You are Summoned

A wave of dizziness hit me as I stood in the wagon. It passed quickly and I began to pull on my gear, which had thoughtfully been left in the same wagon. After the initial alarm, the gnomes seemed to calm down a bit, but I noticed they kept their weapons close at hand. From my vantage point, I could see what looked like several armored humans mounted on horses approaching the camp.

The riders didn’t appear hostile and Warmaster Glumbleflump, along with Fitzfazzle moved to the edge of the camp to talk with them. Jumping off the wagon, I set out on wobbly feet to join the group. While I wasn’t in command of anyone, none of the gnomes chased me off, and the humans looked a bit surprised to see me as I joined the gnomish leaders.

“And there wasn’t a single survivor?” one of the humans, an older man in plate armor, said from horseback.

“I’m sorry to say that we didn’t find any. There could be some that ran into the forest when the undead attacked, but I don’t have the scouts to spare looking for survivors that may or may not exist. I will grant any search parties you wish to form free access to our lands. I’ll even rally my scouts and rangers to join your efforts after the threat of the undead has been dealt with,” Glumbleflump said.

Even though he was much smaller than the humans he was speaking with, the warmaster had a presence about him that surpassed his stature. I wondered if that presence could be a product of his class. It was rude to ask about someone else’s class, but I figured his title of warmaster might also be the type of class he held.

“Thank you, Warmaster, and you are correct. Any search must wait until the threat is dealt with, otherwise, the undead will eventually overpower us all,” the older rider said.

“I estimate that we have another three- or four-day journey still ahead of us. When will your forces be able to join us, Lord Braithwaite?” Glumbleflump asked.

“One of our patrols met your messenger just outside our lands, so we were able to quickly muster a force. I’m here with my knights, but the rest of our horse, another 100 riders, should join us tomorrow. Before you reach our objective, 300 footmen, and 100 archers will join us,” Lord Braithwaite advised.

“My church’s order is also sending four war priests, including myself, to aid us against the necromancer’s magic,” another of the armored men, this one was much younger and wore gold colored armor that stood out from the other riders.

“My people may not worship the same god as you humans, but we welcome your help of your war priests,” Glumbleflump said.

“The collegium of mages also has some of their members accompanying our footmen. It’s only a trio of them, but any magic support is appreciated. They are traveling with our infantry force,” Lord Braithwaite advised.

“What of our Dwarven friends, have you any word if they will fight at our side?” Glumbleflump asked.

“I had confirmation that King Redstone is sending warriors, but I didn’t get any information on their force composition before we left. They should join up with us before we besiege the necromancer,” Braithwaite advised.

“Good, we should have the forces necessary to defeat our foe, who we believe is a necromancer named Pharox. Our friend Rico overheard several of the necromancers during our first battle,” Fitzfazzle interjected.

“Who is this man, he doesn’t look like any of my folk,” Braithwaite said, giving me a scrutinizing gaze.

“Rico is a summoned being we have under contract, he’s a remarkable MESS pilot and has defeated two giant undead creatures so far,” Fitzfazzle said.

“If he’s that good, I hope you can summon many more like him before the battle begins,” Braithwaite said.

“He’s one of a kind, unfortunately, I could use a dozen Rico’s as pilots if it were possible,” Fitzfazzle said.

“Good, I think we’ve covered everything we need to for tonight. I apologize for the hour of my visit, but we were concerned about our ill-fated lumber camp, and I wanted to give word that we were joining you for the battle. This forest isn’t a good place for cavalry, so we’ll meet you tomorrow once you make it onto clear ground,” Braithwaite said.

“Excellent, we could use your cavalry’s help in screening our army. My scouts are good, but they are few in number,” Glumbleflump said.

“We’ll keep any skirmishers off you, and we’ll be counting on your siege engines if the necromancer has anything substantial in the way of fortifications. I’ve sent scouts out to get the lay of the land, but nobody that’s gone close to the crypt has returned. Have your scouts had any luck?” Lord Braithwaite asked.

“No, none of the ones we’ve sent out to get eyes on the crypt have returned. I suggest we don’t waste any additional lives in the attempt. Each scout or soldier we lose is another undead recruit for our foe,” Glumbleflump said.

“Agreed, we’ll take our leave, and see you on the morrow,” Braithwaite said before expertly turning his horse, and riding north toward the edge of the forest with the twenty or so heavily armored men he had brought.

I was sort of shocked at how large the horses were that these riders had. Even though I wasn’t any kind of expert on horses, they looked considerably larger than the beasts we had back home. They probably needed to be that big to haul around humans decked out in plate armor.

“Everyone not on watch, get some sleep, we’ll be pushing hard again tomorrow,” Warmaster Glumbleflump ordered. I didn’t need to be told twice, as I was having trouble staying on my feet. While the sickness that the undead creature inflicted on me was gone, I still had a way to go before recovering my strength.

“Rico, glad to see that you’re back among the living,” Fitzfazzle said.

“Thanks, I want to see this thing through and dying of some undead disease wasn’t the way I wanted to finish my time here,” I said.

“Ha, well, it’s good to have you. I’ll let Lumpy fill you in on what you’ve missed. I’m exhausted after helping to top off all the mechs and wands today,” Fitzfazzle said before leaving to go find his tent. Almost as if summoned by Fitzfazzle’s comment, Lumpy was waiting for me when I returned to the wagon that I had been resting it.

“There you are, almost as good as new. You feel up to talking?” Lumpy asked.

“Sure, I’m good for a bit, but I will need some sleep soon,” I replied.

“Good, what do you remember of the battle?” Lumpy asked. I recounted what I could remember, including the short battle with the undead creature and picking off the necromancer with my magic missile launcher.

“That sounds about right, the undead monster you faced was a reanimated Owlbear, in case you’re interested. As soon as it toppled your MESS over, the boys attacked. We tried to keep it off you, but you did just fine with that blunderbuss of yours,” Lumpy said.

“What about my MESS, any chance it’ll be rebuilt before we reach the crypt?” I asked. I would fight with my trusty new war hammer and dagger if I had to, but I’d much rather be piloting a giant metal death machine.

“We’ll have it done in the next day or two, we made good progress tonight rebuilding the damaged sections, and when we stop tomorrow night, we’ll put everything back together,” Lumpy said.

“Thanks, did Fitzfazzle’s MESS get fixed?” I asked. He had some trouble with one of the legs during the battle.

“Yeah, that wasn’t a bit deal, just some cleaning and tightening up a few things. Those legs on the first MESS’s were easy to gum up, but we’ve fixed that problem with the new design. You look beat, Rico, why don’t you get some sleep,” Lumpy said as he noticed me drifting off.

In the morning I was feeling much better and walked with the troop to help rebuild my strength. My mech was repaired the next night, as Lumpy had promised, but I was going to be short several magic missile wands. Many of them were damaged in the fight, and between charging our mechs, and after recharging the existing wands, our mages didn’t have the mana for more crafting.

Once out of the forest, we made good time. The human cavalry met us as they had agreed, and after two more days of march, their infantry caught up. It was odd being around that many humans after all the time I’d spent among the gnomes. I found that I preferred the company of my gnomish friends and stuck to the gnome camp for the most part.

When we were only a day away from the crypt, and just entering the swamp lands when the dwarven force was spotted by our outriders. They would join us in the morning, just before we reached our destination. The riders reported over 300 infantry and several siege engines were in the dwarven force, which was about what the gnomes had expected them to send.

As the camp was set for the night, I noticed several of the human riders and most of our scouts came running into camp.

“The undead are on the march, they be here at the camp in less than an hour!”