Chereads / Covenant System / Chapter 10 - Chapter 10, The quest to Drowmere

Chapter 10 - Chapter 10, The quest to Drowmere

On the second day of their travels, the group began to see signs of goblins passing through and dragging something. They followed the drag marks. It did not take long to find where the goblins had gone. The group could see a large goblin camp nearby. The goblins were preparing to roast some creatures Senani could not see well enough to identify. Senani could not make out the exact number, however he could tell there were hundreds of goblins, he also some many worgs and a few dire wolves. As Boolah still had not emerged, Senani figured he would have to kill all the goblins in the camp. Senani teleported the wolves and all the undead goblins and had them surround the camp. He then asked Bear if she could sense an alpha dire wolf nearby. He would love to add the living dire wolves to Bears entourage. Bear said she did not sense an alpha, though she may be able to convince them when the battle began.

Now that his army had been placed, Senani had them move within range of the goblin camp. He then began walking in with the crew he came with. No goblins attempted to attack them. When Senani arrived at the camp, a goblin spoke. "What want? You overlord? You not goblin. Why you come?"

Senani then realized that as a Goblin Overlord, he would be able to potentially recruit this tribe himself. He did not have to depend entirely on Boolah. He ordered his army to move to 6 feet from the goblin camp with weapons drawn and teeth bared. He then spoke, "I am Overlord Senani of House Sloth. Your leader will come out now. Your tribe will join me in life by choice, or in death by force. It makes no difference to me."

A fat green goblin wobbled out of one of the tents in the camp. By the tattered silk clothing he wore Senani knew this must be the leader. The goblin spoke, "Hail, Senani of House Sloth. I am Rattrap. This is my tribe. I am far more intelligent than most of my species and I have no intentions of fighting you. However, if I join you, my current overlord will have me killed. Whatever is a goblin to do?"

Senani responded, "Join House Sloth willingly and I can assure you, you will not die. My living goblins are not joining in this battle. They rest in my home with the Underboss. We will soon conquer Drowmere. All the goblins, living and dead in my service will live there and prosper. I will begin trade with all the races of the world. Choose quickly. You are running out of time."

Rattrap considered this briefly and responded, "It would seem I have no choice then. We will join you. I swear fealty to the Overlord Senani. Senani informed Fred, and teleported all the goblins, including his undead to the land grant. The goblin tribe joined House Sloth. Bear then spoke to the Dire wolves and worgs. "I am Bear; I lead all wolves in House Sloth. You have disgraced yourselves serving goblins. Gain back your dignity and me, a true alpha. In House Sloth you will bow to no one and all will learn to fear your howl." As they had lacked an alpha for years, all 20 dire wolves and 40 worgs were happy to join Bear. Senani then sent Bear and her group back to the land grant. Senani then began exploring the camp. Of particular interest to him was what the goblins had intended to cook.

Senani made his way to the campfire. He had Kaz and the others move the bodies so they could be examined. Once the pile was separated, Senani realized the creatures the goblins were going to cook were dwarves, dwarves looked mostly like humans, they were however slightly shorter and much wider. They were extremely strong. There were 8 of them in total. Unfortunately, they were all very dead. However, that would not stop Senani from adding them to his army. He moved them to his land grant and had Fred raise them as soon as he could. They would be under the command of Kaz. This made Senani more intent to search the tent that Rattrap had come from. Dwarves were among the best miners and smiths in the world. Whatever they carried would be priceless. He asked Fred to send over 50 undead humans. Senani had them go through the camp tent by tent and gather all the valuables.

For goblins they had quite a lot of loot. Among the pile were 8 Dwarven battleaxes of artifact quality, 5 Dwarven swords of epic quality, 8 full sets of Dwarven chainmail of artifact quality, 6 Dwarven crossbows of epic quality, 6 full quivers of 40 Dwarven bolts of epic quality, and a chest of gold. Senani teleported the Dwarven battleaxes and chainmail to Fred to use to equip the Dwarves. Senani split the rest of the loot among the guards he had with him. The gold went to the treasury room at the castle. Aside from the bit of silver and bronze Senani owned, the treasury had been virtually empty. Senani then touched the leader's tent and transferred the camp to a location near Boolah's goblins.

Senani then called Rattrap to him. He told Rattrap to take him to the location they had ambushed the dwarves. Rattrap complied. By the time they had arrived, Fred had raised the dwarves. Senani had him send them to him. Once the dwarves arrived, he asked them if they had anything hidden at the camp. As they were bound to Senani, one of them walked to the rock wall they had been sleeping against and pressed a spot that looked like every other spot on the wall. A door then opened. Inside were 5 carts loaded with Dwarven made weapons and armor. The last 2 carts were loaded with gems and gold. Senani armed the rest of his guards, including the orcs that had come with him with the epic Dwarven made swords. He then transported the rest of the weapons and armor to the armory in the carts and the gold and gems to the treasury in the carts.

