by Galen Wolf
Dance baby, dance.
He didn't save. I watched as he began a dainty jig. When he was dancing he couldn't reach into his herb pouch for athillias. If he had another pipe with Lion's Mane he'd take a puff and cure the Harlequin, but I saw no other pipe. He had split seconds to save or to smoke to cure his dancing, eat athillias and avoid death from Blacktip.
But he didn't do any of that. He fell in a heap and I got the message:
YOU HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFUL IN YOUR DUEL: BARCUD HAS SLAIN SAMWISE.
I got a massive wave of pleasure:
LEVEL UP. YOU ARE NOW LEVEL 6.
My hp went up to 85. I had new abilities, I would need to spend time checking out. I had a nearly half full bar before the fight from the Goblin Town orcs and then some minor questing I'd been doing in the Greenwood. But here it was: Level 6. He he he!
Samwise floated around as a ghost. His soulstone lay on the ground. I quickly ate athillias to cure my ailments and picked up his soulstone. I would take it to a resurrection shrine that lay at the top of the path.
Congratulation messages flooded in:
"Good job, man —Ahn."
"Well done, kid —Ajora."
"Fantastic. I'm glad you killed the bastard —Terrapin."
I whispered back: "Thanks Terrapin. Do I know you?"
"No, but he murdered me and stripped all my belongings, so I'm glad he's dead."
I guessed Samwise's alignment was Evil. I spoke to his ghost. "Want me to res you?"
"Yeah."
I took him to the Res Shrine and in a flash, he was back in his body. I went to shake his hand. "Good fight."
He didn't shake back. "Fuck you," he snapped. Then he dragged his swords out of their scabbards and swung at my head. I flipped backwards in a puff of black smoke and while invisible for 6 seconds now, I looked up, saw a hanging vine and hoisted myself into the treetops. He wouldn't catch me up there.
Some people are just sore losers.
4. Resolutions
Level 6:
Everything much as at Level 5, except now:
85hp 30mp (but still no spells to use the mana on. Developers take note of this anomaly.)
Stats - the same.
Saves: Dodge - 12, Toughness 9, Willpower 0
New Skills:
Stealth:-
Roll (roll out of any net or magical web),
Squeeze - (squeeze through narrow spaces, gaps and partly open windows or doors, that others couldn't get through)
Ranger:
Focused Arrow (use 5 mana points to deliver a focused shot with a 30% chance of a critical hit, normal crit chance with a bow is 5%. Developers are forgiven.)
Pit Trap (in woodland areas create a pit trap for your enemies to fall into if they fail a spot check. Causes 1-10hp damage per creator's level).
Poisons:
Moel (causes baldness. Wtf? I thought, then I remembered Ajora's tips about poison healing order. Moel always takes the first athillias slot.)
Stryk (breaks the legs of those afflicted, first the right leg, then the left on a second dose).
Survival:
Immunizing. (Immunize yourself against one poison. Only lasts for one dose.)
Locating: (Sense the location of friends and summons anywhere in The Greenwood.)
Herbs:
Lotus (prevents one death - giving instant res, but with a long cool down of an hour)
Celandine (Causes levitation 1 foot off the ground - thus avoiding being tripped or tangled.)
#
I was sitting in the Ranger Guildhouse with Ahn and Ajora and a new guy I hadn't met before - Griffin. We were all quiet. I was going over my character sheet and skills allocation on my HUD, and I guessed they were doing similar.
Ajora was rearranging the herbs and poisons in her pouch and daubing them on her knives in the specific order they should be delivered in. Most rangers chose to dual-wield daggers as they were able to add DEX bonus to damage and to hit with daggers so they could use Strength as more or less a dump stat.
I took the opportunity of companionable silence with my Guildies to quietly peruse my golden egg. I'd sneaked a peek at it from my inventory a few times, but here in the Guildhouse with three Level 20 rangers, I felt safe. I took it out.
"Wow!" Ahn looked up suddenly. "That's one of the competition eggs."
