Chereads / Covenant System / Chapter 16 - Chapter 16, the Viper Guild

Chapter 16 - Chapter 16, the Viper Guild

Upon arriving at the gates of the city, Senani could clearly see this was not a dwarf stronghold. While the dwarven city was efficient and one with the rock, the elves had turned the rock into a type of crystal. It was black and shone with a dim light. Haren approached the doors and spoke three words. Senani could not make out what she said, but the gates opened. The group then moved inside.

Once inside, Senani was amazed by how many types of creatures he could see. Unfortunately, the only ones he saw that were not in chains were the dark elves and the few mind flayers. The rest appeared to be slaves. Senani also noted the strange beasts that lived in the town. He saw great lizards and serpents of all colors; dark elves rode both. Haren led them through the town and into a run-down tower towards the back of the city. She looked concerned when she saw how run down it was.

Haren entered first. She feared that if anyone else did, they would be killed. After all this was a guild of assassins. Upon entering, Haren's worst fears were shown to be reality. Corpses lined the hallways, there were no living beings inside. With so much death no one even bothered to claim the tower. In the underground town this was unheard of. Haren lead Senani to the chamber of the guild leader. When he entered, he saw a skeleton sitting in the remnants of a highly decorative chair. It was mostly decayed now. Senani touched the skeleton to see if it would produce a spirit, He saw the blue mist come out and create the form of a beautiful female dark elf. The elf spoke," Haren you have returned far too late. The Great Lich King destroyed our entire guild when you failed in killing the dragon. We were slaughtered so ruthlessly no one dared to even claim our guild hall or enter to bury our bodies. You are all that is left to avenge the vipers."

Senani responded, "If you agree to fight by my side and join the guild House Sloth, you will have the opportunity to make this your guild base and avenge the vipers. We are attacking The Great Lich King."

"Do you wish to activate a Spirit Covenant with the dark elf Master Assassin known as Ilromy?" Yes or No." Senani chose Yes.

Ilromy chose Yes. Senani chose a diamond as her soul stone. She formed back into flesh and stared at Senani. Senani averted his eyes to not stare at her nude body and told her to equip her gear from the skeleton. He then removed her System Stone and inserted it into her body. Ilromy was dumbfounded. She was exactly as strong as she had been before she died. Ilromy spoke to Senani, "There are at least 50 dead dark elves in this building. If you bring them back the way you brought me back, I will be eternally grateful."

Senani thought about this for a moment, he could not think of a reason not to do it, so he went to each corpse to see if the spirit would rise out. He created spirit stones for those that did and had them equip their gear and put the System Stones back in their bodies. It seemed the vipers recruited only the strongest members they could find as all 50 dark elves were able to be revived. Senani then sent all the corpses to Fred and summoned Zorin. This was already a guild hall; he merely replaced the viper information with House Sloth information and had Zorin create a portal. He then sent her back to continue her duties with the orcs. He then had each of them join House Sloth.

Ilromy then explored the base, she wanted to be sure of what she had left in her home. The more she ventured through the guildhall the more surprised she was. Nothing had been taken, they were only interested in exterminating the viper guild. Even the stables were full of dead snakes and lizards. Senani was unable to create a soul covenant with any of them but he did send the bodies back to Fred. House Sloth would have undead mounts in the underworld soon. Senani went back to the chamber that he had found Ilromy in. He sat in the chair and waited for the notification from Fred that the corpses were raised. As usual, he was not disappointed. Fred sent him a message 20 minutes after he had sent him the corpses. Senani returned to the stables and summoned the undead mounts and the undead dark elves. He then summoned Ilromy.

Ilromy exclaimed, "I believe you found us a solution to our lack of mounts. Undead will work well to strike fear into the hearts of our enemies in this town. The fact that we have risen from the grave will as well. Now the question is where to begin….."

Senani replied, "Ilromy, you and Haren will work with the dark elves here to rebuild your guild house and begin to form an empire among the dark elves in this town. Recruit as many as possible. Kaz, I want you to return to the overworld and begin finding your minotaur brethren. Found your settlement, I will tell Fred to send you any undead you need for building at any time. I have seen a great many slaves in the town. I am a slave to House Sloth, the new guild that has taken over the Viper guilds old hideout. I am going into the town to recruit other slaves and send them back to the land grant. Ilromy, you will lower the strength of our rivals in the dark elves, I will reduce the strength of their slave armies. We will conquer this town."

Kaz respectfully agreed to do as Senani wished. After all that was his heart's desire. Ilromy thought about this, considering Senani was able to revive all the members of the guild, she thought his strength should suffice to keep him alive around town. She responded, "Your suggestion makes sense, however if you are the only slave that we possess we will never be taken seriously. There are warrens under our guild hall to house slaves. There is even an arena in which gladiators compete. If you had not sent Kaz away I would have suggested, he be allowed to compete. I see the way you bring minions in and out with merely a thought. Do you have any that you could bring over to pretend to be our slaves? The more exotic the better."

Senani requested that Ilromy take him to the warrens. Once he arrived, Senani contemplated for a moment on who to bring in. He then decided to bring Wolf, Bear, and her pack of werewolves, and Boolah his army. When they appeared out of thin air, Ilromy exclaimed, "That is more slaves than we had before the guild was destroyed. In fact, I believe that may be more slaves than the Avatar guild have, and they are the largest in the city. Do you have any that are strong enough to fight in the arena?"

