Monster Party Book 5: Forgive me my mistakes, I'm only human.
Chapter One: Into the woods, it's time to go.
Six adventurers stood looking down at one small unimportant looking rock. They stood on one side of that rock in the nation of Nova Vaasa where the church of the Lawgiver gave out holy pronouncements in exchange for mortal wealth and power.
On the other side of the rock was Tepest, where spiritual matters were treated in an all together more dreadfully earnest fashion.
Precautions had to be taken before they entered Tepest against ALL its inhabitants.
"Hat check James." Demanded Alexander Diamondclaw a tall man with a green left eye and a right one which was covered by a black eye-patch. He wore full body black outfit of a vaguely martial design which had a few strange silver runes upon it along with black gloves and boots.
James Firecat to all appearances a normal (if extremely energetic) young man in a bright red outfit who began to tug away at the wide brimmed hat he wore. No matter how he strained or pulled it remained planted firmly in place. The most information one could be sure of about his head above the brow line was that he had bright red hanging down the back of his neck.
"Won't come loose." James Firecat eventually admitted.
"It is like I told you Boss, fast drying, hard setting, and completely waterproof. That adhesive won't come loose until its mixed with the proper solvent." Boasted Callan "Cal" Wright the group's alchemist.
He was dressed in a simple enough brown cloak and pants, though it was possible to see he had on a red tie and blue shirt beneath it. A pair of blue lenses rested across his face at the moment.
"Florence, Mirri, how are you doing?" Alexander inquired.
"Well enough Sir, but do I really have to wear these stupid things?" Demanded Mirri Catwarrior a somewhat fair skinned woman with midnight black hair. She was wearing a white jacket and black pants, along with a white hat and gloves.
At the moment her eyes were hidden behind a pair of dark lenses.
"We're going into Tepest, you tell me." Alexander answered.
Mirri hung her head and sulked, idly fingering her glasses all the while. Looking closer one could see that they unlike Cal's they had noticeable ear straps to make sure the lenses could not be removed quickly either by accident or on purpose.
"How am I supposed to talk to people if they don't have a reason to trust me?" She muttered to herself.
"Glasses come off a lot quicker than hair regrows." Muttered Florence Bastien, a bald woman in a green leotard like outfit whose skin was exactly the same shade as Mirri's.
"You're not the only one with hair problems..." Muttered Alexander Diamondclaw whose shoulder length blond hair was ragged and untidy in a manner suggesting it had recently been much longer.
"How are your ears Devi?" Cal asked turning to the other female member of the group.
Devi Skye was a brown haired woman wearing blue dress with blue gloves on who had a flail wrapped around her right arm. Said arm casually stroked the ears that emerged from her brown hair.
"Round and ineffectual. Exactly like those of every human in the world. Sadly because my lifespan is to be measured in only two digits worth of years I'm doomed to die before I have time to fully contemplate even such obviously inadequacies." She moaned in overwrought anguish.
"I know it is a little hypocritical of me to ask this at the moment... but are you guys really sure we should do this? I mean I hear Barovia is lovely this time of year! It's not like Strahd Von Zarovich has time to try and personally slay every single group of adventurers who wander into his domain…
Not only that, but we'd only have to watch out for one guy! If we go to Tepest, then we're going to be heading into a land where every single villager will be trying to burned me the stake just because I understand how to properly combine saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal without reducing myself to a fine mist." The alchemist grumbled.
Alexander responded by simply placing a firm hand on Cal's shoulder.
"The places that need us most often want us least. Now lets head on in..." Alexander commanded and slowly the half a dozen adventurers passed the rock, passed from the open plains of Nova Vaasa and into the shadowy forests of Tepest.
XXX XXX XXX
As the six adventures made made their way way along the forest path the weather began to take a turn for the worse. Rain cascaded from the iron-gray sky, large droplets splattering against the group's clothing. Not even the thickly growing trees provided enough cover and bit by bit the road began to transform from dirt to mud.
"By the way Cal, you did a good job on our clothes." Alexander admitted as he watched another droplet roll off of his black outfit.
"What can I say, I love my work, or at least I love being dry." The alchemist reflected.
Sure enough, the mixtures he'd recently applied to all of the group's clothing was causing the water to slide right off it, rather than dampening both fabric and the flesh beneath.
"Do you think we should find a place to camp until the rain dies down?" Devi suggested carefully turning her gaze this way and that for any sort of obvious source of shelter.
Another drop of rain fell a few feet in front of Alexander. It splattered against seemingly nothing at all, and the blond haired man's single eye widened at the sight.
"Trap line... Rest will have to wait Devi..." He warned as he reached back and drew forth the two handed longsword from the sheath strapped to his back.
Scant seconds after the blade had been drawn he had need of it, as half a dozen arrows came shooting out of the forest. Alexander's twisted, dodged, and blocked as best he could, and luckily their crude (but hardly less dangerous for it) stone arrowheads bit only cloth instead of flesh.
Even as the sound of whistling arrows still hung in the air, war cries began to fill the forest. Dark creatures surged forward from the trees charging at the group from all sides. The six were beset by feral-looking creatures who stood little more than a single yard tall with bulging black eyes and mouths full of jagged teeth, their leathery skin made them look like some sort of cross between halflings and lizards.
