Battle of Five Armies, Part 1: The Siege of Nimlith Grove

Kaelisterie, 47th Queen of the Copse-Wood Throne

Queen Kaelisterie is growing increasingly frustrated with her youngest daughter, Phaedra.

“Daughter, you will be doing your duty to your people. It’s not like there is a ragtag group of sexy adventurers that is going to appear to suddenly save us like in those trashy bodice ripper novels your sister likes to read. This is reality. The reality is: the orc war clan led by War Marshal Reeza is the only military **** that can provide sufficient relief in time. Aelene is leading our defensive efforts against the horde of gnolls rampaging at our Mithrilwood Gate. She is doing her duty. You are not. She gave up her rights to the crown to serve in a manner she believes is more befitting of her over my strenuous objections. And, frankly, you are not worthy to rule this land if you cannot view ALL of our people as worthy of protection. So, either you leave with Reeza’s provided escort or you leave the castle with just the clothes on your back. Choose.”

The queen watches as her daughter turns around to mouth off again, only for her to disappear as reality audibly snaps, the girl replaced by a ragtag group of sexy adventurers like this is a trashy bodice ripper novel. Kaelis would be quite annoyed (to the point of ordering executions) if it wasn’t for the fact that she recognizes three of said sexy adventurers: her adopted daughter Tyalangan, her elder natural daughter Aelene, and that drow girl that claims to be Tyalangan’s wife. As is, she is mildly annoyed that she has been proven wrong.

Tyalangan, dressed only in a sword belt and a pair of knight boots, stands up, brushing herself off. She genuflects, saying, “Apologies, my queen, for the state me and mine are in. It has been a long day. I presume we were returned at an inopportune time?”

“Clear the court! I will speak with my daughter and her companions alone!”

The court clears, its members murmuring. The rumors of what is about to happen will be yet another annoyance to deal with. Soon, the doors to the court are closed and only the twelve of them remain.

“Daughter, get dressed.”

“Sorry, Mother, I can’t. Not with my wife Silmerana here. First transformation she got was to be embarrassed by clothes, to the point of passing out if she senses I am wearing any, outside of some exceptions for safety gear.”

Kaelis is even more annoyed. Hotel magic is infuriating. She tries her best to put on a supportive face to say, “Nice to hear that she has an adult name now at least. I presume this is your harem? Quite an assortment there: three different kinds of elves, a hoppalong, a luchtoni, an oread, a zemeitsa, a lazzorkat, is that a mermaid with legs(?), and I have no idea was kind of person that blue wasp girl is. What are you going to do now, daughter?”

The luchtoni growls, “Old lady, why are we listening to this hag? Let’s go.”

Before Kaelis can respond, Tyalangan snaps, “She’s my adoptive mother, Josie, and the queen here. A little respect?” The sea elf answers Kaelis, “Mother, I first aim to end the siege. How goes it?”

“The Mithrilwood Gate still holds and the harpy horde not having arrived are the only bits of good news I have. I suppose your efforts in Teleptafelya broke the harpies sufficiently. The sahuagins have overrun the docks and the troglodytes have basically conquered the Drow District. The walls between districts are holding the hordes back, but not for much longer. We need relief, soon. Phaedra was to marry War Marshal Reeza of the Heart-Taker clan to secure us some assistance, but Phaedra disappeared right as you lot showed up.”

“Don’t worry about that. I ran into Reeza today and she has her bride delivered.”

What? Then, the thought occurs. “More hotel magic?”

“Hotel magic. I would like an ETA for the orc war band. We can coordinate a strike against the gnolls together. For now, the other 2 armies are the more immediate concern. Everyone up for a little more fighting today?”

Aelene

Lady Harper finished negotiations with Mother and divided the harem into two squads. Aelene was to lead her squad to the Drow District. Lady Silmerana, Tina, Josie, Scarlet, and the new girl Nyadia are following Aelene to the gates. They are approaching the first checkpoint: the entrance to the castle.

