I do not own Harry Potter, the Wizarding World, or any canon characters.
Howdy everyone. I won't be in town tomomrrow so I'm posting today instead. Hope you all are doing well and have a lovely day!
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Extended Family
Chapter 163 – On Campaign 2: Ever Deeper
Takes place after chapter 149.
"Not going to be green anymore?" Harry asked. "It looked so good on you and hid your obvious physical faults."
"Maybe you should go green then," Ron retorted, shoving Harry and the two got into their usual push and punch fight for a few moments. "Not this time. Apparently there's this Muggle thing called the Jolly Green Giant and they kept calling me that at the Cauldron for a while and it was weird. Like, I'm nowhere near as tall as a giant. It'd be a misrepresentation."
"That and you're not jolly," Harry said.
"Right?"
"I find you adequately pleasant," Luna said as she flipped through her notes.
"Thanks Luna, I find you adequately pleasant too," Ron smiled. He gave Harry a look. "You're just adequate."
"That's the nicest thing you've said to me," Harry gasped, hand to his heart.
"Hey, they're blokes," Tracy said as Hermione shook her head at them. "It's hard for them to be honest with their feelings, much like Society women."
"I would punish her if it was not true," Daphne said with a small smile.
Luna hummed softly to herself as she read her notes. Satisfied, she waved her wand and the mat before them on the table undulated and transformed. Stone walls rose around the miniatures on the mat and they formed an intricate labyrinth of twists and turns. Tiny torches flickered at set intervals and even the stones felt a little cool and clammy to the touch.
"Oh that's lovely," Hermione praised, looking at the details on the stone walls and floor.
"Harry's been teaching me how to do better transfiguration!" Luna said proudly.
"She's doing great," Harry said, just as proudly.
"So, to recap, the party arrived at Grethor after meeting in the forests and fighting with the men who wore the mark of the Fist of Thorns," Luna said. "You found Grethor to be a rather large city in good order. However, there were some oddities, such as a very strong human presence and less of the other races. Those other races were also clearly being poorly treated by the human citizens. I asked each of you between our last session what you wanted to do separately and now you can report to each other."
"Mirabelle, I mean Chickadee, and I went tavern investigating," Tracy said. "We had to beat feet at one point because we were accused of unsavory behavior."
"Did you indulge in said unsavory behavior?" Daphne asked flatly.
"Remains to be proven," Tracy quipped, making Daphne groan. "In any case, it's pretty bad for the nonhumans in this place. They're treated terribly and are sequestered into certain parts of the city."
"Not worth robbing either," Mirabelle said. "I managed to nick a few things from some fancy looking humans though and found a good amount of coin and nice things, as well as some bad things written on parchment like reporting bad behavior, and rewards for bringing in nonhuman criminals."
"There wasn't a temple or shrine dedicated to Hedwigina," Harry said and Hedwig shook her head with deep disapproval. "I visited the shrines and temples and while I recognized a few of the deities, the most common one is one I didn't know. He's also not a great one in my opinion. Preaches about xenophobia and human purity."
"The libraries are not very open," Hermione said. "Not a great selection and the best are in human places. The magical shops too."
"I was able to visit a satellite school for my college in the city," Ron reported. "They weren't too nice to me but had to let me in because I was an alumnus. It's different from the main school, let me tell you. They also put an uncomfortable focus on how to fight non-humans. Almost got roped into being a subject for it but managed to talk my way out."
"Nature feels very cut off in the city," Daphne said. "More so than in others. The parks are all very artificially maintained and secured and surprisingly, or not if you think about it, the nicest one in feeling is in one of the non-human areas. But I get a sense of something deeply wrong here."
"I do too," Harry said.
"So a nice looking city that feels dodgy," Ron said, counting off his fingers, "humans being arseholes to nonhumans, Daphne's sister having gone missing in processing here, and nonhumans are in a bad shape and treated as second-hand citizens or worse. And bad feelings from nature and I assume divine from Harry's point. And not a lot of open knowledge for people."
"A more than adequate summary," Luna praised.
"And now we find ourselves in an underground place because we decided to go to one of the places from one of the pamphlets I nicked," Mirabelle said. "And we managed to get in by pretending to be brought in by Harry and Hermione."
"And now you find yourself in the dark stone underground," Luna said. "The floor is clean from lots of use. The torches are fresh. That feeling of disgust is still felt by you Harry and Daphne still feels a little cut-off from nature down here."
