Alchemist's battlefield [mature, nonlucid]

[Goku]

Saun 15 720

A woman named Nia sat in the corner of a tavern sipping on a beer and more or less enjoying her evening. She had a lengthy scroll in her hands that she perused at her leisure. This was one of several scrolls on the table where only she sat. She read reports from far away that had been sent to her, notes from people she’d met, some daily news. It was surprising how much information had been crammed onto one piece of paper. She did not finish the long scroll. She set it aside with a hefty sigh. Fingers rubbed her eyes that were too stubborn to stay open. After a long day of work all she wanted to do was sleep except fate had other plans. A falcon tapped a sharp claw on the window right behind her. If Nia had been more alert she would have jumped out of her seat but she wasn’t. Instead she looked lazily over her shoulder.

“That’s…” she exclaimed. She opened her eyes wide and threw open the window with one hand and clutched at the bird’s message with the other. She flipped a coin to tip the bird who caught it in its beak and flew off once again.

Nia tore open the packaging and read the single sided card that was on the surface level just a message thanking her for something she’d done several weeks ago. She knew that a message with ‘that’ seal on it couldn’t be some kind of drole message such as this so she looked for hidden meanings. It was standard procedure and within a few minutes she had jotted down the real message on the back of a separate piece of paper.

The hidden message read: “The army marches from the south. Come immediately.”

Nia gulped. Sweat beaded on her face when she realized the full gravity of what the message meant. The army was coming at the most inopportune time. “Is there such a time as an opportune time for an invading army to strike?” she chuckled at the thought despite the gravity of the situation.

“For your troubles barkeep,” Nia announced from her spot when she stood up. She tossed him a back of coins. “The army marches north. If news of our victory doesn’t make it this way by morning I hope you have the sense to evacuate.” A cold hush came upon the tavern, not that Nia noticed or cared. She was too busy drawing a glyph on the wall using some enchanted chalk. It was a fairly simple sort of alchemy but it required a powerful catalyst. Luckily she had plenty of those for use in a situation such as this. She placed a pulsating orb against the center of the glyph and within several breaths the glyph glowed pink and the cacophony of a thousand lost souls cried out from the void. A familiar chill ran down Nia’s spine and the next thing she knew she was sucked into the abyss.

When Nia next opened her eyes she realized that she was already at her destination. It was a jarring experience, this alchemical travel. She wasn’t put off by the experience though. She’d been conditioned to take it in stride. She held a hand to her chest and from it she drew a sword made of pure white energy. It crackled with the thunder that roared up above and was so bright that it illuminated the battlefield for a brief moment between lightning strikes. Thousands of soldiers were battling already. Hundreds were dead, buildings were toppled like childrens’ toys. Nia couldn’t help but feel a deep pity for all those that had fallen before she’d gotten there.

Nia was not a leader of any army. At most she would be considered a mercenary. A well paid and highly distinguished mercenary but that was all she was on paper. She would have no sway over the men and women who fought on her side. They’d only know she was on their side because the flashes of light from her sword accompanied the fall of an enemy soldier’s body.

Nia held little respect for the enemy forces aside from their impressive ability to gather up these many bodies. Their typical rank and file men were nothing more than the labor class pooled en masse to try overthrowing the nation. It was a self correcting problem. The poorest of the poor didn’t have enough resources to survive so if they happened to win they became the new upper class. If they died then that freed up resources for their loved ones back home. In theory it led to more ferocious and desperate fighters but they were all bags of meat to Nia’s sword. She could take on the entire army if they were kind enough to take her on one on one, even in her tired state.

“Three hundred.”

Nia knelt down for a quick breather after reaching her kill milestone for the battle. She had cut a path straight down the middle of the battlefield which the generals used to surround one half of the remaining enemy forces. Despite it being a good tactical move Nia didn’t like it. It meant she couldn’t keep indiscriminately slashing her sword. She held the sword up and squinted her eyes when she examined the edges of the weapon. They were jagged and had trouble keeping shape. Something was off.

