Slayer Gothic - Wishverse
The Forgotten Realms
Jalanthar. Northwest Faerûn
Since this world had plenty of flying creatures, including many kinds of very powerful dragons, I'd decided that while we explored this world that my airship would make use of one of the rivers here in the Silver Marches, which would take us to Silverymoon, rather than fly directly there.
We were going to Silverymoon in order to trade for more enchanting materials and to buy some magical weapons, those were pretty common in this part of the multiverse. Also while we were here we could pick up some more potions and magical supplies. I wanted us to be well stocked for when we returned to Sunnydale as I wouldn't have as much free time, and as such I wouldn't be able to keep popping to other realities for supplies.
Another reason to pick this place was that I wanted to impress the newest member of harem, the Witch of the Wilds aka Morrigan. Not that I would ever admit this, but I wanted to show off to her. There was something about that woman that made me want to impress her more than my other women. I didn't think that she'd enchanted me it was something more natural than that.
I'd visited Silverymoon before, during my last life, and so far I'd seen no evidence that this was the same version of the Forgotten Realms that had I visited before. Which actually happened to be a good thing as I didn't want to run into the original Slayer Gothic, he might think me a impostor and we could end up trying to kill each other.
We hadn't gotten there yet, right now we were in a hamlet which was located near the Rauvin River, the river my airship was currently sailing on. From my research I'd learned that in recent years the hamlet had relocated from the south bank of the river to the foothills north of the river after repeated orcs raids. Not that the raids had stopped.
This town had been overrun on multiple occasions by orcs, and every time that happened the inhabitants of the Hamlet retreated to safety into the mountains. Many of the newer buildings here had been built directly into the hillside and were covered with turf so as to resist burning.
My girls and I currently sat within in a tavern and as I looked around the tavern, it took a lot of self control for me to not to grin like an idiot. Here I was in an inn within the Forgotten Realms. How many adventures had started this way? What would happen to us while we were here?
The Crowing Cockatrice of Jalanthar was a ramshackle place made mostly of stone and dug half into the ground. Really it was little more than a large covered hole, but it was a tavern and such places were good for gathering information about local events.
"I thought this place would be more fancy" Harriet said "Like that Gondor city".
That place had been rather nice for a medieval city, far cleaner and more friendly than it might have been. I'd wondered if anyone in that place knew what my group had done for them by destroying that orc army, or if they were ignorant about the situation. They couldn't have missed the fact that an army of orcs had been defeated, but they might not know who was responsible.
Not that I cared much as I sought no reward, and not just because they didn't have anything I wanted that I couldn't easily get elsewhere. I could buy anything I desired simply by raiding the zombie world for stuff to sell on other worlds.
"Sliverymoon is suppose to be pretty fancy" I said the wand waving witch "This place is poor,and it gets attacked a lot too".
The orcs of this world were currently attacking a lot of settlements here in the Silver Marches. Mostly it was only the odd war band the people of this hamlet had to worry about. However the orcs had recently rallied behind some super tough warlord or warboss, like they sometimes did, and now they were more organised than normal. Which made them much more dangerous than at other times.
"Yeah, they seem like refugees," Buffy said.
When we got outside of the tavern, intending to go back to the ship, I noticed the many wagons that were crammed full of people, and there were many more walking along side the wagons. They didn't much better off than those who couldn't walk.
The people at the head of the convoy were talking to the guards, something about an
attack up near the pass. I heard a lot of the conversation as I had enhanced hearing, and I got the impression that this town could soon come under attack.
"We should go" I said to my harem.
To my dismay Tara and Harriet were now going over to the people in wagons, and soon started using wand magic to fix the more minor injuries. Which was kind of them, but it had a big impact on the crowd. Soon people were shoving injuries at the two witches, while parents were pushing children towards them, eager for their kids to get fixed up.
"Enough!" I shouted.
