by Aleron Kong
“Are you sure that you escaped detection?” Hisako asked urgently. “Are you positive that it did not glean any information from you?”
“I felt his magic reaching towards me,” Richter said. “I would stake my life that he did not touch my mind, but there is no doubt that he knew someone was watching. If he had gotten any information, though, why would these undead attacks only be starting now? The sacrifices were long ago, so if he had seen me, he would have known about me for centuries.”
Hisako waved her hand, “You were not actually there when the events happened the first time, so this lich lord could not have seen you then. I am not sure how you were detected, but I am not a master of Mental magic. Perhaps the evil you saw slumbered until you killed the protector of the Dark portal. I do not know, and we do not have time for a discussion on temporal arcanae. Now please tell me, is there anything else that I need to know?”
Richter nodded and told her of his quest, Proper Rest II. It involved the spirits of the knight’s daughter and all of the other sacrificial victims. They had risen from their remains and attacked the village, driven mad by centuries of hate. Luckily, Sumiko had been there, and the Life master had been able to vanquish the ghosts. Surprisingly, Krista, the spirit of the knight’s daughter, had returned after the battle. The spirit had been greatly changed. She had no longer glowed with the neon-green of eldritch magic. She also no longer wore had the festering wounds that had marked her ethereal body when she previously attacked. The greatest change was that her rage had also been replaced by, not peace exactly, but instead a calm resolve.
Krista had promised that the spirits of all the sacrificial victims would hold off on moving to their long-awaited rest. To prove her words, she had given Richter a coin, saying that he could call on them if he needed their help to fight the lich lord. He took it from his Bag of Holding and showed it to the sprite leader.
Hisako took the glowing coin and held it in her hand. As she closed her eyes, a look of peace came over her face, “This is not a coin. It is a piece of her spiritual energy. Not too different from how you can now make your mana tangible. You are right; her spirit has been cleansed. I can feel the purity of her spiritual energy. There is no innocence, but also none of the rage that Sumiko described to me. An object like this cannot last forever, however. How long do you have to use it?”
“She said one month,” Richter replied.
“One month?” Hisako asked, her voice rising in incredulity. “How long ago did you receive this?”
“A couple weeks ago,” Richter responded, “I know that time is running out, but so much-”
“Bah!” she said waving her hands to shut him up. “Be specific! What day did you receive this coin?”
Richter thought for a moment, and then said, “It was twenty-nine days ago.”
Hisako and Yoshi looked at each other. “It would have been the second of Kuborn,” the adept said. “That means there are only ten days until the second of Juren.”
She nodded and then turned to Richter, “You have no idea how lucky you are. Kuborn is one of the longest months of the year. If this had occurred only one month before, in Kerult, your time would have elapsed. Even still, Yoshi is correct. Only ten days remain for you to complete this quest with her aid. I have a feeling we will need it.”
“I know that this undead lord, whoever he is, needs to be confronted,” Richter said, “but there is so much more that needs to be done. He has stayed quiet for centuries. I’m just saying that maybe we can deal with the enemies we have before looking for more. Surely he can keep until we deal with the bugbears.”
“No!” Hisako said fiercely. Even Yoshi seemed surprised at her vehemence. “I understand your reasoning, Lord Richter, but you are wrong. There will never be a perfect time to confront evil. There will always be more enemies to battle. The mere fact that you are gaining power will attract those who wish to destroy you. We must face the threat of the undead now!
“This is not some rogue necromancer we are dealing with. You are describing a lich lord who seems to have mastered eldritch magic. Undead are attacking during the day, and now high level living undead are attacking in the forest with impunity. It has only been three weeks. We cannot afford to let this threat grow for months. After we deal with these goblins, we must prepare to destroy this den of undead. Yoshi and I will help as much as we can, but we must move quickly. I feel in my heart that Krista’s help will be invaluable. No matter what, however, this threat must be eliminated.” Her voice became somewhat more formal, “As the ally of the Hearth Tree, I expect the Mist Village to help destroy this menace.”
