by Galen Wolf
I encountered more skeleton guards on the floor below. Once again, I plucked a pizzicato of the Music of the Dead and they stood fascinated by the echoes of my tunes. I walked past them still hasted and in a hurry.
There was no point going invisible – I had a potion my inventory that would do that but the undead could see invisibility.
As I walked down the slanting stone cut passage, I heard a new noise - different undead were down here. These were the gnashing sounds of ghouls. I knew they had a higher will save the skeletons, but not by much. So once again, I played the Music of the Dead and they stood stock-still. This was proving too easy.
The passage leveled out, and sarcophagi lined both walls. These had surely not been part of the original mine workings; somebody must've brought them here later, but why would anyone bring sarcophagi to a place which had never been a community to have a graveyard? Any workers dying in the minds would have been NPCs and no one would have afforded them a burial. A necromancer would. Something lay in them.
A sound of grating stone. I turned, the torch flaring with my movement. A vampire leapt from a coffin, bowling me over and biting at my neck. The red warning flashed across my HUD as I lost 7% of my health, I rolled over and out from under the vampire and stood. I dropped my torch to the floor and placed the flute to my lips.
I played a Scale on my flute - a few notes that tripped the vampire as I'd intended. I refreshed my haste by playing the notes of the Allegro on my flute, Then I let my flute drop on its leather strap while I plucked at my mandolin and played the notes of the Chant. This caused a slow mana drain in the enemy. I knew vampires had spells, and I wanted to hit its mana reserve. The vampire picked himself up from my trip and again I played the Scale causing trip again. He would not fail his save every time but the longer he was on the ground, the more time I had to play music. I strummed the Cantata, causing a damage over time effect. It was musical damage and could not be saved against. This was one of the great strengths of the bards skill set – musical damage had no saves. Still on the mandolin, I played the Counterpoint, which confused the vampire, sending him stumbling snapping at me where I never was.
Switching from my music skill set to my drama skill set, I gave a Gesture, flinging out a hand. This caused him around 25 health damage instantly. I then acted out a Foreshadow to reduce all his saves by five. I did Gesture after Gesture, flinging my arms right and left with great dramatic flourish causing him 25 health damage by each one. And then I played the Adagio that caused 10 health damage per second for as long as I played.
My music was damaging both his health and his mana. Vampires were immune to any weapon that was not silver – that's why I hadn’t reached for my rapier, but no one was immune to musical damage. As the vampire stumbled around confused from my music, taking damage over time, I used Mimic to copy the vampire’s movements. The mimic skill intensified my damage. If he allowed me to Mimic his movements, I would do double damage from all of my attacking magic. Then, I acted the moves of the Hubris. I acted out the gestures of a very proud man. The Hubris skill took fifteen seconds to act out and at the end of that time, it had a detonating effect and would take away 50% of his health and knock him to the ground.
The vampire finally saved my Counterpoint and shook off the confusion, but as he turned snarling, showing white teeth and amethyst eyes with a flourish I finished acting the Hubris and the dramatic energy knocked him to the floor taking off half of his original points.
Of course, I had already done damage so he was hanging on by a thread. With one final Gesture from me, the vampire expired in a puff of smoke on the floor. I picked up the torch again to light my way.
I hurried now deeper and deeper into the mine, my boots scuffing the sandy tunnel floor. I wanted to get to the Mirror, grab it and get out. Once again I trusted the Queen of Summer to guide my steps.
The tunnels now took on a more civilized air. No longer were they merely rough holes dug through the earth, the stone was cut and dressed and, here and there, incantations were carved in the wall in magic runes. I passed the runes, and weakness softened my muscles and pain twisted my guts as I failed a willpower save. I started to take negative energy damage from the runic inscriptions. I played the Tune again to regenerate my health and sang the Shanty to regenerate my mana. My voice echoed from the stone walls. Stealthy I was not.
I stopped for a second and acted out the gestures of the Comedy to refresh my damage reduction.
I saw lights ahead. I placed my torch carefully on the floor still burning and went ahead as quietly as I could towards the lights.
Two zombie guards stood either side of a working portcullis. The portcullis was up so they clearly didn't expect attackers. As they lumbered to attack me I played the Music of the Dead again and they halted, mystified and enthralled by the music, like all their brethren before them. I slipped through the portcullis and found myself in living chambers of a sort. I could see my breath. All the trappings of a human house were here – tables and chairs, cupboards and carpets but everything was cold and eerily lifeless. There was the possibility of traps but I suspected that if this area was as well used as it appeared to be then traps could not be set, otherwise they'd always be triggering against the inhabitants.
Entering quickly, I looked around and saw a passage leading left. Once again I sensed that this was the direction I should take. I didn't know how I knew this other than to suspect I had divine aid unseen.
Hurrying down the corridor I again came across more zombies that I stopped with my music.
These zombies were guarding a treasure room door. The door was of iron and locked. I had no key and no skills to pick locks. But I did have music. I stood back and played the Cadenza. At its climax, a bolt of musical energy rushed out from my mandolin and exploded into the iron door with an enormous racket. The door buckled as if it had been punched, creating a concave indentation the size of a chair. I played the Cadenza again and this time my music blew the door off its hinges.