They all pulled back, looking frightened, and while I felt bad about upsetting these poor people I didn't want two of my girls to be trampled by a mob.
"Okay, form a line," I told the people before turning to my girls "Buffy go open the stall, we'll set up here and hand out our healing potions, and any supplies we have that they can use, just give them out".
I wouldn't charge for them anything, and while giving stuff away would result in use losing our stock, the truly worthwhile stuff was stored away back in the hotel, back on the ship, or in our pouches of holding.
"Morrigan if you could look them over, see what you can do" I requested.
She grumbled, but got on with the healing, between them my witches would be able to help a lot of people.
(Line Break)
Rauvin River. Northwest Faerûn
"What have we got left to sell?" I asked of Fred.
Healing and sharing stuff with those refuges had resulted in the mobile stall getting picked over as desperate people grabbed what they could. Which might seem like a big loss, but in reality it was in fact not a real problem. Besides helping all those helpless made me look good in the eyes of my girls, or at least most of them.
The buying and selling were just part of why were making these trips, and nothing of any real worth had been made available to the public. The stuff we wanted to keep was either kept secure in the cargo bay or back at the hotel, a place that was hardly lacking in spare rooms for storage.
"Not much" Winifred told me "Most of what's in the cargo bay isn't ours".
My ship had ended up joining a small fleet of ships which were transporting people and war materials. A group of dwarfs, whose wagons of weapons needed to reach Everlund, which was due to be attacked by orcs sometime soon.
They'd booked passage on my ship, paying well for the privilege, as not only could I transport all their goods quickly I could also do it safely. Compared to the other boats on the water my vessel was a floating fortress.
From what I knew of that city we were heading for, since its humble beginnings as a fortified trading outpost and bridgehead on the Rauvin, the city of Everlund had grown in population and importance increased so that it became one of the most important trading cities in the region. Which made it a tempting place to visit as we were here to trade, but it would be best to save the gold until we reached Silverymoon.
"We have a little local money" I said to Fred "And plenty of gold since I raided Fort Knox again before we left".
It was good that we did as it meant we all now had plenty of room in our pouches, and lots of bigger on the inside trunks from Harriet's world. We'd likely devalue gold in these parts for some time, but we'd be able to buy the raw materials, magical items, and so on, that we desired.
"Keep an eye on the cargo" I said to the tiny Texan "and make sure everyone stays on alert. We'll be attacked at some point I just know it".
The barges we were sailing with couldn't go very faster when compared to my mighty vessel so this trip, and I wouldn't leave them behind as they were depending on us for protection.
"Damien!" Arya called out "Look at that"
She passed me the magical telescope and I got a closer look at the amazing sight that she'd alerted me to. On one of clouds above, that was up near the mountains, rested a small castle with a single prominent tower, and I knew that the tower belonged to some wizard.
Also it looked like there were some smaller buildings on the cloud, but it was the castle that held my attention. I could only imagine what sort of power it would take to counter gravity like that.
"What?" one of the dwarves asked before he noticed that sight "It's a cloud island. So what?".
Even for someone like me, who'd seen a lot, a castle in the sky was still very impressive.
"Who lives there?" Arya asked.
"How should I know," the dwarf said. "Probably some Archmage. Wizards are always making cloud islands, when they aren't breeding strange monsters. They're a troublesome bunch. I personally think they should be outlawed".
Given that my ship was magical and it was filled with magic users the dwarf had ruffled some feathers. Morrigan surprisingly kept her mouth shut, denying her desire to make a biting sarcastic comment I felt sure.
"We don't have castles on clouds where were from" I explained.
The cloud slowly drifted out of sight into the mountains, and I was sad to see it go.
"Orcs" someone shouted. "Lots of them".
There was a sudden roar and then an army of orcs were appearing from the trees that lined the river. They were not as horrible to look at as the ones from Middle Earth, but they were no less hostile. This was proven when arrows began to fly through the air.
"Shields up!" I ordered.