"I'll take point," Mirabelle said. "I'm sneaky."
"And we can see in the dark a little," Tracy said, pointing at herself, Daphne, and Ron.
"Let's take one of the torches," Harry suggested. "Won't look out of place if Hermione or I have it and you three can walk in front of us to fill the charade while Mirabelle scouts ahead." They arranged their miniatures on the table in the described fashion and they walked down the hall.
With Mirabelle as their scout, they were able to avoid other patrols with her succeeding on spot and listen checks, and she was able to hide well. They made their way deeper into the dungeons and Luna described some cells that had bodies and some that were empty. The majority of the bodies they found were non-human with a few humans here and there.
"This is no place for an elf," Daphne said, shivering a little. "It is unnatural to be underground like this."
"I was born underground and I agree with you," Tracy grunted. "Stones don't feel right."
"You all catch up to Mirabelle who is facing a heavy wooden door, blocking the way," Luna said. "There is not an obvious lock."
"Boo," Mirabelle said.
"Don't suppose we can just knock," Ron joked.
"Oh wait, I can!" Hermione said.
"I was kidding," Ron said.
"No I mean, there's a spell called Knock," Hermione said. "It magically opens doors."
"Oh that's handy," Tracy said. "I'd chop it open but Luna said it's a heavy door and not sure if we have the time for it, especially if we're trying to be sneaky still."
"Calliope whines a little," Luna said. "She's pawing at you Daphne, alerting you that something is coming from behind you."
"Should I use the spell?" Hermione asked.
"I almost want you to save it in case," Harry said. "Can I roll a spot check to see if there is anything else about the door that stands out?" He rolled when Luna nodded. "18!"
"Well spotted!" Luna said, making them laugh. "It is a very large door, made of wood and bound with metal. Large ring is the handle. No obvious lock." She smiled. "But you do notice the hinges on your side of the door."
"Hey! We can lift the door off the hinges maybe," Ron said excitedly. "Especially if there isn't an obvious lock keeping it in place."
"Let's try it," Harry said eagerly. With a few successful strength checks, Tracy and Ron were able to lift the door off the hinges and they pushed it to the side, letting them all squeeze through. They settled the door loosely back, making it look closed, and continued on their way.
"How do you know you can lift a door off the hinges like that?" Daphne asked.
"The broom shed at home originally had hinges on the outside," Ron said. "The twins figured out how to get into it before Mum caught up and she charmed it shut."
"That tracks," Harry said and they laughed together.
They continued on their way deeper, exploring the complex. They found more signs of abuse and captive people. Finally, they had to fight because they found themselves in a dead end with another patrol coming from behind. Calliope and Mirabelle were able to keep them from getting ambushed and they surprised the enemies first.
"They're right behind us, what do we do?" Mirabelle asked.
Oh quick, in the cell," Tracy suggested. "We pretend to look captured, they walk past, we surprise them."
"Good idea," Hermione said. "While Harry and I distract them from out in the hall." They quickly arranged themselves into their positions and Luna had four guard models walk down the hall into them.
"Oi, who're you?!" Luna grunted in a surprised way.
"Just escorting more prisoners," Harry said.
"Shouldn't be escorting them here, shoulda left them at the processing room at the front," Luna said, scowling suspiciously.
"Not our fault, we were told to bring them back here," Hermione sniffed.
"Roll bluff," Luna said.
"Charisma is not one of my good stats," Hermione fretted as she rolled. "10?"
"The guards look at you closely," Luna said. "'I don't recognize that deity,'" Luna said, moving one of the guard models closer to Harry's model.
"I kick the cell door open as he walks past to hit him from behind," Tracy said.
"He goes flying from the impact into Harry," Luna said and the model did as she said.
"I'll hit him with my shield as he comes in," Harry said. "'Now you can meet her!' I say as I hit him with it," Harry said and Hedwig barked with approval.
"I'll grab one of the guards through the bars and hang onto him that way," Ron said, "preferably around the neck."
"Calliope will run down the one furthest away," Daphne said, moving her wolf model.
"And I'll flank the last one and stab him in the fleshy parts," Mirabelle said with ghoulish glee. After a series of dice rolls and number reporting, the party won the combat with two of the guards dead and the other two unconscious. They put them in the cell and took off their armor to make it look like they were captives. They did not find anything more save for a few coins and written instructions.