“HNG!” she exclaimed as pain rippled through her stomach. She looked down and saw that there was a hole in her leather armor that she hadn’t noticed. She dropped to her knees and quickly smashed a glass vial against it which cauterized the wound on impact sending even more pain throughout her body. That was the first time she’d seen a peasant army that had the know how to make use of poison. Her vision blurred and before she knew it she was on all fours. Four hard thuds on her back forced her to the ground.

“A… arrows?” she deduced when her hand brushed the shafts on her back.

“This can’t be it…” she continued while reaching for yet another potion she’d concocted. She didn’t have anything that would be much help and she knew it. “Maybe it’d be best to play possum. I can’t…”

Nia focused her ears on her surroundings. She heard the signature TWAP of arrows being fired. She clenched her body as if that would help but she didn’t get hit. The arrowheads met metal and an ominous shadow covered her own as lightning revealed the battlefield once more. A large boot was placed on her butt and two strong hands yanked out the arrows. Nia screeched in pain but she knew the drill. Her fingers grasped hold of a cauterizing potion and the strong man broke it over her back wounds. Even more pain ensued but Nia would live.

More arrows flew but they were pile peanuts hitting against a brick wall to the savior’s shield. A foot flipped Nia over onto her back which let the lightning reveal an unfamiliar face. A chiseled jaw, blonde hair, brown eyes, an unshaven beard. These were the features that Nia picked up before darkness came again.

“Battle’s almost won lass, best we deal with those archers before they turn the tide. Can you still fight?” He dare not help Nia up else an arrow might get through, not that she needed it.

Nia pushed herself up and scowled in the general direction of the archers. “At least now I know where the funding for the army went. I can transport us there if you give me enough time.”

“Do it lass, they won’t focus on me forever.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice.”

Nia brought a trembling hand to the ground where she drew the glyph with her own blood. She needed to correct the design twice from the spasms of pain that still shook her body but she completed the job all the same. Another orb was pulled from her pocket. It was the only one that she had left that hadn’t been smashed from her abrupt fall to the ground. She placed it on the ground and in a flash of light she and the knight at her side appeared behind the line of archers.

Nia wished that she had the energy to deal with them. If only the poison hadn’t weakened her so. She growled, “Kill them now!”

The knight smiled and pulled a sword from its sheath in the same motion that he tossed his massive shield aside. He ran a finger along the length of the sword and chanted in order to call upon the power of the weapon. The archers had just caught onto the fact that they’d been flanked when a massive arc of energy sliced every last one of them in half.

“Battle’s won now.” The knight announced unnecessarily. Of course it was won. The question was, did it matter? Nia fell unconscious. Only time would tell if she would ever heal from her wound.

[Pig Boy]

Player Name: Goku

Points awarded: 10
Magic xp: none

Knowledge: Non-lucid dream, no knowledge.


Renown: 0
Loot: none
Injuries/Overstepping: none
Wealth Points: n/a

Skill Review: All Skills used appropriately to PC's level

Notes: First off, welcome back, it's good to see you writing here again. Always good to grind off the rust on a little inconsequential non-lucid dream. Now let's see...

I like the way you set the scene, although I had trouble following a little bit of the world building, I don't expect you to get into a lengthy opening crawl, and anyway was able to surmise that this was a bit of gratuitous war-mongering by a heroic fighter/mage. Fun stuff.

One paragraph really caught my attention, as it illustrated a key character component of the protagonist, Nia:

"Nia held little respect for the enemy forces aside from their impressive ability to gather up these many bodies. Their typical rank and file men were nothing more than the labor class pooled en masse to try overthrowing the nation. It was a self correcting problem. The poorest of the poor didn’t have enough resources to survive so if they happened to win they became the new upper class. If they died then that freed up resources for their loved ones back home. In theory it led to more ferocious and desperate fighters but they were all bags of meat to Nia’s sword. She could take on the entire army if they were kind enough to take her on one on one, even in her tired state."

This blithe disregard for people due to their class or lack of training, or just because they were levies marks her as very arrogant in my eyes. It was fairly effective at dashing whatever compassion or suspense I might've felt when she got hit. In fact, I was almost routing for her to go down! It's an interesting narrative effect you introduced here, regardless, making her less sympathetic actually made her near-downfall somewhat exciting.

Good writing overall, I enjoyed this little, dream vignette.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns regarding this review, feel free to PM. Enjoy your rewards!