by Ryan DeBruyn
Rocky looked seriously at Smith. “Get back to the Territory quickly! I am going to fly back with Zippo. Sela, you good on transformation charges?”
Sela nodded and began shifting to her bird form in answer. Zippo jumped up on to Azoth’s back and started giving the cat-bird lots of scratches as he waited for Rocky. Smith nodded and soberly exclaimed, “I was the one who told Derik about the mission today. I accidentally said it in passing as I walked him to meet with the other exiles, but I still indicated the event. I just wanted you to know why they all showed up.”
Rocky blinked, not having known that they had shown up at all. Zippo piped up from Azoth’s back, “Yeah, and they saved our behinds! Rocky won’t be upset at you for that, Smith.” Feeling the wind flow right back out of his sails from Zippo’s words, Rocky just nodded at Smith and hopped on to Azoth’s back once again. They flew to the Grotto, and Zippo filled him in on a lot of what had happened to the army, talking about it like it was a grand adventure and not something that could have easily killed him. Rocky pointedly tried to ignore his own thoughts and nightmares from killing twenty people.
As soon as they got in view of the Grotto, Zippo went silent, and Rocky forgot all about the previous fight as he leaned forward in his seat, trying to get a better idea of what he was seeing. The two Knights stood on the west and south of the massive Guild Tent, weapons drawn and in clear battle stances. Three of Algonquin Grotto’s newly outlined Longhouses had been turned into splintered woods, and the ground was littered with Zombie and Abomination corpses. Every so often, a group of the corpses would liquify and begin creating a new Abomination pet, but as soon as it got into range of Tao or Gamma, it would unceremoniously be chopped in two.
Rocky felt himself begin to panic when he saw corpses of residents scattered amongst the bodies of the Zombies. His skin broke into a sticky, cloying sweat when he realized that he didn’t see anyone alive down there other than the two Knights. Zippo saw the dark smoke that signaled Rocky’s anger begin coalescing from his pores and asked, “Are the people in the tent?”
This did have the accidental effect of calming Rocky back down, as he immediately flushed and realized that was the obvious answer to the conundrum his brain had ignored when it saw a few additional dead corpses. Azoth flew in and landed at the entrance to the Guild Tent, which faced east towards the river. As soon as they landed, people screamed from inside before a group yelled out, “It’s Rocky, Zippo, and Sela!” Then cheers and cries could be heard as a palpable bubble of anxiety broke with their return.
Rocky walked around to Gamma and blurted, “Thank you for protecting them!” Getting his emotions under control, he continued, “What happened here?”
Gamma swatted a newly formed Abomination with the flat of his axe, which blew it apart into tiny pieces. With a quick glance at Rocky, he rumbled, “They broke out of the cliff walls and seemed to have no end. However, fifteen minutes ago they changed tactics and started raising these fat, disgusting Abominations at regular intervals. I don’t think they expected us to be here!”
Rocky nodded to himself. How would Apothis know that he had recruited two Master class allies? This must have been meant to be an ambush to wipe out whatever they left behind in the Grotto during the attack on Chalk River. Sela walked up beside him and nodded to Gamma before speaking to Rocky, “I think I know where the place of power is. I also think that the attack we just made was just to hold our attention when this was all put in motion. That’s why it was so ‘easy’!” She attempted to make air quotes when she said easy, but the gesture was all wrong; instead, she accidentally gave herself wolf ears that she twitched around rather cutely.
Rocky snorted accidentally but responded, “We should restock at the shop and attack the place of power. Where is it?”
Sela tilted her head in consideration. “The entrance I used is outside the Grotto near a small lake, but the actual alter is below us in a large network of caverns and tunnels. I think I was reborn on it.” Rocky blinked at her rather disjointed answer. Why hadn’t she told him about this sooner?
She continued, “I was planning to go down there and examine the place with you, but there was always something else that was coming up. Plus, I had no idea it was a place of power. As far as I knew, places of power were legends that adventurers told each other in taverns. How there is one here and why it is so far underground, I don’t know.”
