At Large
Page 34
He screamed, dropped his rapier and staggered back...
...and then Bastien was there, diving into a tackle and grabbing the werewolf Alpha’s heels. He shouted “I cast magic missile! Throw!”
Mercutio flipped head over heels—
—and sailed right into whatever the hell Tabita had become. With a cry his body crystallized too, fragmenting apart and spreading.
Then words filled the sky;
ERROR! NO MASTER DETECTED. DUNGEON SEALING IN 30.
“I’ve got the core! We need to go!” Renny shouted.
The werewolves howled in rage, and Cagna’s pistol blew a big hole in one of them. That made them pause. By then Chase was already running. Then big arms came down and Bastien was running with her on his shoulders.
“Run to where?” Chase screamed.
“I don’t know!” Renny yelled back. “I didn’t take the advanced class!”
The world flickered, moving from creepy green and black darkness to regular dark darkness... then it flickered back.
Behind them, the remaining werewolves bayed and gave pursuit. Or maybe they were trying to get away from the spreading mass that had been their leaders, it was hard to say.
From her position on Bastien’s shoulders, Chase watched the world break and crystallize. Now Tabita filled up a field’s worth, and most of it was mouth judging by the screaming that seemed to grow, seemed to rebound through the void, screaming that was joined by Mercutio’s voice as the two werewolves howled their last...
…maybe, Chase realized, with a sick horror. This might not kill them and that’s worse, she thought and gasped as one of the werewolves was too slow and fell, screeching, his legs converted to the mass that now spread faster.
“Ten seconds!” Renny shouted, and Chase pondered Foresight, then decided against it.
If this was going to catch them, she didn’t want to spend the last ten seconds before eternal torment knowing she was doomed.
So Chase closed her eyes and buried her face in Bastien’s beard and waited.
“Whoa, stop!” Cagna yelled, and for a second Chase was confused because stopping was literally worse than death...
...and then she realized that the screaming was gone.
“Whoops!” Bastien said, and then they were bouncing off a wall and hitting the ground and rolling, and it hurt but she was laughing and they were all gasping and some of them were laughing because they were alive. Alive and not... not whatever that had been.
And only after Chase had settled down, did she realize that she had new words hovering right in front of her face.
You are now a level 14 Oracle!
CHA+3
LUCK+3
WIS+3
You are now a level 15 Oracle!
CHA+3
LUCK+3
WIS+3
You have learned the Grant Vision skill!
Your Grant Vision skill is now level 1!
You have learned the Random Buff skill!
Your Random Buff skill is now level 1!
Congratulations! By combining deception with gambling-implement based murder, you have unlocked the Gambler job!
Would you like to become a Gambler at this time? Y/N?
Chase flopped her head back on the stone floor of the grungy cave and studied the ceiling. It had goblin pictograms carved into it. The ones she was looking at showed a little guy bringing down a wolf with a good spear toss, and she giggled a bit at the appropriateness of it. “This has to be an omen,” she murmured, still punch drunk. “Sure, let’s do it. Yes!”
You are now a level 1 Gambler!
LUCK+5
PER+5
You have learned the Ace in the Hole skill!
Your Ace in the Hole skill is now level 1!
You have learned the Assess Challenge skill!
You have learned the Cardsharp skill!
Your Cardsharp Skill is level 1!
You have learned the Gambler’s Fortune skill!
You have learned the Hold’em skill!
“Know when to Hold’em,” she whispered, remembering Enrico’s words.
And she jumped in surprise, as silver cards appeared in her hands. Blood-stained silver cards that now glowed with runes. Runes that faded back into nothing as the blood dripped off them and away. “Of course they were magical. Gods knew he could afford it,” Chase whispered. Her new skill had called the cards back from wherever she’d thrown them.
“Everyone okay?” Thomasi said, striking a match.
“I’m good,” Cagna confirmed, pulling out a rod and starting to reload her still-smoking pistol.