The others are taking in the sights of the castle with various degrees of awe. Aelene focuses on the task ahead. A couple of luchtoni guards are manning the checkpoint.

“Hail and well met, Arbancano Aelenetheria. I thought you were leading the defensive efforts at the wall? How did you get in the castle?”

“It’s... complicated, good luchtoni. I am escorting this squad of adventurers to assist me at the troglodyte front. Mithrilwood Gate is holding well enough that the gnoll front has become a lower priority.”

“Ma’am.” The guards let them go through. Aelene hears one of them whisper when they must have thought she was beyond the range of hearing, “Man, the Knight-Commander got hot.”

The snickers from Josie and Tina are not appreciated. Aelene glares at them. At least Tina stops, ears drooping, as soon as she realizes that her giggles are not desired. Scarlet at least wants to be helpful as the party walks through the royal quarter (which looks cramped, as the crowds have headed to the safer environs here), asking, “So, what’s a troglodyte?”

“Subterranean frog-lizard elvenoids that hunt and eat anything they can get their hands on, including sentient people. Kind of stealthy in the shadows. They also smell really, really bad, like rotting ****.”

“Sooo, we need nose plugs again, like with the sluuts?”

“That... is a good idea, Josie.”

They are drawing a lot of attention. It seems every eye is on them. There is something about the way they are walking, as they confidently stride towards the battlefield. Even the bravest soldier shows some trepidation when they head to the front line. Are we just that powerful or just overconfident? I understand that all of us are either at the level cap or very close to it, but this is real life, not the simulation of the hotel. I need to think about strategy carefully.

Harper

“Please forgive me, Mate, but what exactly is a sahuagin?”

Harper has her squad most of the way to the docks. The final gate separating the city proper from the docks is ahead. She is navigating these streets she has only traveled in her memories before today surprisingly well. The sense of nostalgia for a life yet lived is still a little distracting. She had practice with the sensation during Daphne’s date, but she’ll get a lot more before too long. Oh, wait, Honey asked a question.

Daphne answers before Harper could, “Oh, sahuagin are shark worshiping undersea monster people.”

“How is that different from you, exactly, Teeth?” Mattie teases.

“For one, mermaids don’t worship sharks. For another, less cute and sexy girls, more ‘roided out frat bro bods with sharky dicks.”

Everyone shivers a little at that. Thanks, Daph. The gates are ahead, a sergeant attempts to stop them from approaching, at least until he recognizes Harper. Instead, he salutes, “Aranel Tyalangan, a pleasure. Glad to see you on the front. The rumors about your disappearance was... troubling.”

Harper nods. “Status report? It doesn’t bode well if you are in command.”

“I’m in command; the commission officers died trying to cover for the rest of us. The fish are right at the gate. They’ve taken out the other ones in the dock and this one may only hold for maybe another couple of hours. We are preparing to evacuate the civilian population between this gate and the next set.”

“Any living civilians on the other side of the gate?”

“No ma’am.” the sergeant looks broiled in shame. Harper puts a hand on his shoulder.

“Sergeant, go ahead with the evac. Me and mine here will guard the gate. Mattie, find a perch and start raining ****. Aim for whoever looks like they are in charge first. This world doesn’t exactly have the Geneva conventions. Honey, Daph, AoE spells. Minimize structural damage, if you can, but this is war, not a picnic. Glitter, you’re with me, go dragon and get ready to fly. We are hunting for the general of this army.”

“Ma’am, no offense, but even if all 5 of you are here, you can’t have enough firepower to hold the line. You...”

Glitterdust picks a fine time to return to her dragon form (hooray, leveling resetting that restriction). Harper climbs on. “Trust me, sergeant, they have this. Glitter, time to fly.”

Tina

“This place is kind of spooky.”

The gang is at the gate that separates this Drow District from the rest of the city. The district seems to be built within a large cave. The city blocks Tina can see from the wall seem dark. Too dark. And quiet. Too quiet. Tina shivers in trepidation.

