Elsewhere

Duke arrived outside the Inn to what he expected to be total chaos. Instead, he found hundreds of vampires frozen in place while Baslin glowed with power a single fist raised before him radiating the purest of white glows. It hurt to look at it directly. Surrounding the vampires were thousands of Duke’s troops, weapons drawn and spells at the ready.

Grat and Aurelia calmly walked over to Duke. Grat spoke first. “So, you sent us vampires to test our defenses? Didn’t even warn us. That’s pretty ballsy.”

Duke looked from Grat to Aurelia and back to Grat. Aurelia spoke up next. “Shall we finish these monsters, or did you have another purpose for them?”

Duke stared at both of them, stunned. He looked over to Baslin who was sporting the biggest grin he had ever seen on the man’s face. Finally, his military discipline kicked in. “Give me a sitrep.”

“A what?” Grat asked.

Duke spelled it out a bit more. “Situation Report. What happened to get us to this point and what is the status of everything relevant right now.”

“Let me handle this, Grat. You go check on the defenses.” Grat nodded in response, leaving Aurelia to speak with Duke. She continued. “You brought over the five groups in rapid succession and then paused in bringing them over. We didn’t know what caused the pause, but it made us suspicious.”

Duke nodded. “Understood. What happened then?”

“Well, we have been fighting against undead almost exclusively in our training so almost all the mages have developed some sort of detect undead spell that they generally keep active. When the spells started triggering, the alarm was raised and Baslin did his big glowy thing over there. And now you’re here.”

“That’s it? Nobody hurt? No mayhem? No destruction?” Duke asked incredulously.

“We’re pretty well-trained and highly disciplined, you know.” Aurelia offered Duke a smirk. “What happened to you on the other end?”

Duke shrugged. “I fought the rest of the vampires, a bunch of higher-tier ones, and their leader turned out to be someone I knew. Oh, and I think I may have burnt down an entire neighborhood. Or am burning. Not really sure if the fire is still spreading or not. Oh, yeah, they also know where we are and are likely coming for us. Nothing much.”

“So, we should kill these vampires now?” Aurelia asked.

Duke shouted over to Baslin. “Hey, Baslin, if we start killing the vampires, is that going to break your spell?”

Baslin shouted back, “No, I am holding their animating force. They cannot move without it. Slaughter away!”

Duke nodded to Aurelia. “Kill them all and then burn the bodies. I’ll be inside the Inn getting a drink.”

She nodded, gave him another smile, and then marched off to issue the kill order. Duke did not notice her watching him walk away to the Inn. He was focused on getting a drink even though he was sure it would not affect him or at least not for long anyway.

Inside the Inn, Calen greeted Duke with a warm smile. “What can I get you, boss?”

“Got any scotch? Something small-batch and old. Single barrel if you’ve got it.” Duke responded reflexively, not thinking about what he was asking for.

“Here try this.” The diminutive, for his race anyway, minotaur pushed a glass of amber liquid to Duke, a question in his eyes.

Duke took a sip of the drink and smiled. “Oh, that’s good. Real good. Straight out of the highlands, I’d say if there were such a thing in this world. How’d you get it so right?”

Calen smiled warmly, polishing a glass. “That, my Duke, is one of my special talents. I can match a drink to any person at any time. Seems it worked well for you.”

“Damned near perfectly. Why have I not partaken of your talents before?” Duke asked wistfully.

“Because you always are in such a rush to get to your next thing. You never slow down long enough to enjoy the fact that you are still alive. Never take the time to have a drink with a friend, never take the time to pursue the woman who clearly is interested in you. You’re alive, Duke. Act like it. But then again, I’m only a dungeon construct. What do I know?”

Duke stared hard at Calen for a long moment before responding while holding his drink up in contemplation. “A great deal. You know a great deal, it seems.”

Calen placed another glass on the bar next to Duke who looked quizzically at him. “I didn’t ask for another drink.”

“It’s not for you. It’s for her.” Calen gestured to Aurelia who was coming up to the bar.

She slid onto the stool next to Duke and took her drink. “Thank you, Calen. What are we drinking tonight?”

“Highland scotch, apparently.” Calen responded. “When you need something else, just give the bar two taps. Until then, I have other things to take care of… elsewhere.” With that, Calen walked back into the kitchen leaving the two of them alone at the bar.

Aurelia took a tentative sip of the scotch, her eyes opening wide as she felt the wave of warmth flow through her from the drink. “This is quite an amazing drink. Something from your home, I take it?”

Duke raised his glass. “Yes, something I had no idea that I was missing so much.” He brought his glass closer to Aurelia. “A toast to our army’s first of many victories.”

Aurelia smiled with a sparkle in her eye that set Duke’s heart to a quicker pace. “To victory. To conquest. To glory!” She clinked her glass against Duke’s as the rest of Duke’s core team filed into the Inn and settled around the usual table. Duke and Aurelia joined them after exchanging meaningful looks.

