I…don’t know. I’m not sure – even if I was able to destroy them all – if that would even change anything. My parents would still be dead, I’d probably be hunted for the rest of my life, humans the world over would likely suffer (as they already have) from my actions, and another “Council” would just move in to take the place of the ones I destroyed. Where would it end? Honestly, he didn’t know – but it was something he wasn’t too concerned with at the moment. Survival and finding the ones that he felt responsible for came first.
As he straightened up from where he had been bending down, he saw the looks of concern on the others’ faces. Fred put aside all thoughts of revenge and brought himself back into the moment. “Sorry, I just acquired something that was unexpected,” he told them, with what he hoped was a genuine smile on his face. “I’m fine, really.”
“What did you…acquire?” Regnark asked, curious.
“Oh, just a blueprint to use in my dungeon for that Undead Bear we just killed. Though, I don’t have the correct Core or access to Dark Mana, so it’s fairly useless right now.”
The big man asked what he thought was the obvious question. “Well then, how do you get the correct…Core?”
“I can only get one if I destroy a Dark Core, which would be a terrible idea – it’s what inadvertently caused this whole issue with the Earth Cores if you remember—”
“Actually, I have a thought about that—"
Whatever the Dire Wolf was going to say was interrupted as what seemed to be three walking human corpses appeared as if from nowhere 20 feet away and started to quickly run toward them. They were loudly groaning as they ran fairly uncoordinated, but they closed the distance quickly – though Regnark was faster. He whipped out his sword again and slashed it horizontally, managing to catch the first Decaying Zombie across the chest and right arm, taking it off at the elbow. That didn’t seem to perturb the Zombie, but missing half of its ribcage from the same blow seemed to give it a little pause.
Fred checked the information on the Decaying Zombies and saw that they were – individually, at least – a lot weaker than the Undead Bear they had just defeated.
Decaying Zombie (Level 4)
Vitality: 90, Undead Regeneration
Attack: 30, Chokehold, Rancid Bite
Defense: 35, (+95% Dark defense, -70% Light defense, -20% Fire defense)
Despite their lower stats, they were actually quite a bit faster than the Bear, though their attempts at harming Regnark when they got ahold of him were largely ineffective. Fred and Eisa joined in and quickly destroyed them using their Lightscythe spell; his first instinctual use of Flamestrike actually lit one on fire – which seemed beneficial at the time – but ended up slightly harming the big man on their side when it bit his arm with its flaming face.
There was no real danger from them, however – but Fred thought that the presence of the Zombies so soon after being attacked by the Undead Bear was setting a likely precedent for the rest of their journey through the Deadlands. As the walking human corpses started to melt into the ground, he absorbed the Dark Mana from them and received another prompt telling him that he had received another blueprint. At least we won’t be walking away empty-handed.
I just wish that these things gave off Essence, too.
Chapter 20
The journey to the first cleared space where there wasn’t a Dark territory – which indeed turned out to be a small town – took twice or even three times as long as it should’ve. Every hundred feet or so that they traveled, the dead forest seemed to spit out another undead something or other. At first, Fred thought it was relatively normal for the area because of what Regnark had warned them of, but the big man said the sheer number of undead creatures attacking them was beyond ridiculous.
“The only time I’ve been here it wasn’t like this,” Regnark said, after they were stopped for the 12th time in the first half-hour and forced to fight another small group of Decaying Zombies. “I remember only having to fight this many undead over the entire trip to town, not in the first half mile.”
Fred could only think it had something to do with his status as a Dungeon Core, or even Eisa’s and Deecy’s statuses as Shards. He didn’t know exactly why that would make a difference, but after the next half hour it seemed like the most plausible explanation. By the time they reached the town, even Eisa was grumbling about never wanting to see another undead again in her life – and that was coming from a former Necromancer!
Fortunately, everything they fought was a “basic” animal or human that had been turned undead. Although at times it seemed as though there were swarms of difficult walking dead roaming through the forest, in reality, they hadn’t encountered anything in a group larger than five – and it had only been more of the Decaying Zombies. Added to that, the Undead Bear that they had been attacked by at the beginning was the most powerful creature that they had faced, though there were some that were close in terms of difficulty.
By the end of their five-hour trek, they were exhausted from the constant battling against the undead – and they hadn’t slept the night before, either. Fred was the only one that really benefitted from the fights, as he had accumulated just over 5,000 Unconverted Mana and quite a few blueprints for his dungeon – which he couldn’t use, of course.
In addition to the Undead Bear and Decaying Zombie blueprints he had acquired, he also picked up:
Shrunken Monkey
Desiccated Lynx
Rotting Wolf
Putrid Giant Spider
Decomposing Boar
Shriveled Deer
Basically, anything that he would normally find in a forest – but dead…or undead, as it were. There was another blueprint that he acquired, though he wasn’t sure how useful it would be even if he eventually did have access to it: Skeletal Squirrel. If it hadn’t been out to kill them all, he would’ve agreed with Eisa that it was actually quite adorable; despite her reluctance to kill something relatively cute (it was just a bunch of small reanimated bones, without any of the meat left on it), she killed it with a single Lightscythe spell to its face.
