As the party looked at the building and considered their options, angels and mortal spirits moved through the humble park. Every so often, Racknar kept checking the thread that connected him to Marionette. It still went to the building and hadn't moved. Davy made a suggestion. “You know, if the angel was forced to act because of a spell then she wouldn't be a prisoner and we could just talk this out with little issue.” Racknar shifted. “It's the most likely scenario but it's not the only possibility. We can't assume that they'll be friendly because they only grabbed her at the command of a summoner.”
Ariagoria hummed. “We could try talking this out at first but be ready for combat just in case.” Racknar shifted back and forth as he considered his options. “Fine. Let us try knocking on the front door.” Racknar started walking right up to the front door. He took a big breath before knocking on the door. There was a long and awkward silence. Then the door opened with a human servant on the other end. “How may I help you? I should start with informing you the Lord is currently preoccupied.” Racknar growled. “My friend who was a living doll was grabbed by an angel. I have a feeling she's in here.”
The servant let out a long and loud sigh. “Ah, I see. Then you must be Racknar.” Racknar backed away from the door a bit. “Yes, I am.” The servant nodded and opened the door all the way. “You may continue.” The group slowly entered the building. The servant gestured into the building. “The master of the house is expecting you. Outside the back, in the gazebo.” Racknar nodded and grunted and they walked through the building. They made it out the back door without any issues.
The Monster Mashers got outside and looked around the private garden around the gazebo. Meanwhile Racknar eyed the gazebo when he spotted a humanoid with partly translucent angel wings working on the garden with one of the white robbed mortal souls with their head in the bush. The angel turns and sees the group. “You're not residents. What's going on here?” Racknar spoke with a growl in his voice. “Someone kidnapped a friend of mine and I have a feeling she's here.”
The other person pulls their head out of the bush revealing its Marionette. “Guys! You finally made it. I knew you'd come after me eventually.” Racknar blinked. “Have you just been tending to this garden for the two or three years you've been here?” Marionette seemed to drift away for a moment before perking back up. “Three years? Has it really been that long?” She shifted around. “I guess it has, seeing as I'm going on eighteen now. I figured since I wasn't in any danger I'd take the opportunity to work on myself and reflect. You know, grow and mature. I didn't want to be a burden due to my inexperience. You know, with me being the least experienced member of the party and all. I was the youngest when I died.”
Racknar let out a sigh. “Well I hope you found what you were looking for. Let's get you home.” The angel put up a hand. “Why the rush? You are in no danger. Why not stay a while? After all, even if you stayed a few days only moments would pass in Mortalus.” Racknar looked at his upper left arm and saw his angel-blood tattoos were glowing brighter than normal. Ariagoria’s tattoos also shined brightly. Racknar grumbled. “Tempting, really. But I think-” The angel did a little twirl. “But think of the possibilities. You can gain experience for a year and only a day would pass in your world. You could train here to be ready to take on Lolith.”
Racknar looked at Marionette who shrugged. “I told him about our current objective of removing Lolith and restoring Arachne. He approves. He's even willing to let us, how did you put it, “level grind”. We could have Arachne restored long before the year is up.” Racknar considered his options. Physically speaking he and Ariagoria were sixteen while Davy was twenty eight biologically because Illithids come out the pod fully matured. Everyone was still young and some of them didn't even have to worry about aging.
Racknar crossed his arms. “If you want Arachne restored, how come no angels have been sent to do it?” The angel frowned. “Our ability to manifest and act in Mortalus is limited. We are unable to come to your realm unless invited. Your mages take advantage of this by offering invitations with catches. Even when we are free to act there's a limit to what actions we can take. Lolith may technically be a goddess but there are enough gray areas to bring jurisdiction into question.” Racknar shifted around again and looked at the party.
A light shines into the summoning room and the Monster Mashers were now complete once again with Marionette at their side once more. “You could have used it for more than a half year. We could have spent three years there and it would have been fine.” Racknar grumbled. “Something felt off about the situation and the Lord. He seemed too persistent about us staying.” Marionette’s illusory face frowned. “So we left because of your paranoia. Cool.” Racknar grumbled. “What happened to trusting my instincts?”
