Chapter 21

Goblins

Torger climbed out of the cavern and found Stone Fist. “Thank you for saving my butt in there. I could have been sent back to the salt mines without your help.”

“No Torger, thank you for freeing us. Brute came to me a week ago and bribed me to testify against you. I accepted his money with no intention of betraying the Liberator of Dwarves. I guess this means Strong Arm is our new mayor, and Kirsk is now the mayor of desolate land in Indio. He might not be pleased with what he sees there.”

“He’ll be fine. You will have water to the mines soon, and we will go bring the prisoners up to it. The dwarves of Small Hammer will leave Calico and move to Indio, and the two villages will exchange silver and iron with each other. I may never see Calico again, but I would like to give you a letter to give to Strong Arm.”

Torger and Stone Fist walked to the village and Torger found a merchant who sold ink and parchment. Torger wrote the letter and gave it to Stone Fist. “Make sure Strong Arm gets this. I hope to see you again my friend.”

Stone Fist looked at Torger and handed the sealed letter back. “Have someone else deliver this. I have seen what you are capable of in city building, and I choose to follow you. If you plan on moving this village, you will need me to help build the new site.”

Torger was pleased that he had made such an impact on the dwarves’ lives. He found his friends and together they walked around all the merchant carts that had come from other tribes far away. They traded roc feathers, billik legs, and razorling feet for paralysis venom from jumping spiders and shock snakes: the one foot yellow ones they had killed in a cave a year earlier. Torger was kicking himself for not having collected that venom themselves, but then again he was new to Nuva at the time and didn’t realize what had value. He also got a variety of fruit and vegetable seeds.

Next they moved on to look at weapons and armor. The best the vendors were selling were steel and silver, but they already had steel and silver. One of the last carts they came to had a richly painted awning and was made from teak. The merchant wore a velvet robe and had three burly body guards. Torger and Graul were the first to notice armor that was an odd silver color, and other armor that was green and yellow.

The merchant looked at them with a little disdain. “The finest armor in the world my friends. Mithril armor and dragon scale armor. But if you don’t have a purse full of gold then please be on your way. I sell the best quality anywhere to those who can afford it.”

Torger knew if he combined his silver and copper coins together he would have less than one gold coin. Instead he pulled out the two pearls they had taken from simmets. “What will these get me?”

The merchant looked at the pearls with slight interest. “Those won’t buy you any set of armor, and I won’t sell a partial set. But I do have the ability to infuse them into weapons. What do you have?”

The Regulators stepped away and discussed it. Torger returned with Antic’s steel spear and Graul’s iron flame sword. The merchant looked at them.

“A decent spear, but you might be wasting money upgrading a flame sword.”

Torger ignored the recommendation and asked “What can you do with these?”

“With a pearl, I can add lightning one. The pearls you have aren’t quite a high enough quality to add poison one.”

Torger said “We’ll take lighting one. How much will it cost?” He pulled out his pouch and reached inside.

The merchant said “Lighting one will cost forty silver.”

That was about how much Torger thought he had. He dumped all the coins on to the table and started counting. Before he got to five silver the merchant said “It’s forty silver each. Unless you have something of value to trade, you might as well be on your way.”

Torger sighed and knew what he had to do. He asked Antic to take off the magic duffle bag and Torger removed the box of potions. Rome had neatly organized them and Torger saw all the mid level stamina potions were gone. Before he could get angry Antic pointed at his steel chain mail and said “Sorry. I spent those.”

Torger pulled out the eleven mid level health potions and twelve mid level strength potions. “I believe this is worth the eighty silver.”

The merchant looked at them and shook his head. “I can sell those for three silver each, but I need to buy them for two silver each.”

Torger wanted to argue but knew he would lose to this professional negotiator. He pulled out the thirteen mid level mana potions. “I want five silver coins back, and this will cover the cost of the lightning one upgrade on both weapons. This is a take it or leave it deal.”

The merchant debated in his mind about counter offering, but Torger wore an expression of determination that said he meant it as a final offer. The merchant agreed. After that they came to another agreement for the merchant to sell thirty iron arrowheads and coat them with the paralysis venom Torger bought. It cost Torger his half pound of unpurified silver ore. That left him with one silver and sixty copper coins.

They spent the rest of the day buying all the dried foods they could. Torger walked around meeting his new villagers. Word had spread fast that the human was the new mayor. Throughout the day he spread word that there would be a village meeting that night.

