Ends of Magic

The Heirs took off back down the path to Bridgeguard in the late afternoon light. Their pace clearly surprised Byns. The Forest Ranger had told them to ‘try to keep up’, and set a measured pace. But she’d said immediately. And the Heirs ran a greater distance than this every morning, through an obstacle course.

So, they pushed up the speed until they were pelting down the riverside path fast enough to do a mile in well under six minutes. Nathan wasn’t having much trouble maintaining this pace - not only was he in good shape and not carrying anything, but he had stamina and [Sprinting]. That skill was being slow to rank up, but Nathan was hoping that it would really start taking off when he could use it in conjunction with [Airwalking] in the middle of combat.

And a speed increase to flight sounds like a great benefit.

The other Heirs all had their own ways to keep up - Nathan was pretty sure Khachi also had some kind of running skill, given that he was managing this in full plate armor. Stella was definitely using a force spell to help push her along, and Aarl and Sarah had skills of their own, and were lightly armored and in fantastic shape.

It didn’t take long for the town of Bridgeguard to come into view, and Nathan had almost been expecting it to be actively under attack. Instead, everything looked normal. There was some kind of large creature being butchered on the dock, but otherwise everything looked about as it had when they’d left it.

Byns led them straight toward a group of four others, who were doing some quick gear management while they stood outside the gates into Bridgeguard. As they approached, Nathan recognized Farist, the leader of the Forest Rangers. The pale man said something to his teammates, and everybody finished their futzing and got ready to leave.

The Heirs slowed to a walk, and Farist called out to them. “Faster than a Stalker’s Pounce. Is the book dealt with?”

Nathan looked to Khachi to answer, but Byns beat him to it. The Bho called out to her leader. “Hear me but I hope so. There’s a divine-cursed crater where the crystal circle was. But none of them look exploded, so it’s not an issue.”

Farist pursed his lips and nodded, looking impressed. “You folks set to travel? I’ll explain as we go, but I’ve gotten the Guildmistress’ approval to call you in. She says ‘be careful.'”

The Heirs met each other’s eyes, nodding. Khachi summed up their opinion. “Lead us onwards.”

Farist turned, and they started walking beside the wall of black stone outside Bridgeguard, heading towards the bridge and its own wall. “First, introductions. I’m Farist Dudisk, leader of the Forest Rangers. You’ve met Byns Bho, our wilderness expert.” Next he pointed towards a short Knuld woman wearing an elaborate robe in dark green and brown. “This is Selnoa Herell, our mage. Tower of Trickery, so illusions and area control. She’s been talking with the Guild with [Message].“

Then he turned to the other Knuld in the party. While Selnoa’s orange skin had stood out, this man’s seemed to blend into the dark leathers he wore. “This is Zanwin Herell, Selnoa’s brother and our stealth and trap expert.”

His gaze shifted towards the last member of the party, a big lionfolk woman dressed in heavy brigandine armor. Her fur and hair was a dirty blonde that looked matted and wild, spilling over her armor in an untamed cascade. “This is Orym Keephold, our lineholder.” The big woman was even taller than Khachi, and raised her ax and shield in greeting. The shield looked built for bashing, a broad piece of wood with a spoke and a thick dented boss.

The Heirs took a moment to introduce themselves, with Nathan being introduced as “Our scout, and good against hostile magic.”

Then they were passing through the gate in the bridge wall, and were striding atop the bridge and across the Drakefish river.

Nathan stepped tentatively, trying not to extend his antimagic down into the bridge. Luckily enough it seemed that the enchantments here took some kind of cue from the Transit roads, being deeply buried in the structure of the bridge itself.

Khachi asked the question that had been rising in Nathan’s mind. “What is the plan? Why are we leaving the walls? If we mean to stand off a raid, it seems we give up an advantage.”

Farist shook his head. “To complete your knowledge, we got a [Message] from the Footspeak clan not an hour ago. They informed us of an Agmon raiding party headed this way. It entered the forest this morning and will reach the bridge tomorrow midday. The real problem is that they’ve got a siege-spike with them. Do you know what that is?”

