True Monsters – Act 3 Forge Hold - Chapter 22 – Into Forge-hold.

  Slowly a coach moved across the mountain trail, in the cold wet land the coach was a rare sign of life. It was gradually heading downwards. It gradually crawled southwards towards signs of civilisation and fortification. The land was more hospitable offering a little more grazing in the bottoms of the deeper valleys. More wildlife could be seen, some small herds of dear wild goats.

  The coach followed a usual pattern two horses a driver in a blue guild uniform. A mercenary with a ranged weapon staying alert by their side. Vivian sat by the driver her turn on watch. After four hours they would stop and Martin would replace her, keeping watch with his pistols at the ready. David was busy snoring away. Alice was reading a book on enchanting with what little light was available.

  Martin had a piece of leather working going as he slowly and methodically stitched a quiver together for Vivian. Martin liked to keep busy when he was not zealously hunting a monster, he liked to keep his hands occupied anything to avoid having to think about the people who didn’t survive.

  David was tired but happy, he was a veteran mercenary with money in his pocket. Slightly less each night as he played games of chance. He was sure that he would get the hang of it and make his money back, it was not a waste of money. Yes it was an investment he just needed to learn the games some more, get better at playing them. Luck was a factor but there was skill there was a time to raise the stakes a time to fold, he needed to get better at looking for peoples tells and hiding his own. Similarly self-delusional thoughts permeated his psyche, he tried to justify to himself the uncomfortable feeling of his purse slowly emptying.

  Vivian was proud of what they had achieved, the monsters that they had slain the ranks that they had advanced. The fact that they were alive at all. They had met other groups that were predominately made up of one type of adventurer, they had suffered losses. The party had not so far, she was proud of David, but wouldn't tell him that in so many words. Keeping his ego in check would keep him from overestimating his abilities and getting killed.

  The valleys had a larger amount of food than the mountains, which meant more wildlife and more food for predators and larger monsters. She had spoken to Alice and Martin, several of the larger types of monster relied on soaking up background mana as well as eating food to maintain their large size.

  Many of them entered a hibernation like sleep to conserve energy between hunting trips, more than one Wyvern and dragon had woken up after a long sleep to become a pain. Any monster that aggressively killed humans was as likely to be killed by the vampires as by the human's. This was for two reasons, the vampires detested anything that they could not control. They also didn't want their food source to be wiped out. Many of the vampires could bring such a creature back as an undead servant.

  They had been through a lot killing the monsters around broken gorge, unravelling the plots around Vine Garden now they were off to Forge-hold, as vine garden was just a prelude to a larger attack. They had disrupted a small part of it. The elder vampire lexicon was gathering forces in preparation to assault the settlement. He had to be stopped, he can’t have just been relying on Islington plan that would have just been one strategy amongst many.

  They had to disrupt his forces, they had to prevent such an attack before it happened. There was also a spy inside the walls of the settlement this was probably a different arrangement from vine garden, so the spy would be harder to find.

  There was the possibility of a vampire spy deeply embedded in the trade guilds upper echelons. Adrian had been recommended by someone from one of the main guild offices, it was more likely that the guild just had someone easily impressed by a diligent worker. It was another thing to be looked into.

  The coach would deliver valuable correspondence, including reports to the larger settlements. The cash of correspondence taken from the vampire Islington's lair would be passed to confessor Calvin. He would get a team of scribes to check it through for any useful information before archiving it.

  Reports of such vampire activity helped the triune gage the vampire threat, from one city to another. From one region to another, it helped them to determine where to spread their resources.

  Every settlement had some defenders, an extra couple of veterans in a settlement could be the difference between them holding the line and a settlement being taken from the map its people enslaved or worse.

  The road to forge-hold was quiet, news of the bandit attack a week ago had definitely reached the larger settlement. The news of the bandit’s destruction would be one of the bits of information that they would bring into to forge-hold. The road was far better maintained than the road from broken gorge to Vine Garden. This was because it was used far more frequently, the wine trade was far more profitable so the road was far better maintained. Also there were two other villages that made up lord Cain's responsibilities, a little trade went between all of them.

