Date in Real Life: Sunday, 22 January, 2023
In Game Day: Shesh, the 17th of Sawol
The team laid out their bed rolls in the great hall and slept the night. They awoke the next morning and discussed their plans for the day. They showed Lord Frostaxe the bicycle. He was impressed. After inspecting it for quality, he agreed it passed the test.
The team went to the chapel. Earthdelver rung the bell to summon the dwarves for spiritual services. The team preached to the crowd. They described the errors in the letter, suggesting it was a dragon forgery. They opened up the Sacred Scrolls to the crowd, preaching from Acts 5, showing that the Holy Spirit is God. The crowd was astounded by these teachings, and that copies of the Sacred Scrolls were once again in Brazenthrone. The team spent the rest of the morning helping the dwarves understand the Sacred Scrolls, and answering questions. Earthdelver agreed that they had passed his challenge.
Meanwhile, Leja went to visit Warheart in the justice pit. She heard his story. She agreed that stealing was wrong, and that he should face the penalty for thievery, but she disagreed with the charge of insurrection. If Warheart was rebelling, it was against the orcs, not the dwarves, so it wasn’t for the dwarves to punish him for insurrection. She gave him breakfast, as well as taught him how to make cinnamon buns. Warheart told her about how the orcs came on a barge on the river, and how crates were loaded and taken away. Once a year at the Scarlet Moon, they would have to send slaves as tribute. They talked about ideas about how to free the slaves, but realized they just didn’t have enough information. Leja sent Peggy the water-horse up the river to investigate.
After lunch, the rest of the team went in search of Lord Flintmace. They searched the noble’s quarters. As they got near the boarded up old quarter and palace ruins, Hector suggested they call it a day.
“I mean, haven’t we done enough this morning? We got Earthdelver’s vote.”
“Yeah, let’s call it a day,” William suggested.
“It’s only early afternoon,” Edward pointed out.
Starflower’s eyes narrowed. She glanced at the boarded up tunnel. “I bet there’s a dark creature in there making you all want to be lazy!” she declared. “I bet that’s the problem with the dwarves! All the minimalism! We have to get in there and fight it!”
Philip brightened. “You’re right! Snap out of it, guys! Help me open this up!” he ran to the sealed tunnel.
“We should probably tell someone what we’re doing,” Hector pointed out.
“You’re right. Go get Smelttank.”
Hector returned several minutes later with Smelttank. His class of throwing-hammer students were in tow.
“Stand guard out here. We’ll see what’s in there,” Starflower instructed. “Don’t let any monsters out, and don’t let anyone seal us in.”
The team entered the old quarter. They saw remains of an ancient battle. Dwarf corpses in full battle armour lay strewn everywhere.
“Sense any evil from those skeletons?” Starflower asked warily.
“Nope,” Philip said. “At least not yet. Weapons ready, regardless,” he instructed.
Edward already had his swords out. Hector readied his sling. Starflower readied an arrow while William drew out some throwing daggers.
“Skeleton! There!” Regulus called.
“Despair!” a voice creaked.
“Christ in you, the hope of glory!” Philip cried, charging forward. He chopped the skeleton to the ground in two swift strokes.
“There’s probably more where that came from,” Bill commented.
“I wouldn’t doubt it. Let’s continue,” Philip said, leading the way. He was flanked by Bill and Regulus, with William and Edward on the wings. Hector and Starflower brought up the rear.
They arrived at the old throne room, and saw a huge ogre with three heads, each wearing war helms. The creature had six muscular arms, each brandishing a different weapon. The ogre was also wearing full battle armour. As the ogre turned to look at the intruders, several skeletons stood up on their feet, and at least three barrow wights.
“Despair, despair!” the skeletons wailed, stomping towards the team.
Edward lowered his swords. “What’s the point? This is hopeless!” he said.
“We’re done for,” Hector said, his sling hanging uselessly at his side.
“This was a mistake. We’re all going to die,” Starflower agreed. She did not raise her bow.
William shook his head, “It’s too much,” he mumbled.
Elsewhere, Leja felt burdened to pray. She was till waiting for Peggy to return from her reconnaissance mission up the river. She dropped to her knees and starting offering short battle prayers.
“Christ in you, the hope of glory!” Philip cried, running forward.
M’Lady! Starflower heard Regulus’ voice in her head. She turned towards her lion. Regulus was not advancing with Philip, but had turned to look at her. M’Lady! You are under enchantment. Listen to me! Our hope is not in our own strength. It is in Christ. The Overlord. The hope of glory. Even if we die here today, it will be part of His plan, and we will be with him forever. But do not give up before the battle has even begun! The Overlord is our strength!