Tara was using the golden staff that amplified the effects of spells to bring up a magical barrier that stopped the arrows from hitting my ship or anyone on it. Since my boat was by far the biggest it was attracting nearly all of the arrows.
Then without any warning a large boulder flew through the air and crashed into the water, between several boats.
"Well, they're firing blind," one of the dwarves said "That's something".
It wasn't much.
"They'll get some hits eventually if someone doesn't find their catapults and take them out" I said "and we don't have anything that can fire back that far".
This was when the shield went down and Buffy, who was using her Aura power, jumped off the boat and landed on the bank of the river. Just as she did some fog appeared. I figured that a magic user had created it in an attempt to give us some cover.
"Buffy, get back here!" I yelled.
She either wasn't listening or couldn't here me. I'd hoped that Wishverse Buffy wasn't as stupidly as heroic as other versions of the Slayer, alas this was proving not to be the case. Slayers were drawn to battle, and I too was feeling the urge to go join in.
"As soon as I'm off the ship raise the shield again" I told Tara "And don't wait for me, keep going".
Using my Aura power I jumped further than any human should be able to and landed on the muddy bank of the river without any trouble. Then I stopped using my aura as it was a finite resource and I might need the energy later. I would have to rely on my Slayer powers and the magical items which enhanced those abilities.
This was when a large humanoid came out of the fog and swung an axe at my head. I back stepped very quickly, while taking my sword out and then waited for an opening while avoiding the enemy's axe. When the orc paused in its attack, I went on the offensive, knocking its axe aside before driving Brightroar into the orc's skull.
In the distance I could roaring and orc screams. A sound I followed and it led me to a whole gang of orcs. I attacked them from behind, sword in one hand, plasma defender pistol in the other, and I was soon killing them all very quickly. A few of them lived long enough to actual try killing me as well. Half a dozen were dead in a matter of moments, and now I was covered in blood. Thankfully blood washed off dragonhide easily.
At the point a fireball went off, maybe a dozen yards in front of me. It seemed to burn a hole in the fog and I rushed forward hoping to see Buffy. Instead I found a huge hairy human, which was bucktoothed and drooling. The giant had a great club and tried to bash me with it. Alas for the giant I shot him in the face a few times with my plasma pistol, which totally destroyed its head.
"Buffy!" I called out.
She didn't reply to me, instead I met up with what seemed to be a big fucking orc, or maybe it was an ogre, it held a club, they seemed to be popular in these parts, and it swung the weapon at me.
I powered up with my aura, and caught the end of the club with my hand, an act which greatly shocked the creature, I hadn't even known that I could do that, and while this was fun I really should be more careful since I didn't yet understand this power.
While the aura lasted I jumped into the air and did a spin kick that broke the creature's neck in a single move.
"Whoa, that takes getting used to" I said to myself, amazed by my own power "So cool"
A few moments later I ran into Buffy.
"We need to find those catapults" I said to her "And then get back to the ship".
Before we could start looking a group of orcs charged at us through the mist, hurtling spears as they charged. I took a spear to the shoulder, it bounced off my, stinging but not doing any real damage thanks to my armour and magical protections.
The orcs soon swarmed over us, even as I shot some of them. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Buffy wielding her Slayer Scythe even as I swung Brightroar through the flesh of orcs, cutting them down. These creatures were tougher than humans, but their armour was only fur and leather, easy for someone like me to cut through even without a magic sword.
Then the leader appeared, he was a big git who wore proper plate armour, and he had a nice looking axe that I was so going to take from his cooling corpse.
"Mine!" I shouted.
My fancy Goblin silver blade flew through the air and a moment later the big orc had a magical blade in its left eye, which it did not enjoy, and the orc warrior dropped dead on the ground.
Next I went over and took the creature's axe, but not before recovering my dagger, the axe had a solid steel handle that was etched with tiny runes, and had a star sapphire set into the pommel. This handle connected to a double-bladed head forged from silver and some sort of steel if I was any judge.
