Chapter 3

The Apology

Several sconces were burning along the cave walls, giving off flickering orange light. They could see the others outside the cave mouth speaking quietly and looking downcast. Torger and Graul were bleeding heavily and stumbled outside, glad that everyone had met up here instead of Kellogg Hill.

Jex saw Torger approaching and turned her back to him, but Arden and Brun had enough mana restored to cast Cure 1on each of them. That helped a little, but not enough to stop all of the bleeding. Torger didn’t need to check his Stats to know his health was below 100/500, and slowly dropping from continual blood loss. He sighed and looked at Arden for help. Arden thought for a few seconds then waved him over.

“You guys were gone nearly ten minutes longer than Antic. What happened? How did it go?”

Torger was grateful to begin talking in Jex’s hearing without directly addressing the elephant in the cave.

“We killed a lot more, I don’t know how many, but we came up well short of a thousand. I wish I knew if there was a time limit on this quest. We’ve got less than two months to get back to the dwarves and protect them from the goblins, then hurry back to greet the tyter extraction team. That’s going to be nonstop exertion for the next six weeks, but we’ll have to dig deep and finish the quest before we can go home.”

The others sighed but nodded, including Jex whose back was still turned. They had to complete the quest or there would be no point in fighting the tyters, and that meant a thousand mile round trip to kill the goblins and protect the dwarves.

As they were engaged in their own thoughts, another transmission came into their ears from their tyter enhancements. “This is captain Pegvet of the Light Scout ship Ryukkah. We are well within range for any hunters on Nuva to hear us. We will be arriving in thirty-six days. Meet the extraction team at the main teleport sight. I will require a full report upon arrival. If you cannot meet at the main teleport sight, then you are weak tyters and not worthy of the titles of hunters, and you will be left to your fate on this planet. You have been warned to comply or die hunters. May your training guide you in this task. I assume since you have not responded to our daily transmissions that the long range communications are down, or you are already dead. Captain Pegvet out.”

They all looked at each other. “36 days? That’s a few weeks sooner than expected.”

“I know Rome. I’ll think of something.”

Jex turned around. “Torger, I know you’re doing your best to keep us alive and get us home. And, nevermind. But for what it’s worth, I’m sorry I left you during a battle.”

Torger gulped. “I did not like emotions or apologies. They never did much good for me. I prefer people just doing what they were supposed to do rather than doing the wrong thing then apologizing. I… I don’t know what happened to me. It was a highly stressful situation for all of us and we both responded horribly to the mess Ristopan left us in. Now that I’ve had a minute to think about it, getting your daughter safely home has become my top priority. I’ll figure out how to get us home or die trying,” he said with a strained smirk.

The gravity of the situation hung over all of them and a silence fell. Before anyone spoke again they all received a message.

Quest update: Failed

You did not kill 1000 goblins and they have resumed their march toward the Cucamonga Dwarves. However, since you nearly completed the quest, the scroll will activate, but at a reduced level. 6 of you may use the scroll to teleport back to your home world. If all 7 humans try to use the scroll, none of you will leave Nuva.

“I’m staying.”

Everyone looked at Torger. “No Torger. We can figure out another way or come up with a way to pick one of us at random. We all need to work on getting home.”

“I know you mean well Brun, but realistically I have the least to return home to. I’m single, walked with a limp, and was working a dead end job before we came here. I wasn’t going to make anything of my life anyway. The rest of you can be happy and successful back home. If I go, I will always miss this place. I like fighting and building and being in perfect health. Besides, I can handle loneliness.”

Arden answered “No, we’ll figure out a way for all of us to get home.”

The conversation continued for nearly an hour before it changed to talking about strategy. Torger finally told the others about the secret project he and Rome had been working on for the six months that the others were swinging picks in the gold mine to pay back the elves. The discussion of a real and solid plan to defeat the tyter extraction team and get into their teleport facility put everyone in a good mood.

“All of you stay here and take a month off. I’m going to run up to Rich Fields and see how many low level potions I can get from Strong Arm, and hopefully arrive in time to warn him about the goblins.”

Everyone agreed, then cast a Cure 1 on him since he was still bleeding, and Torger began a long and lonely journey four hundred miles to the north. Getting to Modesto should take him less than two weeks, but getting from Modesto to Yosemite to see the elves before teleporting back to Catalina would be a struggle.

Being level 61 had lots of perks. He had excellent stamina and strength, and had most of the spells available to humans. But it was his mithril sword infused with Fire 3 that was the reason he could sleep at night without fear of attack. If any beast was stupid enough to attack him, a couple well placed thrusts would quickly finish it. Having his two handed swords skill at level 49 meant he rarely missed a strike or parry. And his mithril boots with Haste 2 meant he didn’t have to continually cast Haste 2 or 3 on himself while running across the terrain. None of the others would be able to keep up with him.

