"We are here by order of the King." Harold shouted back, "We have been asked to deliver some items to the town of Soyalls if it was still standing."
The guard turned and looked like he was saying something but he spoke too softly for me to hear. The town gates open a crack and three people exited the city, two of them wore guards armour that had seen better days but the third was a drake woman in gleaming platemail. I could see a few scrapes and dings from combat but she appeared to be a strong and authoritarian figure, her blue scales shimmered in the sunlight which only emphasised where they were chipped.
"You sssay you have a delivery?" The drake woman asked.
"We do,” Harold replied as he dismounted, “We were ordered by his majesty to give the items to a watch captain Miles should he still live."
"Watch captain Milesss died when the goblinsss breached the town. I am acting watch captain Kafri." Kafri replied,
I saw her tail twitch when she spoke about captain Miles dying, from what I knew about Drake body language it seemed like she was quite upset about his death. Harold pulled out the Royal Order that he used to verify our identity with the royal marines and showed it to captain Kafri. She took the order and quickly read through it. I saw her eyes widen the further she read.
"I'm sorry for your loss." Harold nodded his head to her. "May we enter the city?"
"Of courssse." She said handing back the document. We all dismounted before going through the gates. It could have been my imagination but I think she looked a little flustered after reading the order.
Once we were inside I could see some of the damage the goblins had done. The buildings closest to the gate were all but destroyed, some of them had large charred boulders in them but most were just burnt husks. I couldn’t tell how many buildings were destroyed but I would have guessed at least 2 dozen from a quick glance. Ahead of us I could see that the people from outside were gathered in a large square. They stared at us with big eyes filled with a mixture of hope, fear, worry and something else I couldn’t put my finger on. I frowned while we walked, trying to figure out what I was missing.
"We don't have a ssstablesss anymore, the fire claimed it when the goblins broke through the wall." Kafri said as she led us deeper into the town. "Giles, go get mayor Hobbs and elder Jones. Archie, find Susan and meet us at my office." The two other guards that had been escorting us broke off and disappeared into the crowd.
Out of curiosity I cast Detect Evil but nothing registered as evil in the spell's area of effect, I sighed in relief, at least there weren’t any surprises left by the goblins or the necromancer. We left the main road and passed a work crew tearing down a burnt out house, they all had a grim look on their faces as they worked.
That's when I saw it, the devastation that the goblins had wrought on Soyalls. The wall had been breached and I could see some hastily made repairs but there was still a large 15 foot section that they were working on. Work crews were busy cutting and fitting logs into the damaged sections to create a more permanent fix. The section of the town that the goblins had burned was a large open area that was still covered in heaps of ash. I could make out the husks of 4 large buildings that still had some faint smoke rising from them. I had a hard time discerning what the area used to be, it was too large for a military square and the town was too small for it to be an arena.
As we passed near one of the burnt buildings a few other things clicked into place and I felt a ball of ice form in my stomach. Charred hooves and cracked bones poked out of the ash and remnants of the burned building. I looked over the large area and I could see the stone borders, just poking above the ash, they traditionally marked out farmer’s fields. With the amount of ash covering the ground, there was no way that it had been anything short of a full harvest. The reason why everyone looked starved was because the goblins had burned all the food. The town had been under siege for at least a month and a half and had no communication with the outside world.
Captain Kafir turned onto another road that went back into the town. We all followed in silence ruminating on what we had just seen. Personally, the revelation put me in a bad mood. My soul lantern had flashed a few times while we'd been walking and each time had made me wince, I hated it when civilian souls needed collecting. What made it worse was that if nothing changed, I would have to come back and collect a lot more. I hoped the capital would be able to give them some sort of aid but I didn’t think that they would be able to. Sunak was in the midst of rationing and there were at least ten times more people living there. Feeding the few hundred here would be too much for the city to bear.
I had retreated so far into my thoughts, it was only after someone grabbed my shoulder did I actually look around. We were in a large courtyard that was shaded from the sun by a branch from the big tree. The building was made out of the standard grey stone that was almost a standard for the kingdom's military buildings. I could see a few cracks and burn marks on the building which I guessed must have come from the fire. Someone cleared their throat next to me and I turned to see a guard looking at me expectantly. I stared back at him dumbfounded.