“You all did incredibly well. I’m beyond proud to call you friends and ridiculously thankful we are on the same side.” Duke offered as he raised his glass in a toast.

“Glad we are on the same side too.” Baslin responded while the rest offered words of agreement and raised their glasses.

“Baslin, what was that Spell you were holding the undead with and why didn’t you use it in the dungeon?” Duke asked.

Baslin chuckled. “I’ll answer your last question first. I didn’t use it in the dungeon because I hadn’t created the Spell yet. Remember when we were on the undead level, and we backed off for a week to regroup?” Duke nodded and Baslin continued. “I started crafting the spell then but couldn’t complete it at any decent level of power in such a short time. I’ve been working on it ever since then as we were fairly confident that we would be facing undead soon. Two days ago, I finished the Spell and it worked beautifully.”

“I’ll say. That was entirely different from what I expected to see when I arrived. In fact, if I had known you had the situation so well in hand, I would not have come back here so quickly.”

Elaine broke into the conversation. “Duke, what happened in the city?”

He sighed and proceeded to relate the events of the night. When he got to the part where Lasandra revealed herself, Baslin interrupted.

“Lasandra? You mean the one from your time in the arena?”

“Yes, the very same one. She’s the Vampire Lord behind this massive horde of vampires.”

“The undead general?” Grat asked.

“It would fit.” Duke responded. “There are supposed to be three of them that Chopie specifically wanted. If she’s one, then I can only guess that Lester and Lysander are the other two. This is really fucked up and makes me want to kill the bastard even more. Tell me again, why I haven’t raided the vault and taken everything there already? And make it good this time because things are going to absolute shit in that city. There’s at least a hundred vampires still running around making more of themselves and who knows what other shit is going on. I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole city was filled with undead in a matter of weeks.”

“That’s horrific.” Elaine reacted. “What can we do about it? March our army there and put all the undead down?”

Aurelia responded. “We leave in the morning. Killing all those higher-level vampires was a huge experience boost for our troops. We are ready for more.”

“No, we are not marching out to the city. The undead army is coming to us. We need to dig in and make sure we are ready for them when they get here. Grat, take whomever and whatever resources you need and get our defenses rock-solid. Expect them to have some ridiculous powerhouses when they show up. We need a counter for them. I am going to raid the vault and then get as many of my faction-mates out of the city as I can.”

“Duke, that’s dangerous and reckless. They know you can TELEPORT. They will have traps set up for you.” Baslin interrupted.

Duke, firing away on all cylinders, responded. “Do you really think any trap they can come up with could hold me? They can fucking try, and I will tear their goddammed world apart in the process!”

Aurelia spoke up before anyone else could. “I will prepare the army for the coming siege. Go and rescue your friends, secure in the knowledge that everything here is in hand. And you had better come back to me because we have some unfinished business.”

Elaine began to speak but was harshly cut off by Aurelia. “No. No more debate and second-guessing. My Duke has set the plan for us. He is taking action, and we can do no less than support him with everything we have.” Her fierce look was enough to cause everyone to back off.

Baslin produced a thin ornate golden disk about the size of post-it note and handed it to Duke. “Take this and put it in your pocket, not your INVENTORY. This is your emergency trump card and it’s the only one I have.”

“What does it do?” Duke asked.

“If you find yourself well and truly fucked, break it. All magic and magical effects in your area will be disrupted for thirty seconds. No magic whatsoever will work. I expect that to include all your Abilities so you’ll have to punch your way out of whatever jam you have gotten yourself into. I truly hope you don’t need it because I have been saving that for a particular individual but if you need it, use it. But until then, it will act as a magical cloak. No magic sensing should be able to see you. OK, I’m not going to say it’s complete cloaking, but it is the best that I can make right now.”

“Thanks, Baslin. Anyone else have something to say because this is happening?” Duke took the token and looked around the table.

“Yes, I have something to say.” Grat responded.

Duke gave him a flat look. “Go ahead.”

“Fix your armor before you go. It’s all torn to shit. You look horrible.”

Duke looked down at his armor, realizing that Grat was right and laughed. “OK, you got me there.” He activated CLEANSE and RESTORE making it as good as new again. “Anything else?”

“Yes. One more thing.” Elaine added. “Go get some sleep and head out in the morning. The undead are most active at night, especially the vampires. You’ll have a better chance at avoiding complications during the day.”

“Damn, you’re right. Thanks.” Duke acknowledged Elaine’s advice. “On that note, I’m heading to bed and will head out first-thing in the morning. Thank you all for everything.” With that, Duke headed upstairs. He heard what was said as he went up the stairs even though it should have been too low to carry that far.

“Don’t worry Aurelia. He will come around soon enough.”