“Never... oof... never better!” Bastien boomed, taking stock of his bruises.
“I’m great!” Renny called out, studying a glowing crystal that he held cupped in his paws.
“I’m jus’ fine, thanks for asking,” said Pwner as he drew a pair of bombs.
CHAPTER 26: PWNED
They looked at Pwner.
Pwner looked back. He was still wearing his birdlike mask, but he’d swapped out the rest of his masquerade garb for the gear she’d seen in the casino. The glass vials on his chest gleamed evilly in the light of Thomasi’s guttering match.
“Gods damn it!” Chase burst out. “We won! We just won! This isn’t... this isn’t fair.”
“Did we win?” Cagna asked. “Still not sure what happened back in there.”
“Nothing good,” Thomasi said. “Don’t talk about it in front of him.”
“Now that’s rude.”
“I’m going to insist that you let us pass,” Bastien said, standing.
“You wanna go?” Pwner thrust a bomb at him.
“No!” Thomasi shouted. “No. I want to bargain.”
“We already bargained. You told me to go to a different place, so you already tried to cheat me once, old man. Fortunately for me I had a backup plan.” He nodded at Chase.
“Wait. What?” Chase looked back. “I’m not your backup plan!”
“You weren’t. But the Bounty Hunter mark I put on you was.”
...and Chase remembered how he’d tapped her on the shoulders with that scepter back at the party. “Oh. Oh no...”
Thomasi bowed his head.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” she told him, feeling miserable.
They’d won.
And now, this.
“It’s not your fault. We’re no match for him,” said Thomasi.
“S’all good, my man. Just give me Tabita and we’re square. Even give you that head start, though you cheated me.”
Thomasi sighed. “We don’t have her. She’s gone. Gone in a weird way. I’ll tell you about it if you let my friends go.”
“Don’t think we got time for that. Got the Inquisition out there, old man. They’ll be here before long. But you’re surprising me. Wanna do the hero thing? Trade their lives for yours?” He surveyed the little group.
“Thomasi...” Renny said. “We can do this. We can fight him.”
“No!” barked Thomasi.
“Naw,” said Pwner, contemptuously. “No you can’t. This bomb? Poison. This other bomb? Plague. Even if you had a shard of a shot, even if I didn’t have thirty levels on you in my main, even if you’re hot shazz like that, e’ery one except you is gonna die, little golem. You I’ll just take and disenchant for parts later.”
Renny stepped back. “You can’t do that... can he do that? He can’t do that, right?”
“He can. And yes,” Thomasi said, stepping forward. “I’ll trade my life for theirs.”
“Not good enough,” Pwner said, stepping back. “And keep your distance. No trying to pickpocket my bombs outta my hands.”
“Then what’s good enough? You don’t want information on Tabita’s fate. What do you want?” Thomasi asked.
“I don’t know. But make it good. And you got like three minutes, or it’s all moot.”
Chase licked her lips.
Thomasi stared at him, uncomprehending. “I’ll... let
me think... gold?”
Pwner called him a vulgar name and laughed, the beak shaking. “My guild gives me all the gold I need! Try again, fool.”
“I can help,” Chase spoke up, and they turned to her.
“What? You? How?” Pwner looked her over. “You done enough for me, shawty. Done helped enough.”
“I can check the cards. See what would work, here.”
“We don’t have time for a full-on reading,” Thomasi warned.
“It won’t be one!” Chase burst out. “I have a skill. I’ll use it, if it’s all right.”
“No tricks. One use. If I think you’re fooling, e’ery one dies. Got it?”
“Got it,” Chase said and reached into her pack. “Fortuna,” she said and drew a single card.
She stared at the card revealed. At four rogues around a table, each clutching a strongbox to themselves, eyeing the others. Coins were visible within.
She’d been hoping for a major arcana, for something earth-shattering, but she didn’t get it. “I don’t understand,” she whispered.
“What does this card mean?” Thomasi asked, and it was only from her long experience that she could tell he was choking back emotion.
