With a new sense of urgency, I turned my attention to the loot we’d gained. The first thing I noticed was that weapons and armor were clearly of high quality, but unadorned, for the most part. They were made for someone who valued functionality over pageantry.

  This shirt of mithril rings was impressive in its simplicity. It was solely focused on being as lightweight and unencumbering as possible, while giving the wearer the benefit of being able to silence their footfalls at need. Of course, the spell provided by the armor would silence everything in its immediate area, making it a nasty weapon against casters. If the huntress hadn’t been disabled by Siora’s spell, she probably would have tried to silence me with that.

  Unfortunately, that same quality made it far less useful for our group. I wore no armor, and the demonic sisters needed to speak in order to cast their spells. And there was no way that shirt would fit upon Frostmane. So, into the bag it went.

  The huntress’s weapon, unlike her armor, was a deadly-looking thing. The greatsword version was as though the blade had been turned into shimmering light. If one removed the skull and crossguard, replaced the leather-wrapped hilt with one of metal, and added a persistent humming sound, then any nerd or geek would cream themselves at the sight. I hadn’t been into those kinds of things, even before I was abducted, but the weapon was iconic enough that, even after years living in this world, the comparison came to me, unbidden. As a bow, the wood it was made of was blackened, so that the only thing that stood out was the wide-mouthed skull, through which the archer fired.

  This weapon made it easy to see how the huntress got misidentified as an Assassin. Striking from concealment, using a bow that could pierce through most defenses, even hitting through solid walls? Yeah, that would be something that would mark them down as an assassin to me.

  It was just a pity that none of us could use it. Either we didn’t have the necessary skills, or we lacked the strength, or there was the little fact that Frostmane couldn’t draw a bow without hands. It was a pity, since the blade was wickedly effective, but there was nothing for it, so into the bag it went.

  This was a nice little trinket. Slap it on any magical weapon, and you could deal some extra fire damage. I couldn’t do that, because of my class features, but someone else could use it, surely. Oh, it wouldn’t be any good against these demon wolves, but against anything else? Well, most things hate getting set on fire.

  Now, however, we were getting to the stuff we could actually use. The ranger and her wolf companion both had one of these rings. Frostmane immediately traded out his Ring of the Hunter for this one, a move I approved of. The old ring still had the ‘Predator’ ability, but with a +1 to natural armor. The wolf being able to go invisible could only help us. The other ring went into the bag.

  These were stronger versions of rings we already had. It was a quick discussion, but we all agreed that Siora and Vestele needed the extra protection more than Frostmane or I. So, they switched their rings, and tossed the old ones into the bag.

  These two amulets were very nice, as well. Although it pained me to give up the extra damage from the Chausible of Fell Power that I was wearing, both Frostmane and I traded our old neck pieces for these, since we were the primary melee combatants. The extra health and unarmed damage wouldn’t hurt at all.

  These were… interesting. I could definitely see the appeal for a hunter or assassin, as they would allow them to find a place in a tree or up a wall somewhere to wait, and line up a shot. That wasn’t terribly useful to us, however. Still, I did help Frostmane change out his old boots for these, as the ability to climb walls like a spider would help him get more mobility in areas where the rest of us could just fly.

  This cloak was a powerful defensive item, even if it didn’t seem like it on the face of it. A one in five chance to make your opponent miss didn’t make a huge difference, as proved by the fact that we had just taken the cloaks from the huntress and her companion, but it was an extra layer of protection. The resistance bonus, as well, was very potent, and I didn’t doubt we’d be facing spellcasters who were every bit as powerful as we were, even without the enhancements of their demonic werewolf nature. These went to the sisters, for obvious reasons.

  The armor the demon wolf had been wearing was well made. Formed of black leather, a series of straps allowed it to quickly and easily be tied on to the wolf, and just as easily removed from its corpse. The silence effect was nice, and if the wolf had been smarter, like Frostmane, instead of being just a bit more than a normal animal, then things could have been very different. If he had covered the group in the silence effect, then, without Siora and Vestele’s spells, we would have had a VERY different fight, one I don’t think we would have won.

  Frostmane’s armor, while not as heavily enchanted, offered more protection, and had plenty of mobility for his needs. No reason to go rocking that boat. So, the armor went into the bag, along with all the rest of the loot that was too valuable to cast aside, but not something that we could use in the coming fights.

  With the spoils of battle divided up, I got to my feet, and looked to the north, where the beams of light were still colliding over the temple. “All right, we’re on a time table, but we can’t go too fast. Better to get there a little late than running straight into an ambush.”

  Frostmane chuffed. “If the wolves are the first to get through the shield when it is broken, then that means that they will be the ones to find any defenses that might still be active after all this time. Or any defenders who might be left.”

  Siora chuckled at that. “True. Temples are always guarded, and this temple was about to be invaded by orcs when the shield went up. Who knows what desperate traps might be left behind. No, I think it would definitely be best to have the wolves find those for us.”

  Vestele shook her head, even as she started walking to the north. “Yes, but we don’t want to let them get too big a lead, otherwise they may find whatever it is that they’re after, and use magic to teleport away. That would be disastrous, considering some of the items that are supposed to be in the temple.”

  The rest of us kept pace with her, considering that. Some of the relics and artifacts we had been told lay within the temple were nice, but ultimately useless to anyone who wasn’t of the proper faith. Corrupting them or twisting them to be used by others would likely rob them of the majority of their power, making the exercise useless, except as ‘bragging rights’ and something to hold over the rival faith.

  Those kinds of power plays were fairly common between the various churches. Oh, they didn’t happen everywhere, and not all the time, but one church trying to get one over on their rival was not something out of place. You could generally count on there being several plots running at any given time in the world with one god trying to get one over on another. Some of those were to change the balance of power in a pantheon, and some were just spite.

  Of course, having a time frame that usually lasted for years meant that plots might run concurrently, even at cross purposes, without anyone on the outside being the wiser. The gods could be patient like that, since they were immortal beings. It is when people got involved that things got sticky. Free will and conscious worship fueled the gods but it also had a nasty tendency to muck up their schemes.

  Siora’s voice brought me out of my thoughts. “I just hope none of the original defenders, or attackers, are left. I’d really hate to fight through a bunch of werewolves to fight some orcs to fight some priests that everyone thought were dead long ago, just so we can confirm the situation.”

  Vestele glared at her sister. “Why, in the Queen’s name, did you have to go and say something like that?”

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