Nathan did know what that was, from the Adventurer training. It was a kind of small portable fortification-breaker used by the Agmon legions. It was basically an enchanted battering ram that on contact projected a wave of force that could knock over a stone wall, let alone a gate. When coupled with the incredible strength and durability of Agmon legionaries and their magic-deflecting shields, a siege-spike could demolish nearly any fortification in just a few hits. From what Jolba had said, it would take out this wall with one strike.

Aarl asked the next question. “How many?”

Farist nodded. “A hundred. Biggest raiding party we’ve seen in years, and this warning is late. I think there’s some political shit going on with the Treeborn clans that delayed the warning this long. The Footspeak said that another clan was running interference. My bet is that Agmon paid somebody to try to get their raiders in undetected. Otherwise we’d have a proper set of teams waiting for them. Maybe even Stanel to warn them off.”

Sarah finished the thought. “So we’re going out to ambush them, since we can’t face Agmon soldiers in a straight fight without more numbers or an elite.”

Orym rumbled a basso chuckle. “I see no fool here. A settled line of legionaries? No breaking that with just two teams.”

They had climbed above the height of most of the trees, and were still ascending towards the midpoint of the bridge. Nathan would have liked the chance to stop and appreciate the view over the broad forest, but they were in a hurry. He quickly reviewed what he remembered of the Agmon military.

Agmon are the imperialist orcs on the other side of the plains. They sounded kind of Early Roman Republic to me. They’re militarily quite powerful, with every legionnaire armed with a shield that can deflect or block most magic, an elemental wand and a bevy of enchanted melee weapons. They also standardize Talents and classes that enhance strength and durability to an incredible degree, and have some skills that synergize off each other when they’re standing together, guided by officers. Jolba described an Agmon charge as remarkably similar to an avalanche, but harder to stop. He also said you need to behead them or vaporize some organs to actually kill them. But, they’re all sort of low level due to the size of the military and tendency to fight in large formations. They just have good Talents and lots of enchantments.

Nathan looked up from the brief reverie. “Ambushing them on the road or while they’re at camp?”

Zanwin flicked a glance at Nathan, his eyes intense. “Camp. We stop them forming a line and protecting their officers. They like boxes. Not far. Just need to travel through the night. Through the forest. I hope Byns’ perception skills spot the striped wolf pack we'll run into.”

Byns shot him a smirk. “And this time I’m not even the only scout.” She pointed at Nathan. “I’ve got backup. We’ll be fine.”

Aarl cracked his neck. “Getting there, sure. Then we have to fight a hundred of the best soldiers around, even if they’re only around level 40.”

Yeah, this is not a great matchup for me. I bet a lot of the reason for this raid is to level their soldiers. If they lose a few but everybody left levels up a few times it’s probably worth it to them.

Farist nodded. “We don’t need to kill them all. We don’t want to kill them all. This is a probe from Agmon. They’re testing how far they can push us. If we throw back this attack with just two teams before they even get to our walls, then they might not try again for a year. If they manage to get into Bridgeguard, loot everything not nailed down, and maybe make a try for Kulketh or Tenby? We’ll see another raid every other week.”

He sighed. “If we kill them all or bring in the elites as more than a warning, that might drip blood into their eyes. We don’t want them unleashing their elites on us. They also have better Questor access than we do, and we can’t give them an excuse for a quest. We need to turn them back. Kill a few without losing too much ourselves. If they can’t gain any levels that are worth losing more men and equipment… they’ll probably just leave.”

Selnoa had been quiet until now, the mage surreptitiously examining Nathan. Her voice was surprisingly high-pitched as she responded to Farist with a sarcastic tone. “Probably.”

He threw up his hands. “I see it as our only option. Strike soon, do as much damage as we can.”

Khachi’s eyes met Nathan’s. “But there are multiple options for how we strike.”

Farist spoke. “We’ve done this before, and they’ll be on guard. First sign of attacks they’ll armor up and make squad-boxes, then chase us down. But their first response will be in the direction the attack comes from. Our usual goal is to get in close with melee before they can group up and use magic to slow down their organization as much as possible. Ranged people on the far side, shooting into their backs as they face the melee. It can be messy to disengage. Those legionaries can move if they don’t have to dodge around trees and if their officers stay active. They protect their officers like adamant treasure. But they don’t go around obstacles well. They tend to go through them.”

