Overlord Madskweek was looking forward to his great victory. He would give a huge victory speech, and then set about fortifying this new realm. And then he'd reconquer his dungeon and enslave that overgrown female who dared to challenge him!

The pinkskins were finished. He had destroyed their town and flushed them from their burrows. All of them were now quivering in the large stone den he was saving for last. Once his brave warriors over-ran its defenders, this battle would be over. Even as he watched, the handlers were luring and prodding Ubermaus up to the entry to the stone den. Nothing could withstand the giant rat's charge. It would shatter the doors easily and he'd be in.

From within the stone den he heard a loud noise, like a trap being sprung. Something was thrown high in the air and towards his horde. The cowardly pinkskins were attacking him! How dare they! He made a note to find out how they were doing that. Sitting in safety and throwing things at his enemies seemed like a great tactic. He was just upset they were throwing at him.

'crunch'

The small barrel hit the street and broke open, scattering smoked meat all over. Several rat-kin began gathering it up and stuffing it in their mouths. They were rarely fed, and never something this good! Ubermaus squealed with rage as it saw food going into other creature's mouths. That food belonged to it! The large rodent charged the meat thieves, killing several. It began killing any rat-kin near the area where the barrel hit. It took 20 minutes to get the monstrosity under control and headed back towards the stone den.

'krunch'

Another barrel hit, this one a bit further away from the stone den. Ubermaus and the rat-kin raced to see who got to it first. Madskweek yelled at the handlers and cursed the pinkskins. But it didn't matter, he was still going to win! Ubermaus was always hungry and feeding it was just making it bigger! They'd run out of food soon! And then victory would be his!

=*=

"Good placement. Keep chucking a barrel in tha direction each time they start moving this way." Jorges was happy with the little catapult they had set up in the courtyard. Like all his favorite siege machines, this one was built on an ancient design by the early roman empire. He was originally going to lob rocks at the big rat, but Rolly had suggested a barrel of smoked sedge beast. The monstrosity lived up to its name, and surprisingly the rat-kin were fighting with the large rat for the scraps. "All right, you boys have fun. I've got to go have a quick council of war with some folks."

The ad hoc council included General Themis, Benjamin, Rolly, Sir Timothy, and Brandon. Ozzy was there, but he just smiled and sharpened his cleavers. Suzette flitted around offering refreshments.

Themis had thrown a wrench in Brandon's plans. He'd assumed as soon as he got his people inside, that he would be in control of the fortress. It wasn't working out that way. Not only did the ACME workers and townsfolk ignore his orders, Themis directly reminded him of the specific rules about the homes of contract workers.

Sir Timothy looked around at the stout little fortress. "Why not just sit tight in here until the Legion sends re-enforcements?"

Themis shook her head. "That rat is too big. That's a Tier 5 Monstrosity out there. It's going to hit those gates hard. They might hold for a couple of hits, but eventually it's going to get in. You can’t under estimate the strength of a monster. They don’t have the limits of a normal person. They push harder, hit harder, and do things that a human with the same STR score can’t even begin to do.

Ben said, “Force equals mass times velocity squared. And that thing has a lot of mass.”

The current strategy of tossing it food buys a little time, but it's just going to get bigger. We need to prepare for it breaking in, and then hit it with everything we can. Maybe take it down with numbers before the normal sized rat-kin swarm in."

"Most of the workers have extremely specialized skills. If that thing was made of wood, stone, leather, or a pile of vegetables, we could fight it. But it sounds like a slaughter trying to fight a Tier 5 raid boss." Ben was cursing ACME again for gimping their classes.

Rolly was drawing pictures on the floor in charcoal. He made a little cartoon about a rat walking into a mousetrap, and then roaches swarming all over it. He kept adding more details and not really paying attention to the talk going on.

Jorges was looking at the extra timbers they had stored inside. "We could try blocking the exit with wood and stone. But after seeing what that thing did to the tavern, I'm sure it could just dig or eat its way through."

Brandon scowled, although to be fair it was rare now that he wasn't scowling. "Make it quick or it won't matter, they'll be headed this way soon."

The catapult launched another barrel of smoked ribs to the Ubermaus.

Ben walked over and looked at what Rolly was drawing. "Ok, I think we have a plan."

"Ooh, nice mouse drawing, he has such cute little whiskers. " Suzette patted Rolly on the head.

General Themis stared at the drawings for a minute before nodding. "Better than nothing. How do we organize it?"

Rolly shrugged. "I'm just a worker, that's above my pay scale, someone else has to be in charge."

Fearless Leader is forming a raid group! All are welcome, even the treacherous curs attacking my town.

Join now to get a good spot!

EP, CSP, and Loot will be shared by the raid!

Brandon was a little upset when he read the message, they all received. He yelled, turning in a circle looking for the opposition leader. "Dammit. No way in hell do I work with the enemy! And when I catch you, I’ll be ripping out your lungs."

Sir Timothy paused, then accepted. "Suit yourself Brandon, I'm not missing out on a raid. If the rats win, we lose." Everyone else quickly joined. With an incoherent gurgle of rage, Brandon joined as well."

Rolly started yelling orders. "Right in front of the gate, I need the following people for Team Speedbump: Themis, Sir Timothy, Brandon, David, and Ozzy."

David didn't like the sound of that. "Oh shit."

Ozzy smiled like an idiot and yelled out "Huzzah!"