"Can someone with better low light vision read this?" Hermione asked.
"Chickadee isn't very good at reading," Mirabelle said.
"Bashmina can read, she just chooses not to for reasons," Tracy said.
"I will read it," Daphne said, giving Tracy a disapproving look.
"You read a series of names on it," Luna said. "One is your sister's."
"She is here! We must find her!" Daphne gasped.
They continued on their way and found a long block full of cells. They came upon Daphne's sister in one but before they could free her, more guards appeared.
"Not good," Mirabelle said, looking at all the guard models on the map. "We're super outnumbered."
"If Tracy and I stand here," Harry said, pointing at a part of the map, "they can't get past us, right?"
"No, they cannot," Luna agreed.
"We hold the line, and Mirabelle, see if you can lock pick doors open," Harry said. "Maybe we can convince them to join us in fighting?"
"I can do that," Ron said confidently. "I'll incite a prison riot!"
"I can cast web on one of the other halls," Hermione said, "blocking people from moving through it easily."
"I can cast obscuring mist," Daphne said, looking at her spells. "Keeps us protected from ranged attacks and sight back here."
"All of that sounds wonderful," Luna said. "Ron, what do you say to incite the riot?"
Ron cleared his throat. "Oi! Wankers! Get up! This is your last chance to get out of here and you're going to fight for it! Fight your way free or get stuck down here forever!"
"I'd be convinced," Mirabelle said while the others laughed.
"Please tell me you say something like that as last call at the Cauldron," Harry laughed.
"Little less violent inducing but has the same energy," Ron said proudly.
Luna determined that the inciting was effective and soon a huge melee broke out between the guards and the prisoners. Hermione cast knock to open the cell to Daphne's little sister and they managed to fight their way free. They ran down the hall and Ron and Tracy bulled their way through the door they came through, hence why they left it loose on the hinges. With more fighting, they were able to break out of the underground place.
Luckily, they were close to the outskirts of Grethor and managed to get all that escaped out of the city before more guards came. They traveled to exhaustion to put space between them and the city before they slumped to rest.
"After a lot of conversation, you learned that the Fist of Thorns is a person," Luna said. "That they have assumed control and command of Grethor and are amassing a following of armed individuals. He preaches about a human led society where the others must serve them because they are rightfully to rule by divine decree."
"With all the deities that are followed by nonhumans?" Daphne asked, raising an eyebrow. "Whose divine decree?"
"The former prisoners say it is from a god that commands the Fist," Luna said. "They weren't told the name because they weren't pure enough to hear it. You also learned that the prisoners were being collected to be pressed into servitude or to be sacrificed to the god."
"This god's a dick," Ron snorted.
"Hmm, the city was a lot bigger than we thought," Harry mused. "And the following was a lot bigger and more involved."
"They have been operating for a while," Hermione said. "It's clear to see."
"We can't do this alone," Tracy said. "We're awesome, but not that awesome. Not yet."
"I wish to take my sister home with others of our people," Daphne said. "Perhaps we should all go. We can take what we know with us, tell others, and hopefully involve others into this fight. We will need all the aid we can get."
"Sounds like a plan to me," Ron said.
"Are we agreed on this plan of action?" Luna asked. "Good," she said when they all nodded. "I think this will be a good place for us to end this session."
"There will be no nicking or stabbing in our home city," Daphne said to Mirabelle.
"I'll do my best to not do those," Mirabelle said brightly.
"I am liking this a lot," Hermione said to a happy Luna. "Thank you again for running this, it's a lot of fun!"
"I'm glad you are enjoying it! I have so much planned," Luna said.
"Good planned or bad planned," Ron asked.
"Yes," Luna smiled.
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MauricioPS - Glad you enjoyed.
odonnellzoo99 - It's nice to be able to revisit an idea and play with it some more, something this fic allows due to it being non-linear. Plus it's an excuse to go back and read them again.
poka - Some people don't learn and Nott is certainly one of them. Harry is slow to rouse but once he is there, he is strong.
dude356 - That's a funny mental image, sort of like Roger Rabbit.
TheSphynx - It is satisfying to let him let loose on those that deserve it, that's for sure.
alix33 - You can see their reaction in the chapter this was originally from.
Ghostwriter - She is the best.