Richter’s eyes widened slightly as he realized that Hisako was no longer speaking as a friend and mentor, but instead as one ruler to another. That realization was further cemented as a prompt filled his vision.
Quest Update: Proper Rest II. Hisako has formally charged you with removing what she considers a dire threat. The Wood Sprites of the Hearth Tree have invoked their alliance with the Mist Village. After the goblin encampment is destroyed, she requires that all of your efforts, and the resources of your village, be focused upon destroying the Lich Lord. Failure to complete this quest will cause substantial damage to your settlement’s relationship with the Hearth Tree and will also damage your personal relationship with Hisako. Time remaining to complete this Quest to the Hearth Mother’s satisfaction: 10 days.
Richter had picked up on the fact that Hisako was serious from her tone, but reading the prompt disturbed him. If he understood it properly, his alliance with the wood sprites would be in jeopardy if he failed his quest. His relationship with the sprites was a cornerstone of his life in The Land. It had never really occurred to him that he might lose their steadfast support. Seeing as the sprites were his only allies in a world full of enemies and monsters, he took what she was saying very seriously.
Speaking formally to match her tone, Richter said, “Lady Hisako. Your support and friendship mean more to me than all the gold in all kingdoms of this world. I know I still have much to learn and count myself lucky that you have chosen to stand beside me to meet the dangers of The Land. You will never need to doubt my dedication to our friendship or our alliance. I promise you, we will destroy this threat.”
Hisako relaxed her gaze, and her face softened, “Thank you, Lord Richter. I am sorry if it appeared that I doubted you. As children of the forest, my people will always stand against forces that will corrupt it. Thank you for honoring your commitment to us.”
You have received +500 (base +250) Relationship Points with Hisako. Current Relationship: Ally. Total Relationship Points: 102,378.
The Mist Village has received +500 (base +250) Relationship Points with the Hearth Tree. Current Relationship: Ally. Total Relationship Points: 101,411.
The Mist Village has received 500 (base +250) Diplomacy Points in regards to the Hearth Tree.
Lack of Town Hallcauses complete loss of any gained Diplomacy Points. Current Diplomacy Points (Mist Village→ Hearth Tree):0
Know This! You have made a bold promise to the Hearth Mother. She has taken you at your word. All relationship and diplomacy bonuses increased by 100%. Failure to fulfill your promise will cause any losses to relationship and diplomacy to be increased by 500%. Never forget, your words have meaning!
500%, Richter thought, incredulous! So, basically, if he fucked this quest up, his alliance was gone? The sprites wouldn’t abandon him completely, but it took a hundred thousand points for them to look at him as an ally. The chaos seed was still discovering what all of this meant, but he was pretty sure that he didn’t want to lose his “ally” status. He didn’t think the sprites would completely abandon him, but it might disrupt their trade agreement for instance.
Richter shook his head. Were the higher stakes because he had used the word “promise”? Abrams and Whedon, he really had to watch his big mouth! Why the hell did it always seem like it was getting him into trouble? Why couldn’t he just be like his boy Ash and get him
self out of trouble with a smooth, “Well, uhhh, that’s just what we call pillow talk, baby.”
There was nothing for it now. He was committed. Besides, he wasn’t planning on failing. He put the consequences of failure out of his mind. One thing that did grind his gears, though, was the loss of the Diplomacy points. He wasn’t even sure what they were, but he was sure he wanted them. Richter resolved to make building a townhall a priority when he got back. It would go right up on the list with his other high priorities, like making a barracks, and building the wall higher, and getting more researchers, and, oh yeah, destroying an undead lord in the heart of his own kingdom!
Richter did his best to keep the frustration and dismay off of his face. Instead, he bowed slightly and said, “It is I who am honored, Master Hisako.”
