Galactic High

“Wait!” Alora yelled out to the woman. “We’re friendlies!”

“Liar!” The woman roared back, but she held off from attacking them for the moment. “Everyone else is dead! There are no friendlies here!”

“We were sent here to find you!” Jack added. “We’re not your enemy! You’re the first person we’ve met in this damn place!”

“I don’t even know what the hells you are!” The woman yelled at Jack as she raised her wooden staff, a crystal at the top glowing a bright light green, while Nika and Sephy levelled their guns at the druid in response. “Find me? What a crock of shit that is!”

It’s true! Chiyo argued, as she looked back to check behind them, seeing several flicking lights of Death Candles getting closer behind them. We were hired to investigate this place!

“As if I’ll fall for your tricks!” The woman snapped her beak. “I’ve felt your powers decline with your last attack! This Shrine of Elphil won’t be corrupted by your foul taint!”

“Your son sent us!” Sephy yelled as the staff glowed brighter with power. “It’s why we’re here!”

“I HAVE NO SON!” The woman yelled, and the strange twig-contraptions around her began to advance towards them.

“For fucks sake, look at us!” Nika yelled as she took aim at the paranoid woman’s head, just about holding herself back from shooting them. “We’re not with whatever the fuck those things are, we’ve been fighting them all night and we’ve just saved your ass! Stand down or we’ll put you down! Last chance!”

“Come and try it!” The druid snarled as she took in power…

Suddenly a loud bark reverberated around them, causing all parties to stop what they were doing as Dante bounded forward to look up at the woman, barking with meaning several times.

“What….?” The druid faltered, lowering her staff, staring at them with bulging eyes. “Impossible! That’s an Elyssian Hound! One of Astara’s servants! How!? How can you fake that!”

“We told you!” Alora called out. “We’re here to help you! Please talk to us! It’s not safe out here and there isn’t much time!”

The woman seemed conflicted as she looked at them, taking several steps back in shock. Dante paced forward and barked much louder several times.

“I don’t know what the hell a ‘human’ is,” the woman yelled at the ‘dog’, “but the rest of what you say makes sense. I cannot deny the truth I see before my eyes!”

With a wave of her hand, the twiggy mannequins stood down and stepped aside.

“If you insist on this, you can come in.” The druid beckoned with a grunt. “I’ll hear you out inside, but I fear you only find your doom here.”

The path through the metal gate was flanked by towering ancient trees that seemed to part and give way as they passed, with the roots retreating to allow everyone to walk unhindered before the gnarled branches closed back around them to block the path again once they passed into the shrine complex.

Beyond the trees the group found themselves in an open glade about half the size of a football pitch with signs of battle dominating the front half of the grove, implying that the battlelines had shifted multiple times, with churned up earth, damaged plants and trees and scorch marks on spots on the ground. Past this carnage, at the far end of the glade, was a semicircle of low, earth-covered dwellings that seemed to blend seamlessly into the environment. Their roofs were made of living grass and moss, with walls of woven wooden branches and stone, though they still showed some signs of battle damage. As they walked past one of these huts, Jack could see vines and flowering plants climbing the sides, indicating that the structures had been partially grown that way rather than built traditionally, with several small animals moving freely between the gaps.

“Here, sit,” the woman ordered, indicating a central fire pit in the middle of the huts which had long since extinguished, surrounded by stone benches carved with intricate patterns depicting leaves, animals and other nature themes that they could see. “Do you need food? It’s not like we have any mouths to feed.”

“No thank you.” Alora shook her head as the group all sat down. “We came here to investigate what’s been going on. Though we’ve seen many things since arriving here, you’re the first living person we’ve seen so far.”

“My name is Elysandra, I’m the only person you’ll meet here.” The woman snorted. “My fellow Greenwardens are either dead or were taken by those monsters!”

What happened? Chiyo asked.

“Over a month ago, several of our Circle went missing.” The woman sighed, the weariness in her bones apparent as she slumped with the motion. “At the time we thought nothing of it, but eventually a group of our senior acolytes decided to venture out and find them. When they all returned, we thought nothing was amiss … until they were able to get close.”

