Chapter Thirty-Three - A Party

“I, or perhaps I should say, we, discovered a few things in the undercity. Some very interesting things, about you, and about the last of the old gods.”

***

Once lunch was over with, the group stood up and started to prepare for an expedition into the undercity. It seemed that we had been accepted, at least as far as I could tell.

“Limpet,” I said to catch the girl’s attention. “I think this will be a good learning opportunity for you. You can discover a mage’s place within a full party.”

“Where’s that, Master?” the limpet asked.

“Why, out of the way of anything sharp and pointy, of course,” I said.

The girl blinked up at me. “You don’t seem to respect that rule much, Master.”

“I am somewhat stab-proof, what with the lack of organs worth stabbing. You, on the other hand, are very stab-able.”

“Observe.”

A Warlock Test Subject of the Archon of Science, Level 18.

Two levels up from when I last used Observe on her. A decent, if small increase. Had it been one day or two since I last looked? A level a day was a decent rate, though early levels were generally a lot easier to gain.

A glance at the other members of the party showed that their levels were all over.

Apprentice of the Flaming Heart, level 48.

Searcher of the Abyss, level 87.

Granite Warhammer Fighter, level 65.

Rogue of Lost Marbles, level 67.

Mechanist of the Slate Tunnels, level 69.

The dwarfs seemed to be very close to each other in level. A societal thing, a coincidence? Perhaps they had partied together for a long enough time that their progression was linked. It happened often enough back in my day.

The humans had decently high levels for their age. At least, for people levelling in an inefficient way.

“Papa? Should we leave our things here?” Alex asked.

Death Maid of the Bone Daddy, level 386.

I blinked away my Observe. “I suppose so,” I said. “We don’t have anything too precious, do we?”

Alex shook his head. “Nope. Just food and things. I’ll place it so that it’s hard to find, just in case. It would be a shame if Daddy’s test subject starved because we don’t have food.”

“Indeed,” I agreed. I pat Alex between the ears in a way he seemed to enjoy, even if it crumpled his bonnet a little, then moved over to Ruolan. “What formation are you using?” I asked.

The cultivator eyed me for a moment, pausing in her work of sheathing a long blade into the shaft of a sort of walking cane. “You’re not going to take the lead?”

“You mean as a leader? No. I’ve never been keen to be a leader or anything, let alone a party like this one. You know most of the actors here, you should be the one directing them. At least, if I read the situation correctly?”

Ruolan nodded. “Yes, I’m the one in charge of the party when we go down into the depths.” She frowned a little before going on. “I can’t tell how strong you’re meant to be, but Wrench respects you, and he claims that you’re very old. No offense.”

“None taken. I am, in fact, quite old.”

She nodded. “So what can you do?”

“A bit of this, some of that,” I said with a purposefully vague gesture. “How about this. I won’t step in to help unless the entire party is at risk. In exchange, I won’t step in and do all of the work. I’ll merely stand back and observe. Alex will do likewise.”

Ruolan rubbed her thumb over her fingers as she thought. “Two things. You say that as if you could clear the path on your own.”

“I could,” I said.

“Then why don’t you?”

“It would be easy for me to do it, but I’d gain nothing from it. You and your teammates, on the other hand, could all use the experience.”

“Alright,” she said. “That’s... somewhat fair, I suppose. The other thing. You didn’t mention the... limpet. Is that really her name?”

“It isn’t. And you can do with her as you please. She’s a wizard in training. Terribly weak on the front lines. Exceptionally useful in the back. At least, she will be one day. For now she can cast a few basic spells that might help.”

Ruolan’s eyebrows rose a little. “I see. And she’s your apprentice?”

“She’s my limpet,” I clarified. “I’d appreciate the opportunity for her to learn a few things. There’s only so much that a book can teach.”

She nodded. “Fair.” The woman extended a hand my way, and I shook. “Alright everyone! Let’s get going! Wrench, Hammer, you’re at our flanks. I’m taking the vanguard with Apprentice Yi. Tweezers, you’re rearguard. Harold and Alex are staying near the back too. Consider them non-combattants for now. Limpet, you’re middle-middle.”

“Huh?” the limpet asked.

“Three steps behind me,” Ruolan said. “You can do ranged attacks?”

“Yes ma’am!” the limpet said as she jumped to her feet.

“Then focus on that. Try to hit any ranged attackers that we come against first. Otherwise, hit any adversary that looks unoccupied.”

The limpet nodded. “I’ll do my best.”

With that out of the way, we set off, returning to the too-quiet streets of Silvershire. Apprentice Yi ranged out ahead a little, jumping up atop walls and eyeing our path ahead while the rest of the group moved in a loose formation, with enough room between everyone so that a weapon’s swing wouldn’t injure an ally.

The dwarves seemed to carry their namesake as weapons. Wrench had a huge wrench that he leaned onto his shoulder, and Hammer had a warhammer which she held in both arms. It had to weigh as much as the limpet, but the woman was carrying it with ease.

