A/N: The wonderful world of Exile (Avernum) remains the property of Jeff Vogel and Spiderweb Software. After this bit of fun, I promise to return, unharmed, to the game the following: Yong-Mi, and the secret Empire fort on the isolated island and the ruined city of Cotra. And please--see the link down in the corner? Click and let me know what you think, please.
Taking their boat from Silvar, the platoon rowed west along the river.
"Why are we going this way?" said Michael. "It seems dangerous."
"I know," said Jenneke, "but I just have to see."
After some time of rowing, they set upon a small, bare island south of Cotra, and decided that it was best to make camp while they determined the best approach to Cotra. As they did so, however, Nigel stumbled, and found himself in a hallway.
"FUCK!" he yelled.
"What?" said Jenneke, and he ran to follow, for Nigel had seemed to disappear. "Oh, shit!"
Thissa, Feodoric, and Michael followed, to find that Nigel had managed to stumble on a magically concealed fort, full of Empire soldiers who were not at all pleased about having been discovered. Echoing within the cavern of the concealed fort, there were soldiers shouting the call to arms to repel the Avernites.
The fighting was fierce, the five platoon members wounded fairly seriously by the time there was silence within the cavern, and they climbed over the corpses at the mouth of the hall into the large cavern to start looking around the cave.
"Go get the boat, and bring it around to the docks here," said Jenneke, "if hiding here worked for them, it can work for us."
With that, Thissa, Nigel, and Michael went back the way they had come in order to follow the order given.
"Nasty looking gouge there," said Feodoric, indicating Jenneke's shoulder.
"I'll be all right," said Jenneke. "We gonna burn these bodies, or dump 'em in the water?"
"Burning is better," said Feodoric.
"We better make sure there's not any of 'em hiding in corners, waiting to get us when our guard's down," said Jenneke.
"Right, sarge," said Feodoric. "This room's locked. We'll come back to it when Nigel's back. If anyone was in there, I'm sure they'd come out with all the noise we made."
"Unless they're waiting to ambush us," said Jenneke. "Fine, we'll wait for Nigel. What's down here?"
Jenneke rounded the corner, and found within a small room a woman, dressed in the green garb that marked her as a mage of journeyman rank. While she was quite fair-complected for a surface-worlder, with strawberry-blonde hair, her skin showed evidence of far more recent exposure to sunlight than that of any Avernite. She looked at Jenneke and Feodoric, and raised her hands in a gesture of surrender.
"Who are you?" asked Jenneke.
"Adrianna," she replied.
"I don't give a fuck what your name is, Empire," said Jenneke. "Who are you?"
"You'd rather I tell you that I'm a private, third cavern corps, one aught five four?" she said.
"It'll do," said Jenneke. "Why shouldn't we gut you where you stand?" In the distance, the sound of the others coming to the docks should be heard, and Jenneke said, "Down this way. We got a live one."
"If you mean to, you will," she replied, looking from Jenneke to Feodoric and back. "I cannot stop you."
Nigel came around the corner and said, "What the fuck?"
"Empire here," said Jenneke. "Seems to want to surrender to us."
Nigel edged into the room, and grabbed the woman's hair, forcing her to her knees as he drew a dagger and put it to her throat. "Gimme one reason why I shouldn't slit your throat right now?" he said.
Adrianna's eyes were filled with tears from the pain of Nigel's hair pulling, and she managed to say, "I can give you none. I throw myself on your mercy."
"Should show you the same mercy Cotra got," said Jenneke, as her eyes widened in fear.
"Maybe she knows something useful," said Michael, as he came up behind the others in the hall. "How about it?"
"There's a weapon store south of the docks," said Adrianna.
"And a pile of weapons we can pry out of the dead hands of the rest of this garrison," said Jenneke. "Try again."
"I heard tell that Commander Vimar had a blue pass in his office," she said.
"Yeah? Tell me about these passes," said Jenneke.
"Well, they're coded by color," said Adrianna. "Closest to the center, it's no good, you have to have special ID. Next out is the gray, it's pretty far. Then there's blue in the middle, and red's the first ones ... the closest to the front. The passes, anyone carrying one can go through checkpoints that match the color."
"Let her go, Nigel," said Jenneke. "So, what are you doing here? The garrison."
"Stationed here to keep the forge running," said Adrianna. "They ... there's too many undead in the ruins, and so we go in shifts."
"Hey, Empire," said Nigel, moving over to the chest in the corner of the room. "What's in the chest?"
"It's payroll," she said, and then seeing that Nigel was going to open it, said, "No! It's trapped! No one but Commander Vimar could pass it ..."
"Must not be anyone else good," said Nigel, and as he continued to fiddle with the lock, Adrianna crouched into a ball. The lock flew open, and a small explosion of fire filled the room for a moment.