“Can I take the reins?” He said pointing at the reins to the demon.
“Yes, sorry.” I said handing them to him. He took them and gave the monster an apple while leading him away.
"Thisss way, the othersss should be with usss ssshortly." Kafri said entering the building.
The building turned out to be the barracks, the inside was brutally utilitarian and I couldn't see any form of decoration as we walked through it. Not even a flag or tapestry. I guessed they must have been used either during the siege or the aftermath. I looked around as much as I could while we walked. We passed a large sparring room that had all the training equipment pushed to the side, instead the room was filled with cots and injured people being treated in them. I froze for a few seconds as my soul lantern drew a few souls of the deceased into it. I stopped looking into the rooms after that, my sopur mood deepening with every green flash. If anyone noticed the flashes no one said anything and I was thankful I didn’t have to explain it.
We came to a doorway that had a sign next to it that read ‘Watch Captain’ and Kafri entered the room. As we filled in after her I saw that it was a large double room that looked as if it had recently been the command center for the town. Half the room was taken up with a large table that still had maps of the surrounding area and a map of Soyalls; they were both covered in medals and stones. A large desk was pushed up against a wall and on top of it was piled everything you'd expect to find in a watch captain's office. Swords and spears were laid on top of stacks of paper and manacles as well as a filing cabinet. Next to the desk was a stack of chairs that looked like they should never have been stacked, I wasn’t sure how anyone would separate them without getting hurt.
"Oh, right." Kafri said looking around, "Give me a minute, I didn’t think we would have visitors so soon after..." Her words slowly faded and no one prompted her to finish her sentence. We all knew what she meant.
She pulled the desk away from the wall, it scraped loudly on the floor but it was a testament to her strength that she made it look effortless. She carefully unstacked everything from the desk before effortlessly plucking chairs from the stack. I almost took a few steps back when she pulled a chair out from near the bottom, the whole stack stayed perfectly still like it was under the effect of a skill. Kafri handed out the chairs wordlessly until we all had one and there were 4 other chairs on her side of the desk.
"Pleassse sssit." She gestured.
Just as we sat down, the door opened and 3 more people entered. Instinctively we all jumped up from the chairs at the sudden sound. Kafri had a hand wrapped around the hilt of a sabre that was at her side, the rest of us were ready to greet whoever appeared. The first through the door was a slim and slender human man wearing a green and blue robe, he had the sunken eyes of someone who hadn't slept for a few days. His gaze was sharp and calculating despite how tired he looked. He stumbled forward as a short dwarf pushed him into the room.
“Keep moving.” They grumbled before mumbling in a lower tone, “yer pretentious prick.”
The dwarf was 4 feet tall and stared after the man with a scowl on his face. His 3 foot long salt and pepper beard had multiple rings of various metals, plaits and multicoloured beads woven into it and that told more about him than anything else. Only an elder of the dwarven people would weave metallic rings into their beards to denote age and hierarchy in a crafting hall, the coloured beads were a symbol of mastery in a craft. The fact that the dwarf had 9 different ones meant he had 9 different crafting skills at the master level. Grunted at us in greeting before nodding at Kafri.
Both the man and the dwarf sat down either side of Kafri. The last to enter was a slight human woman with long black hair, it flowed over a dress that seemed to be made of living vines. She didn't look older than 20 but her golden eyes looked haunted, as if she'd been the only witness to a great horror. Despite this I could see the corners of her lips twitching as she tried to hide her smile. She smiled at us as she sat down next to the dwarf.
"Good, everyone'sss here now. Let me ssstart with the introductionsss.” Kafri said before gesturing to the man on her right, “Mayor Hobbsss isss the leader of the town." Kafri gestured to the man in the robes. "Elder Jonesss isss the craftsss director." She gestured to the dwarf. "Mistress Susan isss here to represssent the arcane interessstsss of the town." She gestured to the woman in the vine cloak. "Unfortunately the leaderssship of the adventurersss sssociety and the magic sssociety fell in the sssiege alongssside my predecessssssor. We are what remainsss of the leaderssship of Sssoyallsss."
