Jack woke up in a sweat. It was one of those nightmares he had where everyone he knew had become possessed by a Gou'ald. He hated that dream. It was much too similar to real situations SG-1 had encountered for his comfort. Of course, there was also that recurring dream where he would wake up on some alien world with no way to get home.
At least this wasn't a barren ice world or an artificially created hell. "Good morning, O'Neal," Teal'c nodded to him from where he sat. Jack looked over to the former Jaffa. Teal'c was reading the books the priest of Tyr had given him.
"Does it have a good plot?" Jack asked.
Teal'c responded to the human's question as if it had been asked seriously. "This is not a novel, O'Neal. It is the sacred writing of the worshippers of Tyr. Part of it is a moral treatise; another part describes the prayers and invocations one would recite if a follower of this deity."
"Sound much like Gou'ald or the Asgard?" Jack asked more seriously.
"No, it would not seem so, though if it is a hoax it is more like that of the Asgard. The teachings are clearly intended to be benevolent." Teal'c paused for a moment. "Perhaps our experiences with aliens on our worlds have clouded our judgment about the gods here." At a further prompt from Jack, Teal'c continued. "If Tyr truly embodies the virtues expressed in this book, then he may indeed be a being worthy of veneration."
Jack studied his long time friend for a second. Since the passing of his wife and son Jack O'Neal had very little use for any sort of religion. But if Teal'c were to see something to it, then he wouldn't gainsay it.
The group broke camp a short time later. The trek from the druid sanctuary to Old Owl Well would still take them most of the day. While SG-1 had gotten used to traveling by foot on many of their off-world missions, Jack still wished there were better roads or at least horses to ride. There were some well maintained roads closer to Neverwinter, but once you left the High Road travel became troublesome.
Elanee led the group through the forest with uncanny skill. They were able to avoid dangers from animals and bandits alike. She had taken to using the hand signals she had seen Jack use when leading the team and called for a halt with an upraised fist when she heard sounds up ahead. The group knelt down while Elanee did a quick search of the area. Realizing the sounds were from someone singing on his own, the group emerged from hiding and approached.
"Whitethistle, whitethistle all in a row; in Neverwinter Wood they all grow!" were the cheery sounds coming from the diminutive figure.
Not one for tact, Colonel O'Neal asked Tamil pointblank, "What is that?" He indicated the tiny man with frazzled yellow hair. He was clearly not human with rounded features that were certainly not fat but certainly not muscular either.
"'That' is a gnome. There are some in Neverwinter, though I guess you never ran into one," she replied. "They're mostly harmless."
Jack had to repress a laugh. Before Colonel O'Neal could explain about the unintended reference to Ford Prefect's description of Earth in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the gnome started introducing himself. After about the fourth tangent the gnome went off on as part of his introduction, Jack wanted to shoot the little guy. Instead of doing that, the US Air Force colonel short circuited the conversation with some very terse and pointed interruptions.
"So, Grobnar, what you're saying is that you're a gnome and a bard. What are you doing out here in the middle of the wilderness alone?" Before Grobnar got halfway through the preamble to what was obviously going to be a really long story, Jack stopped him again. "Ok, skip ahead to the part that happened just before we showed up."
Grobnar blinked a few times and then started talking about a dangerous encounter with some sort of monstrous creature. When the gnome started getting off track, Jack abruptly brought him back. "So you've recently moved to Neverwinter. You're lost and afraid something is going to kill you. Now you want to tag along with us thinking where we're going you're going to be safer."
"Oh, it's not about being afraid of getting killed by some terrible monster Mister Colonel Sir, it's about being killed by some terrible monster all alone. I'd feel much better about it if I knew I had friends dying alongside me." At the not-so-enthusiastic looks he got in return, Grobnar quickly added, "Not that I wouldn't want my friends to keep living, just that if I'm going to be eaten by something nasty, I'd rather not face that by myself. Better to share that with someone special."
Jack got through what might have been a half day's worth of conversation and stories in under fifteen minutes. "Good work, colonel!" Tamil whispered. "I thought he'd never shut up."
"Working with Daniel has finally paid off," Jack said, only half-joking.
