Work In Progress #6: Troll War #6 (July 29-August 2)

This is part six of my series on my work in progress novel, Troll War, which centers around a kingdom of trolls going to war with a kingdom of dwarves, all because a pair of corrupt nobles from a third kingdom were bored and curious to see which race would come out on top.

You can read a short description of Troll War to learn more or you can read short summaries of each day's writing, on Mastodon.

Here's links to the rest of my blog entries on Troll War, in chronological order:

1. June 21-28
2. July 1-5
3. July 8-12
4. July 15-19
5. July 22-27

Part Three: The Drama

The week began with the start of Part Three, which is the final part. The intent now is to get my main characters together for one last climactic battle, just in time for the star ship Terror of Vok (the ship of Captain Vendros) and a warship from the machine swarm to show up in orbit, producing a brilliant pyrotechnic display in the night sky, because they'll be pulling no punches.

That should be just enough proof to finally sway the Queen of Utros, Nepita, into finally making peace, but as always, any plans I make are tentative, because my characters often do things I don't expect.

It's ironic, because you'd think I'd know what's going to happen, but once I set a character's personality, I have to honor that or the story would totally lose the suspension of disbelief, for violating a character's internal thought processes.

It's a lot of fun for me, though, because I find out, chapter by chapter. I may not know the overall plot and climax until I've fully cemented character personalities in my mind, giving me some measure of ability to predict their actions, but they often do the very last thing I would have predicted, once I sit down to write.

There was an example of this in my writing this week, in Chapter 25, that played into some dangling plot threads I setup in chapter 1, which I hadn't known how to make use of until then. I'll explain more, below.

Chapter 25: Shout of Ruin

The recently formed Oswil-Fortune Fields Alliance, which I like to refer to as OFFA, has blockaded the trolls in their own lands on their east and north borders, while they also have other enemies to the south and west, which are currently too frightened of Nepita's ten-for-one vengeance policy to attack. These would be the gnomes (probably to the south, but won't matter until the next book), goblins (south-west, most likely) and the dark fairies (definitely to the west, which will become important next week).

OFFA has strengthened their defenses around Fort Freybell, which became a point of contention between Fortune Fields and Utros during the recent failed peace talks.

In particular, the local portion of the blockade features dwarves on the front line, because they have more experience with melee combat, including a unit of demon-riders powered by tamed fire elementals.

Behind them, there's Oswil soldiers with rifles, since they're better shots than dwarves.

The third line back is composed of cannons and Gibson-guns (very much like a Gattling-gun; since this is a fantasy world with parallels to our own, I've chosen to replace the names of firearm manufacturers with names that start with the same letter, so things will be somewhat familiar, without every detail needing to be exactly the same) serve as artillery.

The back line is composed of Oswil battle-mages, who happen to be elves. These are also Oswil Army.

Fort Freybell is somewhat behind the blockade line, set on a hill. It's more or less an old, medieval-style castle of dwarf construction that the dwarves abandoned when the local mine petered out. It has some minor strategic value, but only because it's on the trade road between Fortune Fields and Utros.

Illa stands on a hill behind OFFA lines, with Kadrek beside her, wearing heavy armor and carrying a huge tower shield, so he had protect them both from bullets. Illa's intent is to counter the magic of the trolls, because she has the greatest knowledge of how it works, leaving everyone else free to retaliate.

Hidden among the trees of another hill, some distance away, are Sureshot, Brosla and her men. She's got her old rifle back (turns out the one Corporal Logan offered her is the very same she used in the 108th) and has decided to face her demons head on, now that she knows the root cause of her battle fatigue (an old term for PTSD). Her orders are to shoot the troll leaders as soon as the battle begins.

Trolls march toward their position with the intent of breaking through, to kill the battle-mages before they really get going. Prince Yetu (Nepita's son), Anji and several other trolls climb a hill opposite Illa's hill, just as the battle begins.