I nodded. Even Ajora took notice. Griffin walked over. "Where did you get that?"
"I found it in the Greenwood. Random."
"They're pretty rare. I don't know of anyone who got one, or if they did, they're keeping quiet. Is there loot inside it or a reward? I heard if you get all the eggs you get to choose some über class specific weaponry."
I scratched my head. "Nothing inside it, just a riddle."
Ahn grinned. "Riddle me the riddle."
I cleared my throat. Could I trust him? But it was Ahn. He was the most solid dude I'd ever met. I recited,
"The Height of K
Lasts for One Day
Make it Right
To get a sight."
I withheld the line about 'Speak Friend and All Will Be Revealed'. I trusted these guys mostly, but they didn't need to know the keyword.
I cocked my head, "Any ideas?"
"Not a clue," Griffin said.
Ahn shook his head. "Beats me."
Ajora said, "I think K must be a place. Other than that, I've got nothing."
And then it came to me like a lightning bolt. The Height of K was the mountain village of Kanchenjunga, way up in the north. They had a fire festival one day every week. If you attended you could get XP from being part of the ceremony. Going there would maybe reveal a clue to the next egg.
I jumped up. "I've got it." I hesitated. Could I share it with them?
"Do tell," Griffin said.
Ahn read my mind. "Listen, we're your Guildies. We're here to support you, not steal from you."
I gave my insight.
Ajora nodded. "That seems right. My guess is you'd have to be at Kanchenjunga at midnight, at the height of the Fire Festival. Though what that will lead to, I don't know."
The air shimmered behind her.
I frowned. Similar shimmers appeared all over the landing platform of the Rangers Guild. Ahn twisted round. "People teleporting in." Ahn had previously warned me about teleport attacks on the Guildhouse.
Five or six stealthed figures appeared. The silver defensive runes fired off at the hostiles, sending beams of red light. Two of the masked and hooded figures ran across to the runes and began to peel them off the walls and posts they were attached to.
"Thieves!" shouted Griffin.
"Thieves Guild attack. They must have got teleport pills from a traitor." Normally no one but rangers could swing up to the guild, but a ranger could make teleport pills and then give them to others to allow them to teleport in. If they were hostiles then the defense runes would fire off, but some classes, such as Thieves and Loremasters, had skills that allowed them to disable the runes. This looked like a coordinated attack because two of the incoming thieves set about taking down our runes, while another four attacked us.
I saw my Guildies hit defense macros and various defensive skills fired up as they transformed into huge bears. Ahn was a grizzly, Ajora a polar bear and Griffin a brown bear. I saw a thief lurch at Griffin and stab him. Instantly both his legs broke and he fell forward.
Another thief dealt with the NPC ranger guards.
Ajora had flipped out and away, going invisible. Ahn roared and laid about him with his claws.
Then I felt a stab in my back and my legs both went. It was a high level thief with the Double venom skill, allowing the distribution of two poisons on one stab; four at Level 20. I pitched forward and another stab made me vomit and blind at the same time. I felt my legs being bound with rope. I heard roars and screams as the fight went on around me. Good as my guys were, we were outnumbered and caught on the hop. I wasn't much use to them. I felt another stab and I was paralyzed by Kura poison.
>
They didn't kill me, they just left me trussed up like a chicken. I couldn't move. Couldn't do anything. This was horribly familiar Then, miraculously, I made a Toughness save against the Coech poison and could see again.
I saw the ghosts of Ahn and Griffin shimmering nearby. There was no sign of Ajora. The thieves had stripped the defensive runes and were breaking into the Guildhouse. One of them turned to me, "I'll just strip this little one of his possessions."
It was the guy who'd robbed my previous character, before I'd rolled Barcud the ranger.
Another of the thieves called over his shoulder. "Okay, Loki. But don't be too long. Ajora's on the loose and she's dangerous."
From my prone position, I strained to lift my head to see him properly as he stalked towards me.