Tweezers, meanwhile, was in the back, shifting from shadowy corner to corner, with his hood up and his back hunched to make him appear even smaller than he was.

“The nearest entrance to the undercity is through a set of tunnels,” Ruolan said. “Sewers I think. Some of the bigger cities in the empire have them.”

I nodded. “There should be large tunnels then that. Like roads. They had some shops along them too. Sometimes the same shops as on the ground level, but extending down below.”

Ruolan half turned to look at me for a moment. “Those have mostly collapsed,” she said. “You’ll find spots like that all over.” She pointed to the side where a large dip in the ground hinted at the presence of a building that had caved down.

“This city used to be quite the marvel,” I said. “Not the greatest or most populous, no reven the most advanced that I’ve seen, but it was once full of life and innovation. Do any records of its fall remain?”

Ruolan shook her head. “Not really. It wasn’t anything sudden, if that helps. The economy shifted, the silver mines dried up. I think there might have been a war nearby, and some records hinted at a great schism. And then the city died over the course of a generation or two.”

“A slow death,” I said. Perhaps that’s fitting.”

The conversation died out as we continued towards the centre of the city. The buildings were increasingly intact as we neared the middle, though that wasn’t saying much as they were still dilapidated and in a rough state.

Apprentice Yi jumped down from a pillar and jogged over to us. “The entrance is just ahead. It’s guarded,” he whispered.

“How many?”

“Three goblins,” Yi said. “Two are playing cards. Another is practicing with a bow.”

Ruolan gestured for everyone to move closer to one wall, then ran ahead with Yi. Their steps were whisper quiet as they scouted out ahead.

When they returned, Ruolan looked quite irritated. “Four. There are four of them. And they have a bell near the archer. If he rings that thing we’ll be drowning in greenskins in a matter of minutes.”

“How strong are the local goblins?” I asked in a voice pitched as low as her own.

“They’re not strong. I’d give any old farmer fifty-fifty odds against one of them. The problem is that there are a lot of them.” Ruolan turned to the limpet. “Think you could take out their archer?”

“Um,” the limpet said before she set her features and nodded with determination. “I can do it,” she said.

Ruolan nodded. “Tweezers, get ready to move in first. I want you to disable the bell as soon as the girl fires off her first spell. Hammer, Wrench, take the one on the left. Apprentice Yi, you and I are taking the two on the right. I’ll take the nearest one. Everyone on the same page?”

There were nods all around.

“Limpet, you’re the go signal.”

The limpet nodded and snuck forwards with Ruolan and Yi until they were all on the edge of a broken wall. The limpet moved out from behind her cover, then dipped down to one knee behind a large stone. Her dog crawled up beside her, low to the ground.

The limpet began to move her hands through a familiar set of gestures.

“Impede my nemesis’ flight

Turn their world to blistering white

Turn them cold

Their bodies hold

And curse them with Frostbite!”

I cast my arcane gaze through the wall of solid bricks next to me to see the scene as the limpet did.

There were four goblins. Two of them to the right playing a game with rough carved pieces of tree bark. One by the middle fumbling with a shortbow, and another way off on the left picking at his wart-covered nose.

The moment the limpet’s final word was out, the archer froze on the spot, white trails of seeping cold racing across his form and over the rags he wore. Still, he turned and hobbled towards the bell.

Ruolan and the others rushed out from behind cover, all of them heading towards their respective targets.

She should have had one of the dwarves moving towards the archer, just in case limpet’s spell didn’t kill him, as it seemed to be the case.

“Oh no,” the limpet said. She started moving her hands again, quick janky motions in an attempt to cast a spell in a hurry.

“Fear, from a necromancer’s touch

To remove the healer’s clutch

With strength despotic

And power necrotic

I cast upon thee, Chill Touch!”

A ghastly hand shot out from before the limpet. It was poorly formed, and while it radiated necrotic energies, it was also leaking far too much of it. The spell wouldn’t last its full duration.

Still, the hand crashed into the goblin archer’s neck and yanked him back and away from the bell just as he was reaching out to slap it.

Tweezers soon arrived on the scene and, after unhooking the bell with an expert twist and laying it on the ground without so much as a clang, he jumped on the goblin with a pair of sharp tools in each hand.

“Well done,” I told the limpet. “That was some fast thinking in the end there.”

“I didn’t cast it correctly,” she lamented.

I rolled my eyes and patted her head. “Don’t be a fool. Sometimes an unimpressive spell that works is more important than an impressive one that fails. Your failed cast still worked. Though it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t practice a lot more.”

“I will, Master.”

“Why didn’t you use Seeping Sting?”

“Ah, from what I read, it’s better to use that if you’re going to be directly in the fight. And it wouldn’t stop the goblin from ringing the bell, not unless it somehow killed him in one go. Frostbite would at least slow him down. Chill touch would have been better as a first spell, except that it leaves a trail and it’s visible. What if he rolled and dodged it?”

“Good reasoning,” I said. “Now come on, the others have finished up. We’ll have to see how well your spells work out in cramped underground sewers.”

***