Sureshot has a brief conversation with Brosla about Anji, because she knows she shot the woman in the temple, a wound that should have killed her. Brosla looks though a pair of binoculars he obtained form his ship, confirming what she sees. She concludes the woman is a female troll and so is Illa, who she only knows as Leona Conway, which she now considers an assumed name. She vows to have a word with Illa, just as soon as she can, because she's angry.

The demon-riders are finally demonstrated in battle, covering themselves and their weapons in jets of flame as they wade into the troll lines, decimating them as they go. Cannons fire grapeshot (cannon balls linked by chain) into the troll lines, while the Gibson-guns produce a hail of bullets. Initially, things go badly for the trolls.

Sureshot shoots Anji between the eyes and Yetu freaks out, because the troll woman's presence makes him feel safe. At his lowest moment, Illa uses her magic to touch his mind, offering him the chance to surrender, with the promise he won't be harmed.

Coming to realize she's become a traitor (he recognizes her voice in his mind), Yetu allows himself to feel a deep-seated rage against troll women for the first time in his life, directing all of it at Illa.

He screams, "Get out of me head!"

His magic rages out of control and latches onto his vocal cords as he subconsciously uses a forbidden spell that female trolls have been murdering male troll wizards over, since the world was seeded with life by the gods.

His raging magic births an invisible, sentient spell known as a Shout of Ruin, which kills with sonic strikes. It inherits his hatred of Illa and crosses the battlefield, shattering metal objects, just to test its power, destroying weapons on both sides of the battle, though it gets stringer with each group it hits. It cracks the armor of the demon-riders, ruins troll and OFFA rifles, alike, but when it reaches the Gibson-guns, they explode into shrapnel. When it passes by Kadrek, his armor and weapons explode, badly injuring him!

It finally comes face to face with Illa, who's studied the Shout of Ruin, because she'd once considered it her best option for revenge on Nepita, though she hadn't been able to produce one, having not realized the spell was effectively alive.

However, having been in telepathic contact with Yetu's mind as he produced it, she learns the technique and counters the deadly spell with one of her own, using her rage against Nepita to produce it.

There's a tremendous clash of sound as the two sentient spells battle for dominance and try to consume each other. The eardrums of the trolls burst and the beeswax in the ears of OFFA soldiers (a precaution to counter the mental magic the trolls have been using since the beginning of the war), begins to melt, so they clasp their hands over their ears, to keep it in. The ground begins to quake and a distant mountainside produces an avalanche.

Sureshot is far enough away that she's not in any real danger, though she's in tremendous pain as she aims and fires on Yetu, convinced his scream is somehow the source of the magical sound.

Yetu's Shout of Ruin notices the rifle slug's approach and turns its full attention to vaporizing it, because protecting its master is one of its primary motives. This gives Illa's Shout the opportunity to consume it.

There's a brief moment in which Illa expects her victorious Shout to kill Yetu, but it doesn't happen. Instead, it focuses on the goal of killing Nepita, beginning a long journey to the Utros Palace, the results of which are covered in the next chapter.

Illa uses telekinetic magic to turn the broken fragments of Kadrek's armor into high-velocity, spinning blades, launching them at Yetu in a pattern like a shotgun. One of the fragments punctures a lung and the young troll goes down, totally unable to speak or scream, preventing him from producing another Shout.

Anji sits up and orders her men to retreat, because a second troll army is on the way. The intent was always to rotate though troll armies, giving them time to regenerate between battle, while the defenders are slowly whittled down. She has high hopes they'll soon break through the OFFA lines.

She notes the fact that Yetu used forbidden magic without knowing it, but in so doing, he also demonstrated his loyalty. Anji hopes to appease Nepita and prevent the young wizard's death, though his fate is currently unknown, even to me.

The Shout of Ruin was the element that I totally hadn't been expecting in this chapter, totally catching me by surprise and which neatly tucks into the dangling plot threads established in Chapter 1. The specific threads I'm referring to are Prince Yetu having magic talent and Yera (who has the mind of Nepita's Grandmother in her head) waiting for an opportunity to strike against Nepita.

