by Jason Cheek
Chiara Ithilwen looked pretty beat-up between her black and blue face and lacerated arms, but with a tenaciousness that was a reflection of her soul, she made her way around the camp introducing me to the refugees and getting updates as to what had been saved from the flames. Everyone was injured. Most severely and no one seemed to be healing too quickly. Sitting down to discuss the specifics of what the camp needed first, I delicately tried to ask the first question that came to mind. “Chiara, umm, I noticed a lot of people don’t seem to be healing very quickly.”
“Five days without food will do that to you,” Chiara said with a heavy sigh. “That’s why food is the first thing we need. By tomorrow the weakest and most severely injured will start to die, and by the day after that, the rest of us will surely follow. Shelter against the weather and chopped wood for heating would be the next most important thing on the list of needed supplies, but there’s no sense in burning the extra energy that would take us to gather the fuel until we at least know we’re not going to starve to death.” Chiara explained about the exodus after the invaders breached the walls and the mad dash to Delonshire and everything that happened. “If we could just get some food, we would be able to help.” Her voice choked-up unable to continue as I quietly comforted her.
“Chiara, don’t worry. I’ll head out right away and gather enough food for everyone. We’ll get it all worked out.” Seeing the discarded bow and a quiver of arrows lying in a small stack of supplies nearby, I nodded my head at the gear. “I’ll need to borrow the bow and quiver from over there. Is that alright?” Giving her a reassuring hug at her nod, I scooped up the gear and headed off.
The first thing I did was gather my loot from the Zombie Goblins that I wanted. The rest I piled to the side. I ended up getting a backpack, eight belt pouches, twenty water flasks that were rancid, a hodgepodge of boiled leather and fetid furs and an average of sixty coppers from each of the goblins, except for the boss who had three silvers and forty copper pieces. I left the boiled leather and fetid furs. I mean really, who wants to have a bunch of naked Zombie Goblins walking around? Also, I kept five of the poorly crafted swords and daggers just in case I needed the weapons for some reason. It wasn’t like the Zombies used any weapons other than their teeth and claws.
Everything else the Goblins carried had to be just burned. Most of it was pieces of garbage and unidentifiable food that no one wanted to touch. Not a bad haul in all. It made sense when you figured that these invaders had to carry their money on them and this was all the loot that they’d managed to hold onto during the raid. It wasn’t like there were any banks or ATMs scattered around the wilds that they could use to hold their loot. I kept the original goblin Vile Blade sword and Savage Fin Slasher dagger I’d picked up during the fight. I’d lucked out getting my hands on both of those weapons at the beginning of the fight. I also picked up a Rockjaw Chopper axe:
Rockjaw Chopper
Item Quality: Common
Item Type: Crafted
Attack: One-hand Edge
Weapon Type: Axe
Damage 23-31
Durability: 50/50
Weight: 4 kg
Damage-wise it didn’t stack up to my Jagged Bonesplitter axe, but having another backup weapon was always a good thing. Not to mention it would definitely come in handy for chopping wood. Feeling a little bit better about my gear, I headed out into the woods to do some hunting.
There’s nothing like the feeling of a whole group of injured starving people counting on you to come through for them. Although it wasn’t as stressful as saving people from being butchered and eaten alive, the feelings of anxiety were right up there. The crisp snow crunched under my feet with each step. Although it wasn’t deep, I had to move slowly not to make too much noise.
The meadow had been lit up from the early morning sun, but as soon as I entered the thick woods, all that was left of the morning’s light was a dark gray haze. The sounds seemed to echo off the trees, but moving as silently as I could, I had no problem getting into the range of my first rabbit. As the little creature shot from its hiding place at the sound of my approach, I snapped a Frost Blast off only to see the rabbit explode into ice chunks a second later.
Fuck! It was just as I thought. I wouldn’t be doing much game hunting for low-level animals using my magic. Unlimbering my borrowed bow and knocking an arrow, I began hunting the old fashion way.
I didn’t even have to move for my next shot at a rabbit. From where I stood there had to be at least twenty of the little guys hopping around eating the grass that had broken through the light snow cover. Standing next to a tree, I knocked an arrow and slowly pulled the arrow back to my ear. Aiming carefully, I lined up my shot and released in one fluid motion. Even though the rabbits were the size of a medium dog, one arrow was more than enough to kill the creature.
You have gained Experience!
You have killed a Rabbit.
Although the experience points weren’t much because the rabbit was green, it was better than nothing. To be honest, I was surprised that there were level 10 rabbits in the first place. Still, I wasn’t hunting them to grind out experience points but to gather food for my people. Thankfully the rabbits were easy to kill since I could safely shoot a bunch of the critters without them realizing they were being hunted.
Within half an hour I was much deeper in the forest and had eight braces of rabbits, and three foxes tied together and slung over my shoulder. I was just getting into that peaceful lull one gets when focusing single-mindedly on a task when I noticed there wasn’t any rabbit to be seen. I was still trying to figure out what had happened to all the small game when I realized the woods had grown completely silent. Studying the heavy shadows, I slowly began noticing gray-white shadows flittering between the trees all around me. Gathering up my latest kills, I backed up looking for a spot to make my stand.
