Spectres & Skin: Exodus

by RJ Creed

  “What do you think this is, boy?” he interrupted. “I have an unlimited supply of the greatest weaponry around. And look at me. You think I have a problem I can’t handle?” He laughed again, his meaty shoulders shaking. “Even if I did, you think I have a problem you could handle better?”

  I pointed at Moro again. “But I have a spectre,” I said, but it came out as more of a whine. “I really can’t help you with anything?”

  “Well, there is one thing…”

  “Anything!” I said, mouth almost watering at the thought of such advanced gear at my low level.

  Hrzog leaned in and whispered something to me over the counter. My eyebrow twitched in confusion.

  New Quest!

  Sword Swallower

  Tilt your head back and deepthroat the blade of your choice from Hrzog’s Hammer. If the hilt touches your lips without tears, whining or death, the blade will be yours.

  Reward: Blade from Hrzog’s Hammer

  0 EXP

  Accept/Deny

  I let out a heavy sigh and flicked ‘Deny’. “Yeah, I get it,” I said. “I’ll come back when I have more gold.”

  “My worst blade will set you back ten times what you carry in your coinpurse,” Hrzog said with a wide grin, revealing glistening fangs.

  “Will you point me towards someone who will part with decent armour for how much gold I have?” I asked before I turned to leave.

  He jerked his thumb to his right. “Three doors down is Balin. He’ll do you a couple of good pieces for the money, but you won’t get a set.” Damn, I really didn’t have as much money as I thought I did.

  “Roark?” I asked.

  “Take a right and get to the end of the street, and Roark is on the corner,” he said, looking suddenly much more interested in me, which was unsettling. “I have another quest for you if you’re going to him.”

  I let my face go blank. “I think I’ve got some idea of what your quests are like now, Hrzog.”

  “No, c’mon, you’re a good sport and this’ll be funny. Listen close.”

  I turned and folded my arms. “I don’t have much time left.” The clock let me know I had just under an hour and a half left, which should be fine, but I had to account for how lost I was going to get and how long it would take me to browse for the best deal

  “Roark and I have a bit of an … unorthodox friendship,” he said, black eyes sparkling. “In that I think no real man walks around in shadows and flings things at a foe from behind, and he thinks being cowardly is the better option.” I nodded along. “We often have to send people to each other’s shops, so we have started something of a … friendly rivalry.”

  “Right,” I said, uncertain. Time was ticking down and I had no idea what he was about to ask me to do.

  “Don’t tell him that I sent you. I want you to curse one of his items. Do you know how to do that?”

  I shook my head. “No idea.” Thinking that was that, I turned to gesture for Moro to come to heel again, and she got to her feet obediently.

  “I’ll teach you, it’s easy!” Hrzog cried as I reached the door.

  “This is really that important to you?” I asked. He nodded firmly. “What did he do to you last?”

  He began to grind his teeth together, a horrible sound, and I regretted the question. “He sent someone in here to curse my ceiling. It turned into a storm cloud and the rain in here didn’t stop for three days!” he roared, suddenly slamming a bowling ball-sized fist on his counter and making me jump. “I lost three days of business, but I proved to him that my blades don’t rust, so that was good.”

  “What do you want me to do?” I asked tentatively.

  “He wears a pendant with the insignia of the long-disbanded White Suns. He will remove it if you ask him to model an expensive leather jerkin. Distract him when it’s off, and curse it with this new hex I bought from a sk—” He stopped, nostrils suddenly flaring and his eyes darting to my own Collective pendant. I wanted to tell him I didn’t really give a shit, but that wouldn’t do me any long-term favours, so I kept my mouth shut. Was he going to say … skin magic user? That was possibly what the Collective were referring to when they spoke of ‘dark magic’. It made sense he wouldn’t want a cultist to learn about his dark magic dealings, especially as the higher ranking members seemed to rule the city without intervention.

  “It’s alright,” I said to him. “What’s the hex do?”