The druid hardened her resolve as she continued. “That’s when they attacked. Shapeshifters had stolen the forms of our friends and slaughtered many, breaching the inner shrine.” She pointed to another gate. “At great sacrifice we pushed them back, where a horde of Myrelings and Blightcaps were trying to pile in.”

“What are they?” Jack asked.

“I could ask the same thing about you,” the woman grunted back at him. “You met those foul creatures on the slope back there.”

“What happened next?” Alora asked Elysandra gently.

“I…had been defending the inner shrine,” the druid continued, and Jack got the sense she was holding something back. “By the time we pushed them out we were only a handful left, and our communications relay had been destroyed - it was one of the first things the monsters did when they broke in. They knew what they were doing, as if they were taking orders from something intelligent, but I don’t know how they’ve been able to coordinate this well. I’ve never heard of these monsters being tamed, so something like this shouldn’t be possible for mere monsters.”

“Something similar happened at the Corvin Outpost,” Sephy spoke up. “It was like everyone there just up and left, but the generator and comms relay were fucked up.”

“That doesn’t surprise me.” Elysandra sighed. “Once we pushed them out they laid siege, and we could sense them expanding out and coordinating. We couldn’t hail the Outpost, but one of us tried to shapechange into a bird and fly there to warn them, but they were intercepted by one of those damn Hags! They’re the ones that appear to be leading this blighted horde in this area. It’s a Coven of Seven, though I sense their hold has weakened.”

“I should hope so,” Nika spoke up. “I killed one of them when the monsters attacked us.”

And I eliminated another in the Astral Plane, Chiyo added. We know the mist around here is spore clouds with a hallucinogenic property, and it seems to thin the barriers between adjacent planes.

“The Astral Plane?” The woman spoke up in shock. “So that’s how they were able to intercept us!”

And the Skinwalkers can travel there too, Chiyo added, causing the druid’s talons to bite hard in the wood of her staff.

“Do you know what they want?” Jack asked.

“Unless it’s plain and simple conquest, I don’t know,” Elysandra began, and held up her hand for the others to be quiet as she continued. “But I have never seen or heard of creatures like this cooperating at all on any scale, let alone a scale as large as this. The Coven of Hags have great sway over these creatures, and whatever they’re planning, it’s something big.”

“What makes you so sure?” Alora asked. All of the Runners of course knew by this point that their mysterious enemy had some kind of nefarious objective, but the way Elysandra said that implied she witnessed something more.

“They’re trying to take certain people alive where they can,” the Druid told them solemnly, and they nodded, knowing this already after having seen the evidence first hand. “We saw this after they first raided us and took our people to an old clearing a little further into the forest from here, and we’ve sensed more people being taken there over time but were powerless to do a thing! Ever since they attacked us for the first time there’s been a foul presence there that grows stronger and stronger with every soul brought there. I believe the Hags are performing an evil ritual of some kind, but I don’t know for what purpose.”

“Well, I doubt it’s a summoning for free ice cream!” Sephy quipped, trying to lighten the mood, and failing. She coughed awkwardly. “So what do we do?”

“I cannot leave this place,” the druid immediately informed them. “I have a sacred charge from Elphil to protect this shrine for as long as I can until-” She cut herself off, looking at the group with suspicion.

“Well it’s not going to last much longer!” Nika shook her head in disbelief. “Is it really worth your life?”

“Nika’s right.” Alora gently told the woman. “Can you not perform a closing ritual?”

“I can,” Elysandra confirmed. “But….I can’t do it yet. I’ve got to hold off from doing that for as long as I possibly can.”

“Alright, change of topic,” Sephy spoke up. “How does this work out with what our client wants us to do? No offence, but he and the rest of us expected you to be dead or missing, and you even told us that you don’t have a son!”

“Yeah, do you know the guy? He was the same species as you,” Jack asked, spotting the druid bristle at the subject as he decided to speak up rather than let the others do it. “Look, I get it if he’s not someone you like, but we had no way of knowing that. All we know is he was some kind of figure within Corvin Enterprises and he wanted some of your belongings but-”

“Yes. I gave birth to him.” Elysandra snorted. “And of course he wants an excuse to claim my things! Anything for personal power!”

So he is your son, Chiyo confirmed. But you are somehow estranged from one another? Is Elphil not a Goddess of Children?