Chapter 26: Weakness

Nepita arrives at the Abomination Barracks with Yera right on her heels, to have a word with Aketa about her unit's battle readiness. She watches Aketa eating a fried chicken, briefly amused, because the burn-scarred troll has been made an integral part of the war-rider captured during Part One, with her muscles and tendons attached to the control systems of the war machine, giving her extremely fine control over it.

Aketa and her men are eager for battle, because Aketa claims they desire to prove themselves. The real truth, however, is that Aketa wishes to throw herself into battle in the hopes of finally dying, because she has no desire to live the life of suffering she's enduring, all because Nepita selfishly refused to allow her to die.

Nepita steps out of Aketa's quarters and senses incredible magic. She concentrates to be able to see it, observing a ball of magic that's headed right for her, though she's surprised it isn't Yera's spell.

She produces a mental echo-location burst and discovers the attacking spell has a mind of its own, so she immediately mentally attacks it, just barely managing to stop it dead in its tracks, while it claims, Illa sends her regards!

Yera laughs and claps, because Nepita is now vulnerable. Being a villain of the classic, gloating type, she monologues, calling Nepita weak, then reveals who she really is (Grandmother) and how she came to inhabit Yera's body: her personal attendant offered up her body after Grandmother's body was damaged so badly even troll regeneration would likely fail to repair it. Grandmother wiped the woman's brain and then telepathically moved her mind into the new body, a technique she's been using for a very long time, since she's been around as long as Utros (hundreds of years).

Meanwhile, the other rush to aid Nepita, since Aketa and the abominations are loyal, but Aketa's body obeys the woman's commands and the rest are stopped with a mere snap of Grandmother's fingers, the fire-retardant coating on the abominations turning as hard as steel. When she enhanced their bodies with magic, as it turns out, she made sure they were open to being influenced by the very smallest of her spells.

Grandmother claims to have allowed Nepita to win their fight, so she could play the long game and steal the throne back during a moment of weakness. She goes on to make a list of Nepita's personal failings and then finally makes a simple offer: swear eternal fealty and let Grandmother retake the throne or she'll dump even more magic into the Shout of Ruin, so it can kill Nepita.

Nepita suggests that Grandmother procreate with herself and Grandmother follows through on her threat.

As death looms ever nearer, Nepita's life flashes before her eyes, revealing to her the murky details of the first time a woman of the court tried to assassinate her, just after she was taken out of the Play Room. She'd been pinned to a wall as the older, stronger woman strangled her, but because she wanted to hear Nepita beg for mercy, she let the child breathe, a huge mistake.

In the moment of white-hot rage, Nepita subconsciously tapped into Rage Song, the magic of male trolls. She screamed with fury and the magic enhanced her vocal cords, producing a sound capable of shattering bone. It wasn't a Shout of Ruin, which requires years of repressed feelings, but it was still forbidden, male magic.

With the woman's face mere inches from Nepita's mouth, her skull more or less exploded, just as Nepita's eardrums burst, because she'd lacked fine control over her magic, at the time.

The experience had been so traumatic, she suppressed the memory, but with it clear in her mind, she knew she had one chance to save he life, switching from telepathy to a magical scream!

Fortunately for her, Illa's Shout of Ruin was low on power and Grandmother had been too busy savoring her imminent victory, she hadn't quite fed it enough to overcome Nepita's scream! Her magic cancels out the sound of the Shout, killing it, while the eardrums of everyone but herself burst!

Despite damage to her inner ear, due to the tremendous volume, Nepita is on Granmother before she can recover, her enchanted swords crossed against the old troll's neck.

There's a long, tense moment as Nepita waits for Grandmother to heal and then says this:

When Nepita was certain Grandmother could hear her, she smiled, “Thank you for your presence making me paranoid. I’ve been so focused on the threat you pose, I’ve beaten back my rivals and stayed strong, but this wasn’t your day and you won’t get another chance like this.” She crouched without moving her blades, until their faces were six inches apart, speaking so softly only they could have heard, “I am not weak, but neither am I perfect.” She switched back to a more regular volume, “Thank you for your constructive criticism. I’ll give your words some reflection, Grandmother.” She straightened up, withdrew her swords, sheathed them and then barked an order to Aketa, “You and your men are on standby, until I can have a strategy meeting with the court. Grandmother has given me much food for thought.”

