The Good Guys Chronicles Box Set
Page 64
I watched the sun dip below the horizon. It was pleasant, peaceful. I just took a few deep breaths and enjoyed the moment.
I decided I should finally look at all the notifications I’d been ignoring. See what the surprises Ragnar had mentioned were there. And see how the boon and blessing I got changed affected things.
There were so many notifications that my vision was completely overwhelmed. Kill notifications were everywhere, stacked deep on top of each other. Despite how I’d felt during the battle, looking at it now, just made me sick. I dismissed all of them with a thought. I caught the bonuses I received, and it made me feel worse. Double kills, triple kills, quad kills, multiple ‘gourangas’ for killing seven in a row, executions, brutalities, gore-splosions, it went on and on and I felt like an absolute monster. Which, in a way, I suppose I was now. I only got a single quest complete notice, the Potent Rescue, and that was for rescuing Donner. For some reason, it wasn’t counting Emeline or Nikolai as rescued yet. I idly wondered what qualifications I’d yet to satisfy, thinking that, perhaps, it had to do with needing to take Emeline away to safety with me. But Nikolai? I wasn’t sure.
There were a few interesting tidbits though.
Through hard work and extra-judicious use of violence, you have unlocked the indicium SLAYER. Congratulations on the slaughter, killing over one thousand enemies in a single battle is no small achievement. As a living embodiment of death, know that you cause Frightful Presence. Your enemies now have a chance to be frightened when they are aware of you. You do an extra 10% damage to any creature below half health. Each death you cause brings you 1% of your health in return.
Hey-ho, let’s go! You’ve discovered an ability: BATTLE FRENZY. Once per day, you are able to enter a frenzied state where damage dealt is doubled and damage received is halved until you are out of combat. Be aware, in this state, you cannot distinguish friend from foe and will attack anything you perceive as a threat or a weakness.
Huzzah! Against all odds, you have reached Level 14! You receive 6 attribute points to distribute in the next 36 hours or you lose them. Dare to believe you can survive, and achieve greatness. Or don’t.
Huzzah! Against all odds, you have reached Level 15! You receive 6 attribute points to distribute in the next 36 hours or you lose them. Dare to believe you can survive, and achieve greatness. Or don’t.
Huzzah! Against all odds, you have reached Level 16! You receive 6 attribute points to distribute in the next 36 hours or you lose them. Prepare for your Choice. Dare to believe you can survive, and achieve greatness. Or don’t.
Huzzah! Against all odds, you have reached Level 17! You receive 6 attribute points to distribute in the next 36 hours or you lose them. Dare to believe you can survive, and achieve greatness. Or don’t.
Huzzah! Against all odds, you have reached Level 18! You receive 6 attribute points to distribute in the next 36 hours or you lose them. Dare to believe you can survive, and achieve greatness. Or don’t.
Huzzah! Against all odds, you have reached Level 19! You receive 6 attribute points to distribute in the next 36 hours or you lose them. Dare to believe you can survive, and achieve greatness. Or don’t.
Huzzah! Against all odds, you have reached Level 20! You receive 6 attribute points to distribute in the next 36 hours or you lose them. Dare to believe you can survive, and achieve greatness. Or don’t.
Huzzah! Against all odds, you have reached Level 21! You receive 6 attribute points to distribute in the next 36 hours or you lose them. Prepare for your Choice. Dare to believe you can survive, and achieve greatness. Or don’t.
Huzzah! Against all odds, you have reached Level 22! You receive 3 attribute points to distribute in the next 36 hours or you lose them. Dare to believe you can survive, and achieve greatness. Or don’t.
Huzzah! Against all odds, you have reached Level 23! You receive 3 attribute points to distribute in the next 36 hours or you lose them. Dare to believe you can survive, and achieve greatness. Or don’t.
Well shit. Kill over a thousand creatures, and you get a shit ton of XP. Sure, as the slaughter raged on, the XP started to dip so that, by the end, I was only hitting low double digits per kill, but still, it all added up. This was nice. Interesting note, the levels past 20, I only got three points. Not six.
I made a mental note to talk to Nikolai about the 51 points. Maybe he’d have a better idea of how I should work them, other than just dropping more in strength to see how far I could take it. Although, if I put everything into strength, that’d pop it up above 100. And that was really intriguing.
I pulled up my character sheet to look over things. It was getting so long it was unwieldy, so I fiddled with it until I only saw the things I actually cared about.
Montana - Lvl 23 Warrior
Traits
Race: Royal Fallen
— Minimized —
Statistics
HP: 432
Active Effects: Frightful Presence
— Minimized —
Attributes
Strength: 71
Agility: 31
Dexterity: 31
Constitution: 54
Wisdom: 24
Intelligence: 31
Charisma: 31
Luck: 33
Unassigned points: 51
Skills
— Minimized —
Abilities
Darkvision
The Sword of My Enemy is My Sword
Iron Will
Make An Entrance
Stand Tall
Regal Bearing
Rallying Cry
Art of Movement - You are able to move freely regardless of terrain, traps, or spells.