He continued. “For that plan to work, we need cover. Cover to get close, cover to get away. I hope they camp in the trees and don’t find a large clearing. The Footspeak message just gave a distance along the road, not a location.” He sighed. “If they’re in the open we might just need to give harassing fire, prevent them from sleeping and maybe get a few from a distance. Dangerous, especially if they have some lightning-wands.”

Byns looked back at Sarah. “You’re Stanel’s kid, yah? You’re on ranged combat, while your brother’s the melee guy? You up for some long distance shoot-n-run? I hope you’ve got a bow with some range on it.”

Sarah tried to suppress a grin, hands twitching for her pouches where her weapons were stored. “I think I can handle that.”

Stella was chewing her lip as she thought about the whole situation. “What if we destroy the siege-spike?”

Orym nodded, the big lionfolk woman looking back at the mage. “Good idea, but hard. Those things are tough. Sturdy enough to survive a Siegeboar’s charge. They take six legionaries to carry, and it will be placed in the very center of the camp. Do you have a way to break a ten-foot rod of enchanted metal?”

Nathan met Stella’s eyes as she spoke. “We might. Nathan?”

He raised his hands. “Probably? I won’t know until I get my hands on it. And it sounds hard to get to.”

Selnoa was now fully focusing on Nathan, the small Knuld woman speaking once again in her high voice. “We weren’t at the Solstice this year, but I heard you snapped an enchanted sword in half with your hands. Think you can do the same with a siege spike?” Her tone was challenging, and one dark eyebrow was raised.

Nathan actually stopped and thought about it. He had been pretty effective at breaking enchantments so far, and it had generally been a harder struggle to not completely disenchant items he was touching.

But he’d never tried to disenchant something particularly large before. Herdin had said that larger enchantments were both harder to make and harder to damage, so Nathan wasn’t sure how long it would take him to disenchant something like a siege-spike. But it would be unquestionably a good tactic if it worked.

Nathan asked Farist. “Would it be a big deal to break the siege-spike?”

Farist frowned at Nathan. “Yes. If they can’t get through the wall easily and we demonstrate significant ranged firepower then they’ll probably decide it’s not worth challenging the wall. But how will you get to it?”

Nathan looked at Stella and mimed a high arc. “Is it bad if we use the same attack multiple times in a row?”

Stella snorted. “Why would it be? It’s a good tactic! And people don’t look up enough.”

Khachi was rubbing his chin, clearly thinking over the aspects of the plan. “The question is how you would get out. In the middle of a hostile camp of Agmon legionaries is not a safe place to be.”

Sarah broke in. “We’ve got four arrows in our quiver. Each can add confusion and distract from the true target, which is allowing Nathan to break the siege-spike and escape. Me n’ Byns strike from afar. Stella and Selnoa distract with magic, and you folks with swords can strike from the sides if there’s an opportunity. Nathan goes in during the confusion, and we cover the escape with traps.” She was gesturing around the group as she spoke, indicating the people who would be tasked with each role.

They’d reached the top of the bridge, and Nathan couldn’t help but stop for a moment to look around. They were more than a hundred feet over the water, and Nathan could see the forest spreading around in every direction. It was a green blanket, with the trees getting taller and transitioning to something more jungle-like down to the south.

He had to hurry to catch up to the Heirs and Forest Rangers, who’d been walking in a thoughtful silence.

The rogue, Zanwin sighed and threw his hands in the air. “I’m dumb as a Siegeboar. How is Nathan getting to the siege-spike? He’s got better stealth skills than I do if he can sneak into that camp past a hundred legionaries in the middle of a fight.”

Nathan looked over at Stella, grinning. “Simple. She throws me in. Now, I think we can tweak the plan a little bit, but it’ll depend on exactly what their camp looks like.”

–

They traveled through the remaining afternoon, taking a short break after nightfall to let their eyes adjust and wolf down a quick dinner of trail rations. Then they got back to walking, moving carefully but quickly through the forest.