Starflower blinked rapidly. She felt the despair leaving her. She snarled. She hated it when Dark Creatures put her under a sin enchantment. She raised her bow, but hesitated, because she noticed Hector out of the corner of her eye. He was turning away, as if to leave.
“Hector!” She lowered her bow and grabbed him by the shoulder. “Hector, the Overlord of Many Names is our hope! Remember Colossians 1:27, ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory!’” She was relieved to see Hector’s face brighten again. She looked across the battle field, and saw Bill staring at William, probably talking to him telepathically, just like she had had a counselling from Regulus. Philip was shouting something to Edward.
Philip was already slashing at a barrow-wight before the rest of the team rejoined the battle. They took out the barrow-wights first. The ogre didn’t do much at first, merely paced back and forth on the platform, watching. As the barrow-wights started going down, the ogre advanced.
One of the huge arms hurled a throwing star at Philip. “Ow!” Philip yelped.
“Ever get the feeling that thing isn’t really trying?” Philip called out. “It probably could have done much more damage if it wanted,”
Edward sheathed one of his swords. “Well, why waste the effort if you can do the job with less?” he said.
Starflower fired another arrow at a skeleton. “Aren’t you going to help, Hector? Those skeletons are surrounding Philip!”
“I’m sure Philip has it under control,” Hector said without raising his sling. “See? He just knocked down another one.”
“It’s that minimalist sin enchantment!” Starflower gritted her teeth. She paused a moment and let words from the Sacred Scrolls come to her lips,
“How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest— and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.
The Overlord doesn’t want us to be lazy!”
The ogre bashed Philip with its great shield as several skeletons tried to take him down as well. Philip destroyed another skeleton, and moving with the rapidity that only came from the Overlord, slashed another one to pieces. Edward half-heartedly engaged another skeleton, while Regulus dashed behind the ogre, pouncing on another skeleton.
“Go to the ant, you sluggard!” Philip yelled at Edward as he ducked under a bone being swung at his head. “Draw that other sword of yours!” He spun around and knocked a skull flying across the room.
With no skeletons or barrow-wights left, the ogre now found itself surrounded. It lashed out in several directions at once, throwing a star at Philip, punching Bill in the face, shield bashing Edward, and even reaching behind itself and bashing Regulus with a large club.
“Edward!” Starflower screamed as Edward stumbled back.
“I’m okay! It’s really skilled, but isn’t hitting us very hard for some reason!”
“Everyone! Now!” Philip hollered.
Stone, arrow, throwing dagger, claws, bites, swords, battle axe, all came at the ogre at once. Some blows were blocked by the great shield. Some failed to penetrate its armour. Some blows met their mark.
“It’s still alive!” William marvelled, since his dagger had sunk into the neck of one of the heads. The ogre stumbled a bit, and did not return the blows.
“Again! Press our advantage!” Philip commanded.
Once again, projectiles flew through the air as blades and claws raked at the monster, looking for openings. The ogre was overwhelmed and sank to the floor with a great crash.
“Bill, you’re hurt, let me pray for you,” Hector said.
Philip looked down at his hand. He was holding a bitter-healing potion. “Where did this come from? Someone must have been praying.” He uncorked the flask, took a deep breath, then chugged its contents.
“That should have been way harder,” Edward said, panting. “Imagine if you fought this thing one on one and it used all of its strength and all of its arms against you.”
“Yeah, half the time, it wasn’t even fighting,” Hector said, “then when it did start fighting, it was only using one arm until we had it surrounded.”
“Dumb,” Philip said.
“There’s that sin enchantment, though,” Starflower said, “it explains the minimalism we’ve been seeing in Brazenthrone. Perhaps it was also being a minimalist.”
“Well, if we see another one anytime soon, I hope they don’t get cured of their own minimalism,” Philip said, cleaning the blade of his axe. “It would be a lot harder to fight in that case.”
“Now what?” William asked.
“We should finish searching the area and make sure there aren’t any other surprises,” Hector said.
“Should we drag the body out to show the dwarves?” William asked.
“Looks heavy,” Bill said.
“Cut off its heads. Those are lighter,” Regulus suggested.
Sometime later the team emerged from the ruins. They found the hammer-throwing class sitting idle on the ground.
Starflower marched passed them, straight to the chapel and demanded Earthdelver ring the bells again to summon the dwarves.
“Two meetings in one day?” some complained as they filed into the room. “Didn’t we already come here today?”
The team explained what had happened in the ruins, and proclaimed freedom from the sin enchantment plaguing them all. They preached impromptu sermons about laziness and minimalism, using the Sacred Scrolls.
“Do the Sacred Scrolls really say that?” someone wondered out loud. More and more dwarves started talking.
“I think the dwarves are ready to rebel against the orcs,” Philip said, smiling.
“Tonight, we have a war council!” Smelttank cried to the cheers of the crowd.
Comments