“I tried to raise Kaldra the right way as The Nurturing Mother taught me.” Elysandra sighed. “The time came when he had to make his own way as all children do. I had hoped he would consider following in my footsteps, but instead he became a mercenary, eventually falling in with a group of individuals I very much disapproved of, and so I tried to talk sense into him as this group committed many deeds in the name of greed and power. We argued, we parted, and we barely spoke since. But talking about it doesn’t help us now.”

“I suppose not.” Alora sighed.

“Yes...” Elysandra nodded. “I will be willing to give you what you came for, even if Kaldra’s motivation for getting my belongings isn’t pure. All I ask is for aid in…”

“Aid in what?” Jack asked.

Elysandra suddenly closed her eyes and touched the ground, seeming to concentrate for a few moments before opening them again.

“They’re mustering in force…” she murmured. “They look desperate. You must have complicated their plans by slaying two of their Coven, and I think they mean to break the siege of this place at any cost. They’re pulling monsters here!”

“Shit,” Nika cursed. “What do we do?”

“You might be able to make a dash for it and run, though they will certainly chase you,” Elysandra warned them. “It would be selfish of me to ask you to stay. But you can all help me defend this place, and it would give me more time to deny them the prize that they seek if you can hold them off, and if you’re able to do that and thin their numbers, it would at least give you a better opportunity to escape!”

“But…” Jack began tentatively, causing all eyes to look to him. “If we thin their numbers like you say, it may also give us an opportunity to turn this situation around with a counterattack. You said there were seven hags in this coven?”

“Yes.” Elysandra nodded, looking at him curiously.

“Now if your information is correct there are five witches left,” Jack reasoned. “What if we were able to take them out too?”

“Then….” Elysandra paused for a moment as she thought about it. “Any rituals and spells they’ve cast would be disrupted. They’ve summoned several wards and barriers that prevent us from getting anything out, and it wouldn’t be good for whatever they’re attempting nearby...”

We don’t know the nature of what they’re attempting, and I have a bad feeling it’s building to something catastrophic! Chiyo spoke up. It may be that slaying the Hags won’t be enough!

“But we sort of know the location of what they’re doing,” Sephy added with a daring grin. “If we’re somehow able to get there, we can find out what’s going on and stop it!”

“Heh, you feeling like being a hero, Sephy?” Nika grinned. “Hell of a risk, but I’m game. This enemy’s been expanding, and they’re gonna be a threat to the city, so if we can stop them or slow them down we might be saving some lives, though it sucks we won’t be paid extra for it!”

“I agree.” Jack nodded. “Not just that, these monsters have killed too many people already. I want to avenge them and find out what they’re doing to the people they’re taking alive.”

They’ve destabilised the barriers between planes, Chiyo added. They need to be stopped before they get out of control.”

“Then we are all agreed.” Alora nodded with a drawn-out nervous breath, though still with a look of determination on her face. “This corruption needs to be destroyed. Get ready to stand and fight!”

“Suffer not a witch to live.” Jack growled the harrowing bible quote, and his Ring of the Berserker tingled on his finger with anticipation.

“They approach, we don’t have long,” Elysandra warned, as the Druid Grove around them seemed to warp and change. Several more of the twiggy mannequin-like constructs from before began to weave themselves together from the trees, and began to form ranks at the entrance. “The Twigspawn won’t be enough. I’ll need to awaken other defences. Follow me!”

As the group followed the druid through the eerie glade, tension hung thick in the air, as the sounds of rustling leaves and snapping branches from the Twigspawn kept their nerves on edge. Jack noticed a great door at the top of a set of stone steps, but Elysandra led them past that, instead leading them towards a great mound of earth, pulling back a curtain of hanging moss and vines to show a hollowed-out interior.

“You can just take whatever you need or want to carry with you from our armoury.” Elysandra shrugged. “I’m the last of our circle, so with there being nobody else to use any of this stuff, it might as well be your reward as thanks for helping me. Even if you kids weren’t mercenaries, it would still be better for you to claim what you want than leave it to the enemy, and if we need to withstand an all-out attack we’re going to need to use everything we have at hand!”