Tina isn’t really paying attention to Aelene asking the officer (who is a really cute looking bunny-girl like her) about the situation. Josie wraps an arm around Tina and whispers, “Are you going to be okay, Rabbit?”

“We aren’t fighting birds. I should be fine?” Tina hopes she will be.

Aelene is back with a bunch of gas masks. “Here is the situation. The troglodytes have run completely amok on the other side of the gate. The only reason they haven’t attacked the gate here yet is that they are waiting for night, where their sunlight sensitivity won’t get in the way. Three roles, ladies. Lady Silmerana, I am asking you to take the most difficult one; sneak around and find the troglodyte chieftain. Take it out and perhaps the horde will fall apart; troglodytes aren’t the brightest even with a chief in charge. Scarlet and Tina, you are our artillery. Scarlet, Fireballs, a lot of Fireballs. Tina, the biggest heavy hitting AoE spells you got. Everyone else, we hold the line, keep the monsters away from the artillery. Understood?”

Phew. Josie and Aelene and the new girl will protect me. And Scarlet will be right there if they goof. I like this plan.

“Yes ma’am!” Tina salutes. The girls planning on getting in melee range slip on a gas mask. Then, the guards open the gate. They stroll in, Skye peeling off the rest and blending into the shadows, both swords drawn. Yup, this place is kind of spooky. But we got this. I hope.

Mattie

That is a lot of fish-dudes.

Mattie stares at the wall of enemy flesh hammering away at the gate, wood splintering. Well, too many to gun down one at a time. Time to fire off some spells. A Wall of Fire bullet made, loaded, fired. Mattie hums some Johnny Cash as she makes a ring to burn the fish-dudes closest to the gate, plus a bunch more. None of them drop dead, but it will make things more difficult for the rest to storm the gate.

Teeth drops a water elemental right in front of the gate (with massive knockers), and the two closest to the gate gets smashed. Then Blue summons a bunch of green fire that slams down the avenue, coating the fish-dudes with so much phlegm. A bunch fall dead.

Ice Storm bullet loaded and fired at the far end of the horde. The Wall burns down a bunch of phlegm covered shark-dudes. One would think that Teeth’s giant blast of sea water would wash off the phlegm, but it doesn’t; not that it matters, the crowd hit by the blast fall over dead. Then the big boobied water elemental slams down a couple more trying to get to the door. Blue coats the avenue with more phlegm. The crowd has thinned out, in a sense. The corpses are piling up.

Not having much else to do, Mattie fires off another Ice Storm bullet and drops the ones she hit last time. The Wall of Fire injures a fresh set of baddies. Teeth and Blue repeat their attacks, and the survivors start to flee.

Honey: +9 XP (Killed 159 Level 1 Monsters, 0.059x penalty [overleveled], rounded down)

Party General XP pool: +14 XP (Killed 159 Level 1 Monsters, 0.05x penalty [overleveled], rounded down, x2 [two instances])

“Good work, ladies!”

“Think I can go swimming now?”

“Perhaps you should wait until we are informed that both armies have been routed, Ms. Daphne?”

The sergeant that didn’t believe in us is panicking for a completely different reason than he was a few moments ago. Mattie bounds over, as it looks that some of it is based on Teeth and Blue being considered “monstrous.” Given that they killed most of the dead fish-dudes, the guy might have a point. But, Teeth and Blue are Sarge’s sexy monsters.

“Hey, the Princess told you we had this and she’ll be back soon. We can watch the gate, do what you need to do.”

This time, the sergeant salutes and doesn’t argue. Guess we just watch to see if any of them come back?

Nyadia

Nyadia marches forth, tower shield ahead, flail in her right paw. While she hasn’t dealt with troglodytes directly, she has heard enough about them to be wary. Aelene is on her one side, a double-bladed scimitar in hand, and Josie is on the other, with Scarlet covering the rearguard, a glaive in hand. Tina is in the middle, clutching onto a wand and nervously muttering to herself; her bravery fades quickly. Some of that is understandable, as hoppalongs don’t have darkvision. “It’ll be okay, Tina. Our mistress would not have sent us out if she thought we couldn’t handle this.”

