Chapter 4

“I will say again that this is highly irregular.”

“This is a highly irregular situation – I am sure the most flexible Elder Lich I know of will be able to adapt.”

“…”

Ludmila stood upon the pier facing Nonna, who she could swear had an expression of dismay on her face.

After some thought, she decided to wait for two more hours before heading out, just in case flying Demihumans that could foil her plan were discovered in subsequent reports. During that wait, however, she grew increasingly restless as more and more markers indicating movements were added to the map on the dining room table. The flow of intruders entering the upper reach had not ceased coming through the pass, and Ludmila wondered how many tens of thousands were now gathered in the southern end of the basin.

The slow progress of the markers did ease her fears about raiding forces entering the Sorcerous Kingdom shortly after her appearance, yet at the same time added to another set of worries about what sort of Demihuman species would advance in such a manner.

Ludmila called in the Elder Lich working with the Lizardmen to take over for Nonna’s role in conveying the Bone Vulture reports to the Linum sisters – who were now both awake and working on the map – and increased the frequency of reports to fifteen minutes. In addition, she dispatched several dozen Bone Vultures to sweep over various areas in the upper reaches in an attempt to gain as much information as possible and fill in as many blanks as she could.

Between waiting for reports, she sent a preliminary warning to the Krkonoše across the river, spoke to Chief Esess, then went to the shrine at the top of the hill to pray for guidance. An invasion of this magnitude was nearly unheard of in the history of Warden’s Vale, and the sheer breadth of things that she needed to keep track of and think about was overwhelming her. It was as if the statement she made to Lady Shalltear about the inherent weaknesses of the Sorcerous Kingdom’s various Undead servitors had reached the ear of some evil being, and this invasion had occurred as a result to breathe life into her worries.

“If you are so hesitant about this,” Ludmila said, “then perhaps you could provide us with a better option? Wait – by any chance…are you embarrassed?”

“…”

Nonna sighed the biggest sigh that Ludmila had ever heard an Elder Lich sigh. It was her final protest, however, and Nonna floated into the air shortly after, hovering out over the water just below the pier. Ludmila gingerly got onto Nonna’s shoulders, placing one hand onto the Elder Lich’s hooded head to steady herself.

“Hm…your robe feels nice, despite how tattered it look–WAH!”

Ludmila jerked violently at the sensation of her inner thighs being sharply prodded. The floating pair wobbled over the water for half a minute before finding equilibrium again. She looked down to see what had happened.

“I am really sensitive there, you know!”

“I do not.”

“Well, now you do,” she scowled down at the back of Nonna’s hood. “There is no need to grab me so roughly. Even if you do not fancy this idea, stabbing me with those bony fingers of yours is entirely out of line.”

“I did not stab you…”

Nonna adjusted her grip, and Ludmila had to resist the urge to wriggle uncomfortably. She should have worn two more layers of pants. Crossing her boots at the ankles, she tried to figure out how to brace herself more securely. The Elder Lich’s neck was nothing but a bare spine, and the rest of her was similarly thin and bony. She squeezed her legs together lightly.

“Does that hurt?” Ludmila asked.

“It is not causing any damage.”

“Alright, then we should get going.”

Ludmila adjusted the scarf over her head as they slowly rose into the twilight. Recalling how cold it was when she had flown with Lord Mare, she dressed in layers of winter clothing, hoping that it would be sufficient to stay warm at higher altitudes.

In what others would most likely tell her was a bird-brained scheme, Ludmila decided that the safest way to personally scout the incoming army was to fly over and take a look from out of harm’s reach. When they came closer, Nonna would cast Invisibility over the both of them, after which they would silently assess the situation firsthand. Unfortunately, Nonna could not maintain the cost of two Fly spells simultaneously, and a second Elder Lich would be far out of range maintaining a second enchantment in a situation where any number of things might go wrong – such as losing her Fly spell.

What resulted was their ridiculous-looking arrangement, with Ludmila riding on Nonna’s shoulders. A half-dozen Bone Vultures rose with them as a makeshift escort, just in case some flying opponent showed itself. The spell’s rate of acceleration was cut in half – and so was their manoeuvrability – but they would be able to achieve the maximum velocity after an extended period. At that speed, it would take them over three hours to reach the pass where the Demihumans were making their entrance. Along the way, she peered down intently at the landscape below, trying to spot any scouting or raiding parties sent in advance of the main body of the invading forces.

When they reached an altitude where she thought they wouldn’t be overheard by anyone below, Ludmila asked a question.

“How come you do not possess any accelerated flight spells?”

“If that is a complaint…”

“No, not at all,” Ludmila said. “I have read that Human mages are capable of casting them, so I figured that a powerful Elder Lich should as well.”

“Enhanced flight exists,” Nonna replied, “but it is not in my repertoire of spells.”