  “Uh, every time he tries to say ‘leather’, he will cry out like a rooster.” Hrzog chuckled at the thought, which then quickly became a full-bodied laugh, and he slapped his poor counter again, which juddered.

  “Funny,” I said. “And you’ll give me a blade?”

  He laughed harder, and then wiped away tears. “No, boy, but we can come to some other agreement.”

  Like what?

  “You could teach me something?” I suggested. I had so little time, though. Time was creeping steadily towards the one hour mark.

  He looked intrigued at this idea. “My four highest skills are Smithing, Enchanting, Inanimancy and Bartering.”

  “You can teach me skill levels?” I asked. “Or just abilities associated?”

  “I will be willing to unlock a hidden skill for you and teach you the basics up to level 1 in that skill. From then on you will be able to understand how to continue to level it up.”

  “Great,” I said. That sounded like a pretty good deal. Hopefully Roark would find it funny, though. Or I would burn a bridge that might turn out to be important. “I’ll decide which skill while I’m out. What is ‘Inanimancy’?”

  He chuckled again. “Oh, you’re serious? Inanimancy is finding the soul of an inanimate object and drawing out its full potential.”

  “What, like, so you make living swords?” I asked. “Swords with souls?”

  He stared at me. “No. That’s not what I said. Keep up, boy, what’s the matter with you?”

  “Sorry…”

  “I think it’ll be too hard to explain,” he said, looking disappointed in me like he’d come to expect more in the last five minutes. “Maybe pick something easier.”

  “I will. Thank you.”

  New Quest!

  Roark the Cock

  Hrzog and Roark have a lighthearted rivalry, and use unsuspecting patrons to prank each other with small curses. Hrzog wants you to get Roark to remove his pendant and distract him so that you can read the hex and apply it.

  Reward: 1 skill level in Smithing or Enchanting, or 2 levels in Bartering.

  50 gold

  60 EXP

  Accept/Deny

  I accepted, but I was still unsure about how much I wanted to make an enemy of the leatherworker.

  But since I’d already unlocked Bartering, maybe he would train me two levels in it? That actually made it something of a difficult choice. Learning both Smithing and Enchanting would be really useful throughout the game, but an early boost of two levels in Bartering would save me quite a large amount of money in my early stages.

  I was thinking about this as though I was never leaving this place, I realised. Hrzog handed me a scrap of paper and pointed at the scrawled writing, which was gibberish to me but written phonetically, thankfully.

  “Just touch the pendant and whisper the words. It’ll take three seconds, so make sure you distract him so he doesn’t see you doing it.” Hrzog was almost jumping with glee at his prank, and the sight made me smile a little.

  “I’ll be back in a while,” I told him.

  “Good luck!” he cried as I left the shop.

  That whole thing had taken me down to just an hour and ten minutes left. I’d happily make it, but I decided to walk quickly to Roark’s shop anyway. I found it easily, which was good, and pushed my way in through the door.

  But this time I wasn’t alone in the shop.

  “... I wouldn’t do it, no, not for all of Ceshal’s minions!” a strange man was saying, his voice hoarse and full of fury. He was wearing a thick cloak with cowl and
he had a sword and dagger strapped to him. “Merith would have me lay down my life or lay down my blade, and I do not know the consequences of giving up either one.”

  Leaning against the counter in this store that smelled strongly of furs and treatment chemicals was a young and roguishly handsome man, with dark stubble and shoulder-length black waves. He was listening intently, but when I entered he flashed me a kind smile that reached the corners of his eyes. The other man fell silent but didn’t acknowledge me.

  “Hello, sir,” he said, treating me immediately with the most respect I had ever received since stepping into this world.

  “Roark?” I ventured to ask. The smiling man nodded.

  “That’s me.”

  My gaze trailed down to the white sun pendant lying over his dark tunic, and then I quickly looked away again. I would need this mystery man to leave or I would fail Hrzog’s quest, but he looked like he was going to remain silent and still in the corner of the shop while I did my browsing.