Regardless, it was productive as far as Mana and unusable blueprints for Fred – but the others were sick of the constant fighting. Even Deecy had gotten involved in a couple of fights by activating her Giant form for a while, though with one of her main attacks involving using her jaws to bite and rend her enemies, after the first time she got a mouth full of rotting flesh, she stuck to the occasional Fire Wall defense when there were multiple enemies attacking at the same time.
Therefore, it was a relief when they came upon the figurative oasis in the middle of the Deadlands. Like Regnark had mentioned earlier in the day, the dividing line between the Deadlands and the “townlands” was so plain to see that it couldn’t be anything other than deliberate. It was almost like someone took a knife and carved a large patch of land out from the forest of dead trees around them and replaced it with a lush, green paradise of health – and life.
Looking through his Territorial Sight, he could see that the Dark territories all around the townlands were pressed up right against it…and then stopped abruptly, as if they were pressed up against an invisible wall. He couldn’t see anything inside the green living land to show why it looked like that, but it was clearly something that held back the dead area surrounding it.
“Finally! That was one of the worst experiences of my life – and I was dead just a few days ago!” Eisa complained as the fatigue, stench of rotting bodies, and the tension of being ready for another attack at any time took their toll on her attitude.
“At least you didn’t have my heightened sense of smell that felt like I was tasting it every time I breathed in, or actually get some of the nasty putrid flesh in your mouth.”
Eisa cocked her head to the side and shrugged. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. That would suck,” she said, smiling at the Dire Wolf with ill-contained mirth.
Regnark – now marginally used to the others having one-s
ided conversations with Deecy – stepped forward over the invisible barrier between the dead and the living lands and called back behind him. “Let’s get to the town and settled in before we do anything else. We’ll check to see if your friends are here; if they’re not, we’ll check out some of the other towns to see if we can track them down – after a bath and a good night’s rest, of course. I don’t know about you, but I feel like I could sleep for a week.”
Fred followed after the others, but just before he was about to cross the threshold into the townlands, he heard a noise behind him and saw two Decaying Zombies rushing for him. He turned toward them and backed up, stepping over into the green grass of the townlands and readied his Lightscythe spell…but the Zombies immediately stopped and wandered off in the other direction – almost as if they couldn’t detect him anymore.
“Whatever barrier keeps out the Deadlands also protects the inhabitants from any attacks by these undead. In fact, you’ll see that there aren’t even any walls around the town,” Regnark remarked as he heard and saw the tail end of the commotion with Fred and the now-leaving Zombies.
Indeed, when Fred looked at the not-so-distant town, he didn’t see any walls surrounding it, unlike Gatecross. If it weren’t for the fact that the buildings were larger and more numerous, the town almost looked like the small village of Northend, which didn’t have walls, either. Though, I don’t believe they had walls in Northend because it was too much work to build them and they were barely surviving up there as it was.
In contrast, this town appeared to be thriving. It was still a bit too far away to make out many details, but Fred could see figures walking the streets in both hurried and unhurried manners, and the buildings all looked in great repair from where they were. For a place reputed to be full of thieves and murderers (or at least founded by them), it had a remarkably “normal”-looking atmosphere – if there is anything normal in this world, thought Fred.
As he peered back at the invisible barrier separating the two lands, he had another thought. I wonder if this barrier is what keeps those void monsters out that invade the Plains of Grass every night? It probably had to, because otherwise these towns wouldn’t exist for more than a day – but how does it work? He couldn’t detect anything with his Mana or Territorial Sight, which perplexed him.
Shrugging it off, he followed after the others and quickly caught up to them. As he walked next to Regnark, Fred voiced a thought that had been on his mind. “Now that we’re safe in relative civilization, what are your plans?”
“What do you mean?” the big man asked, plainly confused.
Fred wasn’t sure exactly how to explain it. “Well…what I’m trying to ask is…what are you still doing here? As much as I appreciate you coming with us and I know we wouldn’t have survived if it weren’t for your help, you don’t have any obligation to stay. In fact, it will likely still be as dangerous as it’s been – or even more so. Eisa, Deecy, and I are in this together, along with my Guild and the townspeople of Gatecross, but you have no responsibility to any of us. You could walk away right now, and I doubt anything would come after you,” he finished lamely.
Regnark kept silent for almost a minute before he responded. “Remember when I told you about my brother, and then how I used to mentor and guide young Adventurers in the effort to save them from themselves? Well, I really enjoyed doing that – but after a while I couldn’t stand seeing them fall victim to the dangers of their own incompetence. Given that, I have trouble walking away from someone needing help…and you definitely need help, my friend.”
Fred chuckled at that. “Are you saying I’m incompetent?”
“No, not at all. If you remember, I told you I used to help those that were in way over their heads; I think this qualifies, as you’re practically drowning here.”
He couldn’t help but agree. “I – no, we – would love any help you can spare. Like I said, we couldn’t have made it here without you. Thank you for being willing to help us out.”