"I tried to warn you," said Adrianna.
"So you did," said Jenneke, amused. "Nigel likes to find things out the hard way."
"Shut up, sarge," said Nigel, gingerly opening the chest. "Melted, but it's still gold. How much in here, Empire?"
"I don't know," said Adrianna. "I was paid a gold a day, but ... I'm at the bottom of the pay scale."
"We'll take it in for weight," said Jenneke. "All right, Empire, about this pass. Where is it?"
"It's in the commander's office," said Adrianna. "At least, that's what I heard."
"I'll tell you what," said Jenneke. "Sounds useful enough, we'll let you live if we find it. Now, lead the way."
Adrianna led the way out of the small room into the large cavern, and gasped at the sight of the carnage.
"You could still join them," Jenneke whispered in her ear.
"I thought there were more of you," she said.
"Nah, one Avernite's worth ten of the Empire scum," said Jenneke. "Can't you tell?"
"This is ... uh, was ... his office," said Adrianna, leading them back to the door that they had by-passed as locked. She made a slight gesture and then opened the door.
Jenneke grabbed her by the shoulders and slammed her against the wall, "Don't you fucking ever pull that shit again, Empire."
She blinked back tears, and said, "I just meant to help ... I ... I'm sorry."
"Fan out, search the room," Jenneke said to the others, and then turned back to Adrianna. "Where is it?"
"I don't know," she said, her chin raising as she looked Jenneke in the eye. "If it were my office, it'd be in the desk."
"Smart ass," said Jenneke. "Don't push your luck."
Thissa was searching the book case, and said, "Reads strange stories, and books on tactics. But this is maybe useful." He held out a slender wand that had been on one shelf.
"How long you been stationed here?" said Jenneke.
"Just two weeks," replied Adrianna. "They needed more troops to hold the forge."
"Sarge, you gotta get a load of this," said Nigel, as he had opened the desk, pulling out plans and records, revealing how the attack on Cotra had been carried out.
"Two weeks, huh?" said Jenneke. "Eye beasts?"
"They won't leave," said Adrianna. "We were to pin them in with magic, but ... I don't think it will hold."
"And here's that blue pass," said Nigel, pulling out a piece of surface parchment.
"All right, Empire," said Jenneke. "You bought your life. We'll turn you over in Duvno."
"I understand," said Adrianna quietly.
"Nigel, tie her up," said Jenneke. "Feodoric, Thissa, Brother Michael, you're with me. We gotta strip the dead." He walked back to the main chamber. "OK, weapons and armor, other useful shit, we'll pile there. Dead bodies, there. Then, we'll torch'em when we're ready to go. I gotta go ask Empire a few more questions."
"Yessss, ssssir," said Thissa, who set about the grim task with Feodoric and Michael.
"There's no rosters or anything here," said Jenneke, looking at Adrianna, who'd now been tied with a rope and was sitting on her former commander's chair. "Nigel, you go help the others."
"Yes, sir," said Nigel.
Adrianna remained quiet, as Nigel left the room.
"Empire?" said Jenneke. "Why aren't there any rosters?"
"I don't know," said Adrianna, "I wish you would call me by my name. I didn't rank high enough to know anything about those sorts of things."
"Empire, I don't give a fuck what your name is," said Jenneke. "Soon as we can get rid of you over in Duvno, the better. Now, tell me, how'd this garrison work?"
"About half the number that was here is up in the ruins, by the forge," said Adrianna.
"Going to be relieved soon?" said Jenneke.
"In six weeks," said Adrianna.
"And when are they supposed to be relieved?" said Jenneke. "The ones at this forge?"
"In the morn," said Adrianna. "Six candlemarks from now."
"I see," said Jenneke, and he left Adrianna on the chair.
"Boys," he said, "seems that the troops in Cotra are expecting folk from here to relieve them in a few hours. That means we can get the drop on 'em if we hustle up there. Only problem being that we're just a little bit banged up here."
"Not a problem, sarge," said Michael. "I'll get some potions brewing and get us all right as rain."
"Make it so," said Jenneke. "And you see anything here that you want for yourself, take it. We'll just leave it for now, but take it in for the cash when we get done with the ruins."
"What are we going to do with the prisoner?" said Nigel.
"Take her with us," said Jenneke. "Just in case they're coming to relieve sooner 'n she said, I don't want her knowing anything about what we plan."
By the time Michael brought out his potions, half the dead had been stripped.
"OK," said Jenneke. "Time's of the essence, so we'll go up and deal with the other Empire troops, and then come back and finish up. I'll go get the prisoner."
