The next morning they made their way to the guardhouse early, making sure they made it there well before they were required to be there. When the party rounded the corner and the guardhouse came into view, they saw an awe inspiring sight. Before them there were hundreds of people in full battle gear moving with purpose. Some were moving to their assigned groups, while others seemed to be running last minute errands.
Making their way through the crowd they made it inside the guardhouse. Through the doors was a large open area which was normally filled with tables. Those tables were either pushed to the side or removed entirely, as the room was now devoid of furniture. In the place of the tables the room was filled with people. The large 100 by 45 room was filled to the brim with more people in various armors and welding various weapons.
Making their way through the room, they climbed their stairs and entered their assigned gathering room. The much smaller room had a continent of guards in it. There were 20 of them all wearing their normal uniform of a chainmail shirt, plate mail cuirass, greaves, bracers and an open faced helmet. 19 of the guards stood in a 5 wide formation with 4 in the front row. Corporal Jenkins stood at the front of the contingent and was inspecting his troops. When the door opened allowing the motley crew into the room the guards standing at attention didn’t even look.
Jenkins on the other hand turned to face them with a small frown on his lips. “Why aren’t most of you in your armor?”
“We don’t need to be ready for another 45 minutes, so no need to be uncomfortable. We will put our armor on when the time gets closer.” Rickie said moving to a wall and plopping down with his back to the wall.
Jenkins looked at the rest of the party as they moved past his neat formation. “He has got a point.” Bjorn said before joining Rickie against the wall.
The corporal just put his head in his hand and muttered something under his breath. He was far enough away, and spoke quietly enough that Bjorn couldn’t hear him from where he sat, back to the wall. But he was fairly sure he heard “give me strength.”
“Fine, but make sure that you are ready when it strikes 11, we are supposed to move out then.”
“Will do, I will personally make sure that they are ready.” Meira said while giving Rickie a charming smile.
Returning the smile Jenkins got back to inspecting his men. They, for their credit, hadn’t moved a muscle during the entire exchange. A half an hour past without so much as a hint of Bente and Rypley. During that time the guards alternated between Jenkins fussing over small things of their formation, and him talking quietly to one of his men. The party sat in one of the corners and talked amongst themselves.
When it got to 15 minutes before the determined departure time they stood and started to don their armor. Bjorn helped Alaric get into his scalemail and tie his bracers in place on his forearms. Alaric tied up Bjorn’s ringmail and helped him secure his quiver in place. The rest of the party was helping each other into their gear. Meira slid into her leather armor with grace. Tayla came wearing her leathers. Chase put on a chainmail shirt and used a belt to hold it in place, he held his massive tower shield in one hand, a small mace attached to his belt. Laurel was small enough that she slid into her armor with ease, and she didn’t need help tying it in place. Alya didn’t have any armor as it was, instead she did have a heavy padded shirt that she used. Lastly Rickie stood just as bare chested as he had the day before apparently not having any armor of use.
As for weapons Alaric had his new hammer in one hand and strapped his new shield in place on the other arm. Meira hefted her staff leaving her other hand free to cast her spells. Tayla had added two holsters to her belt with her two shorter hammers on her hips. She still had her two daggers poking out of her back. Bjorn slung his bow on his back and hung his sword on his belt. Chase had his tower shield and mace. Laurel didn’t have any weapons, but she did carry a small sack, she had chase bring a larger sack which he carried over his shoulder. Alya carried her crossbow lightly in one hand and on her hip she had a quiver filled with more. Lastly there was Rickie, who had a massive greatsword that was strapped across his back, the sword was easily 8 feet long. Which didn’t look massive when in comparison to the huge muscle bound man who carried it.
When everyone finished suiting up it was 5 minutes to their departure time. Jenkins looked over to the party. “Where is the other dwarf and the hob-goblin?”
“We don’t know.” Alya replied. “We haven’t seen them since the day before yesterday. We spent the day at the training grounds, we might have scared them off that day.”
“Very well.” was Jenkins only reply. They stood there waiting until the time elapsed. 30 seconds before they were supposed to set out the door opened, letting in Bente and Rypley. They were wearing a matching set of heavy plate armor. They both carried large kite shields and had single handed war hammers on their belts.
