Skyler Grant Anthology

by Skyler Grant

  “Are you going to be okay?”

  “The disease is stopping me from regenerating health and it's going to slowly drain it,” Ashley said with a sigh. “I don’t have any sort of timer on it. The wounds are a constant ache, but it’s not like being torn to shreds in the real world. I’m good to go, I’m just going to be a little slower. I’ll be fine.”

  Quest Granted

  Save Ashley

  Ashley has contracted a disease that in her current state will slowly kill her unless a cure is found.

  Rewards: The life of a party member

  Right. She’d be fine. I don’t know if she actually saw that quest prompt or not, but I decided not to mention it. We’d just have to keep our eyes out for some sort of cure. Up until now health regeneration was not even something I’d considered. I knew some games required things like potions or spells to heal and I checked my stats. My health and mana were slowly ticking upwards, although Walt’s mana bar seemed to be going up a good bit faster. That was probably something to do with his class or the total size of his mana pool.

  Ashley let out a pleased cry and I wandered over to see. She was standing over a corpse more recent than the ones in the cells, the desiccated flesh still clinging to the bones although the rats had picked most of it away. She began pulling on a pair of leather boots. My instinct was to admire her legs, but that only drew my eyes to the bloody wounds there—she really had gotten the worst of the fight.

  “If I’m tanking shouldn’t those be mine?” I asked.

  Gesturing to a pile, Ashley said, “I left you the pants. Don’t be greedy. He had a sharpened bone piece that's counting as a shiv, so I’m armed now. Crap damage, but I’ll be able to hit. When I was taking the pants I saw his leg bone counts as a club too, so I set it aside for you.”

  I made my way over to pile and checked it out.

  Worn Leather Pants

  Ac: 4

  Worn Position: Legs

  Type: Common

  These pants weren’t especially well-made when new, and they’ve been through a lot. They manage at least to offer basic protection.

  Half-Elven Leg Bone

  Damage: Power + 1D3

  Type: Common

  A weapon scavenged from the bones of the dead. May their leg serve you better than it served them.

  Walt came over to join us. He didn't look too disappointed that we lacked any gear for him. Of course, in the last fight his magic made him a lot more useful than either of us. My magic seemed to have no skill percentages. Without gear it probably was the strongest tool we had.

  “Lead on big guy,” Ashley said, all but fondling her new weapon with a certain bloodthirsty glee.

  I got dressed—the dungeon felt rather less terrifying just by adding pants. The leg bone also made a reassuring weight in my hands.

  Now the tank by virtue of trousers, I led the way down the hall, glancing over my shoulder to ask, “So I take it that wherever we are, you didn’t mean for us to be here?”

  “We were hoping for one of the space adventures,” Ashley said. “Walt identified trade runs for all of them where within a day we’d be packing some decent weapons and be ready to do some surprising damage.”

  “We’ve been practicing our piloting and gunnery for months,” Walt said with wry amusement. “I expected to have a lot more control of the network connection when we were in our pods. I don’t know if it was your presence, or going beyond the local net, but something went seriously off this time.”

  An end to the corridor loomed. I held up a hand in caution and crept forward. A niche in one wall contained a table and stools for what was probably a guard station. It looked to have been picked clean. I was about to pass it entirely when Ashley slipped by to study the wall, her hand slipping up to search between two stones. There was a loud click and a section of the wall peeled back to reveal a hidden opening.

  Walt brought the light closer. There was a rusted and decaying shield which I claimed for myself.

  Guard’s Rusty Iron Shield: AC: 8 Deflection: 5

  Type: Common

  A once solid shield, now as broken and falling apart as the one who once wielded it.

  Not bad. If just a pair of pants had made me feel more tank-like, this was escalation of a whole other sort. I didn’t even care that it was falling apart. The nook also contained a deck of cards, a set of dice, and a bottle which Ashley had already grabbed for herself and taken a swig.

  “Painkiller?” I asked. She offered the bottle.

  “Whatever it is, it’s totally foul and totally kicked my diseased ass. Try some.”

  “We should keep clear heads,” Walt told us.

  Screw it. I took a swig too and found it to be as foul as Ashley warned, a thorough kick to the gut that left me both impressed at how well the pod was handling taste and wondering if it was somehow horribly out of alignment. Could anything be meant to taste that foul? Still, it had a nice burn. Ashley gave me a pained grin and took her bottle back, taking another drink.

  We returned to our exploration, the corridor ending in an intersection. A doorway offered a glimpse of what looked to be an infirmary, meanwhile across from our corridor appeared to be another lined with similar cells. A hallway led off into the shadows.

  “The infirmary? It would have something to help with Ashley’s bites?” I said to the others.

  “Something is probably waiting to ambush in there,” Walt said. “It’s where I’d put an encounter with something a bit more dangerous. While we want to help Ashley, we should do the other cells first. They probably have another rat encounter, but we’re a lot better equipped now. We could use the experience and whatever gear we might find.”

