Delvers LLC: Welcome to Ludus

by Blaise Corvin

  Henry's expression fell, and he said, "Oh no."

  Jason shook his head at him. "Go on," he said.

  Henna-ibbi looked apologetic but continued, "What we're about to tell you we would never tell anyone outside the Clan. We are running out of money and losing influence. This Clan's power was built on trade, but our caravans are disappearing. We need people to investigate and take care of the problem, but we can't hire mercenaries or adventurers. If we sent out large groups or had a security leak, it would alert our enemies and leave us with fewer defenses. We didn't have anyone within the Clan that we could send... until now."

  Henry frowned and said, "So what you really mean is that we might be able to do the job but we're still expendable until we're official Jaguar Clan, right?"

  Some of the Elders bristled at Henry's words and tone, but Bezzi-ibbi grinned. He liked Henry. Henry was like the hunter who was so brazen his prey didn't think to run until already dead.

  Henna-ibbi didn't look very happy about Henry's tone either. She was a traditionalist after all, but she was also the Clan Mother, and she knew her duty. "Your words are not untrue."

  Henry replied, "So let me get this straight. We just got word that your entire world could be under attack in a few years. We're at least notionally part of your Clan right now, but you're going to send us out on... what, a fucking assassination mission? Some bullshit quest? How big are these caravans that are disappearing?

  "About 10-20 people at a time have been disappearing, all trusted vassals."

  "So realistically, we're talking about tracking down and killing at least a couple dozen bandits. Probably murderers, hard cases that won't just roll over."

  "What makes you think you have to kill them?"

  "Come on, lady. You're only sending us? You didn't mention sending any support with us, and there's no fucking way me and Jason could capture twenty bandits alive. No, you're asking us to kill for your Clan that you won't even let us be part of yet.

  "This mission sounds as much to get rid of us as any chance to actually solve a problem. If we fail, I'd bet my left nut you'll go with plan B, probably doubling your guard or sending a powerful person or two out with each regular caravan. There is no way two random fucking earthlings you just met a few hours ago are your last hope."

  The Elders and some of the others watching flexed claws at this outburst, but nobody moved. Henry-ibbi was baring his fangs, but he hissed truth. Henna-ibbi had been directly challenged, but she couldn't retaliate or save face. Henry saw right through the Elders. Bezzi-ibbi felt the power dynamic change. Henry-ibbi probably didn't even realize what a terrible blow he'd just dealt to Henna-ibbi's authority.

  Jason put a hand on Henry's arm, and the man kept frowning but stopped talking. Jason's voice was colder than usual when he asked, "What about equipment? I don't think you'll send us out there with just our knives and the clothes on our backs. It's in your best interests if we succeed, after all."

  Bezzi-ibbi's uncle stood to speak. "I stand as Yanno-ibbi, Clan armorer. As the Clan Mother said, we are out of resources. We can't help you buy more armor. However, you are free to use anything in the armory in this house. Due to your status, it will be considered a loan until you complete your task, though."

  "I guess that's better than nothing," grumbled Henry.

  Jason held up a hand. He asked, "I trust that since we've been told of the Clan's problems, our participation in this matter is not a choice, correct?"

  Yanno-ibbi sat down, and Henna-ibbi answered, "That is correct. I apologize for the necessity. If you try to leave the Clan while knowing such vital information, we will have no choice but to silence you. However, should you succeed, you will be granted main branch Clan status and privileges including a stipend."

  Bezzi-ibbi was shocked. The Clan problems were worse than he'd realized. The Elders were making an all-or-nothing move here that would have been illogical if another clan wasn't actively planning to destroy them. The Elders must really have believed that whatever course of action they were planning before Henry and Jason came along would have created a great deal of problems. It seemed Bezzi-ibbi wasn't as well-informed as he'd thought. He vowed to get to the bottom of the matter later and find out who their local mobilizing enemy was.

  Henry stood, his arms crossed. "This still doesn't make sense. We're two guys. I get that you want to handle this matter quietly, but where is your confidence coming from we can do anything?"