“Glad you decided to join us, It would have been a shame to have to make the town hunt you down. Well, now that we are all here we should make our way down into the sewers.”
With practiced discipline the guards made their way out of the room one by one. Following close behind the remaining 10 made their way out and down the stairs. When they made it back to the large gathering area it was near half full. With how big the room was there were still well over 150 people standing in the room.
Making his way forward towards where Jenkins was leading the group Bjorn started to walk in step with Jenkins. “Hey what happened to all the people that were in here?”
“Most of them have already deployed down into the sewers. We will be heading down on the far side of the city.” The way he said that last part made it obvious he didn’t want to be bothered by Bjorn. So he dropped back and walked with his group.
It was a little under an hour to make it to the far side of the city and to the large set of stairs that led down into the sewer system. They entered a small building that its only purpose seemed to be to keep rain from going down into the sewers. From there it was a confusing jumble of turns, tunnels, and stairs. They for the most part made their way deeper, but occasionally they had to move higher before going to a set of stairs leading further downward.
“If Alaric, Meira, Tayla, and Bjorn hadn’t vouched for the fact that there is an issue with some spiders I would think they are taking us down into the sewers to kill us and take all of our stuff.” Chase said.
“Right? It seems awfully suspicious that they have been leading us down like this without telling us our end destination.” Rickie said.
“Stop your chatter, we are almost there.” One of the guards said.
They finally entered a long tunnel. The entire time there were small balls of light that sat affixed to the ceiling directly above their head periodically. The tunnel they entered was large and had a channel running down one side of the tunnel, it was filled with a slowly flowing brackish brown colored liquid. As they were traveling the lights were set in different frequencies. The tunnels they passed through that were larger and saw more traffic had the lights closer together illuminating the tunnels. The smaller less used tunnels were darker as they had less lights dedicated to it. Sometimes the lights were so far apart they were walking in complete darkness for a few seconds before they saw the next light in the tunnel ahead of them. In those instances Bjorn cast his simple light spell, he gave one to Jenkins at the front of the column, and carried one himself at the middle of the conscript forces.
The large tunnel they were standing in ran off straight in both directions. On the left side the continuous tunnel of black stone was broken by an out cove dug in the rock. From where they stood they could see a small camp had been set up in the out cove. Jenkins led the way towards that small camp. The out cove was medium sized, it was large enough to hold all 30 of their force with a little room to spare. There were already 5 other guards who were in camp. The area was situated with 20 tents, an area where a cook fire was set, and there was a hand drawn cart laden with supplies.
When they rounded the corner the 5 guards who had been posted there snapped to attention and saluted. “Sir! There has been no movement from the spiders. We have not seen any hide nor hair of them since we have been stationed here.”
“Very good.” Turning towards the conscripts. “5 of the tents are yours. You will be up against that wall, and you will have to sleep two to a tent.”
Frowning Alya spoke up. “Why do we have tents? How long is this supposed to take?”
“At least two or three days. We don’t know how long exactly, but last time we rushed into the fight and paid the price. Not this time, this time we are going to go slow and take our time. Go ahead and get settled, we will set up a watch detail.”
“I don’t have fighting capabilities, but I am able to set traps. I brought a bag of them. When will we be able to set them up?” Laurel said.
“I was not informed of this, we hadn’t any plans for you to set up any traps. You won’t be able to set them up. We don’t know what or who is coming through, I don’t want any of our friends running into them.” Corporal Jenkins said.
Obviously upset at Jenkin’s decision. “I am sorry, but I disagree. We don’t know if our allies will be coming through, but the odds of them making it to us through this tunnel is slim. Wont any information come through a runner by any of these tunnels?”
“They will, but I still don’t want to take the chance, on top of that we don’t know how far into the tunnels the spiders are. Because of that your traps are an unnecessary risk. I won’t risk my men.” Jenkin’s said.
Rickie was starting to get on board. “But you won’t have to risk your men, we will go with her to protect her. You won’t have to risk any of your guards.”
Before Rickie finished speaking Jenkins was already shaking his head. “You are under my command, so you are my men. I will not risk your lives just for something that might pay dividends. No, the risk isn’t worth the potential payoff.
