Paladin Sergeant Drake sighed. “Stow it, Knight. We still have a little ways to go yet.”
“Shouldn’t we be galloping at full speed to get there as soon as possible?” Knight Jaks asked, the reins of his horse looking child-sized in his meaty hands.
It was a valid question, but short-sighted. Drake was about to clarify as much when Knight Alaesh beat him to it.
“We don’t know what we’re riding into,” she said, sitting as upright in her saddle as she could. “If the wizard is as powerful as the messenger claims, we need to keep an even pace so as to not run into any traps.”
“What she said,” Drake confirmed. “You lot haven’t faced a wizard before, so I’ll be clear. Wizards have a wide array of spells and tricks, and they are bloody smart about it.” Besides, the truth was they were going at a fair enough pace to reach Maplebrook by nightfall, which was the real goal—hoping to mask their arrival well enough to close the distance on the spell-caster. “Oh!” Drake remembered. “This also gives us some time to go over strategies with our scribe. Eliza?”
Scribe Eliza, who hadn’t said much of anything in the last hour since they’d left from Knightshelm, cleared her throat and adjusted her spectacles. “Right,” she said, her foreign accent making even a simple response sound refined. “Arcanists refine their craft over decades, sometimes centuries for those who’ve achieved such lifespans. There are dozens of variants and sub-variants, but the most common are elementalists—those capable of harnessing the aether to create elemental spells. Though, by the messenger’s word, it sounds like our query has a predilection toward the necrotic, is that right?”
Near the front of their band of hunters was the Maplebrook guard who had rode in the previous night, a young man with a bewildered look about him.
“Ah, yah, that’s right,” he stuttered.
“Necromancers!” Jaks spat. “Vile hellspawn.”
Eliza ruffled her robes. “Well, not inherently. Necromancers are more akin to Erabos spawn than Infernites.”
Jaks stared at her indignantly.
“So,” Fetters said, finally shaking himself free of insects, “how does one slay a necromancer versus, say, an elementalist?"
Eliza’s voice brightened. “Oh, well it depends. An elementalist is rather straight forward—they don’t do well fighting the opposing element and thrive versus the same one, though for us oathbound, we are quite detached from their cycle and can defend or attack as needed. Elementalists are also more susceptible to the corruption of Infernos. Whereas elemental magic is quite volatile against necrotic, or blood magic you might call it. However, It seems this mage is also strong in the arcane—which is the opposing school of the light. In many cases, magic of Zyon will trump that of the other celestials, unless this wizard possesses any sort of reflective magic. Divine beats Infernal, Infernal beats Elemental, Elemental beats Blood, Blood beats Arcane, with the cycle closing as Arcane pressures Divine. In this case, we will want to lean on the power of the Obelisk above all. That is why I assume we are all carrying shards of its strength, is that right Paladin Sergeant?”
Drake chuckled. “You got it. See? You’re all getting a fine education on this journey.” He tried to keep the mood light, though a deeper concern haunted his heart. A wizard so powerful as to kill two full paladins in a matter of a moment was a harrowing adversary. Three knights, a scribe, a lowborn guard, and a decaying old veteran hardly made for the most deadly of hunters for such a foe. The Obelisk’s power was great, but it exacted a heavy toll to utilize. He’d only ever used the shard at a fourth of its power, and that was enough to nearly drive him insane. There were some paladins who could use more, who had been permitted to hold their oath to Zyon and could balance the two. Such will had dangers of its own, however. The light magic that this lot could muster came from harnessing the sun’s rays, and as such, it was common that knights of their order might sometimes be referred as Dawn Warriors—as fighting at night relied on artefacts infused with the sun's energy, or the tumultuous strength of their obelisk shards.
In short: Drake couldn’t help but think the order as it now stood was perhaps the worst bunch to take on a necromancer, but hopefully said necromancer wouldn’t know that. Hopefully he was the kind to think all paladins were radiant bound, and judging by the guard’s word that this adversary was a stranger to these lands, it seemed reasonable to hope for such possibilities.
“Blasted!” Fetters swore, smacking at another bug that had landed on his thigh.
Well. . . Is it too much to pray that the necromancer lacks eyes to see this sorry lot?
***
===
Jevrick’s Quest: Become Mayor of Maplebrook
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Side Quest:
- Meet with the Kobold King
- Deal with the Kobolds and Bandits
Maplebrook’s Population: 998
===
“More! More!” Nak-Kan slumped in his hoard, tiny coins and gems tumbling down as smaller kobolds scurried up the mountain with heaps of treasure and dropped them near his feet; much of the treasure then slipped down to grow the base of the ridiculous mound of gold and jewels.
Kipsic had led Atan and I along a path that curved to the side of the hoard and extended via a wooden platform just below the kobold king’s throne.
The weighty noble guffawed as we approached. He spoke in a deep, gravely voice compared to what the other kobolds had exhibited. “Yes-yes! Ah, no-wait, where’s this one’s skin? Who ate his flesh? How’s he still walking with no flesh?”
