by Sean Oswald
The boys looked at one another but didn’t know what to say. Not that it mattered because at that moment a woman they had never seen came walking up behind them. As is the way of teenage boys, both of them struggled to keep their mouths shut as they looked at the newcomer. Her robes bore the marking of the church of Shanelle, and while they covered her from collar to ankle, they were somehow cut to show off every curve of her figure. She was the perfect Albian woman, trim in the middle with curved breasts and hips and the robes cinched just right to accentuate her shape. Atop the robe her face was framed perfectly with high cheekbones, full lips, and covered with deep red hair that offset her green eyes.
Equally clichéd was the fact that she had very little awareness of the impact she had on all the boys and men around her. She was seductive just by breathing and enjoyed the attention without meaning to turn on the men around her or understand the nuances. She was naive in many ways as she mostly focused on her work for the church but not so naive to not make use of the effect from time to time.
“You know exactly why this is happening. It is the will of Shanelle, and the bishop paid the king a handsome amount in order to take the son of the chosen to her side and return him here when school begins again.” Her voice was a bit high-pitched as she answered and seemed to grate on Gunidar, but if either of the boys noticed, their rapt attention didn’t waiver.
“Yes well be that as it may, I am not a teamster used to hauling goods from one point to another.” Gunidar’s irritation came through clearly in his voice.
“We can all only be but what the Mother of Redemption allows us to be,” replied the priestess with the certainty of a blindly devoted religious person voicing their platitudes.
“If there is nothing further, then you and the boy need to come stand by me. Tabor, you had best step back so that you aren’t caught up in the spell.” Gunidar pushed past his irritation and was all business.
The two boys shook hands and gave nods of reassurance without saying anything. Then Jackson broke away from his friend and went to stand next to the mage who was unfurling an ornate and ancient scroll.
“Not so fast.” All eyes turned to see where the commanding voice came from, but Tabor had already recognized the voice as the same one that had called him out for mischief far too many times as a young boy.
“Father, what are you doing here?” he asked with genuine surprise.
“Well once you told be a bit about your friend’s predicament here at the academy and a little about his father, I thought it might be time for the general of the western armies to meet the general of the northern armies.” Steffen Eikhorn’s voice was as serious as his military garb–not the traditional pomp of nobles but practical gear for a practical man. Behind him were two large soldiers. While Baron Eikhorn could take care of himself, every man had to sleep, and no man had eyes in the back of his head.
“Just wait one moment. I was instructed by the king to take Master Murkwood and Priestess Gabriella to Eris’ Rise and then to return them back in nine days’ time. The king’s command said nothing about you Baron Eikhorn.” Gunidar was once again agitated by the sudden appearance.
“Correct me if I am wrong, but those teleport scrolls can transport six people including you, the caster?” Steffen said only pausing briefly to see if the mage would try to contradict him. “So that means that there are still three spots left.”
“You will have to pay for the service as …”
Gunidar was cut off by Baron Eikhorn. “Not going to happen so don’t bother asking. If what I suspect is true, then you will be doing your king a great service by taking me to the north.”
Shaking his head, the royal mage could only acquiesce. “Very well then. I need you and your guards to gather next to the three of us. The same still applies to Tabor; he should stay back.”
“But father, if you are going then why can’t I?” Tabor asked eagerly. “You are always saying it is important for me to build connections with the other noble families.”
“Don’t try to manipulate me with my own words. Save that for your mother.” The general looked off as if deep in thought before coming to a decision. “Very well. You can come, but understand that if the situation becomes dangerous, I will send you back with Gunidar, and you are not to argue with me.”
“Yes father,” Tabor replied with a grin he could barely control. An adventure in the north would be better than spending Erntedankfest in Konig without his father.
The general turned to one of his guards and ordered the man to return to their manor in the city and report the change in plans. Then he, Tabor, and his bodyguard, the mountain of a man named Gusfen, moved to where the other three stood. The mage was already chanting the words from the scroll as he focused his thoughts upon the only place in Eris’ Rise he had been before: the town square.
Chapter Three
Some embark upon the quest for power because of selfish desires wanting to aclaim wealth, comfort, and ability to control the lives of others. Others seek it for more noble reasons: to protect their friends, family, nation, or even just an ideal. Oddly, there is little difference between the paths and all too often little difference in the results. — From the church sanctioned biography of Eris, servant of Shanelle.
Murkwood Zone/Dungeon Tomb of David Nelson - Emily Nelson/Mira Nelson
Emily rode out of Eris’ Rise with Mira and the other four members of their party before the first sun rose. Being the Lady of the district entitled her to take the five horses they owned. Rak’kar couldn’t ride one, but that didn’t seem to matter. He was able to keep up with the horses trotting on their way to the edge of the forest. Once they reached the forest, they had to move slower to keep from having one of the horses break a leg. As they got close, Emily pulled up the district interface and looked at the dungeon to see if there was any more information than she remembered.