Marionette huffed. “I think I was blinded by my emotions then. I'm not some little girl anymore.” Racknar looked over at her. “Does this mean you've grown out of your crush for me?” Marinette swayed back and forth. “I…” she paused and thought about it. “I mean I'm not obsessed with you, but I do have feelings. However, I understand that it's up to you. I can put myself out there, but I can't force you to like me. I learned that one after the succubus incident. I'd like to explore the possibilities if you are.”
Racknar rocked back and forth on his feet. “Display stats.” Racknar’s stat display appeared in front of him. “We finally reached level eighteen, barely. Full casters like Davy now have ninth tier magic. Prestige level eight. Another year and we should reach level twenty. A month before Elizabeth’s dad's best case scenario life expectancy.” Elizabeth let out a sad sigh. “So you won't be ready to take on Lolith till at best just one month before my dad croaks. I hope you weren't expecting to have Arachne restored before I take the crown.”
Racknar grumbled as he cleaned up the summoning circle he made. “Well as long as the Empire or Church doesn't pull any unexpected moves we don't have to worry about a timeline. I'm sorry about your father, but unfortunately, him stepping down sooner is advantageous for us as it allows us to speed up our timetable. If there was something we could do to save him we'd have to have a talk but there's not so we won't.” Elizabeth sighed sadly. “I know, the mission is always your focus. We still have a quest to finish.”
Racknar nodded and the crew made their way to the cart once again. Getting back on the road to head to a bandit camp. “I really wish we could have found something closer to home but all of the harder quests in our range were taken. So we've got ourselves a classic investigating missing livestock quest.” Davy groaned. “Last time we took one it was a dragon.” Racknar chuckled. “That was unlucky. The odds of it being something that strong a second time are low.” Davy responded in a flat tone. “Low, but not zero.”
The party arrived at their destination, having to spend several hours traveling outside of the areas the party has traveled before and activating new gates. Outside the Empire in a kingdom in what was this world's equivalent of the middle east. The party eventually arrived in a vast hard rock desert town with buildings made of sandstone at the edge of a vast area of loose sand that had dicks leading into the sand as if it were a sea and special sand skimming boats for crossing it. The humans here were darker skinned, resembling what one would expect from a desert area.
The fashion was a mix of Indian and other middle eastern peoples and in addition to the humans were a number of different lizardfolk and dragon-bloods. There were even Kobolds allowed in the city with no issues. Ariagoria looked at the area in awe as goats and camels walked around and items were sold in a bazaar. “This reminds me of those old Arabian nights movies.” Racknar nodded and looked for the town's guildhall to ask about the job.
“Ah, that job. It's not just livestock anymore. We have people going missing too. It would be one thing if they didn't return after sand sailing. Between the pirates, sharks, worms, and whatever else is going on in that sand sea I'm not even sure why people risk it.” The guild person told Racknar. Racknar shrugged. “I don't know, I'm just an adventurer responding to a quest that was posted. Decided to go to the furthest out one of the jobs I selected first. Is there a spot where people tend to go missing more? Someplace where I could potentially spot tracks. Or perhaps there have been sightings.”
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The guild person looked through everything he had on the job. “Let's see… looks like whatever is doing this is doing so at night. No reliable sightings. One said something about a crocodile but I highly doubt it was one. A beast kin maybe? Though lizardfolk are not uncommon even among local bandit gangs I don't know why they would kidnap people and livestock.” Racknar nodded. “Well if it only attacks at night then we can narrow it down. Let's see.. nocturnal, possibly reptilian….” Racknar put a hand on his chin. The guild person hands Racknar a marked map of the town. “This labels a few spots people went missing from or were last seen at as well as places that had livestock go missing.”
Racknar grabbed the map and nodded. “Maybe I can spot tracks or something.” Racknar then led the party to a farm close by that lost goats recently. Racknar looked around the farm checking for tracks and scuff marks. “Whatever it is definitely has claws or talons on its feet. Something about these impact marks… I think the creature had digitigrade legs.” Racknar checks a busted area of the fence and finds a scale lodged in it. Racknar runs it in his fingers, washes it with water, then licks and bites it. “Odd… definitely a reptilian scale but the texture is… off somehow. I'm not sure how to describe it.”