  Henna-ibbi narrowed her eyes, her ears going back. "We have learned that you are orb-Bonded. You speak directly to Dolos. You rescued my son by slaying many armed and armored criminals. Please do not ask any more obvious questions."

  Henry sat down, scowling.

  Jason quickly interjected, "This job, we will get paid, right?"

  "Yes, but to transfer payment to you legally, you will need to be registered with either the Adventurer Guild, the Mercenary Guild, or the city and the country for freelance mercenary work. It will have to wait until you are full Clan members," said Henna-ibbi.

  Mareen elbowed Henry in the leg. He made a confused face for a second until he grinned. He said, "That won't be a problem. We have the paperwork necessary to start our own adventuring company."

  "That is surprising but lucky. It should save everyone time if nothing else. Do you have any other concerns?"

  Jason looked at Henry before saying, "We will need a few days at least to prepare. Henry and I haven't even been on this world that long. We need time and resources to plan. That means maps, gear, and space to practice our magic."

  Bezzi-ibbi knew the last portion of Henry's request could make the Clan uncomfortable. Mo'hali usually weren't gifted in magic, resulting in many of them fearing and mistrusting it. Bezzi-ibbi's rekke, Kinwe-na-ibbi, was accepted for being Mo'hali. However, Henna-ibbi nodded, agreeing for the entire Clan.

  She said, "With that, I believe everything has been covered. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak? Do not whisper behind bushes. Make your claims in the day."

  Bezzi-ibbi tensed. It was time. He stepped forward and said, "I stand as Bezzi-Ibbi, heir of the main branch Jaguar Clan. I wish to make my claim in the day." Bezzi-ibbi spoke formally and in perfect Luda. Some of the Jaguar Clan members in the room seemed more surprised that Bezzi-ibbi was formally recognizing himself in Luda than they had at news of a future war of the gods.

  Henna-ibbi tensed warily. Bezzi-ibbi loved his hes rekke, but he knew she didn't really understand his wild heart. His father and his mother Kinwe-na-ibbi tolerated it, but only his birth-mother and Yanno-ibbi seemed to really accept him.

  Bezzi-ibbi reverted to speaking in Panum, "I will be going with my brothers Henry-ibbi and Jason-ibbi. It is my responsibility and my right. I wish to make this known now so there is no confusion later."

  Henna-ibbi seemed to relax. She responded in Panum, "That will not be happening. You are close to adult age, but you are not there yet."

  Bezzi-ibbi bristled, this tail flicking. "And when I become an adult, I will be weighed down with responsibility and kept safe with tradition. No. It was not my choice to be the Clan heir, but since I am, I will become a great Clan Chief. To do that, I must leave this city, or I will never understand the greater world. I am going with my brothers. It is my duty."

  His hes rekke shook her head. Bezzi-ibbi glanced at his birth-mother, and even she was not supporting him. The Elders and leaders stared at him, wishing for him to quiet and adhere to their expectations. He'd been in this argument before, and he knew how it would normally end. So be it.

  "I have made my decision. I did not choose being the heir, but if I am going to be a Clan Chief, I will not be coddled. I refuse." He took the ring out of his pocket. "Since my Clan will not respect my wishes, I have no choice. I asked Dolos for a boon today, and he gave me a Hero ring."

  The entire meeting room went very still. The Terrans had no idea what was going on; they just looked confused since they didn't understand Panum. Only Uluula seemed to be following
what was going on. She looked curious. Bezzi-ibbi wished he'd tried speaking to her in Panum now when they were imprisoned together. He truly did hate speaking Luda and might have been doing so unnecessarily.

  Henna-ibbi whispered, "Bezzi-ibbi, please stop. If you put that on, it will probably kill you."

  "I would rather die than live as prey in a cage. I would rather perish and let someone else take my place than be anything less than the best Chief I can be. I would rather be dust than not take an active part in saving my Clan. And I'd rather never been born than live without experiencing the path of a Jaguar troubadour."

  Bezzi-ibbi's father slowly stood. "I, Hajim-ibbi, Clan Chief of the Jaguar Clan forbid this. Bezzi-ibbi, stand down now!"