When it was dark Torger had all the prominent dwarves of the village gathered in the tavern. The other council members were there as well. Torger didn’t need to stand on a table since he was two feet taller than the tallest dwarf.

“Villagers of Lake’s End, the council has decided to make some changes. Some very big changes. Tomorrow this village will split in two. All able bodied dwarves who can wield an axe in battle will follow Baybil and I to move the dwarf prisoners from goblin control to be in dwarf control. Mayor Kirsk will be the mayor of Small Hammer, and that village will oversee the prisoners mining iron. The other half of this village will travel north with Antic, Arden, Rome, and Jex to another silver mine location. They know where it is at, and Stone Fist will be in charge of building the new village. There is nothing here to make this village prosper, and if we know where silver is, we’ll take it. I expect everyone to be ready to move out in the morning.”

The announcement came as a shock to all the villagers, but surprisingly they agreed. It seemed they didn’t have the same disdain for leadership that Calico had after years of oppression. They all drank all the ale they could that night, and Torger didn’t get the early start he expected the next morning.

It was almost noon when the two groups of the village were a few miles apart from each other. Torger looked at who he had with him. There was Brun and Graul and Baybil, along with Kirsk and twelve dwarves. Everyone had steel armor and weapons, except Brun who had three silver staffs and his mage’s cloak.

The four dwarves who had iron armor went with the other villagers to protect them on their journey. Torger had found out the village had a population of forty-five, and sixteen were of military age. Even some of the women dwarves carried bows and wore bronze chain mail.

It took two days to reach the dwarves who were working on the aqueduct. It was almost finished. Kirsk addressed the eleven dwarves of Small Hammer and told them he was their new mayor. Everyone else agreed that it was true. As mayor, Kirsk ordered them to stop the aqueduct and join the rescue of the dwarf prisoners. They had only iron armor, shields, and axes, but Kirsk assured them they would only be needed as a show of force.

It took another four days of walking through the desert with clouds overhead to come to the swamp. Torger led them in a few hundred yards while stepping on stones before the goblin that had bought them as prisoners came out to meet them. He looked at Torger with disgust and said “Have these dwarves come to return the escaped prisoners?”

“No. We have come to take back the dwarves. Instead of being treated like slaves under goblin rule, they will be treated like prisoners under dwarven rule. Tell your queen to release them all to us, and we will go away.”

“I will tell the queen. I do not think she will agree to it.”

The goblin left and quickly walked through the swamp. Torger led the group deeper in. They were almost to the mound that marked the entrance when the goblin returned. “You bring many fighters with you. This is the message from the queen.” The goblin quickly pulled a knife from his waist and stuck it in Torger’s unprotected thigh.

Graul swung his sword and decapitated the messenger. Both fire and lightning came from the iron sword, burning and shocking the goblin as it died. Everyone ran into the tunnels. Torger removed the knife from his thigh and cast Cure 1 on himself. The bleeding slowed a little bit. He reached into his boot and pulled out a high health potion. He drank it and the bleeding stopped. He looked and saw his health was 79/100. He knew he had to be good in the fights, so he drank a low health potion adding nine more health.

With his leg mostly healed he ran into the tunnel. He heard metal clanging and screams from goblins seemingly coming from all directions. The eleven dwarves who had been working on the aqueduct and had iron armor and axes were standing at the first intersection of the labyrinth. Torger nodded to them as he passed, agreeing they should guard the exit and try to not get caught up in the heavy fighting.

The light was dim and he cast Analyze 1. He drank a low level mana potion bringing it up to 13/15. He heard goblins dying in all directions. He checked his Experience and saw he had gained another ability point. That was important because that meant Brun and Graul should have bought Analyze 1 and cast it inside the tunnels, getting the same message Torger just got.

You have found a level 28 cave. Do you wish to conquer it?

By selecting yes their vision would show everything in grey outlines. The three of them had 812/1000 exp to their next ability point before the fighting started, and with a group of twenty-eight attacking that meant they had to have already killed six level 18 goblins.

Every grown male dwarf Torger ever talked with had the spell Analyze 1. They would be useless in battle in complete darkness, even though they had great night vision. Torger pushed aside thoughts of how much experience they were getting and what kind of riches would be in the cave. Kirsk and Baybil made it very clear to all the warriors they were there to free dwarves, not to eliminate all the goblins. As much as they didn’t get along, the dwarves felt it was morally wrong to wipe out a partially intelligent indigenous life for their own greed. As disgusting as the goblins were, they did have at least the right to live their meager existence.