Kipsic looked back at me with trepidation.
I stepped forward and bowed. “Fair Nak-Kan, I am Jevrick, a student of magic and research—and mayor-elect of Maplebrook. I humbly present myself and my companion Atan, a knight of holy repute. We have come to present you with an offer of which I am certain you will find most amiable.”
As I looked up, I could make out a chasm behind the rock wall that the king’s throne and treasure hoard was gathered against. In that chasm was a warmth and smell I recognized as molten; a vibrant glow within contributed to the warm substance's existence.
“Hmm,” Nak-Kan grumbled. “What offer?”
I stood, smiling. “Kipsic tells us that you have a feud with a gang of local bandits you call the Greenfolk?”
The king scratched his bulbous double chin. Each of his fingers held on it a golden ring with a thick gem of swirling colors. They shimmered with a faint magic that spoke to some enchantment or another. “Yes. . .”
“Well, it just so happens that the people of Maplebrook have a similar distaste for the Greenfolk’s rowdiness, and I’d like to propose a truce between your clan and the people of Maplebrook. Atan here is an associate of the town, and can confirm that as a protector of it, that he will no longer seek to harm any kobolds for as long as the truce stands. Isn’t that right, dearest knight?”
He ground his teeth. I hadn’t told him of the plan. In fact, I was simply making these things up as I went, so he couldn’t take it too harshly.
“Yes, that’s right.” He shifted in his clanky armor.
I presented my arms like a welcoming hug. “There you have it. Oh, and in addition to dispatching the rogues, I would also like to make a request for some materials.”
Nak-Kan, still stroking his chin with his ring-laden fingers, asked, “What materials?”
Seeing that he was rather enamored with treasure, I feared he might not appreciate my request - but I had to remember that Kipsic, a lowly scout, held a sack of diamonds on him. That told me that either Nak-Kan had an abundance of the gem, or for some reason missed its value.
“A simple item, not of gold, but of glass.” I held up one of the diamonds, which was the size of a small seed, in between my fingers. “Larger ones of these, if you have them.”
Nak-Kan’s mouth twisted in a wide grin. “Very well, yes-yes. Agreed!”
That was. . . simple, and I suspected what I had asked for would come with some string attached. I would ask Kipsic at a later chance, what mattered more so now was dealing with the Kobold threat through this peace and then striking Deal with the Bandits off my list, thus cementing myself as an ideal candidate for the election.
“Kipsic!” The king attempted to right himself in his throne, which was overtaken by gold, and instead slumped back down. “Ugh. You will guide them. Make sure they kill-kill the Greenfolk! Then come and tell me, and I will have the glass gems delivered as requested.”
Kipsic nodded and bowed low. “Yes-yes, king Nak-Kan.”
The large kobold waved his hand. “Go now, the party is here!” He was alluding to a trio of giant kobolds who were pushing wheelbarrows up another ramp and proceeding to dump piles of coins onto the hoard. Where were these things getting all this gold?
I cleared my thoughts and bowed once again. “Thank you, your grace. We shan’t take long.” With that, the three of us continued toward the tunnels again. “Oh, before we leave, dearest Kipsic. Do you have any tradesmen or markets here that I could swing by for spell components?”
Kipsic nodded, while Atan said he’d wait for me near the entrance. I assured him I wouldn’t take long. Indeed there was a collection of tables and rugs where kobolds scattered out a variety of wares and oddities for trade and sale. As far as it looked to me, gold or any coin would be taken here.
Unfortunately, I was out of gold, and I realized I had nothing I was willing to trade. If I had been my old self, it’d have been a menial thing to wipe out the clan and take what I wanted. But it would not do for a mayor to go wiping out his friends, would it? Labor and payment was the way of civilization, after all.
Anyway, I set off with Atan—who again had disrobed his armor and needed kobold assistance to carry it through the tunnels, and after another journey through the dark caves, we were out in the world again, which was still dark. A whole morning and afternoon must have been spent there. Well, there was no more time to waste. The village of Maplebrook had tasked us to clear the bandits, and that was what I would do.
To spare the minute details, Kipsic led Atan and I across the forest to the south, where we stopped at the edge of the tree line above a canyon. There were dozens of tents, with fires set intermittently around them. I made a guess of a few hundred bandits there. Which, according to Atan—
“They’ll overwhelm us,” he whispered, doing his best not to shift in his plate armor. “We need to thin the herd a little.”
“Or convince a few to join our side,” I suggested.
Atan curled an eyebrow. “How so? These aren’t mere freemen—they flock to a dark druid, no doubt they have a religious stake in their allegiance to him.”
Kipsic nodded. “Yes-yes, I’ve seen. They pray to plants, and only eat animals!”
“Shouldn’t it be the other way around?” I asked. Surely they were vegetarian, not carnivore elitist.
Atan shrugged. “Doesn’t matter, what’s your plan, wizard?”
My teeth chattered excitedly. It’d been some time since I’d done what I was about to propose.
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