Tina makes a little noise, “Can I have a flashlight or something?”

“Not until we find the foes. We don’t want them knowing we are coming until we find them.” Aelene barks. The girl looks tense. All of them do. The tension in Aelene is different from the others. The others are slowly realizing that, whatever combat experience they got on the hotel, this is different, real. Aelene has the strain of a commander leading greenhorns into battle for the first time about her. Nyadia starts to sing a prayer, her low husky alto traveling just far enough for Scarlet to hear. Aelene starts to hum along, familiar enough with the tune to follow the melody. This last long enough for Tina to start singing a different song, poorly, over them. She sees Aelene nod at the lazzorkat, rolling her eyes.

“Curious, Aelene, you know my song?”

“Led a lot of drow to battle before. That is a common war prayer among them. I find you knowing it strange.”

“The Argent Dancer is broadly worshiped among the species longing to be or remain free in Gwlad y Bwystfilod.”

Aelene nods, finding the answer acceptable. Scarlet teases a little, “So, you like Skye and don’t want to say her name? Eilistraee?”

“I do not mind directly invoking my goddess, Scarlet, though it is a little rude to do so outside of prayers.”

Scarlet offers a little smile, which Nyadia only catches in her peripheral vision. “How you holding up with all of this, Nyadia? You’ve been thrown into the deep end really quick.”

“As hazardous as the last 24 hours have been, this danger is nothing compared to the horrors I endured before being rescued by Mistress and Josie.”

“You know she doesn’t like being called that, Cat,” Josie growls.

Aelene shushes them all. The mass of troglodytes is stirring ahead of them. It looks like they will be preparing to attack soon. Good thing we are here to stop them. Aelene finds an avenue that looks reasonably defensible. Aelene gets everyone in position, then summons 2 copies of herself to finish forming the frontline. Tina and Scarlet are behind, preparing to lob spells. Josie starts to glow with her bloodlust aura, claws forming. A quick prayer to Eilistraee, and Nyadia gets ready.

Scarlet launches a Fireball at the hoard, and the flames lights up the street. So many bones, cracked open to get to the marrow, are scattered about. Some of the troglodytes are burned, but none fall. Tough bastards. Belt them. The hoard charges. The closest lizard frog thing is ripped apart by Josie. The Aelenes start slashing, the reflections getting crits, the original injuring, but not dropping, the foe.

Then Tina lights up the whole area with a Wall of shimmering silvery Light. It hurts Nyadia’s eyes for a moment, as she adjusts to the sudden brightness. The mass of monsters screech in pain, and not just the ones in the actual wall. Nyadia swings at the one in front of her. Again, the tough bastard looks barely hurt. At least the hoard is funneled in such that only a few can actually attack at a time. The light, pleasant for the ladies, blindingly bright for the foe, causes the enemy to miss a lot. Only Aelene’s reflections get hurt (which causes them to instantly drop). A reflective sheen coats Aelene.

Scarlet launches another Fireball, this time at the Wall of Light. The flames does nothing to damage the spell, but hits the troglodytes trapped within. Josie shreds the troglodyte in front of her and lands a massive, goring hit at the next. Aelene summons the reflections again, then slashes away; the one in front of her is still alive (but hurting badly), the reflections again behead the ones they swing at. Tina’s Fireball burns brighter and some of the hoard screams a **** wail at their sudden fiery deaths. Nyadia chips away at her foe. Still up. Belt it.