Torger chose the tunnel on his left at random and tried to run down it but had to keep stooped down. He saw dwarves with ropes tied running toward the exit, and two dead goblins, killed from axes. He kept going and chose a random tunnel to the left again. He saw a guard standing in front of three bound dwarves. He ran at the guard who threw a spear at him. Fortunately the spear was copper and his chest plate was steel. The spear dented it but didn’t penetrate. The goblin pulled a short bow off his back but Torger closed the distance and stabbed it in the face. The sword went all the way through its head and four fireballs came out. Three went into the ground but the fourth flew behind Torger. He turned to see a goblin get hit in the chest but it held onto its bow and shot at him.

Torger tried to duck but was too slow. But once again his steel helmet saved him. He ran at the goblin and before he could stab it the goblin was able to shoot another arrow. This one hit Torger in the lower abdomen, below the chest plate, and from such close range the copper arrowhead sunk deep. Torger ignored the pain and ran the remaining two steps to stab that goblin in the face. Two fire balls went into the ground, and one each flew in different directions down the tunnel.

Torger took a few steps back and cast Shield 1 over the mouth of the tunnel. He grabbed the arrow shaft and with great determination pulled the arrow out of his stomach. Blood poured out and he cried in pain. At the same time he heard his shield get hit and release an electric charge. He looked up to see two goblins had thrust their spears at it but it held firm. They were shaking off the shock and were getting ready to attack the shield again. Torger didn’t have time to do anything else. He reached into his boot and drank another high level health potion. His bleeding stomach still hurt a lot, but the bleeding mostly stopped. He cast Cure 1 on himself at the same time the goblins thrust their spears into the shield. The shield cracked, but it also crackled with electricity and shot out at the goblins. Both goblins cast Cure 1 on themselves.

Torger had no choice. He wouldn’t be able to fight two at once with the amount of pain he was in. He reached into his other boot and pulled out two low health potions and a low mana potion. He drank them one at a time, and was out of the potions he had carried for himself. The goblins slammed the shield again and it shattered. They both threw their spears at Torger, but he was ready with another Shield 1 spell. The spears hit the barrier and it shot weak electric charges at the two goblins. They came to retrieve their spears and Torger used the last of his mana to cast Cure 1 on himself again. He had run out of mana and potions, and had nothing but a slightly damaged magic shield to protect him.

The goblins hit the shield again and it cracked, but again they got shocked, and again they cast Cure 1 on themselves. Torger had about fifteen seconds to get ready. His stomach and thigh still hurt, but he would be able to ignore the pain for a while. The goblins both drew their arms back to throw spears at Torger. They all knew the shield would slow them down but not stop them as it shattered. With the short ceiling height and a dead end behind him, along with three frightened and bound dwarves, there wasn’t much Torger could do but hope the spear he couldn’t deflect with his sword hit his chest plate and bounced off harmlessly.

Both spears were hurled at him, they hit the barrier and slowed down, but kept coming as it shattered. Torger remained focused on the spear on his left. He held up his sword and swatted it out of the air. And just as he hoped, the other spear hit his steel armor and glanced off. He turned to the goblins who stupidly had just thrown their weapons at him. They turned and ran. Torger ran after them and heard the dwarves behind him pick up the spears and start cutting their ropes.

Torger had to keep stooped down but followed them for turn after turn, deeper and deeper underground. As he was gaining on them they seemed to drop into some sort of hole in the ground. Torger slowed down and walked cautiously to where they disappeared. Once he was about forty feet away he saw there was a large cavern at the end of the tunnel. He walked until he came to the edge. At his head height, the ceiling level was the same all the way across the great gulf. He looked and saw Brun standing in another tunnel looking down at the cavern. Torger scanned around and saw several tunnels all pouring into the giant cavern below him, and each tunnel had a dwarf looking down.

