Chapter 35
Through Aloe, they found out that the raiders were only recently formed after having come in from the north. Apparently, there were other paths going through the mountains that led to other places. They also got him to lead them to their base. It was in a small wooden fort built in front of a large cave. There was very little cover approaching it so they had to hug the mountain to get near it.
"Hmm, this will be difficult," muttered Temma as they observed from afar.
"Hmm, maybe we can trick them into letting us inside?" suggested Leda suddenly, a smile slowly forming on his face after a pause..
"How do we do that?" asked a curious Nene.
The lightning genasi's grin was in full form as he explained, "Right, you know how to create minor illusions?" Getting a nod, he continued as he gestured around, "You and me. We pretend to be hobgoblins with the illusions over us. Then, miss succubus here can get our friend here to lead us. Also, she can transform into a hobgoblin as well to complete the bluff."
"What about all of us?" asked Kiara.
"Well… you can pretend to be mercenaries that want to join the raiders," stated the genasi after musing over it, "We definitely look the part right now."
After everyone agreed with the plan, they prepared everything according to Leda's plan. Civia even healed the charmed hobgoblin captain to sell the illusion that he had won a fight and had successfully persuaded some mercs to join them. Once they were ready, the polymorphed Aloe ordered the charmed captain to lead them to the fort. There were a few hobgoblins on the walls looking at them as they approached.
They were stopped at the gate by two guards. After an exchange of words, they opened the gates. Inside, there were goblins milling around doing odd jobs, with a few hobgoblins standing at the firepit in the center of the fort speaking with another who was holding a quarterstaff with iron bands at the tips. However, once that one glanced over at them, he started shouting at everyone.
"I think they figured it out," stated Botan as the raiders scrambled to get or draw their weapons. As they drew their weapons as well, she quipped, "If that one saw through the illusion... is he a mage?"
"Might be, Take him out first. Quickly!" ordered Temma as the fight began, while the fake hobgoblins got ready to fight as well in spite of their transformations..
There was a sudden shout coming from the left side. A hobgoblin patrol, on the way back to the fort, also showed up and moved in to attack them too. Temma broke off to take on the patrol while Kiara moved up as backup for the fake hobgoblins. In the melee in front of the fort, the charm on the hobgoblin captain somehow broke. However, as he turned around to draw his sword, he got struck down almost immediately. An ear-shattering sound imploded in the mass of goblinoids crowding in the fort entrance. Meanwhile, the rest of the spellcasters as well as Botan rained their attacks from long range on the patrol and the hobgoblins on the walls, with Civia's blasts knocking them off the wall if they hit.
"Damn fools! Must I do everything myself!?" roared the hobgoblin devastator before he raised his hands and his quarterstaff up while chanting, "Hear my call, elements of-"
"The elements will not help you today!" shouted Nene as she hastily weaved her own song to disrupt his casting, the tune of her whistling piercing his ears and causing him to stumble on his words.
"You dare!?" he roared in rage as she darted off to the side. She had spotted one of the hobgoblin archers that was knocked off the wall trying to shoot her.
His aim was off and he missed, but this let her run up to him to stab. It didn't work too well as it glanced off his armor. Thankfully, before he could fight back, he was blasted onto his back by an eldritch blast. Leaving the unmoving goblinoid, she hurried back to the fort entrance. However, a badly injured goblin ran out frantically. A pillar of radiant light missed as he ran past it.
"Hurry, get it!" shouted Civia.
Nene wasted little time; she intercepted the goblin, who wasn't looking, and stabbed him in the side with her rapier. Withdrawing her blade from its body and flicking the blood off, she quickly headed into the fort. Looking inside, she saw a lot of dead goblins off to the side while the devastator that was shouting at her was lying down on the other side while Polka pulled out her darts from his eyes. It was… a bit too gruesome and she almost lost the contents of her stomach.
"Nene, we can change back now," Aloe told her, already having reverted back to her succubus form. Leda had already done so. The bard nodded and undid her illusion.
However, while Lamy and Civia took a moment to heal some of them, several figures stepped out of the cave. More hobgoblins, one with a longsword and a shield, three with greatswords, and one wielding a staff, and two ogres. Inwardly, she groaned. They didn't have that much time to rest up and they just showed up. Then again, she sort of expected this as this was the raider's base.
"You dare attack us!?" the presumed leader, clad in full plate, shouted at them angrily, "I will have you executed for this!"
"Who are you to tell us that!?" shouted Temma in reply, "We are here to defend our peoples."
"Pah! Know your place, fool! I am Warlord Maul and I answer your insults with death! Destroy them!" he roared his orders as he raised his javelin to point at them.
"It is you who will fall this day!" cried out the knight as he led the charge forward alongside Polka and Kiara.
"Under pressure, walls closing down on me, surrounding my life, looking down on me..."