Dungeon: Tomb of David Nelson
Tier: unknown
Exploration: 1
That was odd. She hadn’t really paid any attention to the dungeon before, but she could have sworn when the interface first appeared that it said the dungeon had been explored 2%. Hmm, so either her memory was wrong, or the dungeon had grown. She chose to assume the former, but it still didn’t sit well with her because she was so sure about the first reading of it. No matter how she looked at the interface, it didn’t provide any additional information.
Deciding that they were as ready as they could be going into combat with the unknowns of Rak’kar and Tradon, they stepped through the threshold with only a three second count between each other. To her relief, Emily noted that Tradon was in a polished breastplate with the unique tree symbol that had become their banner emblazoned on its front rather than the red vest he had been wearing.
Inside the dungeon was much the same as Mira remembered. The dark tunnel was poorly lit by a strange ambient light. There were no guards, no standing dog men waiting to jump them this time. Instead, it seemed quiet. A quiet which seemed to give credence to the dungeon’s name. The tunnel was only about ten feet wide and eight feet high. Mira wondered if that would affect the minotaur, but he seemed to move with a hunched forward posture anyway, so while his horns came close to the ceiling, they didn’t actually touch.
Mira and the rest of the party watched as Daichi’s back faded into the murky blackness where the ambient light was no longer strong enough to illuminate him. So they all settled in to wait. This was definitely her least favorite part about dungeon dives in her vast experience. She chuckled at the sarcasm that ran through her own thoughts. Making fun of herself but wanting to be more productive, she turned her mind towards the projects she had been working on for the past few days. She thought about a variety of things but mostly imagined flirting with any of the guys who she thought were under twenty-five. It wasn’t that she really wanted a boyfriend at this stage, let alone someone looking for a wife. Rather, it was just that now she felt confident enough to appreciate the attention and objective
enough to realize that she was smoking hot, and that wasn’t just her fire spells.
Each morning started out with some simple martial arts training. Sometimes with Daichi, but more often it seemed to be one of his student monks who would train her. That was just as well with her because while she liked Daichi, he was more like a grandfather to her and not a guy she wanted to be wrestling around with. After martial arts training, she would attend to her Master Hiroto Niuchi. He was very formal and old, neither of which she cared for, and insisted that she always call him Master.
There was no denying that he was incredibly skillful in the enchanting that he taught her. He would heap equal amounts of praise and criticism on her and was never incorrect in his assessments. She had, however, already learned the basics of enchanting, and once she had some more character points to spare, she would try to raise that skill. She had not as of yet had any skill ups from simple practice, but Hiroto assured her that was something that really only came with breakthroughs and not from simple practice.
Speaking of breakthroughs, she usually spent most of her time on various projects that she thought her dad would be proud of when he got back. Mostly she had been looking at the amber substance left over when the tree sappers were burnt. From what she had been able to discern, the substance conducted or stored mana exceptionally well. She really wasn’t sure what they would create with it as the material was quite pliable, but she wanted to learn as much as she could about it before dad got home.
In the late afternoons, she made time for Sara. Her mother guilted her into trying to be a better big sister. Objectively though, she knew that it was in her best interest for Sara to learn to be self-sufficient. The frustrating thing was that despite the fact that Sara was level sixteen, she wasn’t able to access her character sheet or learn anything that Mira tried to teach her. The magical bond between Sara and Krinnk and the oversized bunny, Snowball, was interesting though. She thought that by studying the bond, she might learn how to enhance her summoning and charm spells.
At the end of each day, she spent time learning at least one spell out of the book they had gotten as treasure. It killed her that she still couldn’t learn any of the Tier 3 spells, but she learned a Tier 1 spell on each of the two nights they spent traveling back to Eris’ Rise. First she learned Invisible Housekeep–because what teenager wants to clean up after themselves? Then she learned Minor Forgetfulness because she thought it would come in handy.
Invisible Housekeep: Summons a minor air elemental which will perform basic household tasks for you. No combat capabilities and not best for use with breakable items.
Duration: 1 hour
Mana: 50
Cooldown: 3 hours
Minor Forgetfulness: causes a single target to forget the last 15 minutes + 2 minutes/level. Successful resistance means that the target only forgets that you cast a spell on them. Unless the spell is resisted, the target will be confused but not suspect any type of magical foul play.
Mana: 30
Cooldown: 15 minutes
Range: touch
Once she was back in Eris’ Rise, she felt safer taking more time to learn a new spell and so had learned three of the Tier 2 spells. In fact, they were the only three that she hadn’t learned yet and were of a school that she possessed. The downside to learning the spells was that it erased them from the book, but she didn’t know of any way as of yet to eliminate that function. At least if she could learn how to scribe spells into a book someday, she would be assured of making a very fine living.
Wind Whip: Creates a condensed stream of air which can be used as a whip. Lashing with it causes 5+5-10 damage. Range of the lash is fifteen feet. It can also be used to entangle and requires a Strength of greater than 30 to break. Entangling is a declared attack against which the opponent may attempt to avoid using an Agility based resist. If successful the target will be bound as though with a rope for 1 minute. The level of strength used against the whip will lessen the duration.