“It means wealth saved or hoarded. Scarcity and control of money. But he doesn’t want money...”
“Oh gods.” Thomasi covered his face. “I know your price.”
“Thass a neat trick, ’cause I sure don’t,” Pwner said, folding his arms. “Surprise me.”
And then Chase knew. Knew just what she was asking of Thomasi.
“Tokens!” She burst out. “You want those tokens that give you extra lives!”
“No!” Cagna shouted.
“Hold on there!” Bastien said, raising his hands.
“No, don’t do it!” Renny said. “You’ll go to the screaming place!”
Pwner looked to her... and that was what she wanted. That was what Chase was hoping, because she had an idea and one shot at this. “Don’t do it!” Chase said. “It’ll be like working for Coltello all over again!”
And she fought to keep the relief off her face, as words appeared at the edge of her sight.
Your Silver Tongue skill is now level 32!
Chase didn’t look at Thomasi, not directly. She kept her eyes on Pwner, locking her gaze on his. But in her peripheral vision, she saw Thomasi mutter something into his palm.
“Oh gods.” Thomasi whispered. “This is... not a light thing you ask of me.”
“That would ’bout do it, though,” Pwner said, tilting his mask. “Ain’t none of us are crazy enough to turn down that kind of deal.”
“How do I know you’ll keep it?” Thomasi asked. “How do I know you’re not going to renege the second you have my tokens?”
“You don’t. But I got no reason to. I’ll let ’em go and get my pay from you after that.”
“That’s... uncommonly generous.” Thomasi narrowed his eyes.
Chase saw it before he did. “I’m still marked,” she said. “If you renege he’ll just come after us and kill us.”
“She’s right,” Pwner said, flipping a bomb up in the air. Everyone flinched back but he caught it, with dexterity that made Chase flush with envy. “So. Ten tokens sounds fair.”
“That will clean me out,” Thomasi said. “Five.”
“Inquisition’s gonna be too close to escape in like three minutes. “Nine tokens.”
“If they get me, you get nothing. Good day sir! But seriously, six.”
“Hahaha! You even look like shazzin’ Will Wonka. Yeah, okay, tell you what. Eight. Final offer. I’ll even move my mark off shawty, here.”
“You’d do that anyway if I remember how bounty hunters work, but... fine. Just fine. And kill me quickly. No torture. Eight.”
Thomasi took his hat off and reached into it, pulling out fat gold disks, oversized and elaborate.
“What the heck?” Cagna asked, staring at them. “Gold coins aren’t supposed to look like that. All coins are supposed to look the same.”
“Don’t waste time,” Thomasi’s voice was strained. “Go. Now!”
“I don’t want to lose you a second time, boss!” Bastien protested.
“Go!” Thomasi turned to him. “Fly, you fools!”
They ran. Out of the cave, up the hill, and into the night. Away from the torches and the sound of shouting.
And behind them, Chase heard Pwner laughing. Not in a mean way, but an honest laugh, and that was somehow worse. “You know they ain’t gonna get the irony of you telling a wizard that, right? Ain’t none of them seen that movie!”
“Just get it over wi—”
Then Tom was silent, and Chase closed her eyes.
Her luck carried her through the darkness until she could bear to open them again, and when she couldn’t run any farther Bastien scooped her up without asking.
“Now what?” Chase asked, as they broke into a familiar clearing. “I don’t see where we can go from—” She blinked, as a shape resolved itself under the moonlight. “The wagon? You brought your wagon?”
“No, it’s Thomasi’s.”
“Oh, it’s Dobbin!” Chase said, moving up to pet the old horse. He blinked at her, then briefly searched her head for edible treats. She giggled as his tongue tickled her scalp. Somewhere along the way she’d lost her headscarf, but that was all right.
“How can you laugh!” Renny burst out.
“What?” she turned to him.
“Thomasi’s dead! Maybe forever! That guy took a lot of tokens, and he didn’t have that many to begin with, right?”
