Tides of magic, p.51
Tides of Magic, page 51
“Figured.”
“Any word from the Dwarves about their forces?” Hal asked, changing the subject.
“Most of their troops are ready to move,” Eric replied, “Estimate I’ve been given is ten thousand men can arrive at the front on either side of the mountain within two weeks of us calling them. Most of them are regulars that have only really fought against goblins, but there is a decent size force of elite guards from the various nobles. Supposedly those are veterans.”
“Sounds about right,” Hal nodded, “I’m hoping for around eight thousand men total from our kingdom. Ulyssar can probably equal if not double that if we got them on our side.”
“They’d only really be able to fight on their side of the mountains though,” Eric countered, “by the time they rally that many men, march north, get permission to march through the hold lands and then march south again the battle would have been decided.”
“It also assumes we can get the nobles off their asses to help,” the knight agreed. Before he could continue a new message appeared next to Eric, he skillfully caught it and unrolled it.
“No further obstacles, all terrain ahead of us we can fly over,” he reported, “looks like we made the passage.”
“Too bad we can’t use that pass again,” Hal grumbled, increasing the speed of Prometheus while relaxing, “I don’t want to risk waking that dragon again.”
“Still proved that it’s possible for us to cross the mountains without going through dwarven territory.”
“So long as we don’t do it often. Straight west till we hit the long river, right?”
“Sounds good,” the spook nodded, “I can watch the controls, you go get something to eat.”
Hal nodded while walking out the door, leaving the control console open. He really needed to teach the others to fly properly, everyone knew how to stop it from moving, but Hal was the only one who could manage more complicated maneuvers, like turning. The big issue was he basically had to teach himself to fly it first since he had invented it. Like the inventor of the car figuring out how to drive.
Problems for later, for now food then rest.
-----
“Another three barges arrived yesterday,” Eric said, looking over the castle wall alongside the rest of the party. The castle was currently a few hundred feet over the long river, a quarter mile down stream from the southern most port in the new kingdom. The crop fields cut off rather abruptly, leaving the gently rolling grass covered hills almost untouched further south. From their altitude it was just barely possible to see where the grasses ended, replaced by gravel, dirt and only the most stubborn bushes or weeds. There weren’t any animals that lived in the wastes, and very few magical beasts, even migratory birds went around. Only fish remained undisturbed by the wandering magics and spirits, uncaring about the world above the surface.
“And apparently we should expect up to another five today,” Eric continued, “they claim the siege was about to break, the outer walls being lost when they kicked off.”
“I’m surprised so many made it through the legion blockade,” Croft commented, “probably because we’re dealing with war galleys and the like, not ships of the line anything.”
“It takes a week for a ship to sail north along the river,” Hal added, “so that’s the earliest we can probably expect an attack. Though I expect they’ll spend some time recovering from the siege.”
“I’ve got a couple hundred men trained with crossbows,” the sniper said in his flat reporting voice, “any progress on your design?”
“Ah, right, I wanted to see what everyone thought,” Hal pushed off the wall and walked to the nearby tower, the one designed for Eric, and walked inside only to return momentarily with a crossbow in hand. “I had it sent to your tower so you could take a look at it, guess you never got a chance.”
“Been busy,” Eric said simply, accepting the weapon from Hal. It was rather simple, a wooden body with minimal shaping, a rather basic rifle handle and trigger gave it a more modern look than other more ‘lore friendly’ crossbows. The bow itself was made of a thinner strip of wood sandwiched between two plates of animal horn, iron bindings holding it all together. Flipping it over the underside had a single large rune, about the size of Eric’s palm, etched in and filled with copper. The only other rune was a small one on the side of the weapon, a couple inches forward of the trigger and was a simple carving with no fill.
“The rune on the side is the one to toggle the hardening enchant,” Hal explained, “tried to put it in the same place where guns had their safeties back in our world.”
Eric pulled on the string a couple times with two fingers, clearly not using much effort. He then fully cocked the weapon, drawing the string until it landed in the wooden hooks that held it in place. Placing it on his shoulder and taking a shooting stance pointing out over the wall, with his trigger finger he tapped the rune and the bow seemed to groan as the force on it ramped up. He then squeezed the trigger gently, scowled when nothing happened, the squeezed harder and the bow released with a satisfying crack.
“How fast can you produce them?” He asked, touching the toggle rune again.
“Already have the supplies waiting in Hope’s Vale,” Hal replied, “wanted everyone’s opinion before I ordered the workshop there to assemble them in mass.”
“It feels good,” Eric said, handing the crossbow to Croft so the other military man could check it out, “got a couple requests but nothing that could be solved easily, this model is usable, and we need a lot of them, sooner rather than later. And the battlefield is the best test.”
“Little hard to tell if the enchantment is on or not,” Croft commented after dry firing it himself, “and I’m not used to shooting without sights.”
“That’s cause you’re navy, with a crossbow this low profile you can use the bolt itself as sights,” Eric replied.
“Not right now boys,” Diana chuckled, inspecting the crossbow from a short distance, “I can do some transport of the finished bows, I’m also putting all the adepts from my college on call. Anything else we can call, or at least get ready, before any attack?”
