Asheron's Fall: The Power of Ten, Book Six

“Tests on isolated Summons points seem to indicate sixty percent or more of the Summons are senior Gotrok, ranging up to Tukora, Commander. Mere gigas and lesser recruits represent a quarter or less of what are brought in,” I confirmed to the intently listening lugians and Briggs. “And that… can be manipulated, simply by battling the lessers and sending them off, to be replaced by something more powerful.”

The lugians here understood the implications quickly. The hidden forces would not have the weaker lesser lugians among them. It was entirely possible thousands of Tukora-equivalents were waiting for an invading army!

While that promised a lot of glorious battle for the paramounts and senior fighters, the majority of the army was not ready to deal with that level of brutal power in tight melee combat, where the mass and reach of the lugians would be murderous.

“So, we rely on the tactics of adventurers,” Kopf rumbled, not unpleased by the discovery. Such things promised more individual glory, in the end, and Karma came to those who pursued it.

“We have to get into those mines and see what is waiting for us. I doubt it will be pretty. Stealth would be best, but fighting will no doubt be necessary. Once we know what we will be facing, we can go in with a devoted force and clear it,” Briggs confirmed. “You might say we’re not the ones best suited for quiet infiltration,” he remarked, looking around at the even-larger lugians, who promptly rumbled in amused understanding.

“Orders then, sir?” Kopf asked smartly. He was totally loyal to Kris and his King, but he’d seen what Briggs could do both leading and being in a fight, and why the preternaturally lethal Hag was deferring to him.

A lot of loyal soldiers had protested when she handed over Warlord authority to Briggs. She’d just said, “You know how good I am. I acknowledge that Briggs is better than me at being a Warlord, while I’m better at throat-slitting, dueling, eavesdropping, killing you with compliments, and recruiting. Are you that stupid that you don’t want in charge who I want in charge, while I focus on doing the other stuff I do better?”

The Marked, Allegiances, and Fellowships had heard his orders, his strategies, the subtle timing and coordination of forces that had rocked the Gotrok with their effectiveness. That was especially true when he led the assault over the walls, and they saw lugians weighing nigh half a ton being beat around like tenpins, instinctively wincing every time his Hammer came crashing in.

Kris just cut them down in gurgling disbelief at speed. Briggs pounded through them like an avalanche!

Yeah, nobody was questioning him being in charge. Even King Borelean’s misgivings fell silent when he saw how naturally and easily Briggs took over the combined forces.

“I want every lugian on our side who calls themselves infantry upgraded to Vanguard and given a shield,” Briggs said in a low voice, his eyes hooded and grim. “We’re doing an exchange of favors, as allies should for one another. While the sneaky bastards do what needs to be done to pave the way for your return home, you brutal bastards are going to be stomping flat those sneaking skulkers threatening their homes, a job that requires much pounding flat, and not so much sneaking around.”

Kopf turned about to look north, as lugian heads don’t turn far. The other lugians quickly followed suit. “We’re going after the Hea,” he said with some grim satisfaction. “The Aun will be… ambivalent about this?” Despite all their hostilities, the two tumerok tribes were still basically from the same origins, and could even interbreed yet. Very pointedly, the few red tumeroks born from such matches were all of the old, true bloodline, not the more humanoid form the Virindi had forced the Hea into, a fact that had profound meaning for both tribes.

“They will serve as scouts and as healers, similar to what the Hea did for the Gotrok. Our job is going to be marching across the lands they’ve taken, shutting down the spawn points, and dealing with all the Summons they will no doubt marshal in an attempt to drive us off.

“However, the tumeroks have absolutely no history or tradition of massed battles, troop formations, or a proper true military tradition. They have hunters playing at being soldiers.” Briggs looked around at the lugians there, who all rumbled in proud understanding. Hunting was a very different mindset from a proper soldier!

“The plains, or the swamp?” another lugian, Krogos by name, spoke up.

“The swamp has its own problems we’re not going to get into the middle of, and it turns out our cutting through the undead pressure on them actually helped the Gotrok and the Hea. We’ll have to rectify that problem,” Briggs informed them. He looked around at the lugians, somehow bigger than all of them despite being a head shorter. “Alright, you know what you have to do. We’ll start getting shields into the hands of your recruits. You’re the trained vanguards, you know the drills, you’ll be setting up the squads. I’ll handle bringing in the Aun to start Marking up Summon points and getting the layout of the plains in more depth.

“I want your forces ready to roll out together within a week. We should have the Shields up and ready soon enough.”

Which means I better be ready to Harden all of them, I thought with a sigh as I listened in at the side. But it wasn’t that huge an imposition, especially if I could Mass Harden and do a bunch of them all at once.

It occurred to me the Aun probably wouldn’t mind proper Ironwood treatments to their own light shields, either.

I definitely had to locate more tungsten/worldbone to be mined out, Energized, and worked into adamant for the forges, but Energizing materials was something that could literally occupy all my time every day if I let it. Even with Widen, the amount of material that could be Energized was pretty small relative to the need. An ounce a level, Widened to eight ounces a level, was still only a mere two dozen pounds, or ten-some kilos, per spell. One Energize wouldn’t even make a full suit of plate armor, or a true scutum/tower shield.

