Chapter One-Hundred Thirty-Six

I might know Larrez is actually Rezlar, but it seems the kids haven’t realized it.  It’s not like they’ve shown any indication of paying attention to politics.  With Teemo off helping Jello, it’s not like I could tell them, even if I wanted to.  No, I told him I’d be willing to keep that secret, and I don’t see why I should change that.

At least I know why Teemo was grinning and acting like he was.  He probably recognized him as soon as he saw him.  Well, what’s done is done.  I look through what I have available to send to greet the group, and decide on a significantly harder probing encounter than usual.  A viper and a few rats wouldn’t even slow down Rhonda or Freddie, so I need to step up my game a bit.

Oh, I should try painting some of the snake scales with the metal transmutation stuff some time.  If we can get it to only infuse the scales, that should be a good way to toughen a snake up.  I file that idea away for later as I nudge an electric dire rat and a spitting viper to go test the kids.  The gatherer groups give the two denizens a wide berth, and it’s not long before Fiona taps the back of Freddie’s head and points.

The young orc looks and nods as he readies his shield and axe.  “Looks like Thedeim is ready to get started.  Electric dire rat and a spitting viper.”

Rhonda nods at that as Lucas pulls a little shard of metal from the brim of the goblin’s hat, the goblin herself opening her book to a specific rune.  “There should be an opening to attack after they start.  They like to fire from range before closing,” she says as magic starts to awaken the rune in the book.

Rezlar looks pretty nervous, but seeing the confidence in the other two helps steady him.  He takes a deep breath before shifting his feet.  “Tide Stance…” he murmurs as he settles into the classic fencing stance: feet wide, sword forward and raised slightly, back hand held behind and high for balance.  I’m a bit surprised to see a watery duplicate of his rapier appear over his head.  I can still see a bit of unease in his eyes, but his form looks pretty solid to me.

“I can counter the spit,” he says as he steps up beside Freddie, and the orc smiles.

“Rhonda and I can handle the lightning, then.  Funneling Bulwark!” he shouts as the dire rat starts to spark with the beginning of its attack.  Back with Rhonda, Lucas’ metal shard glows slightly as the rune on Rhonda’s book flashes.

“Lightning Rod!”  Freddie’s ethereal shields help channel the bolt of lightning as the dire rat unleashes it, focusing it into the earth at Freddie’s feet, thanks to the magical influence of Rhonda and her familiar.

The spitting viper hisses and launches a glob of venom/poison, and this time it’s Rezlar who reacts.

“Riptide Riposte!” he shouts as he lunges towards the dire rat, the watery rapier intercepting the attack from the viper.  It turns an unpleasant purple as it absorbs the attack, but that’s not all Rezlar is up to.  His lunge meets the dire rat and scores a good gash down its side, and the water doppelganger of his weapon flashes forward to deposit the unpleasant purple into the wound.

Rezlar steps back as Freddie steps forward, raising his shield to deflect the enraged bite from the wounded unusually-sized rodent.  Freddie sidesteps to take the attack from the viper as Rezlar steps in once more, and I start to get an idea for why he called it Tide Stance.  Each time he hits, the water rapier hits again a moment later.  It’s like watching waves on a beach erode a sandcastle.  I kinda want to see him fight the rockslides, he’d probably do pretty well against them.

Fiona, still on Freddie’s back, weaves a quick net and manages to entangle the viper, giving Rhonda an easy target for an Icicle Spear.  The group holds their combat stances for a few moments, until they get the experience, and then they relax.  Rezlar brings his water rapier to overlap his regular one, before flicking it away to splash on the ground, carrying with it the blood from the electric dire rat.

Freddie smiles at the newest member of their party and claps him on the shoulder.  “Good work!  That would usually take me and Rhonda a lot longer to clear!”  Rezlar looks a bit embarrassed at that, but doesn’t argue as Rhonda pipes up.

“Yeah!  That’s some fancy swordwork, Larrez!  With you, I think we can take some of Thedeim’s more defensive monsters, like the slimes and rockslides!”