Nepita leaves Granmother's neck scarred by the touch of Nemesis and exits the room in high spirits, because she found the experience invigorating. She actually whistles as she walks the halls, with Grandmother trailing behind her.

The implication is that Grandmother can come at her as often as she likes, but Nepita will only be made stronger by the constant paranoia, just as it has strengthened her against other court intrigue.

There's a brief scene from the perspective of General Hendrix, who's on the wall of Fort Freybell, watching the movements of the trolls, who have three armies in play, each the size of a regiment. The first is nearly healed, the second just finished a stint in battle and the third is moving in to attack. He finally realizes the trolls intend to wear them down over time, using their regenerative abilities to their advantage and calls for reinforcements, because their battle lines are already weak, due to the previous two battles.

In the next scene, Sureshot climbs Illa's hill, because it's too dark for her to work with a rifle at such long range. She confronts the woman about what she is and Illa comes clean, telling her a short version of her tale. Sureshot does seem to forgive her for the subterfuge, once she realizes how dangerous knowledge of female trolls can be.

However, she still takes the information to King Windmaker and General Hendrix, because they've been making long-term war plans without vital information.

The discussion eventually reveals that Sureshot has seen Nepita's face, because she describes what the woman's weapons did to her.

The General orders Sureshot to be the core of the team they're planning to send to end the war, by killing Nepita, and she accepts.

Meanwhile, Anji arrives in the Utros palace during a strategy meeting, which is being led by both Nepita and Yera (Grandmother, though Anji doesn't know that yet).

Anji gets the Queen alone, telling her Illa has become a traitor and Yetu has used a Shout of Ruin. If I had to hazard a guess, Nepita has spared Yetu's life, but can't help but imprison him as a result. He will probably be seen again during the climax.

Musings on Vokosian Concepts of Time

Every chapter I write that takes place on the star ship Terror of Vok forces me to consider the implications of an alien culture. For example, during Cahpter 23, The Broken Priestess, I was forced to flesh out their religion.

Chapter 27 (see below), forced me to take a moment to consider their use of time. I had previously settled on a 'year-tenth' as the Vokosian equivalent to a month (used in chapter 13) and I settled on 'ten-day' as the equivalent to a week. There are of course better words for these terms in their own language, but I'm using somewhat literal English translations for the reader, to emphasize the difference in culture.

The invention of the term ten-day got me thinking of time in Vokosian units, which are decimalized, but keep in mind the comparison I'm making in the following table is analogous, not equivalent, so our terms and theirs don't refer to exactly the same amount of time:

Our Time	Vokosian Time	True Vokosian Meaning
Second	Day-Thousandth	1/1000th of a day
Minute	Day-Hundredth	1/100th of a day
Hour	Day-Tenth	1/10th of a day
Day	Day	1 rotation of their home world*
Week	Ten-Day	10 days
Month	Year-Tenth or Hundred-Day	100 days
Year	Year	1000 days**

This approach to accounting for the passage of time should make the Vokosians feel alien, without making it hard to relate to their perspective, while allowing some simple math to work out the details, because one hour is 1.6 day-tenths.

Now that I've set the Vokosian calendar in my mind, I was forced to go back to chapters 13 and 16, to fix some time figures, so instead of Terror of Vok arriving in three year-tenths, it has become one and a half, to keep my three month timetable accurate, but that's what editing is for. I'm always going back to add small details to match the clearer picture of the plot that I get in later stages of writing a novel.

Chapter 27: The Living Bone

The scene begins with the High Priestess of Vok (named Et'aell, by the way) alone in her quarters aboard Terror of Vok. She's unable to get alcohol of any kind, after the public spectacle she made of herself and when people pass her in the halls, they either make signs to ward off evil or tell her to repent.