“I’ll ask my friends,” Ash spoke up, referring to the small unofficial knightly order that had coalesced around him.
“My minstrels are helping recruit,” Pearce added, “not exactly an order of paladins, but mercenaries are pretty common over here.”
“I’ll try rounding up some more horses,” Isabella joined in, “you said the Legion doesn’t use much cavalry, right? Then the more the better.”
“Any chance you could finish your guild court quest quickly?” Hal asked, “it’ll let you give more… interesting mounts… right?”
“At this level it’ll just let me give you guys slightly above average horses and the like,” the beast master replied, “once I hit level twenty, I can give you guys dire beasts as mounts.”
“Not much point doing it before then,” the knight agreed.
“I’m still not thrilled with our intel on Northern Bregon,” Eric commented, “not a lot we can do about that though.”
“Oh, Hal, any word from your knights?” Diana asked suddenly.
“I haven’t been paying attention much,” Hal shrugged in reply, before they crossed the mountains, he had told the four of them to go do some errantry but hadn’t heard from them since, “why do you ask?”
Instead of replying Diana smiled, grabbed Hal by the arm and turned him around to face the courtyard where four knights in battered armor were walking towards the main hall.
“We’re over the middle of the river, how did they get up here?” He asked.
“Don’t worry about it,” Diana replied, half pulling him along as they descended one of the ramps from the walls, “time to give one of them those scrolls, and make your order official.”
“My lord,” the four of them said in unison, falling to a knee. Each wore armor that could charitably be called well used, their weapons were in better shape but not by a lot.
“How did you get up here?” Hal half blurted, then replied softly as he saw the look from Diana, “I refuse to lampshade this.”
“We hired a barge to take us out and wait under a lift, then sent up a message,” one of the knights replied.
“We could have moved the castle to the coast if you wanted.”
“It would be ridiculous to bother our lord to assist us in the quest he gave us,” another spoke up.
“Alright then… what have you accomplished?”
“I searched the ruins of the northern wastes,” the leftmost man said, pulling a scroll off his belt and holding it up, “I know my lord treasures arcane knowledge, and this appears to be a ritualistic spell of some potency.”
“I responded to a call for help in the western most parts of my lord’s kingdom,” the second continued, not giving Hal a chance to respond, a glance at Diana confirmed that he was supposed to wait till they were all finished. When he looked back the man had pulled out a white tooth the size of his forearm, “there I fought a wyvern that threatened a village, rallied the locals and brought it down.”
“I went north, and spoke with the hill tribes of the clear waters lake,” the third man said, pulling out an axe head, “and secured their assistance to my lord’s kingdom against the Legion.”
“I roamed the countryside,” the final perspective knight said, his voice noticeably flatter than the others, “and while I assisted several people, dealt with bandits and killed some lesser beasts, I fear I found nothing worthy of my lord on my travels.”
“Ok,” Hal said after Diana poked him in the ribs, trying to sound like he knew what he was doing and continued after taking a moment to remember everyone’s name, “Sir Giraut, I accept and thank you for your gift of knowledge, I shall endeavor to make the best use of it possible. Sir Ade, I thank you for assisting my people, but the slaying of the beast is your feat and you may keep the trophy. Sir Owen, I thank you for securing more allies for us in battle, you shall serve as my envoy to their war party in battle. And Sir Raolin, there is no shame in assisting people in minor tasks, bandits and monsters must be dealt with, and I thank you for doing so.
“In light of all your accomplishments I welcome all of you to my service,” Hal tried to say dramatically, “I shall allow you four to devise a name and crest for this new order, but I select Sir Owen to be my officer. Combat skill can win a sword fight, but the ability to organize others is what wins wars. A leader must have both, therefor Sir Owen, I shall grant you a magical item that you will make use of. It will teach you to use martial magic like myself.”
“Thank you, my lord,” Owen replied, bowing his head lower, “we have already selected a name for our order. We shall be the Promethium Knights.”
“Very well,” Hal nodded, appreciating the name though he could feel Diana trying not to giggle next to him, “as you probably know North Bregon has fallen, and we are likely to be set upon by the Legion soon. As a final gift to each of you I shall grant new equipment, a weapon of dwarven craftsmanship and enchanted armor. I can’t very well have my knights wearing such beaten up gear.”
-----
“It’s confirmed,” Pearce said, looking at a message that had recently arrived, “the Legion are moving north through the wastes. The most recent refugees confirmed that they were preparing to march north, almost before they’d finished the siege.”
“Well, at least it’s good to know,” Isabella replied. Most of the party was present atop Hal’s tower, ever since the main hall of the castle had become a hub of activity, they often took to hiding up here so they could talk without interruption. Only Ash and Eric weren’t with them currently, having other things to do. Or, as Isabella had teased, other people to do.
“I’ll send a message to the dwarves in the morning,” Hal nodded, “if they’re marching through the wastes, we still have a few weeks to gather our forces. Should allow us to get a few more shipments of crossbows in as well.”