The group stepped inside as Dante handily lit it up for them to see. Their gazes swept over the various items stored within, immediately seeing bows with sinew strings, quivers with arrows topped with sharp rocks, spears that looked like the blades themselves were carved out of wood, and clubs studded with sharp stones.

“Uh…no offence but we use guns!” Sephy called out to the druid. “Please tell me you have plasma batteries!”

“Look round the back,” Elysandra called back as she avoided the initial racks of basic weapons and took up a bow that looked much more intricate, carved of some pale, white wood. “The better stuff is there, the Twigspawn can have everything else.”

“Oh thank fuck!” Nika sighed as she found some batteries, throwing a few to the Skritta after checking that most of them had about 50% power.

“Uh, Nika?” Jack called out, showing her five objects in his palm. “Are these batteries the type that I think they are? They look the same as the one for the Blunderbuss!”

“Shit, I think they are!” The Kizun exclaimed with a grin after quickly giving them a once-over. “That’s handy! How many?”

“Just these,” Jack confirmed with a sigh, pocketing them in his duster that also used to belong to the Blunderbuss’ previous owner. “These will be a barrel of laughs,” he quipped.

“That they will!” Nika grinned. “You good on ammo? You went full-auto a lot back there!”

“I…” Jack began, cursing himself in his mind as he realised he hadn’t been checking as often as he should have been, cringing slightly as he quickly loaded them to check the charge. “...will probably need more. I still have my Dominator which is fully charged. I haven't had to use it since Cypherport.”

“There’s one fresh one here, but maybe we can get some charge on the others.” Nika sighed at the bad news “If they had a comms system, maybe they have a generator around? If not, stick around Dante and hope you have enough in the tank!”

“Even if not…” Jack reasoned, patting his axe and grinning despite himself. “This deathworlder is never unarmed...”

On the other side of the armoury, both Chiyo and Alora were checking out some of the magical artefacts left unceremoniously on a mix of dirt and wooden shelves, putting some to the side to give to the others, and ignoring others as worthless.

“It’s unfortunate I’m not a Druid,” Alora muttered as she picked up a magical staff, feeling its affinity for nature magic. “But there’s enough crossover with my innate abilities as an Eladrie that I can still somewhat make use of this.”

You may as well unless you find something better, Chiyo told her. What does it do?

“Some limited weather manipulation and affinity I think…” Alora replied after a few moments of concentrating her clerical powers. “I’m sure I can get creative enough, though it only has a few charges. Have you found anything, Chiyo?”

There are several alchemical items here which will be invaluable in the battle to come. The Ilithii nodded. We can give the others a few, but I think the majority of these bombs and acid vials should stay with me. I can use my powers to accurately put them where they can do the most damage.

“Any potions?” Alora asked.

Apart from one or two Barkskin potions, none that I can see. Chiyo shook her head as she quickly grabbed the Barkskin potions off the shelves, taking one and handing the other to Alora, knowing that the armour of the others rendered the potions obsolete. Healing potions are usually common - they must have used them up in their previous defences.

“That’s too bad.” Alora sighed, mentally checking how much power she could muster for any magical healing as she spotted a dusty ring, picking it up and checking the label, shrugging as she handed it to Chiyo. “It says it’s a Ring of Marking. It’s not too valuable, but if you sense a priority target before we see it you can use it to mark them for the rest of us, and it can summon lights like I can too.”

I’ll take it. Chiyo nodded. If I detect a Hag I’ll use it on them. Anything else?

“Not much that I can see…” Alora sighed, bending down and opening a small, ornate chest at her feet that revealed a band of fur and leather emitting some kind of radiant magic, and it took a moment for her to realise that it was.

“Dante?” Alora called. “Come here! I’ve got a collar for you!”

“Woof!” The ‘dog’ responded, immediately padding over to the Eladrie, and bending his head down for Alora to put it on with a comfortable fit.