  Ashley said, “Believe me, I don't want to … you know… die, but Walt is right. We need to be smart. We should scavenge what gear we can. I’ll try to hang back and keep what's left of my health intact.”

  We ignored the infirmary for the time being to explore the other row of cells. Another guard station had again been cleaned out, although like before Ashley found the release for a secret compartment.

  Unidentified Ring

  This ring appears to have magical properties but you lack the skills to identify it.

  Walt looked at it intently and the properties flickered.

  Minor Ring of Protection

  This ring is magically enhanced to offer some protection to the wearer. Minor Protection, it’s in the name.

  Armor: +1 Deflection: +1

  As the tank, I slipped it onto my finger and instantly felt ever so slightly sturdier. I’d thought about handing it over to Ashley instead, but with her holding back I did seem the better choice.

  I led the way along the claustrophobic and dark hallway, the only illumination coming from behind me. I knew an attack had to be coming. Still, I was surprised when suddenly rats were lunging at me from all directions.

  As reassuring as my pants were I discovered that teeth could, in fact, penetrate them. My bare feet offered an even more tempting target and I had the distinctly unpleasant experience of what it feels like to have rats attempting to eat your toes.

  My health was peeling away and the shield, as reassuring as it had seemed, proved fairly useless when you're flanked by rats scurrying on the floor all around. Fortunately my club was more effective and I swung it in a low arc. With a satisfying thud I caught one rat and sent it arching through the air to pound against the wall.

  Your melee attack hits a Half-Starved Rat

  -10 HP Critical Hit

  Half-Starved Rat is dead

  Flaming Dart

  Flaming Dart

  Backstab

  The prompts flashing up suggested that Walt and Ashley were more than doing their share. Two rats were little more than charred corpses from Walt’s darts and a third had more or less exploded from Ashley’s backstab.

  “Out of mana!” Walt called, distancing himself from the fray.

  Smite

  I focused on my smite spell and again fel
t that intoxicating rush of power surge through me as a pillar of fire spelled the end of another rat.

  Backstab

  Ashley sneaked up on another rat even as it was trying to creep up on me and with a well-placed blow dispatched it.

  This had all happened kind of furiously. I checked my health and to my surprise it was completely full. A level up prompt was blinking at the corner of my view and I pulled it up.

  Congratulations!

  You have reached level 2

  You have one stat point to assign. As a Paladin of Yvera you have gained a further 15% skill to Long Blades and have gained the skill.

  Persuasion:

  Persuasion allows you to manipulate others and to sway them to your point of view.

  You have further gained the following spells.

  Lay on Hands:

  Once every four hours you can lay your hands on another and heal them for a number of D6s equal to level times your Charisma. At your current level that would be 2D6*6

  Bless Water:

  You can create holy water in the name of your Deity. Advantages vary depending on your Deity. As a Paladin of Yvera you can create waters of the flame. These waters will inspire passion, creativity, and vengeance in those who drink them.

  I kept thinking up more and more questions about this Deity of mine. I allocated the stat point to Endurance, since I'd been tanking so far and it was actually working out rather well for us. Although I was impressed by how powerful the heal granted by Lay on Hands was, even if it could only be rarely used. I checked my updated sheet.

  Name: Liam Ottani

  Class: Paladin of Yvera

  Deity: Yvera

  Level: 2

  HP: 110/110

  Stamina: 50

  Mana: 50

  XP: 0 of 1000 to next level

  Alignment: -250

  Stats

  Power: 5 Endurance: 6 Dexterity: 2

  Intelligence: 5 Awareness: 3

  Charisma: 6 Luck: 2

  Skills

  Long Blades: 30

  Blunt Weapons: 16

  Hand to Hand: 11

  Mounted Combat: 15

  Light Armor: 15

  Medium Armor: 15

  Heavy Armor: 15

  Persuasion: 15

  Spells

  Evil Aura

  Smite

  Sense Virtue

  Lay on Hands

  Bless Water

  The others had a glazed look about them, lost in their own sheets. Ashley was the next out. The level up hadn't restored her health points. She was down to under half now and one leg looked off-color with diseased black threads running through it. Still, she pretended good spirits as she flashed a strained smile and moved down the hall calling out, “Off to loot.”

  Leaning against the wall I let my HP regenerate. Walt eventually came out of one glassy-eyed reverie to go right back into another as he started to meditate back his mana.

  Ashley returned after a few minutes sporting a pair of leather pants of her own. I was a bit ashamed that I felt glad to see them, because it meant I no longer had to look at those injuries. She tossed me a belt.

  Worn Leather Belt

  Ac: 1

  Class: Common

  This belt won’t do much more than keep your pants up, but it will at least manage that. You do have pants, don’t you?

  Well, I did now. Slowly, but surely, we were getting dressed—apart from the wizard, but when have they ever needed clothes?

  Having done our bit to slaughter and pillage it was time to move on. To see if Walt was right about an encounter waiting in that infirmary.