“We don’t know when they will break through the spiders. By the time they do so we will probably be the last ones to find out. We are on the far side of the main army. You said so yourself when we were down here. If the spiders were to flee they would flee directly into us, I would much rather they be weakened by our traps before they make it to us.” Bjorn said.
“No, and that is final, I don’t want to hear any more of this. Set up your camp and we will take care of the watch. Everyone must be ready to be called at any time. Dismissed.” Jenkins turned and walked into the largest tent letting its flap close behind him.
A slightly awkward air fell over camp as the guard was split between wanting to follow Jenkin’s orders, and wanting to set up the traps, as they thought that they made a few good points. Either way nothing actually happened. The guards started to set up their camp. The conscripts didn’t have much to set up. They paired off: Meira and Tayla, Bjorn and Alaric, Rickie and Chase, Alya and Laurel, and lastly Bente and Rypley.
Once they stored their gear Bjorn started to hand out potions. They had 8 danger sense potions. They also had enough potions for each person to have at least 2 health potions, and a stamina potion. They hadn’t spent any time crafting mana potions, as the only ones who could cast magic in camp were Bjorn and Meira, and they already had several mana potions each from their own personal stores. They also made two doses of the minotaur's strength potions. Those went to Alaric and Rickie. The last unique potion that Alya and Bjorn brewed was an enlarging potion. That potion ended up going to Rickie as well, as he was already the largest. Everyone agreed it should go to him as a force multiplier. The last thing that they spent the last two days brewing was a generic antidote potion. One dose went out to everyone.
Their actions of passing out potions hadn’t gone unnoticed to the guards. It wasn’t long before Bjorn and Alya got a summons to the center tent. When they entered the spacious tent had a single large table in the center, and off to one side they had 3 chairs set up. On the table was a detailed map of the sewer system. It had the area that the operation was happening in in excruciating detail. What Bjorn said was right, based on the map laid out in front of them they were almost exactly across from where the main army was set up at. They could see the other 4 entrances and they had small squares on the table to signify their forces. From the map the engagement area had a large almost circular ring of tunnels that connected the 6 entrances together.
“Yes?” Bjorn asked curtly.
Frowning at Bjorn’s obvious lack of deference to Jenkin’s post he spoke up. “My men told me that you are passing out potions. Do you have enough to pass out to my men?”
“No, we do not have enough.” Bjorn said shortly once again.
“If you don’t have enough then we will have to confiscate them. And I will be the one to decide how the potions are allocated.”
Alya put her hands down on the table. “You will do no such thing. These are potions that we brewed with our own hands to give us the best chance to survive. We will not be sharing them with you just because you said so. We are already here against our will, you don’t want to compromise your ability to do your mission just to flex your power do you?”
Jenkin’s put his hand to his forehead and started to massage his temples. “I think we misunderstand each other. I don’t care about my power. If there was someone who would be better at my job I would gladly give up my position if it gave us a better chance to get through this. I promise you, when I said that you are now my men I meant it. If any one of my soldiers had something that could be shared to give all of us the best chance to survive I would do the same thing to them. My goal is to complete this mission with the least amount of losses possible.”
Sighing, Jenkin’s dropped his hand and made eye contact with Alya. “How do you expect me to react when I hear that my subordinate is intentionally withholding something that could potentially save the lives of the rest of my men? But I was working with limited knowledge. When you were on your small tirade you let it slip that you brewed the potions. Is that correct?”
Jenkin’s words disarmed the anger that Alya felt. “That is correct, we both are alchemists, and yes we know how to make healing potions.” Bjorn said, putting his hand on Alya’s shoulder. When he did so she relaxed and withdrew her hands from the table then she took a step back.
“What would it take for you to be able to make potions for my men? I don’t know how much time we will have, but I would like for you to make enough healing potions for my men to each have one. I have had them in the past in combat. I used to fight in the 4th Escarian army. Many of my men lived by a potion at the right time, closing up some of the more serious wounds. Other times it was all that was needed to make the difference, lessening a wound letting them fight on. Stamina potions would be good, but the healing potions are the more important ones.”