Each of the beast men wielded a crude stone-tipped spear and road upon a great slavering wolves with evil intelligent eyes.
Alexander took one look upon their assailants' mounts and his expression changed from stoic determination to boiling rage.
"Oh you snaggletoothed bastards." He growled and promptly charged forward himself.
Off the beaten path the footing was ironically slightly superior (or at the very least, firmer) since grass absorbed the rainfall better than bare earth. Alexander and two of the mounted monsters made a beeline for one another.
A spear made of half rotted wood was thrust forward and promptly sliced in half. While his attention was focused on that task however the other rider urged his mount to pounce upon the adventure. The twisted wolf beast was already salivating at the prospect of a kill and needed precious little encouragement.
Even with the benefit of Cal's alchemical mixtures his gloves had not been rendered completely immune to the rain. Droplets of water still rested upon the fabric, and they rendered his blade's hilt more slippery than normal. Alexander had no time to be horrified at the sight of Wolfclaw slipping free from his hands as the weight of the beast sent him skidding across the wet ground.
Instead, the blond haired man rolled with the impact, and used the momentum that it had imparted upon him to turn himself over.
Which just meant that he had a chance to clearly see the half insane eyes of a beast while its teeth closed in on his throat.
His body twisting about the wet grass like a snake Alexander managed to work one of his legs out from under the monstrous wolf and lashed out with a powerful kick. It was not aimed at the beast itself, but at the equally bestial creature upon its back.
It had been riding with neither reigns nor stirrups, and thus had nothing to cling to but its mount's fur. All that ended up accomplishing was filling its hands with gray hair as in fell to the ground.
Alexander grabbed the dismounted rider by its bald head, and squeezed.
There was a horrible crunching sound and then he shoved the unresisting monster into its former mount's mouth. The wolf monster was for a brief moment sated by the prospect of having something to eat and Alexander was able to roll his entire body out from under it. At which point he quickly started to scan the area for the first of the beastmen to have attacked him.
The orange and black skinned beastman was currently trying to abscond with Alexander's sword, though it was somewhat hampered by the fact that the blade was a great deal longer than it was tall.
It had managed to get it off the ground, but was still trying to sort out exactly how to wield it without accidentally harming its mount in the process.
"You are just full of bad decisions today..." Alexander growled under his breath.
With one well placed jump he propelled himself through the air and landed on the second lupine monster's back, smashing the sword thief to the ground in the process, an unpleasantly fatal sound accompanying his impact.
"As for you..." He growled before rolling over the side of the wolf monster itself, his hands seizing two of the thing's legs.
Alexander rose to his full height and in a display of heroic strength managed to lift the wolf monster off the ground, twist it about, and hurl against a nearby trees. The beast let loose with a howl of anguish as the impact clearly broke several of its bones.
By this time the other of his original four legged opponents had finished feasting upon its former rider and was ready to slay something else. It bounded towards Alexander, but the green eyed man responded with well crafted kick, which knocked his fallen sword back up into the air.
"Sorry about that." He apologized to Wolfclaw before promptly using it to cleave the four legged beast in half.
All four of his foes dealt with, Alexander was able to take stock of the situation, and shift his stance in time to block another stone tipped arrow.
A second later there was a sharp "CRACK" which had nothing to do with lightning despite how overcast the sky was. A bow fell from limp hands as one beastman's unpleasant face became uglier still with the addition of a bullet hole.
Cal Wright stood in the middle of a triangle of James Firecat, Devi, Sky, and Florence Bastien, fighting with knives, flail, and a wooden staff respectfully, united by the single goal of keeping the monsters away from him. So long as the monsters couldn't get within reach of him the alchemist was able to reap a terrible harvest with his personally crafted breech-loading firearm Phoenix.
The rain proved no impediment to his weapon, and every time it spoke it made a convincing argument for why one of Cal's foes should currently be laying flat on the ground never to rise again. Their attackers had managed to surround the group, but in the process somehow they had lost track of one of its members.
Another archer was just starting to draw a bead upon Alexander when a pair of white gloved hands seized it from behind.
"No." A feminine voice whispered, and soon the bow fell from limp hands and the beastman's limp body fell to the ground.
Then there was a cruel laugh and then Mirri Catwarrior darted back behind the nearest tree.
As she did so another group of six "wolf" mounted beastmen bounded into sight and began to charge Alexander.
The blond haired man stood his ground, Wolf Claw at the ready.
Despite their losses the bestial creatures continued to press the attack. They hissed and snarled, stabbing at Alexander, in such a rush to stain their weapons with his blood that they got in each others' way.
For all their lack of discipline they were still dreadfully earnest, there was a shared a look in their eyes which suggested they would rather die than let any of the group escape.
Then above the din of battle it was possible to hear a bugle blare and hoof-beats draw near. A sleek gray steed suddenly burst from the fog, its rider clad in midnight hues and holding a gleaming saber aloft.
His weapon came down swiftly cleaving yet another of the beastmen in twain.