"Well met and I am truly sorry for all of your losses." Harold said solemnly, everyone nodded at his words, "I am Harold Shieldsworn, the leader of The Wanderers. Beside me are my party and companions, Raven, Clair Fairwood, Taylor of the Ice and Luca the Shade Slayer." He gestured to us in turn.
I smiled when Harold used my title and made me sit up a little bit more. It was the first time that it had been brought up naturally and it sounded good. For years I'd been introduced as ‘and Luca’ which had always sucked. No one wants to be ‘and Luca', everyone wants to have a cool title. Unfortunately, as the most recent addition to the team, I was the last to be introduced which left me as ‘and Luca’ until recently.
"If you haven't guessed, the goblin invasion is over. The king heard about the defence Soyalls put up against the goblins,” there was a sharp intake of air across the desk from us. Getting the King's attention was notoriously difficult and required an impressive feat, “the king extends his praise and commends you all on your actions in the face of truly overwhelming odds. Before we left Sunak he gave us some items that he wished to bestow upon yourselves and the people of Soyalls.”
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Holds hand reached over to me and I pushed my mana into my bag of holding so that he could withdraw the items. He pulled out 6 items and placed them on the desk in front of the leaders. The first item was a small gold coin that had the picture of the king on it. I'd heard about these but never seen one from a king before. The second was a blank silver metal rectangle attached to a beautifully and intricately carved piece of redwood that looked like a shield. The two items were smallish crystals that glowed faintly in the daylight, one was green and brown and the other was a pure white. Next Harold pulled out a large white crystal, it looked like a giant version of the previous crystal but I could feel the power radiating off of it. The final item he pulled out was a solid golden cornucopia that had the face of the King etched on it. I quickly used my Identification spell on each of them.
Name: King's Favour
Quality: Legendary
Weight: 1lb
Description: A small golden coin that signifies the bearer has the favour of the king. This coin can be used to give a one time huge reputation increase with the Royal Faction for a settlement. Alternatively it can be used as a one time use item to automatically approve a request from the King (within reason).
Requirements: Can only be used by a leader of Soyalls.
Name: Royal Commemoration Plaque
Quality: Epic
Weight: 20lb
Description: This commemorative plaque is made from silver crafted by a master smith and wood carved by a master woodcarver for his royal highness. This Plaque was commissioned by the King for remembrance of the brave men and women who gave their lives in the face of overwhelming odds, to keep Soyalls Unbroken. This plaque bestows the Title Unbroken upon Soyalls and grants the passive ability Bulwark to all residents of Soyalls.
Restrictions: Must be placed within the area of influence of Soyalls. Must be placed at a memorial for the fallen in the goblin invasion.
Name: City Crystal
Quality: Rare
Weight: 15lb
Description: An orb made of the condensed essence of what makes a city, a city. This crystal can be used to start a permanent camp or increase the level of an existing settlement by 1 level.
Restrictions: Must be used by prospective settlement leader or existing leader of a settlement.
Name: Upgrade crystal (Military)
Quality: Uncommon
Weight: 5lb
Description: An orb made of the condensed essence of what makes a city mighty. This crystal can be used to upgrade a military structure of a settlement by 1 level.
Restrictions: Must be used by a leader of Soyalls
Name: Upgrade crystal (Settlement)
Quality: Uncommon
Weight: 5lb
Description: An orb made of the condensed essence of what makes a city a home. This crystal can be used to upgrade a civic structure in a settlement by 1 level.
Restrictions: Must be used by settlement leader of Soyalls
Name: Royal Cornucopia
Quality: Legendary
Weight: 30lb
Description: A golden cornucopia made of an unknown metal that is embossed with the image of the king. This item summons a feast worthy of the king depicted on the cornucopia and all of his people. Food will constantly be produced for 24 hours before it becomes inert. This item only has a single use.
Restrictions: Must be used by a leader of Soyalls
"These last two are from the King as well, however I’m afraid that they are not as awe inspiring as the others.” Harold said, pulling out the final two items.
