Ralph and Deacon crept closer and closer to the cliff’s edge of the valley. Below they could see fire pits burning and scores of goblins milling around what looked like a war camp. There were centralized tents with sleeping troops spiraling out from them. In one of the outer layers of the camp was a cage on wheel tied to a pair of large goats. Within the cage were five or so humanoid shapes. Ralph pointed it out conveying his concern to Deacon as it looked like several different groups of goblins were peppered around it. That’s when a larger form stepped out from one of the tents and stretched. It was at least six-foot-five, had one long tusk jutting from its lower jaw, and a right arm that was longer while also being heavily muscled.

“Use inspect on that one,” Ralph whispered to Deacon, who swiftly triggered his party skill.

Goran the Butcher- Goran is an Orc elite that got its title slaughtering goblins and orcs alike through its campaign of carnage before being brought to heel by the Dwarves who worship the deposed god of war Hipag. Level 22/ Vat Orc.

“What is a Vat Orc?” Deacon asked Ralph who just shrugged in response.

“This isn’t good. The description mentioned Dwarves and not Deep Dwellers. That thing has been in contact with the forces that drove Typhus’s people out of the dark roads. We have to tell him as soon as possible,” said Ralph slowly inching backwards before Deacon grabbed his arm. Several goblin flyers sprang into the air and started heading southwest toward the town flying in an erratic pattern.

“We have to do something to stall them and retrieve those people. Look there,” Deacon said pointing to where the valley emptied out onto the road. He then pointed to the high cliff walls that ran along both sides of the opening.

“Tight quarters to squeeze all those troops through,” commented Ralph as he rubbed his chin between his thumb and forefinger in contemplation.

“We should go back to the others. I have a terrible idea,” said Deacon as he began slowly inching away from the cliff wall.

A few minutes later Deacon was going through his plan. He found a stick somewhere and began drawing what they saw in the dirt using Polterheist. For some reason he drew better with it rather than using his hands. They all huddled around Tantus’s glowing stone. There was enough light to see without giving away their position to any flying goblins scouting the area. Deacon drew the walls that emptied out to wide plains and rolling hills.

“This is where we’ll have to delay them. But we need to get that prisoner transport away from them. I’ll distract them while Amanda sneaks past the troops and drives the cage out of the valley. That’s where she meets up with Ralph and Tantus. Tantus casts his wind speed spell on the goats and you three ride like hell back to the village to warn them. This war camp is too close to be going anywhere else. When we left it looked like they were getting ready to move so it’s now or never,” Deacon explained as he kept moving small stones around the drawing.

“I have several problems with this plan. The first being how are you going to distract them? Second, what’s to stop them from just running after the wagon and over taking us on open ground? Third, what if something goes wrong and we can’t get the wagon out of there?” Ralph listed.

“Amanda, do you think you can sneak past them?” Deacon asked knowing full well what she’d say.

“Of course. They’re just goblins,” Amanda replied.

“Tantus, with you on the wagon you can keep those beasts moving at a much faster pace than normal right?” Deacon asked looking over to the mage.

“Yes, yes. The spell should work as well on beasts as it does on me. But what condition are the beasts in? What’ll we do if they just drop dead or won’t obey Amanda? Also, to Ralph’s point, what is preventing them from just coming after us? And why just the three of us?” Tantus replied.

“Me. I’m going to build a wall. It’ll be a beautiful wall. While we’ve been out here hiking, I’ve been collecting materials to make cement for mortar. I think I can build a war that will leave just enough space in the pass for the wagon to come through. I will have to stay behind to make sure no one comes through the opening. But I have an ability that should keep goblins at bay. At least long enough for you all to get back to town and warn them,” Deacon explained moving several of the small stones in the passage between the rock walls leaving just as liver of space.

“You were right, this is a terrible idea,” Ralph scoffed.

“I seem to remember you mentioning some bizarre Vat Orc. What do you plan to do about that Mr. wall?” asked Amanda.

“I’ll fight it if it gets through my defenses. Remember we are just buying time. Who here thinks I can’t outrun some goblins before they collapse from exhaustion? I’m willing to bet they can’t even hurt me. So while I’m frustrating the hell out of them, you all get the prisoners to safety. I’ll probably be no more than five minutes behind you,” Deacon said doing his best to exude as much confidence as possible. In truth he didn’t know if this was going to work but he couldn’t think of a better way to get the hostages out of there.

“What kind of distraction will you use?” asked Tantus.

“It should be pretty obvious. When it happens, that’ll be your cue to go Amanda. The rest of us will be at the mouth of the pass finishing the wall,” said Deacon.

With that they headed out. Amanda went ahead of everyone complaining they make too much noise and would alert any sentries they came across. Her point was proven when they finally made it to the mouth of the pass and to see five dead goblins on the ground with Amanda leaning against the wall picking her fingernails with a dagger.

“What? They’re just goblins,” she shrugged.

Deacon’s bag flipped open, and tools and materials began flying out. He switched his title to Haunted Craftsman and began moving any stone less than eleven and a half pounds in the area. Tantus was amazed watching both sides of passage swirling with stones and whatever Deacon was mixing in front of him. Water was pouring from a small cask floating next to Deacon as more porous rocks were smashed by his hands and added to the mixture. Finally it became some kind of gray paste ball floating just in front of him. Sand started pouring from his bag coating the mixture. All while the other rocks were being stacked in neat rows on top of each other after passing through the mortar ball in front of Deacon. It was messy and looked like he was getting as much on the front of his clothes as on the building materials. Deacon began to concentrate slowing the process as the first foot of wall began to appear.