When I picked up the weapon the axe shimmered with a deep blue luminescence and had six more runes etched into it. These runes glowed blue, and I figured that this meant the weapon liked me, or at least that was the impression I got.
The glowing could also be controlled by the wielder as when I thought about how the glowing would give me away in the dark the blue light faded.
"Finally someone worthy to wield me" said a female voice "I could barely stand to have that orc hold me".
The mind within the axe explained that she had been Lady Laroun a War Lord of Waterdeep until she was slain by orcish archers sometime in the past. She was a just, but violent ruler, and Ahghairon the mage, the maker of this weapon did not foresee another War Lord as honourable as she taking up the mantle any time soon. He obeyed her final request "to ensure that she would always be able to aid the defence of the City of Splendours" by binding her departing soul to a magical battleaxe.
I didn't have much to think about that as we still had some catapults to take down, and by the time we'd done that the fog faded, the air clearing with surprising speed, which confirmed that it must be have been magical made.
When we got to the riverbank we could see that the area was littered with dead bodies, between us we'd killed a lot of monsters.
"What possessed you to go running off like that?" I asked Buffy.
Instead of answering my question she took a look at my new weapon.
"Oh pretty," she said "Is that a sapphire in the hilt?, very nice".
I rolled my eyes.
"Lets get back to the ship" I said "We can discuss your recklessness later".
At times it was like she wanted me to punish her, or maybe it was something worse, maybe she had a death wise.
(Line Break)
Sliverymoon. Silver Marches.
"Hold," a guardsman called out as I reached the bottom of the ramp "State your names, and your business here in the Gem of the North".
Given what the man had just called the city that we were currently trying to enter I figured that we were in the right place. Not that I would have mistaken it as there weren't a lot of cites in the Silver Marches, and none of them were like Silverymoon.
As for the guard, he was one of many who'd come out to greet us when the ship had docked, but he was clearly the highest ranking officer. The river when through the city, as such there were plenty of places for a big boat to dock.
"I am Damien Mason" I told the guard, using my civilian name "I'm the captain of this ship, and here to trade".
Not that we had much left to trade as the situation caused by the rampaging orc war bands had led to us giving everything we could to the poor people of this land, and while such charity was approved of by most of my harem, it did mean that I'd have to spend a lot of my gold while in this city while trying buy all the things we needed, rather than trade for them.
"These are my associates" I said while gesturing to each of my girls. "Buffy Summers, Tara MaClay, Harriet Potter, Winifred Burkle, Arya Stark and Morrigan".
It was times like this that I needed a moment to reflect on what an odd harem I'd managed to put together, and I had to wonder what other exotic females I could add to it.
"Our business to simply explore the city, and to do some shopping" I told the guard "We're new to the Silver Marshes, and we are also looking to met traders as we have contacts in far off lands looking for new goods".
By far off lands I met other worlds, but they didn't need to know that.
"You'll have to speak to her ladyship before you can wander the city freely" said the highest ranking of the guardsmen "If you'd please follow me, I'll have some of men guard the ship, no one will board her".
There was no need, the magical defences should keep people out.
(Line Break)
Sliverymoon. Silver Marches.
Upon entering the throne room the officer who'd escorted us to the palace gave her ladyship a formal bow before speaking to the ruler of this city.
"Lady, I'm sorry to interrupt you" he said "but this group came from the strange ship we spotted coming this way".
The woman in charge here graced me with a small smile and waved at a chair.
"Please," she said "I'll speak with your leader only".
As my girls piled out of the room, and I took a seat, were as the officer moved to stand behind me in "at ease" position. He was clearly a long term military man.
"I would prefer to speak with our guest alone" her ladyship said.
The officer nodded and spun around, exiting through the door which he closed behind him
"What is your name?" she asked.
So far this meeting was far less pleasant than the last time I'd met with a version of this woman.
