Mist of Shadows
patreon
Mist Jumps Part 9
🕑 Added 2017-07-29 06:28:15 +0000 UTCGenie looked over everyone’s choices with amusement.
Generic Builder
Background: Drop In:
Location: Fantastic [200] (Portals)
Builder Species: [Free]
Right? Wrong? Build: [Free] Gives you some emotional distance to build stuff if you need it.
Once a Builder, Always a Builder: [Free]
Fun is fun and Building is Fun: [Free] Avoid the worst parts of boredom.
Builder Home: [Free] Increases regeneration at home.
Reformation: [Free] limited one up
Scan: [Free]
Build: [Free]
Inventory: [Free] Store a decent amount of building material
Deconstruction: [Free] Quickly deconstruct non sentient things.
Magical Makeover: [Free Drop In] Quickly alter copies of blueprints to change the look of a minion or building.
HUD: [100 Discounted Drop In] Mental computer that keeps track of your blueprints.
Magical Assembly: [200] Assemble and disassemble things using magic, drastically increases speed
Mana Substitution: [300] Substitute mana for material as long as you have a blueprint of the material.
Minion Lord: [600] Your minions learn faster.
Knack:
Inventory, Greater: [100]
Tree Singing: [100] Shape plants by singing.
Blueprints/Items: [+300 Bonus Stipend]
Home Blueprint: [Free]
Minion Tree Blueprint: [200 Discounted Drop In]
Mana Collector: [300 Discounted Drop In]
Magic Trunk: [50]
Wireless Printer: [50]
Companions:
Builder Mentor: [200]
Assemble the Guard: [200] All companions get 400 to spend in the ex-minion tree.
Drawbacks:
Princess Deal: [+100] Through a magical contract, puppy dog eyes or something you've come to work for a princess or main character that needed some help, while they aren't demanding, you'll be spending a decent chunk of time working on projects for them and helping keep them safe.
Setbacks: [+100] It seems that you’ve attracted attention from a group that doesn’t appreciate you building things. Whenever you Build a large product or deconstruct something in a location that people can reasonably get to, expect some activist to protest which slows down Building time and creates red tape.
Tree Huggers: [+200] Problems with environmentalists.
Rabid Druids: [+100 Requires Tree Huggers] Now you’ve done it, you’ve pissed off violent magic using extremists that will get revenge for any attempt to ruin the landscape or deconstruct plants or even build anything in ‘natural’ areas.
Finicky Components: [+100] Rather than need wood and some metal to complete your door, you need wood, screws, hinges and a doorknob with a lock being optional. In other words, expect your building time to increase by at least double as you’re forced to create a lot more individual components.
Dungeon Problems: [+100] For some reason your monsters can escape your dungeons even when they’re not supposed to. They also tend to actually loot the treasure chests and ambush adventurers making your dungeons less attractive to adventurers which makes the fact that monsters escape harder to deal with.
Corrupted Instance: [+100] For some strange reason your dungeons scale with the group that enters them becoming much harder than they have any right to be and always providing a decent challenge. For some reason your margin of safety for your monsters attacking you is much lower in your dungeons.
Temple of Doom: [+100 Requires Corrupted Instance] Yeah, your dungeons are basically death traps.
Access Denied: [+100] Your dungeons tend to require keys from other dungeons or require special keys to be forged before adventurers can enter your dungeons.
Madness: [+100] Your buildings and creatures have a twisted quality that tends to cause others headaches, nausea and in extreme cases madness with prolonged exposure.
M.C. Escher: [+100] Your buildings and dungeons end up looking like Escher paintings.
Genie shook her head as she finished looking over all of the flaws Mist wanted to take. “You’re going to have so many issues with those flaws. Why are you taking the madness flaw?”
Mist shrugged. “I wouldn’t mind being able to scan various madness inducing items so that I can reproduce them.”
Riley piped up, “If I have to stick a dollar in my mad scientist jar for crap how much is that plan going to cost him?”
Mist turned to look at Riley. “I don’t have a mad scientist jar.”
“You should!” Riley looked over at Hermione and Willow. “Back me up here?”
Willow looked away from the class options. “She has a point. I’m not sure crippling your ability to build things for a year is worth the hassle.”
Hermione looked down her nose at Mist. “Not to mention that you’d be leaving cursed buildings and items around.”
Dawn looked at Genie. “Can I have a rolled up newspaper to hit Mist with?”
Mist turned and looked at Dawn. “It’s not that bad, I can just stash my creations away in a vault… yeah okay, never mind I’d rather not create a bunch of cursed items just in case I want to come back here later.”
Genie asked, “What are you going to drop?”
“My improved inventory, I should be able to get away with a smaller inventory with mana substitution. If nothing else, I can make some large containers and stick them in my warehouse.”
“You should be fine.” Genie looked at the choices the group picked. While some of them had picked various spell casting classes, everyone had went with the same perks.
Monster: Purple skin, elf ears, blue hair and glowing green eyes.
Beastial Nature: [200] Borderline supernatural toughness, tireless.
Hero?: [200] Character Class
“That looks decent enough. Ready to jump?” Genie smiled at Mist.
Cordelia asked, “What happens if you can’t finish the project for the Bridezilla flaw?”
“Nothing, the drawback is done at the end of your stay. It’s not a chain ender if that’s what you mean.”
Mist winced. “That’s still going to be a pain in the ass flaw.”