He put a small opaque crystal on the table as well as a rolled up piece of parchment with the King's seal on it. I didn’t need to see the description to know that the opaque crystal was a comms crystal that would be connected to someone in that capital. The parchment was obviously only for the leaders and it would have been all kinds of stupid to attempt to peek at them. Which was why they’d been in my bag, sealed away from Raven who would have been too curious.
The leaders of Soyalls sat there in silence looking over the gifts. I could see the mayor Hobbs restrain themselves from snatching the cornucopia off the table and shouting in joy. Captain Kafri started at the military upgrade crystal and the comms crystal in a mixture of disbelief and relief. Mistress Sussan began casting identification spells and sharing the results with her fellow leaders. Gasps of awe followed after each spell as they read over the description of the gift.
"Ha ha ha ha," The mayor Hobbs laughed almost manically. Everyone turned to look at him but he just kept laughing and looking more like he was on the verge of a mental breakdown.
“You have no idea what you’ve just done.” Elder Jones said as he sagged in his chair.
“I’m sorry?” Harold said in pure bafflement.
“No, no. Don’t be sorry.” He said shaking his head. “We just spent the last 2 days working out how we were going to feed everyone.” He glanced at the mayor before looking back to us, “Soyalls is facing starvation and we just announced that any animal in the city that is not owned by the king is going to be seized and used for food.”
“Lost ancestors.” Clair gasped.
“Aye, the mayor started with his prize stallion as a show of good faith to the people. About 2 hours ago.” He added and we all winced in understanding.
“Elder Jonesss, please can you take the mayor back to hisss roomsss for some rest?” Captain Kafri asked. “Unlessss there isss sssomething elssse you need him for?”
“No, that was everything the king had requested we hand over. I do have a request though.” Harold asked.
"What can the town of Soyalls do for The Wanderers?"
"We have been tasked with hunting down the necromancer that travelled with the Goblin King. The royal diviners believe that they fled north which would have put them coming past Soyalls. Have you spotted any increased undead activity recently or any large groups of undead passing the city?” Harold asked before Taylor coughed softly, “And a place to stay for the night.” He added quickly.
"We did sssee a large pack of undead move north wessst a few daysss back, we took it asss a good sssign which isss why the villagersss were outssside the wallsss." Captain Kafri answered. “I can’t tell you how many there were but there were quite a few of them. Sssince then it’sss only been corpssse eatersss and the occasssional lone ssskeleton.” She tapped a claw against her chin before continuing, “As for a place to stay, we don’t have any spare rooms. We might be able to find a spot for a tent as long as you don't mind being near burnt out buildings."
"A spot in the town is preferable to an open field or what’s left of the forests." Harold said with a smile on his face.
With that, we were bustled out of the barracks quite quickly by captain Kafri. It seemed that the leaders were extremely excited to discuss their plans on what to do with the gifts. I must admit that I was interested to see what they would use the gifts on, but I didn't think they would be using them any time soon. No doubt they were going to start a planning session that would take a few hours and that was something I wanted to avoid. Also I’m fairly sure Harold and Taylor wouldn’t approve of my spying.
A guard called Harrison showed us back to our horses and then escorted us back to the burned out fields. He stopped in a small clearing between two of the burned out barns that was just big enough for our tent and horses. As he left we began by building a small enclosure of the horses, from what elder Jones had said, we weren’t going to leave our horses out in the open. After that was done we pitched the tent and then all sat down. We all sat there for 10 minutes or so not exactly sure what to do.
For the last few months we’d all constantly been on edge, even in large cities like Sunak. Raids on cities had been prevalent throughout the kingdom and adventurers were always called upon to defend a city. Now the threat of goblin raids was gone we didn’t quite know what to do with ourselves. I was the first to move as I took out a piece of wood from my bag as well as my carving knife. I still had figurines I wanted to carve so I carried on with the carving of Taylor. As I carved the sounds of the town came to me, people shouting, children playing and the constant hammering of work being done. After the last few months of nothing but fighting, it was a soothing balm that aided me as my knife slowly caved away at the wood.