Torger walked to the edge and looked down and saw the pit was about eighty feet across and eighty feet deep. Goblins were clinging to the sides of walls everywhere. There must have been more than a hundred of them, including five hobgoblins. One of the hobgoblins had captured Torger and his friends when they had been slaves trying to escape. But that wasn’t what worried Torger the most. On top of a large pile of salt, coal, bronze, tin, and copper, along with a few dozen low quality gems, was a massive goblin. It was female, and half corporeal, half spirit, and as it looked at them it picked up a topaz. The twelve foot tall queen ate the topaz, and a ghostly finger became flesh. She pointed it at Brun and he ducked, but a black gas cloud surrounded him.

The gas cloud continued to move behind him and it surrounded two dwarves. All three of them fell to the ground and threw up, then small red bumps broke out all over their bodies. The queen ate another topaz, and another ghostly finger turned to flesh. She pointed it at Torger and he ran down the tunnel as fast as he could. The gas cloud gained on him and eventually overtook him. As soon as he inhaled the poison it flew down a connecting tunnel and he heard dwarves try to run away from it.

Torger felt an immediate fever enter his body. His max health was cut to 50 and his stamina was cut in half. He felt nauseated and had a severe headache. His heart pounded hard and it took will power for him to get up and walk towards the exit. He didn’t make it far when dwarves came into his tunnel. He was light headed and disoriented and they helped him stagger back to the entrance.

When he got there he saw he was the last of his group to emerge. Twenty-five dwarf prisoners were being guarded by the eleven dwarves from Small Hammer.

Torger, Brun, and four dwarves from Calico all had the small red bumps on their skin. But they heard in the tunnels goblins running towards them. Kirsk took five of his dwarves and led all the prisoners away. The others had collected all the copper and bronze weapons from the goblins they killed. They tried to help the sick humans and dwarves walk away, but the goblins were coming too fast. They only made it a hundred feet when goblins began pouring out of the cave. The dwarves formed a protective ring around the sick, but Torger stood up and joined them. The four sick dwarves saw him join the ranks and hold his sword at the ready, then they slowly stood up too. Graul looked over and nodded to them in appreciation. Brun was the last to stand up.

Torger looked at the goblins. “This battle is over. Go back to your caves. We are leaving. The prisoners are already gone.”

The goblins held bows and copper spears, and looked at the dwarves with steel armor and axes. A hobgoblin stepped forward. He looked at Torger. “We have never seen someone with the will to fight after suffering from poison two. We could attack your group, and we would win, but our losses would be too great.” He looked at Baybil. “Once the tyters squash this pest, we expect our deal to be re-established. He has clouded your thinking.”

With that the goblins backed into the cave, weakly waving their spears.

The group of humans and dwarves slowly made their way out of the swamp then walked another mile before they found Kirsk and the prisoners. All but the sick and the prisoners set up camp. As Torger wretched again Baybil brought him some water. He asked “What did the queen do to me?”

“She hit you with the spell poison two. It inflicts chicken pox and venom on three dwarves. Or I guess a human and two dwarves. The spell heal two would remove it, but none of us know it, and we don’t have an antidote potion. You’re going to have to sleep it off. You’re losing one health every four seconds, as are the other five who were hit with the spell. You three humans and four dwarves will have to cast cure one constantly until each of you gets enough sleep to stop the venom. Two hours of sleep should do it, but each spell cast will have to be perfectly timed.”

Torger said “Brun and I will take care of ourselves, the other five who can cast cure one need to worry about the four dwarves.”

Torger and Brun took turns drinking health and mana potions for two hours until the four sick dwarves had two hours of sleep, then the remaining five healers kept casting cures on the two sleeping humans. Without the potions they bought from the council meeting festival, they would have both died along with two of the four dwarves. It ended up being a very expensive lesson to stay away from Poison 2 spells.

Chapter 22

Lake’s End

Torger felt much better the next day. They ate breakfast and packed up the tents. As they were all walking north, Brun came up to Torger and Graul. “That bitch was impressive. Level thirty-two, five hundred health, and a hundred mana. We would not have won fighting her.”

Torger looked at Brun. “I’m glad you analyzed her. I used up all my potions and mana in that fight. All I accomplished was killing two goblins. How’d you guys do?”

Brun looked down. “I used ice one a whole bunch. Now I almost have ice two, but I didn’t kill any goblins. But as a group on the whole we killed forty-one. We each got thirteen hundred experience, and no one got hurt.”

Torger looked at him and pointed to the knife hole in his leather pants at his thigh and the arrow hole in the leather jerkin at his stomach.

