With a terrible screech, the warden lunged across the park at the group, knocking over several of the statues unfortunate to be in it's path. Just as quickly Keizeron stepped forward, making a slight motion with his hand to conjure a rune. The rest of the crew could feel the heat as he summoned a fire ball that shot directly into the monster's face. It roared, rearing back to get away from the flames that erupted in front of it, but as Keiz watched something glimmered across it’s thick fur. It shimmered for only a moment, but it seemed to absorb the damage from his spell. This changes things.
“Zero!” Keizeron shouted, looking back at his crew. They wouldn’t have long before the warden recovered from the dampened attack. “Get Sola inside! Aka, Willow! We need to try to lead it out of town!”
“You can’t fight that thing!” Meridia gasped in horror.
“We don’t have a choice it seems. But if you’re not willing to help us, make sure Sola gets the antidote,” Keizeron retorted.He turned to look at his crew mates and noticed the look on her face, finally causing him to relent and add a brief, "please."
“Who the fuck are you people?” Meridia shook her head as she faced Sola and Zero. Sola had a grim expression on, and even Zero realized just how much trouble they were in. “Alright, well I guess you two are with me, this way!”
Meridia started to lead the pair down a back street, away from the focus of the warden. Zero hesitated for a moment, before the automaton nodded and started to follow.
“Stay safe!” Sola managed to call between gritted teeth.
((“Alrighty guys, just how many ways can we split the party?”))
The warden raised it’s body menacingly, inhaling a large lung full of air. Once it had enough it leaned forward and let out a powerful frost breath, extinguishing the remainder of the flames from Keizeron’s fireball. It glanced around the fallen statues and stared down to where Aka, Keizeron and Willow were still standing. Time was up.
((“Dude, we cannot fight this thing right now,” Lucky said with distress, leaning across the table and running her hands through her hair. “We’re like level five, we’re going to get our asses kicked, and kill like half of the party!”
“Nah, Sola can still fight. Put him in ref! Let him play!” Zenith waved cheerfully at his partner as if his character wasn't currently dying.
Ren shrugged. “At the very least, Annie is on her way to join the fight,” he added. “It may take a few rounds for her to get there, but with the sprint action it shouldn’t be too long.”
Finally Winter set down her papers and looked up at the group. They had been playing for almost two hours now, but they didn’t want to stop until the current issue was resolved. This session was going to end up being SO many episodes.
“I don’t think we should be fighting this thing right now, even with all our spell casters present.” Winter said. “This thing has a piece of the rod, we’re going to need a better plan for how we’re going to beat it. Our best bet in this moment is to drive it away so we can regroup and recover. We’re no match for it, but we have to show the warden it’s no match for us either.”
Caine was so glad one member of the group knew how to strategize, this encounter was not supposed to be a tpk. Keizeron may be the captain of the ship, but the players all worked together to make any decisions narratively. If none of them could make any plans the rest were willing to follow, Keizeron wouldn’t just bail them out. And Caine was interested to see how they would get out of this one.))
“What do we do?” Willow asked, her eyes wide with terror. She was shaking slightly as she held her mace with both hands.
“Don’t panic,” Aka snapped. “Let's lead it back into the forest where we can hide better. Follow me, and try to slow it down!”
While Meridia started to lead Sola and Zero down a back road away from the warden, Aka took off running towards the way they had come. Keizeron nodded, and waited for Willow to start moving before he gave chase.
Aka doubted the warden would go after anyone else, it noticed they had a piece of the senka rod. It needed them as much as they needed it. Just as they expected, the warden gave immediate chase no longer looking at anything that wasn’t the beam of light that connected them. The piece of the rod was no longer listening to Aka, and they could feel it shuddering in their bag. They could feel a surge of emotion that wasn’t their own. The rod was so excited to be close to the next piece it would even give up their position.
Aka struggled to get the rod back under control as they ran. I will put you back together, they promised, just not right now. With a sigh of relief, the light flickered and went out. The warden was still after them, but it wasn’t connected to them anymore.
“What was the plan?” Keizeron asked when he saw the light blink out. He was keeping behind his crew mates, not wanting to outpace and leave behind either of them. Despite being the smallest in the crew Aka was decently agile and was easily keeping ahead of him. Willow on the other hand was clearly not used to running for extended stretches, especially when she was wearing the heaviest armor of them.
Aka spared a glance behind them, and Keizeron saw that they looked nervous. It was understandable, they were being chased by a gargantuan monstrosity-
“I have a bomb,” Aka called back to him.
Keiz almost tripped. “A bomb!? Where on Entalita did you get a bomb?!”
