Chapter Four-Hundred Ninety-Six (Patreon)

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Yvonne

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The hawkkin woman relaxes against a wall in the Hold as Aranya talks to the others, most sitting at the large table.  A lot of groups have taken to using the Hold as a bit of a neutral meeting place to plan, especially now that the construction has moved deep enough that the first layers don’t have to worry about the din of hammers and picks.  Yvonne and her friends are no different.

She slowly sweeps the room, nodding at Ragnar, Aelara, and Aranya.  The dwarf sits contentedly at the table, occasionally having a drink as he listens to the plan, ready to give his input as needed.  Aelara sits beside him, listening as well.  It’s been a lengthy meeting, so Aranya is ensuring everyone is on the same page for the plan, the red kobold a natural face for the party.  Aelara used to handle that, but Ragnar and Yvonne both always knew she didn’t especially enjoy it.

The newcomers listen intently, though Yvonne finds it hard to think of them like that anymore.  The Shield paladin, Pranjat, is an upstanding elf, and though he doesn’t have the special class the lad Freddie has, he has years more experience.  The raven follower, Blackwing, is more of a rogue type, maybe even an assassin.  There’s no way that’s his actual name, but Yvonne hasn’t pressed.  It certainly helps that he acts more like a curious child than a hardened killer, though that counts against him when he continues to act and look like that in the middle of a fight.

She’s usually distrustful of rogue classes, but Tupul’s a good kid, and even Thedeim’s helping him out.  If he's fine, so is Blackwing… even with the ridiculous name.  She shakes her head of the thought and resumes looking around the others, not letting her gaze linger on either the large troll that follows Order, nor on the minotaur that follows Laermali.  Despite his size, Bayule is the picture of a scholar, looking like he’s only grown so tall so he can reach the top shelf, and never saw a reason to grow wide.  The minotaur seems to have the extra weight one might expect on the troll, but very little of it is muscle.

It’d be easy to underestimate Remillia, if Yvonne hadn’t seen the raw power she has behind her arcane affinity and her faith.  Her gaze continues smoothly on to the trio from the Calm Seas: a city elf, a wood elf, and a stone elf.  She hasn’t met many stone elves, but she hopes most of them are like Gurju.  He has a mild temperament and is a natural shield for his group.  Yvonne hasn’t pried, but she wouldn’t be surprised if he follows the Shield, too.  Diruk, the wood elf, is their main fighter, specializing in a spear and using decay affinity.  Not a common affinity, but Diruk is an expert in using it to strike at and widen the weaknesses of foes.

Thirdly is Suzu, the city elf.  She uses her life affinity to enhance and heal her friends, though not to incapacitate their foes.  The first time they met, Ragnar had asked her about it, but the look on her face was all the answer he needed, and he hasn’t tried to bring it back up again.

The final group added to the large party are composed of Thedeim’s own dwellers, and Yvonne can’t help a small smile as she looks at how prepared they are.  The ratkin, Dile, is an archer like herself, though he prefers to hunt in the tunnels than on the surface.  Heinya, the large tarantulakin woman, sharpens her greatsword as she listens, while Wes the antkin alchemist doublechecks his vials.  Evarn is the newest addition, the ravenkin gravity mage trying to look calm and collected, but he can’t hide his splayed tailfeathers from Yvonne.  He’s even more excited for this than Ragnar.

“Just to be certain, everyone has their magma gear, yes?” asks Pranjat, and everyone nods their affirmative.  He smiles at the answer.  “Excellent.  The Holy Shield grants protection, but I wouldn’t want to burden It more than we have to.”

“Ah’m lookin’ forward t’ dippin’ m’toes intae th’ pond where Thedeim’s doin’ ‘is nonsense,” comments Ragnar, looking every bit as eager as he says.  He only just got the last piece of the composite armor Thedeim’s been making.  It’s not even blessed yet, though Aranya will be able to fix that shortly.