Genie snickered. “Sure but it will fit in rather nicely with what I was planning.”
“Dare I ask?” Mist asked warily.
Genie snickered. “Nothing too horrible.”
“Just as long as I’m not stuck in one world for the entire time.”
“Nope, I don’t have a problem with you finding a number of princesses if it comes down to it.”
“Fine, just as long as you don’t set the project as too horrible.”
“Nope, nothing too objectionable,” Genie replied with amusement.
Mist took a breath as he glanced around the room at the girls. ‘It shouldn’t take more than a couple of weeks or months to finish the Bridezilla project, I could give three of my friends the ability to start as Builders and thus take flaws so they could pick up various knacks or I could drop mana collector and give six of my friends the ability as I shouldn’t need mana taps to start with.’ He glanced at his friends, that was the worst part of having so many companions, trying to figure out who to upgrade with what without hurting people’s feelings. “If I drop the mana collector blueprint and took the Bridezilla flaw, I could import six of you as Builders…”
Hermione spoke up, “The question becomes who gets upgraded first?”
“Exactly,” Mist admitted reluctantly.
Laura grinned. “That’s easy, your cute little sister.”
Mist glanced at Laura and saw her hopeful look. He glanced over at Harry, he doubted that Harry would go power mad or anything. “Fine, Laura and Harry, four more slots.”
Fred raised her hand. “Please.”
Mist grinned at Fred. “Welcome aboard.”
Leet considered raising his hand then decided that he was already an amazing tinker. “I’ll wait until you can make everyone a Builder.”
Ranma shrugged. “Doesn’t matter to me.”
Willow glanced around as she raised her hand. “Please?”
Mist nodded. “Two slots left.”
Taylor glanced around then raised her hand. “I wouldn’t mind being able to create interesting bugs.”
Dennis gulped. “Oh sweet god.”
Mist laughed as he pictured Skitter with an army of giant mutated bugs of doom. “Sold.”
Harry smiled at Taylor. “This is going to be fun.”
“That leaves the last spot for me, right?” Sin asked hopefully.
Mist glanced around at his friends then relaxed when he realized that no one had an objection to Sin getting the last spot. “That works.”
“Feel free to grab flaws other than Bridezilla.” Genie smiled as she watched the future Builders dash to the various screens to look over their options.
0o0o0
Laura, Harry, Fred, Willow, Taylor, Sin
Monster: [Free] Purple skin, elf ears, blue hair and glowing green eyes.
Hero?: [200] Character Class
Minion Lord: [300] You minions learn faster.
Magical Makeover: [100] Quickly alter copies of blueprints to change the look of a minion or building.
HUD: [200]
Magical Assembly: [400]
Drawbacks:
Princess Deal: [+100]
Setbacks: [+100]
Tree Huggers: [+200]
Rabid Druids: [+100 Requires Tree Huggers]
Finicky Components: [+100]
Dungeon Problems: [+100]
Corrupted Instance: [+100]
Temple of Doom: [+100 Requires Corrupted Instance]
Access Denied: [+100]
Conversion Error!: [+300]
Knacks: 300 points
Laura: Knacks/Items
Tinker: [200]
Smith: [50 Discounted Ex-Minion]
Expanded Belt Pouch: [50]
Willow: Knacks/Items
Minion Affinity: [300] Magic users, elves, researchers
Fred: Knacks/Items
Soft Physics: [300]
Harry: Knacks/Items
Minion Affinity: [100] Magic users
Artisan: [100]
Craftsman: [100]
Taylor: Knacks/Item
Minion Affinity: [400] Insects, creepy, giant, beasts
Artisan: [100]
Drawback:
Madness: [+100]
M.C. Escher: [+100]
Sin: Knacks/Items
Minion Affinity: [300] Nymphs, magic users, dancers
Dennis stared in horror at Taylor’s choices. “Really? Giant creepy beasts and insects?”
Taylor glanced at Piper then back at Dennis. “And they’re even better with the madness flaw.”
“I don’t think that word means what you think it does,” Dennis replied half seriously.
“Which word?” Piper asked innocently.
“Better,” Dennis replied cheekily.
“Someone should have taken a specialty for tentacle monsters,” Riley jokingly suggested.
Tara shook her head. “The bugs are going to be creepy enough.”
Taylor frowned as she thought about spending a year without her various powers, at least the trio weren’t around. “I’m not all that comfortable not having my powers for the jump but at least we still have our magic rings and armor.”
“We’ll survive.” Harry wasn’t looking forward to not having his magical abilities during the jump but they should be able to fix some of that with Mist’s mana infuser. Even if they couldn’t fix it he could always just spend the time building things or playing videogames in the companion housing.
Willow said, “It’s going to be weird not having access to our enhanced mastery power for a year.”
“I’m sure you’ll survive.” Genie stuck her tongue out at Willow playfully.
Lily said, “Look on the bright side, it will give you a chance to practice your new powers.”
“Okay, now that we have everything set, enjoy your portal jumping vacation.”
“Are you going to tell us where we’re going and who my mentor is?” Mist asked hopefully.
“Sure, your first stop is the dungeon in the Eye of the Beholder game and your mentor is Arya Stark.”
Mist sputtered, “Arya Stark?”