At least the foe can’t really hit. Josie makes a noise as she takes a chomp and one of the reflections pop. More screams, as the Wall of Light deals more pain. Scarlet, looking frustrated at how ineffective her Fireballs are, rushes up, glaive in hand, to fill in the gap in the front line. She slams down her glaive on the ground (which is odd) and starts to use the momentum of her swings around it to deliver a couple of kicks into the closest monster, which looks barely up. Josie drops her foe, and the Aelenes decapitates two more. Tina’s next Fireball launch leads to more screams. Nyadia is getting more frustrated. Why can’t I get a good hit in? Only a couple of grazing hits.

Again, the foe can’t really hit. Scarlet takes a grazing blow, but that is it. Even with her poorly placed blows, Scarlet drops one and lightly injures another. Josie is a machine, gutting another monster. Aelene is a machine, too, with both of her each decapitates a monster. Tina fries a bunch in the Wall. More frustrations. Need to work on my accuracy; I keep missing.

The ground suddenly shakes, a loud thud echoing in the cave. Nyadia doesn’t know why that happened, but the hoard certainly does. The ones before them suddenly turn around to attack their fellows. Nyadia lets out a frustration by smiting with her attack of opportunity, finally dropping the foe she was wailing on the entire fight.

Nyadia: +7 XP (Killed 32 Level 2 Monsters, 0.118x penalty [overleveled], rounded down)

General Party XP Pool: +24 XP (Killed 32 Level 2 Monsters, 0.1x penalty [overleveled], rounded down, x4 [four instances])

“Soooo, we just keep at it?” Tina asks.

“Actually, could you send a message to the gate commander, let her know that we took out the troglodyte general and they are fighting each other to be the new chief? Let the troops there get the easy XP by slaying the ones that will be too injured to stand?”

“Ah, okay cutie.” Tina pulls out her book to write out her message, using her fingers to count words. She drops the Wall of Light and they stand, watching the horde tear itself apart as they wait for the soldiers. I need to be stronger.

Glitterdust

MY MtF Goddess is still bad about shielding her mind from ME. Or, she is just wanting to share how she feels with ME. It’s hard to tell why she thinks the way she does.

Glitterdust soars in the air, flying over the docks, looking for the head baddies. Her MtF Goddess is straddling her neck, surveying the docks below. The damage is immense. Many dikes have collapsed as the sahuagin flood parts of the district to better allow them access to seawater. Like her MtF Goddess, these foes have a limited tolerance for breathing air. But, whereas Harper would never let others get hurt in her efforts to breathe, these monsters don’t seem to care. The half-eaten corpses floating and rotting in the flooded streets emphasize the matter.

Glitterdust mentally reaches out, “Are you okay, MY Harper? If this is too much…”

“Just having a bit of trouble compartmentalizing right now. My elf-self spent a lot of time on the docks, learning port management. She knew some of the dead down there. Am I bothering you? I can try…”

“Not at all, MY Harper, but the idea that you can care for all of those people when they can’t give you anything in return is strange.”

“When all of this is done, we need to talk, Glitterdust.” Then the goddess slams her mind shut.

Glitterdust ponders that as she continues to fly. Is MY way of thinking causing more trouble? I get that I need to be less selfish to appeal to MY MtF Goddess, but is caring about the little people needed too? She can’t be serious that I need to care about them!

She feels the goddess tap her neck with her heels. Harper shouts, “There, on the beach. That looks like a general’s tent. Get me as close as you can.”

So, the dragon complies. It seems they are expected, as an entourage of fish-dudes meet them on the beach. Harper dismounts and boldly walks to meet them.

The fish-dude at the head of the entourage, with 4 arms and 2 erect fish cocks, offers a gravelly greeting, “Ah, the Melancholic Sword-maiden of Nimlith Grove, we were wondering if you would arrive. Baron K'shegla, leader of the sahuagin. Are you ready to negotiate the surrender of the city?”

“Actually, I am here to either accept your surrender or take your head.”

This Baron K'shegla laughs, “Foolish girl, perhaps your reputation of sensibility is over-exaggerated? You may be strong for a member of a so-called civilized species, but you cannot take me and my men, even with a dragon’s assistance. So, spread your legs and accept the eggs I will lay inside you.”

