Swallowing his bite, Alistair set the sandwich down and cleared his throat, "I"m afraid that I have bad news. The Kingdom has decided upon a course of action in regards to the goblin threat."
"Took them long enough. We"ve been waiting all week for that," Lucy muttered under her breath. Tom nodded slightly, as if to agree with her.
"And? What"s the plan, Alistair? How many legions are they sending?" Flen asked, looking expectantly towards his old friend.
Alistair sighed, "I"m afraid that we should have simply swept up the bases ourselves when we first discovered them, or at least attempted to. The Kingdom has decided that we must attack the bases ourselves."
"Ourselves? What about the army?"
"The army is busy with other matters. They"re only sending a scouting unit and a few commanders to help plan the a.s.sault. We"re to use the militia and the otherworlders for the a.s.sault. We have two days to plan the a.s.sault, we attack on the third day."
At this announcement, the table went silent. Burgess" mouth hung open in shock, and even Lucy was speechless for once. Flen groaned.
"They want us to use the otherworlders and the militia? The militia is barely enough to keep the villages safe. There"s no way they"re going to be able to conduct a frontal a.s.sault on a goblin base. And the otherworlders are still new to this world, are we sure we can trust them?"
"The otherworlders are more reliable than ye think Flen. I"ve been trainin a few in me forge, and some of them are pretty tough. They should be able ta account themselves well in a fight," said Tom.
"Aye. The otherworlders have impressed me with their exploits so far. And we have no choice but to rely on them to aid us in the a.s.sault. If we send the militia alone we"ll lose more than half our force. But if we do nothing, there"s a high chance the goblins sweep southwards, and then Tonbura Village will be just one of the many that will be swept up in their brutal a.s.sault," said Alistair.
"What do the rest of you think? Should we trust the otherworlders to help with the attack? Are they strong enough to contend with goblins and worgs? Or even worse, hobgoblins?" Flen asked, turning to the remaining council members.
Maria looked pensive, "I"ve taught a few otherworlders some healing spells. My fellow devotees of Leralitas can accompany the militia and heal the wounded. But I won"t allow them to aid in the fighting itself, most followers of Leralitas don"t receive combat training, we leave that to followers of Maser and other more battle-focused G.o.ds. The otherworlders can help with combat healing, but I have no idea how proficient they"ll be."
"What about you Craig? Maria?" Flen asked, ignoring Burgess as he turned to the remaining two council members.
Craig rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "There"re are a few good archers. Two have stood out to me. But one I haven"t seen in a while, I believe she left for another village. The other is still here though, and there are enough good archers to form at least one archer unit."
"I"ve only taken a single student. The rest of the otherworlders that I"ve seen I"ve simply taught a few spells to. None stand out," Lucy reported.
Flen sighed, "So no mages. But at least it seems that we"ve got a promising group of otherworlders to work with. What"s the Kingdom"s plan Alistair?"
Taking out a map, Alistair laid it out on the table, placing a pair of candlesticks on its corners to keep it from furling back up.
"There are several goblin bases that we"ve been made aware of. The Kingdom wants each village and town to deal with the bases in their area. Villages slightly further south are to send militia to reinforce the more northern ones. As for the northern villages, we are expected to create several different platoons of roughly thirty to fifty members each, with each platoon taking on a single base on their own. Tonbura has three bases in our area which means we need to create three platoons."
"How are the platoons going to be constructed? Last I checked there are only forty villagers in the militia. Are we going to create an entire platoon of just villagers? Or divide them among the otherworlders?" Flen asked.
"Divide them among the otherworlders. The Kingdom wants the otherworlders to be the vanguard, taking the brunt of the enemy"s a.s.sault. I"ll be taking command of one platoon, while members of the Seacove Military Academy will be taking command of the other two."
"How are ye plannin to choose otherworlders? Jus take any who ask? Or is there a selection process?" Tom asked, staring pointedly at Alistair.
"Normally we"d just take any otherworlders willing to take part, and for two of the platoons that"s just what we"ll do," Alistair responded.
"And fer tha other platoon?" Tom asked, raising an eyebrow.
"That platoon is going to be a little special. We have reports of hobgoblins at one of the bases in our area. As a result the platoon I command will be comprised of the most elite troops available to us. The majority of the scout unit will thus be in my platoon, as will the most elite otherworlders," Alistair explained.
"Can the otherworlders deal with Hobgoblins? Can scouts deal with hobgoblins? I thought we needed the kingdoms elite soldiers to deal with hobgoblins in a one-on-one?" Burgess asked.
"Normally yes. We"re just going to have to hope we can overwhelm any hobgoblins we encounter with numbers. Ideally there"s a few otherworlders strong enough to contend with them, but if needed, I will take the field myself," Alistair said grimly.
"Alistair are you sure? It"s been years since you"ve last fought anything more than a stray goblin, hasn"t it?" Flen asked with concern.
"I can still swing a sword with the best of them. No need to worry about me, boy - I was killing orcs before your father was a speck in your grandmother"s eye," Alistair responded with a dangerous glint in his eye.
Flen sighed, "Alright. But how are you going to choose the otherworlders for your platoon? Most of the regular militia members aren"t strong enough to keep up with the scout unit. Too large a disparity in strength between the members of your platoon and the coordination will fail. The goblins will run right through you if you use regular militia members to bolster your numbers."