  “I’ve saved up some gold and I want some leather armour,” I said, a little uncomfortable at the fact that I could feel the silent guy’s hidden eyes searching me up and down.

  “How much gold are you looking to spend?” He immediately straightened up and began to appraise me like he was a personal shopper.

  I couldn’t help but keep glancing back at the other man, willing him to leave so I could play my stupid chicken prank on the nice leatherworker. I didn’t want to tell him exactly how much gold I had on me, because Hrzog had said something about getting him to model an expensive set for me so he would take off his pendant.

  “I’m not sure yet,” I lied. I was happy to shell out 400 gold for a full set of decent armour. I was sure I would get some more gold for completing the witch quest, anyway.

  “Well, where would you like to start? What are you hoping to use it for?”

  “I’m going to fight some magic users,” I said, realising that he might have something specifically useful. “For the Collective.”

  His eyebrow twitched and a flash of something similar to annoyance flitted over his face but then disappeared again. “Give me a couple of minutes,” he said, and he went to the back of his store to look through his wares.

  To my great surprise, the cloaked man began to speak. “You work for the Collective?” he asked. A cool tingle passed across my body as he inspected me. “Initiate,” he said with some interest. “Tell me: Are you pleased with the way your life has gone?”

  I turned around to look at him, noticing that his face was obscured in the same way the Father’s was by his cowl, and it was pretty light in here. It must have been magic. “Sorry, what?” I had to ask.

  “You are a dog of the theocracy that brings the population to its knees. You fill your stomach with unspoiled food paid for with the blood of the downtrodden. I will ask you again. Are you pleased with the way your life has gone, Dawnspire Initiate?” He said the last part with venom and I almost flinched at his words.

  “Shit, dude,” I said. “I don’t even remember joining the Collective.” I quickly scrambled for a false story. “I arrived in Ilyria just yesterday and I must have been drunk because I woke up as an Acolyte. Are they really that bad?”

  “Don’t lie to me,” he said, his voice harsh. I quietly willed Roark to return. Who was this guy?

  ??

  Level ?? Human

  ??

  Neutral

  What the hell? What was stopping me from seeing any of his details? Magic, or was he just way out of my league? At least he was Neutral to me, but damn. He did not have any affection for the faction I had fallen into.

  “What makes you think I’m lying?” I had to ask.

  “That.” Bluntly and without looking he stuck his finger in the direction of Moro, who leaned forward to sniff at it. I had almost forgotten the wolf was there.

  “The ghost wolf?” I asked. “That just happened during the Initiation thing.” I shrugged. “I didn’t do it on purpose.”

  “That means, Initiate, that the great and terrible World Eroder has chosen you to do her bidding and become her loyal servant. She must have seen great loyalty in your heart to grant you the first spectre for many decades.” He was almost shaking with rage. “I must inform my brothers of this news. Do you have any idea what your stupid friends at the Collective are doing? What their foolish acts will bring down upon Pax?”

  “Dude, I don’t know what Pax is. Or a World Eroder. Or what foolish acts they’re planning. I really did just join yesterday, and by accident.”

  There was a pause and his head leaned a little to the side. “You’re … serious, aren’t you?”

  I nodded emphatically. “Totally serious.”

  “But Pax is this world. This plane of existence. You don’t know that?” I tried hard to squint and make out just one feature on his face, but I saw nothing. Peeking out from his black leather was the top right corner of the same white sun insignia as Roark, though. Hrzog hadn’t said what they were, but he had said they had disbanded. Something cool was going on here, I just knew it.

  Something way more interesting than a chicken hex.

  “I thought it was Ilyria,” I admitted.

  “Ilyria is this landmass, you mewling pup!” he snapped, clearly exasperated with me.

  “OK, I’m getting it. What is a World Eroder?”

  “I … Ceshal’s rags. I didn’t want to say the name of your blasted Titania for fear of you…” He trailed off, and I waited patiently, quickly glancing behind me to see if I could tell what had confused him. Nothing was there, Roark was taking his time. I turned back. “You didn’t say it?”

