Champion of the Goddess Pt. 03

She snuggled in, "You have rocked our worlds, all of us. Any woman that you regret not spending more time with?"

He smiled, "Lirana the barbarian, I fucked her twice but she was grouped with others. She took care of her charges while I had mine. She is out of reach, or I am out of reach. It would have been nice. It might happen in the distant future. However, I would never get in the way of her with the brothers or Flar."

She smiled and nodded, "Yes. She would probably be happy and aggravated by that fact."

He smiled and went to sleep. He had no idea how much time had passed. He felt the ground tremble and an explosion as they were all knocked from their beds. He got up and got dressed. As did the others. They were armed.

He popped open the door, "Raven scout area. The raven flew out and Mary went to check on the horses setting off Vain's alarm spell. He took up defensive positions. He headed out to the corner of the building. "Fire behind the camp." He had his bow at the ready and headed out and most of the fire was out. He threw dirt on some trees to stop the fire on them. He saw a skid mark in the ground and the shattered line of trees.

He followed the skid mark using his sword for light. He found what he thought he would, "Meteorite. Or in this world, Skymetal."

He could feel the heat coming off of it. He hit it with every cold spell he had until it was safe to handle. He picked it up and knew exactly what it was. While it looked like 6 pounds it was closer to 20 or more pounds. He carried it out and back to the shelter.

He looked at Rhonda, "Portable hole!" She laid it out and he handed it to her, "Put it into a corner wrapped in pseudo-nightmare hides. Then close it up. How late is it?"

She looked at Raven, "We have another 4 or 5 hours to go." He shook his head, "Someone will come looking for that."

Mary looked at Raven, "What exactly is it?"

He looked at her, "A sky metal known as horacalcum. It warps your perception of time; it is rarer than adamantium and way harder to come by. That chunk is 20 pounds at least. You normally find a pound here or there. That is a 50,000-60,000+ gold piece rock."

They looked at him wide-eyed.

He looked at them, "That can attract a lot of the wrong kind of attention. I suggest we pack up and get out of here. I know we are down spells. We can use arcane focus to create them. Staying here is too dangerous."

Blossom looked at him, "They would not be sending anyone just yet."

He looked at her, "What about creatures with tremor sense? It just woke up everything for miles."

She sighed, "You are sure about this?"

He looked at her, "I know this is a bad place to be."

She sighed and nodded. They packed up and got everything out of the shelters and dismissed them. "Raven scout road."

They traveled for an hour. He saw an alcove on the other side of the road He headed toward it. It had a cave big enough for them and the horses. He looked at them, "Put the horses in the back part of the cave for the moment. He looked at Blossom, "This place is far enough away, defensible, and we can put up 3 shelters inside of this and they should blend in with the surrounding stone."

She looked at Raven, "Camouflaged!"

He nodded, "I need Jewels to go and remove our trail from coming into here. Mary and the rogue can help her."

They headed outside and cleared away the trail to the alcove. He lined out the area, "The trick is to leave enough space for air to get into the cave." She nodded and he cast his spell. He got up on top and pulled Blossom up.

She looked it over, "Nice accuracy. Vain and Orchid put 2 up for the horses. She looked at Raven, "Why are we in the front one?"

He looked at her, "So we will hear if anyone comes knocking. No fire, use your bedrolls." They nodded. They crashed out and got 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep and he continued his rest with Rhonda alone in his bed. He studied up as did the others and he looked, "Raven scout road." The raven went out and flew away.

He sighed, "So far so good."

The bird sent him a telepathic message, "12 men on horses."

He thought back, "Fly out and into the trees up above the alcove."

He looked through his eyes. "Just a reminder while I am doing this I cannot see or hear you. The road has a dozen, looks like a military patrol. All in full plate. They are parked in a semicircle. No weapons or bows are drawn. Get the horses ready.

Leave the building up just in case. He watched them and they were being patient. One of them rode forward, "You in the cave. Surrender yourself for inspection."

He sent a message through the bird, "Inspection for what?"

He backed off. The rider yelled up, "For whatever we feel like!"

He kept the raven hidden, "Under whose authority?"

He yelled back, "Come out now!"