Each day he used his speed and stamina to chase down and kill a deer or coyote. He hated that he didn’t leave some dwarves in the mines at the Salton Sea to dig for more coal and salt. For the past seven months the dwarves hadn’t been able to salt meats for trail rations, so it always rotted in a day or two. And no coal meant extra time gathering firewood for the chilly nights. Along the way he got attacked by a bear once and a roc once, but even without a bow those lowly level 36 animals were no match for him. As Baybil had promised, most prey gained about a level a month.

Eventually he made it to Rich Fields on a cold and cloudy afternoon. As he approached, he saw a shimmer of the village magic shield and was painfully reminded that he didn’t have access to them anymore. He had done great and wonderful things for the dwarf tribe, and they kicked him out once the tyters were close. They had made it clear they wanted no confusion about being enablers to the tyter prey.

Torger waited outside for a few minutes until a dwarf guard came to him. “Uh, hi Torger. Sorry but Strong Arm said you need to leave. He said you know why.”

“Yes I know why, but I’m here to trade for some potions, and hopefully give him a warning.”

“If your warning was about the goblins, scouts reported them yesterday. Six fighting dwarves headed towards Home yesterday, including Strong Arm.”

Torger smiled. “Good for him, leading by example. But you just told me Strong Arm said I can’t enter the village. Which is it? Is he going to fight the goblins, or is he telling you to keep me out? Either way I want to talk to whoever is in charge.”

“I’m sorry. You need to go. We can’t have the tyters think we’re helping you.”

Torger thought about Ristopan. He and his four brothers had a deal with the tyters that they would control the dwarves if the tyters left the dwarves alone, but none of the dwarves knew about that deal or that Ristopan was a few hundred miles to the east. Torger didn’t need to waste his time with the lowly guard. “If Strong Arm is here I want to trade with him. If he’s not here then Baybil is here and I want to trade with him.”

The guard shook his head. “No, strict orders.”

Torger sighed and walked around the village. Going to Home would get him the same results. He had to make it to the elves and had fourteen days to do it, which was plenty of time. As he walked he knew he could crush the village shield and take whatever potions they had, but that wasn’t how he lived. He hated handouts, and theft was definitely not something he tolerated under any circumstances. As a mayor, he let the victims of theft fight it out with those they thought were crooks. He turned a blind eye to several back alley beatings. What really hurt was that he was looking forward to omelets and his spicy vinegar sauce.

It took him six days to traverse the mountains and arrive at the Yosemite village of elves. A guard he hadn’t seen before greeted him. “Welcome Torger. There is no one here to take you to the Winds of Truth. Everyone is fighting a large band of goblins to the north.”

“What, really? The elves are fighting? That’s great! I’ll go help. Where are they?”

Torger jogged for an hour before he had to slow to a brisk walk. It was nearly midnight when he came to an elven campsite. “Hi everyone. How can I help?”

He was led to Lagwil. “Torger it’s so good to see you again. We’ve been fighting the goblins for two days. They’re to the north and a camp of dwarves is to the west. I, I uh have mixed feelings about you being here. We desperately need your skill in combat, but I fear for the safety of our tribe from the tyters.”

“How bad is the situation Lagwil?”

“Honestly, we’ve taken losses. Nine elves have died, I don’t know how many dwarves. Our concealment in forests is why we’re alive at all. We’ve killed over a hundred goblins, but there are too many of them.”

“I would never tell you how to run the village or tell Yiloding how to run the tribe, but it won’t do you any good to kick me out from fear of the tyters if you will all be dead before they arrive anyway.”

“Yes, I know. I don’t know how to handle this. We need all of you, but it will bring their wrath if we’re near you.”

“OK, I’ll circle around to the north and attack from there, as far away from elves as possible.”

“Just the seven of you? Even at your high level, this is a major war.”

“Not the seven of us, just me. The others are in SoCal, far away like you wanted.”

Lagwil hung her head. “Certain death to protect those who have shunned you for their own preservation is beyond admirable. What would you like?”

“Two things: first is why are you fighting them at all? They came to destroy the dwarves, not elves. Second is we need all the potions you’ve got.”

“I can’t believe that! The goblin spirit queen said they weren’t interested in us, just the dwarves. But we didn’t believe her. I have no idea how they summoned such a powerful leader from the grave. They must have a few more hobgoblins than we thought.”

Torger didn’t want to say anything about a stronger spirit leader arising every two hundred and fifty goblins killed, so indirectly it was the Regulators who summoned her. “I’ll tell you what. I will kill the queen, you get me lots of potions.”