"I'm Slayer Gothic, my Lady," I answered.
The powerful mage smiled at me.
"Are you aware that I am a mage?" Lady Alustriel Silverhand said to me "there is a certain spell that allows me to learn the falsehood of anything spoken to me. I will try again. What is your name?"
A "detect lies" spell? Cool.
"Damien Mason," I answered honestly.
That was legally my name and I'd been using it for so long that it actually felt like my name.
"Where are you from?" was the next question.
I knew that my answer would mean nothing to her so there was no harm in answering her question.
"Most recently from Sunnydale California, which is the United States of America" said "Planet Earth".
The very elegant lady raised an eyebrow.
"I have never heard of a planet Earth" she said to me. "How came you to be here?"
Once I'd explained about the ship I would go on to offer her ladyship the chance to acquire goods from other worlds as long as we could trade here freely. She'd been a fool to refuse, and she as no fool.
(Line Break)
Sliverymoon. Silver Marches.
After wandering around the city, just taking in the sights rather than doing any business, we settled into the Shining Scroll tea house and bookstore for a break, it was a large establishment that catered to what appeared to be a mostly student crowd. It was quiet and given over to reading, study and whispered conversation. The place was built near a large cluster of buildings done in marble and in a classical style that practically screamed university.
"Is that a school?" Tara asked.
Between sips of the local tea I consulted the map I'd brought, and then the book which explained about different parts of the city. It had been written by a rather good writer, or at least a hard working one as his name had been on quite a few books at what passed for Silverymoon's tourist information office.
"That the Lady's College, which must be the name for the lady I just met with" I told the witch "It trains wizards not just in spell craft, but in the history of magic. Students are provided with rooms in the college's rambling housing-halls, and meals in the college's refectory. The food, and particularly the wine that goes with it, is surprisingly good this book claims, and meals are often accompanied by dance, minstrelsy, literary readings, or displays of entertaining illusions".
I read out some more.
"The college teaches tolerance, cooperation, and an appreciation for differing philosophies and approaches to magic" I told Tara "All students are exposed to every school of spells, to see if they have the desire or aptitude to specialise. The college accommodates just over a hundred students at a time, with an ever-lengthening waiting list to get in. Naive hopefuls who show up at the gates are put on the list, taken in, and taught to do cooking, laundry, cleaning, and repair work around the university. If they continue to do such tasks, they'll be given room and board and allowed to peruse limited portions of the Conclave libraries on their own, until their time comes to join the study body".
Harriet also seemed very interested in the place.
"Sounds a little like Hogwarts" she commented "Only with college students, and no House Elves to do the work".
Hopefully they had a decent defence against the dark arts teacher.
"Do you think I could go there?" Tara asked "Not full time, but maybe they have like a evening class I could attend".
I was fairly certain that I'd had this conversation with a version of Willow when I'd come to this city for the first time.
"Time doesn't pass at the same rate in every reality" I told the teen "Even if it didn't evening here could midday in Sunnydale, so you couldn't to college there and go to classes here".
That wasn't the only issue.
"Besides the magic users here tap into what's called the Weave" I went on to say "it doesn't exist in our worlds so you could end up learning a load of spells you can use back home. You should research that, and if it turns out to be worth learning this worlds magic you can always come here after college in Sunnydale".
Buffy cared not for this conversation.
"Come on let's go see the magical weapons" she was saying.
I stood to leave and fished out some silver coins from my belt pouch and tossed them on the table. Fred picked one up and studied it which allowed me to see that I had by mistake put down a platinum coin.
"Do you have any idea how much this is worth?" she asked me.
In fact I did.
"Its ten gold pieces to one platinum coin" I said "I traded in some gold bars at the city's mint so we have plenty of coins".
Right away I knew that I would regret saying that as there were a lot of shops here and I had a large group of females with me. I was so glad there we had so many pouches of holding otherwise I'd be crushed under the weight of shopping bags during one of these trips.