She's spend the majority of a ten-day alone, aside from going out to get food from the galley.

She's still unable to cope with the shattering of her faith, because she's come to believe that Vok is dead, based on the way most of their species has been wiped out.

The doorbell rings and she shouts for them to go away, but it just keeps ringing. Eventually, it becomes knocks and finally, the door is opened by a security override.

Captain Vendros and his first officer step in, leading to this exchange:

“What do you want?” Et’aell demanded, half angry and half despairing. The Captain surveyed the untidy room, which reflected Et’aell’s internal state quite well, then settled on her unkempt hair and rumpled clothes, because she hadn’t done anything to groom herself in days. He sniffed the air and it was obvious her unwashed odor offended him.

Captain Vendros spoke with determination, despite what he’d just seen and smelled, “You have two choices, High Priestess. First, you can continue to wallow in misery over your broken faith or you can do something good, because the crew needs you.”

“No one needs me.” Et’aell gave the Captain a defiant look and then started to cry again.

The first officer shook his head, “You have no idea how wrong you are.”

“Have you forgotten what day it is?” Vendros asked.

“It doesn’t matter what day it is, because Vok is dead!” Et’aell despaired, “No day is more holy than another, because there is no more holiness and all we have left is just a matter of staving off our eternal punishment for just one more day! We’re doomed to burn in Xercil’s crematory and there’s nothing I can do about that!”

Captain Vendros spoke softly, “That may be what you believe, but there’s a whole crew of people on this ship that believe otherwise, who’ve gathered for a Ten-day Service that only you can lead. They still have their faith. They still believe. They still need you. Will you abandon them, just as you seem to believe you’ve been abandoned by Vok?”

His words were like a slap to the face. Vok may have abandoned his people by dying, but a sense of duty welled up within her as tears poured more freely from her eyes than ever before, because she was ashamed by her own, selfish actions.

“I don’t believe anymore,” she admitted, “but you have a point: I don’t matter. My calling was never about me and whether my faith is living or dead, the least I can do is go through the motions in our last days, to give the people of Vok what comfort I can, before their souls are given to Xercil.

“I’ll serve as this ship’s priestess and say the words they need to hear, but I don’t think I’ll ever find my faith again.”

“I’m sorry. I should never have told you the truth.” Vendros bowed his head with grief.

“You did nothing wrong and if Vok were still among the living, he would agree. Give me a little time to prepare, then I’ll lead the crew in a Ten-day Service.”

Roused from her depression by duty, the Priestess cleans herself up, cleans and dons her vestment, then applies her ceremonial makeup, going off to lead the service, only to discover that in her absence, the crew have cleaned the chapel, top to bottom, and they've filled the pews, with more standing at the back.

She doesn't know it, but Captain Vendros took a personal hand in all of this, ordering the crew to clean the room and then show up.

While she believes herself to merely be going through the motions, she delivers a sermon and leads the service, leaving not one eye in the room dry.

With the morning service complete, she attends to hearing the crew speak their minds to her, in private, again doing what's expected of her, but not for her own sake.

When evening comes, she leads a second service for those that were on duty during the morning shift, again without a single dry eye.

With a day spent in service to others, fulfilling her calling, she heads back to her quarters, questioning her own lack of faith, because she could see that Vok still lives on in the hearts and minds of her flock.

She isn't over the blow to her faith, but she has perhaps started to heal.

I'm enjoying this character and the internal conflict in her heart. I plan to use her as the leader of the survivors of the Vokosians in the second book, though I think her story will also make the sacrifice of Vendros and his crew during the climax more poignant.

Chapter 28: Pushing Back

Two and a half months after the near continuous battle for Freybell began, King Windmaker and General Hendrix stand on the wall of the fort, observing the battlefield as good men die to hold the line, more or less by the skin of their teeth.

Hendrix looks north, while Windmaker looks east, each hoping to see reinforcements, because King Joshua has pulled all but the minimum of soldiers from the borders of Oswil, promising thirteen whole regiments, while Windmaker hopes to see more of his war machines, because they've done without for far too long.