“OK, as long as you stay to the north side of the battlefield and leave as soon as… um I mean it’s been nice knowing you Torger. Be sure to use your rare Teleport spell before you um, die.” Lagwil left to gather potions and returned an hour later. Torger walked to the west to meet with the dwarves, happy with three mid level health potions and two each of mid level mana and stamina potions. It was a little less than he was hoping for but he believed it was all Lagwil could safely spare.

A couple hours later he came to the dwarf camp. He was led to Thirrell. “It’s good to see you on the front lines and gaining experience for the good of the village.”

Thirrell answered coldly “You know you are banished from being near us. Go before you bring doom to our tribe.”

“I’m here to gather potions. If you have some, I will kill the goblin spirit queen and then teleport away.”

Thirrell thought for a moment. “I’ll give you three low level health and mana potions if you kill the queen.”

“There’s something else I want. Is Strong Arm here?”

“Yes. I’ll take you to him. If I didn’t need you so much I would tell you to go away. As it is we’re going to have liches to contend with.”

“Liches? Oh, I forgot. In a big pile of death they rise from the ground at night, and if powerful enough they can summon hellhounds.”

Torger looked at the cloudy night sky. It was well past midnight and just a couple days past the fall equinox. Thinking about the eight hundred dead goblins in east Nevada… “Thirrell, how powerful can liches get again?”

“A grand lich is rumored to be around level eighty. But no one really knows if that is true. And old tales say two grand liches could summon a dragon, but that’s probably a fairytale. Why do you ask? Once this war is over we’ll burn and bury the goblins, but each night their camp is sure to be protected by hellhounds at this point.”

“I guess it really doesn’t concern me. Thank you for the potions.”

By then they had reached Strong Arm who, sadly had stopped making gunpowder and shotgun shells. The forty-three black powder shells would have to be enough against the tyters.

Chapter 4

Catalina

Torger watched they early grey morning slowly change to orange in the sky. One by one the hellhounds then the liches disappeared as light spread to the goblin camp. Goblin archers came to the perimeter of the camp expecting a dawn attack, and the spirit queen was screeching orders for the goblins to attack and win today. Torger picked that moment to attack the distracted queen.

Having been awake for a full day and night his thoughts and movements were sluggish, but he just had to race in and defeat one inferior foe. He did not let out a battle cry and the two archers who saw him running at them were too stunned to do anything. Who would be so foolish as to attack their camp as a solo idiot?

That was their last thoughts before their heads rolled along the grass. Torger rushed into a group of goblins getting up for the day and he killed only a couple that were in his way as he barreled past them. The others shouted in surprise, and the shouts quickly spread throughout the camp. He side stepped a spear thrust and stabbed the goblin in the heart then parried a sword strike and beheaded that goblin. But by then he was almost in the center of the camp and the queen was prepared for him.

She cast a Shield 2 spell to trap him in the bubble, but he had fallen victim to that trick twice so he ran to the side correctly anticipating her first move. About twenty feet from her he dodged another spell- one of levitation to keep him off the ground. Torger quickly closed the distance but not quite quick enough. Three captains wearing iron chainmail with bronze swords and shields stepped between Torger and their queen. He didn’t have time for delays!

Torger ran straight at the captain in the center and feinted low then stabbed high. Red Fury went above the round shield but below the helm and straight through the captain’s throat. But that move cost Torger. The one second it took him to extract the blade allowed the other two captains to cut into the back of his knees where he was unprotected. He went down fast and hard like a ten dollar hooker. His face hit the ground just a couple of feet in front of the queen. He rolled over and used his sword to block the sword strikes to his unprotected neck.

The queen called for the other goblins to stop. “I’ll deal with this whelp.” She looked down at Torger and smiled. “This is perfect. Bring a rope of negation! The tyters will blame his death on the dwarves.”

Torger panicked for a second. While a goblin slave in the mines of the Salton Sea the Regulators were bound with ropes of negation. Supposedly if he died while bound with the magical rope he wouldn’t respawn, but Baybil hinted that he would still respawn a week later, but Torger didn’t want to find out. He had to act quickly before the order spread through the camp and the rope was brought to the queen. From his back looking up he got a horribly unfortunate upskirt shot of the queen’s womanhood. Shaking off the nightmare sight he pointed his hand at her and called “Poison three!”

The spell instantly flew from his hand and struck her in the chest, then split and hit the two remaining captains in their guts. All three goblin leaders bent over clutching their stomachs and shit themselves. Poison 3 inflicted the three targets with dysentery and reduced their max health to 1/3 of its original value. Torger didn’t have time to cast Analyze 2 but guessed her health was now about 133/133 (400). He didn’t have enough mana left for another high power spell; he had to save some to teleport away.

