The Land: Alliances (Chaos Seeds Book 3)

CHAPTER 6

Once again, Richter had to deal with the prompts asking if he wanted to cross back up to the village, but after that, he was on his way. The bodies of his two slain enemies were not very heavy. Their combined weight was only a fraction of what he could lift if he pushed himself. The bodies weighed on him in other ways, however. Richter wished he could say that he brought the kobold’s bodies along out of a sense of honor, or to bury them, but his reasons were completely pragmatic.

One, he couldn’t leave evidence that the other kobolds could find. If they found the bodies, then Richter might walk back into an ambush the next time he came down in the Depths. Two, if the bodies weren’t found, they would start to decompose. That would cause a horrible smell and also could lead to disease. Three… the kobold’s eyes glowed like useful herbs after they had died. He didn’t get a prompt for some reason, maybe because he hadn’t removed them from the body yet. He hadn’t received a prompt for the crypt mistress’s ichor until it had pooled outside of her body. He wouldn’t turn down a resource, but he just couldn’t bring himself to carve up a dead body in the middle of an old church. It would have felt like a desecration. He had never been a Bible beater, but he still had limits on what he would do.

His trip back up the stairs was safe but monotonous. He took the stairs two at a time until his endurance ran out, then he walked for a bit. Once it refilled most of the way, he would run again. Even with this pattern it took over two hours to get back to the Great Seal. One unwelcome surprise on the ascent was when the bowels of one of the kobolds loosed on him, running down his front. It was irritating but he supposed it just meant another bath later.

When he walked out over the Great Seal, he felt like there should be some type of fanfare after having fought and killed two enemies. There was nothing of the sort, however. The room was empty. He was still tired even after his cat nap, but he couldn’t rest yet. Before anything else he had to do something with these bodies.

Richter walked down the hall and into the outside. The sun was getting closer to the horizon and the shadows were stretching long. He could see that people were moving slower and taking the time to discuss the vagaries of their days. Food was being prepared outside of the new longhouse, and a rumble in his belly reminded Richter that he had not eaten since the morning. He planned to join his people soon for dinner, but was glad no one had seen him carrying these bodies, especially the children.

He moved quickly down the hill and walked over to where the hunters dressed their kills every day. Alma flew ahead, being hungry herself. When Richter reached his destination a few minutes later, he was pleased to see that a hunter had already cut off a piece of raw meat and fed it to the dragonling. The tenseness of the hunters first meeting with Alma had apparently faded into the rear view, and they even joked at watching her tear into the meat. Richter heard one man call her, ‘the vicious hunter,’ earning a few laughs.

The levity died when Richter walked up.

“Are those kobolds, my Lord?”

“Yes,” Richter answered, unshouldering his load. “I need to examine their bodies, and I assumed you all wouldn’t be squeamish.”

“That won’t be a problem, Lord Richter,” another hunter assured him, “but where did you find them. Kobolds are almost never seen in the light of day, and I didn’t know we had found any nearby ruins. Is there a camp of them that we need to clear out?”

Richter looked at the man, somewhat surprised at the easy assumption that any population of these creatures would need to be exterminated. It just further underlined the easy acceptance of harsh realities that was shared by denizens of The Land. “I went into a lower level of the catacombs,” he assured them. “The kobolds won’t be able to follow us here.”

The hunter nodded, but didn’t totally relax. “Just because they can’t follow you the way you came doesn’t mean they can’t find another way to strike at us. Especially if that iron mine connects in some way to their tunnels. I was about to go break my fast. I’ll warn the miners and other villagers to be vigilant if that is okay with your Lordship.”

Richter nodded and thanked the man. It honestly hadn’t occurred to him that the kobolds might burrow to the surface, but he supposed it should have when he saw the prodigious amount of tunnels they had made. He borrowed a skinning knife from another hunter, and got to work.

First, he removed the eyes.

You have found: Tri Caste Kobold Eye. You have a feeling this could be used to make a dark vision potion. It could also be a component of a Strength damaging poison. It might be possible to use this as a component in trap detection spectacles.

He proceeded to examine the rest of the kobold’s body. He didn’t find anything else useful, until he saw a fleshy mass near the tail.

You have found: Kobold worker scent gland. This pungent gland exudes the classic odor of the kobold. It can be used to drive away certain predators or as the component of a stink trap. Concentrating the extract can make a solution to induce bloody vomiting.

Richter could well believe the prompt. The wet dog stench that he had smelled before was magnified twenty fold. Afraid that the odor was sinking into his skin, he quickly closed the body cavity that had hid the gland. Then he dragged the kobold over to the pit where the hunters discarded the offal from their kills. After he threw it in, he was dismayed that the smell hadn’t abated.

A green cloud icon in the corner of his vision informed him that smell was coming from him.

You smell quite horribly. The oils from the kobold’s scent gland have gotten onto your hands. -5 to Charisma until this is corrected.

The other hunters had wrinkled their noses at the stench and were actively trying not to laugh at seeing their Lord’s plight. One took pity on Richter and tossed him a block of lye soap and pointed to a trough of water. Richter immediately began shucking his armor and started scrubbing vigorously. The cold water didn’t seem up to the task so he cast Flame. Fire shot directly into the trough from his hand. Some water was converted to steam, but the rest just grew to a pleasant temperature. After that he started washing in earnest. The lye was horribly strong and started burning his skin almost immediately. The fumes from the hot water also made his eyes and throat burn as well. After ten minutes though, his hands were totally chaffed and the smell icon was thankfully gone. While he was at it, he cleaned the bodily waste from his armor that the dead kobold had excreted.

The hunters cheered him for vanquishing the stink monster. Richter treated them to a sour expression and then went back to the other kobold. He quickly removed its eyes. All four went into his bag and then threw the body down the pit.

Putting the entire distasteful affair behind him, Richter went to join his people.