Chapter 374: Ben's 11
"OK, team, let's go over the mission again. And please remember that we are using code names for the rest of this operation." Ben was dressed in a red/black checkered suit and a Guy Fawkes mask. He was using the codename Jester. At some point, when going over the plan, he insisted on picking codenames for everyone.
"Meatloaf?"
"I drop first with my bag and aim for the tower. Why the codenames?"
Ben glared at Ozzy. "Because I like codenames, and it will screw up some divination spells. Do you remember who blinded the Cyclops?"
"Thank you, Fearless Leader. Odysseus used a fake name and kept out of trouble; we will, too."
"Moving on, what's your job, FL?"
Jagular skill and is an expert dropper.>
Anyone who had seen Rolly or Squirmie drop from concealment to ambush a monster would agree with that. Their hunting cry of 'Helloooooo' was feared now throughout the Beastwoods.
"Silver?"
"Levitation. I'll ride down with Meatloaf and keep him light and fluffy for as long as possible." Suzette was in her guise as the Silver Sorceress. To everyone except Rolly, Ben, Ozzy, and Squirmie, she was a rogue Fae sorceress who had taken up residence in town recently. Suzette was 5'6 with dark black hair and was nothing like this woman. Silver was over six feet tall, with the large green eyes and long pointed ears common among the high Fae. Her golden hair streamed down past her waist.
"Bag Lady?"
"Cuddle up in that spacious mancave and enjoy myself. And, uh...and make sure people can breathe and keep the bag light as a feather."
"Teeth?"
"Smack Bag Lady in the head if the air gets stale or we start dropping too fast. Once down, I help Mr. Meatloaf with whatever he needs me to handle. And I can certainly handle a lot." Jenny and Viv had repeatedly argued about what she could take with her on the mission. Vivian insisted she needed to feel at home in Ozzy's bag for her magic to work. Jenny had finally allowed the bag hag to load her favorite furniture into Ozzy's bag. Once Vivian was inside, anyone else who entered the bag could breathe inside. Her magic could also reduce the bag's weight so Suzette could levitate both the bag and Ozzy.
"Gorgeous?"
"I'll make all those poor dears better. I can feel them from here, trapped in waking nightmares and endless pain. I'm glad I have lots of cookies for this trip." Granny was quite pleased with her code name and drooling with anticipation of eating the bad dreams of an entire sanitarium.
"Fido?"
"Help Teeth unload the bag and set up the getaway plan." Rolly had been spending a lot of time practicing with his Shapechanger ability. Currently, he looked like a large black dog with oversized feet. Unlike Squirmie, whose Hound imitation had fooled even a High Fae, he was still having trouble moving like a dog.
"Hotstuff?"
"Eat tasty bacon, pretend she is a dragon. Roar! and inflate my beautiful balloon." Myrna was glowing. The little kobold fire shaman had lounged in a fold of the mainsail on the journey here, absorbing a large amount of heat. She was half-drunk with power, and Ozzy was keeping an eye on her. Myrna was keeping an eye on the little bag of Battle Bacon he had on his belt.
"Squirrely?"
"I'm on doors. Hopefully, there is some good wood in them. I've never worked with dungeon wood before."
"Cracksman?"
"Picking locks, finding traps, and handling the treasure vaults, which, I will mention again, it would be good to have some information on." Mcteeth had been delighted to be asked to go along. He'd learned the hard way that it was better to be on the inside of this group than on the outside. When they told him they were raiding an insanely dangerous tower to rescue a few crazy people, he assumed they just forgot to mention the treasure vaults, it being such an obvious goal. If you had a magical tower, you had treasure vaults; everyone knew that. He kept bringing up the subject but, to his disappointment, he hadn't been given any information on where they were.
Jester gave a thumbs up. "We drop in two minutes. Everyone except Meatloaf, Silver, and Fearless Leader, get in the bag and get comfortable."
Vivian went first, and the front of the bag opened for her like a tunnel entrance. She crawled inside, and everyone else followed, one by one. Inside, the place looked like a shabby hobbit hole with old furniture and rounded walls. Ozzy had cleared everything out that wasn't needed for the mission. Ben created a glowing ball of light as the entrance sealed and left them in the dark. On the outside, Ozzy put the bag into a sturdy leather backpack and went to the ship's rail. Silver grabbed hold of his hand and cast her spell, and they were both floating. Fearless leader dug her sharp talons into the backpack.
