Breaking the Rules Pt. 10

The third goblin was ducking, dodging, screeching at the top of its lungs for help.

"Coming your way!" Chibale said, giving it a heavy hit on the arm to knock the goblin's cudgel loose and shoving him to sprawl at Nuru's feet. "Kick him while he's down! Get him! Get him!"

Nuru got a few blows in before the goblin was able to stand up. Though not heavily armored, this gave him a DEX advantage on top of the reach advantage he had since he was taller. The goblin came in full-force and got a fist to the face, one after another. It staggered, lunging ineffectually every which way, and finally toppled over with Nuru's foot hooked behind its ankle as he shoved it, then followed up with kicks to the head and the unprotected spots on its belly. Once Nuru had it on its back and straddled its chest, he punched until the goblin lay still.

"Gods, that is some quality entertainment," Chibale said. "I didn't realize you were a brawler, I'd have been looking forward to this more."

"Not a core part of my build, but I did dump some Proficiency into Unarmed Combat when I respec'd," Nuru said, breathing heavily. "Whew, that'll build up an appetite."

"Regardless, you didn't do major organ damage to the body, so we've got a great candidate for our first combatant, though not a beauty pageant. Let me shove the other two souls in here and we'll carry on."

There was a range limit to the Group Drain, so Chibale had to walk over and collect them, but it only took a minute before the Level Ten goblin Nuru had just beaten to death was standing glassy-eyed in front of him, as a Level Eight.

"Er... no hard feelings, right?" Nuru said to it nervously.

Chibale laughed. "The little shit can't feel much of anything now. Certainly with two other souls tied in, he hasn't got the capacity to do anything I don't tell him to."

"I'm just not used to this. It's not the same goblin, really, but you have to understand that it feels like it is from my perspective," Nuru said. "Just on the, you know, visceral level."

"You get used to it quick once you see it obeying without question. Come, we need a few more."

Each Random Encounter got a little easier with a fresh goblin to assist, then two, then five. The kobold skeletons quickly fell to attrition, but they had served their purpose.

"OK, we've got a little band going. Now we kick it up to the next level," Chibale said.

"And normally you'd have somebody pulling all this together for you, so you could just go kick some ass, right?" Nuru said.

"Yeah, it helps. They give us a bunch of souls and we can choose which host to put them in, give it our own little touch. We might have done just that before the Proclamation, but now we can't be seen to be helping you. By the way, if anyone asks, I'm technically on vacation today, chillin' with my bud, and we don't get issued any souls or boons on our off days."

"I... see."

Nuru was a bit alarmed about the possibility that if anything happened to him, Chibale would get off without any consequences. Those party agreements were there for a reason, and if he was on vacation, he had plausible deniability.

"Also, before I forget, Onyekachi wanted me to tell you that we're prepared to offer you two weeks of my assistance getting you leveled up with full ration of souls, like I just mentioned. Now, shall we go loot a dungeon and leave it a smoldering ruin?"

"Hell yes!" Nuru said.

*****

"OK, here we go. Let me show you something funny before we go in there," Chibale said.

Nuru felt his eyebrows furrow as he watched slightly askance.

"!Yin Bayan Gida A Cikin Mutuwa!"

The group of goblins all dropped their trousers and, as one, emptied their bowels.

"!Fentin Fuska Cikin Mutuwa!"

They all reached down, grabbed a handful of feces, and started smearing each other in the face. Chibale doubled over laughing.

"Oh gods... oh gods I die every time..." Chibale shook and heaved with mirth.

"Uh... what is the point of this, may I ask?" Nuru asked with a nervous half-smile.

"It's... war paint. You know. Make- hahah! Make their opponents think twice about attacking. Because who would rub shit on their face, literally? Gyaaahahahahaha! Initiative advantage, you know."

He continued chortling and giggling as the goblins finished their preparations.

"So you see, there are benefits besides just the perfect party balance. You get a horde of minions that will do anything-literally anything you can tell them to do."

"Fascinating," Nuru said. "I never really thought about that."

"Oh yeah. If there's any goblins left when we're done, we can do this again. I like to let the winners eat their own shit as the prize for surviving a dungeon crawl. It's the funniest damn thing ever, period."

"Well, daylight's burning eh?" Nuru said.