Brun looked away realizing his poorly chosen words, but Graul said “Adding that lighting spell was great. Fire removes seven health, and the lightning removes ten health, and that doesn’t include the damage from the cut itself. Those goblins dropped easily to Inferno.”

“Inferno? What’s that?”

“Oh yeah, you weren’t there. At Lake’s End you know we all had a bit to drink before your council meeting. I named my sword Inferno, and Antic named his spear Colonoscopy. Yeah I know, terrible name, but that was around our fifth or sixth pint. Anyway, you should name your sword. After all, it is the coolest weapon we have.”

“OK I’ll think about it. But Antic will be changing the name of his spear.”

The next day during the walk Torger, Baybil, and Kirsk talked to the twenty-five prisoners. They explained they were still prisoners, but they would be treated like prisoners instead of slaves. They would be mining iron, and be given fresh water and meat to eat each day. They would still be bound with ropes, but as long as none of them tried an escape attempt, they would all be freed in seven years. That cheered them up a great deal, and they were almost happy when Torger told them they would be allowed to talk in the mines.

The eleven guards who were discontent with the way Torger was running Calico were now under Kirsk, and they were happier to be led by a dwarf instead of a human, although all the rules for them were exactly the same either way. The prejudice rolled off Torger as he had his eyes set on bigger and better things.

When they came to Indio Torger stayed a day to see that the work on the aqueduct continued and the prisoners began mining. Kirsk had a good grasp of leadership, and the next day Baybil went to Calico and Torger and his group headed toward Carson City.

It took them three days to get to the north side of Havasu, and Brun and Graul told the dozen dwarves how Torger walked into the water and dove down to get the chest. Brun was sad he couldn’t show the dwarves the metal box Torger brought out of the water then smashed against the rocks over and over breaking some of the potions.

Torger didn’t appreciate the detailed explanation of his clumsiness, but the story did cause his new constituents to raise their respect of him.

It took three more weeks to make it to what was near Carson City. Lake Tahoe was to the west, Yosemite was to the south west, and they were high in the Sierra Nevadas. Spring was beginning and water was freely flowing everywhere. Animals were abundant. Too abundant. They killed three California Grizzly’s and four cottols during the three week trip. With three humans and twelve dwarves, it wasn’t much of a problem each time they got attacked, but it made Torger worry about the well being of his friends and villagers. That worry also gave the dwarves reason to trust that he cared about them as a leader.

One morning they crested a hill and saw a camp set up on the next hill. Even from a distance of nearly a mile Torger could see dwarves building buildings.

When they came near they were spotted by a sentry who called out to the camp. Everyone ran out, and most of the dwarves that were with Torger were met by their wives and children. Only four of the twelve with him were bachelors. Torger surprised them by calling each wife by her name, memorizing them during the three week walk.

Arden came up to Torger and said “It’s about time you guys got here. What did you get from the goblins? I hope they had a lot of treasure.”

“Sorry, our mission wasn’t to conquer them, it was to free the slaves. And we did that. Brun has always wanted revenge on the goblins since we were slaves. Tell him how it went Brun.”

“I didn’t inflict much damage on them. I just cast a bunch of ice one spells, but on our way back I kept casting them at deer, rabbits, coyotes and possums and learned ice two. Their queen was very powerful. We couldn’t take her down if we tried, and they had five hobgoblins. But my thirst for revenge was quenched. We did kill forty-one of the bastards.”

Rome said “That’s great you learned ice two. I kept using analyze and learned analyze two. But I don’t have the option to learn analyze three. But with analyze two I have access to see a monster’s level, health and mana like analyze one, and I can see their strength, endurance, and elemental weakness. But the spell costs twenty-one mana, so I used my three unused ability points buying mana. But another benefit of analyze two is I can see more clearly in a dark cave. Imagine the grey outlines you can see if you use the Bow of the Owl, and then add a lot of definition and clarity in the dark. It’s still all in black and white, but it’s as clear as an old movie.”

Torger was happy for his friends’ progress. “That’s great Rome. Arden, that leaves just you and me with three unused ability points, unless you spent yours.”

“No, I still have my three. But passing by Yosemite on the way here was inhumanely cruel. You know how badly I want to see what that grenade there from the tyters is.”

The dwarves around them looked at him with concern. Arden forgot that was supposed to be a secret to the humans. Torger looked around at the dwarves then told Arden “We’ll talk about it later.”