“I made it! With all the scraps I’ve been buying and some supplies I brought from home.”
“And when were you going to tell me you were making a bomb on my ship!?” Keizeron shouted back furiously. He knew that right now was not the time to have this discussion, but he had thought Aka was smart enough to not pull a stunt like this.
“Are you sure it’ll work?” Willow huffed from ahead of him. She was already starting to slow down.
“We’ll just have to find out,” Aka yelled, before letting out a surprised yelp as the warden jabbed a leg at them as it climbed over a nearby building. Keiz prepped a spell, but the attack missed, just barely avoiding impaling the navigator. The warden howled with fury as Aka darted away.
Willow swung her mace, but instead of trying to hit the wardens leg she twisted it into the shape of a glowing green rune. A tree in front of one of the nearby shops, currently dormant due to the wintery weather, twitched before it sprang to life. The tree began growing rapidly, tangling around the walker’s legs and causing the monstrous centipede to trip over itself. It flopped onto the building across the street with a strangled roar.
Even Willow looked surprised at how well the spell worked. “You know what, we might be able to stop this thing,” She said to her crew mates, and for the first time since it spotted them she looked hopeful.
The three of them skirted around the warden as it struggled to free itself from the newly grown trap. Aka considered trying to shoot it while it was such an easy target, but decided not to push their luck. Getting out of town where they could use the bomb without fear of destroying homes or lives was their priority.
They managed to lose track of the warden as they continued to sprint down side streets and back alleys, keeping an eye on the tree line they were heading for in the distance. Aka kept a clear lead ahead of the other two, they were wearing light armor since their fur kept them warm enough. Keizeron kept behind Willow as she started to slow, knowing she wouldn’t be able to keep up in her heavy armor. He threw a glance behind him as the scuttling noise grew louder again. The warden had gotten free.
Aka hopped over a broken fence, and was relived to see they were in a small clearing between the forest and the homes of the village. They didn’t stop running, they wouldn’t be safe until all three of them reached beyond the tree line. Well, not even then, but at least they’d have cover. Their heart was beating out of their chest, but Aka had a wicked grin on their face. They had never felt such a rush before.
As they reached the first of the ever green trees Aka spun, looking for their companions. Willow and Keizeron weren’t far behind, but their slow down was enough for the warden to catch up with them. As Aka watched in silent surprise, it crawled over a home, it’s giant leg smashing right through the roof. It spotted where Aka was standing, and drew itself back, spitting a cone of cold directly at them.
~*~
Once the warden thundered out of view, Meridia directed Zero around the back of the bakery they were hiding behind. Sola hesitated as they started to move away from the crew, trying to blink some snow out of his eyes.
“We should help,” He grunted, not trying to fight against Zero, but not helping it move forward either.
“You’re in no condition to fight lad,” Meridia squashed his indecision swiftly. She hefted her flame thrower behind her, it would do nothing against the warden and she moved faster without it weighing her down.
“But Aka,” Sola started, before he stepped forward onto his bad leg. A jolt of pain ripped through his body and he let out a stifled yell, leaning heavily on Zero.
“Aka has Willow and the captain to protect them. You need to get help,” Zero easily handled the extra weight.
“I was going to say Aka has a healing item,” Sola sighed.
The trio crossed the now empty courtyard, moving around fallen statues and broken debris from the shops. They left deep trails in the snow as they moved, but being stealthy was no longer a high concern. At least all of the smaller glacedea had cleared the area when the warden revealed itself. Sola had thought they were working together, but they seemed just as fearful as the monster as the crew was.
Meridia raced up the steps to the city hall and slammed a fist on the door. “Killian! Open up we need in!” She shouted, the knocking sound echoing over the courtyard.
“Is the warden gone?” They heard a muffled voice through the door.
“Of course it is you meat head! I wouldn’t be tryin to get in otherwise!” Meridia shouted back, more annoyed than anything else.
There was a loud thunk from the other side of the door as some sort of brace was removed. After a tense moment one of the doors creaked outward and a large orcish man stepped out, glancing around as if he didn’t believe the monster would leave so quickly. Had anyone else been there he may have been described as hulking, but as it was he was only barely taller than Sola, and was a few inches shorter than Zero or Meridia. Killian surveyed the group in front of him, slightly taken aback by this, but eventually stepped back to allow them entry.