“Is… that a good idea?”

Rhonda shrugs.  “It’s not a bad one.  We’ve been avoiding them because they take too long for just me and Freddie to handle, but your Tide Stance looks like it’s great for getting through defenses!”

Rezlar slowly nods at that.  “It is, yes.  Water is very good at getting around defenses, finding the smallest weakness and expanding it.  It works very well with my fencing,” he says, looking more comfortable talking about theoretical application than actually applying it.  Luckily for him, (or unluckily, depending on how one looks at it) Rhonda is all about applying theoreticals.

“Great!  We’ll show you the maze, and then head down to the caverns to see if we can handle stuff in there!”  Plan made, the group sets off.  They don’t end up going into the maze, as the line is looking a bit long.  That doesn’t stop them from getting on top and getting a good view of what’s going on.

I can feel Rezlar tense once Tiny looks at the group, but the big spider simply waves a foreleg at them and continues on his way.

“Is that… normal?” asks the poor noble, and the others nod.

“Yeah,” says Freddie.  “If you’re just up here to look, he’ll ignore you.  I don’t know what he’ll do if you try to get through the webbing up here and cheat the maze, but I wouldn’t try it.”

“I half expected to see Vernew up here,” Rhonda idly states, scanning the flat expanse that is the top of the maze, interrupted only by the trees of Tiny’s lair.

Freddie shrugs.  “She must be busy.”

“Yeah… maybe we can visit her in the enclave?  With Larrez, we should be able to get through the encounters there without having to spend so much time.”

“Vernew?”

Freddie smiles and starts walking back the way they came.  “Yeah, she’s one of the leaders of the spiderkin enclave.  She’s the Huntsmistress.  Kinda bold and brash, but she’s cool.”

“I wonder if her spear and javelin techniques would translate into fencing,” asks Rhonda, looking to Rezlar for the answer.

“Maybe?  I’ve sparred against various spears before, and they’ve never been especially insightful for my own techniques, but I’ve never sparred with a spiderkin,” he admits.

“She’s hard to pin down, I feel like you two would be chasing each other all over the battlefield, trying to land a solid hit,” says Freddie as he thinks on how the two might face each other.

Rezlar quirks an eyebrow at that.  “You’ve seen her fight?”

Rhonda nods.  “Yeah, beating her was one of our challenges to get our classes.  We were lucky and she underestimated us, and we managed to get her caught in a big web tangle.”

Fiona and Lucas both chitter, and Freddie chuckles.  “Heh, and ourselves, too.  It took Tiny several minutes to untangle everyone.  I think she’d be up for a friendly spar, if she has time.  She might be out on a hunt, too,” he points out.  A Huntsmistress isn’t likely to just laze around the enclave all day, waiting for plucky youngsters to come challenge her to a spar.

“We could follow our first plan and go check in on Rocky, then?” suggests Rhonda as they start to get off from the top of the maze.

“Might be the better idea, yeah.  I don’t want to be out too late.  I’m supposed to do a vigil around sunset.”

“Yeah, and I need to bottle some potions, too.”

Rezlar doesn’t seem to have anything pressing, or at least nothing he’ll admit to.  “Where are the mining nodes?  We could let me mine some tin, make our way to Violet for your quests, and go visit, uh… Rocky… before calling it a day?”

Freddie frowns as he goes over the timeframe.  “I think we’ll have to come back later to play with Rocky.  We can get some mining done on the way to Violet, but we’ll probably see enough encounters on the way that we should just head to the ratkin enclave and through the cemetery to get back home on time.”

The group nods to that, and set off, having a plan to be done before their other responsibilities have to be attended to.  I watch them go about their fun as I nudge Queen with the steel scales idea, and she seems all for it.  She even wants to try giving electric affinity, which I like the sound of.  The kids might not get to spar one of my scions or one of the leaders of an enclave, but I still want to give them a boss battle.  You know, something to remember their first delve as a party by.