Time flew past and I was nudged by Clair. The sun was dropping down below the roofs and chimneys casting long shadows that were slowly creeping towards our camp. A cold wind had started up that brought the smell of burnt wood and burnt hair to my nose. I looked up at Clair who held out a bread roll and some cheese. It was a simple meal however I understood why we were eating this. I'd seen the hungry faces of the villagers. If they’d smelled any kind of food cooking we would have been mobbed instantly.
As I ate I looked at what I’d been carving. Taylor’s figurine was done and it blew me away. They were in the middle of casting a spell and their hair was being ruffled by an unfelt wind, their hands were going through the complex motions that they used to cast spells. I could almost hear their chanting. There were also 3 other figurines that I’d carved that stood next to Taylor’s. 3 goblins brandished knives or daggers and appeared to be screaming. I had carved out their small pointed teeth for each of them and they were each in a different position. One looked like it was leaping, one was in the middle of an overhead stab and the last had its weapons crossed like it was blocking an attack. I stared at the 3 goblins and felt that the statues were important but I didn't know why. I shrugged, it wasn't the first time a skill had directed me to do something I didn't fully understand. I just hoped that it would all become clear when I‘d finished.
I looked around to see what the rest of my party was up to as I put the completed figurines away. Raven was doing her evening yoga, I think the position she was in was called Fanged Lotus but I wasn't completely sure. She sat cross legged and she rotated her body in a large circle while lashing out with imaginary knives, I still wasn’t convinced that it was a real thing but whatever. Taylor was sitting with Harold at a makeshift table, they had a map between them as well as a few pieces of paper that Harold was reading through. Clair had joined them in their discussion.
"North west leads towards wyrm territory." Taylor said, "however they might turn west and head for Bridalford in an attempt to get into the wilds.”
“If they make it into the wilds then I doubt we will ever find them.” Clair stated.
“Last the Kingdom heard Bridalford was still under siege so they might head there to raise some of the dead, there was a diviner that said they would head to the lost mines but the others thought it was unlikely."
"The Lost Mines?” Clair said in confusion.
“The kingdom tried to start up a mining operation in wyrm territory a few dozen decades back.” Taylor said, “I’m not exactly sure what happened but the place was abandoned and no one has tried it again ever since then.”
“Okay, but then why would he run there?" Clair asked. Harold and Taylor shrugged.
"I think I might know.” I said, remembering a few things from the past. “The mines you’re talking about was actually a town was called Spring Falls. It was abandoned a few years before the whole area became wyrm territory.” I joined them at the table. "I heard a rumour, before the war, that someone had found an uncontrolled dungeon in the ruins. There was meant to be an expedition there but then the goblins invaded so I don’t know if it ever went ahead.”
"An uncontrolled dungeon? That's got to be just a rumour." Harold dismissed, "more likely the mine dried up and the place is just some draughty ruins that had a big wyrm in it."
"That still doesn't answer my question, why flee there?"
"Isolation maybe?" Harold said, shrugging, "the wyrms are a pretty big deterrent from following with an army. An ambush could mean the death of a lot of soldiers. Then there would be corpses for the necromancer to use."
“True, but I don’t think that’s the reason. There would be easier ways to get more corpses if that was the plan.” Taylor argued, “A trip to a battlefield or a city under siege would be a lot easier for them and would provide a lot more then hoping for an ambush in wyrm territory.”
"If there is an uncontrolled dungeon in Spring Falls, then the necromancer could claim it and use it to create more undead." I reasoned, I heard dead silence at my words and looked around to see everyone looking at me in horror with pale faces. "What? It's a possibility."
"Forgotten Gods, I hope not." Taylor whispered. “That is truly terrifying Luca.”
"It doesn’t matter what their plan is. Uncontrolled dungeons, wyrms or a whole new army of the undead. That does not change our quest.” Harold said grimly, “This is the best lead we have and we need to follow it.” We all nodded in agreement albeit with different levels of enthusiasm. “In the morning we head north west and hopefully we'll pick up the necromancer’s trail before anything crazy happens like they take control of a dungeon or raise the corpse of a sand wyrm."
I felt something in the air change as Harold said those words and now I didn’t like our chances of stopping crazy things from happening.
“YOU ABSOLUTE DICK HEAD!” Raven shouted at him.