As Torger was painfully crawling to his knees the queen recovered before the captains. With a roar she picked up her foot to step on him. It seemed she didn’t care if he respawned so long as he died. Torger collapsed back down and rolled to his back then placed the hilt of the sword into the ground near his head and had the point above his neck. The queen was wearing leather boots, but since she was a spirit physical attacks wouldn’t hurt her. But as she stepped down the ruby in the sword cross guard flared and inflicted her with Fire 3 for 14 health damage, and it shot out for mini flares to the nearest four goblins inflicting them also with 14 health damage. It was that ability that had allowed Torger to plow through so many goblins in Nevada and at this goblin camp. He injured four goblins for each goblin he struck.

14 health damage was not enough to severely damage the queen, but it was like stepping on a jagged rock while barefoot. She raised her foot instinctually and being very sick from dysentery she fell over to the side. Being ten feet tall she crushed a minor goblin aide under her. Torger cast Cure 2 on himself and scrambled up on two unsteady legs with wounds behind his knees, but he used their surprise and quickly dispatched the two goblin captains, also dealing another 28 damage to the queen from the Fire 3 spell.

Torger quickly turned and drove his sword through her thigh, then twisted and amplified the internal damage. Numerous Cure 1 spells hit the queen in quick succession as hobgoblins arrived to the scene of battle. Torger’s time was up- he was too outnumbered. He distantly heard battle sounds as the elves and dwarves had attacked the goblin camp while it was in an uproar, but he didn’t have time for any thoughts but killing the boss. He swung his sword and chopped off both legs below the knee with one swing. No amount of Cure 1 spells would overcome that kind of damage; only two or three nights sleep would regrow two limbs. The queen finished casting her own Poison 2 spell at him and he was infected with chicken pox and a mild venom. Torger cast Teleport 1 and disappeared from the battle.

He found himself on top of the highest hill on the island. All his friends were there looking bored and playing yahtzee. They ran over to him and saw blood trickling out of the backs of his legs, then they all cast Cure 1 and Rome cast Heal 3, and he was fully healed.

“How did it go? What happened?”

Torger was glad to see the concern on Jex’s face. It seemed she had forgiven him, mostly. “I got some potions!” He handed the moderate assortment of potions over to Antic. “The dwarves wanted nothing to do with me. It seems they instinctually know the tyters will be here soon. To get the potions I had to kill the goblin spirit queen we inadvertently raised. I hope she’s dead, but I doubt it. The good news is she won’t be walking today or tomorrow, but the elves gave me the potions in advance as payment for killing her. I hope they can finish the job. But for now, I seriously need some sleep.”

Torger woke up several hours later. “OK Rome, I spent every spare ounce of gold the village had on your secret project. Let’s see what you got.”

Rome smiled proudly. “I’ve already shown Arden, and Arden, being level thirty-three in guns, says he can handle them.”

Arden smiled and picked up the explanation. “To be clear, these don’t qualify as guns, but the design you and Strong Arm came up with is impressive, for a Dark Ages kind of society.” Arden walked out of the wood shack that Rome had built a little at a time over the period of five months. Torger cut trees and split the lengths to make rough planks, and instructed Rome how to bring one board per day to Catalina and nail them together until it qualified as a building. Once it was a building, Rome got a prompt asking if he wanted to create a village, and once it was a village he could teleport directly to Catalina even if the tyter entry building became unavailable, which it had.

Thankful for that foresight, Torger followed Arden to the side of the hill. With a flourish, Arden swept away brush covering the canons.

“Whoa, what the hell are those? Are they what I think they are?” asked Antic.

With a big smile Torger said “Yup. Crude but effective. Strong Arm doesn’t have the skill or tools to make rifling, but he eventually understood the concept of the smooth bore shotgun. With a little of Rome and my understanding of military history, and Arden’s and my understanding of guns we helped Strong Arm make three modified cannons. They’re a cross between an actual civil war style cannon and a world war one trench mortar. Pour some black powder in, pack it down, insert the scrap pot metal ball and light the fuse. They’re small enough to be operated by one person and can change trajectory by raising the back end by picking it up a little. But be sure to wedge it into the ground or half the power will come back and break whatever bone gets between it and the ground.”

Everyone started talking at once with all kinds of ooohs and aaawes and they all had questions but Torger raised his hands and continued. “They have a range of a half mile but they’re only accurate for two hundred yards. We want to surprise the tyters and hit one quickly with one of these cannons so we can see how strong they are. And, ummm, well, if a tyter survives a direct shot from a cannon then we will be facing very tough opponents. Another down side is that if they’re too close we won’t be able to reload them in time. We may get only one shot with each of these.”

They spent the rest of the day test firing the cannons from the top of a hill facing the tyter entrance building. As the sun was setting they heard a final message in their minds running through Translate from the tyter extraction team. “Our scans show seven hunters at the entrance island, but the signal is corrupted. It appears you have been badly wounded, or rather somehow transformed. The extraction team will arrive in one week. Be prepared to board the shuttle. Tomorrow we will be in range to hear your transmission back to us.”