Senani replied, "I will be fighting in the arena. I will also provide you with a chest of gold from my treasury. This will give me the best chance to recruit warriors to our guild. When I win, the corpses are to be sent to House Sloth. I want them to be included in the pot of winnings."

Ilromy considered this, "Normally that would be deemed as extremely odd, however with our new slave army, I do not believe they will decline such a simple request. Consider it done. However, keep in mind that when you reach the higher tiers in the arena, they will not be fights to the death. We will be able to have the living slave in the pot for winning."

Ilromy went to the arena organizer. Using a small amount of the gold Senani had provided her she purchased room and board for him in the gladiator pits. His first match would be the following day. She then returned to the guild hall to determine which guild to go after first. Currently she had no power in the city. Her entire guild had been killed and House Sloth was a new no name guild in the underworld. Where should she begin? Old rivals? Allies of The Great Lich King? Her neighbors? The weakest guilds? Most guilds had at least 2 buildings. You see in the dark elf settlement when you conquered another guild, you moved their building into your compound. All the buildings were magical. There were so many options to consider. Eventually she decided to send the slaves to the closest guild through the warrens, hopefully they could recruit or kill all the slaves of the Unicorn guild. She and Haren would attack the dark elves above and try to recruit as many as possible. Those they could not recruit they would take the bodies back and hope that Senani could create a spirit covenant. The more dark elves they had the stronger they would become.

Ilromy went to the warrens to discuss this plan with Bear, Wolf, and Boolah. They agreed and left immediately with their entire army behind them. When they arrived at the designated location, Bear, Wolf, and Boolah went forward to speak to the hundreds of slaves. Boolah spoke, "We serve Overlord Senani, Emperor of House Sloth. If you join us, you will be freed. If you do not join us, we will be forced to kill all of you. We three are Underbosses. We can easily integrate you all into our armies. Your dark elf masters are being given the same choice above you. They will have nothing to say of your leaving."

The other group had no fixed leaders. They only had an army of around 600. They had no chance. As a group they took a knee and swore fealty to Senani. Boolah's army made sure to grab all supplies that these individuals had and then they were sorted out. In total there were 200 kobolds, 3 grey dwarves, 10 orcs, 200 goblins, 100 bugbears, and 7 ogres, and 70 gnomes, and 10 minotaur. They waited in the warrens. They were to take all the dark elves or corpses that came into the warrens back with them to officially join House Sloth.

Up above things were not going as smoothly. Ilromy and Haren snuck in and went towards the guild leader's room. Once inside they found the room to be empty. The two ladies hid in separate corners and waited. After two hours they decided to look for the guild master bedroom. They entered the first bedroom they saw. Ilromy placed her dagger to the neck of the dark elf and woke them up. She said, "We are here to conquer your guild hall. We will allow you to join us, but you must swear fealty to House Sloth. I also need to know which bedroom belongs to the guild master. Tell me and swear fealty and I will not cut your throat."

The elf replied, "Ilromy died a century ago, she led the viper guild. Everyone in this city knows that story. But I am in no position to argue. The guild master's room is the last on this corridor. She is the only dark elf with their hair died red. You can not miss her. I will serve House Sloth." Ilromy took him to the entrance to the warrens to wait with the slave army. Ilromy and Haren then proceeded to do the same with every elf on the hall. Finally arriving at the room, the guild master was said to reside in. When they opened the door, they were surprised to see she was not alone. A large male dark elf lay in the bed with her. Ilromy placed her knife on the guild leaders throat at the same time Haren placed hers on the males. Ilromy then said, "The unicorn guild is no more. Give over control of this building to me and swear allegiance to House Sloth and you will live. Do otherwise and I will cut your throat and take the building anyway." The dark elf told Ilromy she was not the guild master. The guild master lived on the top floor. Both elves agreed to swear fealty to House Sloth. Ilromy took them to the warrens. They then returned to House Sloth and all the new recruits officially joined House Sloth. Ilromy then took all the dark elves to a room to interrogate. Her question was simple, "Who is the guild leader of the unicorns and where can I find them?"

Now that the dark elves had officially joined House Sloth and they realized they had signed a Covenant when they joined. They could not leave without the permission of the guild leader, if they were to go against the guild, they would die. They decided it would be wise to be honest. They told Ilromy that the leader of the guild resides on the top floor of the guild house. They are a dark elf that is so obsessed with unicorns they have permanently joined a horn to their head. The door to the guild masters room had unicorns engraved on it. You could not miss it.

Ilromy and Haren had now wasted most of the night trying to figure out where the guild master lived. Now they had to sneak back in and get what they wanted before daylight. In the dark elf town, you were free to attack freely at night, but during the day it was strictly forbidden. The only fights that occurred during the day were to take place in the gladiatorial arena. Once they made it inside the guild hall to the unicorn guild it did not take them long to find the guild leader's room. When they arrived, Ilromy spoke with her knife to the guild leader's throat. "The unicorn guild is no more. Give over control of this building to me and swear allegiance to House Sloth and you will live. Do otherwise and I will cut your throat and take the building anyway." The guild leader gave her control of the building immediately. Ilromy then moved the building into the compound for House Sloth and combined it with the foundation at the House Sloth guild hall. As it was now combined, all the dark elves in the guild hall were gathered up to join House Sloth as well. Haren and Ilromy then went to the stable from the Unicorn guild and moved all the mounts into House Sloths guild hall. In total they received an additional 50 dark elves and 50 lizard mounts. House Sloth had also risen in power. They went from last on the power ranking to being a guild to watch out for.