Labyrinthine Recall - you have perfect recall of any path you have taken.
Detect Mimic - you are able to detect if any object is a mimic from a distance of 20 feet.
Indomitable - you are immune to fear causing effects.
Swift Tracker - you may run at full speed while tracking.
Veritasium - once per day you may ask any question and receive a fully truthful answer.
Detect Metals and Minerals - when concentrating on a sample, you may detect a minimum of 10 pounds of a metal or mineral within 500 yards of you.
Tremorsense - you are sensitive to vibrations around you, and can automatically pinpoint the location of anything that is in contact with the ground or any structure you are touching. Limited to 200 feet.
Boons
Powerful Build (Mister Paul) - You are bigger than you look. For all strength roles, you are counted as one size category larger than you actually are.
Regeneration (Mister Paul) - Outside of combat, your body will repair rather quickly. Given enough time, it’s possible you will heal from nearly any wound.
Gift of Gab (Mister Paul) - Should you encounter a language you do not understand, as long as you hear at least three words of it, you will understand it, and speak it, perfectly.
Monstrous Companion (Typhon) - You have been gifted a companion from the god Typhon. Your companion is immortal, though if reduced to 0 HP, he will be forced to return in a different form, chosen at the whim of Typhon. You may absorb your companion for a temporary boost to your abilities, but the boost will only last until Typhon sends another companion your way.
Indicium
Coggeshall Heraldic Achievement (incomplete - Family Crest) - You are granted permission to enter family buildings, granted permission to access family funds, and granted permission to use the family name.
Eona’s Blessing of the Spear - Eona blesses you with +10 spear, +7 swimming, +5 fishing, +10% movement in water, +3 Agility
Choice, Warrior - All martial skills advance double. Let us go to WAR!
Indicium of Imperial Prerogative: Magic - You are permitted to perform magic within the Empire of Glaton
Royal - You are identified as being of Royal Blood, and gain the abilities Stand Tall and Regal Bearing
Dungeon of the Ancients Indicium - You gain the follow
ing skills and/or abilities: Art of Movement, Labyrinthine Recall, Detect Mimic 20 ft, Indomitable, Detect Traps +45 levels, Swift Tracker, Veritasium, and Detect Metals and Minerals.
Slayer - As a living embodiment of death, know that you cause Frightful Presence. Your enemies now have a chance to be frightened when they are aware of you.
Typhon’s Mark of the Beast - Typhon blesses you with +10 intimidation, tremorsense, labyrinthine recall, and +5 Strength.
Titles
Imperial Duke of Coggeshall
— Minimized —
Relationships
— Minimized —
Languages
— Minimized —
Spells
— Minimized —
It looked good. Did it look like an Imperial Duke? Maybe. But I figured it looked like someone who was ready to build a holding for a group of people. I was finally starting to think I could actually do this, that I could keep people safe and give them a home.
Someone was coming up behind me — I could sense the vibrations of their feet on the brick. It was super weird, and immediately I knew I needed time to get used to this new ability. It could be massively helpful, but only if I harnessed its powers. I figured it was Nikolai, coming to give me shit about something I’d forgotten to do, or — and this was definitely a stretch — to thank me for saving his life.
“Hey,” I said, starting to turn around.
It was Donner.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“I wanted to take a moment and thank you for rescuing me.”
“Totally welcome,” I said with a smile. I looked over his shoulder and noticed that no one else was there. No one was around at all. Weird. “Where’d the others go?”
“Skeld, I believe, mentioned there was a hotel where you have rooms. Safety.”
“Oh. Yeah, that’s true.”
“He said he would lead the others there, that you would meet us there. I said I would make sure you were safe, as I wanted to thank you before anything else happened. Needed to thank you.”
“That’s very nice of you.”
He nodded, smiled a weird little smile.
“I was locked down there for so long. I feared I would never see the sky again.”
“Yeah,” I said, starting to feel a little uncomfortable about this whole thing, “glad I could help.”
“I was thinking maybe I could show you something.”
“I mean, I’m pretty gross. And tired. I was thinking more a bath and a bed—”
“I know of a bath house. A bathhouse was exactly what I was going to show you. It is a truly luxurious experience — at least it was. A— my uncle runs it. He will be overjoyed to see me, and he will want to thank you. Provided, well,” he paused for a moment and turned away from me, “provided he is still alive.”
“Uh, sure,” I said. The guy was just trying to say thank you, and I figured, maybe if I let him, he’d chill out a bit. Besides, if there was one lesson I’d learned from Cleeve and Nikolai, it was that I needed to allow people to thank me. To provide the gifts they had promised for their quests. “Lead on.”
Chapter 151
Donner’s uncle’s bathhouse didn’t look like a bathhouse from the outside. I mean, I didn’t really know what a bathhouse would look like, but I imagined it’d have some sort of signage. Something indicating a business down the dark alley and behind an unmarked heavy oaken door. Instead, nothing but a growing creep factor. We walked down a dark alley, in between tall industrial buildings, until we got to an otherwise unremarkable door.