He sent the message again, "Under whose Authority or are you just some pussy mercenary company?"

He looked back at someone. They rode forward, "I am Duke Elderrock. It is under my authority."

He called over, "Throw in your papers for review by my scholar."

He rode away. Raven squawk back, "If you are a Duke you have papers to that effect. If you do not then you have no authority. We are contacting the Elven Queen now to get directions from her."

The one guy rode back with the others. The illusion faded. He sighed, "There is no longer a military patrol all in full plate. There are three casters. One cleric if I had to guess with Three more in full plate and the rest in chain and leather. All have weapons at the ready."

He signaled, "Stay hidden."

He broke contact and looked at Rhonda and winked, "Go back in the shelter and advise the Ambassador. They have 3 casters, a cleric, 3 in full plate, and 5 in leather or chain. She might want to contact the elven Queen to contact the local embassy. We have enough food stores for 3 months if needed."

She nodded, "I think she will be pissed. She hated traveling like this, to begin with."

She went into the building and he connected to his bird. Everyone walked inside while he looked through the eyes and spoke, "They are arguing about what to do. They have something in here monitoring us. They know how many of us there are."

He disconnected and walked out and he spotted it. He pulled back and fired. Hitting it square. He heard one of the casters scream. His familiar was dead.

He moved back up front and connected. "The one caster is fuming and the guy in the middle smacked him across the face. The caster backed away and hit the main guy with a scorching ray, Three rays on his scorching ray. There is a fight going. The leader went after the guy. The caster rode off and the guy stopped. He got hit by magic missiles. The guy ordered his men after the caster.

He disconnected, "Mount up. He just sent his men after the caster that was pissed at losing his familiar. I saw a fireball go off on them. I shot the familiar."

He checked again and fireballs were still going off at least two of them were down.

He broke it again, He looked at them, "Spells blazing."

They nodded, He dropped the shelter. He used his arcane focus and cast pyro technique eruption on the leader, Him and his group got hit by 2 fireballs from the other arcane casters. The leader moved off and the eruption continued under his horse.

They rode out and Raven nailed one guy who poked his head out with a magic missile as Raven got hit by an arrow in the leg. They got to the road and there were 7 left including the leader.

They were 200 feet away and 2 fireballs went flying down and he cast a scorching ray on the leader. He followed it up with another fireball of his own as they came charging at them. He hit the one upfront with frigid ray and dropped him.

The other guys stopped and turned into the woods. The cleric worked frantically to keep the leader alive. Raven drew back his bow and found his heart. He put one into the middle of the cleric who clutched at his chest and moved away. The leader's horse fell over dead and had him pinned. He lined up a shot and put it right through his helmet eye hole. The rest of his men took off. He took aim one more time.

He shot the fleeing cleric square in the back and he fell off his horse dead. He thought, "Raven, find the man in the woods to my right."

The raven headed off and parked on a branch 30 feet from him, "Your only chance to live is to come out now." He did not move. "Blossom go ahead and use that wand of monster summoning and put an ogre over by that tree. This should be fun to watch!"

The man in the chain came out with his hands raised, "I surrender."

Raven looked at him, "Who in the fuck are you!?"

He looked at Raven, "Goro, That was the Black Arm Gang. You managed to fracture it and kill the leader. All over a fucking bat."

He called his Raven to him, "I am Raven, perhaps you heard of me."

He looked at Raven and nodded, "Champion to the Goddess. Fuck did he pick a bad target."

Mary chuckled, "You think?"

Raven looked at him, "Middle of the road! Strip naked. Blossom, I would recommend that Mary and the rouge start checking the woods. I will put my Raven on camp watch and then rope and pull bodies back up here. Goro, while you are at it, is there a bounty on this gang?"

Blossom looked over, "Mary and Jewels with Sticks."

The prisoner nodded, "The leader, dead or alive 15,000 gold pieces. They want his head and armor as proof."

He nodded, "We have gotten really good at carving things up."

Blossom nodded, "Do it! He said strip. I lead this group. That means all of it. I can fry your ass with the flick of the wrist."

Raven rode down and tied off bodies and drug them back up. He detected magic and saw a couple of wands, a staff, two swords, and a bow that had all been dropped. One of the swords was heavy in magic.