"Enough! You'll be singing a different tune when we're done!" the warlord roared over her singing while the ogres groaned loudly.
Those words seemed to bolster the morale of his guard as they also charged forward to defend their leader. The phoenix was unexpectedly trashed and cut down, much to the horror of the others. In spite of that, spells, arrows, and Aloe's daggers began flying. A flaming sphere burst into life in the middle of the hobgoblins, slamming into the warlord while Nene diffused the fireball that was being formed by the hobgoblin devastator. Polka even baited an ogre's greatclub into hitting one of the guards, killing him in the process.
"Die, human!" the warlord growled as his shield crashed against the glaive, "Hurry! Finish this one off!"
"You're welcome to do so first," the knight retorted as he twirled his glaive, nicking the side of the warlord's head with his second swing. Then, he yelled when one of the guards stabbed him in the side after missing the first swing.
"Heal them, quick!" shouted Aloe as she threw another dagger at that same guard.
Botan's arrows, both real and copied, peppered one of the ogre's heads. It froze for a second before falling over onto its side. Beams of crackling energy steak across the fort's yard as eldritch blasts slammed into the hobgoblins, the warlord staggering backward and falling over Kiara's prone form, the chef getting some reprieve from danger thanks to the bard. The devastator then screamed as he got burned and frosted over at the same time. Meanwhile, the remaining ogre lumbered over to Temma and slammed it's greatclub down on him, knocking him flat onto the ground, bleeding from his head.
"You are next!" declared the warlord as he got up and charged at the monk.
"Nope!" she jeered as she dodged out of the way, slamming her elbow into the nearest guard's face, breaking his nose. She tried using her other elbow, but it slammed into his half-plate, then followed with a flip kick, her heel crashing into his forehead. She then slammed the back of her fist into his half-plate, causing him to stagger into Kiara, who got up stabbing.
"Kill them, you fools," roared Warlord Maul.
The last hobgoblin guard standing answered his shout and stabbed the phoenix in the back while getting several arrows stuck in his arm. In turn, he got blasted apart by Leda.
"Yosh, keep it up, everyone! We can win this!" shouted Nene as she jumped back to avoid the ogre's swing.
"No! I will not let you!" roared the warlord furiously as he continued to tangle with Polka.
She avoided his first swing, leaning backward to take a swig of alcohol. She then lurched back up but stopped just in time to avoid getting a deeper slash on her chest. She yelled as she got stabbed in her leg and responded with a backhand to his face with the same hand that was holding her portable cask. She tried punching him another time but missed as he staggered back, reeling from the blow.
"Yah! This way!" shouted the bard as she continued to stab the remaining ogre before singing a stanza for Temma's health. Aloe got the final blow after flying down from the wall, clawing its throat and drawing blood. The large, hulking brute staggered before toppling over backward, blood flowing freely from its throat.
With the warlord remaining, both warlocks focussed on him, continuously blasting him with eldritch energies.
"Enough!" he shouted and made a desperate charge at the nearest person, Polka. The monk tried dodging out of the way, narrowly avoiding his stab. Unfortunately, he swung at her faster than she expected and slashed her stomach. Stunned, she couldn't do anything as she was stabbed in the same place.
"Get off her!" yelled out Temma as he suddenly charged and thrust his glaive, finding a gap in the warlord's armor under the shoulder.
His second thrust was deflected with the shield.
The third found the throat.
Warlord Maul sank to his knees, his hands grasping his gurgling throat, and he fell forward, dead.
"Hmph," the knight sounded off as he glared at the dead body. Turning away, he headed for the injured. "Is everyone alright?" he asked as Nene tended to Polka.
"O goddess, grant us your healing light that we may see the beauty of the dawn once more," prayed Lamy aloud. A few seconds later, almost the entire compound became bathed in soothing light that seemed to uplift the injured and ease them of their wounds.
"Temma, I think we should look around for information," stated Leda as the rest of the ranged party members joined up with them, "I find it strange that these raiders suddenly appear here. Perhaps we can find out where they are landing."
"And then, we can inform the relevant authorities in that region. Good idea, Leda," the knight agreed with a nod. Turning to the others, he continued, "Well, you heard him. Let us-"
"Not so fast. You are staying here," spoke up the cleric as she tugged him over to Kiara and Polka by the collar of his splint armor, "You still need healing."
"But-" he began protesting but clammed up when she glared at him, so he held up his hands and muttered, "Alright... Alright..."
Botan snorted and muttered something jokingly about a 'Mummy Lamy' before joining the others in searching the place.
"Oh? This looks interesting," muttered Polka, "Hng… but maybe Temma might make better sense of this..."