Khelgar grumbled about taking on an oddball gnome, but he resigned himself to the fact that it would be much more effort to get rid of the gnome than to simply just let him tag along until they reached the greycloak outpost. It would have been a dishonor to dwarven hospitality to leave the bright-eyed little gnome out there. He was just about the right size to be a decent mouthful for some of the larger monsters that made the forests of Toril home. Someone had to look out for him. Of course, the fact that Khelgar was not much larger didn't even enter his thought process.
When the group arrived at Old Owl Well, Commander Callum was initially a bit distrustful of the newcomers. He was a busy dwarf with a lot of responsibility trying to organize the local peasantry into a force that could repel marauding orcs. However, when a sudden attack by an orc raiding party was cut short by quick fireball from Qara and the remaining handful were blasted away by Teal'c's staff and Jack's zat before any of the greycloak militia even engaged the raiders, the hardy dwarf quickly reassessed the group's usefulness.
"What were those things?" Jack found himself asking again seeing the bodies of the pig-faced creatures that looked to him like particularly ugly cave men.
"Those were orcs," Khelgar was the first to reply. "Foul, bloodthirsty brutes. Most of them are cowards, but get enough of 'em together and they make for some trouble. And there are more than enough of 'em around here to make for a ton of trouble." However much Khelgar might dislike elves or distrust tieflings, that was nothing compared to his feelings about orcs.
Then again, there were few goodly folk who had any love of the creatures, and with good reason. While there was sometimes some semblance of honor among the hordes of orcs and occasionally there would be one that wasn't evil beyond redemption, that was the exception to the rule. Nine out of ten would stab each other in the back if it would help them, and the things they would do to those who weren't orcs was much, much worse. In small numbers they would band together to raid soft targets like farms or unguarded travelers. In large numbers they would delight in destroying small communities, without mercy or any sense of decency. Their emotions were a twisted mix of hatred, fear, misplaced outrage, and jealousy. Usually their chaotic nature prevented them from organizing to pose a significant threat, but when there was a powerful unifying force, their sheer numbers made them a dangerous.
That was the present case. The orcs had unified under the banner of a single powerful chieftain and were plundering and murdering around the area where peace had once held. The garrison at Old Owl Well was a response to this more organized threat. Where once Neverwinter was content to allow the land to be held by a local orc tribe that did little actual damage, now they sent in forces to drive out the orcs and hold the geographically and logistically critical area of the well.
After checking in with the commander, Tamil, SG-1, and the rest of the group set off to try and locate any sign of the emissary from Waterdeep. It wasn't long before they intercepted a scout with a report that orcs had apparently waylaid the emissary and taken him captive. The group split in two to scout the area using the walkie-talkies to keep in contact. Elanee, Tamil, and Khelgar went one way while Jack, Teal'c, Grobnar, and Qara checked the other direction.
Samantha Carter stormed into Sand's magic shop with a vengeance. Sam rarely ventured out of the inn unless accompanied by other members of SG-1 so it really spoke to her state of mind that she had come out on her own. Even more telling, she marched past the shadow being standing behind the counter acting as a merchant in the absence of the actual merchant without stopping to investigate. Instead she marched straight back to the hidden back room and began banging on the back door.
"Daniel Jackson! Open this door before I kick it in and throttle your skinny butt!" she yelled.
When the door opened she was faced not with her long time friend, but with an irate elf with hawkish features and a well practiced glare. "What is the meaning of this intrusion? You cannot simply barge into—"
Sam pushed past Sand and strode into the room to face her friend. Daniel was standing in the middle of the floor dressed with some odd robes over his uniform. He was looking over a large tome, which was not surprising for him, but the fact that he was glowing was a bit odd. Sam ignored all of that.
"How could you do that to me, Daniel, after all we've been through? I trusted you!" Sam stood there with her short blond hair glaring at Daniel with her flashing blue eyes.
Daniel looked up from the book with that slightly-out-of-touch-with-the-present look he often had when he was called away from something he was intently studying. He made a few confused sounds, "Wh-… uh… Carter? What do are talking…" Daniel trailed off as Sam pulled out a scroll and showed it to Daniel. "Eh, that's blank, Sam."
"I know it's blank, Daniel. The problem was that it wasn't blank before I read it!"
"Oh… were you reading out loud?" Daniel was trying his very best to look concerned and not break out in a smile.
