NOVEL NEXT Chapter Seventy – My Army Against Yours
The Nightmare of an army at war...
There were some definite changes today, before I even got out of the first room.
For starters, all the formerly twenty-foot-plus giant people were now down to between ten and twelve feet tall, tops. The house rescaled to fit them. Of course, oversized creatures remained oversized creatures, and the house was more than happy enough to adjust to somehow accommodate all of the far too many of them with plenty of room to fight.
Dreams, la.
Fido and Shirley came loping in the door as usual, all set to play with us, but without extra playmates today. The room was a mess of ripped-apart toy and doll beasts, but that was normal.
I pointed at them. “Henchman. Animal Companion.”
They both basically froze in place, blinking at me. After all, they weren’t truly animals, they were dream incarnations of Hellbound souls.
But I seriously didn’t care at this point. The Curse could stretch the rules of the stuff I was fighting against, so naturally I could stretch the rules of what was fighting with me.
Very importantly, I got to determine the Feats and combat tricks of my henchmen and animal companions, so I effectively rebuilt them on the spot.
“Fido, there! Shirley, there! When the rats come up, give them the One-Two!”
There was only a flicker of resistance, and then they bounded into position on either side of me.
The floor erupted upwards, and the Swarm of cranial rats came flowing out like a living river of squeaking flesh.
“One!”
Flaming breath blew across the rats, and y’know, Swarms, double AoE damage. They cooked pretty nicely.
Didn’t stop the flow of them from continuing. Three Swarms of them, after all.
“Two!” Shirley’s frost breath came howling out, there was a mass squeak, and then everything crystallized nicely as a couple hundred negative degrees Celsius did their heat-destroying thing.
I charged forwards this time, Tremble Singing in a low tone that was being translated by my Whiskers, and the last Swarm was shredded as Swarmbane tore it apart from one Whirlwind, sending rat bits flying in every direction.
The two-headed rat came out, tried to brainfry me, and I took off its heads, whisk-whisk.
“Nab a couple rats if you want them, there’s more fighting coming.” The hellpoodles delicately scooped up a couple bucketfuls each, frying and freezing them down respectively. “You will be able to fight some of what’s coming, and not others. Be careful and work together to take down an enemy.
“This house is under assault by supernatural forces, and the nexus of their attack is in this room. We will hold them off until morning, and then move to deal with the insurrectionists responsible!”
Both hellpoodles barked understanding, being fully sapient and well, Lawful. Rebels were simply the most horrid things in existence to them.
And so, I started some very active changing of the narrative to fit what I was going to do. This pure grinding stuff was getting old and no longer appropriate. If the Curse wanted to use mass combat, so be it!
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The night was entertaining, to say the least. Having a couple of frost and fire-breathing hellpoodles on my side certainly gave me an AoE option I hadn’t had before… and, hey, I could pick Feats for them. Way of Shadow, Assassin’s Stance, and Improved Flanking seemed just perfect for a pair of dogs used to fighting together, and who wouldn’t love +4 TH, +3d6 damage to the 2d6+15 of a hellpoodle’s jaws?
Now, the devils and incorps didn’t have much to worry about, but the Hags didn’t much like the breath weapons toasting a lot of them, and then Improved Trip and Savage Them filled out the roster. Once something hit the ground, instant follow-up attack from both hellpoodles, and the total damage was enough to send off a Hag very quickly, especially with her head torn off.
Did I need them to contribute? No, I could and had handled all this stuff. But when I kicked a grimm down in between them, well, I just had to sit back and admire their artistry as they ripped into it, then One-Two’d it without needing a command. Mostly to clean off their tongues, Fido was quick to tell me.
I nodded sagely.
The maid came in, and went down with Tremble in its skull. I carved it open and accelerated the return to her base form, and was waiting as the first guardsman came running in, sword out.
“Corporal!” I shouted out before he could say anything. “Old Mera was replaced by a doppelganger, we’ve got infiltrators in the mansion!”
I had killed this guy literally hundreds of times now, but he almost snapped to attention, his eyes bulging as the blood of the dop began to run thick purple. “Yes, ma’am! What do you want to do?”
“I believe a soiree is going on below, and our malefactors are certainly among them! Gather up the men and let’s see who is rebelling against the Duke!”
“Yes, ma’am!” he shouted, rushing back out of the room. I smirked from where I was sitting atop Shirley, using a saddle taken from the mounted barbed devils. Didn’t need no reins, of course, and I could finally use my Ranks in Ride!
“Let’s go confront some power-hungry nobles!” I encouraged Shirley with a tap of my knees, and she headed out into the halls and the stairs below. Tremble was laughing softly as the whole narrative was set on its ear, and the mansion started to thrum with a very different sort of activity.