The goddess draws her sword from her inventory. She cracks her neck and takes a fighting stance. “Try me. This a one v one fight, or am I just wiping you all out at once?”

The baron laughs again and draws his blades, “I am sure that I can kill a single sea elf child on my own. I look forward to eating your liver.”

The MtF Goddess merely gestures for the baron to approach as she starts the bladesong. Glitter silently chuckles as she watches Harper dodge and evade the fish-dude’s sword strikes. The silvery sheen of that Eilistraee’s Grace spell manifests way faster than normal, then Harper strikes thrice. Her first slash slices through some arm fins on the left side, her second severs an arm, and the third decapitates. The baron’s skull thunks in the sand. Harper smirks and bellows something in Aquan. The others draw their weapons and charge.

Glitter charges herself. She has a new power to try out. A blast of pink mist flows past her goddess and four of the entourage suddenly grow boobs and pussies. One of the (unfortunately still) male ones run away. A Steel Wind Strike later, and the running one is the only one still alive.

Harper: +1 XP (Killed 5 Level 1 Monsters, 0.036x penalty [overleveled], Killed 1 Level 6 Monster, 0.214x penalty [overleveled], all rounded down)

Party General XP Pool: +2 XP (Killed 5 Level 1 Monsters, 0.05x penalty [overleveled], Killed 1 Level 6 Monster, 0.3x penalty [overleveled], all rounded down)

The pounding on finned feet is heard as a bunch of fish-dudes approach the beach from the city. Harper bellows in Aquan again. They keep running, faster, straight into the ocean. Harper waits until she is certain that they are fleeing the city, then glares at Glitterdust.

“We definitely need to talk.”

Gulp.

Skye

Skye’s gloom stalker and rogue skills are working on overdrive right now as she creeps along in the darkness of the cave. And the cave is quite dark. It’s almost as if the darkness she encountered in the hotel dungeon was a mere fading twilight. She finds the dark soothing in a way that it wasn’t before. Whether it is because of her still new heritage as a drow or because she has grown up a lot these past few weeks is hard to say.

Skye also can’t really describe how she is feeling at the moment. Her eyes, so adapted to the pitch dark of her surroundings, can take in the scene before her. So many dead bodies, reduced to the broken scattered bones of cracked skeletons from being picked clean, mostly drow but a number of them are of other species. She even sees the odd skeleton of what must be a troglodyte. Her heart breaks at so many lives cut short. The idea that these monsters eat everything, even their own, is disgusting.

She continues to sneak, hearing the sounds of battle behind her. As much as she wants to rush back, to stand by her lady love Aelene, she knows she has a job to do. And that job is before her. A troglodyte, larger and more disgusting smelling than the others. She can see the rot growing on its flesh as it gorges itself on the flesh of a smaller monster.

Skye takes a moment to prepare, quietly casting Hunter’s Mark and giving her transformation short sword the ability to dance (thus able to fight on its own). She hopes that she has enough strength and skill to drop it in one devastating attack; her backup is too busy to save her if she is overwhelmed. A quick prayer to The Lady later, Skye charges.

Her first thrust digs into the thing’s left arm. Her second plunges into the thing’s right leg. The third bursts out of the thing’s chest. Skye’s estoc starts to burst into moonlight and song, the war chant reverberating in the cave. The shortsword gets a quick swipe at the thing’s head.

The terror that runs through the monster is palpable. It rushes away, way too fast. Both Skye and the shortsword only get grazing strikes, bouncing off of heavy back plates. The estoc’s light fading as the thing gets away, Skye uses her shadow teleport ability to get beside the monster and double-stab again. The second strike goes straight through the brainstem. The thing stumbles, then stands back up. The short sword flies and impales inside the monster’s eye. It lands with an earth-shaking thud.

Party General XP Pool: +1 XP (Killed 1 Level 5 Monster, 0.25x penalty [overleveled], rounded down)

Skye pants and slinks back into the shadows. She needs to find the others now.