“Yep! She fell through a portal after dealing with the Freys, ran into a Builder and has been looking for a way home for a couple of months. I arranged to help her get back to something resembling home if she helped you out. Either way, you have a contract with Viserys Targaryen in two days to build him an army.”
Mist stared at Genie. “Genie!”
“Eh, at the end of the dungeon, you’ll find a portal to where you need to go next. Your various buildings are waiting for you in Westeros.” Genie snickered as she snapped her fingers and sent him to the first world.
0o0o0
Mist blinked as the group found themselves in a rather dark stone dungeon. “This is going to be a mess.”
Arya smiled at the group of attractive purple skinned humanoids. “Any idea where we are?”
Riley blinked as she looked at the familiar looking stranger. “Arya?”
“Arya Stark, you?” Arya asked curious about the purple skinned beings in front of her.
“Riley.” Riley glanced around the chamber.
Cordelia glanced away from Arya and looked at Mist. “Please tell me that you know where we are.”
“Yeah, give me a second and I’ll have a map.” Mist pulled his laptop out of his inventory.
Arya asked, “What is that?” as she scanned Mist’s laptop.
“It’s a computer, basically a magic box with a bunch of different books and such…” Mist trailed off as he wasn’t quite sure how to explain a computer to someone from a medieval world.
Arya frowned as she mentally looked at the ‘blueprint’ her scan had come up with and realized that her strange box pattern was probably useless. She’d ran into the problem a couple of times when she’d scanned various inventions that she didn’t understand or books she hadn’t read or looked through. She mentally cleared her mental desktop and studied the group that Genie said would help her find adventure. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of the strange purple skinned people but at least none of them had threatened her or anything. “Ah.”
Sin smiled at Arya. “How long have you been a Builder?”
Arya frowned slightly as she looked at the blue haired overly attractive girl. “Half a year, I spent a couple of months with my mentor Elsa then she wished me luck and sent me on my way. I’ve been wandering ever since.”
Mist brought up the laptop’s search engine then punched in Eye of the Beholder maps. “Here, hold this.” He handed the computer to Selena then opened his inventory and went looking for his new wireless printer.
Selena frowned at Mist. “You should probably find a spell that conjures a table at some point.”
Hermione drew her wand and conjured a sturdy wooden table. “I doubt it will last more than a couple of days but that should be more than enough.”
“Or that.” Selena set the laptop on the desk. “Thanks. Is there anything good in the dungeon?”
Mist pulled his new wireless printer out of his inventory and set it on the table next to his laptop. “Genie basically said that we were in a game world or close enough which means there should be magical items here as well as a portal network that I wouldn’t mind scanning.”
Abby asked, “Don’t you already have a portal blueprint?”
“Not one with multiple access keys like the one in the game.” He pulled up the web page and printed off the collection of maps along with their keys. “That should help.”
Arya stared at the printer. “Can that make books?”
“I could but it would be easier to just construct one.” Mist turned and looked at the group. “How do we want to do this?”
Cordelia said, “You have avatars, you might as well create a couple then have them teleport around the dungeon picking stuff up while you explain who Viserys is and how much of a problem working for him is going to be.”
Arya snorted. “He’s a power mad lunatic that thinks he’s important because his bloodline used to rule the Seven Kingdoms. In my world he sold his sister to a group of horse riding raiders hoping that they could take ‘his’ country back not really understanding the scale he was dealing with or that even if he’d managed to talk the raiders into crossing the sea, something they’d never done, they would have been cut down by cavalry and broken on the walls of our castles.”
“In other words, we’re screwed?” Cordelia asked.
“Not particularly, the man is an idiot. My task is to build a fleet of ships for Illyrio Mopatis to take his army to Westeros. My job is done once I build the fleet which means I can head north and help Winterfell and my family even if they aren’t exactly my family they’re still my family, I’m guessing your job is to build the army?”
“As I understand it, yeah,” Mist admitted.
“In that case, whisper some words and convince Viserys to attack the Ironborn. They’re rapists, raiders and scum. Let Viserys expend his resources thinking that you’ll replenish his supply of warriors once the Ironborn are dealt with. If he loses, we win, if he wins, we can direct him to deal with Tywin Lannister.”
Albus asked, “Who is Tywin Lannister?”
Mist turned to look at Albus. “Think of a competent muggle version of Lucius Malfoy, now make him a lord with several gold mines under his control and a lust for power. The realm would be a better place with him gone.”
“Ah.” Albus could see why they wouldn’t want to leave someone like that alive.
Mist created three avatars. “Take the maps and see what you can scan and loot.”
“Of course.” The three avatars smiled as he picked up the maps then headed out of the chamber.
Arya watched the duplicates leave. “That’s a nice trick, I don’t suppose you can teach me how to pull that off?”
“We’ll see how it goes. I’m Mist.” Mist gestured toward Hermione, “How about a round of introductions?”
“I’m Hermione,” Hermione replied as she walked over to the computer and looked at the website for the dungeon they were currently stuck in while the rest of the group worked on introducing themselves. She wasn’t sure what to make of the Builder that was supposed to be Mist’s mentor but at least she was attractive, even if she was only five feet tall. She had a feeling that convincing Viserys to see sense about his plan to capture Westeros might be a bit harder than they were expecting.
0o0o0
Mist shivered as he tried to look outside of the dungeon and found a dark void of nothingness that stretched as far as his magically enhanced vision could see. “Shit.”
Harry looked away from the stone portal arch that he was studying. “What’s the matter?”