  53

  We moved back towards the junction, the rows of abandoned cells like toothless mouths as we passed.

  “What do you think happened to this place?” I said. “The game seemed to think this would be a working prison when we connected.”

  “It doesn’t need to be literal. Sometimes adventures start with prisoners being thrown into an ancient prison,” Walt said. “A sort of execution by dungeon. What we’re experiencing is pretty much spot-on for that.”

  “I’d have rather had a country village with a tavern and inn,” Ashley said weakly, her color looking more and more off.

  The junction and the doorway to the infirmary came into sight.

  I told them, “So, battle plan. I’ll lead the way in, Ashley keep close so I can defend you if needed and Walt cover our rear. If I see anything, I’ll run in swinging. Ashley, hang back and hide if you have too, just don’t lose any more health. Walt, you keep doing the same thing.”

  Ashley didn't argue. Good, she was on board with her own survival. Holding the shield in front of me I went in.

  The light provided by Walt’s spell illuminated the room. There were rows of cots lining the walls, perhaps a dozen in total with several cabinets at the end that looked promisingly closed—and thus probably not looted.

  My shield at the ready I cautiously made my way to the back, the quiet scrape of Ashley’s boots behind me. There was a notable lack of ambushing going on.

  “Guess there isn’t an encounter here after all,” I said.

  “I would have liked the experience, but I’ll take getting to loot those cabinets. I really hope there is a cure,” Ashley said wearily.

  “Grrrgggle,” Walt said.

  I paused, Ashley doing the same. Walt didn't usually speak in incoherent gurgling sounds. We both turned around. Walt’s head and upper body was encased in some sort of gelatinous slime dripping down from the ceiling and currently doing its best to smother the life out of our wizard. His health was already half gone.

  Oops.

  Ashley reacted before I could, rushing to stab at the slime, then stopping herself at the last moment.

  “If I stab through this, aren’t I going to stab him?”

  “Same thing, if I cast a spell,” I said, staring at the choking wizard. “Surrounding him in a pillar of fire would probably be bad.”

  I checked the statistics for the slime.

  Stalacslime

  Level 2: Type: Slime HP: 15/15

  Stalacslimes are frequently found on dungeon ceilings and are known for dropping down on unsuspecting prey.

  Walt was flailing about and attempting to cast his spells, but without the ability to speak couldn't bring the magic to bear.

  “I guess we hit it gently,” Ashley decided, landing a delicate blow on Walt and the slime. A single HP dropped off both.

  That worked and we proceeded to slowly and gently clobber and stab our wizard and his unwanted living hat. Walt’s health was almost exhausted by the time we finally wore the slime down and ticked off its last HP. With a sudden shimmer it seemed to lose all cohesion and splattered onto the floor.

  Walt choked in a deep breath and stumbled over to sit on one of the cots. Gasping for air, he wasn't exactly high on health and neither was Ashley.

  “I can use my Lay on Hands, if either of you need it,” I said. “I mean the magic is there to be used, right?”

  “Walt will regenerate. Let’s see if we can find me a cure,” Ashley said, wobbling on her feet. Her pants no longer hid the diseased flesh, working its way up to trace a line along her ribs.

  Ashley went over to the cabinets and began looting, piles of what appeared to be bandages and sheets going on the floor. We all joined in.

  In the back of a cabinet I found a small wooden box labeled, ‘Potions to Cure Disease’. It was empty except for one glass vial, which I passed to Ashley.

  Ashley wasted no time in chugging the vial down. Completely different to the real world, Ashley’s entire body shimmered with golden light for a moment and suddenly the diseased flesh was healthy again.

  Quest Completed

  Save Ashley

  Your have passed the first hurdle that threatened to tear your party apart. Surely the life of your friend is its own reward?

  You have gained 250 XP

  Walt meanwhile had found a robe in a cabinet. He had alr
eady started to regenerate, looking look less on the verge of death. He studied the robe before slipping it on. It looked to be cotton, light gray and unadorned. It probably didn’t afford him much protection, but at least it was clothing. It was odd how you came to appreciate things like that.

  “Not a bad haul,” Ashley said, setting out an assortment of items on a cot near us. There were three reddish potions and one simple-looking wand.

  The wand didn't give me any details, but the potions did.

  Potion of Minor Healing

  Restores 20% of the user's maximum HP instantly and another 20% over 30 seconds.

  By far one of the most popular potions that one can buy, healing potions allow you to come back from the edge of death almost instantly.

  As a tank I was the most likely to take damage, but it had just been demonstrated that any member of the party might be attacked and need an edge in an emergency. I kept one potion for myself and gave one each to the others. I patted my pants in search for a pocket, coming to the realization I had none.

  Watching impatiently, Ashley said, “You’ve got an inventory. You just can’t see it. Focus to the bottom right and it will come up.” She picked up her own potion and it vanished from her hand. I did just as she suggested and after a moment saw a visual of slots appear in my sight. I moved the potion into one. Useful.