Davy lets out a sigh. “So you figure out what it is yet?” Racknar shook his head. “No. In fact I'm even more confused. Reptiles aren't normally nocturnal for a number of reasons and there are several small things that don't add up. I think we're going to have to set some sort of trap. Bring in something this predatory entity couldn't pass up. Let's wait till nightfall then summon forth a buffalo. A summon can last up to an hour, so hopefully that's enough.” The party grabbed a few things and started setting up traps for whatever is causing the issue. “We can use “Move Earth” to speed up making a pitfall trap, but with a capture net instead of spikes.” Racknar pointed out.
Once traps were set the party simply waited for it to get dark before using magic to summon the buffalo into the trapped area. The thing simply walked around in the farm's pen that had been modified with a number of traps while the party watched from a distance. Racknar spotted movement in the dark, five shadows moving in the dark. They ran right into the area and triggered the pitfall trap. The party rushed in to get a good look at the five figures that looked like crocodiles or komodo dragons that were moving on all fours moving way faster than one of those creatures would be capable.
Racknar was the first to peek over the edge of the pit and into the net. His entire body went stiff as soon as he looked into it. “Oh, oh no.” Davy shifts around. “If the creature is making Racknar react like that, I'm already to find out what it is.” Racknar slowly backed away from the pit and gestured for the party to do the same. From the pit came yelling in a language no one recognized. Then a bit later a figure leaped out of the hole. It looked like a humanoid lizardman at first, but then the odd features were brought into focus.
The monster was greenish grey and had eight small black eyes like an insect or bug above its tooth filled lizard snout, it had four clawed hands and digitigrade legs with clawed and taloned feet at the end of them. The creature was wearing an extremely simplistic leather loincloth and leather straps in an X shape on its torso. Both adorned with various small bones. Ariagoria recognized a few as human finger bones. “Those… are finger bones on its outfit, some are human.” She commented out loud. Elizabeth gestured at the snarling and mutated looking lizardfolk as its friends climbed out of the pit. “Please tell me you know what these things are.”
Racknar nodded as he swallowed hard. Davy let out a sigh of relief. “Oh thank goodness. That means you know it's stats and abilities because you memorized all the Creatures and Catacombs books.” Racknar backed away a bit more, still gesturing for the party to do the same. “That's not from Creatures and Catacombs.” Davy’s eyes widen and his face goes pale. “Oh, oh fuck.” There's then an awkward pause as the two groups eye up one another. Davy then gives a confused look. “Wait, if those things are not from Creatures and Catacombs, then how do you know what it is?”
Racknar chuckled nervously. “They're from Warlords or Warcadia, a tabletop war strategy game that might as well be a ditch person hobby because starter kits were like two hundred dollars and if you tried showing up with a starter kit although technically playable you'd be more likely to be laughed at then find a game. The community was oddly gate keepy.” Elizabeth nodded. “I remember you complaining about wanting to take a look because the game itself looked cool but between the price, the toxic community, and the equally scummy devs the barrier to entry was too high.”
The strange lizard gestured to the party and spoke. Racknar sighed. “I have no idea what he's saying, but considering these are Rath’thal marauders… it's more than likely they are telling us they're going to kill us, eat us, and rob us. Not necessarily in that order.” Marionette chuckled nervously herself. “Well at least he gave us a heads up first. Also good luck eating Krys’tal and me.” Racknar clenched his fists and took a combat ready stance before calling forth his weapons. “Yeah, well unfortunately not being flesh and blood isn't going to discourage them from trying.”
The Rath’thal marauders all show off the serrated and rusted blades that are strapped to their wrists. All except the leader who pulled what looked like an octagonal metal baseball bat with nails welded into it as spikes off its back. All together there were six of these strange lizard-like creatures. Not that many, but considering there was a measure of doubt from not knowing exactly what they were dealing with, it was still a risky situation. Racknar grumbled as he didn't like going into a situation blind.