The Hearth Mother smiled at him and handed back Krista’s coin. She gave a quick command to Yoshi, and the adept started moving around the warband, doing last minute checks. The koolari attack had cost them both lives and time. There was still a task to be done, however. The Hearth Mother was standing next to the pile of dead monsters and was whispering a spell. A white glow appeared on her hand, and she touched her second and third finger to the space between her eyes. The aura faded a moment later, and she simply said, “Hmm.”
Richter looked at her for a few seconds, but her attention stayed on the body of the koolari that she was looking over. Finally, he asked, “Hmm, what?”
She looked up at him like she had forgotten he was there, but then wove her hand through the air again, almost absently, and said, “Paras Revalde.” A white glow enveloped her fingers for a second time, and she touched him between his eyes. Richter’s response was a bit more enthused: “Whoa!”
It was like his Herb Lore skill had gotten supersized! Since reaching apprentice rank, most plants that he saw had a slight glow to them. It indicated that they could be used for some crafting purpose, either as a potion component, a piece of an item or a spell component. He was also able to identify many positive and negative effects that would come from just eating them. Richter could control it at this point; the glow barely noticeable at baseline, but it grew brighter when he paid close attention. Not anymore.
Everything around him was almost pulsing with color. It was not glaring in any way but instead gave everything a faint phosphorescence. That was only the beginning, however. His Herb Lore sight normally just gave plants a faint glow that matched their color. Red lautum glowed red, Krin ocher glowed orange, and so on. Now, however, plants and certain parts of the koolari were illuminated in colors different from what he could normally see. The colors were familiar, though. After a moment, he realized what Hisako’s spell was actually doing. The chaos seed felt compelled to express himself even more eloquently than before, “Dooooode!”
Every useful herb nearby was glowing in a color that reflected its rarity. Most of the plants around were glowing white to show that they were common. There was a fair smattering of green and even a few spots of blue to indicate uncommon and unusual herbs. Richter wiped his head back and forth, vainly hoping to see the red of rare or the yellow of mythic plants or perhaps even the orange of a legendary component. It didn’t happen.
What he did see, however, and what had made Hisako ‘huh’ was that the throats of each of the Koolari were glowing the exact shade of purple that his scarce items had in prompts. Richter looked at Hisako, and she nodded.
“Let me know what you find,” the Hearth Mother said before walking off. “We need to leave in five minutes.”
Richter drew his moonstone dagger from his belt and got started. For the millionth time, he bemoaned how hard it was to get loot from monsters in The Land! Just having a window open up when you killed an enemy was so much easier! First, the chaos seed tried to wedge open the monster’s throat, but its jaw was locked tight in death. He considered breaking the jaw with the pommel of his weapon, but opted for a subtler approach.
Placing the koolari flat on its back, the chaos seed tilted the head back and started slicing vertically down its throat. The cartilage in the neck resisted him somewhat, but this blade was able to create a fairly neat incision. Thick black blood welled out of the wound, but the purple glow grew a bit brighter. After widening the cut a bit more, Richter laid his dagger to the side and reached two fingers from each hand into the hole he had made in its throat. After that, it was just a matter of tearing.
The flesh didn’t feel too different from uncooked goat. Ripping the meat of the koolari’s neck took him back to his tenth birthday, when his father had decided to ‘make him a man.’ Long story short, he had learned three things that day. One, if you were going to kill your dinner, it was much less traumatic to kill it with your first shot. Two, his mother did not find it amusing to see her son with dried blood splattered all over his face, hair and clothes; and three, cutting flesh was a good deal harder when it hadn’t been cooked yet.
Despite the meat being tough, it yielded quickly to Richter’s thirty-three points of Strength. He wiped some of the blood clean from his right hand, using the detritus of the forest floor as a gritty napkin. Then, pouring a bit of water into the hole, he was finally rewarded for his labors.
