4.4 - Acquisition (Patreon)

4.4 - Acquisition

Taylor

“You’re certain?”

Durge’s question was calm, he was usually calm, but his pacing gave off an entirely anxious impression by contrast. 

“We both saw it.” Wyll affirmed. A massive party, making its way across the river. Either they’re committed to finding the Grove, or they’ve found it already and will attack it soon.”

The white Dragon looked to Shadowheart and Astarion. “And you say Gnolls are crawling all along the riverside.

For once, Astarion was missing his devil may care grin.“Yes that’s right. I’m no expert tracker but you don’t need to be to count how many pairs of footsteps we spotted. A dozen, at minimum.” 

“What should we do then?” Shadowheart asked features severe. “We could… leave. Continue along the northern road to Baldur’s gate. If the Goblins are concentrated to the east in the Emerald environs, the roads should be clear.. 

“We can’t leave those people to die.” Karlach demanded.

“The eleven of us against six hundred or more Goblins?” Durge shook his head. “Even if we could fight that many, we have no way of bypassing them to actually reach the grove itself in order to concentrate our strength where we can properly defend with backup.” He continued to pace. 

There was a heavy, contemplative sort of silence amongst the group.

Gale was the one who broke it.

“This could be an opportunity.” The wizard said.

All eyes, most of them incredulous to boot, myself included. None of this sounded like any sort of opportunity to my ear.”

The Wizard stepped forward, gesturing to the map laid out on the ground. He knelt there, and with a gesture formed a ghostly sort of… chess piece?

Yeah. Yeah that was a Knight.

They had chess in this world?

The Wizard placed the knight infront of the Grove. “This group has moved across the river to search for, or attack the Grove. But that still leaves-”

Another chess piece formed. A King this time, now placed on that big ruined temple. 

“Their main base.” Gale said.

“It’s emptied out.” Durge raised his head, as if the realization had socked him in the jaw. “You want to go after the Goblin leaders, the ones with tadpoles in their heads. 

Gale nodded. “Aye” Standing up the Wizard approached Durge, earnest and fervent. “This might be our best chance at getting a hold of more Tadpoles. Something we might study. Yes we ran into a dead end with the other one but any knowledge on our ailment right now is a good one is it not?”

Durge’s jaw twitched muscles shifting under his skin. “Hrm. Assassination, infiltration.” He looked towards Sophia and Astarion. “We can do such.”

“Not to mention Halsin.” Wyll nodded. “IF he’s still alive, the Goblins will be holding him in that temple. It might also be a chance to rescue him.”

“I doubt he’s still alive.” Shadowheart shook her head. “If those Goblins found the Grove its because he talked, and if he talked, they tortured it out of him most likely, then killed him.”

“Regardless; The preponderance of evidence suggests our best chances lie in heading towards that temple.” Gale insisted. “I suggest we make that way post haste.”

Durge held up one, single finger “You’ve overlooked one thing.”

“Oh?”

“In Lanceboard-” Now Durge formed a small ghostly image, a Rook, in red. 

He placed it on the Blighted village. 

“You make certain your opponent can’t Castle before you go for the checkmate.”

Gale smiled. “Right you are.”

It looks like we had our heading.

—

The hike towards the village was a hard one. Just by nature of the geography the swamp dipped low, it's how the marshes became marshes, so the side of the hillside that led up to the village was steep, and its ground soft. Add to that the need to be as stealthy as possible, and it was a slow, laborious process.

What helped… was Sophia, grudging and painful as that admission was.

Durge handed her a rope, and the girl would go into her shadow state to leap up, tying it to trees or rocks, allowing the rest of us to use it as a handhold to climb the steep embankments. 

I wanted to try and see if I could get enough mosquitoes or whatever to try and do the same, fly ahead of us with rope in hand but… I told myself I wasn’t that petty.

That and I doubted even I could make them dexterous enough to tie knots.

“Hey.”

Karlach’s voice startled me and I turned, looking at the large red woman. “What?”

She smiled, a big toothy grin that might have been friendly… if it weren’t for the double sets of fangs framing it. “So about this bug control thing ya got-”

I shrugged. “What about it.”

“Never seen nothin like it. Well, there are spells, Demons can come with all sorts of tricks up their sleeves but never seen it in a girl, can’t feel ya castin magic or nothin; and I certainly don’t know anyone that can sense things through the bugs so, how’s it work?”

I shrugged, grunting as I grabbed hold of the rope and began to haul myself up behind Lae’zel.  “Powers on our world are relatively new. No one really knows how they work. Plenty of theories but beyond the basics, nothing concrete. Why does one guy get to shoot fireballs, or become invulnerable or rewind time but I get bugs?”

“Alright. What’s the basics then?” She asked as she pulled herself up.

I tapped at my head. “Gemma and Pollentia. Two nodes in the brain. If you have one you have the potential to get powers. When you get the second, you get your powers.”

I realized too late what the next question would automatically be. “Oh. How’d you get yours the-”

“H-hey!” Madison’s voice not too far behind us suddenly called and I felt her shift position deliberately. “Uhhh. Little help?”

Karlach turned around, frowning at the girl who was dangling from that rope. The woman tried to hold a stern gaze before she sighed, reaching down to cake her hand in mud again so she could grab hold of the rope without burning it, beginning to help haul Madison up the rest of the way.

I stared at the mousey brunette frowning. She hadn’t needed help. She’d put herself in the position to ask for it. Trying to get sympathy? Or trying to just keep me from reminding everyone what she’d done.

She was just lucky I actually didn’t want to talk about it. The less I had to relive that day the better, especially not to just indulge someone’s curiosity.

I turned, walking after the group and away from Madison and Karlach.

“Thanks-” I heard her mumble. 

“Yeah yeah. Oi!” I hear Karlach call after me, trotting a bit to catch up. 

But before she can say anything, Durge holds up a hand. “Stop!”

Its not a shout, it’s a whisper, his hand gestures ‘down’ and everyone gets low, I can’t sense whatever he sees, it must be just beyond my range.

“Taylor.” He calls, beckoning me forward. 

Still crouching, I crab walk my way over there, getting to his side peering through the underbrush.

There it is. The village.

I can just see it, resting at the top of the next hill. Seven, maybe eight hundred feet

Even from here I can see there are plenty of Goblins. Not so many as “six hundred” or whatever Sophia and Wyll had seen, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was at least a hundred skulking about between those on top of the buildings, in the streets and those hiding inside.

“Start gathering your swarm.” Durge demanded, as if I hadn’t already been doing exactly that since we woke up this morning. “When we get there I want to drop them fast. A lightning strike. If any get away they might alert the temple that we’re coming, or have the raiding party double back.

I nodded. “Not a problem but-”

“But what?” He asked.

And I pointed, squinting. “Is that a gnome they’ve tied to that Windmill?”

“They did what?!” I heard Karlach hiss.

“We have to help him!" and that was Wyll.

Beside me, I heard Durge sigh, grumbling under his breath as he shook his head. “It’s like herding cats.”

(X)(X)(X)

Little bit of a shorter one this time around, but I felt this was a good cut off point since Next chapter kicks off the "Blighted Village" with a proper fightAnd there is nothing else that could possibly be found in this place at all...

Not a single, eventful, important eight legged thing...

BELIEVE ME!