Chapter 23: Home Invasion

MARINA

I was still outside talking to Javert, who was fascinated with mermaids, obviously after seeing more than her share of Disney films (nobody had told her that the original version had her watching another person's wedding while her feet were torturing her). "Look, I'd better go though," she finally said, "I'd like your contact information though. It's just that I have to get back to figure out how to pick up the pieces of my career. The impossibly small pieces." She headed towards the chopper, but she didn't get as far as halfway before a small army of creatures started swarming in on our property. Javert (who assured me that she preferred Chastity to the name that had association with the villain in Les Miserables) flinched and hid behind me as a mix of goblins, wargs, orcs, and lesser demons crawled out of the woodwork.

ARBORIA

I estimated that the makeup was roughly 20% orc, 20% warg (each orc was riding or leading a warg from what I saw), 50% goblin, and only the last 10% were demons. There were a few trolls mixed in with the goblins, but nothing we couldn't handle when Rena got back.

I looked at the units and quickly formed a strategy against them. The toughest customers would be the demons and trolls, as most of out attacks wouldn't work. But due to their small demographic, it was likely we could save them until last. In the mean time, our second threat was the lightning bruiser combination of orc and warg. Goblins were not a small threat either. Sneaky, immune to illusions, and able to undermine opponents through the Rival Power of Doubt, goblins were in some ways the most dangerous of them all. I huddled together with my friends, and we all carried out my plan.

First, Autumntwig used illusion on the orcs, getting them to fight goblins, other orcs, and even other wargs. This didn't kill all the orcs or anything so successful, but it created a great deal of chaos which we exploited. While this was going on, Aellisa used geomancy. While half-elves can only manage this once daily, Aellisa was able to use this at will, and so she took advantage of standing on the right ground to get the right effect. A large number of vines sprung from the ground, tripping and choking the wargs. I helped out with this, as vines are kinda my thing, and I occasionally used some sleeping pollen on some of the trolls. Aellisa rushed in, and slashed some of these sleeping orcs and wargs, while some of the others continued to attack the goblins and the others. Since the goblins were being attacked, even though no illusion worked on them, they fought their own "allies". The way goblins fought was nothing to sneeze at. They were petty, devious creatures who had a tendency toward ganging up or laying traps. The goblins quickly massacred any orcs and wargs that remained after Aellisa slashed them up, then turned their attention to us. "You there," one of them said to Aellisa, "You can't hold that dagger. You're a pathetic and weak elf." Just like that, Aellisa's hands became too scrawny to even lift it, and it dropped to the ground. If not for Autumntwig shooting her opponent, and Marina attacking a few nearby ones with a trident, she would have been in serious danger. Autumntwig's weapon was a homemade pistol, but gnome technology is known for its tendency toward cruft. Anything from steampunk gives an inkling of what this means, but more helpful is imagining an "overclocked" pistol. It was designed to fire faster using a crank and pulley system, and every shot had a recoil that potentially injured her. So after saving Aellisa, both had to be dragged off near the house to rest. It was up to me and Marina, and we couldn't afford any more of their Doubt. Thinking quickly, my best plan to keep them from talking was to induce a sneezing fit. Marina, on the other hand, simply created a cylinder of water, and then charged them with her spear. It took roughly half an hour, but the two of us managed to exterminate these goblins. But what remained was impossible to kill.

As everyone knows, trolls are regenerative and demons are practically immune to all damage that isn't blessed or holy. Since none of us had manage to obtain a sufficiently blessed weapon over the centuries, and only Rena ready access to fire, we were having troubles. Marina would stab at a troll only for it to regrow and try to attack her. Autumntwig had recovered enough so she could limp over, and she handed me a few bottles of something. "Trolls are also weak to acid," she reminded. So I carefully handled each bottle, unstopping the cap and tossing the liquid inside at one or the other. It was definitely working. But then we ran out of bottles...

ALICIA

After a pretty satisfying event (I entered her two more times after that), Rena and I noticed some commotion outside. We slid the door open to see that the group was fighting a mixed group of critters, most of which to their credit were now lying dead. I used the Brush Knee Twist Step to sweep away the demons that were surrounding everyone, and Rena flooded the area with a wave of heat. It wasn't hot enough to cause more than mild burns to them, but this sort of heat was lethal to trolls.

In the aftermath, we caught Javert before she left. "Did Belial ever give you anything?" Aellisa asked her. She looked puzzled, but she fished through a coat pocket and pulled out an envelope. I was having trouble tracking me so he handed this note. The letter read, « Dear Charity Javert, it appears that you are talking about a type of teleportation native to certain supernatural species of forest creatures. Be advised these beings are not to be trusted. You must locate a tree similar to the tree they entered in order to track them. I suggest you find a botany professor or something similar. -B. Lyle» But what Aellisa was more interested in was the envelope which read the address «Charity Javert, The Helicopter, Middle of the Atlantic Ocean» on it. Looking closer, runes glowed. "Looks like tracking magic," Aellisa mumbled. "Tracking magic?!?" Javert exclaimed.

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