"Easy, little one," Loki said. "This won't hurt a bit."
He began to untie my hands but not my legs.
"Fucking leave me alone, you fucking fucker," I snarled.
"Tut tut. So rude for one so young."
"You don't even remember me."
"Remember you? No." He snorted. "You're nothing to me."
"You stripped me once before."
He shrugged and paused as he untied my hands. "I strip a lot of people."
"You're a bully."
"Listen, whiner. If you can't play this game, go take up chess or something."
Of course I'd been another toon the time he got me before, but that didn't diminish my rage and hate at being beaten by him again. Or my memory of what he'd done to Elfhair.
He finished untying my hands. I reached for my daggers, but he spat a poison at me. I felt a ringing noise in my head like a bell.
"Remove your herb pouch," he said, and my fingers did what he told them. I undid the herb pouch and dropped it on the floor in front of him. He spat another poison. Another bell. "Take out your dagger." I reached and unsheathed my best dagger, the stat damager, and dropped it at his feet. This was Quirro poison that made you obey one order per dose of poison applied. The only antidote was to deafen yourself with Tinnis poison.
"Let's take a look in your inventory," Loki said. Thieves have a skill that allows them to scan your inventory so they can choose what to steal. His eyes widened. "Ooo. What's this?"
He virtually reached into my inventory and pulled out my golden egg. "My, my," he said. "Who's been a lucky boy? Hey guys," he called "Take a look at this."
The other thieves were ransacking the Guildhouse. One called, "Loki, we don't have time. Stop messing around. Come help clear this place." I saw they had arms full of bows, swords, gold, jewels, lore-books and other paraphernalia precious to the Rangers Guild and its history.
"Oh well," Loki said, and placed my egg in his own inventory.
"Noooo!" I screamed.
"Shut up you worm," he said then stabbed me with two doses of Reza to break my arms so I couldn't get to any antidote. He stabbed me again and my vision darkened momentarily. I'd been poisoned with Blacktip and would die within seconds. I saw him stoop to pick up my pouch and dagger but then a massive polar bear flying an eagle appeared from nowhere and struck him hard.
I died. Sigh. Level 5 again.
With my ghost eyes I watched the eagle's claws rake Loki's face and he stumbled back, bleeding and screaming. Ajora dropped from the eagle and slashed him with her poisoned claws, before clutching him in a death hug. Loki, the great thief lasted five seconds against her before his back cracked and he crumpled into a dead heap. Good. He'd lost a level. His ghost rose up from his corpse, glowing faintly. The trouble was my egg was in his inventory and there was no way I could get it back from his ghost.
The other thieves ran out from the Guildhouse, dropping what they'd stolen. Ajora's reputation went before her and they were scared, not trying to fight, just trying to get away. I saw one eat a teleport pill and vanish. Ajora lashed at another one, her poisoned claws crippling him.
The ghost of Ahn said, "Throw me a res," and the polar bear reached into her inventory, pulled out a scroll and began to intone the words inscribed on it. In a few seconds, Ahn's body stood up. He glittered as his defense macros fired up and he transformed into a huge grizzly bear. Griffin asked for a res and got one. I didn't bother asking, I was a waste of a scroll.
Two of the thieves had foolishly not brought return teleport pills. They were holed up in the Guildhouse.
Ahn shook his head and twisted his beard. "Jumped in my own guild. Someone's going to pay."
The three bears entered the Guildhouse like a twisted version of Goldilocks. I heard the screams, and saw the blood seep out under the door.
My Guildies returned and turned back into human form. Ajora got another scroll from her inventory and began to read it over me.
"No, no. I'm not worth it," I whined.
"Shut up," Ajora said. "I'll decide who I res."
"What she means is you're one of us, and we look after our own," Ahn explained.
Griffin chuckled.
I sprang back to life. My daggers and pouch were lying on the floor and I stooped to pick them up.
"I quite enjoyed that," Ahn said.