  Several hours further down the trail they went past a road repair crew, mixing up mortar and putting stone slabs down to repair a broken part of the road. There were four workmen with a guard of four militia men standing watching. The coach drew up and the foreman of the work crew signalled his people to the side. He shouted a warning, “I have been repairing these roads for ten years it’s too quiet, and you see a few hair or a deer. You hear a few birds singing, I don't like it there's nothing about, that normally means a big monster or a group of them. Keep an eye out I know we are”. Vivian nodded back, “OK we will keep an eye out, keep yourself safe god watches those who keep their wits”.

  Half an hour down the trail there was a tree smashed and broken blocking the road. It took Martin, David and Vivian's combined strength to roll it to the side. Something big had been sharpening its teeth and claws against the side of the tree. The creature must have been massive, if it could move a large tree like that. It would be a problem for the road crew as they would stand no chance against it.

  The horses were the first to sense something was off, another three quarters of an hour down the road. Vivian had the ring which enhanced her perception, so she quickly noticed what was setting them off. There was something black moving low down on a hill quite a way away. She tapped the coach driver on the arm and pointed out the threat. He tensed prepared to either turn the coach around or spur the horses into a mad dash to escape the threat. Vivian whispered low, “it has not seen us slow the coach down, I will get the others be quiet”.

  The viewing monocle that Martin had acquired from the dead archanist, allowed him to view what Vivian could see with her magically enhanced senses. David squinted, “is this a dragon”? Vivian looked at it, “no dragons have four legs and a separate set of wings”. Martin tapped the lens, “It’s a Wyvern they have about a fourth of the health of a dragon”. David wondered, “We were not trained to fight such monsters, what else can you tell us”? He remembered reading a book on dragons Alice had lent him. “A wyvern’s breath weapon has a far weaker attack, its range is about half, the cone of attack is a lot less about half the width, but the real weakness is that they can only use it once per day with level every four levels they possess”.

  Alice had the same book in her hands, “Vivian can you describe it again”? She squinted, “it’s about fifteen yards long, black lighter on the belly one wing is slightly off so it’s moving with a limp and I don't think it can fly. It has four large spines along its back with a lot of smaller spines, from the back of its head it has four spines. Most of its length is its tail ends in a sort of spiky mace.” Alice thumbed through the book, “It’s a black spined Wyvern, from the size it’s about level 15 it’s still a juvenile it has about 4 – 5 ranged attacks.”

  Martin got a little glint in his eye, “my guardian angel blessings could soak up those attacks, David could get behind it Vivian and Alice could stay out of its range, we pick ground that will trip it up some woodland, it could be an easy kill one less wandering monster.”

  David wondered, “What’s the reward for something like that”? Vivian sighed, “Probably not much as it has not made a nuisance of its self”. Alice held out the relevant page pointing to a guide, “we could get fifty silver for the head and the claws according to the book. it’s a little old so the prices may have gone up”. David nodded, “some merchant or noble is bound to want that as a trophy”. Alice looked at it, “it would be far more dangerous if it was given a few weeks to heal, if it regained the ability to fly it would be a nightmare to deal with”. Martin smiled, “god has given us an opportunity to make the world a better place”.

  “Its wing is damaged what do you think did that?” Vivian kept an eye on it, “If it got to close to one of the big towns they have ballista’s and bolt throwers that could have done the damage. It’s more likely another wyvern or a dragon, that is it got to close to another’s territory.” Alice was summarising. David looked back at the carriage, “Do we need to break out the contingency”? Martin shook his head, “no not yet.” A thought flashed in allice's mind, “there's no chance it could be a tamers pet”?

  Vivian looked at it closely, “If someone did tame one of those, they would have had to remove a few of the spines to fit a saddle. They would have probably fitted it with colours a coat of arms, a big recognisable cloth. To show who's property it was. So that a trigger happy adventure didn’t pick a fight with it. This is a wild one”. She paused, “if we get close and it doesn’t attack, then there would be a bigger reward returning it to the adventure using it as a mount.”