Everybody was still discussing the plans as they walked. It reminded Nathan of the tabletop games he’d played, actually. They had a problem, some amount of scouting information and were trying to figure out the right tactics to help them triumph without anybody dying. And now they had a few hours to propose and discuss increasingly elaborate plans to trick and manipulate the Agmon soldiers into overextending and making themselves vulnerable.

The general consensus among the Forest Rangers was that the Heirs were being too cute by half. Nathan tended to agree - he’d often seen the plans that worked best around the table were those that were simple and straightforward, with a single primary thrust that everything was built around and room for variations as the situation developed.

Aarl proposed a plan where Stella showed up and ran away, dropping glowing chunks of crystal as she ran to entice the legionaries into breaking formation to chase the ‘valuables’, and Nathan decided to interrupt.

“I know we talked about focusing on deception, but part of that is respecting your enemy and not depending on them being dumb. If you were camping in hostile territory and saw somebody run away and dropping glowing objects behind them, would you chase or just attack from range and fortify your position to prepare for the follow-up? We should give ourselves flexibility to capitalize if our enemy messes up, but we need to plan as if they are smart and capable.”

He continued. “I think the right approach is the simplest one. Throw me in first, with Sarah and Byns on ranged overwatch. Make no moves to attack unless they spot me. There’s a chance that I’ll get in undetected, or they take a while to realize I’m a threat if I’m not attacking anybody. If they notice and call out, then we attack. Sarah and Byns go for targets of opportunity, Stella and Selnoa cause confusion and damage with area spells, and everybody else attacks from melee at targets of opportunity to help me get out.

“If they’re ambushed they’ll probably make a mistake. I don’t know what, but we need to be ready to react to whatever they do, and take advantage of the confusion. Our goal is to cause chaos, then escape.”

Mid-tier Lecturing 3 achieved!

Farist was nodding along. “This seems best. We will reevaluate when we see their camp, but for now I believe we should keep quiet and watch our path of travel. This forest is dangerous at night.”

—

They weren’t using any lights as they traveled, relying on the skyscape of Davrar to light their way. The swirl of far-off clouds and continents reflected as much light as a bright moon, so it was sufficient for their travel. However, the depths of the woods cut the illumination, and Nathan only noticed the ambush waiting for them when he saw one of the branches bob up and down in a motion that stuck out as not caused by the wind.

“Stop.”

He spoke quickly, and all of the Adventurers halted and drew weapons. Nathan pointed. “Light.”

The tree Nathan was pointing at was suddenly illuminated as Selnoa cast a spell like a giant flashlight. There were at least a dozen striped wolves in the tree, looking down at the party. They looked a bit like hyenas - their motions catlike as they quickly leapt away from the light. They jumped back into the forest, sounding a keening call as their simple leaps carried them dozens of feet to trees farther from the road.

Mid-tier Notice 9 achieved!

More calls sounded out from other trees, and Selnoa panned the light around to see more of the wolves fleeing into the woods. Sarah had her revolvers out and was tracking targets as the wolves bounced from tree to tree and out of sight.

The Adventurers were tense, but Khachi held out a calming hand. “No loud sounds. We’re not far.”

After the cries faded, everybody loosened up. Byns wiped her forehead, lowering her spear. “Big pack. True aim in seeing them. I was looking for Castlebear sign, but if the striped wolves are comfortable enough to wait in ambush then there probably isn’t one around.”

Then they were approaching the Agmon legionary camp.

Status of Nathan Lark:

Permanent Talent 1: Magic Absorption 7

Permanent Talent 2: High-tier Regeneration 9

Talent 3: High-tier Slow Fall 3

Class: Spellbreaker Juggernaut level 59

Stamina: 496/690

Juggernaut's Wrath

Antimagic Momentum

Raging Thrill

Juggernaut's Inertia

Unarmored Resilience

Utility skills:

High-tier Focused Mind 9

High-tier Earnestness 2

Mid-tier Sprinting 5

High-tier Spellsense 2

Mid-tier Notice 9

Mid-tier Identify 7

Mid-tier Dodging Footwork 4

High-tier Enhanced Memory 2

Mid-tier Lecturing 3

Low-tier Tumbling 10