BECMI Chapter 44 – A Chill is Setting In

There were five incursions during the month.

One was a chimera that thought it had found itself a nice place to raid. There was a full orc warband, over two hundred of the savages, who were allowed to come into the Inn and never left. For the very few who stayed outside and tried to flee, I Summoned in some Air Elementals who chased them down and killed them, as the isolated area only had the one pass for a way out.

There was another wandering group of ogres that thought they’d found a base, and a group of gnoll brigands running from some kobolds they’d raided the snot out of, and we ended up having to kill both sets of them.

It was all good. It kept everybody sharp, on their toes, and, well, it was loot and supplies we could take with us, even if not much of them.

More importantly, it was Karma to up Health and Soak, and it took only a week for everyone to recognize how much tougher the Rule of One was making them. Karmic vitamins and minerals for the combat-conscious, that was them!

The legend of the Inn where things went in and never came out flared and died in combat, as very, very few things actually managed to see it and live.

The Weapons training was the most desired by all the fighters, and the amount of sparring and dueling was near-constant. Physical training all day with lots of food was like a dream for most of these people, even if they had to do so much maintenance themselves. Truly, endlessly rejuvenating supplies really helped with these matters, and there were a lot of different recipes tried as different folk offered up different meals from home to change things up.

On the quieter side, we had people from different ages and races here, and during the evening when things wound down, having a different person every night speak about their peoples and homes, customs and traditions, was a decent enough way of introducing everyone to everyone, and helping build some mutual understanding. Elves thought differently from humans from dwarves, after all.

However, the most impressive thing that was done was just about everyone was taught how to swim.

Finding out that basically nobody but the elves knew how to swim was most amusing. Shaping up a pool and filling it with water of varying depth to teach the skeptical warriors how to float, then dog paddle, then demonstrating the various strokes for them to learn certainly earned me some attention, but the fact was it was a distinct athletic endeavor that worked the entire body like no other sport.

The Skifnersons were soon putting in a mile a day in the underground pool, and the magic of the temporal reset even cleaned it daily. A lot of the others soon got in on the kick, and if burning off a lot of body fat and getting plenty cut was part of the goals of them all, well, that was hardly a bad thing.

I had conspired with the clerics to make a Wand of which we all filled up with spells and gave to Hammer Ogvier to use in emergencies. Likewise, a few simple Potions of Healing didn’t strain my alchemical supplies too much, and all the officers had them for emergency use on anyone with critical wounds. If it all Burned away some of the gold from those we’d fought, none of the warriors complained at all.

Revered Cruxin had also prayed for new spells in the area of Healing, especially and both Clerics were like the warriors, told to use up their spells, gain mastery of their spells, and earn that Karma for supporting their believers and allies, the forge against which everyone was tested.

Given the number of bruises, sprains, and broken bones we treated over the month, as well as cuts and sparring wounds, they kept pretty busy with things. Both of them were angling to get , but they needed the counts on their Healing spells given unstintingly to those in need to do so.

Still, the time passed, we established some basic Healing item reserves as needed, gold was put to use… and the men and women bought a lot of Health and Soak up over the course of the month.

“The spell that grants the area above us will recede at the temporal reset,” I informed everyone. “When that happens, all that we made will vanish with the spell, everything dealing with the space no longer existing with the magic, or simply dumped randomly into Time somewhere.

“That is fine, because our Road begins anew,” I went on quietly. “In minutes, the moon rises, and already the currents of time gather.

“Enter your formations, and prepare to fight!” Grim eyes from extremely buff, well-fed, well-groomed, and well-maintained warriors lit up in expectation. Arms clasped on belts and shoulders, gleamed obsidian with the loads of supplies and loot, and shimmered, Weapons gleamed with at +V, and shields with at +V.

I raised the Cone of the Temporal Beacon, and the Gold Cone within it once more rose up and vanished into the ether, one more point in the flow of time.

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“We go to freedom or death, and I will not let you die!” I promised once again, after stowing the Temporal Beacon.

The ready band of warriors waited as the off to the side counted off the seconds in a bright circle of seconds passing.

gleamed and began to rise.

The moon gleamed unseen, coming over the horizon, behind the clouds currently storming outside.

The Portal gathered, swirled, and shimmered into existence.

“Freedom or Death!” I stated, and started forwards, Buck’s hand in mine, leading the way.

“FREEDOM OR DEATH!” everyone called out, and came after me.

“Fourteen runs. That’s a new record for us,” Prince Ukker commented, the officers gathered to watch with me and the newest recruits, another five trapped elves and six dwarves, as the Portal unspun itself as the moon set above.