“Not a problem; besides, it’s not like I have a home to go back to. In fact, if we end up getting a little revenge for the destruction of Northend – and Gatecross, as well – then I’d say that this whole trip was worth it,” Regnark said.
“Well, I can’t guarantee revenge quite yet – I’m still trying to work that out myself,” Fred admitted. “But I’ll do my best to ensure we all stay alive, at least.”
“Yes, that would certainly be a plus,” the big man said, clapping Fred on the back and making him stumble a little.
Now, if we could only find the rest of my people, I’ll try to do the same for them.
* * *
“A gold piece for a single night?! That’s straight-up robbery, even for this place,” Regnark told the man behind the counter at the extremely full inn, who only smiled at him.
“It’s all about supply and demand, my friend. You see, we’re almost at maximum capacity here, so the supply of rooms is extremely limited, so I can demand whatever price I want for them,” the tiny man with the short, slicked-back hair shot right back at Fred’s big friend. Despite the size difference, the innkeeper didn’t seem to be scared of Regnark at all, and even kept the smile on his face as he repeated his price. The two large men – both mid-B-Rated Enforcers (whatever that was) – watching them intently from the corner of the room probably had something to do with it.
“Again, that’ll be a gold piece per night…per person. And it’ll be an additional gold piece for your pet there; we run a classy establishment here, and we technically don’t allow animals inside…but I like you guys, so I’ll make an exception if you…ahem…make it worth my while,” the innkeeper explained, sticking his nose up at Deecy like she was worse than the undead they had fought to get there.
“The vileness of this person is almost stinking my nose up worse than the Deadlands. I can go sleep outside – that’s no problem.”
“Nonsense, the money doesn’t really matter. I think we all need some sort of secure roof over our heads tonight, and you know that I can definitely ‘afford’ it,” Fred silently Communicated to the Dire Wolf.
Fred put his hand on Regnark’s arm to get his attention, which likely prevented the big man from exploding in anger at the innkeeper. “Don’t worry, I’ve got this.”
He squeezed himself up next to Regnark and pushed him a little to the side so that he could see the relatively small innkeeper still smiling at them – and apparently enjoying watching the bigger man about to throw a rage-filled fit at the exorbitant price of their rooms. The amount of which, in comparison, could’ve rented a nice room for almost a year in Gatecross. “Does the price include meals and somewhere that we can wash up?” Fred asked the innkeeper.
The small, weasel-looking man switched his smile to Fred without hesitation, taking in his young appearance and likely making a judgement about him in less than a second. It was actually quite impressive how calm, cool, and collected he appeared in the face of an angry fur-covered hulk of a human that was staring daggers at him. “Yes…I think I can throw those in for you. Of course, we take payment up front; if you don’t have enough, there are plenty of dungeons around here that you can brave for some loot and we have a very generous item exchange rate—”
Fred reached behind his back and used his Conjure Object ability to create a small cloth bag filled with 4 gold pieces inside of it; he brought it forth and clomped it down on the counter, cutting off the innkeeper’s explanation of how they could earn enough money to pay for the room. He looked slightly startled at first, but almost instantly his smile was back as he looked inside the bag and quickly did a count of the contents inside.
“Looks good, I’ll go get your key,” the innkeeper said, before turning around and dumping the payment inside a slot on the wall behind the counter. Fred could hear the faint sound of the relatively heavy bag sliding down a chute of some sort, before cutting off with a faint jingle as it landed somewhere likely below the main common room. “Here you go,” he said as he
opened up a small cabinet adjacent to the counter and pulled a key off of a hook. Fred wasn’t positive – since the doors of the cabinet blocked most of his view – but he thought that all of the other key hooks were empty.
I guess he was being truthful about the supply of rooms available.
“Dinner is being served in the common room in about an hour, and there is a bath house out back where you can bathe and even wash those…clothes,” the innkeeper sneered at the horrid state of their clothing, which – to be fair – was not in the best of conditions. Even the bear furs that Regnark had draped over him were a bit torn-up and stunk almost as bad as the Deadlands.
Fred’s big friend snatched the key out of the innkeeper’s hand with a snarl and turned towards the back stairs, where they would find their room. Eisa and Deecy followed, but Fred stuck around for another moment. “Is there a place…that we might be able to find out some…information?” he hesitatingly asked. He didn’t exactly want to come out and say he was looking for a large group of people with marks over their heads, because he wasn’t sure how that would come across.
“Absolutely. There is a small house that you’ll find at the edge of town with a faded red roof up top; if you go there, you’ll be able to find out whatever you need. It’ll cost you though – but if you mention that I sent you, it might be a little cheaper,” the innkeeper answered, before muttering something that sounded like, “and I’ll get a little kickback, too.”
Fred thanked him and joined his friends as they headed upstairs to their room. The inn they were staying at was actually quite large and they had to walk down a long hallway to arrive at their room near the end of the hallway, dodging a few Adventurers who were looking to be leaving in a hurry down the hall. In fact, it was actually larger than the DAS building in Gatecross; thinking of that, he asked Regnark about the Syndicate as soon as they were safely inside their room.
Dungeon World 3: A Dungeon Core Experience Page 17