Duration: 1 minute +1 minute/level
Mana: 50
Cooldown: 30 minutes
Lesser Gauge Defenses: Targets a single creature and provides the same information as Assess Enemy but also provides specific information about the targets physical and magical defense.
Mana: 15
Cooldown: 1 minute
Range: sight
Lesser Shield Breaker: Blasts out a wedge shaped blast of magical force which is entirely incapable of harming any living, undead, or constructed being. However against mundane or magical shields it is devastating. It causes 200+100-300 damage to any spell shield and has a 70%+1%/level base chance of destroying any non-magical shield. The chance is dropped by 25% if the shield is magical in nature.
Mana: 45
Cooldown: 3 minutes
Range: 50’+2’/lvl
Mira felt like she was starting to have enough spells to have a tool to help in any situation. She just needed to get Abjuration and Shaping Magic, and then she would have them all. There were just so many things to spend her character points on.
A screeching sound, like metal on metal, followed by a muffled cry of pain drew Mira and everyone else’s attention back to the present and down the hallway. Sir Jaselm immediately called for everyone to form up and start moving toward the sound together. If Daichi got in over his head, it would likely take everyone else to save him.
To his credit, the human paladin never even considered leaving the monk to his fate, not that Emily would have allowed him to. Jaselm’s shield began to glow as he moved down the hallway. He ordered Tradon to come next followed by Mira, then Emily, and finally, Rak’kar as the rear guard.
He gave express orders that if anything happened to him, Tradon the minotaur was only to worry about carrying the two women out as quickly as possible. Mira didn’t think that the minotaur cared too much about what Jaselm was saying but did think that the brute would probably protect them if Emily was in too much danger. Since the oath she made him take required him to protect her family, she expected she would be scooped up if that was the way things went.
They moved down the hall in a staggered formation with one on the left and one on the right and about six feet between the front and back. They were close enough to keep a good visual in the dim light but far enough back to be able to swing a weapon. Mira suddenly had an idea and called out for everyone to stop.
She cast her Blending Camouflage spell on all of them but Jaselm. The spell made them much harder to see but not truly invisible and would be somewhat nullified if they moved too fast. It cost her 100 mana, but she hoped it would give them an element of surprise. She couldn’t cast it on Jaselm because his glowing shield would negate it, and since it was one spell with multiple targets, it would negate it for all of them.
They moved as quickly as they could while being quiet. Down the hallway there were doorways on either side, but they were all closed, and none showed any signs of having been recently opened. Time seemed to move like a snail because it took forever to move a couple hundred feet at a crawling pace. Mira formed beads of sweat from worrying about all of them, especially Daichi, and the strain of being quiet manifested in beads of sweat running down her forehead. Her senses all seemed so much sharper. She could make out the musky scent of the minotaur behind her. Then she froze almost so abruptly that her mother bumped into her.
“What’s wrong?” Emily whispered to her.
“The airflow is all wrong. It's like there is a wind pushing air into the cave, even though it's sealed from the outside.”
“How do you know?”
“I can smell Rak’kar even though he is behind me.”
Emily tilted her head and sniffed deeply before wrinkling her nose. “Oh I see what you mean. Good catch. I didn’t notice that before. We need to stop Jaselm and figure out what to do.”
The two women looked forward, but it was too late. The tunnel had already opened into a circular room, and a number of torches burst to light all at once, ruining t
heir night vision. Now visible in the greater light was Daichi pinned to the wall by a metal wrack. It looked like it had fallen from hinges on the ceiling and trapped the monk. What made it worse was that it had spikes sticking out of it, and one of them was buried in the elf’s left shoulder. From the look of things, he had been trying to get free but to no avail judging from the bloody cuts upon his hands.
“Run!” Daichi croaked out through gritted teeth. In the room were four two-legged versions of drey hounds, one of which held a staff like the one Mira was holding. The other three all had chainmail armor on and carried swords in each of their clawed hands. It didn’t end there though, or Mira wouldn’t have been worried. Behind them but still partially visible were what looked like two-legged boars, bears, and lynxes all bearing various weapons and some with partial armor on.
A cacophony of bestial growls burst forth from most of the mouths while the staff-carrying drey hound cried out, “Vengeance my brothers!” when his eyes briefly locked with hers.
Jaselm shouted, “Tradon, free Daichi! Mira and Emily, support me with spells. Rak’kar, protect the rear.”
Then the paladin took another step forward to enter the room as the knight rushed past him towards the trapped monk. Emily used her wand to shoot a small, brightly burning orange ball over Jaselm’s shoulder which exploded at the feet of the surging pack of assorted beast-men at the back of the room. A wash of flames went everywhere.
Even the drey hounds were knocked flat except for the caster, whose magical shield flared briefly but absorbed any harmful heat or kinetic energy. Mira had never been more jealous that her mom got the wand of fireballs as when she saw the damage notifications pop up by the dozen from the AoE spell’s impact on the tightly clustered monster men.