Inside the town hall was incredibly spacious, with columns lining a central walkway and only a few separate rooms in the back. Despite the windows being boarded up it was still well illuminated, thanks to the glowing red patterns covering the walls and ceiling. It would have been nice if it were not for the circumstances. All the furniture had been pushed to the sides, barricading the doors and window from outside assault. Around fifty villagers were left in the open space, grouped together in small units and murmuring quietly to themselves. Near the back Zero heard a cat kin child wailing in distress, and saw his mother frantically try to sooth him.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
The center of the room was being used as a sort of makeshift hospital, with cots and blankets lined up wherever there was available space. Most of them were occupied by injured villagers, in various states of consciousness. Despite the fact that most of them were in heavy winter clothes they looked cold and pale, and Zero could just barely see the blue veins peaking out from under some of their clothes.
At one of the beds closest to the door there was an elfin woman and an avian man leaning over a badly bleeding figure. The woman had her hands up, a healing spell fighting valiantly to stop the flow of blood while the man was holding their hand. After a few seconds it became apparent that their efforts were in vain, and with a small sigh the woman cut off the spell, saving her magic for the next person she could save. The man gently lowered the hand he was holding, and the two of them were silent for a moment in respect.
“Chiru,” Meridia called, pushing her goggles up her face now that they were inside. The pair of doctors looked up, clearly so focused on their work they didn’t notice the chief enter the room. The avian man tilted his head in confusion looking at the new comers, but the woman immediately leapt up to head over, her eyes wide.
“Who’s this! Is that an automaton?” Chiru gasped, pushing stray strands of black hair from her face. She was wearing a thinner jacket than the rest of the villagers, and pushed her sleeve up as she approached, revealing pale skin and bloody gloves. She had light brown eyes, hidden behind a set of thick glasses, and even for one of the longer lived races she was clearly up there in age.
“Hello!” chimed Zero in a cheerful manner. “I am Zero! Can you help my friend?”
Sola gave her a strained ‘hello,’ as Chiru stepped in front of him, putting her hand to his forehead to feel his temperature. Zero wasn’t able to feel the same way his companions did, and hadn’t noticed his first mate had grown dangerously cold in the time it took them to get to the city center.
“These folk came to town lookin for some warm gear but he got bit by a glacedea. The rest of his crew split up with us in an attempt to lead off that warden but,” Meridia started to explain, but got quite when she started to talk about the rest of the crews fate. She looked at Zero and Sola with a sad look, and then finished quietly, “well, the least we can do is give him the antidote.”
“They were going to lead the warden off?” Chiru repeated in a similarly hushed tone. She didn’t need to say what they were all thinking, it was written clearly on her face; the rest of your crew is as good as dead. The doctors expression softened in a way that made Sola uncomfortable as she turned to her companion. “Rudanite, how many of the antidotes did we have left?”
“We made a double batch last time remember? We have plenty of them left.” The avian man responded. He wasn’t wearing a cleric’s outfit like Chiru was, and Zero guessed he was more of an assistant that an actual doctor. His feathers were a light brown, and he had bright yellow eyes that were constantly darting around. He had a sharp beak, indicative of a bird of prey. How did a hawk become a medical assistant?
“Bring me one of them please,” Chiru requested, leading Zero and Sola to a nearby table with a sterile blanket on it. The table was almost waist height, and Sola began to wonder how he was going to get on it with his hurt leg when Zero picked him up. Sola was not a small man, and had not been picked up so easily since he was a child. The experience was not entirely pleasant one, with Sola clutching at the automaton in surprise before Zero set him gently on the desk.
“Warn me next time,” Sola scolded, before gasping in pain as Chiru propped his leg up.
Zero tilted its head with bemusement as the doctor pulled Sola’s ripped pants leg further up. She paused when she saw the wound, the blue bruise was much wider now, and the spider web of veins had grown darker. “How did this happen?” She asked hesitantly. “Where’s the injury?”
“We have a cleric in the party, she was able to heal the wound but not counteract the venom,” Zero responded.
“Your cleric went to lead off the warden?” Chiru asked in exasperation. “We could have used her here!”
“She’ll be back,” Sola assured her through gritted teeth.
Chiru furrowed her brow, but didn’t respond to him. She held out her hand as Rudanite returned with a small vial full of a thick black liquid. The doctor stared at it for a moment, and then to Sola’s leg and he realized what the problem was. “Well, since you healed the injury without curing the poison I’ll need to administer this as a shot.”
She used the hand holding the bottle to trace a rune in the air. It glowed a faint lavender for a moment before the vial morphed into a syringe, still full of the inky antidote. Even though he was already quite pallid, Sola managed to pale further looking at it. “Hold still, this is going to pinch.”
~*~
Aka flinched as a wave of brisk cold air washed over them, but the damage they were expecting never came. They blinked in confusion, only to discover the attack had frozen in a tall wall in front of them, blocking the warden from their view.