  Bezzi-ibbi shook his head sadly. "Father, I respect you, and I will bow my back later, but I must do this. I cannot put out the fire in me that tells me to explore. Please forgive me." Bezzi-ibbi slipped the ring onto his left hand.

  The next few moments were confusing. There was a great deal of noise, and many people spoke at once. He felt hands on him, and someone put a wet cloth on his forehead. He realized in flashes of images that he was on the floor. He kept hearing someone scream, and he wished they would stop. While drifting off to unconsciousness, he realized he was the one screaming.

  Delvers, LLC

  Jason was glad nobody blamed him or Henry for what had happened to Bezzi-ibbi. Neither of them had recognized the ring's significance like a Mo'hali would. Hero rings represented thousands of years of complicated Mo'hali history on Ludus.

  As Yanno-ibbi explained later, like all the other races on Ludus, Mo'hali didn't have access to technology other than Ludus magic tech. They also very rarely had any mages among them, and their overall numbers were comparatively small to other groups too. On Ludus, despite their physical advantages of speed, strength, and reflexes, the Mo'hali people were weak.

  Dolos gave power to other races in the form of Dolos orbs, but the orbs didn't work on Mo'hali physiology. At best, nothing happened, and at worst, the Mo'hali who took the orb died.

  But like all sentient beings on Ludus, Dolos had a purpose for them. Dolos orbs didn't work for Mo'hali, so Dolos created rings only they could use. The rings themselves had various effects, similar to the orbs. However, they always added some physical mark of their presence like a glowing eye, spiked tail, new horns, or even a twisted body. The mortality rate was sky-high. Most Mo'hali brave enough to wear a Hero ring paid the ultimate price for it.

  All the greatest Mo'hali Heroes on Ludus over the last few thousand years were ring wearers, Heroes in fact as well as name. The predatory-type Mo'hali like the Jaguar Clan held them in almost religious reverence.

  Bezzi-ibbi had taken an enormous all-or-nothing risk. Jason thought he might just be the bravest little boy he'd ever met. The Jaguar Clan heir was still in a coma, and his odds of surviving weren't very good, but if he lived, he would be a Mo'hali Hero. His Clan would no longer have the right to keep him safe and pampered.

  It was heavy stuff. Jason felt terrible and wondered if he'd saved Bezzi-ibbi from a cell just to see him die of some sick Dolos experiment.

  He tried to stay busy to offset his feelings of guilt. He and Henry got up early their first day at the Jaguar Clan house to discuss forming an adventuring company. Jason was a little weirded out by Mareen being Henry's technical servant, but his friend seemed the most uncomfortable with it. In fact, he even appeared a little afraid of her, but that couldn't be possible. Jason dismissed it.

  Mareen sat quietly off to the side as Jason argued about the name of their new company with Henry. He suggested going with a name like "Thunderkittens." Henry was looking for a serious sounding name like "Professional Dungeoneers." Neither of them wanted to give an inch. Jason wanted an Earth reference that would tell other people on Ludus they were from Earth, hopefully gaining new allies. Henry's focus seemed to be creating a serious business and wanting the name to reflect that.

  The breakthrough came when they were both randomly throwing out names and Henry suggested "Delvers." Jason liked the sound of it and asked, "What about Delvers, LLC?"

  "What does 'LLC' stand for?"

  "It means 'limited liability company.' It's basically a way for people to form a business in the United States that will protect from litigation without jumping through all the hoops of incorporating."

  Henry paused for a moment. "How do you know that?"

  "It's not like all I ever did was write code. I read things. I listened. I paid attention."

  Henry scrunched up his face. "I still think it's weird. What in the hell did you need to know that for?"

  "Let me answer your question with a question. Do you know how to make a deadfall trap for large animals?"

  "Yes."

  "Why? It's not like you ever use it. When are you ever going to make a trap for a bear or whatever? What good did it do you?"

  "Well, considering we're on a fucking fantasy world and we might need to kill some food, it seems a lot more useful knowing how to set traps than what LLC stands for." Henry rolled his eyes. "Plus, what makes you think anyone on this whole planet other than you is going to understand the acronym? It's just a United States thing, right? What if someone on Ludus is from France and says, 'Bonjour, what is zees 'LLC'? It sounds ze fucking dumb.'"