As was the staff. He sighed, "Jewels! I need you over here."

Raven rode back up to the prisoner, "What does that highly magical sword do?"

Goro looked at Raven, "Which one?"

Raven looked at him, "The one you will be standing over as I run you through if you give me any more evasive answers."

Goro sighed, "A ranger had that sword. I do not know what all it did but it spent a lot of time talking to him. Loudly."

Raven looked at him, "The staff."

Goro half-heartedly chuckled, "Staff of fire! He was fucking using it on us over that damned bat."

He looked at Blossom, "I do not do staves, and Jewels should see about that sword. If it rejects her then I will try. Jewels came out of the woods with a Bastard sword in hand, "Beautiful weapon here. Right up my ally."

He looked at her. "Intelligent longsword down the road belonged to the ranger in the group."

She shook her head, "You go for it."

He sighed, "Just what I need is a fucking vocal longsword. Did not have enough of that in my first life."

He rode down and picked up the sword and it tried and failed miserably to exert control, "I know you can speak. What is your name? Also abilities?"

It stayed quiet, "Very well I can use a gaseous form and drop you inside the hollow of a tree for all time."

The sword signed loudly, "My name is Randerous. I am an undead bane weapon. I have acid burst and can cast mirror image three times a day for seven rounds each day."

He looked at, "Why did you refuse to answer me?"

It sighed, "I prefer wielders I can dominate."

He asked, "How powerful is your attack?"

It sighed, "Close to maximum."

Raven asked, "Special purpose?"

It grumbled, "Killing magic users."

Raven smiled, "So being wielded by one is a shot in the gut to your pride?"

It sighed again, "Yes, I guess it is."

Raven looked at the sword, "I hate undead and I kill a lot of magic users. Just not myself. What is your disposition? I will check all of this with identity later."

It sighed again, "I do not care about good or evil law or chaos."

He grabbed the other sword and the bow and carried it all back. After checking the ground one more time. He got up and found the sheath for the talking blade and put it away. He looked at Jewels, "Neutral, depressed because it could not dominate me and it has a special purpose to kill magic users. It is also an undead bane."

Blossom looked at him, "That is good because the new quest deals with something undead."

He looked at her, "Did she tell you I would not be going with you on that quest?"

She looked shocked, "NO!"

He heard, "What are you doing?"

He thought, "Killing this now. Consulting you as much as you consult me. I was told to get through this life. I was told I would have control over the players I ran with and the quest I undertook. If she is forming a new party in the next inn then I will have to sit around and figure out what quest interests me.

No assigning quests in the middle of the night on the road to my companions. Give it to Vain. No trying to force me down a given road. I have cleaned up enough messes in this life for you, let me finish this one. You pushed 4 messes at me this life already. We are not even level 10."

He heard, "What 4 messes?"

He thought, "The player bandits, the explosives, the homosexual necrophiliac, the barbarian who killed her own party, having to start all over at level 5 after destroying your mine quest and even combating the weather. Then let us not forget the Paladin and his clowns which we happened to save the 2 who knew enough to run. Yes, that is more than 4. I figured you could choose your favorites."

She sighed, "I will withdraw the quest from her."

He looked at Bella, "This group is not being divided from what we started with. Vain and the rouge are topics of debate once we make it there. IF we make it there. Unless you have an overwhelming sense that someone else would provide you better guidance.

Yes, I just had a nice long talk with the Goddess. To my early travel companions. If you get any more requests for quests, be sure to ask her if this is going to piss me off. You cannot be compelled to do a given quest."

He thought back, "Especially if they are a companion. I will challenge her on free will and she damn well knows it. I did the whole undead thing last life. If she wants to send me back to that then she should begin with that at level one or at the last inn."

Jewels and Bella looked at him, "I thought it would be strange to break off. I just thought it had to do with us going to exclusive."

He shook his head, "Probably what she would have implied. It is still an option for the 2 of you if you choose."

She nodded, "I figured as much now. Did you check over the leader and his group?"

Blossom nodded, "We got it all. I threw his whole body in his highly magical full plate armor. Rose wants it. We took their bags of holding away of course."