Mist turned and swept his gaze around looking to see if there was anything outside of the dungeon, he wasn’t terribly surprised to find another section of dungeon hanging in the darkness but it was more than a little surreal. “We’re in a pocket realm or something, there’s nothing outside of the dungeon other than darkness.”
Arya shivered as she thought about getting lost in the void. “That’s disturbing.”
“That explains why the maps are scarily accurate,” Noelle pointed out.
“What does that mean for the people we brought back to life?” Hermione asked warily as she thought about the various adventurers that they’d rescued and sent on their way.
Mist stopped using the x-ray part of his eyes and turned to look at Hermione. “I don’t know, either they went to a real world or they faded away because they weren’t real. Either way, nothing I can do about it right now. How many other magical items do we need to grab before we teleport down to the last level and kill the beholder?”
Noelle checked the maps. “We already picked up the ring of sustenance and the +5 long sword that was next to the paladin bones.”
Laura spoke up, “Not to mention blueprints for a number of key eating locks.”
Xander snorted. “Key eating locks are a good way to get people to stab you.”
Willow said, “Lily and I picked up a scan of the magical gem trigger device.”
“Leet found some bracers of defense that you can probably mass produce for your army which means we have offense and defense covered for the most part.”
“Does that mean we’re done?” Arya asked hopefully.
“I don’t see why not.” Mist activated his X-ray and distance viewing eye powers and went looking for the endboss. He wasn’t sure if he should be amused or horrified about how easy it was to find the creature half a dozen levels below him. He scanned the beholder for the pattern then teleported a rock into his central eye then a large junk shield into the creature’s brain. He smiled as a portal opened in the beholder’s chambers. He checked the glowing blue oval portal with his cheat sheet ability. “I just killed the last boss and it opened a portal to Pentos in a version of your world.”
Arya sighed in relief. “It’s a start. How are we getting there?”
“We’re teleporting.” Mist reached out with his teleportation ability and teleported the group to the beholder’s chamber.
Xander glanced down at the dead beholder. “We really should look into getting immunity to someone pulling that trick on us.”
“It’s on my list of things to work on,” Mist admitted.
Arya stared at the shield that was partially sticking out of the monstrous creature that looked like a ball with teeth and ten stalks with eyes on them. “What was it?”
“They’re called beholders or eye tyrants. They’re rather nasty creatures that use dark magic from their various eyestalks.”
“Their central eye also makes it rather hand to use magic in front of them,” Willow spoke up as she studied the portal.
Arya asked, “What are we waiting for?”
“Nothing I guess, we can always try to open a portal back to this world once we have more time.”
“I should be able to open a door back here as long as we don’t leave the jump,” Lily pointed out.
James grinned. “In that case, let’s go.”
Mist wasn’t sure what to expect as he stepped through the portal and out into Illyrio Mopatis’ grand hall. He managed to keep his face from betraying his surprise at ending up exactly where he’d ‘needed’ to go. He took several steps forward to allow the rest of the group to exit the portal then studied the white haired man that looked in his late teens or early twenties. He could feel a swirling and nauseating mixture of rage, jealousy, envy and resentment almost pouring off the idiot though the man thought himself clever at hiding his emotions behind a pasted on smile. He doubted he would have been fooled by the man’s attempts to be charming even without his E.S.P but maybe that was just because he knew what type of man the so called prince in exile was.
He turned and focused on the purple eyed white haired teenager in a lovely blue silk dress sitting next to her brother, where Viserys might have passed for handsome, Daenerys was stunning with nearly flawless pale skin, violet eyes and long pale silver gold hair. ‘Now if I can just put up with the idiot.’ He pulled his gaze back to the real power in the room other than himself and his friends. “Magister Illyrio, it is a pleasure to work for such an esteemed person as yourself.”
Viserys stared at Mist and his group as he blurted out, “Your friends are purple…”
“Yes, it’s quite common where I’m from,” Mist lied smoothly.
Arya managed to keep a straight face as she stepped up next to Mist. “It will be my pleasure to build an armada of ships for you.”
Viserys said, “For me, you’re building the ships and army for me.”
Arya opened her mouth to correct the idiot then decided that it wasn’t worth it. Her contract was with Illyrio, not the Beggar Prince. She closed her mouth then glanced around the hall at the various servants and food laid out then looked back at Illyrio.
Mist said, “Of course, such was the deal, an army for your sister.”
Viserys scowled as he was reminded what he’d given up for his dreams of reclaiming his rightful place as the ruler of Westeros. “Right, that.”
Illyrio said, “Welcome to my hall, I will have the servants bring more food.”
Mist inclined his head slightly. “That would be appreciated. We can discuss what type of army you want while we eat.”
Hermione frowned slightly as she sorted through the Magister’s mind and reviewed his future plans. She almost felt sorry for the greedy bastard as he didn’t understand the extent of the debt that Westeros was in. If he’d known he would have tossed Viserys onto the street and sold Daenerys without a second thought. Of course unlike the show, they’d sold her for an army that would cross the sea. She wasn’t all that happy with the twisted nature of Viserys’ mind, hopefully they could figure out a way to have him die on the campaign or have Amelia fix his brain. She glanced at the servants as they brought in more food, she was just glad that they were wearing anti disease and poison jewelry or she wouldn’t have trusted the food.