She had decided to drag Botan into the cave with her to explore while the others searched the tents outside. The large cave had some furniture set up; a desk and chair with a bed beside it. On the desk were scattered pieces of papers, a few of which looked like maps of some sort. Several stumps of candle wax were clumped on one of the corners. Opening the two drawers showed nothing.
"Hey, Polka! Come here!" called out her friend, her voice echoing a little.
She blinked for a moment before heading deeper in.
"This way," she heard as she came to a junction. Taking the right turn, she ran down the torchlit passage, which eventually opened up to a large dead-end space illuminated with a few more torches. Her eyes widened as she took in the number of crates, large ceramic pots, and chests in here.
"Look at this," the archer called out as she dragged a medium-sized chest to the center of the room. To their surprise, the chest was unlocked. She opened the chest and found several daggers buried in lots of gold pieces. It was pretty much full to the brim in gold. Both of them goggled at the sight, unable to speak for a while.
"...What did we just find here..." muttered the fennec fox girl in disbelief.
"...I should call the others, I think," replied the lion girl, also in disbelief but a lot more composed.
As Botan left the cave, Polka started checking all the other containers. The pots had various liquids, some had plain water while some had something that tasted fruity and alcoholic. The crates had various foodstuffs like grains, dried meats, and preserved vegetables. The other chests had varying amounts of gold and weapons. Further back in the cave had metal ingots and some blacksmithing tools.
"Hey!"
Her ears pricked up at the faint voice. She turned around and looked around. Nobody was there. The lion girl hasn't come back yet.
"Hey!"
A shiver ran down her spine. There was that voice again. And she still didn't see anyone. She quickly went around the cave, looking into every nook and cranny to make sure nobody else was around. That she was completely alone. And she was.
"Hello? Is anyone there?"
A thought popped in her head. Maybe there was a ghost here? Is the cave haunted? Did the hobgoblins kill people here before getting the bright idea of storing their stuff here? Who died? Was it a man? A woman? Dare she say… a child? The voice sounded child-like. Was it a child? Please don't…
"Hellooo..."
She shrieked as she fell to her knees, shouting, "Please don't kill me!?"
"Polka? What are you going?"
She looked up and saw Botan, Nene, and Aloe standing there, looking at her incredulously. She hurriedly crawled over to them and hugged the lion girl's legs, saying in a freaked out tone, "G-g-ghost..."
The three of them blinked in surprise. After looking at each other, they said in unison, "Eh?"
"Is anyone there?"
Silence.
"Who said that?" asked the succubus aloud and looked around. The other two did the same.
"Here I am."
The lion girl's ears twitched, attempting to figure out where the voice came from. "It sounded like it came from the center of the cave," she mused as her eyes observed her surroundings.
"I think… here?" added the lore bard as she went up to the open chest.
"Hi!"
Sifting through the coins, she picked up a dagger with a serpentine blade. The handle had a small guard and was plain, without any decorations and engravings.
"Hello. Nice to meet you," the dagger said in a sweet voice.
She blinked a few times in astonishment, almost dropping the dagger itself. After a moment, she gathered herself and said, "So… you were the one talking?"
"Yup!" it exclaimed as its blade hummed a faint blue glow, "Erm, I'm sorry if I scared anyone. It's just very… well, lonely in the chest."
"Eh? How did you get in there?" asked Botan.
"Well… my creator's shop got raided by these red-skinned meanies," it stated, "I've been with them ever since. I kept quiet because I didn't want to be used by them. Thank you for saving me."
"No problem," quipped the fennec fox girl, now getting over her fright. She then went on to introduce themselves, "My name is Polka. This is Botan and Aloe. The one holding you is Nene."
"Oh… hello… I guess I should introduce myself then," the dagger said in an embarrassed tone, "My name is Anya and I am lucky to meet you."
AN: Hello again, readers. Welcome back.
Well, interesting plan our party made. Unfortunately, the hobgoblin devastator was able to pick out their illusion a.k.a. succeeding the Int check to see through it. Thus, we have two fights, one after another. After successfully taking down the leader of this raid, they search the place for stuff to take back. It was during this search that they find... Anya Melfissa.
So, it seems that sentient weapons also have stats, so here are hers.
Int 13
Wis 13
Cha 13
Neutral Good Sentient Dagger
Languages: Common
Senses: Hearing and normal vision out to 30ft.
Right, so she is essentially a +1 dagger. However, since her creator was using her base model as an experiment platform, he also added an extra enchantment to it. Mechanic-wise, you can choose to re-roll one attack, one save, or one ability check. The second one must be used. Yeah, in simple terms, she got one luck dice attached to her, all because she plays FGO. This re-roll can only be used once per day. Her main motivation would be making friends. LAter down the line, she could earn more enchantments, but debatable. Maybe we can let Pekora tinker with her.
Next chapter, we wrap up the arc. Thank you for reading and have a good day, dear readers.