Rocky put a hand on her shoulder, seeing the wildness in her eyes. “We'd better hurry. Will Azoth fit down there?” he asked her to try to get her back on track. She shook her head, and he turned to the Chimera, who had been lingering on the edge of the group. “Go get Smith and Joe! Bring them here. Now!”
Azoth attempted a salute with his front paw, but because he was a cat, it looked more like he was trying to cover his eye and play peek-a-boo. Rocky snorted again; if they all survived this, he was going to take a day and explain to Azoth and Sela what they were trying to mimic, what it meant, and how to do it properly!
He looked at Gamma. “Can we leave the defense and possible retreat of this place to you?”
It was Tao who responded, “Nothing shall breach the sanctity of our defense while we live. Go and cleanse this place the lady speaks of.”
Rocky nodded and jogged over to the Populace Accessible shop to refill on elixirs, grenades, and other useful items he had been forced to expend during his most recent fighting. Sela and Zippo joined him. After they had refilled, they returned to the tent to wait for Azoth to return. Rocky used the time to scan through his notifications that he had minimized or ignored during combat. He clicked summarize to reduce the number of notifications and began.
For killing 14,023 Undead Creatures: Level Apprentice 12-26: You as part of the army have been awarded 1,323,451 Etherience.
For killing 25 Undead Summoned Creatures: Level Journeyman 25-41: You as part of the army have been awarded 22,200 Etherience.
For killing 24 Necromancers: Level Apprentice 18-22: You have been awarded 13,100,322 Etherience.
For killing 20 Sapients: Level Apprentice 15-20: You have been awarded 10,245,092
For killing 1 Undead Champion: Level Master 65: You have been awarded 31,243,343 Etherience.
Your personal Etherience amounts to: 55,844,270 Etherience
100,936,443 Etherience remaining until level 24.
—
Congratulations! You have completed a Portion of a Chain Quest!
Chain Quest (Change as per AC - 2.2a)
Red Quest
Party Quest – Druid
Contain the Destruction
You and your party have examined the area of destruction and found that the influence of Apep is trying to destroy life on Gaia. Furthermore, Apep, using his minion Apothis, is attempting to seize control of a contract creature of Gaia, Bathilda. Not only have you extended the time remaining on this endeavor, you have also found out how to put a stop to it.
Rewards:
Your party has been awarded 150,000,0000 Etherience (Each)
Your party has been awarded 1,000 Crystallized Ether (To leader)
Your Greater Territorial Perk has been deferred until the quest chain is complete!
160,651,643 Etherience remaining until level 25.
Atlantian Code Section 2 Subsection 2 (a) – Gaia reserves the right to change quests from single quests to chain quests when the need arises. This allows Gaia, in situations of dire need, to create follow up quests when the outcome of the action may affect the entire planet. Gaia can increase rewards, defer rewards, or change rewards as she deems appropriate.
—
Congratulations! You have reached level 23! You have been awarded 1 Stat point and 1 Skill point.
Congratulations! You have reached level 24! You have been awarded 1 Stat point and 1 Skill point.
—
You have been offered a 2nd part in a chain quest!
Chain Quest
Red Quest
Party Quest - Druid
&
nbsp; Free Bathilda
Find a way to obtain Bathilda’s contract item, The Pendant of Smog, before she can no longer resist the subversion attempt by Apothis’ Necromancers. Remove the Restriction placed on her by Apothis’ command “To not move a claw.”
Rewards:
Greater Territorial Perk
Etherience
Crystallized Ether
Territorial Growth Boon from Aura List
Since this is a chain quest, it has been accepted on your behalf by Gaia.
—
Congratulations! Your Soul Blade ‘Dark Tidings’ has consumed enough souls to gain a level! Since you have claimed enough Sapient Souls, a bonus level was added.