  Jason pressed his lip together. His voice was tight when he responded, "It's friggin' Delvers, LLC or Pokemonsters. Choose."

  "Okay, fine. Delvers, LLC it is." Henry shrugged.

  Once the name was decided, Mareen got a few more pieces of information, filled out the adventuring company application, and returned to the City Planning Office to get the company registered.

  The next item on the to-do list that morning was briefly discussing how to expand their magical abilities. They had a few days to prepare for their mission, and Jason wanted to make it count.

  "Okay," he started. "I think we should discuss our weaknesses and go from there."

  "You're right. Okay, one of the biggest problems we both have is capacity. Our magic reserves are huge compared to Mareen, but in all our serious fights, we pretty much ran out of juice. I think you should probably ask the priestess Dolos sends a bunch of questions whenever she gets here, but before that, I have an idea to practice."

  Jason was curious what his friend had to say. In the years they'd known each other, Jason had learned Henry had a kind of ingrained practicality that sometimes allowed him to think of things Jason never would. "Okay, I'm listening."

  "The whole time we practiced on the way to Mirana, we were using magic to do big, flashy things. We were just learning at the time, and it was cool, but I think we should tone it down now. I think we should try using a whole bunch of little, controlled exercises to train our abilities."

  "Okay, but Magic Control was one of the abilities we could increase before..."

  "Yeah, but you got it, and I didn't. You should have some sort of noticeable increase in ability over me. I mean, I know we're comparing fucking apples to oranges with our powers, but I think we're pretty equal right now, and we shouldn't be. What if Control is actually how quickly you can train your abilities? What if it's your upper limit? We both got that blanket Magic Power ability.

  "What if Magic Power is why we seem to be growing in capacity? What if we can make it grow faster?"

  Jason thought back to all of his gaming experience. "What, you mean like raising stats?"

  "No! This is real life. Stats are fucking stupid to even discuss. Don't make me slap you. I know you have more experience with this kind of general world type than me, but Dolos got his inspiration for this fucked up place from another civilization thousands of years ago or something, right? This world may be really similar to RPG games you're familiar with, but what if there are differences too? My gut is telling me that the skills we got via the orbs give us potential ability and maybe a boost to get there, not insta-power.

  "Plus, when I first started changing my forearms, it took a while to do
it. Now I can practically do it in the blink of an eye. I think I've been training the ability by using it so often."

  Jason thought back and realized he had to concentrate less to teleport now. Henry might have been right. "Hmmm. It doesn't hurt to give it a shot. Okay, let's try it, but I want to talk about our functional weaknesses too, like in the effects we can produce."

  "Yeah, you're kind of a one-trick pony right now, aren't you?"

  It rankled, but Jason agreed. "Yes. What's more, my magic is really rare, so I doubt there are lists anywhere of things time or space mages can do. I mean, I'll keep an eye out for spell lists or whatever, but I need to come up with stuff from scratch now that we've exhausted the spell lists in our heads."

  "You have 'consciousness' too. You do that mind-time mojo thing."

  "True, but I'm kind of lacking in defense."

  Henry frowned. "You mean other than the fact you can teleport away from anything?"

  "Every time I do that, it takes more power depending on how far I go, though. Plus, it can be really disorienting if I do it a few times in a row. You heard Dolos. He's going to announce some sort of orb-Bonded death game to the world. I'm not sure what that means, but it doesn't sound good.

  "All the other mages we've encountered so far have been pretty weak compared to us, but you said that you sensed Bezzi-ibbi's rekke, Kinwe-na-ibbi, is really powerful."

  "His what?"

  "His rekke, the word for non-birth mother. Come on, you should know this too."

  Henry thought about it for a second and looked embarrassed. "Oh yeah. I'm still getting used to this whole 'knowing stuff I never actually learned' thing."

  Jason sighed. Henry could be so frustrating at times. The man had an incredibly quick wit and was very intelligent, but he seemed to only use any of it for pissing people off. Good luck, Mareen. Jason chuckled.

  "It's not that funny." Henry crossed his arms.