By the end of dinner Mist was rather annoyed at Viserys, the idiot had so many grand plans about marching into King’s landing and taking the city that he really just wanted to strangle him and convince him that there were better ways to do it but he kept his mouth shut, after all the sooner the guy died in glorious battle the sooner he could wander off and work on his own projects. Thankfully Illyrio didn’t really understand war either, just money.
0o0o0
Viserys leered at Mist, Arya and Daenerys as they walked out to the area that Illyrio had procured to build his minion tree so that he could start building an army. “How was she?”
Mist twitched slightly as he had to resist the urge to ask him how it was any business of his or what the hell his damage was that he’d ask that question in front of his sister. “I wouldn’t know, I’m not in a hurry and she is a princess.” He turned to look at Illyrio and the various stacks of lumber the man had procured for him. “Are your guards ready to delay anyone that shows up?”
“Fool,” Viserys muttered under his breath yet still loud enough for everyone to hear much to Daenerys’s discomfort.
Arya briefly considered stabbing the idiot then decided that it would be better to see how things turned out, mostly because stabbing him would complicate her own deal and he hadn’t done enough to get on her death list yet.
Illyrio said, “Of course.”
“In that case, let’s get started.” Mist ignored the Beggar King as he raised his hands and started deconstructing the stacks of lumber.
Viserys stared as the lumber turned into motes of multicolored light and flowed into the man’s hands. He’d seen street magicians but nothing like this, he doubted anyone had since the fall of old Valyria.
Daenerys stared at the stack of lumber as it vanished. “Can he really create a tree from that?”
“We’ll see,” Arya replied as she watched Mist turn and start creating a large oak tree. She was looking forward to scanning the finished minion tree once he was done so that she could create her own once she got home. She knew there would be another Arya Stark in Winterfell but she still wanted to go home if only to see her family again before she left to wander.
Mist ignored the guards clashing with someone outside of the complex as he worked on building his minion tree.
Arya blinked as a man dressed in red jumped down from the wall and vanished before he hit the ground. She frowned as several guards screamed as they were cut down outside the walls, she wasn’t sure if they were Illyrio’s guards or the city watch but either way, someone was rather unhappy.
Illyrio pulled his attention away from his guards and watched in fascination as the wooden trunk sprouted branches and grew before his eyes into a rather large tree. He wasn’t sure how the one tree would grow all of the soldiers they needed but it was a start. He frowned slightly as he heard another soldier die, the bribes were going to be expensive to clean up the mess but far cheaper than trying to hire an army. He was looking forward to claiming the treasury or at least heavily skimming off the top after he paid himself back for the money he’d already spent on the cause.
Mist finished building the tree then turned as a group of Illyrio’s guards entered the courtyard. “We drove off the group of mercenaries.”
“Excellent, dispose of the bodies and keep watch.” Illyrio turned away from the guards almost before he finished speaking so that he could study the tree. “I was expecting something more impressive.”
“This is merely the first step,” Mist trailed off as he realized that he really didn’t want to actually explain how the tree worked because he really didn’t want Viserys to hold out for near perfect warriors or anything of that nature. “The next step is I create the army while Arya creates the fleet of ships we’ll need to sail to King’s Landing. The best part is that the King should be traveling for several months, which means that you should be able to take the city while he’s gone.”
Viserys laughed. “Which means we can use the walls against him and trap him between us and the army that rises up against him.”
Arya stared at Viserys. ‘Damn, he’s an idiot if he thinks anyone is going to support him against Robert.’
Mist walked over and touched the tree and looked over the choices. ‘Guard, servant, mage, thief, merchant… yeah, not the best collection of choices. He selected the guard option then pushed the mental slider up to 10 units, pushed the time down to an hour which increased the mana cost a decent amount. He saved the template then hit create. He smiled as the tree grew 10 small fleshy globes. “You’ll have your first ten in an hour.”
“That’s it?” Viserys demanded.
“Consider it a proof of concept.” Mist knew he could have made more guards but he wanted to have somewhere to put them first. “Besides, we’re going to need somewhere to put the army.” He had a feeling he was going to need some soldiers to help keep the various elementals from destroying the barracks he was planning on building.
Illyrio said, “I have a farm a few miles out of town on the coast that should work as a base for building the ships and holding the army.”
“Good enough.” Mist had a feeling they were going to be duplicating a lot of tents then charging the man for the cloth. He winced slightly as Viserys launched into a lecture about how the guards should be trained and about horses and armor and everything that the army would need which was really only about a tenth of what an army would actually need. He had a feeling the next couple of weeks were going to be a pain in his ass, he just hoped that it was worth the 300 points he’d gotten for the flaw.
Arya watched Mist walk off with Viserys and Illyrio then walked over to the minion tree. She looked at her options and smiled as she pulled up her assassin class and added magic user to it. “This should help.” She added the sword class she’d gotten when she’d scanned Xander and winced at the mana cost. ‘Weird and expensive but probably worth it.’ She brought up the option to change the assassin’s appearance then picked brown hair and eyes as well as an average face that wouldn’t look out of place in Westeros. She pushed the number of units up to two and hit accept as she couldn’t afford to create more of the expensive units at once.
Daenerys watched as more more fleshy globes appeared on the tree. “What did you create?”
“I needed some well trained soldiers to take a message to Westeros.” Technically it wasn’t a lie, killing Ramsay Snow would certainly send a message that someone hated him.