The inside of the koolari’s throat was grey flesh, wrinkled and spongy. Aside from the color, it didn’t look any different from the human throats Richter had cut into during Anatomy in med school. In addition to what he was expecting, though, there were three other structures that were most definitely a surprise. Three strings, about the thickness of cooked spaghetti, ran down the back of the monster’s throat. They were pure black and reflected the summoned light, giving them a slick appearance. Unable to help himself, Richter flicked one with his finger, and it vibrated like a violin string. Pling!
You have found:
Vocal Cords of the Winged Koolari.
Durability: 18/18
Item Class: Scarce.
Weight: 0.01 kg.
Traits: These cords can be woven together to make a strong string. The magical properties of songs could be augmented by an instrument strung with such a string. You feel the cords could also be used to make a potion to cloud men’s minds with madness for a short time. Alternatively, their shiny nature might be useful for making hooks to attract fish.
Richter’s brow furrowed. He was pretty damn sure that the scarce rarity wasn’t because it made the best fishing lures. The madness potion sounded promising, but it was the first quality that intrigued him. The chaos seed knew that there was power in music. Even on Earth, it could shape memory and create emotions. In The Land, the pixies used it to create tangible effects with their magic. The Playful Song of the Celestial Pixie he had heard prior to leaving the village had probably helped him resist the wail of the winged koolari. He hadn’t really thought about other uses of magical music, though.
Playing bard classes had never really been his thing. It had always seemed too passive for him. Having seen the power of the koolaris’ voices, though, Richter realized that he might need to rethink his previously dismissive stance. Staring at the shiny ebony cords, he decided that music would play a larger role in the Mist Village in the future. It was just too powerful of a tool to ignore.
Richter called over a few other guards and showed them what he was doing. There was not much time left before they started moving again, and he couldn’t harvest the vocal cords by himself. They lacked his skill in Herb Lore and so couldn’t harvest the vocal cords fully, but they could cut around the cords and hand him a large section of the monster’s flesh. After slowly cutting the vocal cords out and placing them in his bag, he had several guards watch while he repeated the process. Cautioning them not to damage the cords, he left his men to the harvest.
One of the guards asked if he could cut the wings free and keep them. Bemused, Richter looked at the wings, but they didn’t light up in his sight. Still, he said as long as it didn’t slow the warband down, he was fine with it. Part of him wanted to ask the man what he had in mind with the leathery memb
ranes, but then again, part of him didn’t.
Hisako came up and examined the set of vocal cords he had harvested. Richter offered them all to her. He wanted to experiment with the dark strings, but there was no question that her spell had been the deciding factor in the battle. She smiled at him in appreciation and said that she would be happy to accept half of the harvested strings but no more. Richter nodded and told his guards to give the longest and thickest strings to the Hearth Mother. A few minutes later, all of the cords had been collected and distributed. Richter put the large chunks of koolari throat in his Bag. He would harvest the cords later.
Hisako cast a final Earth spell. It had a somewhat long casting time, and she had to continue pouring mana into it, but the bodies began to sprout plants and grass. It was slow at first, but rapidly picked up speed. After a minute, where the pile of bodies had been there was now a mound of new grass and small, blue flowers. The green light faded from her hands.
Hisako gave the contented sigh of a craftsman looking at a job well done and remounted her strike stag. The warband was back on its way.
CHAPTER 25 – Day 141 – Kuborn 31, 15,386 EBG
The mood was more somber as they all walked, and everyone was on high alert for another attack. They moved as quickly as they could, none of them feeling good about having to continue through the forest in the dead of night. They didn’t stop, though. Yoshi’s War Leader skill still kept the party’s Fighting Spirit up, and despite the losses, they had won the battle.
The spell Hisako had cast to ensure the torches weren’t seen from a distance had been a great idea, but it did nothing to hide the light of the sprites’ imbued arrows or the flashes of magic during the attack. Yoshi said there was nothing to be done about it. They were still ten miles from the entrance to the hidden valley, and they would just have to hope that no scouts had spotted them. The trees were still thick around them, which greatly reduced the chances that their battle with the winged koolari had been noticed, but it was still a risk. They continued on.