I was hopeful I'd found the mirror. Locked doors often suggest that there's something behind them worth finding – otherwise why would the owner lock the door in the first place?
And it was true in this case. The room was full of gold and gems. Magical items lay in heaps, but I didn't have time to appraise them all. Truth be told, I was only interested in the Mirror. I'd been told that its particular quality was that the mirrored surface was quicksilver so I ransacked the piles of treasure for a mirror with a liquid face. I found it underneath a golden goblet and a pearl necklace. I snatched the necklace to give as a gift for the Queen of summer and pulled out the mirror by its elegant carved handle.
As I took it up, I saw it was indeed quite peculiar. I studied my reflection in the silver. I saws my handsome CGI face with nut brown eyes, dark hair and beard that I wished was rather less wispy. It was me all right — Romeo el Mejor, but my reflection looked different. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but it was as if the magical properties of the mirror let me see something for the first time. Pulling myself back from reverie to my present predicament, and still holding the mirror, I turned to track my way back out of the dungeon and get free.
I hurried along the corridor by the still fascinated undead, their eye sockets following the musical notes floating round them as if they were humming birds. I ran up the stone stairs and was back in the corridor with the disused scriptorium where once dwarf clerks had calculated their master’s profits. Going through the main corridor at a jog, I got past the dreaming skeletons to find the iron door had clanged closed. I tested it. It was locked. I pushed and put my shoulder against the door but it wouldn't budge. I knocked and cried out in the hope my dwarfs would hear me, but if they heard me, no help came. This was awkward.
I turned suddenly remembering the portcullis and the back exit that the rockfall closed off. Maybe I could indeed squeeze my way out. I hadn't examined it in detail. I hadn't needed to, but now I did. I ran over to the rusty iron grille of the portcul
lis and I shook it but it did not lift. Then I stepped back, put the Mirror of Revelation on the ground, unslung my mandolin and played a frantic Cadenza. Musical energy exploded from my instrument sending the portcullis buckling and flying from its hinges to smash the decayed skeletons of the long dead guards. I ran past their moldering bones up to the fallen rocks. I kneeled, peered, and thought I saw sunlight through a chink far away through the chaotic rubble pile. Better still, I definitely heard the chopping and scraping of mattocks. The dwarfs were digging me out! They must have seen the door close and worried for my safety. I cupped my hands to my mouth and yelled up, but they could not hear me, or if they heard me, they couldn’t make out my words.
A sound filled the cavern behind - a dreadful, droning sound, a rasping of breath without lungs. I spun to see him approaching behind me. Amon Duul wore a robe of silver and gold that fell to the floor. On his head he wore a crown of iron embedded with aquamarines. His face was a skull with fragments of dried skin hanging from it, and his teeth were the sharpened fangs of a shark made of diamonds. Worst of all, his eyes burned in the sockets of his skull with a wicked blue fire. With ghostly senses, he saw, heard and smelled me.
I reached for my mandolin and played the Music of the Dead. It was a futile gesture – a lich’s saves were so high that I didn't believe it would affect him, but I tried anyway. He saved my attack of course and raised one of his bony hands. From his fingers, a Necrotic Bolt energy seared past my head. The air stunk of dead flesh.
I acted out a quick Monologue and applied dramatic damage over time effect. I knew he’d have lots of hit points and this would be a mere ticking away at his total, but every little helped. He fired again and this time the bolt hit me. My health instantly went down by 17%. I strummed a Tune again to regenerate my hit points and with the same instrument played the Chant to drain his mana. Even though he was undead – he was still a player character and so I tried some of the more subtle attacks from the Drama skill set. With my eyes and my fingers, I began to act out the Hypnotize skill. Hypnotize, when it lands, convinces a player they’re still in full health even when they’re taking damage.
If it worked, it meant they didn't take measures to heal themselves because they believed they were undamaged. Players generally weren’t used to fighting bards. There weren’t many of us because the skillset was tricky to master. When a player knew about Hypnotize, he’d routinely heal even if he could see no damage because he’d suspect it anyway. I next acted out the Tragedy and with great sorrow in my eyes and my gestures, I inflicted a further damage over time effect on Amon Duul. He made no attempt to come close to me. Our battle would not be fought toe to toe but rather from a distance each hurling his own magic at the other.
He hit me again with a Necrotic Bolt taking me down to 72% of full. I trusted my Hypnotize to have landed because he didn't heal himself, even though Monologue was chipping away at him. Added to the dramatic damage over time from Tragedy, I played the Cantata to cause a musical DoT effect. I then acted Aside to misdirect him, and his next bolt missed me. My damage was doing something to him but very slowly, but if he kept firing his bolts at me like this, I'd be dead before he was. I healed up again with Tune then began to act the Hubris. Like with the vampire, this 15 second dramatic would end with halving his hit points and knocking him to the ground. The only problem was that while I was engaged in acting the Hubris, I could do nothing else.
For the first time he spoke, "why did you come to my treasure room, thief?”
