[Previous]
[Next]
Chapter 9 fork: Rapid Retaliation
Phyr says to Jim, “I swear we killed every last one of them! There were like twenty of those guys at the fort last night!”
“Twenty,” Jim asks angrily. “That is one troop’s warriors! There are dozens of noob troops living in the valley, hundreds more in the surrounding forests, and who knows how many in the mountains! You just started a war, you imbecile!”
“That’s imbecile demigod to you, pal,” Phyr replies, drawing a blaster. “And while I may accidentally start wars, I deliberately end them.”
“Then here’s your chance,” Jim says. “Get to the gates as fast as you can. I’ll tell the Captain of the Guard you’re coming. Just - do whatever the guards say!”
The adventurers rush from the town hall to the gates. A guard sends Phyr and Vector up to the parapet of the town wall, then eyes Pannych up and down.
“Can you use a bow,” he asks.
“Yes,” she lies, and rolls 1 on Speech. She says it with eyes wide as dinner plates, nodding slowly. “I use all the bows,” she adds unconvincingly. “Like, I’ve used bows you’ve never even heard of. In my sleep.”
“Out front with the infantry,” the guard says, shoving her brusquely toward the gatehouse.
Outside, Pannych lines up with the troops and mutters, “Front lines are no place for a ninja.”
“Seems a fitting place for a demigod,” the guard next to her says. “Especially one of fear and anxiety. Sow chaos in the ranks. Seems to be your wheelhouse.”
“I prefer to sow chaos from a distance, preferably from an armchair next to a roaring fire with a mug of hot cocoa. Look, can I at least get a spear?”
The guard turns to look her up and down, then looks to the spear in his hand. “You even know how to use one of these?”
Pannych grabs the spear with both hands on either side of his, then twists as she steps back, drops her weight, and turns her body all at once. The guard is thrown face-down on the ground, and Pannych spins the spear around with a flourish before planting the head scant inches from the guard’s helmet. “Seems I can use this one,” she says with a smile.
Tense silence grips the town guard as they wait in formation, with the breeze over the manmade plain the only sound. After several minutes, the sound of thunder is heard from the forest, a mile away. Over several minutes more, the rumble diminishes, and soon a lone noob is seen approaching from the forest, waving a large white flag high in the air. The noob walks along the road on two legs. Soon, there is an explosion from within the town gates, and long seconds later, a plume of earth erupts in the no-man’s-land. The warning shot leaves a wide crater some forty yards to the side of the road, halfway into the empty plain between forest and town.
“Yo,” Vector says to the Captain of the Guard, nearby on the parapet. “I think they wanna negotiate. Don’t you wanna send someone out to parley?”
The captain replies, “Yeah, right! We don’t ‘negotiate’ with noobs!”
“Well, I do,” Vector says. “Or at least, I try,” he adds, glaring at Phyr. “Look, just gimme ten minutes to talk to this guy. It’s a white flag, for cryin’ out loud.”
The captain hesitates for a moment, then says, “Fine. Ten minutes, and not a second more.” Her hand goes to her belt and she hands him a speaking stone. “Take this, so you don’t have to walk back and I can start shelling when you fuck it up.”
Vector grumbles as he pockets the stone and descends the wall. Phyr follows. As they leave through the gatehouse, Pannych drops her spear and follows without a word. The trio run out to meet the noob.
“Hey,” Vector shouts as soon as they’re in earshot. “We’ve got like three or four minutes before these guys start shelling, so make it quick!”
They draw up short to catch their breath as the flagbearer says, “I speak for Tilda of the Mountains and Gerta of the forest. Our brethren have fallen in battle last night, and we are here to find out what happened, if we can - or to take vengeance for our fallen, if we cannot.”
Vector says, “How do you know it was a battle last night?”
“Our menders carry speaking stones that are not linked to yours. They told us they sought the souls of Pannych and Phyr at the abandoned fortress, and informed us so that we could be wary of foul play. Later in the evening, we lost contact. In the wee hours, we found their corpses burned and buried by some manner of catastrophic explosion. Birgit of the Valley is no more, and her troop was almost entirely slaughtered - only the young, the very old, and the groundskeepers remain.”
Phyr says, “That was us. We are Pannych and Phyr, and they were sent after our souls by Grayl. So we defended ourselves, and your - Birgit, right? Birgit backed the wrong horse and got herself killed.”
The flagbearer says, “They were acting under duress - we have heard of this Grayl, and ever since-”
“That sounds like a long story we don’t have time for,” Phyr interrupts. “Bottom line is, we’re demigods, so don’t fuck with us. We killed them, and we can kill you, so you’d better back off.”
The noob looks down at the dwarf with narrowed eyes and asks, “Just how many of us do you think there are in these woods behind me?”
“It kinda doesn’t matter,” Phyr says, “Remember the part where we’re demigods?”
“Arrogance is a foul trait, and divine arrogance all the moreso. Demigods are mighty, but they can die - even the gods themselves have died. Your youth, fresh faces, and jaunty garb tell me that you are not seasoned warriors. You would do well to remember that we are closer to you, than you are to your town’s walls.”
Phyr is about to retort, but Vector puts a hand on his shoulder and says, “I think we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot. They came to us with a white flag, we should try to work this out peacefully.”
If you think the adventurers should TRY NEGOTIATING THIS TIME, then check the Disaster Defuser box on the last page and then click here.
If you think they should KILL THESE NOOBS TOO, then check the Offender of the Gods box on the last page and then click here.
[Previous]
[Next]
No comments:
Post a Comment