Donner pounded on it. Then he looked at me, and gave me that same weird little smile, the one I’d been taking to mean he was enjoying showing me gratitude.
When the door opened up, steam came out in voluminous clouds. A large man stood there, silhouetted by a blueish light coming from behind.
“By gods,” the man said, bringing a lantern out and holding it above Donner’s head. “Donner!”
Donner grinned and nodded.
“I never thought to see you again,” the man said.
“It is all thanks to this man here,” Donner said, pointing to me.
The man nodded deeply to me. I could see him better in the lantern light. He was a large human with a big bald head somehow accentuating his oversized features. Wide eyes, massive nose, ears like an elephant. His arms were huge, and he had little in the way of a neck. Like Donner, he was built. Family resemblance, I supposed.
“I brought him to meet my uncle.”
The man smiled. “He will be pleased.”
So it wasn’t family resemblance, as this dude wasn’t Donner’s uncle.
“Maybe a bath first?” Donner asked.
“But of course,” the man said to Donner.
I noticed no one bothered to ask me anything.
The man gestured for us both to enter.
The foyer of the place was tight and dark. Heavy curtains hung along all three walls.
As he passed me, Donner said, “Go with my friend. He will take care of you. I must speak to my uncle.”
Seeming like he knew where he was going, Donner slipped behind curtains and disappeared.
The man smiled at me.
“I am Mason Crogan,” the man said with a slight bow. “I am one of the chief firemen here at the bathhouse. If you will.”
He started walking towards the far set of curtains, and I followed. As we passed through the heavy drapes, we went into in a small wooden hallway. Floors, ceiling, walls, all wood. We passed a number of doors until we got to the one he was apparently looking for. He pushed it open to reveal a small room with another door.
“Please undress to your level of comfort here,” he said, “and when you are ready, please proceed through the door there. Inside, rinse yourself with the water in the corner, then, when you are in the hot water, your attendants will enter.”
“Okay,” I said, smiling. I felt a little weird about the whole thing, but did my best to allow myself to be pampered.
“Should you wish us to launder any of your things?”
I looked down at what I was wearing. Eona’s seal pants, a grubby undershirt, some rank underwear, and some broken chainmail.
“I think I’m fine,” I said.
He raised an eyebrow, but nodded, then backed out of the room.
Alone, I stripped down, putting everything of mine inside the bag of holding. Then I stood there. Holding the bag of holding. The knapsack. The Unfillable Knapsack. I didn’t have a place to put it, and I especially wasn’t comfortable leaving it just sitting on the bench. It had the treasures of a kingdom inside. Above, there was a big beam across the ceiling. With a little jumping and parkour, I grabbed the beam, and pulled myself up. The top had a thick layer of dust, and I set the bag down as careful as I could, making sure there was no way to see it from down below.
Then I dropped down, wiped my hands on my naked body, then pushed through the other door.
Despite torches around the edges of the room, it was darker than I expected. Coupled with a massive amount of steam, enough that I couldn’t really tell where the steam came from, the bathing room was equal parts comfy and creepy. The place smelled fantastic, a mix of hot cedar and essential oils. Water burbled, and in the center of the room, flush with the floor, there was a pool. I pushed into dark vision, and looked around. Nothing out of the ordinary. Three steps at one end of the bath, and a small bench at the other. It looked deep, enough for me to be fully submerged standing on the bottom and have just my neck and head above water if I chose to sit on the bench. I looked behind me and found the rinsing station: a bucket with a ladle sitting in front of a stool tucked in the corner.
I sat on the stool, then poured water over my face and head a few times. It was cold, and it definitely woke me up. There was a brush inside the bucket, and I used it to scrub my arms, my neck, my shoulders, trying to get all the places where blood had been. I didn’t think I was scrubbing my skin off, but I was definitely doing more e
xfoliation than I had in a while.
Finally feeling truly clean, I walked to the center of the room, down the stairs, and into the water. It was hot. Not painfully hot, but hot enough that I couldn’t help but sighing. It felt amazing. It felt better than almost anything I’d experienced the entire time I’d been Vuldranni. I made an oath that my settlement would have a bathhouse like this one, that I could forgo most of the luxuries a noble might want or need, but this, this was something I would fight to keep.
A moment later, a door opened, some light bloomed in, and two figures walked into the bath room. In the dim light, I could barely see them. Switching into dark vision, I could see that they were young women wearing thin robes carrying baskets. One of them grabbed some flower petals from her basket and tossed them into the hot water. A delightful scent filled the air.
I felt all the stress and pain of the past few days leaving my body, and it it was glorious. I leaned back, let my head fall against the wood planks behind me. I closed my eyes, and I let everything just sort of drift away.
Which might be why I didn’t notice the dagger before it plunged into my chest.
Chapter 152
Pain erupted from my chest.
My eyes popped open.
All I saw was black.
I pushed into dark vision immediately.
Blackness.
Nothing.