The corporal’s words gave them pause. Making eye contact Alya nodded to Bjorn. Nodding back he set his jaw. “We will make these potions for you under one condition.”
“And what is that?”
“You have to let us set up Laurel’s traps, she isn’t a fighter, and I can promise you that she wasn’t lying to you. We spent two days ago sparing and she lost every single fight that she was put into. Having her here in camp will be more of a hindrance than a help, unless you let us set up her traps. I hear your concerns, but the danger to our allies is limited, and we only really have a chance to benefit from it. If you won’t let us set up the traps then I will also accept you letting her be dismissed from this fight.”
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Jenkin’s was quiet as he thought about Bjorn’s words. “Fine, very well. You can set up the traps, but like how you had conditions, I also have conditions. You are allowed to take up to 5 of you. Either you or Alya are allowed to go, not both. We can’t risk losing both of our alchemists to the spiders. Secondly, if you run into any resistance you need to retreat. And Thirdly, if she is able to, you have to set her traps up far enough away that they have no chance to hurt our troops, but close enough that you can easily retreat back to this position. Can you agree to that?”
“I can.”
“That works for me.” Bjorn said.
“Very well, then I ask again, what do you need?”
So they laid out what all they needed to make enough potions for each soldier to have at least one healing potion. Herbs, vials, tools, and what they need in their workspace.
“Very well, I will put in a request, there should be a runner here in less than half an hour. With the rate the requests have been processed so far it will take roughly 8 hours for the supplies to make it here. Will that be enough time to set up your traps?”
“Honestly we don’t know. We just trust Laurel to have our backs. We didn’t know her before we were roped together a few days ago.” Alya said.
“Alright, get it done. When you leave can you send Tommin in. He is the guy standing outside of the tent.”
As they left they sent the guard into the tent. From there it didn’t take long to get back to where everyone else was sitting.
“So how did it go?” Meira asked.
“Surprisingly well.” Alya replied. “At first he wanted to take our potions and redistribute them, I “accidently” let it slip that Bjorn and I are alchemists and his tune changed rather quickly. He let us keep our potions in exchange for us to brew potions for the guards.”
“Another benefit that we got out of him is that Laurel you can now place your traps. We can send no more than 5 of us to protect her as she does her job. I think it should be Alaric, Meira, Rickie, Chase, and myself. The way I see it, if we send our best fighters we have the best chance to be able to return in case something does happen. Alaric, Rickie, and Chase are for sure, they will be able to hold back any attacks as we withdraw from the enemy. Meira as well, because of her spell casting, she is the only one who has the ability to stun the spiders. Lastly I think I should be the last one because of my spell casting and with my archery.” Bjorn said.
“You don’t need to convince us. We trust you and I think we are all in agreement.” Tayla said. Her assertion was mirrored by everyone in the group.
“You have sound reasoning. But even if you didn't, your friends trust you, so that is good enough for me.” Rickie said, dropping his bunch of bananas that he called his hand on Bjorn’s shoulder.
“Laurel, how long will it take you to set your traps?” Bjorn asked.
“If it was just me, probably all day, but if anyone else knows how to set a trap it will probably take less time.”
“I don’t know, but I am willing to learn.” Bjorn said.
After a moment of no one else responding Laurel nodded. “Well it is better than nothing, so I will take it. We should get going, the sooner we start the sooner we can finish.”
Saying a quick goodbye the 6 stood and made their way towards the entrance to the tunnel. There were 4 guards standing there looking down the tunnel. It was illuminated by the same glowing lights that illuminated the tunnels so far. The lights were placed only 150 feet down the tunnel and then past that, it was dark.
As they approached two of the guards dug into a crate that was to the right of the tunnel and pulled out two more of the lights, handing them over. “Good luck.” the guard said.
The lights Chase and Alaric now carried were small fist sized orbs that emitted a soft blue glow. They were able to cast light 25 feet before the light faded enough to not be able to make out anything past it. So with a little trepidation they made their way into the dark.
Traveling slowly forward they walked for around 10 minutes until they got to a point where the wide tunnel narrowed. The tunnel they were talking down was basically a large square, 10 feet by 10 feet wide. Where it narrowed the tunnel turned into 8 feet by 6 feet, large enough for two of them to stand side by side.