“This is amazing. An earth mage could do this quicker but they way you are using your ability is really amazing. Wait, are you mixing in the mystical sand from the Wode into mortar? Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Tantus asked while complex Arcanum theories spun in his head.

“It’s all I have. Now if you don’t mind, I’m trying to think of the next step before I set this to automatically finish itself. Amanda please proceed, the distraction will start as soon as I finish this,” Deacon said with his face scrunched up in concentration. Fortunately, she had left before he began speaking with Tantus. Ralph just paced back in forth.

Goran loped back to his tent. He inspected the troops and was satisfied with the state of the camp. Tomorrow morning they would raid the next town and hopefully find this soul eater the goblins won’t shut up about. He was less than enthusiastic about this campaign. There hasn’t been a single worthy battle yet. It seems the surface dweller have become lax in the last several decades. He remembered hearing stories about great battles with elites of higher levels scarring the very land itself. Sleep is probably all that’s left for him tonight.

It wasn’t fifteen minutes after he lay down and shut his eyes that a tremendous racket could be heard from outside his tent. Goran asked himself what those fool goblins were doing now. He stood up releasing a bone jarring roar. As he opened the tent flap, he was slapped in the face with what looked like the backside of a goblin. The flesh slowly slid off his face. He wiped away the blood and feces to see pandemonium had broken out in the camp. There was a rather large beast with two bulbous tails and spikes running down its back rampaging through the camp crushing goblins with every swipe of its tails. Goran ducked back into his tent to grab his weapon. It was the femur bone of a horse sized creature with a bladed end attached. He called it his cleaver. Ducking back outside he started toward wild beast before he heard a bleating coming from behind him and to the left. The damn meat wagon was racing out of the valley unimpeded by any goblins since they were all circling the creature stomping around.

“Go after the meat!” he bellowed at all the gawking goblins.

“But what about the monster—” said one goblin before getting skewered by Goran’s cleaver. That made the rest of fifty or so goblins on this side of the camp drop what they were doing and chase after the wagon. Then, against all reason, the spiky two tailed beast inserted itself between the goblins and the ever shrinking wagon.

“Stupid beast. Stand aside!” Goran hollered as the goblins cleared a path for him to get to the beast. The monster swung both tails at Goran, but he just lopped both of the thick boned ends off. They thudded to the ground. Enraged, it charged at Goran looking to run him through with the spikes on its head. The large Orc side stepped and jammed his cleaver into the monsters side effectively unzipping its skin. There was a fountain of blood followed by all of its insides. Goran kept stepping in the same direction toward the back of the fleeing wagon.

“Where are the flyers? Bring it back!” he screamed.

As Amanda reached the incline out of the camp, she was clear of all the forces that could have attempted to stop her. All that was left was to get through Deacon’s makeshift barricade. The downside was the goats were visibly getting tired. She had been pushing them from the first sighting of the Gilgerith. In fact that’s what started them moving in the first place.

“Please help us. We just want to go home,” said one of the prisoners.

“They ate Paul. Just chopped him up and ate him right in front of us. Give me a blade. I want to kill as many as possible before we get out of here. To the ten hells with these monsters!” cried another prisoner.

“Keep quiet, we aren’t safe yet,” replied Amanda as their momentum began to slow. She could see the wall now. It looked like Deacon was coating the back side with that greenish-blue ice he used from time to time. That’s when one of the goats collapsed completely halting their momentum. Ralph appeared suddenly and he used his Hallowed Blade move to slice the chain, keeping the cage door shut after telling the prisoners to get back.

“Ralph, we don’t have time to get them out of there and run. We need the goats to make this work. Where is Tantus?” Amanda asked as she dropped down out of the driver’s seat. No sooner did she ask than Tantus jogged around from the other side of the rock wall. It was almost ten-feet top to bottom now.

“Deacon was having some trouble with the weight distribution but then the wall just shored itself up. It was the dandiest thing I’ve ever seen. Oh that’s not good. We need to get all this past the wall. What’s wrong with this goat?” Tantus asked before he started casting a healing spell. Ralph just chuckled.

“What are you laughing about?” Amanda asked.

“He threatened to not use his healing spell on me first next time. Didn’t think it be because of a goat though,” commented Ralph as he turned to look down the decline. Several groups of goblins were huffing and puffing their way up the hill.

“Tantus, how does the goat look?” Amanda asked, growing concern in her voice as the prisoners begged to be let out.

“Oh I think this one will be fine in a minute or so. How close are they?” questioned Tantus as Ralph began laying into the first group of goblins that reached them.

“Great, you five stay in the cage. Tantus climb up and give the goats the good stuff. Ralph, get your ass back here,” ordered Amanda.

“What about the goblins?” asked Ralph as Deacon strode passed Tantus climbing onto the wagon.

“I’ve got this. Tantus, remember. Tell Alfred I said to activate order sixty-nine,” Deacon said as he triggered Ghastly Defender. The boundary of his aura was clear to him as he paid the sustained soul energy cost of twenty percent.

“I’m not sure order sixty-nine is ready yet. It was just theoretical,” Tantus said looking back at Deacon.

“It’s going to be okay, Tantus. I trust you to get it right,” said Deacon as the first of the goblins reached his aura boundary and was scared shitless by the apparition guarding Deacon.