Annoyingly, my little warning/challenge went mostly ignored and the rest of the night passed in silence and peace, only broken up by Astarion returning some few hours before dawn smelling of blood and death and with a satisfied pep in his step.
"Had fun?" I asked, still flipping through my tome.
He twitched as if he had only just noticed me.
"Do you not rest?"
"No." Was my dry answer "I hope we won't find any pillaged villages on our way?"
"Oh don't worry." He waved me off flippantly "Just another group of thugs bringing supplies to their friends here."
"Ah." I nodded "Did you get it out of your system, at least?"
He smiled a fanged grin "Indeed."
We chatted for a bit longer before the vampire left me to my devices, and while I pretended to read I kept on scanning both the magic and the tadpoles in my companions' heads.
They were growing in power, however slowly, but what truly drew my attention was the aura coming from a hidden inner pocket of Shadowheart's armor.
Whatever was concealed there was sending an active signal to the tadpoles that prevented them from receiving stimuli from any other Mind Flayer adjacent being not also under its dominion.
A fact that neatly explained the postponed ceramorphosis, but one that rose just as many questions...
I was so very tempted to scan it more closely but it felt as ancient as it was powerful, and simply throwing myself in there gave me the premonition of a lot of pain in the ass for very little ultimate gain.
I'd need to find out more about Mind Flayer psionics to craft some properly impervious defenses before taking that particular leap of faith.
But that would have to wait as morning came quickly, my companions gobbling up a quick breakfast and dismantling whatever makeshift shelter they had built for themselves and following me above ground.
The first to come up was Lae'zel, who looked much calmer now that she had an evening to cool her head.
"We must make haste." She told me, visibly crushing her fear "The Gaikh tadpole works quickly and will soon become irreversible."
"Didn't catch the detail from the others then?" I quirked an eyebrow, and seeing her confusion I elaborated "Something is holding back the transformation, so you have some time at least."
She scowled "I do not trust it."
"You'd be an idiot to." I snorted, the agreement catching her by surprise "But let's be realistic here. Even if you were to sprint to whatever outpost your people hold in these lands without pause, you'd still not have enough time to reach them before the usual process ripped you apart from inside."
She grit her teeth and looked away.
"So just have some gods damned patience and let me see how the little shits tick." I spread my arms "And you might just not become what you hate."
Her teeth ground so hard a mortal could hear it as she forced out a "You are not wrong."
"Finally some sense." I chuckled "Keep going and you might just become worth someone's time."
Before she could reasonably tell me to go and fuck right off the rest arrived to join us, most of them looking rested, Gale especially so, while Durge's eyes somehow managed to look even more bloodshot than usual.
But seeing him looking around all standoffish and tense I decided against pestering him for now and quickly had us begin our march.
We moved through the hilly coastline at good speed, only pausing periodically for Gale to gather some herbs he knew how to brew into basic potions and for Astarion to quickly try and talk his way out of why we found a sextet of people with puncture wounds in their necks.
At least he was intelligent enough to stab them where he drained them afterwards.
We did find another stone carved with a teleportation matrix, and even Gale looked baffled as to why there would be two of them so close together. We marked it down and he left his arcane mark with that one in case it was needed later.
Inevitably, the dirt paths ended up widening and quickly we found ourselves ascending a large rocky outcropping to get a good look at the surroundings, only to realize we were already at our destination once we looked down.
The druidic grove was... honestly far less offensive to my eyes than I had expected.
It had a makeshift gate, natural yet still usable walls, a number of chambers carved into the rising hillside, and even the center of the grove looked to be an ancient stone construction carved into hill the grove was nestled within instead of just being another really big tree.
I'd very nearly go so far as to ponder if these treehuggers in particular could even prove themselves tolerable!
Unfortunately, those hopes were dashed to death and beyond as I felt a surge of magics both divine and arcane of a darker nature swirling just out of touch above the grove itself.
A long term ritual of some kind?
Whatever it was, it would have to wait. For it seemed some excitement was abound as a trio of lightly armed and armored chucklefucks fled towards the grove, shouting for the guards, Tieflings of the civilized variety notably, to open the gates.
All the while hundreds of footsteps, small smelly footsteps, thundered some distance behind them.
I sniffed the air, and my face instantly twisted into a sneer.
Fucking. Goblins.
(General POV)
Zevlor bit down a curse as he heard a commotion coming from the gate, the aged Tiefling Hellrider making sure to school his face into an image of unflappability as he rushed out of his quarters with hastily grabbed weapons.
"What is going on here?" He demanded as he reached the gatehouse, only to look down and see those damnable mercenaries standing below, the leader of the druids nowhere in sight "Aradin, where is the druid?"