"This way men, the goblins have taken the bait!" He cried out exuberantly as his a kick form his horse's iron shod hooves caved in the skull of the wolf beast whose rider he had slain a moment ago.
The beastmens' fierce determination vanished as quickly as they themselves had arrived. Those archers who were still alive began to fade back into the forests, while the riders and mounts alike began to beat a retreat so slapdash that several more of them were promptly slain.
As the last of the creatures vanished from sight the rider pulled up his horse next to Alexander and carefully swung off it.
"You lot are lucky I came along when I did. Goblins will fight to the death, but only as long as they think it's their own idea. You make em think that they're the ones being trapped and they'll turn run for the hills, even if you're only bluffing." He explained.
That particular bit of advice certainly seemed to be accurate given that there were no neither sight nor sound of other horsemen nearby.
"They grow meaner stronger goblins in Tepest than in most other lands." Alexander admitted.
Their rescuer then pulled back his hood revealing himself to be a man in his early twenties with slightly disheveled blond hair.
"I'm Ivan D'Ogmai, originally of Darkon, though I've been calling Tepest home of late. I see by your dress that you're strangers here too. Well, let me warn you, there are worse monsters than goblins in Tepest. Mind your step when you deal with the folk around here as well. They're the most suspicious people I've ever met." Ivan forewarned them.
Alexander looked at the recently slain bodies of several goblins and wolf beasts that now littered the path.
"These creatures smelled foul enough when they were alive, death is not likely to improve their scent much. Why don't we head a little ways further down this road before we do any more talking?" Alexander suggested.
Ivan seemed somewhat taken aback by Alexander's words, but with a shrug of his shoulders he acquiesced and began to lead his horse back the way he'd come.
"Just so long as you don't expect us to go all the way to Viktal... I'm not exactly welcome there at the moment." The black haired man answered.
"You know Boss, it is rapidly starting to sound like our new friend is a lot more in need of 'rescuing' than we are, maybe he helped set up that goblin ambush and then..." Cal Wright would have continued in that particular vein but Devi drove an elbow firmly into his midsection silencing him for the moment.
"You'll have to forgive my alchemist, the plain and simple fact is that there's no one more suspicious than him in the entire Core." Alexander apologized.
Ivan shot a wary glance in Cal's direction and then sighed.
"He does have the right of it, somewhat at least. Not that I'd have anything to do with those beasts, or that I am personally in danger... but I am rather desperately in need of some rescuers, otherwise I wouldn't be out on the road in the middle of this downpour." He admitted.
"Best to start at the beginning, who actually is in need of rescuing?" Alexander inquired.
"Bryonna of Viktal... the woman I love with all my heart. At the moment she languishes in the city jail under the false charge of being in league with, if not actually among the fey! When I heard the charge announced... I... went out of my mind with anger.
Before I knew it, two of the city's inquisitors wound up loosing a few of their teeth, and I just barley managed to flee the village in time to avoid being imprisoned alongside her." Ivan reflected sourly.
"So your response to having your girlfriend charged with a crime that she's completely innocent of was to see to it that you became completely guilty of a few yourself? I think you need..." Cal never managed to finish that particular suggestion though, because Mirri and Devi both elbowed him in the chest in unison, the two women striking from opposite sides of his body.
"I realize that I acted rashly, foolishly, stupidly... but nothing can undo the deed now that it is done. All that matters is that Bryonna is innocent, and you... have you ever found yourself faced with an injustice so great that you felt no man worthy of the name could act rationally in the face of it?" He pleaded with Alexander.
A single green eye very pointedly refused to meet Ivan's gaze.
In fact, it looked for a moment as if Alexander was tempted to take a few quick steps and leave the darkoneese merchant turned outlaw facing only the black fabric of his eye-patch.
"So long as no one died by your hand, then I'll withhold my judgment." Was all he said.
Ivan seemed to hardly have expected more from Alexander and so he could only shake his head mournfully.
"It is all so stupid you know... the people of Viktal, they're nice enough... but they're scared out of their wits by the 'fey' and sometimes I don't think they don't even know what a 'fey' actually is!
I mean, I grew up in Darkon, I've met elves and dwarfs, yes they live longer than we do, look a little different, but deep down, they're the same as us. Sure there are goblins in these woods and they'd kill you just as soon as look at you... but... I just have a hard time believing their stories of all the evil the fey cause. I've never seen something a fey supposedly did that couldn't have another more logical explanation." Ivan admitted.
Alexander sighed, and mournfully shook his head.
"You had best start believing in fey stories Mister D'Ogmai... you're in one." The green eyed man declared, as he removed his eye-patch.
There was a very long silence as Ivan drank in the sight before him.
"You... ahh... urr... ohh..." He babbled unable to formulate a coherent response.
Alexander just smiled at the sight of how uncomfortable he'd made Ivan before sliding his eye-patch back on and placing a comforting hand on the other man's shoulder.
"Don't worry, even if you don't believe in the fey yet, I know at least one who believes in you. Now tell me, would you prefer I work over your stomach or your head? I would personally suggest head, it looks much more impressive that way and once you've had one good blow to it you can barely feel the others." He asked in a strangely jovial voice.
End Chapter