The creatures charged in fast, so fast even Mari barely had the time to dodge with everyone else taking hits. Luckily their armor took a solid amo5of the blows but the monsters me are multiple attacks before there was an opening to move or attack. Marionette shifted into the shadows before appearing again behind one of the Rath'thal before making three swings with her swords and cutting into its back causing it to help in pain. Krys'tal put up her hand and in a bright light a floating crystal spike about eight feet tall and at its thickest three feet wide appeared, sending ribbons of light to the different party members.
Ariagoria gets a good read on injuries across the party before creating distance from the Rath'thal and pulling out her revolvers and shooting three bullets at one of them. Landing only body shots the target she shot was still standing. Davy casts Chain lightning hitting three of the enemies, including the ones injured by Marionette and Ariagoria. Elizabeth chuckled. “Time for a little echo. “Chain lightning!” She targeted the same three enemies, downing two of them. Racknar then charged at the last injured Rath'thal marauder and cut into it with his chainsaw swords. After two slices the enemy was down and Racknar sent four more attacks into a second uninjured enemy and downing him as well.
The leader of the group uttered something in frustration as it was just him and two others. They attacked despite being outnumbered, trying to swarm Ariagoria. She brought out her shield to block some of the attacks only to get hit by four attacks leaving her heavily injured and bleeding. The rainbow ribbon coming from the crystal turned red and suddenly her wounds started to close, only for similar wounds to appear on Racknar. “Don't worry about me, I can take it.”
Marionette and Krys’tal both sent attacks at the back of one of the lizards, leaving it heavily bloodied. Elizabeth and Davy once again used Chain lightning hitting the three remaining enemies killing the one that was injured. Ariagoria took hold of her mace and with a burst of white flames smashed in the head of the remaining minion with three savage attacks. This left Racknar free to go all out on the last remaining enemy. “Reckless Internal Strike!” His arms ignited in sickly green flames as he brought his weapon down on the enemy and left a giant gash before sending five more attacks until all that was left was a bloody mess.
Racknar breathed heavily while standing over the body and the flames changed colors a few times before going out. From sickly green, to blood red, to purple, then finally blue before they went away. “Can someone use “create water” to wash this blood off me?” Ariagoria started using healing magic. “That wasn't as bad as it could have been. Oddly enough I took the most damage despite my armor even if that crystal totem thing moved the damage to Racknar somehow.” Davy cast a spell causing water to drop on Racknar's head. “With how nervous you got I was worried that we might be in real danger. Although they attacked more quickly than most things they weren't much more durable then a normal lizardman.”
Racknar grumbled. “That was just a small squad of basic marauders. The lowest level squad of the Rath'thal armies if I remember correctly. Depending on the point in the timeline of the universe of the game they are either slaves or another faction or scavengers.” Elizabeth started looking over the bodies. “Nothing of value. Even their weapons are rusted trash that's not even worth melting down as scrap.” Racknar nodded. “That's about right. Most of what they use is salvage. Random bits and baubles from other factions cobbled together. Frankenstein tech if you use the science fantasy expansion.”
Davy let out a groan. “Didn't Creatures and Catacombs also do a science fantasy expansion?” Racknar nodded. “Yeah, but mechanically it's not much different than the pirate islands book. Your ship goes through space instead of the ocean but the writers couldn't resist adding a space kraken and shit that to me felt like it might as well have been a reskin of previous works. But none of that is important right now. If these guys are here it suggests the possibility of bumping into other things from the games.”
Davy rocked back and forth on his feet. “Doesn't this imply that not only are other settings from Creatures and Catacombs possible to reach but settings found in other games? How is this even possible? Is reincarnation going both ways allowing people's memories of other worlds bleed into fiction?” Racknar shrugged. “I don't know. Does it really matter? This world is the one we live in now so it's the only one that matters.” Krys'tal looked over the dead bodies a bit more. “I know we have two other quests we grabbed, but I'd like to go home for a bit.”
Racknar sighed. “I was hoping to go sand sailing, but we can start making our way back. Our other two quests are in that direction anyway. We started with the furthest out mission out of the three.” Racknar pointed at Davy. “Use the move earth spell to bury those things.” Davy nodded and after the bodies were buried the party once again loaded onto the cart.