The man ripped out an arrow from his companion's shield "Goblins are on our tail, Zevlor. Open the gate, now!"
He looked up to see a cloud of dust quickly closing in and rounded on the gate guard "By the nine hells, open it!"
But by the time he had given the order it was already too late, as everyone atop the gate was forced to take cover from a sudden hail of arrows.
Most survived, but the gate guard was not so lucky, gurgling out blood as numerous makeshift arrows stuck out from his chest.
"Kanon!" Zevlor called out, damning yet another failure, even as he saw their greatest ally rush past him and leap off the wall and straight into danger.
Before the Hellrider could try and save his subordinate with his meager powers however, a shadow fell over him and looked up to see a tall individual dressed in black and purple robes, his crowned helm hiding all features but the two blazing embers that were his eyes.
"Now that just won't do." He heard the man mutter as he waved a hand over Kanon, instantly disintegrating the arrows and healing him completely enough for the young Tiefling to gasp awake, before simply disappearing from where he was standing.
Zevlor stared at the previously occupied space completely dumbfounded, only for a moment though as his training and experience kicked in and he hefted his crossbow with newfound resolution, calling out and rallying his people.
-
Wyll Ravengard, or more commonly the Blade of Frontiers, let out a light grunt as he landed on the rock just below the grove's gatehouse, unleashing a bolt of eldrich energies at the closest goblin archer and bursting his neck
"Damnable roach." He called at another, blasting him as well before thrusting his rapier at the next, disarming his crude scimitar in an expert flourish "Provoke the Blade." And slashing his neck open, twisting around the dead body to face the rest "And suffer its sting."
Only to realize he was now standing completely surrounded by the hill on one side, and about a dozen enraged goblins on the other.
Before he could pay for his misguided courage however, the air behind the centermost goblin twisted, and a dark figure emerged, greatknife already midswing, sending the first head flying faster than Wyll could even see and immediately moving on to the next, and sending the few goblins remaining running for their allies in less than a second.
"Posing?" The figure looked at Wyll, flicking blood of his blade as he did "At this hour?"
"You can judge me for my foolishness later." Wyll took it in stride as he offered a duelist's bow "These people need protecting now."
"Brave words." The figure chuckled, and then simply disappeared once again.
Wyll shook his head and summoned another bolt of eldrich energy in his free hand, it was good the tides were turning but the goblins wouldn't kill themselves.
-
The entrenched Tieflings' hearts rose at the arrival of their new allies, and they quickly rallied, pelting the goblin band with bolts and arrows, one of them even throwing proper spells into the mix as he summoned small whirlwinds of blades to cut the lightly armored creatures into bits.
But despite their efforts they couldn't come even close to what the newcomers were doing.
A human wizard had taken position atop the outcropping behind the goblins, summoning orbs of water and thunder and combining them to blast entire groups into pieces, even as his shielded half-elven ally launched bolts of sacred light, igniting those goblins who managed to get too close.
Three others also joined the battle on the ground, a pale elf and oddly green skinned creature clad in unusual armor cutting through their flank while a robed Dragonborn* of pure white summoned frost to his hands and maw, freezing the creatures with gouts and shards of the element before simply breaking them with his fists and claws.
Many looked away once he stopped bothering to freeze his targets before ripping them apart with his bare hands or even his teeth when his foe overextended enough.
But even then what drew most of their increasingly baffled gazes was the figure who saved Kanon, as he kept disappearing and reappearing across the goblinoid ranks, cutting them to pieces with a blade that seemed to curse flesh to shatter with the lightest touch, and inflicting such horror upon the goblins many were starting to wonder if the pests were suicidal to stand and fight for so long.
Aradin the mercenary smashed the goblin chieftain's worg mount's head, sending the creature tumbling but failing to protect himself as the sole properly armored part of the goblin band threw himself at him, grappling and biting in a blind rage at losing his pet.
One of the few bugbears the goblins had allied with saw his opportunity and immediately ran at Aradin, bloodied morningstar raised to crush his head.
But then, the crowned figure reappeared again, simply kicking the goblin in the head with a heavy sabaton, instantly breaking his neck, and pointing his blade at the bugbear.
The furry ball of muscle flinched just in time not to stab himself like a fool, though that did not save him from the end, as the blade's handle simply extended, turning from a longsword into a polearm and impaling the bugbear into the nearby rockface.
The figure flicked his hand, liberating his weapon with seemingly no resistance and letting the swing go on one handed as he cut through half a dozen of the goblins without giving them the common courtesy of looking at them as he killed them.
It was not long before what few goblins remained broke and fled for their lives.
(Reyvin's POV)
"Wait. Let them go." I said as a few of my companions went to pursue the fleeing creatures.
"If we don't catch them they will bring more of them to the grove." Gale pointed out, spellform still swirling in his hand.