“This should work.” Laurel said and she dropped her pack. Chase, who had also been carrying a large pack for laurel, dropped his as well.
Meira took the orb from Alaric and walked towards the entrance and studied the wall for a second orb in hand. She then reached out and touched the orb to the wall and let go, the orb stayed in place stuck to the wall. Stepping back she smiled. “I wasn’t sure exactly how they got them to stay in place, but I figured our tunnel had to have something that would serve the same purpose as everywhere else down here.”
“Alright, Laurel, instruct me.” Bjorn said.
Bending down she opened up her smaller bag and pulled out a hand powered drill and held it up to Bjorn. It was normal sized in Laurel’s hands, but once it was in Bjorn’s larger hand it looked like a kids toy. Next she pulled out a few different sized hammers and chisels. “Alright, first thing we have to do is make it so the trap will be anchored, if we don’t when something runs into the triggering mechanism then the trap won’t go off. Sounds pretty straight forward right? Well it kind of is.”
Laurel then took the hand drill from Bjorn and started to tunnel into the rock face, quickly making a few holes on the lower side on either side of the tunnel. Next she dug into the bag and pulled out a metal canister. She also pulled out a spool of a thin metal wire. Going back to her first bag she pulled out a small leather sack. Inside the sack were metal pitons.
On the bottom side of the canister was a piton attached by 3 inches of wire. Taking the piton she put it into one of the holes that she dug. Once it was attached to the wall she tugged on it a few times to make sure that the piton was holding. Happy with her work she pulled out a set of pliers from her tool bag and used them to bend a few tabs on the top of the piton down onto the wire. She then took the piton and secured it to the second hole, which she tugged on the wire to make sure it wasn't going anywhere.
Next she took wire and walked over to where the canister was set and while keeping tension on the wire she put it into a slot in the canister. Using her pliers she bent more metal wings down holding the wire in place. Finally she cut the wire off at the spool. The entire process took around 10 minutes to do. What remained was a barely perceivable tripwire that spanned the entire tunnel.
“So this is a fire based trap. When the tripwire is tripped then the canister will shoot out a highly flammable gel and gas at the same time. After three seconds it will send a small spark which will ignite both the gel and gas burning everything within a 10 foot radius. This is one of my 5 types of traps that I have made, let’s go through the other 4 and then I will watch you set one up and see how you do.”
They spent the next hour and a half going through the other 4 traps, she had an acid trap, lightning trap, chilling trap, and finally a poison dart trap. As she explained the setup process to each of them Bjorn listened the best he could. All while trying to avoid being anywhere near the traps that they have already set up.
Not every trigger mechanism was a tripwire. Each one had a different trigger mechanism and they were set up differently. The acid trap had a small barbed cable that dangled down from where they set it into the ceiling and anything that ran into the cable caught the barbs and pulled down on the string to trigger the trap. The poison dart trap was motion activated, anything that passed 4 feet in front of where it was set would trigger the trap, setting off it and shooting out a deadly poison tipped dart. The lightning trap had a pressure sensor, so when it was stepped on it would release a powerful electric shock damaging and stunning anything that stepped on it. Lastly the chilling trap also was triggered by a tripwire.
The way that Laurel set up the traps was sinister. She would set them up in such a way that when someone would trigger a single trap they would often trigger at least one more. That way if the first trap didn’t do it’s job, the second or even third one will finish them off.
After an hour of them working Bjorn got a new prompt.
You have gained the skill: Traps. Some people set up traps to protect their stuff. Others set them up to weaken their enemies before they fight them. There is one more group, and those are cowards like you. They set their traps to avoid fighting all together.
An added benefit of all the traps that they set. Bjorn’s trap finding skill also increased several times.
Congratulations you have advanced your skill level in Trap Finding. You have reached level 4 in trap finding. You have a 10% increased chance to spot traps.
Over the 10 hours that they spent setting up traps in the tunnel they didn’t see any signs of spiders. Everyone stayed on guard though. They had no idea when exactly the spiders would come down this tunnel or if they would at all.