"Aye. I"ll only be using Kiran, Nora, and Lochlin from the militia. The rest will be scouts and otherworlders. For the otherworlders, I"ll be holding a test two days from now to determine the strongest among them."
"A test? What type of test?" Craig asked curiously.
"A tournament. It"ll be held at Vindammer town. We"ll use their arena. I"ll advertise it over the next two days to give the otherworlders time to arrive. Lucy, I"ll have to trouble you to ask the mages in Vinbera, Ta.s.sebu, and Hamour villages to put up notices for the otherworlders."
This announcement set off a new round of muttering at the table. Once the chatter died down, Alistair began to outline the rest of the plan. Pointing at the map, he described the routes of attack the a.s.sault units would be taking, as well as the division of fighters in each platoon.
"And that"s the entire plan. G.o.ds willing, we can repel the goblin menace and buy the Kingdom enough time to set up a solid defensive line," Alistair said heavily.
Flen groaned, "I suppose it"s better than simply waiting and allowing the goblins to set up. But not by much. d.a.m.n it!"
Tom nodded heavily, "I"d best get back ta the forge. I"ll try me best to get as many new weapons ready fer ya as I can, Alistair."
"I"ll work on making arrows. A few otherworlders have expressed interest in becoming apprentices recently, so I think I"ll take on a few of them and set them to making arrows too. If you lose, G.o.ds forbid, it won"t be because of a lack of equipment," Craig promised, grabbing Alistair"s hand firmly.
"I"ve managed to import a few suits of armour since the last meeting. For the sake of Tonbura, I"ll sell them to you at cost, Alistair," said Burgess, giving Alistair a slight nod.
"Thank you, Burgess, I appreciate it," Alistair replied gravely.
"I"ll entreat Leralitas for blessings, and I"ll try to create some holy wards. But I can"t guarantee that I"m strong enough to create anything that"s of use against hobgoblins," Maria said miserably.
"The other platoons will need help as well. Each ward you can create will help save the lives of my fellow militia. That"s all I can ask, Maria," Alistair said kindly, wiping the tears from the priestess" face.
Looking towards Lucy, Alistair simply gave her a look. Seeing this, Lucy sighed, "I"ll give you some Wizard"s Fire, and a few bottles of Witches Brew. I can"t make more than a handful of either in three days, so use them sparingly."
This got a few grins from the rest of the table, everyone looking away as Lucy glared at them, as if daring someone to say something. Alistair smiled.
"That"s fine. Thank you Lucy."
"Don"t thank me, I just don"t want to have to deal with goblins at my doorstep. It"s annoying having to cast combat spells. And burning goblin flesh reeks," Lucy replied with a miffed voice, looking away to hide her growing blush.
Thanking the council members for their time, Alistair gathered his map and made his way to the door. Exiting the hall, he was just about to set off for the militia barracks when a hand on his shoulder caused him to whirl about, fist raised in preparation to strike.
"Mind if I talk to you in private?" Flen asked, a somber look in his eyes.
With a gruff nod, Alistair followed Flen to a side door, reentering the house into a small living room. Inside were two large leather chairs, between which stood a small sidetable. The windows on the wall had their curtains tightly shut, denying the daylight from entering, leaving the only light provided by a lamp that stood in the corner of the room.
Sitting down in one of the chairs, Flen motioned for Alistair to sit, before looking at him with a serious expression.
"What are our chances?"
"For Tonbura? Or overall?" Alistair replied.
"Start with Tonbura."
"Good. Even with hobgoblins present in at least one of the bases, with me leading and with the help of the scouts, our chances are fairly high. The otherworlders in Tonbura are fairly strong as well. Some of the other militia captains have reported that the otherworlders in their own villages are far weaker than the ones here, at least if we"re going purely by the number and quality of monster parts they turn in."
"At least one base with hobgoblins? I thought you said there were hobgoblins at only one base."
"The scouts didn"t confirm that there were no hobgoblins at other bases, just that there were hobgoblins at this one," Alistair said glumly.
Flen sighed, "Great. And our chances overall?"
"Low. Tonbura has both myself and Lucy. Other villages aren"t so lucky. Picto village was decimated in the last war. None of their militia members are veterans, and they have at least one base with confirmed sightings of hobgoblins as well. This operation will only succeed if we can clear more than ninety percent of the bases we"ve found. The goblins know that, which is why they"ve divided their forces among so many different bases. My source told me that there were more than forty different bases discovered by the scouting units."
"So that"s it. We"re screwed then?"
"Not necessarily. If we can delay the goblins long enough for the kingdom to set up a defensive line then things will be looking up. I"m just afraid of how many are going to die in the meantime," Alistair said heavily.
Flen nodded grimly, "Tonbura has been safe for more than eighty years, ever since my great-great-grandfather helped found it. I refuse to allow it to fall in my generation. The village treasury is open to you Alistair. There"s not much, but please use it to the best of your abilities."
"I"ll do my best Flen. We all will. Anyways I have to go start organizing the a.s.sault. I"ll contact you if I need anything," said Alistair, rising from his chair.
Standing up, Flen offered his hand. Clasping it firmly, Alistair shook Flen"s hand, exchanging a wordless glance with the man before leaving through the door.
Sitting back down in the chair, Flen grabbed a pipe from the sidetable. Drawing a rune in the air, he lit the pipe, reclining back in the chair as he puffed out a ring of smoke which floated gently upwards, disappearing into the rafters above.