I couldn't speak without breaking my Hubris. Instead, I concentrated on my acting, the sweat running into my eyes.
He raised both hands and with his bony fingers he shot two necrotic bolts. Both hit. I was down to 42% of full. Through gritted teeth I continued my acting, but then he cast another spell. It was Rot. The necromancer can choose a body part to rot away. and he chose both my hands. Without my hands I was unable to complete my acting.
Sensing victory, he shot another Necrotic Bolt that dropped me to 22% health. Without my hands I couldn't play and musical instruments to heal or carry out offensive music or acting. I looked past him and he blocked the exit into the cavern. It looked like I would die down here. The mirror was still lying there on the ground. I hadn't placed it in my inventory and now had no hands to do so.
And I saw a curious thing.
Where I should have seen the skull face of Amon Duul reflected in the Mirror of Revelation, instead I saw the face of a young boy with Asian features. He looked around 15, and I wondered if this was the true face of Amon Duul, the person who played him. But if so how had the Mirror managed to show it?
My musings were cut short by another Necrotic Bolt. Pain burned me alive and I collapsed, lying dying on the floor. But then I remembered Rohan's gift. Amon Duul shambled forward to stand victoriously over me, preparing my death blow. He prattled some speech telling me how great he was. I didn't listen; all I could hear was tunneling dwarfs digging to my rescue. I hoped they wouldn’t be too late.
He gripped his dagger, the dark blade smoking and moaning. With my mind I took out Rohan's crystal phial from my inventory. I laid it on the ground in front of me as I lay groaning in pain, my hands rotted away and my clothes and body steaming from the damage caused by the necrotic energy. Wedging the file to the ground with my forearm, I used my teeth to remove the stopper. God knows what he thought I was doing. He must have been so sure of his victory that he didn't even try to stop me.
The pink fragrant liquid spilled onto the stone floor from the open bottle. Instantly, a beautiful Rain Of Red Roses fell from ceiling level, dropping all over the floor. A blessed scent filled the chamber. My only hope was that Amon Duul did not save against them. I pulled myself to my knees and rolled sideways, dodging the crackling dagger of unholy energy as he stabbed. He’d saved all the roses so far, but there would be forty seconds of this scented rain and he couldn’t save all of them.
And he didn't.
I saw the Lich become nauseated and stand retching. This was my chance. I stood and shoulder charged him backwards. He stumbled, still heaving, hands to mouth. Behind me, the dwarfs, with consummate timing, broke into the chamber. Grey bearded Bottom yelled at me. “Boss, here.”
I turned and saw they had cleared a way for me to get out. It was narrow, but luckily, I was trim. I ran at the gap and thrust my body into the space excavated by the dwarfs. Bottom, Quince and Flute pushed and pulled me up the tunnel, until we emerged into the bright sunlight. With a curse, Bottom swung his mattock at the unstable rocks and they collapsed in, blocking the passage again and stopping Amon Duul from following us.
As I climbed out of the back door of the mine, a message popped across my HUD to say I had completed the quest for the Queen of Summer. The XP would have been nice but because I was already at maximum level, it did me no good. Even so, I got a good feeling from completing quests – especially new ones, and I was pleased that I managed to aid the Queen of Summer. I hoped she would look favorably upon me and agree to take part in my play.
The dwarfs rushed me towards the wagon. I glanced back to see the mine’s iron door was still shut. But he could be out in a second and then we’d surely die.
We clambered onto the wagon. I said, Flute, “I have something I need you to do.”
With my mind I removed some Athillias leaves from my inventory. I figured that if they cured the broken hands caused by Reza poison, there was a chance that they’d cure the rotted hands caused by this necrotic spell.
The Athillias leaves lay on the wooden bench of the wagon when I got them from my inventory. I asked Flute to pick them up and put them in my mouth. This the dwarf did and first my right and then my left hand healed and returned to me. I quickly grabbed my mandolin and played healing music to restore my health to full.
Bottom grabbed the reins, flicked them and we trundled and rolled at speed down the Dwarf Road towards the Old Forest. I stopped off at Woodheart to see Ahn and Rohan again and I recounted my adventures without
showing them the mirror. This time I introduced the dwarfs to them and Ahn gave them all a glass of mead to share along with the rest of us.
“Do you want to log off here?” He said. “You’ll be perfectly safe.”
"No," I shook my head. I looked at the dwarfs. "We need to get back to Woodheart. We have a play to put on."
9. A Midsummer Night's Dream
We got back to Vinab with no fuss. We dismounted the wagon outside the Theatre Royal, and I asked Bottom to park it round the back. I unlocked the painted doors at the front and was pleased to see the foyer looking sparkling clean with freshly done paint. A shaft of sunlight caught the mirror ball, splintering into a million dancing motes that played across the walls and ceiling of the foyer.
I breathed in. The place had the distinctive odor of theatres. The smell and the feel of the plush velvet seat covers and the wooded board resounding beneath my feet - my theatre - my life!
She appeared in her usual puff of ice white smoke and golden sparkles before I was through the door.