  On the assumption that it was a wild beast they began to move, Alice and Vivian disappeared into a patch of trees. David slowly started to circle it and Martin walked forwards a hand on his holy symbol, the other hand ready to draw a pistol. He used his defensive blessings, “fortress of faith, armour of faith, shield of faith, guardian angel, guardian seraphim angel”. He continued to walk forwards. The beast was moving slowly one of its wings was torn, the wound was slowly healing up. The beast walked about like a bat but with a serpent like tail and head, it turned to regard Martin and moved forwards.

  It spat a wave of corrosive acid at Martin, his defensive blessing flickered slightly completely neutralizing the attack. He shouted back, “definitely a wild one” he emptied a pistol into its face. The creature attacked again, Vivian and Alice were in position in the tree line and David was closing in on the creatures back. They would get it to exhaust its range attacks against Martin, before the others attacked so that it would be vulnerable.

  The pistol shot seemed to make it angry and it hissed, spitting another wave of acid in Martins

  Direction. The caustic bile didn’t do very much as it harmlessly splashed against the angelic defence. Martin was slowly walking backwards, he didn’t want the beast to switch targets, before it ran out of bile.

  He lobbed a throwing knife at its face, the poisoned blade barely scratched it. Lacking a focus throw or divine blessing empowering it. The monster used a third blast of acidic bile, it was realising that it was getting nowhere it hesitated then tried again. More monstrous acid struck the glowing blessing and the seraphim guardian was spent. The beast tried once more but only a little trickle of acid came out, it was out of juice.

  Martin shouted to the rest of them, “its out, hit it with everything you have”. He activated his best attack “Chain smite”. A stream of lightning flowed from his holy symbol and struck the creature in the centre of mass. David charged out of cover and closed on the beast’s tail, avoiding the spiked tip he started to carve into its flesh with consecutive power strikes, cracking through scale and bone. Vivian sent one bodkin arrow after another into the beast’s long neck, they sunk into its flesh six to eight inches each. Alice started to pelt its wings with fire balls. When she was sure that they were a charred wreck, she started to aim for its neck with acid strike spells slowly dissolving its armour.

  The beast howled and roared in rage, as its body was assaulted. It tried to close on the attack from the front, every second the lightning bolts slammed into it with a rising intensity. It tried to bat David away with its tail, but he was to close and had his shield ready to block. The beast couldn’t even see where Vivian and Alice were so it was very much unable to predict the damage, let alone counter the attacks.

  The beast started to fail and scream trying to hit its attackers, Martin had burnt a massive hole in its side with the bolts of lightning. David had cut through its tail so that the last six yards hung limply. Vivian was out of bodkin and iron arrows. Alice was conservative with her mana wondering if she would need to heal any of the rest of the group.

  It tried to lift off from the ground, flapping its wings it tore the slowly healing wound up then it crashed to the ground. The final bit of exertion and damage seemed to be too much for the wounded creature and it was gone. David made quite certain putting his sword through the soft part of its neck twice. The group slowly assembled in front to look at their kill.

  Martin and David levelled up, Martin continued to reload his pistol and then went to recover his thrown knife. David felt the level up hit, his body altered and grew. He had chosen to acquire more of the duellist skill, he would be slightly better matched in a one on one fight. Martin had invested another point in increasing his general melee ability’s, so that even if he ran out of ammunition and blessings he could still swing a weapon and contribute. Alice looked at Vivian patting her on the arm, “we will break through soon then we will catch up and overtake them”.

  Vivian started the slow job of pulling her arrows out of the beast’s side, they were imbedded in deep. Alice looked at the side of the wyvern, “isn’t that a royal seal branded on its hide, what’s the penalty for killing a royal mount ten years in the tower jail”? David screamed like a little girl and ran round to the spot Alice was pointing. There was no mark, he collapsed panting Vivian and Alice started to laugh. Martin suppressed a chuckle, David's breath was ragged, “Very fucking funny I almost had a heart attack”!