Chase smiled, as she started loading up the wagon. “He took zero tokens from Thomasi.”
The clearing went silent.
“We saw him hand them over,” Cagna said. Then she scrutinized Renny. “Wait. Did you use an illusion to fool him?”
“No!”
“You’re close though,” Chase said, with her too-wide grin. “Remember when Thomasi was first describing those tokens to us? Big gold coins, he called them? Well, there’s a Grifter ability called Fool’s Gold.”
“What? You... how?”
“He spent a good amount of time paying his debt to Don Coltello by making Fool’s Gold for him. That was why I brought up Coltello’s name. Thomasi caught it and ran with it.” Chase smiled, as she climbed into the driver’s seat of the wagon. She hadn’t personally done this, but Thomasi had done it many a time, and how hard could it be?
She’d just have to improvise.
It had worked out okay so far, right?
“That glorious man!” Bastien laughed, hopping into the wagon as it started to roll off. “That’s the Ringmaster I remember!”
“Yep. Which is why we’re going to meet back up with him as soon as possible,” she said as the others climbed aboard. “Except maybe...” she looked up at Cagna.
Cagna looked down. “Oh, I’m in. You know how many crimes Pwner has committed in Florian, and the other city-states?”
“Yes, but we’re not going after...” Chase’s voice faded away.
“You might not. But after he figures out those tokens are fool’s gold, I think I know who just made his list.”
Chase stared into the darkness.
Then she shrugged. “He can get in line. Let’s go! Gnome awaits!”
Her enemies were growing daily; she was wanted in at least one city-state, and chaotic entities from beyond time and space were hunting her, but for the first time Chase found she didn’t care.
She’d wanted adventure, after all.
And fate had given it to her!
EPILOGUE
Once upon a time, a halven girl had to hunt werewolves. She made new friends, got in trouble, and had to get out of town in a hurry. For the second time in a row, actually.
She also found out a great secret... one that her enemies would and could kill to preserve.
But first they would have to catch her.
So when the morning came and she decided to figure out her ne
xt move, she said “Status,” and this is what she saw.
Name: Chase Berrymore
Age: 15 Years
Jobs:
Halven level 11, Cook level 4, Archer level 7, Gambler Level 1, Grifter level 12, Medium level 7, Oracle level 15, Painter level 2, Teacher level 5
Attributes Pools Defenses
Strength: 65 Constitution: 38 Hit Points: 103 Armor: 10
Intelligence: 67 Wisdom: 117 Sanity: 184 Mental Fortitude: 55
Dexterity: 128 Agility: 66 Stamina: 194 Endurance: 0
Charisma: 205 Willpower: 54 Moxie: 259 Cool: 65
Perception: 85 Luck: 213 Fortune: 298 Fate: 43
Generic Skills
Archery – Level 1
Brawling – Level 8
Climb – Level 15
Dagger – Level 2
Dodge – Level 12
Fishing – Level 14
Ride – Level 10
Stealth – Level 14
Swim – Level 7
Throwing – Level 28
Halven Skills
Fate’s Friend – Level N/A
Small in a Good Way – Level N/A
Cook Skills
Cooking - Level 15
Freshen - Level 10
Archer Skills
Aim – Level 6
Demoralizing Shot – Level 1
Far Shot – Level 1
Missile Mastery – Level N/A
Quickdraw – Level N/A
Rapid Fire – Level N/A
Razor Arrow – Level 6
Ricochet Shot – Level 10
Gambler Skills
Ace in the Hole – Level 1
Assess Challenge – Level N/A
Cardsharp – Level 1
Gambler’s Fortune – Level N/A
Hold’em – Level N/A
Grifter Skills
Feign Death – Level 1
Fools Gold – Level 1
Forgery – Level 1
Master of Disguise – Level 3
Old Buddy – Level 1
Pickpocket – Level 12
Silent Activation – Level 30
Silver Tongue – Level 32
Size Up – Level 4
Unflappable – Level N/A