Book 4 Chapter 46 (Patreon)

Crusader General Stonegnawer Eahn rode his construct behind ranks of soldiers, roughly at the center of the loose gathering of leadership for the campaign he led. The riding construct was one of the few luxuries he allowed himself while on the job. He’d been riding ponies for years since the height of a horse was a problem for a dwarf his size, but as a leader, that wasn’t a very impressive image, and cultivating one's image as a general was important. Personally, he didn’t think it was that big a deal if he marched with his troops, but the Crusade had grown into the organization it was in a culture that emphasized officers riding while troops marched. The construct addressed the issue of getting on and off by simply lowering itself to the ground and letting his step down. It was also able to rise to the same height as a warhorse, removing the other problem ponies had, which was seeing things when there were taller people and taller animals all around him.

As the army made the final approach toward Avalon, their arrival in a few hours at most, he considered what was happening. His subordinate, High Crusader Hearthbreaker, wasn’t as good at hiding her thoughts as she thought she was, and overall, he agreed with her and her friend, Commander Ravenhome, that this campaign was a bad idea. If he hadn’t been on sabbatical when Vexler had started drumming up support for an army to march on Avalon, he’d have shot the entire thing down, but things had gotten too far when he’d finally learned what was happening. As it was, he’d practically forced his way into leading the campaign, if only to make sure that Vexler wasn’t in charge. Stonebreaker wasn’t a fan of the newest people who had been promoted to High Crusader and other leadership posts within the Crusade recently. “Too much of a good thing” was always a possibility, and too many younger recruits had too much fervor for the cause. Fervor was useful and generally a good thing when set in the right direction, but it had to be balanced against compassion, logic, and wisdom. It was never good to be out of balance.

If he’d had his way, he’d have shut the entire campaign down, loaned the Order a few good people and gifted them a hearty sum of money to pay for everything, then sent them on their way to deal with the problem. But he was both a member and a personal supporter of the Itarian Crusade and the loss of face that would occur if they just gave up on a campaign they’d already started recruiting outside troops for would be too much to allow. So he’d taken over, put the radical in a place where Stonegnawer could watch over him, and now had to deal with everything himself.

What the hell were they going to do with an army, actually besiege the city? There were thousands of innocent civilians that would get caught up in it, and even the combatants they would have to fight weren’t at fault for anything that was happening. The only people who truly had any fault in all of this were the leaders who fell for the lies of the vampyr. If there were any lies at all, he was starting to have doubts. Originally, the idea that someone had finally managed to break the curse of becoming a vampyr was a ridiculous one. Certain Skills or incredibly expensive potions or remedies could slow down or even halt the change if administered quickly enough, but to completely eradicate the change? It was hard to swallow after all these centuries of looking for a cure that one random Outworlder had found such a thing in less than five years, even if they did tend to stir up some of the biggest shit shows around. Hearing that the Outworlder hadn’t completely cured the corruption but had merely changed it into “something safe” had stolen all chance of it being believed. Too many vampyr had tried that song and dance already.

Now, he had doubts again. The meeting with the Adventurer’s Guild had really started to gnaw at his conscience. True, the Adventurer’s Guild never got involved in conflicts outside of the jobs they facilitated unless there was no other choice, so he’d expected them to reject their request for aid. He’d wanted them to accept it so that he could get a team of high-tier adventurers from them to go with Ravenhome and remove the problem before there was an actual war, but he’d expected the rejection. He hadn’t expected the guildmaster to straight up tell them they were wrong and to please fuck off. He obviously hadn’t been quite that rude, but the meat of the message was the same. There was no way for the founders of the Adventurer’s Guild to have personally checked if Lord Kay was a vampyr or not; he’d seen very trustworthy confidential reports that they weren’t on this continent at the moment, but whichever guildmaster had been sent to Avalon was one they trusted enough to make a final decision off of one verification from that guildmaster.

At this point, whether or not the Outworlder was a vampyr or not, Stonegnawer had problems. The detachment of part of a Shattered Clan legion to join them had only added to the issues that the fucking King of Nelam showing up had put on his plate to deal with. He didn’t want the arrogant, self-serving king of a slaving nation along for the ride, and he didn’t want the pig-headed idiots so obsessed with tradition and how the ancestors did things that they couldn’t wear clothes that were too new because their ancestors didn’t wear those fabrics to send troops either. The commander of the detachment had even tried to lecture him about wearing improper armor, and he’d had to restrain himself from slapping the idiot silly. Stonegnawer wasn’t part of the damn Clans; his ancestors had left the old dwarven Kingdom-Holds long before the calamity that had wiped them out and left the Shattered Clans behind. 

Ah, he was stewing in the annoyance at all the problems that had been dropped in his lap; he made his decision; he was going to march the army that he was in charge of over to Avalon and politely ask for some form of proof that Lord Kay was or was not a vampyr, and he’d be open to being convinced that there was some new thing that was like a vampyr but not that people could be without also being monsters, and he didn’t particularly care what anyone thought about his decision. Hearthbreaker would be happy that they didn’t jump straight to attacking people, Vexler would sit down and behave or get spanked, and Ravenhome would be delighted if everything went well because it would mean that his daughter was still alive in truth. And if Lord Kay did turn out to be a vampyr, well, he had an army with him, didn’t he?