Ozzy waved to the crew and leaped over the edge. Far below them, the Silverthorn Sanitarium glowed bright blue for an instant.
Silver shuddered. "Did you feel that? Like something sucking at my soul."
"Just barely. You might be more affected because of your heritage. Be careful! And if you start losing mana too fast once we are down, get in the bag. You should be safe in there. Rolly thinks that my bag is a pocket dimension of some sort, like a mini-fae realm."
"Careful you don't get zapped, bug."
They floated down slowly, getting glimpses of the tower when the storm thinned. Five minutes later, the tower lit up again. This time, they all felt it. And they could see that they weren't on course to hit the tower. Wings beat hard, and Fearless Leader moved them directly above the target. Rolly and Squirmie had experimented for hours over the past day to find the best form for her, not knowing how much of her flying ability was based on magic. She currently resembled a dragonfly with one-foot-long wings more than she did a butterfly. Silver had her arms around Meatloaf's neck from the front, keeping a tight hold. As soon as the pulse occurred, she felt her spell waiver, and they dropped quickly before she could recast the spell. It took everything she had to recast it, even several hundred feet from the tower. As planned, she controlled their descent but let them quickly drop to the tower. At one hundred feet, the levitation spell winked off. Squirmie's wings beat furiously, slowing their descent. A moment later, they landed with a heavy thud, the stone under Ozzy's feet cracking.
Silver bit her lip. "I lost 500 mana that time, and it felt worse. Recasting the levitation spell took over a thousand mana. The professors weren't kidding at all about how draining this place is."
"I only lost about half that. You're definitely more vulnerable to it. Let's get to work."
The bag was thumped on the ground three times, the signal that they were down. Ben was out first, with Woodrat and Mcteeth. They looked around quickly, and Jester pointed to the door. "Cracksman, get that door to the lower levels unlocked and then take a look at the first cell. The doors are supposed to be thick wood taken from a local dungeon, so Squirrely should be able to help you open them. You've got the name and description of the guy we need; start with him. If we can, we'll take more people with us. I'm taking a look at this damned apparatus."
The machine in question was a large dome of dull metal with few markings. Jester examined it as quickly as possible but saw no way to open it up. He was curious to take a look but not anxious to experiment with it. The rogue academics from the Experimental College had warned him about it and the massive amounts of power that it controlled. After not finding a way to open it up, he ran to help break a certain prisoner out of his cell.
Meanwhile, everyone else except Bag Lady left the bag. Jenny reached back into it and dragged forth an endless amount of brightly colored heavy cloth that formed the outline of an inflatable dragon. Everyone not working with the prisoners helped spread it out and connect the small gondola that hung under the belly. Myrna grabbed Ozzy by the belt and demanded her snacks. "Hand over the good stuff, Meatloaf. I need to chew slow or burn-burpees not so controllable." Reluctantly, he handed her a bag of brightly glowing bacon, and she carefully began eating a piece.
Fearless Leader moved to a lookout position on a piece of broken wall. The tower had been taller once, and something had destroyed the upper levels. What was left was a ring of jagged walls around the edge, a mysterious half-dome in the center of the floor, and a stairway with a ramp down. From the ramp came the sound of many people screaming and yelling incoherently or sobbing. Gorgeous was smiling but shaking her head sadly. "Those poor dears. I'm going to hand them cookies through the little eating slots to make them feel better."
Teeth looked over at her. "Careful. I can see you losing that old lady look already. There's a lot of insanity and sadness here." Granny Gorpunkle just smiled and hobbled down the ramp.
Ben caught up with Mcteeth and Woodrat as they were looking at the first door. The little thief was examining the locks and the edges of the door and not liking what he had found.
"This door is half a foot thick and weighs a few tons. There are several traps on it that will trigger explosives if it's opened, and the lock has poisoned needles. It's totally mechanical, nothing magical. This may take some time, maybe a couple of hours, unless you don't mind a large explosion and can put the prisoner back together."
Woodrat put his hand on the door, his fingers sank into the wood, and he gently pulled. A three-foot by five-foot slab of wood fell backward into the corridor with a soft thud as the wood wright stepped out of the way. "Or we could cheat and do it that way. This is good wood! It's high tier but totally drained of mana. Easy to work with after you push a little smoke into it." Mcteeth glared at the Captain as Ben crawled through the hole, leaving his extraction specialist to free more prisoners. Granny was moving down the ramp, talking with people and handing her cookies through the small slots in the door used for feeding the prisoners.