“Now what?” Daenerys asked warily.
Xander waited until the girls weren’t looking in his direction then turned visible. “We might as well head back so that Arya can fill in some facts about the world and Westeros.”
Arya pulled a dagger out of her sleeve as she spun. She scowled as she realized that it was just Xander. “You really shouldn’t do that.”
Xander smiled as he walked closer. “My apologies.”
Arya snorted at his insincere and yet amusing reply. “In that case, let’s retire to our quarters for some history lessons.” She had a feeling they’d be interrupted eventually but until then she was hoping that she could convince the princess that her father wasn’t part of the group that killed her family. She knew she had an uphill battle but it was worth the effort especially if she could find someone that could collaborate her family’s side of the story.
0o0o0
Victoria scowled slightly as she put five rather large bullets into one of the ‘stone’ men before the crazy diseased lunatic fell down. She was rather happy that James had silenced her gun so that it didn’t alert everything within miles because her powers didn’t actually help all that much with loud noises. She turned to look at Abby and Amelia who were sitting on the flying carpet. “This would be so much easier if I could fly down and hit them.”
Amelia snorted. “I’d rather not risk you dying of a magical plague/curse.”
“We have magic items for that.”
“No, we have magic items against disease and magic, not specifically curses which means we’re going to play this intelligently and not play Barbie smash.”
Victoria snorted. “Fine.”
Abby said, “If you’re done killing the stone men, we still need to find some Valyrian steel.”
Victoria pulled her wand out of it’s holster and pointed it at the ground. “Accio Valyrian steel!”
Amelia blinked as unlike the rest of the times her girlfriend had tried to summon the strange and magical metal a dagger blade came flying out of the mist that covered part of the shattered island and bounced off Victoria’s shield. “I’m calling that a win.”
Abby flicked her wand and floated the blade up then hit it with a cleaning spell to remove any disease and dirt from clinging to the metal. She floated the pristine blade over so that she could examine it and scan it. She smiled brightly when she got a pattern for Valyrian steel as well as a dagger blade pattern. “That should work, unless you want to keep looking for swords?”
Victoria glanced down at the ‘fog’ covered ground. “We might as well keep looking.”
Abby brought the pattern up and looked at the materials she’d need to recreate it, “Magical fire, magic and steel… that sounds rather costly but workable.”
Amelia said, “If it doesn’t work, we have ebony from Skyrim that we should be able to mass produce.“
Victoria flew north two hundred or so paces then recast her spell to summon any Valyrian steel even if they didn’t find anything it gave them an excuse to stay away from Pentos and Viserys before they killed him for being a lecherous ass.
0o0o0
Tyrion pulled his gaze off the knife sticking out of his father’s chest as the servant pulled another knife out of her sleeve. It had happened so fast, one moment everything was fine and the next his father was dead. He brought his plate up which deflected the girl’s knife, “Guards!”
He might as well not have bothered as the guards were already charging the girl.
The girl smirked at Tyrion then ran for the exit as she pulled two knives out of her sleeves. She tossed one of the knives hard enough to imbed itself in one of the guard’s skull through his helmet.
Tyrion gulped as he watched the girl tear through his father’s guards in a blur like they were green recruits rather than the trained experts they were before she danced out of the hall. ‘She could have killed me.’ He glanced down at the knife that the servant girl had tossed at him, it looked like really nice castle steel but there wasn’t anything particularly distinctive about it. Either way, he knew the assassin could have killed him if she’d wanted and hadn’t. He took a drink of his wine to help settle his nerves as he tried to figure out what the hell he was supposed to do with his father dead.
The assassin slipped to a side room and dropped his illusion revealing his normal male form. He continued toward the servant exit then started making his way back toward the inn where Lily had left the door back to Pentos.
0o0o0
Aisha snuck through the red keep, not that it took much sneaking with her powers but it was always good to stay in practice. She almost felt bad as she slipped past the guards on the queen’s chambers and made her way to the queen’s bed chamber. She glanced at the wine on the nightstand then at the rather attractive woman sleeping. ‘She almost looks at peace passed out drunk.’ She cast sleep on the queen to make sure that the bitch stayed asleep then picked her up and hauled her to the balcony by her armpits. ‘At least it rained last night so the balcony is slick.’
She sort of walked the queen over to the ledge. She held her in place with one hand as she cast soul trap with the other. She pushed the queen over the balcony and watched the queen tumble and land on her head and neck. ‘You’re not walking away from that.’ She ignored the shouts of panic coming from the guards down below as she used her ring to fly to the king’s balcony.
Amy looked away from the sleeping king as she heard someone on the balcony. She whispered, “I’m guessing by the screams that you’re done?”
Aisha kept her voice to a whisper, “Yep, how’s the king?”
“I gave him a boost to his metabolism and repaired his liver and heart. I have a feeling he’ll have a new lease on life once he gets over the shock.”
“I can do one better.” Aisha carefully pulled one of the king’s rings off then pulled out her copy of the Azura’s star that she’d just filled with the queen’s soul and enchanted the ring to protect him from poison. She smiled as she slipped the ring back on his finger. “Poison resistance, it should cut down on his handovers and help with liver damage.”
Amy opened her mouth to respond then closed it as she heard the sound of the door banging open. She gestured toward the window.