Jenneke came into the room where he'd left Adrianna, and said, "C'mon, Empire, we're going for a ride."
Adrianna followed Jenneke's lead back to the concealed dock, and got into the boat. Silently, they rowed across the lake to the ruins. Once one of the greatest cities in Avernum, a thriving point and key conduit of supplies between northern Avernum and the Great Cave, Cotra had been burned nearly level to the ground.
They reached the dock, and began to get out of the boat, as Jenneke took Adrianna by the collar of her clothing, slamming her against the moldering remnants of a wall.
"You knew it looked like this," he hissed, "and asked for your life?"
"I'm sorry," said Adrianna, her eyes filling with tears. "It was like this when I first was stationed ... I ..." Her eyes were focused somewhere over Jenneke's shoulder, and she said, "Undead!"
Jenneke turned, and saw two ghouls shambling toward his group, and he unsheathed his sword and turned to the fight, his bound prisoner momentarily forgotten. The fight against the undead was quick enough, as the platoon made their way forward to the fight, but not quiet enough, and a mage, a priest, and a handful of soldiers came out of the building where the forge was housed.
Over Jenneke's shoulder, there flew a small ball of ice which blossomed into a full-fledged bolt of ice, striking the approaching Empire mage square in the chest, felling her. Adrianna, he thought, as the priest sent a spark that burst into a fiery explosion behind him, and then Jenneke did not give her another thought as the battle continued.
Cotra had recently constructed a large smelter to create iron to fuel the war effort. It had been, for Avernum, an impressive feat of engineering, and might well have been part of the reason for the Empire attack. Now, Empire troops were holding it, attempting to use it for themselves. At this point, it seemed unlikely that Avernum could hold the forge again, but it was within Jenneke's platoon's power to keep it out of Empire hands.
The enormous steel anvil was still hot from constant use as they made their way into the building, large enough to make massive and powerful weapons and armor, particularly if the smith augmented the work with magical skills. In the middle of the ruins, there were several rows of bodies, casualties of the war for Cotra. There were near equal number of bodies of Empire soldiers and Avernite soldiers, all awaiting burning in the nearby fires which, by the smell of things, would be not a moment too soon.
As they continued through, they came to a place where an Empire looter was lying, recently dead with no obvious wounds, but an expression of sheer terror on his face. Within the room he had fallen in front of, it was much colder inside than outside. The chill seeped through their clothes and skin, and a pale figure slipped out of the coffin inside the room.
Continuing their slow exploration amongst the ruins, they met a young, golden-skinned woman with black hair streaming from under her helmet. She waved them over, and then ducked into her hidden corner.
She whispered, "It's good to get help. I'm Yong-Mi."
"What are you doing here?" said Jenneke.
Peeking around the corner to make sure no one was coming, she said, "I've been doing recon on the ruins."
"This place is a mess," said Nigel.
Yong-Mi shook her head, and said, "This was a beautiful city, as fine as any down here. Look what the eye beasts did to it! There were a bunch of them, I don't know how many. They flew into town, blasting it with spells as they went. If you look carefully, you'll see all the blasts came within the walls. Outer walls are still mainly intact."
"Why were you sent to recon Cotra?" asked Jenneke.
"Both Empire soldiers and gazers are here. That's why I'm doing this recon. We need to find out what the Empire is planning to do here," replied Yong-Mi. "It still hasn't been fully occupied, but there's some weird tension."
"Tension between who?" said Jenneke.
"Empire hired the gazers to help take the town, but the beasts don't want to leave. They're in the northwest. And Empire wants the town of course, but they only have a few troops here, protecting the smelter. There's a truce between the two, but eye beasts are evil and arrogant creatures. Smelter's down in the southeast. I was told to disable it, if I could. If you could do it for me, I'd be able to get out of here. It's well-guarded, and I can't do it by myself."
"Why were the eye beasts helping the Empire?" said Feodoric.
"Who knows? Maybe they were paid. Or they hate Avernum," said Yong-Mi with a shrug. "Not my business."
"You figure this truce will hold?" said Jenneke.
"One keeps to their half of town, the other keeps to the other half. Still, neither's too well-defended," said Yong-Mi. "A careful attacker could do some damage!"
"You are going to do any of that damage?" said Thissa.
"It won't be me. I'm getting out of here soon, so Avernum can find out what I saw," said Yong-Mi. "Then, I'm getting drunk."
"Suppose after this, you'll deserve a drink or two," said Nigel.
"Look around this horrible place long enough, and you'll want to get drunk, too," said Yong-Mi.
"Listen, we killed a bunch of Empire troops," said Jenneke. "Wanna come down and help us wreck things?"
"I'll keep a look out here, thanks," said Yong-Mi.