"God I hate that Loki," Griffin said. "Good job on getting him, Aj."
Ajora shook her pretty head. "He's nothing. Just a big mouth and a bully. He's good at stealing from Level 5s." She pointed at me. "Not much else."
"He took my egg."
"Oh damn," Ahn said. "Sorry about that."
"At least you worked out the riddle," Griffin said.
My mood was heavy. "Loki's right. I'm no good at this game."
Ahn said, "You're level 5. He's level 20 and Guildmaster of the Thieves Guild. He's been playing for years and has honed his skills. What do you expect? You'll beat him in time."
And it really crossed my mind to quit. Maybe my reflexes were too slow, maybe my brain wasn't sharp enough. Maybe Loki would always defeat me. My heart was in my boots.
"One thing's certain, if you quit, you'll never beat him." Ajora said.
"And you worked out the riddle," Griffin repeated.
Ahn said, "Just you'd better get to Kanchenjunga before he works it out for himself, or he'll have the über weaponry and he'll make your life here unbearable."
5. The Second Egg
The following day after I logged in, I was at the Guildhouse with the other Rangers helping to rebuild. I helped a bit then they told me to go do a quest run or two to get back to Level 6.
When I returned after a few hours, Ahn and Ajora were busy in the Guildhouse itself while Griffin stood outside fixing the silver rune defenses. Other Guild members I didn't know so well busied themselves with repairs.
Wiping the perspiration from his temple, Griffin said, "You better watch your back now Barcud. The Thieves Guild war is really hotting up. If they'd defeated us easily in the Guild house that would have been one thing – they would have been dangerous enough, but now we beat off their attack, they're out to get revenge. And don't think they are honorable people. They are gonna pick on the smallest and the weakest of the Rangers Guild, no offense, hoping to break their spirit so they quit the game and never return."
I looked at Griffin. "Don't worry about me I know how to take care of myself." I didn't sound convincing.
"I hope you're right. But you're only a level 6 and they'll see that as an invitation to make your life here hell. Do you need any further tips on anything that might help your fighting or survival?"
"Well, I can always use tips. Though the last lot I got from Ajora were maybe a tad advanced."
He laughed.
I lowered my voice, "But you recollect the Easter Egg and the rhyme?"
Griffin nodded.
"I'm now certain I need to be at Kanchenjunga at midnight tomorrow. The Fire Festival is an NPC run one, and it happens every week whether players turn up or not," I said. "I'm hoping there won't be anybody there when I go, and whatever shows itself at midnight will show itself to me alone, then I'll get the next clue towards winning the Easter Egg
competition."
"What are you going to do with your winning item?"
My jaw clenched. "I'll kill Loki, and any other thieves I come across." I gestured to the Rangers Guild and the people around me. "This is my Guild now and by attacking my Guildhouse, he's made it more than just about me and him."
"That's all very commendable," Griffin said. "But I repeat you're only a Level 6. Maybe you should try to level more first before you go for vengeance. Remember Loki is a level 20, and he'll kick your butt on any level playing field."
"Well, I'll just have to make the playing field less level."
I passed the rest of the day working in the Guild repairing what damage had been done. Fortunately, the thieves hadn't had time to do a great deal of harm before Ajora counter-attacked, and thank the gods they hadn't set it on fire. Even so, there were defenses to repair, and it was well into the evening before the Rangers could stop for a rest.
Ajora lit a fire in the fire pit on one of the Guild viewing platforms – not the main landing platform where the Eagles came into. There was a higher one up at the level of the forest canopy. The sun was setting far over to the west. As we sat round drinking mead (providing a bonus to Charisma and a negative to Dexerity), the talk turned to my plans. Most of the big rangers had been there when I disclosed the rhyme and they knew what was going on. With the other rangers I didn't know I was tentative in what I revealed. After all, they could be alts created by people in the Thieves Guild just so they could come and spy.
"Why don't you take a little time to level before going to Kanchenjunga?" Ahn said.