When they finished up with the trap setting they packed up their tools and taking their bags made their way out of the tunnel back to where the guards were waiting. Before they left Bjorn looked back taking in their work. He was bringing up the back of the pack, and with him having light magic they gave the two lights to Alaric and Chase again.
The tunnel behind him, the pitch black tunnel was awash in red lines. From each of the traps that they set there was a small red light that spanned the tunnel from where the trap started to where it ended. “Hey Laurel.” Bjorn called, his words stopped the column and they all turned back to where Bjorn was standing. “It's alright guys, I just have a question for Laurel.”
His words made everyone visibly relax and Laurel made her way over to where Bjorn was standing looking back. “Do you know why there are red lines in our tunnel?”
A look of confusion briefly crossed Laurel’s face before understanding dawned on her face. “I am assuming you have gained some sort of perception skill, is that the case?”
“Yeah trap finding.” Bjorn said.
“That is what the lines are, you have spotted the trap and so the triggering mechanisms are highlighted for you.”
“But won’t it trip others off about the traps? If someone has trap finding as a skill won’t our triggering mechanisms tip them off on our traps.”
She shook her head. “No, by the way I understand it. Just because you have trap finding as a skill doesn’t mean that all traps will be highlighted. When you look at the trap the red lines will only appear if you are able to spot the trap. If you don't, your skill won’t do you any good. Because of your skill though you will have an advantage over anyone who doesn’t. If you spot the trap or the triggering mechanism it will likely show you both the trap and the triggering mechanism making it easier for you to avoid both and safely disable them.”
“Ah thank you, but the fact remains, if any of the spiders have a trap finding skill then these traps will be useless.”
“If they have a trap finding skill then yes. But I doubt that they will.”
“So you're saying that spiders, who are famous for building nests that are basically one major trap won’t by default have some sort of trap finding skill.”
Laurel was quiet for a moment. “I see your point, and I now feel foolish for suggesting that they probably won’t have a skill like that. I would like to formally retake my foolish statement.”
Bjorn smiled. “That is fair, alright let’s make our way back to camp. I have potions to brew for the greedy guards.” That got a laugh out of everyone. So they made a hasty uneventful retreat back to camp.
When they rounded a corner and could see the camp’s light at the end of the tunnel a shout echoed down the tunnel. “Corporal, there is a light coming. If I was to guess it is our saboteur expedition.”
As they got close the small light off in the distance in the tunnel grew and soon they were able to make out shapes against the light. When they left there were 5 guards stationed at the tunnel entrance. There were well over 20 men across the entrance to the tunnel. The soldiers were decked out in their armor and held all of their weapons at the ready and stood their ground. It looked like a motley crew of men. Even though all of their armor was almost the exact same they had all different kinds of weapons. There were 6 different kinds of weapons being brandished. Swords, hammers, spears, halberds, ax’s and finally pikes. There didn’t seem to be any real rhyme or reason as to what any given person had.
Bjorn mentally chuckled at the sight. Even though the force before them was formidable. If the same force had been on earth during the medieval period they wouldn’t have stood a chance. A Lot of armies that had success were all armed with the same type of weapons and they presented a unified front. Even though each one of these guards would most likely win in a one on one fight or even a two on one fight, the likelihood of winning in a straight up fair number fight seemed slim. The only thing they had going for them was that the people of this world would all be considered world class athletes back on earth.
“Halt, state your name.” The voice they heard earlier came echoing down the tunnel again when they were roughly 100 feet from the blockade.
Rickie bellowed back. “We are the saboteur team back from our mission. It was a success, if any of the spiders come that way we should get a heads up by the sound of the traps getting set off.”
There was a brief silence before the guard called back. “Alright, you may come forward, let us get a good look at you.”
The entire thing felt like a show. They were close enough that everyone could see that they were indeed the party returning. Regardless they made their way forward moving up to the blockade.
“I am sorry, we can’t be too careful.” The guard said when they were within 5 feet of each other. “I also am under orders that we need to see each of you stripped down to make sure that there aren’t any spiders hiding within your bodies. Don’t worry it doesn’t have to happen here, but everyone will be accompanied by at least two guards into a tent to be inspected.” He paused for a second and looked Rickie up and down. “Uh, that is everyone except for you Rickie. Your already basically naked, so we can tell that you aren’t infected.”