"Yes, yes, right you are. Forward, minions!!Kai Jagoranci Cikin Mutuwa!"

Nuru frowned at the dark note in in Chibale's voice, who hardly seemed to look his direction anymore.

"First, we soften them up!" Chibale announced as they approached the wooden gate in front of the rock face. "Come out, come out, whoever you are. Let's parlay!"

Nothing happened for a long minute.

"Hello! Anyone home?" Chibale called.

He rapped on the gate vigorously, with a muted thump.

"Perhaps I need to knock a bit louder, eh?!Fashewar Asiri!"

He slammed his fist onto the door in time with an Arcane Blast. The gate rumbled on its hinges, but remained solid. Some jabbering voices could be heard inside, some bestial language Nuru had never heard before.

"Come on, I just want to talk. Do you want to talk inside? I'll break this door down if I have to!"

Jeers from inside followed high-pitched snarls that could have been a large family of badgers. Except, as Nuru knew, badgers could not build like this, nor operate complex machinery.

"Alright then! You had your chance.!Biyu Fashewar Asiri!" Chibale struck with both hands at once, pushing himself back with the backblast of his attack, and materialized his hammers.

"!Biyu Fashewar Asiri!"

Rather than strike the door and shoot the arcane blast from the face of the hammerheads, as Nuru expected, Chibale stepped back and hurled both of them overhand and timed the arcane blasts for the moment of release, pushing a great deal more power behind the heavy weapons which impacted with reverberating thuds. Splinters and chunks of wood flew from the door. He walked over, picked them up and did it again. This time, one of the hammers hit handle-first, deflecting it upwards to fly in a high arc and come tumbling to the ground several meters away, but alarmingly close to where Nuru was standing.

"Woops! Gotta mind the spin rate," Chibale chuckled.

He smashed at the door again, beginning to fray the ropes lashing the logs together which made up the gate.

"Alright, now it's your turn," he gestured at the goblins standing around. "!Manufa Makiya Cikin Mutuwa!"

They sprang into action, battering at the damaged wood, breaking one log away and leaving room for one at a time to squeeze inside. Chibale himself muscled his way in, sending a few enemies flying with Arcane Blast as he unlatched the gate and shoved it open.

"Everybody pile in! It's time to play. Come, Nuru, your EXP awaits!"

The revived goblins went toe-to-toe with the enemies inside, then grappled them two-to-one for Nuru to finish off. They were hairy and had big teeth, so he opted for kicks to the torso instead of trying to punch them in the face. This worked moderately well, and soon some of the hairy beasts as well were being revived to join the group.

"What are these things, anyway?" Nuru said.

"Bugbears," Chibale said, smacking one into the cave wall with his hammer, leaving it to be captured by a few goblins as it was stunned.

The resemblance to bear cubs was evident, now that Nuru looked for it. Their snouts were shorter, and their clawed hands better suited to tools and simple hand weapons than bears, but they did have a similar posture and proportions, and seemed equally at ease on two legs or four.

"Ho ho! I think we're nearing a treasure room," Chibale said, noting the increased size of the group barreling down the passageway to attack them. "If we're lucky, we'll get to find out how they got these torches on the wall to stay lit, when the wood has long since burned away."

Nuru looked closer. He hadn't noticed, being rather preoccupied with not being mauled to death by some creature sneaking past the group ahead of him or from behind, but it was true; the torches had burned away like candles, leaving nothing for the flame to cling to, but they burned brightly and illuminated the passageways just as effectively. The sounds of combat washed over him as multiple attackers hit the line of re-goblins and revived bugbears in a snarling, screeching melee; Nuru cast his Musical Trance and Influence Emotions, then beat his drum to a basic march rhythm. The revived combatants were weaker, but marched in perfect formation, and their hits did bonus combo damage when they landed simultaneously, on top of resetting the attack windup that the opponents used which turned the initiative and timing benefits in favor of the invaders. A few goblins didn't make it, but a few highly-buffed bugbears took the lead and cleared the way for most of them. There was no way to hold them still for Nuru to kill all of them, so he had to settle for getting a few supporting blows in on the mortally wounded as they breathed their last. It wasn't great EXP, but it was better than none, and it still beat losing a leg.

They came to a larger chamber protected by another gate. This one, Chibale let a bugbear crawl through a small hole and unlock for him. They pushed their way inside, and found the treasure horde, guarded by a small flying creature which flew up and retreated as the undead surged towards it.