  David had the unenviable task of cutting through the beast’s neck and ankle joints. He didn’t like putting the extra strain on his well-worn sword, but they had no other suitable implement. He had to use a few power strikes then stop to sharpen his blade. Once they had cut through the flesh Martin broke as many bones as he could with a hammer and metal chisel. Vivian and David twisted the bones back and forth until there was a snap. It was a time consuming and messy work but they would not leave there trophy for any other to collect.

  David wiped the wyvern blood off his shield, “Ok Alice according to the book what alchemist parts can we get some money for”. She flipped through the book. “The spine marrow is worth two silver each the heart twenty silver the gallbladder and kidneys five silver each”. David got his sword out and looked at the dead wyvern he shrugged, “ok is there a diagram of its insides”? Alice shook her head.

  Vivian sighed, “We don’t have the tools or the time to dissect it, we have the claws and head ok. “How do we get the spines”? She looked bemused, “blade in at the base of the spine then twist according to the book”. The reality was a lot more difficult than the text book indicated, each spine went in about eight inches, even with several sword thrusts it took Martin Vivian and David pulling and twisting to get the spines out, they even cracked the first one.

  The cart driver slowly started to approach them. When he was sure that the creature was dead. When they had the head the spines and the claws loaded onto the cart tied to the roof, they did one final check of the remains.

  Martin regarded it, “lets burn the body”. Vivian queried the suggestion, “that’s going to take a lot of oil to get going, why would we want to do that”? “Do you wat to face that thing again if a vampire or necromancer brings it back as an undead or how about if an archanist reconstructs it” Alice was thoughtful. “It’s got no head or feet but they can be replaced with other items”. David had a quick answer, “that would never”, he paused “ok I remember that ghoul, you have made your point”. They piled kindling on the body then some oil and set it on fire, it took some time to take hold but it was soon a raging inferno sizzling the beast’s carcass.

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  David looked back as the cart slowly pulled away, “I don’t see those things as natural where do they come from, don’t tell me a wizard did it, where do such monsters originate?” Vivian looked through the book, “according to the text they were created by blood alchemists, tens of thousands of years ago, after they made basilisks and fire salamanders they wanted stronger creature's to act as long range scouts and mounts.”

  “They had many types of experimentation to create a stable type of creature temple. Then it took a lot of time to train the creatures up, there level of intelligence is not high. There are several types of wyvern mottled ice wyverns, dark green aquatic swamp wyverns, the fire breathing ash grey wyvern are the best type in terms of mounts, the easiest to domesticate.” David looked on trying to soak up the information, yet another monster that needed to be killed.

  Alice got back to the main purpose of the book, “In time the blood alchemists improved on the wyvern template, to create the first lower level dragons. These creatures had a lot more bulk and strength to them. Different dragons were created for different reasons, the white dragons were created as mounts and siege weapons for the colder climates. The gold dragons were built to look impressive and for speed, personal mounts.”

  “The blue dragons were created to patrol the seas and keep leviathans and kraken numbers in check, the black dragons were guardians of words and vaults. Red dragons were slow heavily armoured melee fighters. The yellow dragons are rare magic users, highly intelligent.” David could see why blood alchemy was punishable by death, but he still had one question. “How come the blood alchemists don't rule every land.” Alice thumped the book dramatically, “They didn't build enough control into their creations, as a result there empire collapsed as there creatures rebelled.”

  Vivian banged on the side of the coach, “we will be there soon I can Just see the lights of forge hold in the distance.” Forge-hold was a large settlement because it was on top of a coal mine. It had a few forges and a strong trade guild presence, but the church held sway over the town they would not have a repeat of what happened with the mine in broken gorge. The group would enjoy some of the comforts of a larger settlement, they might have the opportunity to kill Islington and certainly to disrupt his boss's plans.