Unfortunately, none of the trees were very thick around, but I manage to find a trio of trees that were growing close enough together to offer at least some temporary protection for my back. Shouldering my bow, I shrugged off my new Ironshod shield and drew my Jagged Bonesplitter axe with my shield hand leaving my right hand free to cast magic. I didn’t have to wait long. Almost immediately low rumbling growls began coming from all around surrounding trees.
One second there were only flittering shadows and the next a tooth filled maw was snapping at my side as I quickly twisted around casting Frost Blast. Immediately another wolf lunged from my right as I twisted around releasing another Frost Blast at point blank range. Cold white frost covered the wolf’s face as the Frost Blast caught the beast right between the eyes. As the wolf slowed down, I slammed my shield into its fierce face already preparing my next spell. Spinning back around with a weak swing from the axe still clutched tightly in my shield hand, I blasted the wolf charging at my blind side and kicked it in the head as a grayish-white wave rushed me from the front. Getting off two more blasts, I snatched my Bonesplitter axe up in my right hand and braced for battle.
The attack was savage and brutal. Fangs tore at me from every direction as I kicked and screamed. Flailing about with both my shield and axe, I hammered at the feral wolves like a berserker as their jaws fiercely snapped at my arms, legs, and neck. There was no possible way to block all of the attacks at once. The wolves mauling my legs used their fangs to shred my leather armor as they shook their entire bodies trying to get at the meat underneath, while I was dragged across the ground, the wolves fought each other over who would be first to tear me apart.
Although it felt like I was being eaten alive, I never stopped fighting. I would have died if not for my new weapons. Lying under my Ironshod shield, I was able to keep my head and neck mostly protected as I fought for my life on my back. Each swing of the Bonesplitter axe severed limbs and caused bleed damage for fifteen seconds.
Although the Large Gray Wolves were level 15, thankfully their individual attacks weren’t as damaging as the Goblins’ weapons had been. Also, they onl
y had about 380 Hit Points, so four hits with bleed and the wolves were dead. Still, there was a twelve pack of wolves trying to attack me at once. Even though my blood ran freely and my armor was shredded to ribbons below my elbows and knees, I couldn’t help laughing at the wolves that tried to run away. They’d only get a few yards before dying as the bleed DOT, damage over time, from my Bonesplitter axe, removed the last of their Hit Points within a few seconds.
As the last wolf keeled over dead a few feet away from me, I collapsed to the frozen ground sucking in air as I stared at the branches of the trees spread out above me. I was exhausted. This wasn’t an issue with my character’s endurance stats or a lack of Hit Points. No, this was the deep emotional exhaustion of a survivor that had almost been eaten alive. The raw realness of the game took my breath away. Fighting my first Goblins had been scary like being in a mugging or caught in a street brawl, but the Large Grey Wolves were another level of terrifying altogether. I momentarily wondered if any of the Alpha or Beta testers had run into PTSD issues after going through several attacks like that.
Pushing myself up into a sitting position, I mentally shook the feeling of terror away. Already I could see that my wounds were mostly healed as I took stock of the bodies around me. Unfortunately, my armor was still shredded. That didn’t magically fix itself after a fight. I’d have to learn leatherworking or get one of the refugees to repair my armor. Hopefully, I could get one of them to teach me the leatherworking skill so I wouldn’t have to rely on anyone else in the future. Looking out at all of the dead wolves and their skins, I felt the inkling of a plan forming in the back of my mind. While the idea was practical for taking care of my quest’s requirements for food and shelter for the survivors, the thought of going through more wolf pack attacks made my stomach queasy.
Piling the bodies together, I began skinning the first wolf. Thankfully the blood automatically faded after a few minutes. I’d gone hunting enough in real life to know just how messy of a process that skinning could be. The first two wolves went slowly as I figured out where to make my cuts to remove the skin in one piece and how best to remove the meat, but as I worked, a semi-translucent character attribute window popped up before quickly fading away into the interface.
Congratulations! You have learned a new craft, Skinning!
By the third wolf the process was going much smoother, and by the eighth wolf, I was becoming a pro. Finishing up the last wolf, I looked down at my blood smeared leathers in disgust. Again the game’s realism gave me pause. But within a minute the blood covering my leathers was already fading away. Still, a part of me wished, in spite of myself, that I could have just selected the body and had everything just move automatically to my inventory.
There was a lot of meat and skins, but my in-game strength was more than enough to carry this load relatively easy. The only problem was that it was too much for me actually to hold in my hands. Thinking for a second, I quickly came up with an idea. Taking out my Rockjaw Chopper axe, I cut down two thin saplings. Trimming the branches off, I quickly lashed my new creation together into a travois. As I did this, I noticed another semi-translucent character attribute window pop up. I read the two descriptions thoughtfully before they faded away.
Congratulations! You have learned a new craft Jury-Rigging!
Congratulations! You have learned a new craft Lumberjack!