He looked at her as she held up two wands, "A wand of the lightning bolt and one of acid arrow."

He smiled, "I would like the lightning. I have plenty of arrows."

The ladies chuckled. He installed it into his bow and they looked at him and He smiled, "Magus spell weapon wand. It just means I have it in hand and it will go off from my bow like I was waving it around. That spell is enchanted into the bow."

The other two nodded. He handed the acid one to Blossom who gave it to Orchid. Blossom kept the staff, "Down to one charge."

He nodded, "You can put a charge in a day it will cost you a tier 4 spell. First thing in the morning.

He took the staff and added a charge to it and handed it back to her. "Now it has 2."

She smiled. "Thanks."

He looked at Goro, "You have all these beautiful women here staring at your naked form and you are not even hard. I will leave you here with a non-magical dagger and clothes if you jerk off in front of the ladies. To completion. Else you will find an item every mile hanging from a tree.

Depending on my mood as to how high in the tree I shoot each item. I will leave you the dagger just naked. Your choice I am going to make sure we left nothing behind in the cave."

The ladies formed a line. He went in and came back out and looked through his Raven's eyes and the guy pulling away with 3 fingers. It took him 20 minutes to get hard after he closed his eyes.

Five minutes later he pops off 2 shots and a weak third. He went limp and was dripping. He rode up, "Did he do it?"

Mary chuckled, "If you can call it that. He managed to get it hard enough to shoot a couple of weak spurts."

He looked at Blossom, "Up to you to decide what to do."

She looked at him. "Give him his shoes and pants. With a dagger. You will find your shirt two miles up the road. Look at the trees on the left side. We have what we need. Get those bodies out of the road while you wait for us to get out of sight. You can always steal one of their smelly, bloody, and burnt shirts. We see you and I will fry your ass."

He nodded.

They rode off, "Raven scout road."

He looked at Blossom, "Did he tell you what they wanted?"

She nodded, "The sky metal. They saw it hit. They saw us pull out of the area but they were too far so they decided to wait until we made camp. We just made it extremely difficult for them. Good call on that cave and the way you did it."

Raven sighed, "I am just glad you listened to me that time."

She chuckled.

Myssara sighed, "Alright. I get it, my love."

He looked at the ladies, "When we get to town just call me lover. No Raven."

They smiled. Mary gave a devious smile, "I think I will call you my man meat."

The ladies laughed and he laughed out, "Guess that makes you one of my halfling fuck toys then."

The ladies laughed and she waved her hands in surrender. She looked at him, "You win lover."

The ladies laughed at her. She just smiled because she knew it was just teasing. He reached down and she held his hand as they rode. Stopping every four hours to change horses. They stopped to make camp and he cast up a shelter. He looked at Vain, "Did you use your arcane focus?"

She shook her head and cast up a second one. She smiled, "Thank you for reminding me about the arcane focus."

Orchid, cast up a third.

He nodded, "I used one as well." He sat down and ate. He heard in his head, "You reached level nine."

He thought "I figured. The second level of prestige classes. Spells Trial of fire and acid, dispel magic, fire shield, and detonate."

She thought back, "Interesting approach to that last encounter. Nice way to divide them up."

He thought, "Did not know the wizard would go psycho and launch an attack against his own party. We got them to expend a lot of resources. Also, distract them so we could emerge. I was just shutting down their ability to spy on us. You had that wizard programmed to go ballistic if he lost his familiar because of the group leader ordering him to use it?"

She laughed, "That was his best friend and he did not like putting him in danger. Yes, he was ordered to spy on you. After the leader smacked him, he attacked the leader. Then the others when they listened to the leader. He unloaded everything he had. He killed off the other two wizards for you. These shelters have presented a problem for night time attacks."

He sighed, "They can be attacked. It just gives us time to prepare. They do not know which shelter to hit.

You make it overly difficult on us and I return the favor. Besides I am trying to draw out our path before you have to teleport us."

She changed subjects, "You still mad at me?"

He sighed and thought, "More disappointed in you, I never hated you. I was very frustrated and angry at the situation Mother put you in. You do not have the same free will with her that I do. Do you think I finally got through to Ravanna? Whose idea to give Blossom a quest in the middle of all of this?"