The arbitrary nature of the Undead servitors of the Sorcerer King manifested in all sorts of ways, and Ludmila supposed that this was one of them. Never mind those possessing lesser intellect – or none at all – even the powerful Death Knights and Elder Liches could not learn new spells, abilities, Martial Arts or Skills – they were forever stuck with what they had been created with, and could only work within those constraints. Thus, Lord Cocytus was actively seeking new means to improve them in his new army, and Ludmila was caught in the same quandary.

The servitors leased out to those who desired security forces were undeniably powerful when one thought of them as direct combatants. Unfortunately, the majority of the security in her demesne revolved around maintaining a presence on the border and having suitable reconnaissance to pinpoint potential threats. Death Knights, while supposedly capable of destroying small nations on their own, could be sent into the untamed forests of the borderlands and never find a thing unless they happened to trip right over it.

Roughly speaking, vocations with high stealth capabilities – Rogues, Rangers, Monks, and Bards – became problematic to detect by even Death Knights at around Platinum rank. In an environment with excellent cover, like the forests around Warden’s Vale, you could essentially hide forever from one. A Ranger specialized in combating Undead, like Merry, could probably destroy a Death Knight with enough time, simply because it would never be able to find her as she chipped it down to nothing from afar.

Servitors like Death Knights made excellent sentries in the open streets of E-Rantel, but they were utterly dismal at patrolling places like the Great Forest of Tob or the southern frontier. The clear solution was to have those capable of reconnaissance working together with the powerful Undead forces of the Sorcerous Kingdom, which was one of the reasons why Ludmila envisioned training a Ranger corps for the nation. That would be a long time in the making, however, and so she found herself flying through the sky on the shoulders of an Elder Lich as a one-woman reconnaissance force.

About an hour into their flight, Ludmila spotted the first signs of the invading Demihumans. From their altitude, which was roughly level with the surrounding peaks, she could see a clearing in the forest being made. They were too far to make out any specific details, but it occupied a stretch of the river below the pass roughly 500 metres long.

“Do you see that?” Ludmila stretched her arm over Nona’s head to point in the direction of the clearing.

“No.”

“In the valley coming out below the pass, there is a clearing along the river.”

Nonna leaned forward, and Ludmila shifted her weight to counterbalance the change in posture.

“I still do not see what you are referring to.”

That was strange. Even from their distance, it should be nearly impossible to miss such a large hole in the forest. Perhaps Nonna did not recognize what she was seeing, or perhaps they had camouflaged their work in a way that required classes with scouting abilities to detect from a distance. She issued orders to one of the Bone Vultures escorting them, sending it back to deliver the information to Lluluvien in Warden’s Vale.

“What about the Bone Vultures,” she asked, “do they see it?”

“No,” Nonna said after a moment’s pause.

“Well, keep an eye out,” Ludmila said. “Check with the Bone Vultures once in a while too. Since Undead have Darkvision, I figured you would be able to easily see such an obvious clearing.”

“Darkvision has limited range, though it varies by the type of being that possesses it. If anything, it is your ability that is anomalous – few beings possess natural optical traits that extend beyond one hundred metres.”

Ludmila wondered what Nonna would say if she told her that her Truesight extended as far as she could physically see. She had always assumed that other similar abilities worked the same way…apparently not.

“Would that mean if I attacked a target two hundred metres away in the dark, and they only had Darkvision that allowed them to see up to one hundred metres away, they would practically have no chance of returning the favour at that range?”

“These traits are only a baseline that individuals work off of,” Nonna replied. “Various classes confer additional feats or improvements that work in conjunction with natural sensory abilities. You yourself have conveyed this notion in the study of your own capabilities: your sensory acuity degrades and improves when you lose and gain levels.”

“Yes, you’re right – the application of this idea has just never occurred to me before now. You said ‘natural’ – does that mean that the arbitrary definitions of tier magic apply much like how they do for area effect spells or flight magic?”

“For spells cast directly, it should work as you describe. If a caster, for instance, casts a Darkvision spell on a target, that target should only gain the benefits of Darkvision up to twenty metres. Beyond that, they should see as they normally do.”

“What about magic items?”

“That is a matter still under study, as the enchantments of this region have a degree of flexibility, offering a non-standardized selection of magic items. The rules should still apply to each individual item, however; if a magic item confers Darkvision of 100 metres, then the user will only benefit from 100 metres of Darkvision.”

Didn’t that mean that Elven Rangers would always inherently be better at low-light combat than Human Rangers? For that matter, many races naturally possessed Darkvision and other sensory abilities that Humans did not have. It was no small wonder that humanity only tended to thrive in lands where the sun could drive away the darkness. It was an unexpectedly serious consideration for her future Ranger corps that she had taken for granted; she had believed that supplying them with magic items would balance out their natural shortcomings.