"You were the one who was telling me I should subvocalize when reading foreign texts! I can't believe you would trick me like that!" Sam continued glaring. "Don't pretend you didn't know what would happen when you put that scroll in with my learning materials."
"What did happen, might I ask?" inquired the merchant/wizard who was too intrigued to remain upset about his privacy being violated.
"A ball of liquid shot out from the scroll and splattered onto the wall in front of me. The liquid reacted just like acid." Sam was still staring with accusing eyes at Daniel Jackson.
Now it was Sand's turn to turn a disapproving eye towards Daniel. "You let an untrained mind practice magic without any supervision? You know there's more to spellcasting than just reciting words and making gestures. And an Acid Splash spell, while just a minor cantrip, can still do some serious damage."
Daniel set the tome he was holding down and turned to defend himself from their arguments. "Look, she's fine. Pissed off at me, but fine. I gave her a scroll, not a spellbook, so that way if there were some sort of accident she wouldn't have to know how to control the power of the magic since it would be written into the scroll. And sorry, but that acid spell was the simplest conjuration spell we had a scroll of." Turning from Sand to Dr. Carter, Daniel continued, "Sorry about this, Sam. Honestly, I had hoped you would get curious about the scroll and try to use it on your own as an experiment, but I never expected you'd accidentally cast it."
Seeing Sam about to go back on the offensive, Daniel continued. "Look, Sam, I know how strange you feel about all the spells, wizards, and magic here. But you've read enough from what I've shown you to know that there's something to this. If there's a gate somewhere or a way back, this is our best chance to find it, and we're going to need you to understand it if we're going to have a shot to get back home."
Sand raised an eyebrow. "You seem to be expecting a lot from the girl, here, Daniel. Just because she can cast a simple spell from a scroll does not mean she'll be much of a wizard."
Daniel looked back at Sand. "Oh, I think she'll do just fine." Daniel turned back to Sand. "You know how you were surprised that I was progressing so quickly, thinking I must have studied magic before? Then I explained a lot of the things you were showing were like math and science principles and that some things in magic, especially the formulas, were already familiar? Well, that will go double for Doctor Carter. The sort of things she works with in theoretical physics make the magical formulas you've shown me look tame."
"Oh, don't think you can get out of this by just flattering me, Daniel," Sam threatened. Daniel smiled knowing she was already no longer angry. She turned to Sand, "Alright, I hope you'll teach me how to make a bolt of lightning so I can electrify Daniel."
Sand replied with a simple, "Oh my."
Jack, Teal'c, the gnomish bard Grobnar, and the acerbic sorceress Qara were following the orc trail they had picked up. Jack sighed, wondering how he ended up in this strange situation. The bard, dwarf, and elf had radioed in that they hadn't found signs of orcs their way, but they had found some of Khelgar's kin with a problem. Jack had offered to join up with them, but the dwarf had said the three of them could handle it and to keep scouting in their direction. Now Jack was walking into dangerous territory with a silly gnome and a teenager.
Jack had to admit, though, that the gnome had been pretty helpful so far. He was nowhere near as skilled outdoors as Elanee, but he knew a little bit about everything. More importantly, he was quick to follow directions, unlike the auburn haired adolescent with a chip on her shoulder the size of a Gou'ald mother ship. Grobnar's humming and singing while they were walking was at first irritating, but Jack soon found there was a rhythm to it that had a similar effect to Tamil's music. Despite himself, he found himself humming along… and liking it.
Jack walked up a small, well beaten path when the rock wall on his left suddenly opened up to reveal a group of pig snouted orcs. Though not particularly attentive, they had no problem seeing Jack and the rest of the group. With a shout that sounded none too friendly, they started to charge out with weapons bared. That is, those of the vile creatures who were not carrying bows.
Jack ducked as a black arrow shot clear over his head. Jack pulled out his zat and the weapon snapped open ready to fire. The first of the oncoming creatures was blasted back by a burst of energy from Teal'c's Ma'tok staff weapon. Jack zapped the second and third ones with quick bursts from the zat. They dropped to the ground in great pain before passing out.
Colonel O'Neal noted Qara muttering something and then suddenly she vanished. Then he felt a searing pain as one of the orcs managed to hit him with one of their arrows. It didn't have the same numbing effect a high caliber bullet would have before the pain got to you. The arrow started off hurting right away. Jack soon noticed a large wolf jumping at the orcs, though he had no idea where the wolf had come from. Apparently it was obeying the gnome.