—
Dark Tidings – Soul Blade
Level 8
160/160 Ether Pool
The Strength of Arms VI
+16 Strength as long as the Blade has Ether from its pool to draw on. Unlock higher levels of your Soul Blade for more.
The Strength of Body VI
+8 Stamina as long as the Blade has Ether from its pool to draw on. Unlock higher levels of your Soul Blade for more.
* Dark Tidings refuses to absorb any more golem essence. Find it a new source of sustenance. *
* Dark Tidings has found its favorite sustenance. Sapient Essence will count double. *
There was a lot of information in his most recent notifications, and he flipped back to the massive amount of Etherience that was granted when he took out the Abomination Champion. The Atlantean system had clearly deemed the ring’s stored attack as his attack and credited him with a solo kill of a Master class opponent. This was made even more obvious by how little he had gotten for the smaller Abominations that he hadn’t helped with in the least.
The final notification for his sword increasing in levels also made him scan the Etherience gains more closely. He felt his heart sink when he saw it. The twenty sapient humans the system had credited him with. Those had been his friends. He felt his brain go static and his body go numb, all of his thoughts looping on that moment, staring down, ring extended, closing his eyes against–
He felt a light slap on his cheek; Sela stood in front of him. She grabbed his chin and forced his eyes to meet hers, ensuring they focused, before she enunciated, “They are not your fault! Your actions and quick thinking saved the Territory! Now you have to do it again. We need you to snap out of this!” She tapped his cheek and smiled. “I need you…”
At his blinking shock, she smiled further and let go before she turned and commanded, “Assign your stats and do what needs to be done. We have to get moving as soon as the others join us! It’s a long way down.”
He blinked but focused his mind back to the next steps with an effort of his will. The quest change to a chain. Right, should he be upset with Gaia changing their initial quest or overjoyed? If the next quest gave similar rewards, the whole party would be leveling up faster and getting more crystals, but the Greater Territorial Perk might have been something they could have used, considering that the Territory was about to be lost!
He Analyzed Sela and Jason to confirm their Etherience gains.
Selaphelia Ardensai
Level 23
Apprentice Dark-Druid
Health Points 190/190
—
Jason
Level 22
Apprentice Fire-Mage
Health Points 180/180
He then took a moment to look over his own Character page and assign some of his current stats, starting by dumping his two new skill points into his Shadow Clone, increasing its stat transfer and thus its effectiveness in combat.
Rockland Barkclay Level 24
Class: Apprentice-Dark (Azrael) Revenant,
Level 1 Strategist
Class Skills: Dark Blade, Dark Mend, Soul Blade, Dark Cloak, Shadow Clone
Health Points = 290/290
Dark Ether Pool = 230/230
You have 0 stat points and 0 skill points to distribute.
Stamina – 29 (Strength of Body +8)
Strength – 35 (Strength of Arms +5) (Strength of Arms +16)
Agility – 40 (Speed of Arms +5)
Dexterity – 33
Intelligence – 23 (+2)
Wisdom – 30
Charisma – 32
Luck – 10
Weak Skills
Non-Class Combat Skills: Combatant – 24 (+2), Ether Channels – 18, Ether Cleanse - 5 (+1), Ether Manipulation – 17
Common Skills: Barter – 8, Camouflage – 7, Endurance – 25, Tracker – 16, Trance Meditation – 19
Profession Skills: Actor – 5, Butcher – 23 (+1), Cook – 2, Herbalist – 19, Miner – 1, Skinner – 22, Teacher - 12 (+2), Trader – 5
Moderate Skills
Non-Class Combat Skills: Stealth – 6 (+5), Swordsmanship – 5 (+4)
Common Skills: Analyze – 12 (+2), Perception – 3 (+2), Sneak – 16(+3)
Profession Skills
Very shortly after assigning his points, Azoth landed with Joe and Smith, filling out their group and making it five. Once Smith found out why they had been summoned, he tried to push for the entire A-Team to join them, but Rocky looked at the countdown timer and shook his head. With only five hours, fifteen minutes, and change remaining, they didn’t have time to gather up more people. Sela had just told him that it was a long way down. On the quick visit to the shop, they had purchased glow stripes for everyone to use if Zippo, for some reason, stopped being able to provide light.