Senani then asked the Dwarves if there was anything else of value or any corpses at the camp. One of the Dwarves responded, "I'm Flint. Ye brought me and me brothers back. I am grateful to fight for ye. Ye want the corpses so you can bring em back. That be true?"

Senani had no intentions of lying to the Dwarves. He responded, "If they are worth bringing back that is what I intend for Fred to do. I am also in need of weapons, armor, supplies, and gold. I will take whatever you can offer."

Flint replied, "Dwarves be underground. Ye will not find many of my kind dead up here. There be an ancient graveyard between here and the entrance to me homeland. Do not know what is buried there. Ya bring Fred, I reckon he could find out. I just gave ye the weapons, armor, supplies and gold we had hidden. Since ya managed to bring us back to life. I reckon ya got the rest of what we had with us from whatever killed us."

Senani decided this would be worth investigating. He called Fred to him and took his troops to the graveyard Flint mentioned. Once they had arrived, Senani and Fred began to examine the graveyard. Senani had the others circle the graveyard for protection. The few tombstones that remained were unreadable. Senani asked Rikki-Tiki if he could sense anything. Rikki-Tiki responded, "From under that statue I can sense a System Stone. The location tells me that there must be a room under that statue somewhere. Senani called Flint over and told him what Rikki-Tiki had said. If there were a hidden entrance, a Dwarf would be able to find it. They could read stones so well it was almost as if they could speak to them. Within moments, Flint had found the door and the way to open it.

Senani called over his men. With Kaz by one side and Flint on the other and the rest following closely behind they entered the doorway and went down the stairs, three by three. Fred was in the center beside Zed. As much protection as he had, you would have thought he were the King instead of Senani. At the base of the stairs lay a room. This reminded Senani of the place he had met Maximus as in the center of the room stood a single statue of a creature in plate mail. The statue was so heavily armored you could not tell what manner of being it was. Along with the armor, the statue had a tower shield in its left hand, a sword in a sheath on its side, a combat axe in its belt on the other side, a great sword on its back, a brace of throwing knives around each arm, and a throwing axe on each leg. It was encircled by Sarcophagi; each had a carving of a being equally as heavily armored and armed. Senani could only assume whatever manner of being these were, they were extremely powerful, and the encounter with Maximus is any indication, they were all likely already Undead.

Senani approached the statue with Kaz and spoke. "Master Death Knight, I am Senani King of Solamnia, I am here to enlist your service, and that of your loyal guards. I will fight the Great Lich King one day. To that end I am gathering a great army. The general Maximus trains my household troops as well as my army."

Once Senani said the name Maximus, the statues eyes began to glow with a bright blue light. The force the statue exerted was stronger even that that Maximus had shown. Had Senani not spent so much time with Maximus and his guards he would have fell to the ground. As it was, all but the Kaz, the dwarves, and Senani fell to their knees and kept their heads bowed. To move was torture in the face of such raw power. The statue spoke," I am the Lich King Dmitri. It is thanks to General Maximus that I am here, in hiding. The Great Lich King sent General Maximus to attack my kingdom. Utilizing superior tactics and numbers, Maximus destroyed my kingdom. I managed to flee and save few aside from my household guard. If General Maximus is truly on your side, you may be able to grow an army strong enough to stand up to The Great Lich King. However, I see no proof. Bring Maximus here. If he supports you, I will as well."

Senani called Maximus and he appeared beside him. Maximus spoke, "Dmitri, it has been a long time and much has changed. I now serve Senani, King of Solamnia. Join us, bring all your troops. Senani has a land grant. We are building an army there to defeat The Great Lich King. You will be my right-hand man, and your household guard will serve to protect the castle and King, just as mine do."

Dmitri responded, "I pledge my fealty to you King Senani. The troops I have remaining I place in your hands to place wherever you desire." At his words, the walls began to open and undead stormed in. Then the Sarcophagi opened. The beings depicted on the Sarcophagi stepped out. Then all the undead in the room took a knee and pledged fealty to Senani.

Senani placed all of them under Maximus. They would be a great addition to his elite guard. With merely a thought, he had teleported Maximus and all the new undead to the training grounds at the castle.

Fred then spoke, "There are no more corpses here. If you have no further need of me, I would like to return to the Mausoleum. I believe there to be some strong corpses left to raise."

Senani dismissed Fred and left the underground area with the rest of his troops. They then began traveling in the direction of Drowmere once more. Once they arrived at Rattraps old campsite, Senani received a notification that Boolah was about to emerge from his cocoon. Senani informed his troops to guard the area and teleported back to his land grant. He immediately went to Boolah.