Aisha nodded and followed Amy out and up into the air then toward the inn where they’d left Ranma and Hermione. She figured they’d come back in a day or two to kill Joffery in a creatively painful way. She wanted him to suffer for a couple of days before they killed him. Besides, she wasn’t in a hurry to get back to Pentos as Mist said that she couldn’t stab Viserys for being annoying.
0o0o0
Daenerys stared at the pool of water that was bubbling. “You expect me to get in that?”
Sin looked at the jacuzzi then back at Daenerys. “What’s the matter with it?”
“It’s boiling?” Daenerys asked warily.
“Oh, right. No, it’s just air bubbles. I’m mean it’s warm but it’s not that hot.” Sin walked over and stuck her foot in then pulled it out after a couple of seconds. “See?”
Daenerys walked over and reached down and felt the air over the water. It didn’t feel as hot as she would have expected. She quickly swiped her finger through one of the bubbles and was relieved that it wasn’t hot enough to burn her not that she’d ever been burned before. She carefully stuck her hand into the water and relaxed once she realized that it wasn’t any hotter than a nice hot bath. “Sorry…”
“I should have realized you probably wouldn’t have seen a jacuzzi before.” Sin smiled as she reached down and pulled her dress off over her head.
Daenerys stared at the drop dead gorgeous girl with flawless purple skin and perfect breasts. “Ah…”
Sin smiled as she stretched her hands over her head. She tossed her dress on chair by the pool then walked over to the jacuzzi and stepped into it. “Come in, the water is warm.”
Daenerys glanced around then slipped out of her dress and carefully stepped into the bubbling pond. She still wasn’t sure how it worked but she didn’t want to offend her host/owner/friend or whatever Mist and his friends were. She’d been sold and yet they didn’t treat her like a servant which rather confused her. Even Mist’s explanation of buying her freedom from her brother in exchange for a year of service didn’t really make sense except that she was a princess and he was some sort of wizard. Either way, she was happy that Viserys couldn’t threaten her anymore, the one time he’d tried, Xander had said something to him that made him go deathly pale and run. She blinked as she felt Sin’s toe touch the outside of her leg. “What?”
Sin giggled. “Just making sure you aren’t falling asleep on me.”
“It is certainly relaxing,” Daenerys admitted.
“What are you going to do when your brother loses?” Sin asked curious about what the girl was planning.
“Why would he lose?”
“Because he’s not a general and we’re not paid to run his war, we were paid to build him an army and Arya was paid to build a fleet to move the army.”
“Illyrio has hired people and sellswords…”
“Which aren’t exactly used to fighting people in castles. They’re used to Essos where they meet people on open ground or in cities. Robert might be a terrible king but he’s an excellent general and warrior which is something that your brother is not.”
“He’s the prince.”
“In exile, it’s been a long time and your father was more than a little mad by the end of his rule.”
Daenerys would have liked to argue with Sin but Arya had explained things rather well and went into detail on why the war happened in the first place. “That doesn’t mean that he should get to keep the throne or that Tywin Lannister doesn’t need to die.”
“I’d be surprised if Tywin lives out the year, Arya wants his head on a pike, then again she has a list of people that she wants to kill for being evil assholes so I have a feeling that a decent number of people are going to have a bad year.”
“If you don’t like Viserys why work for him?”
“Mist owed someone a favor, they cashed it in. He’ll do the job and then we’ll be free to wander and see the world.”
“What happens in a year after my time is up?” Daenerys asked.
“If you don’t want to come with us, we’ll set you up somewhere and you can live your life however you please but I hope you’ll stick around.” Sin leaned back against the edge of the jacuzzi and closed her eyes.
“Are you saying that his army isn’t combat worthy?” Daenerys asked.
“It’s combat worthy, it’s just not going to be enough with Viserys leading them.”
“How are you so calm about your army being destroyed?”
Sin smiled at her. “Because it’s not my army, it’s Viserys’ army. What he does with it is his business. I’d rather him not kill a bunch of innocent people but such is life. I have a feeling that he is going to get to Westeros and find out that less people are willing to fight for him than he’d like.”
Daenerys sighed as she realized that she was going to have to hope for the best.
0o0o0
Mist might have felt bad about tossing a young teenager to his death but he was a telepath and Prince Joffrey had no real sympathy for his mother. The only thing he cared about was how her death affected him and how the tournament in his honor might be canceled. He flew up then away from the balcony as the guards stared at the mangled body of the prince. He had a feeling that Tywin was going to take the ‘tragic’ deaths of the queen and prince rather badly but he doubted the man would be able to turn up any evidence that it was anything more than a tragic death on the queen’s part and a troubled youth on the prince’s part.
Mist headed to the temple district keeping his mental feelers out as he flew over the city while invisible. Normally he’d just leave the priests alone or at least alive but the show had painted most of them as hypocrites or zealots and lunatics. He smiled as he hovered in the air, activated his x-ray vision ability and looked through the temple for gold and jewels to loot. He wasn’t planning on destroying any of their sacred texts or anything, just bankrupting them or at least making a good faith effort. He teleported into one of the vaults then opened a warehouse portal to the basement of his warehouse and started teleporting stacks of coin into his warehouse. He had a feeling he was going to have to set up an organization to help the poor but it wasn’t like the main temple was all that great at helping people anyways.
