from the dungeon. Around ten feet tall, these new arrivals had no trouble climbing up the tower and using their oversized tentacle appendages to snatch defenders off the battlements and hurl them down into the crowd of attackers below.

Before long, the top of the tower was cleared of defenders and the big creatures began to hurl their smaller kin up to the top of the tower even as they assisted in breaking down the door. Attacked from above and below, my defenders there fell in a matter of minutes.

You have lost control of the Dungeon of the Forgotten Ones area. All resources from this location are now cut off from your empire.

It wasn’t a huge loss, as no caravan from the dungeon would have made it down the long road to my cavern anyway. The real problem was the invasion from inside the dungeon was now free to follow the road and join up with the horde coming from Shoremarch and the sea. The numbers pouring from the dungeon, as well as those from the sea and inside the mountain, seemed unending.

My confederated allies, the elves and humans, had fought off the attackers appearing in their midst, but had taken losses they wouldn’t be able to replace, and the main horde from Shoremarch was drawing ever closer. The trade caravans and guard squads still making their way back to the cavern had taken losses, but there were survivors from each group that would reinforce us once they arrived.

At the elf village, the attacks were more severe. It seemed like the deep parts of the forest were also some kind of spawn point for these monsters and they were barely being held off by the elf archers and warriors. Despite their efforts, the elves were taking losses and as each elf fell, it left them that much weaker. They were going to be overrun, sooner rather than later, but for now, they were helping to stem the tide.

Each forgotten one that attacked the elves was one less at my walls. Oddly enough, the cultists were no longer among the attackers. Given that some of the forgotten ones wore tattered remnants of clothing, I figured they had been completely transformed into monsters.

My former trading partners, the gnomes, were in a bad spot. Their walls had been overrun when my squad defending them had been unable to hold back the huge number of attackers. Unstoppable, the horde of forgotten ones poured out of the cavern and began their assault to the gnome villagers trying to escape to the portal.

Slow moving to begin with, the gnomes were further hampered when 10% of their population transformed and began attacking. From what I could see on the map, the forgotten ones would soon reach them, and the remaining gnome defenders were going to be too few in number to hold them off on the open road.

The survivors of Shoremarch were also going to be run down by the forgotten ones, as they were moving far too slow to make it to the portal before the road was cut off. The only group that looked like it was going to make it out of the zone was the consortium caravan. Nobody in their group had transformed into monsters, and they were almost at their destination with no large forces nearby that could stop them.

Things began to calm down inside the cavern, and my troops defending the interior wall were still holding strong. Out at the wall protecting the cavern from the outside world, my troops had only faced a few small groups of stragglers. Eventually, the unending horde coming down the main trade road would reach them, but at the moment, they were under little pressure.

The surviving trade caravans also made it to the cavern, and the workers assigned to them gathered at the marketplace while the warriors were used to fill the open slots in other squads that had taken casualties. This brought the defenders on the interior wall back up to strength, but I still had a bunch of workers hanging around with nothing to do.

Eventually, I’d have to call out the militia, so even the workers with nothing to do would become useful again. A few eggs were at the housing complex, the slow resources generated from my structures allowing me a few replacements for kobolds lost in battle. Sadly, I couldn’t specify which kobolds to spawn as replacements, and the mix favored workers over the warriors I desperately needed for this fight.

As I predicted the poor gnomes were overrun and killed off. They put up a brave fight but were too few to stand against the forgotten ones. If they had just remained in the cavern, the walls there would have allowed them to last longer. As it stood, forgotten ones streamed out of the mountain, joining the swarm that had killed the gnomes. This group began to wind around the outside of the mountain, making for the front gate of my cavern.

In a futile effort to save themselves. The human village of Millstone has broken from your confederation and submitted themselves to the forgotten ones.

I turned my attention back to the human village. One by one, the humans began to fall on the ground and writhe in pain as they were slowly transformed into forgotten ones. To make matters worse, their town hall collapsed and in its place, a swirling red portal appeared. From the portal, a new stream of forgotten ones poured out. The transformed village population and the attackers from the portal began to head down the trade route toward the elves.

Only one more ally remained in the zone, and they were going to fall as soon as the monsters from the human village reached them. The day ended as I watched the invaders approach from every angle. I had survived, but it appeared that many of my competitors had not. This was only going to get harder, so I had to do whatever I could to stay alive as long as possible.

The 2nd day of the final stage has ended.

Remaining contenders: 912/2432.

Beware, what you have faced so far are the weakest that the forgotten ones can muster. Their more powerful abominations are only now starting to pull themselves from the depths as they try to end the last opposition to their ascension.