“The Bone Vultures have noted light sources indicating fires in the area ahead,” Nonna reported after several minutes.

“And you?” Ludmila asked.

“Nothing yet,” Nonna answered.

“How does the vision of a Death Knight compare?”

“Both Elder Liches and Death Knights have no advanced skills at detection,” Nonna said, “so, presumably, it should have the base detection radius attributed to its raw level. It is possible that it may be better due to being a superior servitor summoned by His Majesty, but no testing has been conducted for this specifically.”

“I guess we’ll need to find out when we get back,” Ludmila said. “Our defences are sounding more and more porous as we discuss them.”

They continued their flight wordlessly, and Ludmila spotted two additional camps being raised, spaced at roughly five-kilometre intervals from the first. The Demihumans appeared to be moving completely in darkness, betraying no sign of their presence outside of the camps with torches or smoke through the forest canopy.

She ordered Nonna to hover high above the first camp. Below, orderly rows of tents were laid inside, and a sinking feeling developed in the pit of her stomach. Since she could only see their shoulders and the tops of their heads, it was difficult to directly identify what the Demihumans were, but she felt that she already knew.

Looking around the campfires spread throughout the tents, she found several figures lounging around. Within a few minutes, another figure appeared, shouting and shaking its fist. The lounging Demihumans scattered at its approach.

“This is bad,” Ludmila frowned. “Head over to the pass.”

“Were we detected?” Nonna asked.

“They are not acting as if we have been noticed,” Ludmila answered. “But there are Hobgoblins, Goblins and Bugbears down there – it is a Goblin army. If they came from the west, we might be buried in them soon.”

“I fail to understand why this is ‘bad’,” Nonna said. “Reports of local Goblinoid populations indicate them to be a minimal threat.”

“In regular circumstances,” Ludmila said, “the reports would be correct. Goblins are fairly benign as far as Demihumans go…well, they’re generally weak and they know it, so maybe they just act that way when they’re alone or in small tribes to avoid drawing attention to themselves. They usually don’t bother anyone when they’re like that, and they’re not worth chasing around.”

As they ascended the pass and the vegetation grew sparse, the teeming column of Goblinoids was made plain to see. There was no break in the stream going over the pass.

“When they start gaining in number,” she said as they observed the Demihumans passing far below, “they become more…confident? Or perhaps suicidally aggressive is a more apt way to describe it. Numbers like this will have no qualms swarming over the border for whatever reason they get into their heads. The presence of Hobgoblins makes it an order of magnitude worse, as they will train their fellows, turning them into a disciplined and well-organized army with troops that are far more dangerous than the average Goblin. Every time this has happened in the past, we worked together with the Theocracy to clean them out, but that was with smaller armies formed out of the limited number of tribes in the upper reaches. This army is from elsewhere; it’s not unreasonable that we might be dealing with hundreds of thousands of Goblins.”

“How strong will the Goblins in this type of scenario become?”

“It depends how long this army has existed for, and where else it has been. There are nightmarish tales of Goblin armies numbering in the millions, overrunning entire nations. They become stronger as they raid and pillage and improve their equipment, so it rapidly spirals into a threat that nations must band together to exterminate. Fortunately, there has not been any news from the Theocracy or Re-Estize about this Goblin army, so it is likely they have just formed in the wilderness to the west with whatever crude equipment that they have managed to put together for themselves.”

Ludmila fell silent as they approached the top of the pass, trying to estimate the number of Demihumans flowing through. The column coming out of the forest on the western side of the pass seemed endless, and they floated there until the first traces of dawn outlined mountains across the basin. Not wanting to be spotted in the morning light, she ordered Nonna to take them back to Warden’s Vale. On the way, they found that five more Demihuman camps were being raised.

She wasn’t sure whether the fact that they were taking the time to establish bases was a good or bad sign. It would give her time to organize her defence, should they decide to move north. At the same time, however, they would most likely be adding the local Demihumans to their number as they encountered the numerous tribes living in the basin. There was also the possibility that they would move south, as well…perhaps she should send word to the Theocracy, in the unlikely case that they did not know what was happening along their northern border.

When they were far away from the growing number of camps, Nonna broke the silence.

“Will you be informing the administration of the developments here?” She asked.

“Of course,” Ludmila replied. “It will be included in my request for temporary forces to help deal with this potential incursion.”

“You believe reinforcements are necessary?” Nonna’s voice was incredulous, “There are eleven Death Knights currently stationed in your fief.”

“They are stationed to defend their respective village areas,” Ludmila told the Elder Lich. “If I take one from each fortified village, then use the two on standby since logging activities are suspended for the time being, I’ll have five to work with. This is nowhere near enough to conduct an adequate defence of the border – the administration will understand the rationale that accompanies my request.”