"Indeed." Shadowheart agreed with him "They deserve no mercy."
That word made me laugh lightly, confusing the lot of them "Oh don't think this is a mercy." I smirked as my crown disappeared "I merely want them to show us the way."
I flicked my hand and a certain genocidal bird in the form of a bolt of light flew after the goblins, a delightfully deranged mental cheer echoing out to any who had the open minds to hear.
Which as you might imagine, included my companions, and the poser, who had also approached in the meantime.
"Another mindworm enjoyer." I hummed as the inevitable wave of connections clicked between the sextet, making many of them flinch away and groan under the still unfamiliar mental influence.
"There are far too many of you around here." I complained to myself.
"More survivors." To my surprise, the poser smiled "Good."
"I wouldn't call it that, but I like your enthusiasm, friend!" Gale grinned.
"You fight well." The dark skinned, one eyed, fencer praised "All of you."
"Of course we do." Lae'zel scoffed.
"Ignore our Gith." Astarion drawled "She is just sore about something."
Froggy gave him a glare but went ignored.
"I don't suppose you have already found a cure for our new friend here?" The fencer asked, pointing at the side of his head.
"Not yet but we are getting there." Gale answered, directing me with a sideways glance "Though any clues you might give would be useful."
"I don't but we may just be in luck." He offered with a small smile "I doubt the new leader of the druids will deny us her healer now that we've defended her grove."
"New leader?" I cut in.
He looked expectedly confused upon facing me, having not been enlightened to the glories of the Dunmer race before in his life, but quickly let that pass him by as he answered "Aradin and his band went to search for ruins with Halsin, the leader of the druids, days ago."
He shook his head "Ever since then, his apprentice Kagha took over and has been moving to throw the Tieflings out of their protection. And now Aradin returns without her master. The Tieflings' fortunes may be running out, I am afraid."
"I can see how that might put you all in a pickle." I hummed, scratching my goatee 'So the apprentice is much less accepting than the master...' "But I doubt she is immune to a small threat of ultraviolence, if she isn't retarded at least."
The fencer who still hadn't had the decency to introduce himself gave me an odd look at that.
Thankfully he wasn't a complete idiot, and proceeded to shift the topic by righting his wrong "Ah, I've yet to introduce myself, my apologies." He said "Wyll, Blade of Frontiers, at your service."
"The Blade of Frontiers?" Shadowheart asked, surprised "You are shorter than I expected."
Wyll just laughed "I don't write the bard's tales."
"Mhm." The cleric hummed doubtfully "Shadowheart."
"Charmed." Wyll inclined his head and looked back to me.
"Reyvin Dagoth." I drawled neutrally and looked to the cleric "He some kind of household name?"
"A protector of the people." She answered "If you are into that sort of thing."
I couldn't help but snort at that and left the rest to introduce each other, walking over to Durge who had been stuck staring into the distance for a good while now.
"Had a nice meal?" I asked.
He twitched lightly but didn't turn to face me "My blood..." He exhaled "It demanded I butcher them like animals."
"Well some could argue-"
"No." He interrupted, hand raised "They may be goblins, but not even animals deserve what I did."
'Lies and deceit!' My inner goblin hater called but that seemed counterproductive at the moment "And you see this desire to butcher as wrong?" I asked instead.
"Shouldn't I?" He asked and finally turned, revealing his entire face and most of his front robes had been painted deep red by the blood he had so brutally spilled "My blood commands one thing, my mind says another..." His shoulders slumped at the admission "I am lost."
I considered for a long moment and answered "If a man feels the need to steal something, yet knows stealing is wrong, what should he do?"
The lizard tilted his head "Not steal?"
"Then your answer isn't all that difficult to find, now is it?" I asked with a light smirk "Vileness is a choice, no matter your instincts."
"And yet we have all slain the goblins without hesitation, you most of all..." He said "What is the difference between doing the act and enjoying it?"
Shrugging my shoulders I began casting spells to clean him of his 'trophies', to his complete lack of reaction "I might not be the best to ask about that admittedly. Once your kill count reaches a certain number the act simply becomes a chore."
The others began approaching, and I nodded at the now mostly white lizard man.
"If you don't know what is right, then learn. You've got the chance now, whoever you were before this." I said with a waving motion, as if to say it didn't matter.
"And should you come close to failing then let base self preservation be your motivation." My eyes flashed threateningly "Because I do not tolerate beasts, no matter how useful."
I left the thoughtful mage behind me, facing the grove once more, and preparing myself for yet another hero's welcome.
Truly, a woeful existence I lived...
----
*Dragonborn as in the draconic humanoid race of D&D, not the Tamrielic title. Just so that there is no confusion out there.
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A feast of stones I demand!
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