"Aha! An imp!" Chibale said. "This is the answer to our mystery. A lesser fire demon can light a perpetual flame like those in the passageways."

"If we kill it, will the lights go out?"

"Not afraid of the dark, are ya?" Chibale said, clapping him on the shoulder. "Nah. They'll go out eventually when it doesn't go out to recharge them, but they'll last a bit longer after it goes. Just don't stick around for hours and hours.!Motsa Sihir!"

Chibale deflected the flame strike into the cave wall and hurled a hammer at the small creature, making it dive to the side. it burst into flame, lighting a goblin that held it on fire, but not able to shrink away from the claws of the bugbears as they charged fearlessly in. Nuru reflected for a moment that this was the same spell that the succubus Ashanti had used to throw a... fireball? Some infernal thing. But it didn't save her, and she died.

"Gah. Stupid little-!" Chibale cursed as it lit his leg up with a lance of flame unexpectedly. "It got a double cast!"

Nuru got it with a snowball scroll. It shrieked and wailed, flying and bouncing off the walls as if in great agony.

"Good hit!" Chibale crowed. "One more and it'll tire, and I can crush it!"

A couple bugbears snagged and held it down, and Nuru used another snowball to fizzle out the burst of flame it tried to produce from its body. It struggled vainly to free itself, and Nuru planted a foot on its body with all his strength, reared back, and planted his heel again solidly, again and again until it lay still.

"...or you can have it, almost forgot why we were here," Chibale grinned. "Let's look at our loot, shall we?"

They opened a few chests in the room that the imp had been guarding. It was a random assortment of various armors and weapons, nothing of particularly high value but useful to the right person nonetheless.

"A decent haul, for someone at your level. Frankly I can't be bothered to haul it all back and sell it off. I'll let you pick through and find what you want. Come join me outside when you're ready; there's something I saw back there."

Nuru looked for the choicest bits, handing others to the three goblins that had survived, who just took them and mindlessly clutched whatever they'd been given. He went back outside to find Chibale dropping a body to the ground outside the gate.

"Look at this one. Nice breeding hips. Shame she didn't make it," Chibale said.

"Huh. Just another lone adventurer?" Nuru said.

"Probably got separated from her party and dragged back here for the loot, or maybe food. Not that people are great eating, but bugbears will eat just about anything. Listen, I have to- uh, take care of this. If her soul's still in the body, I need to prepare her for her final journey. You go ahead and head back to town. I'll get the group to go back with you until they reach city limits, and protect you if you get hurt."

"Can they drop all the extra loot too?"

"Yeah sure, why not." He gestured, and the goblins all went back inside and then came out loaded up with whatever had been lying around.

"They're a bit unimaginative after death, so their inventories aren't the most efficiently loaded up, but they'll drop everything they've got at city limits and then come back for me. Not that I need them again, but I can use those souls. Pretty much anything bipedal can reanimate another bipedal of about the same size, so I'll have that for later. Go on, I need privacy for this. Gotta do last requests and messages to the family. The Rules, you know."

"Yeah... ok. See you tomorrow, I guess," Nuru said.

"Right."

Chibale was looking down at the woman, no longer paying attention to Nuru.

"Now then, you poor girl. Let's see if we can't ease your pain a little."

Nuru didn't think they felt pain after death, but he turned and walked away. On the spur of the moment instinct, he called Tusa as he walked away. He stopped once he was fairly sure he was out of earshot.

"Wait, Tusa, stop!" Nuru hissed when he saw him moving to attack the undead bugbears aroud him. "They're with me. Basically. Can you do me a favor? Go back there and check out what that guy is doing, by the cave. Don't let him see you. I'm going to head back to Quartz Port - catch up to me when he finishes and let me know what he does."

Tusa growled.

The trip back was more eventful inside of Nuru's head, than outside of it, until Tusa found him standing by the pile of armor. Nuru tugged at Sanaa.

"!Fassada Girma! Well, what did you learn?"

[He lies with the dead, as if to claim her as a mate.]

"I don't suppose he was gentle about it."

[I know not what gentle might be for humans. I have not observed any of you before, nor do I have any interest to do so again.]

"Was it... noisy?"

[He did seem rather engaged.]