“What about the reports of Goldilocks being spotted in the Labyrinth?" asks Bayule, holding up one of those very reports.

“That’ll just make the delve all the better of a test,” points out Diruk.  “She’s supposed to be in charge of setting up encounters, right?  If we go in there looking serious, Thedeim’ll probably make sure to give us a proper fight.”

Aranya nods.  “I believe so as well.  He’s been working on a strong test for about a week now, and though it’s not ready, I’m sure the scions are of the same mind as he is: better to ensure people are ready while we’re here, instead of finding out in enemy territory.”

Even Blackwing nods to that.  “I’m ready for His talons… but when it’s my time, I want to know I did my best.”

“Then we enter in formation, and stay that way until we leave.  Shields and melee front and back, range and support in the center.  Our objective is to reach the subterrain pen and give our gear a proper magma test,” reiterates Aranya.  “We will set up camp in the pool, ensure everything works as it should, then pack up and march back out.  We don’t know how long we’ll be in the Betrayer’s territory, or if it will even have air, so I want to make sure we can handle ourselves under the most adverse conditions.”

“Have any of you tried the headwear yet?” asks Suzu, drawing more than a few blank looks.  Yvonne keeps herself from snorting in amusement before she explains.

“They all have a special illusion enchantment on them.  We can’t ordinarily see through magma like we can water, so he came up with… well, some more Thediem weirdness,” she says, looking at Aranya who can only shrug in reply.  “We should try them out now, before we get going,” she continues.  “It takes some getting used to.”

The ones who know all nod, so everyone dons their headgear.  For the ones in heavy armor, it’s a full helmet, and it looks like everyone with a helm has tested it out.  Ragnar pops his on and strides around the room with a confidence that contradicts how he handled it at first.  Pranjat, Gurju, and Heinya all look equally confident as they walk around.

The others, though…

Yvonne sighs and pulls up her hood, letting the enchantment rob her of her sight and show her the representation from the enchantment.  The world is rendered before her like a charcoal drawing, all blacks, whites, and grays as the thunder enchantment maps out the room around her.  She steps forward and catches Dile before he can topple over, the ratkin hardly able to keep his feet with how different everything looks right now.

“Don’t overthink it,” she suggests as she helps hold him steady.  “Trust your equilibrium, and in the enchantment.  It will only miss something if it can swallow sound, and I don’t think even Blackwing can manage that.”

Said ravenkin doesn’t even give a squawk of annoyance at that, as he’s too busy trying to keep his talons under himself.  Evarn, on the other hand, seems to have found his wings rather quickly, and is already modulating gravity to test himself with the new perspective.  The others don’t take too long to acclimate, and soon the headwear comes off, allowing everyone to see properly once more.

“Good job pointing out the helmets, Suzu,” compliments Aranya.  “I hadn’t considered that people might not have tried it out yet.  I think once we reach Lord Thedeim’s gates, we should don them once more and get used to fighting some of His easier denizens before we continue to the Labyrinth.”

Everyone nods at that, and with nothing left to plan for, they head out.

They’re far from the first group to do a test run like this, so they hardly even draw a second glance from the people as they march through the street in formation.  It’s strange to be in such a large party, but that’s probably why Thedeim made sure they all trained like this.  With a properly murderous dungeon to deal with, the usual three-person party could be taken out by simple numbers.  It takes a lot more coordination for over a dozen people to fight together, but it’s absolutely worth it.

It’s enough to really make her understand why, despite how much stronger the average delver is than the average soldier, nobody with a brain tries to mess with the military.  And with Thedeim helping them train, too, it puts her mind at ease to leave the protection of Fourdock to them once everyone goes.

As they near the gate, Yvonne forces herself to not look at Cobblebread bakery.  The treats are always tempting, but they need to be focused, not distracted.  It doesn’t stop her from meeting the eyes of a few of the others, everyone smiling as they recognize the desire for fresh bread, as well as the determination to stick to the plan.

They can get some bread after.  For now, they have a delve to do.