"Sure," said Jenneke, and he started back down to the forge. As soon as he was out of earshot, he muttered, "Fucking coward."
They made their way back to the forge. A stone trench led from the vats to a large, central depression where molten iron collected. The fires were currently out, and the pot was empty. The mechanism was exposed, and it would take only a little time and a few blows to deny this part of the forge to the Empire troops, even if they did return.
While the equipment was not fragile, being built to process molten iron, it was easy enough to crack the marble and iron components to the point that major repairs would be required for the forge to be of use again.
"Fuck," said Jenneke. "All that work, and we gotta waste it."
"Better than letting Empire have it," said Nigel.
"Yeah, that's the only consolation," said Jenneke. "Let's tell the yella one what we've done."
Moving back up to the corner where Yong-Mi hid, Jenneke said, "We've destroyed the smelter completely."
She looked extremely relieved, and said, "Thank you. I can finally get out of here."
"So, you're leaving then?" said Nigel.
"Yes. Immediately. Thank you again for your help. I'll be sure to tell my superiors how you helped me. It's greatly appreciated," she said, and bowed and slipped off down the passage and out of sight.
Carefully dodging between piles of rubble, the platoon made their way through the ruins of Cotra, until they had cleared all Empire troops and eye beasts from the place.
"We'll go rest down at that fort," said Jenneke, who was oozing blood again.
They returned to the docks, and Adrianna was lying on the ground unmoving, her clothes scorched and her skin blackened and blistered, traces of blood on one arm.
Michael knelt beside her, and cradled her head, pouring a bit of potion into her mouth.
"Leave her," said Jenneke, feeling terribly conflicted. It'd sure make it less complicated if she didn't survive that, he thought. Except then, I wouldn't ever know why she ...
Jenneke's thoughts were interrupted as Adrianna coughed and sputtered, and then said, "Thank you. I ..."
"How'd you get yourself loose, Empire?" said Jenneke.
She flushed, still red and blistered skin turning a deeper red, and she took a bronze dagger from the ground, holding it flat across her palm. "I thought you would not mind," she said, looking groundward. "I knew Saundra. She wears an amulet against fire. Did you retrieve it?"
"So, that is why you used ice," said Feodoric.
"Yes," said Adrianna.
"I don't give a fuck, Empire," said Jenneke. "Why should we trust someone switches sides so easy? Since you got yourself free, you can row. We're going back to that fort, rest up before we go over to Duvno to turn you over."
Adrianna said nothing, merely nodded, and as the group got into the boat, she took up her position at an oar. While she was clearly struggling, she made no complaints, and Jenneke sat in the boat, glowering at the rest of his platoon as they seemed ready to take the oar from her.
Once back in the fort, using the concealed dock, Jenneke turned to the hallway for the room with the number of beds, evidently the quarters for the magic-using contingent of the garrison, and said, "We'll bunk here for the night. C'mere Empire."
Adrianna stepped over as indicated, and Jenneke tied her to a chair. "Want to be able to sleep," he said, testing to make sure that there was no freedom for her to move, and no sharp blades anywhere she could reach.
When they had rested and finished the task of stripping the dead, they gathered a load of the best equipment, and got into the boat and made for the mainland.
"We won't bind you," said Jenneke, "you can help carry the load."
"As you say, sir," said Adrianna.
Jenneke wished that she had complained aloud, he'd seen the wince when she shouldered the pack of recovered armor, the weight almost more than she could bear. But again, she made no complaint beyond the involuntary. Gods, what a woman, thought Jenneke. But she's the fucking enemy ... is she really the enemy? Fuck! Why can't she just plead for mercy and give me a reason to hate her ...
As they approached Fort Duvno, the shantytown of the refugees could be seen against the western edge of the fort, and there was little mistaking the stricken look on Adrianna's face, and undoubtedly a bit of fear as she had to know that the worst part of being a prisoner of war was about to begin.
At the gates to the fort, they were met by a number of guards.
"What happened to her?" said one guard, gesturing to the reddened and still-blistered over Adrianna.
"She iced an Empire mage when we were doing recon in Cotra," said Jenneke. "Took a direct hit from one of their priest's flamestrike after that."
"Looks painful," said the guard. "You go see Walner, I bet he's got something for that."
"Yeah, we got some goods in trade. Beat down a garrison, and they had some nice shit," said Jenneke. "See anything you like?"
"I'll see it in the shop," said the guard. "Johnson'd have my guts for garters, spending time going through that shit when I'm on duty. Sorry, ma'am."
Adrianna gave a faint smile at that. The guard waved them on into the fort then.
"Sarge, what'd you ..." said Nigel.
"Shut up, Nigel," said Jenneke. "Let's go sell this shit and take a load off."