The rest of the army could squid ink for all he cared about their motivations, and they’d stay in line or get spanked, too. The only force making p the army that he was worried about was that fucker Glowl and his troops, and it wasn’t that big of a worry. Stonegnawer would just not tell him anything until after the truce with Avalon was done, and then if Glowl decided to go rogue, he’d be happy to deal with him as a subordinate commander who’d broken a truce should be dealt with. Avalon would probably join in to help if it came to that. It certainly didn’t hurt his disregard for Glowl and his objectives that Glowl kept sneaking off “scouting parties” to the villages they’d passed by. The good news was that they kept coming back empty-handed without any of the “prisoners” Stonegnawer was sure they were after. The better news was that some of them hadn’t come back at all.

Stonegnawer saw a few of the scouts under Ravenhome start trickling back toward the army, which meant they were almost there. He decided to go find Hearthbreaker and get her to sit on Vexler so he could focus on negotiations once they started talking to make sure he didn’t do anything stupid. Just spanking him after he caused problems wouldn’t stop problems from happening, so best to have someone on hand to beat him unconscious if necessary.

Huh. I hadn’t realized how much I dislike Vexler. I should really take him and the rest of his contemporaries aside once we’re done with all this and teach them where they could go wrong if they keep heading in this direction. I’d hate to have to remove them like the Conclave of Fang’s End has to go. That kind of indiscriminate destruction just can’t stand.

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“They’ll be here in less than an hour,” Curcius reported, reading over a missive that had been brought up by one of his aides. “It’s a small enough army that they’ll mostly arrive all at once instead of in pieces.”

Kay stared at the rise the enemy army would come over as they descended toward the valley and the wall between them and Avalon City. “Do we finally have a definitive count on their numbers? The reports we have from spies and information brokers weren’t verifiable until now.”

“Seven thousand with the addition of the Nelamians and the Clans legion. It’s only a quarter of a full legion, but it brings their numbers up. The Nelamians are slightly larger with fifteen hundred soldiers.”

“So they originally were only bringing just under five thousand soldiers? That roughly matches the information we got, but it doesn’t seem like a lot…”

Curcius looked over at Kay out of the corner of his eye. “I would say that’s inexperience talking. It’s not a massive army, but it's a decent-sized one. It’s almost five times the number of soldiers we had last year, and it’s still more than we have now. Thankfully, we had the foreknowledge of what was coming and the ability to set the battlefield up ahead of time to even the odds.” He glanced down at the message in his hands. “We also have confirmation that the dragon with them is real. Apparently, they’ve been spending most of their time in their humanoid form, but they switched to their draconic shape when they got close.”

“Then my blood Champions of Murunel are going to come in handy.” Kay paused before glancing over at Curcius’ aides. “Someone send a runner to Murunel and ask if she knows anything about this dragon. It’s unlikely, but she might know them, and I’d hate to kill someone we might be able to talk down.”

Curcius shot him a mock glare. “Don’t you have your own staff?”

“I did have one person, who I think was planning to expand my staff, but he had a family emergency and retired. People keep telling me I need to go ahead and get a majordomo or a butler or whatever and develop a real staff, but I’ve been busy.”

“I can tell you from experience that having people around whose job is to make your life easier makes your life easier.”

Kay laughed quietly in reply.

“In all seriousness, my lord.”

Kay turned to look at Curcius.

“I appreciate the level of trust you have and continue to show me. I realize that I’m not as experienced as some of the Ministers and other leadership you’ve gathered around yourself, but with your support and the opportunities you’ve helped me get, I’ve learned a lot and grown just as much. I won’t let you or Avalon down.”

Kay reached up and clasped him on the shoulder. “Good.” He turned his neck to stare at the rise again. “It’s all coming to a head now. Remember, let them attack first. There’s still a chance we can solve this diplomatically if we can get them to actually listen.” He pulled up the quest notification he’d received earlier that morning.

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Noble Class/Title Quest: Defend Yourselves!

- You face a challenge that has destroyed the dreams of more than one Noble and ruined the progression of many cities and nations: an invading army! Whether the invaders are after land, conquest, loot, power, prestige, revenge, or your head, they must be driven off if your people and lands are to be safe. Destroy them, negotiate with them, capitulate to their demands, or find an alternative means of removing the threat. Due to the nature of this Quest and the events creating it, success will result in your city being promoted one level independently of both your Noble Class’ advancement and the necessary criteria for promotion. 

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Objective: Defeat or remove the invading army from your lands through any means necessary, short of total surrender.

Rewards: Noble Title advancement, Avalon advanced to “Nation”, Other variable

Failure Consequences: Variable, Potential loss of Noble Title

<This Quest is automatically accepted due to it being a Noble Class Quest>

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I guess Lord of Spilled Blood counts as a Noble Class if it’s allowing me to upgrade Avalon to a country without also upgrading a Class simultaneously. Tier five combinations must skip some of the normal rules.

Eleniah interrupted his thoughts by running up to them, her countenance fierce. “Everything’s in place. We’re all ready.”

“That includes the surprise outside?”

“Yes, it’s in place.”

“Good.” Kay turned his back on where the enemy would come from and concentrated on the rows of jars laid out below the wall. Specifically, he concentrated on the gallons of blood inside each one and the smaller jars near the front with donated blood from a certain gold dragon friend of his. He gathered it all up with his Skills, infusing mana into all of it. “[Create Blood Champions].”