“Wow!” Mea called, stepping from the trees behind Aka. Her hands were up and glowing with a faint blue magic that was still around the ice wall. “That is one ugly bug!”
“Mea! You are supposed to be on the ship!” Keizeron shouted from across the clearing, but it was easy to tell from his tone he wasn’t actually upset. She had just protected Aka after all.
“It’s all good captain! I left Duchess in charge!” Mea called back, finally lowering her hands once the wall was solid and no longer a threat to either of them. Duchess screeched in protest as she came to rest on Keizeron’s shoulder, her eyes wide with alarm upon seeing the size of the monster they were fighting. “Ok, well you could have waited a minute to come out and make my lie seem a bit more plausible girl.”
“We have more important things to worry about right now!” Keiz interrupted, watching wearily as the warden reared above them. It had been confused by it’s attack being deflected, but it didn’t seem to care there were more of them now. It was still going to fight.
“Whats the plan then?” Mea asked, taking a fighting stance as she ducked behind the ice with Aka. The navigator pulled out a small flask looking object and pointed at the warden’s mouth.
The warden hissed as it surveyed the scene, trying to figure out where Aka went, but only seeing Keizeron and Willow. “This canister is filled with a highly reactive compound I made, when the case is broken and exposed to air it will rapidly expand sending out bits of shrapnel mixed in with it.”
“What?” Mea raised an eyebrow.
“It’s a bomb, I want the warden to eat it,” Aka simplified themself.
Without waiting for the warden to decide what it was doing next, Willow gripped her holy symbol and slammed a spell into the tree next to her. It twisted under her command, putting itself in the way of the monstrous centipede as it crawled down the home it was perched on.
The creature roared as the thick branches filled its vision and thin nettles got stuck in it’s mouth. With a loud crack it’s mandibles snapped shut, slicing the tree neatly in two. Willow let out a yelp and backed away to avoid the falling branches.
Once she was out of the way Keiz stepped forward, drawing a circular rune of his own. With a snap of his fingers three purple bolts shot across the open air and slammed into the warden’s side. The power of the spell was clearly swallowed by the shield it had, but Keiz had accounted for that and aimed for several of its eyes. Even with the reduced damage, the three eyes he struck popped under the force of the attack and the warden let out a howl of pain. It’s desire for the rod was momentarily forgotten as it curled to hide it’s injuries.
Aka hissed in annoyance as it turned away from where they were hiding with Mea to attack their crew mates. With how much the warden was thrashing around they couldn’t get a clear angle on it’s mouth. They were already nervous about this plan, they had good aim but had never used a bomb before, what if they missed? They didn’t like how close Willow and Keizeron were to it, but with how aggressive it was they didn’t know how long they could wait for the perfect moment to attack.
Mea noticed their hesitance and leaned over the ice wall. “What’s the matter? Are we not blowing it up?”
“I can’t get a good shot, I only have the one device I can’t waste it unless I'm sure I can take it out.” Aka held the canister tightly in their hand.
“Keizeron has telekinesis, could he help? How much does that thing weigh?” Mea looked at them.
(( Winter glanced down at her character sheet, and then back up at the DM. “It shouldn’t weigh more than two pounds, but I’m not sure what kind of scrap metal I put in. I assumed iron since I was collecting it from various black smiths we went to?”
“I work in a kitchen. I do not know the average weight of scrap metal from a black smiths shop in ye old fantasy game.” Caine replied in a dead pan voice. “It probably doesn’t weigh that much.”
“Great! How do you think the captain would react if I threw a bomb at him?” Winter asked cheerfully.
Caine sighed. “You’re going to take years off of this mans life. But there’s only one way to find out.”))
Aka peaked out from the side of the ice wall just in time to see the warden sweep one of its spindly legs at their crew mates. Unused to fighting in the snow, neither Willow nor Keizeron avoided the attack and were sent sprawling backwards. Willow disappeared into a snow bank they hadn’t noticed, but Keizeron was knocked into a tree before slumping to the ground. Aka could hear the crash from where they were across the field. They hid back behind the ice wall, looking at Mea with wide eyes.
“Ok, plan b.” They said quickly. “Can you bubble it or something? Maybe we can get it to eat the bomb and set it off itself”
“Sure,” Mea replied in a bright but strained tone. The sort of smile you give when you don’t think it’s going to work but you have no better ideas. “We could just freeze it to the wall?”
She touched her hand to the wall of ice she created and concentrated. It was harder for her to work, she didn’t have all the time she needed like she had on the boat.It didn't help that Mittens was chittering worriedly in her hat, and she faltered in her spell for a moment. The end result was instead of creating a spot they could stick the bomb she melted a hole all the way through. Aka raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything, they didn't have time for perfection.