Woohoo, now we were getting high tech! Lumberjack as a crafting skill was interesting but wasn’t a surprise. It just made sense, but the Jury-Rigging was another thing altogether. This skill simply popped up because I was willing to try to build something on my own without a preset plan or a trainer showing me how ahead of time. While it might seem like an insignificant skill to some, Jury-Rigging could be incredible for power-leveling my crafting skills, besides allowing me to build nifty new devices.
Not that the travois was exactly something new. The device has been the carryall of choice for indigenous natives around the world throughout time. Think back to those Western movies like Last of the Mohicans or Dances with Wolves, yeah travois were there too. The device was easy enough to put together and worked well for moving the pile of meat and skins over the uneven forest floor. Keeping one eye out for any more wolf ambushes, I decided to check out the system messages under my character attribute window that I’d been ignoring up till now.
Gouge: (Passive – Humanoid only) – Short-term stun that incapacitates a target’s vision. Must be facing the target.
Congratulations! You have learned a new skill Gouge.
Dual Wield I: (Passive) the ability to equip a weapon in the main hand that deals full damage and an off-hand weapon that deals 50% of second weapon’s damage. Chance to miss with main weapon increased to 5%, chance to miss with off-hand weapon increased to 20%.
Congratulations! You have learned a new skill Dual Wield.
Congratulations! You have gained one attribute point in Strength.
Congratulations! You have gained one attribute point in Agility.
Backstab I: (Passive – Humanoid only) Attacks dealt from behind deal 4x weapon damage.
Congratulations! You have learned a new skill Backstab I!
Sneak Attack I: (Passive) Surprise attacks deals 10x weapon damage.
Congratulations! You have learned a new skill Sneak Attack I!
Overpower I – (Passive) Instantly overpowers enemy causing 100% weapon damage. Cannot be blocked, dodged or parried. Overpower has a 60% increased chance to be a critical strike. (Grappling Attacks only - Target is unable to escape hold)
Congratulations! You have learned a new Overpower I!
Knock Down I: (Passive – Humanoid only) Grappling attacks have a 15% chance to knock target to the ground, causing 1 to 10 points of damage and stunning target for 5 seconds.
Congratulations! You have learned a new skill Knock Down I!
Scrolling to the top of the box, I was stunned at the number of skills that were listed. Instead of going through them all I just pulled up my character sheet instead to get the short list.
Startum Ironwolf – Level 10
Novice (Nightmare)
Half-Elf (House of Kayden)
+14 Unassigned Attribute Points.
Statistics:
Hit Points: 1,144
Mana: 1020
Endurance: 1040
Attributes:
Strength: 80
Intelligence: 102
Spirit: 80
Agility: 78
Stamina: 104
Charisma: 78
Racial Ability:
Military Conditioning (Passive) – All defenses increased by 5% and total hit points are increased by 10%.
Darkvision (Passive) - Grants ability to see in day-light conditions up to 100 feet in reduced lighting and the ability to see in dim light conditions up to 60 feet in natural darkness.
Ambitious (Passive) - Receive 5% experience bonus when gaining experience.
Racial Modifiers - +2 to two stats of choice per level.
Abilities:
Frost Magic – Level 10
Unarmed Combat – Level 5
One-hand edge – Level 10
Two-hand edge – Level 5
Shield Block - Level 7
Shield Bash – Level 7
Riposte – Level 7
Lung – Level 8
Parry – Level 8
Dodge – Level 6
Archery – Level 7
Spells:
Frost Blast (30 Mana) – 2 sec cast – Launches Blast of frost at the enemy. Damage is 200% of Spell Power. Slows target by 50% for 15 seconds. Range 60 yards.
Skills:
Stealth I
Sneak Attack I
Backstab I
Concentration I
Quick Shot I
Overpower I
Kick Back I
Knockdown I
Gouge I
Dual Wield I
Crafting:
Skinning Level 1
Jury-Riggi
ng Level 1
Lumberjack Level 1
Reputation:
100
Looking at the character sheet made the skills and attributes that I’d acquired easier to see. Wow, level 10! I hadn’t even noticed I’d gained another level. Must have happened during the wolf attack. Going back and forth between my character sheet and the character attribute windows, I realized that I’d gained several increases in strength, intelligence, agility, spirit, stamina and even charisma from simply playing the game.
The World was a mix of Skill-Based and Level-Based gameplay. Meaning that each level you gained would come with seven attribute points that could be assigned to any of your six attributes, depending upon your species. Some species had two points out of the seven that they had to add into specific attributes, leaving only five for the player to distribute freely. Also, the skills you used as you played the game would also give you additional attribute points and skills depending upon the difficulty of the task being done.
The general examples given on the forums went something like this: using Backstab, Stealth and Archery enough would gain attribute points in agility, using a sword and shield would earn additional points in strength, being repeatedly pummeled in fights would earn additional points in stamina, casting more magic spells would increase intelligence and the more you drained your health and mana the higher your spirit would grow.
Supposedly there were no hard lines as to what equaled to what, but from the various discussions on the forums, this was the general example that was given by the developers. I was just clicking away some of the older system messages that I hadn’t read from earlier when one particular message window caught my eye.
Congratulations!
You have reached level 5!
You have completed the training levels.