  “Oh, shit. Do I have to? Are they watching?”

  He let out a sharp laugh. “You truly aren’t lying at all. This is fantastic. This is fascinating. Your goddess chose you and you reject her? I have never heard the like. My my my.”

  “Look,” I said, “you’re going to have to speak slower. I’ve kind of been flung in at the deep end here. It might be because of Carl, but I didn’t get to go through a tutorial. And the wolf situation is almost definitely because of Carl and the whole Firefly thing he made me say.” I sighed. “You have no idea what I’m talking about, but I have no idea what you’re talking about either. You know?”

  “I have taken the liberty of choosing two great options for you,” came Roark’s voice, and I turned back to face the counter with a smile. He stopped short when he realised that I had been talking to the mysterious shady man, and looked from me to him as though he was about to say something.

  But he seemed to think the better of it, though concern darkened his eyes for just a small second. For what? I wondered.

  “Thank you,” I said quickly before he had the chance to say something. I wanted to be able to digest what had been said to me by one of the oddest people I had met so far in Ilyria.

  “Here is the first. It’s a great starter set.” He pulled out a simple brown leather jerkin and gestured to the material. It did look sturdy and well-crafted, but a little on the thin and drab side.

  “How much for head to toe armour in that set?” I half-interrupted to ask.

  “This one? I can give you a full set discount, so we’ll go for 450 gold.”

  I blew out a heavy breath. That was more than I had, and the next set he had looked way more expensive. He must have seen the disappointment in my eyes because his own face fell.

  “Is that a little above the budget?” he asked. “I have some below that price, but there is quite a significant drop in armour bonuses to the next in price.”

  “Mind if I..?” I asked, and he shook his head no, setting the brown leather down on the counter. I squinted at it until the floating text appeared.

  Fine Leather Jerkin

  Fine Quality

  Defense: +5

  Req: None

  Significantly less armour than that didn’t seem really worth it to me. The rest of the armour set added up to a defence bonus of 13. I mentally calculate
d what it would be like with Hrzog’s bonus if I completed his quest. I would have … 15 gold left, which was more than enough to stock up on food for the journey.

  But that meant I needed to hex his pendant now, whether I wanted to or not.

  “This next one,” he began, “is a little higher in price but more what you were looking for. He carefully laid out the second piece, a black leather set complete with cowl, which was outlined with a very faint glow. “Go ahead and check it out. I think you’ll be interested.”

  Sika Leather Jerkin of Deflection

  Very Fine Quality

  Defense: +9

  -15% to magical damage

  +15% chance to resist mental attack

  Req: Dexterity 14

  Nope, I didn’t even have the Dexterity for it. And with incredible-looking boosts like that just on the jerkin, never mind the cowl and the trousers, etc., it was going to be well above the other armour set in price.

  I opened my mouth to dully ask him to model it for me, but he saw the look in my eyes and cut over me.

  “Yeah, the cheapest I can do this set for is 1400 gold. That’s above your range, right? It is pretty nice, but just now you looked like you came here to spend big.” He grinned. “It’s alright, everyone starts somewhere. Tell you what: you tell me what you have on you and we’ll work something out.”

  Damn, he was so nice. I just wasn’t willing to risk a professional relationship with the man to make Hrzog giggle. In fact, I thought; maybe I should tell him about the orc’s plan? Maybe that could be an option here.

  Attention! The parameters of your current quest have changed.

  Please view it again by selecting your journal.

  Oh … hello. I flicked my finger as casually as possible to bring the quest to the forefront.

  Active Quest

  Roark the Cock

  Hrzog and Roark have a lighthearted rivalry, and use unsuspecting patrons to prank each other with small curses. Hrzog wants you to get Roark to remove his pendant and distract him so that you can read the hex and apply it.

  Or, if you wanted, you could let Roark know Hrzog’s impish scheme instead.