It was true. The residents weren’t really any tougher than some we’d already faced, and clearly not as well-equipped.

I nodded to the stairs, and everyone moved quickly to file out, the newcomers being taken in by their fellows to explain what was going on and find appropriate places for them.

“I am going to set up the simply for the extra room for everyone. I will join everyone shortly.” They all nodded and departed to leave me to the extended Casting required.

Four hundred more years had passed us by. More humanoids and beasts and undead had infested the Thisbean Inn and been dealt with and disposed of in record time. The company operated like a well-tuned machine, using intimate knowledge of the Inn and their roles from multiple fighting scenarios executed over the past month to blitz through anything and everything we’d run across.

The slowest run had been against two red dragons, younger than Cirruluxul, likewise trapped, and not treated with anything close to the same deference. Their reputations preceded them, and after the against doubled breath weapons meant they failed to incinerate half the company, there was no hesitation with slaughtering them with all speed, carving them up, and I turned them into a couple hundred pounds of salvaged meat I promised to use in a really spicy evening meal.

Other than that, the hide, blood, claws, teeth, heart, stomach, guts… Hells, almost all parts of the things had value. Revered Cruxin had expressed interest in putting together some Armor from them using the principles I had instructed him and the elves on jointly. There was a functioning anvil and forge made up during the down time, fueled by magical flames, and the dwarves had been almost tearfully happy to get about making things and not stuck with using the one inside the attached stable with its limited fuel. Indeed, making up suitable tools had been a labor of love for all of them.

We largely had only crap steel from crude humanoid weapons and some we’d taken off undead forces, but if it could all be melted down and reforged, then that’s what happened.

Introducing the concept of masterwork items with an edge to their construction and the true test of craftsmen was a magically significant thing I’d done, as well.

When I made it upstairs, most of the company was wandering outside, stretching their legs, or in Cirru’s case, her wings.

I Summoned in a big block of stone and shaped it into additional cubicles, walls, desks, benches, and tables, all of which were rapidly set up in the pattern we’d worked for ‘fighting recovery’ days.

The lockers for weapons and armor were located quicker to the sides, and Cirru settled in again to her role as sentry, the main job she’d had during the past month. She’d noticed all the forces that had come to investigate the working Inn before they reached it, giving us plenty of time to prepare for them.

I headed to the door, opening it up and waiting for the sun to rise.

Eryis came up beside me, staring out at the snow-strewn ground and stone ahead of us. We were joined by the other officers, and the others who’d gotten used to being up and facing that open door with the Sun.

They even knew the Salute to Aru now, and it gave them hope that they were going to get out of here.

A copper from the purse of a goblin was flicked from the hand of one of the new dwarves as opened the way. It tumbled through the air, and clinked on the porch outside.

Seven seconds later, it was gone, wiped away by the currents of time.

Held breaths were released, especially by the newcomers seeing this for the first time.

“Three seconds longer,” Prince Ukker murmured, and heads nodded all around. “Making some progress, Lady Edge.”

I nodded slowly. “The Cold Years are starting, in reverse. This should be late spring.”

An Ice Age had seized these lands for almost two thousand years after the Crimson Cataclysm, then slowly released its grip, a fact the elves and dwarves were all aware of, and the fact had been told to the humans not so informed.

The Inn was as cold as the six times we’d arrived in the depths of winter, as no heating fires were normally lit in the place, even if Everburning torches and lamps kept it well-lit day and the nights we were in there.

“Soon enough we will be coming in to see ice over everything, and it will be cold constantly. I have magic enough to keep everyone warm, and the wood in the bins restores with every day, so we can heat the Inn. But yes, it is going to get more miserable and dreary, and the fighting more desperate. In a world of ice and snow, being trapped in here might even be a blessing to some.

“But the sun also rises, and the ice gave way in our times, so it will give way as we advance into it, and we will come out the far side.

“We Salute the new day!”

Pretty much nobody had ever had a meal quite so spicy as I fixed with the red dragon meat, and that was after cutting it down twice. Quite memorable, all told.

For two nights more we advanced, and with each trip through the Portal, it seemed to get colder.

At the end of the second night, nearly another four hundred years had passed, and snow was now on the ground in the middle of summer. The humanoids we met were increasingly barbaric, fur-clad, and looked to have settled into the Inn for the long run, eating the food and warming the place up.

There were even females and children, who attacked us as viciously as the males, born into a society where violence to all outsiders was an accepted norm, whole tribes crammed into the warmth of the place and the place basically packed with bodies we had to dispose of.

was soon required, and furs from the humanoids, cleaned with magic, quickly joined the normal attire.