They made their way to the new village. The dwarves were working diligently building two houses, a smithy, a tavern, and a brewery. Stone Fist greeted them. “It’s a good thing the dwarves didn’t know where they were going when they left Havasu. Rome led us into the mountains and there was a lot of murmuring about not living near elves. Fortunately, the elves are forty miles away on the north side of the lake, and of course in Yosemite. We found the cave entrance and I decided to set up the village here.”

Torger could hear in his voice he was firmly set that this was the right location to build, but was also seeking verbal approval of his choice. “This is a defendable spot with a creek a mile to the south of us. As long as the cave is within two miles, this looks like the best possible spot.”

Stone Fist smiled and looked relieved. “The cave is two miles to the north, at the bottom of that mountain. It’s filled with cottols. A lot of bears and rocs are in the area too. We have some fighting to do to make this place safe.”

Torger’s Quests began flashing. He opened it.

New Quest form Stone Fist

The area you have chosen to build has many natural resources, and many dangerous monsters. Kill 30 Grizzly Bears, and 30 Rocs.

Reward: Large boost to village morale and respect.

900 exp points

Raise village to level 3

“That we can do Stone Fist. We’ve nearly completed this same quest before, but we’ll have to be quick about it. I have more plans.”

They slept that night and in the morning they walked to the cave, along with the twelve dwarves that had gone to the goblin mines with them. Arden, Jex, and Antic did not have Analyze 1, but Jex used her Bow of the Owl. That left Arden and Antic in the dark.

They had no protection against the psychic blasts that met them, but those in the back slapped the faces of those in the front when they turned around and dropped their weapons.

All the humans except Brun had Shield 1, and they all cast it into the cave. Brun began casting Lighting 1 as fast as he could, and his spells were able to go through his allies shields. Another round of psychic blasts hit the four human melee fighters in front, and again they dropped their weapons and turned their backs to the cottols. Four dwarves slapped them and took them out of their trance. As soon as they bent down and picked up their weapons again, they were again hit by the blasts and dropped them.

Jex didn’t mind. She was hitting one cottol after another with regular iron arrows. But she soon spent all thirty that she had. She had a decision to make: Use sharpened wood arrows or use the thirty arrows of paralysis they bought from the merchant in Parker. The cats weren’t attacking the shields, and were continually sending psychic blasts. She could injure them with wooden arrows. As she shot the first one, more cats came to the front and sent psychic blasts. The cats had been rotating which ones were in front, and after that group of four sent their blasts, they would move back and four more would come to the front. She was guessing it was so they could recharge their mana. But now there were seven at the front, and the four humans and three dwarves closest to the mouth of the cave all dropped their weapons and turned their backs. Jex could see the men’s faces were bright red from having already been slapped five times. They needed to change tactics.

Rome cast Analyze 2. He saw

Cottol level 15. Health 169/300 Mana 5/15 Strength 5/5 Endurance 80/80 Elemental Weakness: none

Jex called for everyone to retreat. The stunned men were slapped a few more times, making it a slow retreat. Eventually they all made it out of range of the cats. They looked into the cave and saw the shields were still in place, and the cottols still didn’t attack them. It was obvious they needed bows. Jex reached into her back pack and handed her ice bow to Antic, who was the only one strong enough to pull back on the string, and gave her recurve bow to Torger, who was the only one who gained more than average experience while using a bow, except of course for Jex. Two of the other dwarves went to the village to get more bows, while everyone else began sharpening sticks.

Before the dwarves got back, Arden saw inside the cave that the shields began slowly flashing. The cats came close to the other side of them, waiting for them to disappear. The Regulators didn’t know there was a time limit on the shields, but apparently the cottols did know. Everyone but Brun ran down the hill and again cast Shield 1, making a stack of six new shields an inch apart from each other. But all six humans were hit with psychic blasts. They dropped their weapons and turned their backs to the cats.

Some dwarves ran to slap them awake, but the dwarves too were hit with the psychic blasts. Brun picked up a rock and threw it at Arden, but it bounced off his chest plate and Arden didn’t come out of the trance. Brun knew he had to inflict one point of damage to their health to wake them up. He picked up a rock and threw it again. This time it hit a dwarf in the helmet. He said “Ouch” and looked around. But he got hit with another psychic blast before he got out of the spell’s range.

Brun had to test his spell range. He pointed at the nearest cottol and said “Lighting one.”