"Could you tell if she was into it at all?"

[Her tongue was not capable of speech. I could hear only him, and his manner was more as a predator takes with a prey than a benefit shared equally.]

"Thank you. That is all for today."

(He took advantage of her. Could I have persuaded him otherwise?)

/Perhaps. But if not her, then it would have been another, perhaps one not already dead. The body has needs, Nuru. Once denied does not mean forever ignored./

(I was afraid of that.)

Nuru made a couple trips to the Quartz Port armorer; he took all the armor at decent prices.

"Generous of you," Nuru said.

"Sailors lose a lot of stuff overboard, and need a cheap-ish replacement. I appreciate you getting me some stock. Saves me having to have some sent over from elsewhere, and I'm splitting the profit with you."

"I'll keep that in mind going forward."

*****

"...so then he says, 'shall we go loot a dungeon and leave it a smoldering ruin?' I said yes, as much to see some mayhem as to shut him up," Nuru said.

"I'm so sorry you got caught up in that mess," Dayo said, giving him a hug.

"We were just talking about how this is really the best solution, even if none of us like it," Furaha said with a solemn look.

"And that wasn't even the worst part," Nuru said. "I'm pretty sure after I left... hell, I don't even want to tell you."

"Come on Nuru, you can't just leave me hanging there," Dayo said. "Open communication and everything, right?"

"Yeah, but... Furaha, you might want to step out for a minute."

Furaha's eyes shifted as she struggled with something internally.

"...no. I'll stay," she said, voice shaking.

"OK... so, Dayo. You talked once about making a meat puppet, out of a dead body. I know you were joking, but-"

Dayo covered their mouth with their hand, and nodded.

"That's not quite what he did, but it was kind of close. There was a body. An adventurer. A woman. I didn't see it myself, but I had Tusa look and listen a bit closer for me. He said that..."

He paused before continuing, giving himself a moment to brace for the next part, as much as anyone else.

"Chibale... didn't revive her, exactly. From what Tusa said, it sounded like he just gave her enough soul, or whatever, to get the blood flowing again. To get the body warmed back up. And then he..."

Nuru stopped.

"Well, get it over with," a pale-faced Furaha said. "Tell us what he did, so my imagination quits trying to fill in the blanks."

"Tusa thinks he forced himself on her. Soul trapped in her body, fully conscious, she couldn't move, couldn't say a word, but had to experience... whatever whims he had. And Sanaa thought she was just the unlucky one, and he would have found someone else to sate himself on."

"So it's true," Dayo said gravely. "I grant last requests, within reason. I don't do anything not specifically requested."

"I don't... I don't know what to do now," Nuru said.

"Well you for damn sure can't refuse to see him again, just yet," Furaha said, voice cracking.

"What!? Why not?" Nuru demanded.

"Then he'll know you found out, and object," Dayo said. "If he thinks you're opposed, I don't want to think what he's going to do. If he kills you, and makes you a revived bard... he'd have a huge amount of leverage over you."

"He wouldn't just make you a thrall, though, he needs you for something else," Furaha said. "Mixing souls loses the individual skills and spells you might have. You'd be just another Level Eleven body to him then - and one without a lot of armor or STR to use for combat. Actually, you'd probably be Level Nine after the revive penalty. Not much good to him."

Dayo nodded. "That's the good news, though. You'll still be you, for sure. But I'd hate for you to get caught in that position. You'd be all but forced to join us, to maintain your new life. And I'm not sure we could remain friends."

"Well... alright. I guess I'm going back then. I told him he'd meet Tusa tomorrow. Hopefully that goes OK."

"Stay strong, Nuru. I'm out there taking risks right along with you, even if I'm not there in the party," Dayo said.

"Oh. That's the other thing. I can't party with any faction unless there's equal representation from another faction. No more, no less - and no official quests either."

"Just got the word myself. Really tightening the screws now, aren't they?" Furaha said.

"And hard." Nuru described the way he'd had to go to hands and knees to reach the altar, although he didn't mention the conversation he'd had with the ghost directly. He knew better than to risk crossing some boundary. He'd already made an oath with another ghost, and it might still apply on some technicality.

"Want some company tonight?" Furaha said, looking at him with empathetic eyes.

The comforting kind, not the sexy kind, she meant. He still said, "Yes."