Ignoring the pain in his shoulder, Jack aimed his zat again. He missed with his first shot, but managed to hit one of the bow-carrying orcs with the second shot. Teal'c missed with his staff as well, but the explosion of dirt and rock from where the energy hit stunned the orc anyway. Suddenly a green, dripping arrow appeared in the air and flew to strike one of the orcs. The creature yelled and dark smoke wafted up from where the arrow struck. That was when Jack noticed that Qara had reappeared, now with a semi-transparent shield around her.
A few more shots with his zat, an arrow or two from Grobnar, and a direct hit from Teal'c finished off the orcs in that little opening in the maze of sandstone they had entered. Finally Jack had time to look at the wound. It wasn't very deep, and he wasn't in danger of going into shock from it, but it would need to be patched up.
Or perhaps there was another way. "Hey, what's your name, eh, Qara. Could you do something about this wound I have?"
"What do you want me to do about it? I could give you a nice burn to go with it if you like."
"Could you not heal it?" Teal'c asked.
Qara snorted. "Do I look like a paladin or a cleric? Or do you think I'm some sort of nature freak like Elanee?" Seeing the unkind looks on their faces, Qara got defensive. "Look, I don't need the land or the gods to use magic. I've got my own. But my magic is not about playing nurse, it's about real power. So, if you want someone to take care of that scratch, you'd better go to a temple or something."
Grobnar jumped into the discussion at that point. "What I think she means to say, Mr. Colonel, sir, is that healing is done with divine magic. Wizards and sorcerers use arcane magic. It's a lot like pine cones and poisonous mushrooms: Both grow in the forest, but you can only eat one of them." Jack boggled at that a bit, but the gnome continued on. "Druids, clerics, and even some bards know how to do healing magic, but sorcerers can't really do anything when you are injured. Well, they can turn you into a zombie, but that's not exactly the same thing." Grobnar continued on, "I had a few potions of healing that would have done the trick, but I gave mine to Miss Tamil. She said she keeps all the gear for our party."
"Colonel O'Neal, you should check in with Tamil, Elanee, and Khelgar. If they are finished with the dwarf's business they can return quickly and heal you," Teal'c said gravely.
Jack radioed back to Tamil. The trio had apparently had success helping the Ironfist clan of dwarves reclaim their ancestral home from some monstrous types of beings. When Jack told her he'd taken an arrow, she let him know they were coming to rejoin them and was bringing the healing supplies.
"Oh, hells! I'm sorry, Jack! I should have thought to divide up the healing potions with you. We should be able to get to you shortly, don't try and go on until we reach you, just find a concealed place until we arrive. I'm sure Elanee will be able to track your path back. Over. Is that right? I'm supposed to say 'over,' right?"
After the quick conversation Jack looked at the small camp the orcs had ambushed them from. Unfortunately, it was definitely too exposed. They'd need to head back out a bit down the trail they had followed in and find a place to…
That was when the wolf Grobnar had summoned caught the scent of more of the orcs and charged after them. "Wait! No, Whitepaws! Don't go chasing after the bad orcs!" The gnome chased after the wolf who was running straight for the orcs that were waiting just a little further up the trail.
"Oh, hell," Jack sighed and the rest of the group dashed after them.
What happened next was chaos of a sort Jack hated, the kind that got people killed. Jack took up a position where he could get a good shot at the incoming orcs and started firing. Teal'c and Qara followed him around the outcropping of stone. The girl started gesturing, her eyes intent on a cluster of archers. Teal'c ran forward to get within range to use his staff weapon. Grobnar was shooting arrows into the orcs who were slashing and stabbing at the wolf.
That was when another group of orcs appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Jack felt as if his arm were on fire as an orcish ax ripped through it, and he dropped the zat to the ground. Jack tried to turn, tried to pull out the knife he kept sheathed at his legs, but everything was going in slow motion for him. Then he felt something sharp and jagged being thrust through his back and stomach. He saw the bloody point coming out his front and knew immediately that he was mortally wounded. That was a bad thing when there were no Gou'ald sarcophagi, magic potions, or druids around.