Nothing happened. He walked twenty feet closer and tried it again. Still nothing happened. He walked closer still, and saw a cottol try to send a psychic blast at him. He instinctively took a step back, and the cottol’s spell didn’t hit him. He pointed again and said “Lightning one.”

The familiar tingling sensation ran down his arm and shot out the small lightning bolt. It hit the cat and the beast backed away. The dwarves behind him cheered. Brun had no more mana and knew the shields only had a few more minutes until time ran out. He reached into his backpack and took out a high mana potion. He drank it and his mana fully restored to 45. At seven mana per cast, he cast it six times, hitting six different cats.

He then drank the three low level mana potions he had, bringing him to 30/45, good enough for the next four casts. Just as he was finishing the last cast, a roc flew overhead. The dwarves behind him scattered, and he was left standing alone with his six friends and four dwarves stunned just twenty feet in front of him. Times were desperate for him, but he heard the bird screech in the air. He looked up and saw two arrows sticking out of its wings.

The two dwarves who had run to get bows had returned in time to keep the bird occupied. Brun had no choice but to go back to the rock throwing idea. He threw a rock at Torger, and hit him in the crotch. Torger dropped to the ground in pain and a psychic blast flew over his head. But as Brun hoped, Torger was aware enough of his surroundings that even in his pain he kicked the dwarf next to him in the shin. Another psychic blast hit Torger, and a second later one hit the dwarf. Both were standing with their backs to the cats, but their movement made a wall Brun was hoping for. He dropped to his stomach and crawled behind them. Three cottols tried to send the blasts at him but the already stunned humans and dwarves blocked them.

Brun retrieved the bow and crawled back. He stood up out of range and was very clumsy as he tried to fit a sharpened wood arrow to the string. He managed it after a few seconds and pulled back. He was only level 3 with bows, but that was enough for him to hit the five foot diameter hole sixty feet away. He shot all twenty-two arrows they had made during their first retreat, most of them hitting a random cat, but not sinking very far.

Once he was done, the shields began to flash again. He looked at the six dwarves behind him who had done nothing the whole time. “In one minute, all those injured cats are going to come running out of the cave. We have to throw rocks at our friends and make the cats use up all their mana.”

The nine awake people threw rocks at the ten stunned people. Every time a rock would hit someone, a psychic blast hit them a second later. But they kept throwing rocks. It looked like the sickest game of red light green light ever. But they ran out of time, and there were too many cottols. The shields dissipated and a hundred cottols ran out of the cave. Most of them had an arrow sticking out of them and many had electrical burns. Brun and the dwarves had no choice but to run towards their friends.

Some cottols raked their claws down the stunned people’s backs, scratching harmlessly down the steel armor, but most ran at Brun and the remaining eight dwarves. Brun and the dwarves never made it to the cats. All of them were hit with psychic blasts and the cats attacked them. But the beasts seemed to have finally run out of mana.

After getting clawed on a leg, Torger sliced and sliced, four fireballs finding marks every time he cut into flesh. Antic and Arden thrust with their spears, antic getting a Lighting 1bonus every time he did, and Graul got a Fire 1 and a Lightning 1 bonus every time he ripped through fur. The six humans who could cast shields did, and the cats avoided the magic barriers.

Jex and Rome had nothing to contribute, both pouring all their mana into shields. But the dwarves used their axes like a windmill in a tornado, tearing into one cat after another. Some cats were able to regenerate enough mana to cast another psychic blast, but the dwarf or human next to the victim slapped them awake again. After several minutes, there were one hundred dead cottols lying in the field. Blood flowed freely from all seven humans and all twelve dwarves.

As they sit there resting and bleeding, the two dwarves who had run to get the bows returned. They saw that the battle was over. At first Torger was furious with them, until Brun explained that they kept a roc away while half the group was stunned. Torger stood up and asked who would not survive the night. Brun, Rome, and Jex all raised their hands. They didn’t have metal armor, only leather, and the cat claws ripped right through it. Four other dwarves also raised their hands. All four had been bit on the back of the neck. Torger and Arden each cast Cure 1, then waited another minute, and cast Cure 1 again. The dwarves’ bleeding slowed, but didn’t stop. He gave all seven severely injured people a low health potion. He only had two left, but Rome and Brun looked awful, so he gave them each another one.

They all staggered back to the village and fell asleep without answering any questions from anyone.