Alaric chuckled. “That is fair, besides I am pretty sure the only monster that you need to worry about with Rickie is the one between his legs.”
The guard they were talking to stood there dumb founded for a second Before Bjorn decided to break the silence. “Well with that unwanted mental picture. What are we waiting for, let’s get going.” Bjorn’s words broke the stillness that filled the room and smirks and chuckles could be seen and heard sporadically in the assembled host in front of them.
Clearing his throat. “Yes, let's.” and the host opened up a hole big enough for everyone to come into camp. Slowly, one by one they went into a tent and got checked out, making sure that there weren't any wounds on people's bodies. When all the guys were searched the two male guards came out of the tent and two of the female guards went in to check the women. Once everyone got the all clear tensions died down and people started to slowly dispersed throughout camp, leaving only 5 people on watch again.
Meira was the last to be checked and she came out of the tent followed by the two women guards. “So why did we have to do this? We were able to talk to you, if the spiders hijacked our bodies then we wouldn’t have been able to talk to you.”
The half elf guard smiled back at Meira. “Trust me, I am with you, I find it stupid. But Jenkins is convinced that if the spiders are intelligent enough to take your body and puppet them, then they could be intelligent enough to learn how to speak as well.” She rolled her eyes. “I know it sounds far-fetched, and Corporal sent his idea up the chain trying to make sure that everyone takes the same precautions that we are. Captain sent back a message saying that nothing in the records suggests that the spiders are able to do that, and his suggestion is a little outlandish. But the Corporal insists that we take those precautions.”
Meira shrugged. “Well it isn’t that bad of a precaution. All it took me was showing some skin to you, it’s no big deal.”
“Exactly my thought. Although the messengers really complained when they came into camp and they were subjected to the same treatment. Same thing happened when the supply train came to camp. Honestly though if he doesn’t stop with the full body searches then he will become the laughing stock of the guard. People will talk and everyone thinks that it is ridiculous.”
As they talked, Meira and the guard walked together through camp and ducked into a tent together. In the meantime Bjorn was already around the fire with Alya and they were working together to brew more potions. This time everything they worked with was supplied by the city guard instead of out of their pockets. Which worked out in their favor, they basically got free alchemy training.
It was exactly a day since they moved down into the tunnel when another set of runners came into camp. They brought news that everyone is now in place and all preparations have been made, and that the assault will begin in one hour. After they delivered the message the runners left the camp heading to the next camp.
When the runners left everyone got ready and stood ready. Jenkins doubled the amount of people standing guard. After the time came and went there was no change at their camp. Eventually Bjorn and Alya got bored of standing around waiting and went back to doing alchemy.
10 hours after the assault began Alya and Bjorn finished making at least one dose of potion for everyone. So they passed out all 30 potions one to each of the guards, the remaining 5 potions went to Jenkins for him to pass them out how he saw fit. They were lucky, during the entire brewing process they only lost one batch of potions. They lost it early in the brewing process so they lost little time. It only took 6 batches total to brew the 30 potions that they made.
In the middle of making a set of stamina potions for the guard a piercing shriek echoed through the tunnel. Coming from the direction of the spider’s lair. The shriek was accompanied by a low electronic thrum. After a second a loud bang echoed through the tunnel.
The loud sounds made everyone stop what they were doing and stand in place, no one really knowing what to make of the sound. Everyone expect for Laurel that is. Her tiny voice soon could be heard through the silence that followed. “That was the sound of my Lightning trap. What are you all standing around for? That sound means the spiders are coming, or at least one of them did. Let’s go! Get ready!”
The gnome’s voice broke the fragile silence that had settled over the camp, and everyone burst into action. Soon the camp became a flurry of activity as everyone tried to prepare for a fight. There had previously been 5 guards who stood guard at the tunnel entrance. Soon everyone made their way to the tunnel entrance in ones and twos as people had been in different states of readiness.
It didn’t take long for everyone to be standing at attention waiting for the spiders to attack.