Rocky crossed all of his metaphorical fingers and prayed that Zippo wouldn’t get hurt.
They began jogging out of the Grotto as soon as Rocky managed to convince Azoth to keep a watch on the citizens and army from the air. Azoth insisted that he could join them in the tunnels, and Rocky had to flip the narrative on him by assuring him that he was needed more here. He had tried to tell him it was because of his size, but Azoth didn’t seem to understand the concept of small spaces that couldn’t be made larger using brute force.
With just under five hours remaining on the timer, the group arrived at the entrance to the tunnels Sela had been forced to traverse after her resurrection. Rocky took a deep breath and blew it out. “Not like the fate of everyone is riding on this!”
Chapter Twenty-Four
The group had been descending into the darkness of the deep tunnels lit only by a small ball of fire conjured by Zippo for an hour already based off of the countdown clock, and they hadn’t seen or heard a thing. Rocky stared at Sela’s back. “You sure this is the place of power?”
She turned around and stuck her tongue out at him, then rolled her eyes. “Honestly, if that was the first time you asked, it might be original. What is the count on that question now, Zippo?”
Zippo piped in happily, “Twelve, he has averaged one every five minutes or so.” Rocky stuck his tongue out at Zippo in turn, and the kid gave him the finger. Rocky opened his mouth wide in shock and looked around at the other two-party members, Smith and Joe. Both of them wore serious expressions, and Rocky gave up his fake outrage.
Instead, he turned to face the front again and thought about Sela. Currently, she was using one of her druidic gifts to see the space around them. She claimed she was feeling out the path to the center of the massive complex of tunnels, caverns, and drops. Unfortunately, by the number of turns they had taken and the general slope of all the passages, they were taking it was still below them and still a ways off. Rocky couldn’t trust his inner sense of direction right now because it was somewhat convinced they had been traveling in spiraling circles.
In truth, he knew what he was doing, asking all the questions and trying to manufacture humor. He had seen a lot of needless death over the last few hours, and he was worried that he was in for some more. If he could go back in time, he might have cleared out Chalk River before the trip to Ottawa, like Sela had strongly indicated at the time they received the first part of the quest. That would have stopped there from being as many souls to protect rig
ht now, and perhaps the Dungeon would have been far weaker. Perhaps Apep’s influence would have been tremulous.
Every time Rocky had felt they were about to win, something had come up. They had stopped the storms, which meant they could attack en masse, but Apothis had created an army of sacrifices to place in their path. Rocky had removed what shielding the weak creatures had by killing their support, and suddenly, they had all morphed into stronger undead minions. Finally, he had made it to the Dragon and here again, they had been missing something crucial to their success. Now, they were spiraling deep underground, and Rocky had to admit that he didn’t want to see the people he was with get hurt. The others who had died in the recent battles hurt him, devastated him in ways, but to lose the people around him now? That would break him, and he knew it.
So, comedy becomes the crutch once again!
A few spirals later, Sela froze stock-still, and Rocky held his breath listening. He couldn’t hear anything at all, so he, like the others, waited on what she might do with held breath. A moment later, she continued on, and Zippo opened his mouth, “Se–”
She pointed right at him unerringly with her back still turned and hissed as quietly as she could. Then she turned back to them and whispered, “After the next corkscrew, we are going to level out, and it is crawling with creatures of some sort. I would guess that it is human feet on the stones, but this skill only gives me a general size of the contact points.”
Her eyes widened for a moment, and she looked back quickly, holding up a hand. A slow count of ten later, she turned back and continued her whisper, “There is no possible way to avoid them. Whatever is down there is going to have to be fought. I think it is going to be best to just fight anything that we find as we move forward. If we avoid any of the groups I am feeling down there, they will likely just attack us from behind later when we can ill afford it.”