“Good boy!” Alora smiled. “I don’t know what this does, but let’s hope it helps…”

“That’ll do in a pinch…” Sephy muttered to herself as she picked up a string net with weights from a hook on one of the walls. “Doubt it’ll do anything to stop a Skinwalker though, but-”

The Skritta suddenly stopped as she felt an unexpected sensation. Worried that their enemy was trying some magical fuckery on her, she looked towards Chiyo, who didn’t look like she’d sensed anything amiss. The feeling was unlike what she felt before in the false mist: a subtle, almost imperceptible pull, like a thread tugging at the edge of her consciousness. It was strange, a sense she had never felt before and couldn’t quite place, but it was insistent, urging her to look away from the junk she’d previously been inspecting.

Sephy’s sharp eyes narrowed as she scanned the room, the pull guiding her gaze toward a dim corner shrouded in shadow right at the back. Something there was calling to her, beckoning her closer. Without a word she slipped further away from the others, drawn by a compulsion she couldn’t explain but didn’t question - as though some deep, instinctual part of her felt it right to do so. She made her way towards an old dusty shelf that likely hadn’t seen much attention in years.

Reaching her hand out into the shelf she fumbled around trying to reach whatever was in there before her hand wrapped itself around something tucked away behind a warped part of the back wall, almost completely out of view. Pulling it out, she found a bundle of dusty dark leather, tied with flimsy, faded cords. Carefully she untied them, her hands trembling slightly as she unrolled the bundle.

“Woah…” The Skritta gasped.

Inside the bundle were a pair of intricately curved daggers. They were exquisite, the blades elegantly crafted with a dark, gleaming metal etched with delicate patterns that seemed to shift and move in the dim light. The hilts were wrapped in fine, dark leather, worn smooth over time but still sturdy as she picked them up and gave the blades a flawless twirl. As she did so, she felt in her mind that it felt right to her to take them, like these daggers truly belonged to her.

Giving a few experimental stabs and swings they seemed to hum in response, resonating with her in a way that felt almost alive. The runes along the spines of the blades glowed faintly and she could feel some latent magic within, though she’d have to ask Chiyo about it. It probably wouldn’t be anything bad…

Probably.

“Oh! Those I haven’t seen in a long time, I had wondered what had happened to them!” Elysandra spoke up as she approached.

“Surprised you had these bad gals tucked away!” Sephy grinned, feeling her connection to the daggers, twirling them around experimentally as if they were a part of her.

“I’m not.” The druid shrugged. “Though some druids do use more modern weapons, my Circle always strove to only mostly use what nature provides, and those knives never resonated with any of us like they do with you. And the circumstances in which we received those daggers was…unusual.”

“Oh yeah? Do tell!” Sephy shrugged. “Picked them up off a bandit warlord or something?”

“No.” Elysandra shook her head. “We hosted a small band of travellers here a while ago who were passing through the area. They were a tribe of Skritta like you, as a matter of fact. Must have been about a decade and a half ago, give or take.”

“Huh…” Sephy immediately scoffed at that.

“They were good guests, and only stayed a few days to exchange supplies and move on, but there was a woman among them who was absolutely distraught about something.” Elysandra recalled. “It’s been so long but I still remember it. Kept praying at the Shrine of Elphil day and night, and the rest of her tribe left her alone, save for her mate. It was the last day they were here as they were preparing to leave, and after spending days at a time praying at the shrine she suddenly got up, came up to me, and gave me those knives, telling me to hold onto them, and was very insistent about it. Told me it was her contribution in return for accommodating them, but I had my doubts. They’ve been sitting on that shelf since.”

“Wow, what a dumb bitch!” Sephy chuckled. “These are awesome as hell! Her loss, my gain!”

“Indeed. You may as well use them.” The druid gave a dry chuckle back before her expression hardened as she closed her eyes in concentration. “They’re attacking, finish up here!” She yelled out to the others

“Hard to do with primitive weapons,” Nika called back. “We don’t have much, but Jack and I have come up with a few ideas. We might even be able to get a communications signal out.”

The Hags will need to be dealt with for that to happen, Chiyo warned. Alora and I have found some magical items that may be of use, and many that require time for attunement we simply don’t have!

“Then we’d better set up defences!” Jack warned. “How long do we have?”

“Minutes!” Elysandra warned. “They’ve obscured their presence!”

“Damn witches!” Sephy cursed. “Can we get to the top of the wall?”

“The Guardian Trees will guide you up there!” The druid confirmed.

“Then let’s move!” Alora spurred them on.