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Ben thought the cell was surprisingly nice, with a bed, table, window, and thick carpets. A person sat at the desk, looking at Ben with a strange expression on his face. His hair was long and grey, combed straight behind him. He finished what he was writing and turned to look at Ben.
"Excuse me for interrupting, Mr. Vladimir, but we are staging a jailbreak, and you're invited."
The man looked Ben up and down. His tall, pointed ears contrasted with his thick nose and heavy beard. He spoke in a deadpan voice. "Ten seconds."
"Ten seconds? Until you are ready to leave?"
"Three seconds, you'll see." Another pulse lit up the tower. Vladimir closed his eyes in pain but seemed otherwise unaffected. The people in the other cells screamed. Everyone in the rescue party felt like they were hit by a hard blow to the stomach as a thousand points of mana were pulled out of them. Silver went pale and fell to her knees but managed to stagger back up.
Vladimir smiled slightly. "One gets used to it after this long. When you run out of mana and collapse, they will find cells for you, and you can experience the endless joy of it yourself. You really shouldn't have come here."
"Nope, not in the plan. We are leaving shortly, and we're taking you with us. We have a job for you to do and came a long way to get you."
Vladimir cocked his head, and Jester saw one eye was green and the other black. "I'm not sure I want to leave. After all, I could have left ages ago simply by agreeing to work with my former guild. Why should I think you won't be worse? And it's not going to work. You are either going to trigger the explosives and kill us all, or we will go splat as you try to descend the outside of the tower or collapse as you try to run down the ramp. No spells can be cast. No magical flight or levitation is possible. You are a short time away from being a permanent resident. Maybe it's better if I stay here."
Ben wasn't ready to try and subdue the strange man just yet but he knew it might come to that. "Ah, but we have a wonderful escape plan that doesn't depend on magic. Why not come and take a look, and if unconvinced, you can walk back to your cell? But as I said, we have a job for your special talents, and besides freedom, we have some incentives to offer you."
Vladimir shrugged and followed Jester out. He looked at the inflatable dragon, the kobold eating enchanted bacon, and nodded to himself. "It might work, but you don't have enough lift. Are you leaving people here? Or are your extras diving off the top and taking a long walk back from the nether realms? I don't recommend it. This place is hell already and connects to some bad places."
Silver came over to him. He looked at her, noting her Fae heritage. "Ah, one of my mother's people. How does it feel to lose some of yourself every few minutes? Excruciatingly painful, I imagine. I have only half your heritage, and my father's dwarven blood balances it, so I am insulated somewhat from the pain of my device. I heard you scream; the next will be worse. If I had known how my work would be used, I never would have let Damien talk me into helping him make it. Ironically, one of his kin is here. Don't look so surprised, Mr. Jester; I can smell a Franklin a mile away. Now tell me of this job."
Silver smiled at him. "We need your help to construct a teleport pad. Politics and the Mages Guild are blocking our Baron from completing the work. We have the stone, the enchanted metal for the runes, and runecarvers to assist you, along with several academics. But we need your genius to finish the job."
Vladimir looked interested. "The mages guild opposes your Baron? That would almost make me take the job, but I am beaten and tired, and this place has sapped my soul. Do you have beer there? I crave beer and fine wines to drink and a soft bed to sleep in with my wives and the sun on my face. Promise me those."
Silver nodded, knowing that this was a contract of some sort. "I know of a tavern with fairly good beer and interesting wine where you can drink for free. I'll find a house that will hold your family with a suitable bed and windows facing east."
He shrugged. "Almost you tempt me, but what of my wives?"
"Where are your wives?"
He squatted on the floor and began drawing pictures of three human women in the stone, using just a fingernail. "Three wives, all of them beauties. I wooed them from my cell and have never so much as held their hands. You must free them as well. Forty-five seconds."
Ozzy strode over to them. "We'll get themmy promise. Silver, get in the bag, now! You follow her. It's safe inside, and Vivian has enough alcohol to get a squad of soldiers drunk."
