Chapter 26 "Ok, guys I have a couple of questions. Rajeem what is the range of the mages' spells?" I asked. "Right now they only have two spells one is the ice wall, at the moment it's waist high and only about a foot thick. It's range is essentially touch. Mostly used to make a place the mage can duck and hide behind. Their only offensive spell right now is called Snowball. They conjure a small ball of ice and snow in their hand that they then throw as a kind of ice grenade. As it's thrown the effective range is about 50 feet. It explodes on impact and does a small amount of AOE damage while also slowing down the enemy it hits. the effectiveness of both spells goes up when the unit levels." "Same question to you Rene," I said nodding to the archer. "The longbow can reliably hit a target at about 500 feet, and that is if you want pinpoint accuracy. If you don't care as much we can angle up and hit things at 1000 feet. When we level up we gain access to new arrow types" He replied. "Different question for you lord Weatheringham. Why is the CP cost so high on your troops, and how will you gain experience and levels without fielding any?" "First thing, call me Henry. I expect the lands I used to Lord over are long gone by now. Second, the troop cost is so high because dire bats have a wingspan of about two meters. They can carry a full barrel of my concoctions. With a few levels, they might even be able to carry some of the lighter members of your group like yourself. As for leveling, I get exp just by doing alchemy or having my concoctions be used in an attack that kills something." "Can you make grenades small enough to be carried by gargoyles?" I hoped I might be able to pair him up with Sissy. "Easy enough to do. Gargoyles are only about two feet tall and can carry a few pounds at most. Should be enough to make a good boom" That settled it for me. I could get the range I needed right now by pairing him up with Sissy. Having another crafter around would also be helpful. I dismissed the other two. As soon as I did a small counter counting back from 100 minutes started. For the first hour, we went through a lot of the potions oils, and bombs that Henry could make. He would come in very handy making health stamina and magic potions to start. The small grenades would be helpful once we go after the were-rats, being able to follow them and maybe drop some down the holes they retreat to. After that Henry dropped a bombshell on me. He couldn't stand in direct sunlight in his humanoid form. He could only be in his bat form. Figured we could just have him do most of his work at night while he rests inside the wagons during the day. Henry also informed me that while he wasn't much of a combatant himself he did have the speed and the regen that came with being a vampire and as a noble, he had some practice with a rapier for dueling. After I woke up Henry appeared next to me. I introduced him to Sissy, and let those two figure out gathering materials needed and outfitting her gargoyles with bombs. For now, I would share my wagon with Henry for sleeping, and I would get a new chest for him, and buy some basic alchemy set for now. Once we got more money we would get him some upgrades. A new door lit up next to the one the chosen were in. There was a banner outside which was a black flag with a pair of white fangs on it. When we went inside I was greeted by a butler. A tiny skeleton in a black suit. "I am masters bannerbearer while out in the field. While normally I am his assistant." The butler introduced himself. "I have no name, but the Master usually just calls me boy or hey you" I looked over to Henry. "Before you ask, no I didn't kill him. The village he was from was wiped out in a plague and I wasn't able to develop a cure in time. Afterward, I raised most of those whose spirits were willing to be servants for my castle. I never knew the boy's name, and after a while just calling him boy stuck." I noticed the timer was almost up so I left the dreamscape. As no time elapsed since entering everyone was still waiting on what I picked. I introduced Henry to everyone. Moira immediately started calling him grandfather, which Henry didn't like that much, which only incentivized Moira to keep doing it. I told the group about my plans regarding using the bombs to give the gargoyles some extra attack power. Sissy thought it was a great idea, and I sent the two of them out to start the scouting and gathering, so we could be ready for the expedition. Aura would have the additional task of modifying my carriage to also have an alchemy table setup. Moira wanted to take the Chosen and do some drilling, she had already asked Sgt Runq if she would like to do some practice bouts and got permission to use their training field. That just left me with a lot of free time for the next week or so. I spent some of that time with the twin's dad learning more about architecture the town's library and city planning. I also spent some time in the towns library reading up on were-rats and tactics to fight them. Near the end of the week, Queenie asked for a quiet word with me. She asked if she could join the army. When I asked her why she replied "It's pretty boring in this town. I will leave one of my daughters to set up the franchise here. I expect having pixies as messengers and me being able to heal will come in handy during the expedition. All I ask in return is when you are ready to build your own town to have M3 be the first inn to be built." Queenie knew that that would almost certainly be the case anyway, what with my blood brother being one of the owners. I figured she just liked the excitement of adventuring and wanted to hide that fact behind a business deal. Word came down from the guild that they were waiting on a few more supplies before the gate was set up. But the caravan carrying it was late and had to also come down the same road we took. It would be heavily defended so they didn't think that it would have been attacked. The expedition would leave on an accelerated timeline. We needed those supplies and, to figure out what happened to the caravan carrying it. Aura had knocked it out of the park on the modifications to our wagons. We now had 3 of the tower variant wagons. Basically boxes with wheels on them topped with a roof that had crenelation-like armor around the rim. The only way up to the top was a ladder from inside the wagon. They could also be barred from the inside. From the top, we could extend some planks to walk from one wagon to the next. One for me and Henry, so part armory and part alchemy lab inside. Then one for Grim and the twins. Held our store room and the kitchen. The third one was for Aura and Queenie and had a full smithy and workbenches installed. Also held space for the wolf cubs. Queenie only picked Aura's wagon so she would be alone as Queenie herself didn't need much space. It would be us, Sgt Runq with 10 troops mounted on rhinos, and two other mercenary companies. One a group of 5 Harpies, all armed with bows naming themselves the Harpies Halo. Halo stands for High Altitude Low Operation. Because of the weight they could only carry short bows and a limited amount of ammo while flying. At their request, we added a ton of quivers to the top of the wagons so they could fly by and grab new ones to replenish fast if needed. The last merc company was 50 dwarves half armed with pikes and shields, The other half crossbows. The crossbow-men carried what was called a pavise on their backs. A shield they could plant into the ground and use for cover. The shields of both were filled with paintings of battle scenes in very fine detail. From what the commander told me each individual would have to paint their own shield, and recruitment to the regiment was only for those who were artists as well as competent fighters. The regiment was called Artistry in War. Once everything was ready. We marched out at dawn. The rhinos are in front of the formation, Us in the middle, with the dwarves bringing up the rear. The harpies flew out in pairs above us with the others taking a break on the wagons so we would always have some fresh eyes flying high above our column.