A growing team

Helena woke the next morning to Groban spooning her, his arms wrapped around her with one hand resting on her breast. She chuckled and carefully extracted herself from his embrace so that she could prepare some breakfast. Groban stumbled into the main room of the house not long after, drawn by the smell of bacon.

The pair ate and exchanged pleasantries until they heard a knock on the door. Groban went and welcomed in their Gnomish companion who was carrying a rather large backpack.

"I-I brought you cloths Helena! As well as a set of gauntlets to compliment your armor. Oh and a cloak!"

"A cloak? Has the temperature dropped that quickly?"

"We thought it best to proceed in secret until we know your father can be trusted," Groban said with obvious disgust. Helena hated to admit her father's faults, but they had been very present in his handling of this crisis.

"You may be right. But Brintley, I thought more were coming today?"

"Oh! T-they are w-waiting for us. I thought they t-told you?"

Helena gave Groban a withering look and he tried to give her an innocent smile.

"I haven't been told apparently. "

"I thought it would be a good surprise."

"Or you were distracted."

"I certainly was," the Orc conceded with a laugh. "Let me help you with your cloths and armor, then we can head out."

Helena wasn't actually upset with her friend, but gave him a huff and headed for the bedroom. He trailed behind her chuckling with Brintley following with the pack. Helena stripped quickly and took the fresh cloths that Brintley had brought her and started dressing. The little Gnome looked somewhat surprised at her boldness to change in front of Groban, but even without sleeping with him, she wouldn't have cared. The cloths were a tad bit snug because of the baby weight, but not enough to restrict her movement. The issue was her breast plate was tighter with her swollen breasts. Groban offered to help her with her milk, but he had done plenty of that after Paxia had left the night before.

Thankfully they were able to loosen the buckles and add some padding for her leaking nipples, and make the plate serviceable again. Thankfully the grieves and gauntlets weren't and issue, letting the princess be fully armed and armored once more.

"I-I'm sorry for not t-taking the.... b-baby weight into account."

"It's fine Brintley. Now let me get my cloak on so we can go to this surprise."

A few minutes later, Brintley led the group towards the merchant quarter. It was a twenty minute walk, but between the merchang quarter and the docks was a line of warehouses. The little gnome led them to a pair of warehouses that were currently undergoing some renovations, with added stations for guards and reinforced doors and walls.

"Welcome to F-Fort Helena," Brintley said proudly. "It's our new headquarters for your faction."

"I have a faction now," asked Helena with a smirk.

"Most of the adventurers and soldiers are ready to follow you, but a few of the older generals are still steadfast in following your father. Arthur only followed the orders to protect the castle because he trusted Riddel and Vaas to handle things out here."

"No one has mentioned Vaas' role in this yet. How do you know him Groban?"

"Besides that he is the third knight commander? Not very well. Age wise, he is younger than Arthur, but older than Riddel. When Riddel was given command of clearing the tunnels, he was instructed to protect the city. Tagryn pointed him our way after we found you."

"Dolan Vaas and Beatrix Riddel are both highly accomplished knights. If we can find and recover Riddel, our efforts to purge the beasts will go much smoother."

Two soldiers saluted Helena and her party as they neared the doors of the closest while a third opened the door for them. The warehouse had been turned into a makeshift barracks and command center. The inside had been cleaned out to make room for necessary items and equipment. Against the right wall, over a dozen makeshift beds had been set up. On the left, a makeshift kitchen and armory. In the middle of the warehouse was a large table with a few maps spread out across it. Standing at the table was Dolan Vaas and a few familiar faces.

"Reese, Ashlin! I'm so glad to see you!"

"We're glad to see you too, your highness," said Reese.

"We've been helping set up your new home," added Ashlin.

"My home," Helena asked the group.

"Allow me to explain," Dolan said as he stepped around the table. "This is the command building where you and a few others can sleep. The other building is more of a community living space with a lot more beds and a kitchen area. The stairs over there lead to the second floor, which has been renovated to be your personal space."

"M-My family set this up for us," Brintley said with a blush."

"Aye, and we're lucky for their backing," came a familiar voice from behind them. Helena turned to see Paxia, Natalie, and Liam entering.

"Don't scare me like that again," Natalie said with a **** smile. Helena worried that she blamed herself like Paxia had.

"I promise to try,"

"Fair enough I suppose."

Dolan led the group over to the table and showed them the first map that showed them the layout of the city. Across it were red pins that he explained were to show attacks from tentacle monsters over the last week. He also had two paperweights to show the drainage pipe entrance at the docks and the Keller mill, and three blue pins to show Fort Helena, the adventurer guild, and another makeshift fort that had been set up across town closer to the mill.

"Why aren't the original two garrisons marked on the map?"

"Because a lot of soldiers aren't in on our plans," Reese said with a mischievous smile.

"Some of the soldiers helping with our efforts are considered AWOL at the moment," Dolan conceded. "Reese and Ashlin for example. Officially, they are on probation, but unofficially I've reassigned them and a few squads here. The adventurers guild is working with us, so their people and ours will be in and out of these three locations while we work."

"We were lucky, yesterday a few adventurers went to the mill and discovered a nest of tentacles about to attack the family. We've moved them to a safe place and we're keeping a patrol there as well now," Natalie said, taking a fourth blue pin and putting it by the mill entrance weight.

"I told you that we could get through there," Groban grumbled.

"What about the second map?"

"This," Dolan said as he pulled the second map over, "is where we have been trying to map out the tunnels under the city. Here is the river that you and Paxia used after rescuing Ashlin. This is the cave that Paxia said a lot were coming out of during your escape. We now know that led to the former prison. By the time you go there, the prison had already been overrun. We don't have the full scope of how these tunnels run, but we're trying to use data from returning parties to add to the map as we go."

"Any idea where Riddel may have gone?"

"Here," Paxia said, pointing to a spot that was well beyond where Helena's original expedition had gone.

"She was trying to track down the location of the tomb that the Ancient was supposed to be sealed in. "She had found old carvings on a wall near the room we had our battle in and believed it to point to where the tomb was."

"Then that's where we need to go. Two days without checking in is worrisome. Brintley and Reese, can you stay here this time and help with logistics and relay our plan to our allies? Other than that, I'll take anyone willing and ready to go."