Aka carefully placed the bomb in the hole, and Mea froze it just enough for the case to stay in place. Still a bit hasty, but being careful enough not to puncture the metal shell. Once they were sure it was secure Aka nodded for Mea to get out of the way as they activated the light on the rod. Mea darted back into the woods while Aka waited until they had the wardens attention. They ran in a straight line away from the wall, keeping it directly between the warden and themselves.
((“What’s the play here?” Caine asked, looking over the mini figures on the map. As they were recording a podcast the visuals weren’t that important to them, and the map they were using was simply a rolled mat that could be drawn on and erased as much as needed. Right now it was mostly open, with a few squares representing the homes on the outskirts of town, and a few squiggly circles and triangles representing trees.
The figures for the characters were on various places on the map. They all had spent a day together, painting their personalized figurines to varying degrees of neatness. They weren’t perfect, but it had been such a good day for Caine. Aka’s figure was next to a thin blue line that represented the wall of ice Mea had made. Mea’s figure was back in the trees she had come from, and Willow’s and Keizeron’s figures were laying on their sides on the far end of the map. In the middle of the map was a stuffed snake Caine was using as a stand in for the warden, it looked far too cute to represent the mutant bug horror but it was the only thing he had that was vaguely in the right shape and size. Sola and Zero’s figures were on the side of the map since they weren’t in this fight.
Winter picked up Aka’s figure and made it hop a few squares away from the wall. “Well, ideally once Mea is safely out of the way the warden will chase after me. When it crashes through the wall it will set off the bomb and be injured enough to leave us alone.” Winter explained, not taking her eyes off of Aka’s form. Caine could hear the fear in her voice, they were already all so attached to these characters.
The least Caine could do was give them a chance. “Make me a luck check.”
Winter finally looked up. “A what?”
“Roll a d100.”
“Caine I do not have a hundred sided die-”
“I do!” Zenith exclaimed suddenly. He jumped up from the table, almost knocking over his microphone in the process and shuffled off to his and Caine’s bedroom. They heard him shuffling about at his desk, and he returned after a moment with a small wooden chest. He set it on the table with a thump, and opened it up, revealing several satin bags filled with dice, as well as a number of loose die that didn’t have a set. He searched through the dice for a moment, and pulled out a metal die that was the size of a golf ball. With a grin, Zenith set it on the table in front of Winter.
“Why is it metal? That’s not a die thats a weapon,” Blair said suspiciously.
“Why not metal?” Zenith huffed. “They are the superior dice. Have a more hefty weight and a much better hand feel-”
“Stop, stop.” Caine waved his hand at his boyfriend. If he let Zenith talk about metal dice on the podcast he would never stop, and frankly they didn’t have time for that. “Winter, just roll the die.”
Winter gulped nervously and picked up the d100.
“Careful, that thing does structural damage,” Zenith warned. They paused the game again for him to get a rolling tray so they didn’t break the table with the heavy metal toy.
With a loud thunk that they were absolutely leaving in the podcast, Winter rolled the die. She looked up nervously. “That’s a 61.”
“Alright,” Caine drawled, “Here’s what happens,”))
Aka made their way towards the tree line as fast as their cloven hooves could take them on the snow covered ground. They heard a deep howling noise as the warden thundered after them, followed closely by a loud crash as it shattered the ice wall Mea created. What they didn’t hear was the sound of the detonator going off. Crushing the wall had somehow avoided puncturing the bomb.
Their heart pounding loudly in their chest, Aka continued to run. They felt an icy chill settle over them. What were they going to do now? They didn’t know where Mea had run off to, Willow and Keiz were down, and the warden was acutely aware of their location. Hiding would be pointless, and they couldn’t run forever. After everything they had been through, was it going to end here?
With a loud crash the warden plowed through a tree next to Aka, knocking them off their feet and sending them rolling in the snow. When their vision finally cleared Aka saw the warden above them, snapping it’s mandibles hungrily. All of it’s eyes were staring down at them, but Aka wasn’t looking back anymore. There, in it’s mouth and still cocooned in a layer of ice, was the bomb flask. It was wedged between two of it’s massive teeth, it must have gotten stuck without going off somehow.
It was now too close to detonate safely, but as it roared Aka knew this was the only chance they were going to get. From where they were on their back, Aka tugged their gun from it’s holster on their hip. Using their arm to steady themselves, Aka fired as it started to descend towards them. The flaming bullet ripped through the canister and it ignited.
Aka heard a terrible roar, and the last thing they saw before they blacked out was a self made ball of fire blowing towards them.