Hendix didn't expect to see anything, thinking he's too early, but he's happy to see cavalry approaching at a gallop, having moved faster than the rest of the army!

Windmaker is happy to announce a unit of war machines are on the way and they're truly relieved for just one moment, but as they look at the battlefield, they're still upset to see good men dying.

Later on, as ten regiments from Oswil arrive at the battlefield (the other three went out to strengthen the blockade), causing the trolls to flee, Sureshot is more than happy.

However, it won't be easy to assault Utros, because the narrow canyon leading to Whitewall and the Utros palace is small enough a dedicated force of a hundred trolls could easily hold it, for as long as food holds out.

Sureshot begins a discussion with her team about their upcoming mission to assassinate Nepita and General Hendrix presents her with three enchanted bullets, Troll-Slayer rounds that are sized for her rifle, ordering her to make each one count, because the Scott and Walcott Firearms Company refuse to make any more, for fear of what the trolls might do to them. Officially, those rounds don't exist and S&W will deny all knowledge of the fact they made them.

Sureshot discusses her plan to approach the Utros palace from behind (from the west), followed by climbing a sheer cliff wall, so she can summit the mountain and then drop down on the other side, to enter.

Illa suggests an alternative, using a secret passage the dwarves don't know about that leads to her old quarters, which used to belong to her Grandmother, then insists she has to go with, because the valley the secret door opens on is a graveyard for fallen troll royals, who never died peacefully and are therefore restless. She claims they won't harm troll royalty or anyone under their protection. Kadrek insists on going if his wife is going.

Sureshot initially refuses to bring the couple, because they died in her vision of the future, but Brosla manages to convince her that he'll keep all three of them safe.

King Windmaker challenges his ability to do so, but Sureshot informs the King Brosla is a null and therefore able to defy fate. Hearing this, King Windmaker volunteers to join them for their suicide mission, because he wouldn't miss seeing a null in action for all the gold in the world.

He promises to bring his personal war-rider and a company of his royal guardsmen, because the secret door is large enough to get such large war machines through. The plan becomes causing as much chaos as possible in the palace with the war machines, while Sureshot works to locate and kill Nepita.

There's also some discussion of the threat Weapon Master Anji poses to the team, based on her previous marksmanship, so Sureshot essentially vows one of her Troll-Slayer rounds will be used to put the Weapon Master down for good.

Sureshot's team get horses from the stable, while the war-riders are prepared for a long journey by bolting cylinders of enchanted coal to the area of their buttocks, making them look like giant dwarves with bedrolls strapped to their behinds. This is something adapted from my time studying the Vietnam War for another novel; the U.S. soldiers that fought the war kept what little they needed in the field in a small butt-pack that hung from their belt.

They head north, where they'll turn west on the main road, until they reach the territory of the dark fairies. Once there, they'll cross into fey land with the intention of making contact with the fey lords. They plan to tell the truth, that they intend to kill the ruler of the trolls, and hope this fact will assure their safe passage.

Future Plans

I'll likely write Sureshot's encounter with the fey on Monday.

I need to write at least two more chapters from the perspective of the High Priestess, as well, so I may write one of those on Monday, to further her character growth and the revitalization of her faith.

Regardless, the last bit of her story will be in the midst of the climax, when all non-essential personnel will be ordered off the ship, just as the battle begins.

Down on the ground, all heck will break loose as Sureshot's team and Anji's best soldiers meet in Memorial Vale (the haunted valley). That's when the sniper vs. sniper contest I've been foreshadowing will finally happen, with each of them gunning for the other, while Illa and King Windmaker go on without her. That battle will probably start with the death of several of Corporal Logan's men, who have always been intended to serve as a plot device to demonstrate when the crap has hit the fan.

I hope to complete the rough draft next week, but all plans are tentative, especially considering the fact I also need to get the editing on Dark Moon (Book 4 of The Wizard's Scion) finished, since my artist just finished the cover art.

Tags: writing, work-in-progress, rumors-of-war