He smiled as a golden chalice fell off a pile a gold and rolled to his feet. He scanned the chalice to get the blueprint then teleported it to the warehouse for sorting with the rest of the treasure he was stealing. He made a mental note to track down Petyr Baelish once he finished looting the various vaults and deconstructing the wildfire that was under the temple. He continued teleporting the loot into his warehouse as he pulled his watch out of his pocket and checked the time. ‘Forty seven minutes before I need to get back and create the next batch of guards for the idiot’s’ army. Hopefully he doesn’t have any more idiotic suggestions for the specialty ‘dragon’ armor the army should have to represent his ‘might’ and ‘glory’.
0o0o0
Lily opened a doorway, pointed her wand at the massive eight foot tall warrior eating a roast chicken at his family’s castle and cast a bloodfire spell on the rapist, murderer and lunatic. She wasn’t all that thrilled with playing the role of an assassin but at the same time Gregor Clegane needed to die painfully and messily. She was rather glad that no one came to investigate his screams of agony as he thrashed on the floor screaming his lungs out as his blood ignited. She waited several seconds then slashed her wand and cut his head off with a cutting spell. She levitated the man’s head to her then stepped back and closed the portal.”
Daenerys shivered as she asked, “Is that him?”
“Yes.” Lily opened a door to Oberyn Martell’s room in Dorne and tossed the man’s head onto his bed. “Gregor Clegane, the Mountain.” She gestured at Daenerys. “Daenerys Stormborn sends her regards.”
Daenerys tried not to blush as she looked at the naked man and the two attractive looking naked women on the bed. “He killed part of my family, he needed to die.”
Oberyn stared at the door that seemed to open into another place and at the red haired beauty and the white haired young lady he could see through the opening. “Magic…”
“Take care and take heart in knowing he suffered.” Lily closed the door as she didn’t really want to explain everything. It was enough that Oberyn had seen a purple eyed girl with silvery gold hair through the door.
Daenerys turned to look at Oberyn. “Who were they?”
“Oberyn Martell and his girls. He deserves some closure for the death of his sister.” Lily was hoping that the Mountain’s death would bring her some peace.
“I grew up with rumors and stories about the Mountain that Walked, he was a faceless horror,” Daenerys admitted with a shiver.
“He can’t hurt you anymore, nor can Viserys for that matter,” Lily pointed out the last part softly.
“He used to be kind to me…” Daenerys trailed off as she hated thinking about her brother’s growing insanity.
“Used to only buys so much. He sold you for an army so that he can try to claim something that isn’t his by right. Love him or hate him, Robert’s grandmother was a Targaryen and he won the war.”
Daenerys sighed. “He’s marching to his death and I can’t stop him.”
Lily glanced over at the line of boats that were being loaded with supplies and troops. “You can’t always change the stars. Sometimes you can’t save people no matter how much you want to.”
“Does it make me a bad person that I don’t want to save him? He was willing to sell me as a slave for 10,000 soldiers so he could take back ‘his’ throne even though it was never his to start with. He burns with vengeance and I can’t talk him out of it.”
“I wouldn’t want to save him either. Let him try to win the throne, maybe he’ll win, maybe he won’t.” Lily turned to look at Illyrio walked up with Viserys and Mist. “Does this mean the army is done?”
“10,000 soldiers,” Viserys scowled at Mist, “they aren’t perfect but the people will rise up once we take the capital.”
“I did the best I could with what I had to work it,” Mist lied. Nothing in his flaw required him to volunteer information after all. He ignored the suspicious look that Daenerys gave him. “Either way, you should have more than enough soldiers to take the city and hold it until your reinforcements get there.”
Illyrio looked at Mist. “You’re welcome to come with us.”
“Thanks but I’m planning on creating a small company to cause problems in the Iron Islands to further distract the king.”
“Yes, so you’ve said. Feel free to continue using the farm but I’d appreciate some reinforcements if you can spare the time.”
“Of course,” Mist agreed. It wasn’t like another couple of people would change the outcome of the battle so he wasn’t even lying, he just wasn’t telling the complete truth. The truth was, Jon Arryn wasn’t going to die of poison thanks to an enchanted piece of jewelry so Robert wasn’t going to leave King’s Landing other than to charge out of the gate and kill Viserys.
Viserys muttered, “Coward.”
Mist briefly considered splitting the timeline with dragon break and killing him but he wanted to reserve it for something important. Besides, he wanted Viserys to feel the emotional pain when no one would come to his aid. Maybe it cruel but working for the ass for the last two and a half weeks had been a test of his patience. He looked down his nose at Viserys. “I build things, I’m not a warrior by trade. I do a job, I get paid. I’ve been paid, the job is done thus the contract is complete. Now if you’ll excuse me, I want to create some soldiers so that I can attack the Ironborn.”
Viserys scowled as Mist turned and walked away from him without a backwards glance. He glared at his sister then turned and stalked off to ready his troops for departure.
Illyrio asked, “I don’t suppose any of the rest of you want to sign on?”
Lily shook her head. “We’re not warriors by trade.” She turned to look at Daenerys. “Ready?”
Daenerys watched her brother stalk off, it was probably the last time she’d see him which left her feeling conflicted. She felt like warning him but she knew his arrogance wouldn’t let him believe her. On the other hand, he’d hit her more than once over the years, she didn’t owe him anything. "Yes.”
Lily walked with Daenerys back toward the farmhouse where they’d been staying.
Comments
Mist of Shadows
Thanks.
Alex Wierzbicki
good work