Well, aggressive Aurora Stancing and Mana Renewal spells and Formations! Win the peace by preparing for war!

The mindset of raging economic dominance was quite alien to both the lugians and the tumeroks, one culture being based on military strength, the other basically a traditional hunter-gatherer society. Being able to win by producing more gear and better gear, so even your weak are equal to the elites of the other side, was not something they actually considered much.

Indeed, concentrating wealth and magic into the hands of their powerful so they could fight above their Levels had ended up disastrously, even as it had worked incredibly well during Asheron’s Ward. Taking that path again had earned us some hard looks and terse words from elders who feared the consequences of accumulating that kind of power in a few people again.

Even explaining to them the glaring weakness of the old artificing, with the mana charges necessary to operate them forming a huge hole the magical surge of The Fall had driven into and exploited, hadn’t allayed all their fears.

Explaining that it was probably a deliberate act by the parties who gave us that magic in the first place, however, had brought them around. Fear of ‘accidents’ became rage at a deliberate attack as the shamans and elders, always the wisest of their people, came to understand the differences between the old and new styles, the weaknesses and limitations, and how they had been exploited against us.

The Surge had been too precisely calibrated and attuned. Just the slightest difference in resonances up or down, and it would have had little effect besides possibly burning out some of the Gear, and making the ‘loot dropped’ Gear unstable enough to probably corrode away.

Instead, they had DETONATED. There was no way it was an accident, especially since it had worked simultaneously on lugian, tumerok, and Isparian Artifice at the same time.

Putting the best stuff into the hands of our best meant our best beat their best. Putting it into the hands of the second-best meant our second-best could equal the best of the other side, and if it was really good, could beat them.

It had been proven repeatedly, and they couldn’t deny it.

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The Aun Longbeach settlement on Ithaenc…

The Aun elders hissed as they reached out and just barely touched the magic, drawing away urgently. I Dispelled it quickly, and a whelming threat evaporated before it could truly take place.

“I do not wish to do that again, Elders,” I warned them. “I hope that was enough proof for you.”

Elder Hemenua, most senior and accorded the wisest of those gathered here, nodded. I’d brought back a dozen Aun elders from Stonehold, the Aun delighted that they could now interact openly with their distant kin, instead of shamefully hiding their connection below the eyes of allies. “This… is enough, Lady Magos.” He sounded as pained and disturbed as the others looked. “The natural magic is indeed rife with danger, and not to be touched.” The big Aun heaved a deep sigh. “That you are able to touch it where we were not is perhaps a sign from our ancestors, saving us from something fell and terrible, more dire than even what was done to our fallen. It pains us that we cannot wield the true magic of the land as did our forebears, but knowing why is a blessing.

“Thank you for trusting us with this.”

“If it stops some random enthusiastic fool from getting in far, far over their head, it was worth it,” I replied, inclining my head. “What has been your consensus on the Hea?”

There were murmurs from among the elders, many shaking their heads sadly. “As they have served their virindi masters with the Gotrok against us and our allies, so will we return their lack of kinship. We know of no way to return those twisted by the virindi’s magic to their natural forms, and they even breed true to such defilement. For the Hea to return to themselves, it is clear they must return to us and intermarry once more. If they refuse to do so… they are no longer tonk, and may be warred with as such.”

So, we’d have our scouts and extra healers. A whole generation of the Hea existed who had never known their original forms, save for the very rare interbreeding. Those children had likely been put to death, or at the least chased out of the Hea tribes if it was a Hea female giving birth.

Such children were cherished deeply and held as kin and the potential saviors of the red-skinned tribes among the Aun, however. It was just they were still very young and there were less than a dozen of them among the Aun, with only three Hea defectors having come to live among their green-furred kin… and such had no desire to fight their own, although they had a violent dislike of the virindi who had twisted their tribes so.

“Has it been proven to your satisfaction that the magic I brought to you is not dangerous, and provides a workable alternative to the ancestral magic you cannot employ?”

There were more grunts and murmurs from the attending elders, hands knocking on stones and knees, but nothing too opposed to it. I listened with half an ear, and Aun Hemenua finally nodded to me. “The ways and means you have used to weave the power of the land into the arcane magic are subtle and wise. Wielding the powers does not feel as alien as it once did. Granted, you gave us only the simplest and most basic spells to try out, but we would like to learn more of them.”

Elemental Theurge leading into dual arcane/primal magic. It raised the reqs to learn it by +1 Intellect or Charisma, but allowed the wielding of primal magic with arcane energies. I still had to be careful about stirring up something below the Land, but wielding Druidic powers was much easier, even if I had to do it through a Heartsong Class!

The Aun had been delighted to learn that playing the drum actually was a great way to focus the magic, the Bardic flavor of the Primal magic coming through.

“Excellent. I will make the stelae so that your Casters might familiarize themselves with the spells, and walk you through how they are used…”