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Half the knights had turned traitor and activated the front lawn defenses, the houndsmaster betrayed us, and the great animals were yoked to attack us. I led the loyal guards and faithful knights on the defense, and what nobles chose to stand with us after the bloody confrontation in the ballroom. We assembled to fight against the marines come surging up off the river to attack us.
Huzzah! Huzzah!
My Marshall bonus, enhanced by +4 by Courageous from Tremble’s Singing, gave us a clear martial edge, and tacking on a -2 to the enemy from my Intimidating just about everything under the sun as I slaughtered my way into them, was a major shift.
While the Curse could attempt to wear me down, it couldn’t do the same to all these dream creatures. They were ‘refreshed’, just like the monsters, every time there was a change in scene, and to say they were enthusiastic to fight was almost an understatement. They were as eager to kill my enemies now as they had been to kill me, and thanks to the thoughtful help of the Curse, they worked extremely well together to do so!
Of course, I did have to get them out of their light mail and into decent armor, which all the dead knights happily provided. I ended up with only a handful of cavalry, as the cauchemar nightmares fought to the death with their riders, but the lances made serviceable spears and, hey, it was the Curse’s fault these guys were so damn tough, right?
I was forming battle lines, breaking them, flanking, encircling, splitting, charging, probing, advancing, and retreating. The giants were used to working in small squads, and with better armor than the sailors and marines, ergo pirates, who were coming in, it was sufficient for our purposes.
Me, I had secure flanks and two hellpuppies with unlimited breath weapons every thirty seconds or so. Tactical positioning of these two assets, and me being able to ride around and kill pirates very quickly while they were being mucked up by my soldiers meant this fight lasted a much shorter time than it had before.
Naturally enough, just beating the pirates didn’t stop the fighting, but the Brine zombies and their fog likewise wasn’t nearly as dangerous with rows of spears restricting their movements, and six-foot swords hacking into them eagerly.
As for the pier itself, that was a bunch of solo monster encounters, and I didn’t really need them. It did remind me that I should have some missile troops, but there was going to be a bit of a wait for that.
They did get to see some excitement with the Deep Ones coming out, but the fully-armored troops were definitely not at a disadvantage against them, and a good spear line was more than capable of dealing with them. Fido and Shirley’s breath weapons politely ripped them apart, too.
None of them found it unusual that the front lawn was basically untouched as we moved there after night fell, and it wasn’t worth it for me to test their ability. The Leng ghouls began to pour in through the main gates, and the fighting was on.
Their ability to paralyze could be devastating, but the ability was much less effective against fighters as strong as these, and I could release a paralyzed man in seconds with Null Strikes if he could be dragged to safety. Happily, the ghouls were optimized for surround and attacking a lone foe, i.e., me, and not a sword and spear line ready for them… with a One-Two breath weapon volley that could really put a hurting on more than one at a time.
I was still everything’s preferred foe, so I anchored the more open end of the line and slaughtered them as they came. If the ghouls ignored the soldiers, they were punished with some really big swords and spears punching into them to devastating effect, necessitating they split their attention. My cavalry’s willingness to charge along the flanks and spit them on twenty-some foot lances, and trample others under claw-hooved feet, was also made quite obvious.
Fido really, really liked blasting dozens of them at a time when they clustered up.
Gradually we pressed forward to meet them and clean them up, sweeping across the lawn and down towards the open gates, where the next wave would be showing. I unparalyzed those that the healers could not, and the lines formed up at the gates to defy the gugs.
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“Sergeant, fall in! There’s a Fey army on the way, and we’re to make a stand at the city’s center!”
The first squad’s abortive rush towards me faltered as my troop marched up behind me, looking at them meaningfully. Although the dream restored them fully between acts, they were still battle-scarred, as every one of them had gained at least one Level, and most of them two.
Why? Because my Leadership ability allowed me to recruit a core team of level 4-6 characters, and then a fighting force of level 1-3’s. So, most of these hearty racial dice neo-human giants had been Warrior/1-2’s, basically gaining no benefits but a Feat and some Soak.
But now they were Melee/3’s, Levels refined and added to with all that Curse Karma, with multiple Feats under their belts, brimming with confidence. When Tremble and I started Singing, confidence rose in them like a burning furnace, and they fought amazingly well.
The new squad fell into the formation a moment later, and I continued marching down the long road. Each new squad, instead of a new fight, became a bunch of new recruits, and the numbers behind me increased swiftly.
When dawn rose over the river, and that black tide started coming over the walls, my forces were arrayed to meet and greet them on that long main road leading from the walls. I looked up at the erlking up there in the skies, daring him to try some magic, and as the first wave of spriggans, redcaps, and quicklings charged up to fight, I led the defiant shout of the soldiers as I prepared to show this bunch of barbarians what real fighters could do!