“I can’t imagine them not use the river for supplies,” Croft added, “I’ve been teaching some more… advanced river fighting tactics to our captains. Don’t know how much they’ll be able to accomplish but it’ll help us keep track of their progress if nothing else.”
“I’ll have my students come south as well,” Diana agreed after taking a long sip of wine.
“When they get closer to us I should be able to track them from the air,” offered Isabella, “obviously I shouldn’t get too close, weird thinking about a medieval army with anti-air.”
“Do we know what side of the river they are coming up?” Hal asked, looking at Pearce.
“The Bregon city was on the east bank, and according to my information they were forming up on that side of the river. I doubt they’ll want to transport their troops across just for a march north,” the bard replied.
“If they do, we’ll know about it pretty quick,” the druid added, “and we have lots of spare barges sitting around now-a-days.”
“Not to mention castle Prometheus,” pointed out Diana, “we can probably haul several thousand across at a time.”
“My big worry is that Sara will be with them, and she’ll be able to summon the Judgement,” admitted Hal.
“Even without it she’s quite the handful,” the mage agreed, “took both Croft and I just to counter her magics. I think possessed seers can draw power from their angels when they don’t have one summoned, a Judgement is more dangerous in person but with it boosting her magic…”
“She had more specialized spells too,” Croft said, “I’m built for healing, you’re built for area damage, Sara appears to be speced for control and disruption.”
“Limits our options, will banishment work on a Judgement?”
“I have no idea,” the druid admitted, “the spell says higher level angels and elementals are more likely to resist it. But if Sara’s smart, she’ll throw her lesser summon at me and bait the banish out. Think I should save banishment, let you guys handle the keeper?”
“Not much point in saving it if we don’t know that it’ll work,” Hal said slowly, “don’t blow it immediately, but if you need to deal with the keeper go ahead. I think we can-.”
“Got a report on Legion movement sir,” Eric interrupted, bursting onto the rooftop, he was breathing heavy after running up all the stairs but doing his best to hide it.
“We know,” Hal responded, “Pearce’s contacts confirmed their marching through the wastes.”
“Is… are you sure about that info?” the spook glanced at Pearce who nodded, “then we have a problem, because my contacts report the Legion is attacking the southern most parts of Ulyssar.”
Chapter 30
Everyone remained quiet for a long time, even Ra, Isabella’s magical bird, refrained from making any sound. After a period of exchanging looks, all eyes came to rest on Hal.
“Well, our priority is to verify the intel,” he said, “Diana, teleport to southern Ulyssar, fly south.”
“Go now, should be easier to spot an army from the air,” Eric advised, “look for a mass of cooking fires and the like.”
“And be careful,” Hal finished. Diana nodded, gave his hand a squeeze before stepping off to the side and casting teleport.
“I could fly south on Huginn,” Isabella offered as mystical winds swept the mage from the top of the tower.
“Too dangerous. Might take more than one day to fly far enough to see any army.”
“I might have a solution,” Croft spoke up as he scribbled on a small scroll, “remember how I had some fast sloops scouting as far down the river as was safe? Some captains have been chomping at the bit to go further, I’ll have them set out first thing in the morning, see how far they can get.”
“I’ll question the refugees,” Pearce added, “see if I can’t tease more info out of them.”
By the time they finished sending messages to anyone they could think of for information nearly an hour had passed. The table, once a resting spot for their drinks was covered in messenger scrolls, Eric had retrieved a regional map on which they had accumulated any information they got. Unfortunately, the prediction that their intel directly south through the daemon wastes wasn’t complete enough turned out to be very true. A variety of marks covered southern Ulyssar where they had contacts, most were far north from the boarder and there was little solid information. But compared to the blank expanse of the wastes it was a torrent if information. A couple hours later Diana came flying up to the top of the tower, landing next to the table and immediately grabbing and downing a glass of wine.
“There’s a large army of something, lots and lots of camp fires, torches,” she said after placing the glass down, “didn’t get close enough to confirm they were Legion but based on a burning village nearby I’d say they were.”
“Did you get a count?” Eric asked, “campfires that is.”
“I saw hundreds, easily. Terrain was rough, could have been a lot more too.”
“Assuming five to ten men per fire, that’s easily an army in the thousands. Was that the only one you saw?” He asked, Diana nodded in reply, “probably a vanguard force, easily could have been more groups further south.”
“Sounds like a full invasion,” Hal commented.
“You said the Legion has an army of around a million, right? How much of a military does Ulyssar have?”
“In regulars? Ten thousand,” Croft answered, “if they pull their levies then quite a bit more.”
“Don’t forget their enchanted knights and mages,” Diana pointed out, rubbing her hands together to get blood flowing again, flying high and fast was cold, “they have hundreds of each.”
“So upper estimate is twenty to thirty thousand?” Eric asked, to which everyone either nodded or shrugged, “What’s to stop the Legion from splitting a hundred thousand men off and sending them north to deal with Ulyssar?”
“Nothing,” Hal sighed, “which means they could also have split a hundred thousand or so off to march north against us at the same time. And still have hundreds of thousands in reserve.”