Vladimir giggled as Silver crawled into the bag. "Ooooh, You have one of the Hefty Bags? I haven't seen one of these in centuries, and well planned. But I will wait for my wives. Free them, and I will get in your bag. Ten seconds."
The pulse lit up the tower again and screams from inmates and the new arrivals filled the night.
Ozzy yelled to Myrna, "Start it up, Hotstuff."
The kobold wobbled drunkenly to the tube coming from the dragon's rear end. She mumbled to herself. "Disgusting little halflings." Putting her head into it, she burped, and an explosion of super-heated air partially filled the dragon-shaped balloon. "Meatloaf!! More bacon!"
Ozzy handed her more and started chewing on some himself. He noticed where the tube connected to the dragon. "I'll remember that the next time I deal with those guys. Hurry it up, people. How many prisoners do we have to free?"
A large talking dog raced up the ramp, escorting three young women who screamed joyfully and ran to Vladimir. Everyone noted a family resemblance between the three despite the horrible state of their hair and dress. All began crying. Vladimir gathered them into his arms and led them to the bag. "There are a dozen more besides my little dears. Unless you want their deaths on your souls, you will take them all."
The Butcher agreed. "I'm not leaving anyone here to rot. Get back down there, Fido, and tell them to get moving."
More prisoners were freed; some were unable to walk or unconscious. Another pulse hit, and the Mcteeth collapsed out of mana. The dog grabbed him and drugged him by the collar to the bag. Jenny was holding the anchor line of the dragon, keeping it from moving. Other, less secure lines were tied to rocky outcrops on the wall. The Butcher had grown to ten feet tall to gain enough weight to anchor his end of the dragon. Jenny watched him, smiling, as he breathed fire into the dragon. She appreciated and would remember the display of power.
The kobold had eaten half a dozen pieces of bacon and vented a huge burst of heat but was swaying back and forth now, exhausted. Ozzy pointed towards the bag. Myrna looked up at the fully inflated dragon as she stumbled to the entrance. It was truly a work of art, and some trick of the hot air circulating inside made each part move. The wings slowly moved up and down, the tail curled up and lifted, and the head moved back and forth, one eye winking. Myrna glared out it. "Filthy minded little hair-foots! Obscene winkings and tail-waggings should be done in private!"
Jenny agreed, "Yeah, that sure does look like the dance you keep for mating season. No wonder that wedding had problems."
Ozzy huffed and puffed again, blowing out heat like he was lighting the main sail of a ship, then tied off the end of the tube and hooked it to the gondola. "As long as it gets us out of here, I can deal with a little erotic dragon dance. Get inside, Hotstuff." The kobold scrambled inside the bag, still shaking her head.
Gorgeous came walking up from below, looking much younger and leading several men and women who were in a daze. "OK, children, just follow me into the bag, and you can take a long nap with no more nasty things bothering you. This is all but the last one, Meatloaf. They should have him up soon. I'm getting in the bag before I lose all this lovely power."
Ben, Rolly, and Woodrat were looking at the last door. It was different from the others, a complicated thing made of metal and stone, covered with movable pieces that might be a lock or a trap. They heard someone humming from within, but all attempts to get their attention had been in vain. Ben looked at Woodrat, who was looking badly exhausted. He'd used all of his smoke to warp the doors of the cells. Rolly had helped him load the pieces into the bag and, despite the exertion, was looking better. "Head up and get to safety. Make sure he gets there, Fido. I have a bad feeling about this door and don't want anyone around when I try to open it."
Rolly grabbed Woodrat and took him up the ramp. Ben stared at the door, noting how the hinges were situated and the lack of a keyhole. The runes were familiar to him, as was the locking mechanism. It just needed a spark. Taking his sword, he removed a small crystal from the pommel and touched it to a conjunction of three runes, releasing the storm-aspected mana inside the crystal battery. Wheels spun, and levers disengaged as the door opened before him.
The opulent room inside was huge, with walls covered in equations, scribblings, and obscene drawings. An old man wearing a pair of tattered pants, goggles, and nothing else was looking at Ben, and holding a dangerous-looking pen in his hand. His tangled white hair and beard went nearly to his knees. "Careful now, I'm not afraid to get ink all over both of us! I won't go easily into the long night!"
Ben held up his hand and turned it to show the ring on his finger. "Time to leave, Uncle Damien; I've got a dragon ready to fly us out of here."
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