by Kris Schnee
In return, Miles and Eva got an iron breastplate each that the GMs promised qualified as [Armor 1], reducing the value of most enemy attacks. Because armor's effect was arbitrary, the GMs had decreed that a full suit was only [Armor 2] and would come with a [Heavy Armor] aspect that could be used against the wearer. The best available metal weapons were only [Weapon 1], boosting attacks where the kobolds' crude spears didn't.
Hearing this, Miles told Samatra, "I hadn't seen the weapon and armor ratings come into play yet except with a stunt. The other settlement didn't have access to metal, so that might be why."
The astrogator looked uncomfortable. "Is there another one of me there?"
"There is."
"But why? Why would they make a duplicate?"
"This world is their experiment. They want to see how we react to strange things." Miles didn't want to point out the possibility that both copies were equally real.
The man grimaced. "I want the chance to punch one of these aliens when we meet them."
"Understandable, but let's wait until we've got our starship back." Miles thought about the people he'd seen here so far. "I should talk with Rodriguez; he played this game with me and Eva. Where is he?"
"Dead, sir."
Miles went quiet. Part of Eva's uploading theory was that the "dead" crew probably weren't, and were just being held in isolation from the rest. But the aliens were watching what their test subjects said or didn't say, as well as what they did. Miles sighed. "What do you make of the possible explanations for these duplicates?"
Samatra looked more troubled than before. "We're already dead, all of us. Fed into a machine that shredded our brains."
"We don't know that. Even if that's the right answer, it's possible that the aliens did it in a way we wouldn't consider fatal."
The man punched a fist into his palm. "All the more reason to get answers. We get them, and we make contact with the rest of humanity, and then the full might of the kingdom can handle whatever needs to be done next."
* * *
He led a group westward across a chilly grassland toward the magic hill. For this job he took Eva along as part of a group of ten, though he worried that Thorn would try to take over again in his absence. His protection against that came from leaving Samatra to keep watch, and from the things he'd done to make the barren camp into a decent home.
The hill was only half a day's journey away, as found by people who had the Survival skill. Just as it came into view, howling came from their right.
"Wolves?" said Miles.
Johnson, who'd apparently come as Thorn's spy, said, "The kind of 'wolves' that attack mindlessly, yes."
The creatures were a frosty blue and had bony ridges along their backs. Six of them, moving in line abreast. Zone markings faded into view along the ground. The marks showed the pack as two zones away, hesitating for the battle system.
"Ranged attack!" said Miles. Half of the team had bows or slings, and opened fire. Miles' own sling whirled by magic. One of the wolves went down right away and a second staggered, bludgeoned by a rock. Miles had anticipated the enemy moving one zone per round, but the wolves raced along to melee range and used a stunt to attack despite the double move.
One of them body-slammed him, doing an attack of 4 to his Melee defense of 1. His armor reduced that from 3 to 2 damage but he still got slammed backward, staggering. The other fighters only managed to defend themselves except for one woman who scored a counterattack on the injured wolf. That left three.
Miles said, "Melee!" The ranged fighters switched to knives; there hadn't been enough metal to give everybody swords. He'd not even bothered taking a knife. All he had for close range was to create advantages for others to use, so he dropped another tarp on two of the wolves. His spell resolved first, giving the rest of the party enough of an edge to take the wolves out. But one of the men was down with a moderate wound from an exceptionally bad roll. Another had taken a minor wound.
One of the group had a Heal skill of 3, and Eva assisted, so treating the wounded was simple. "That was my first battle," said one of the archers, looking pleased with himself.
Johnson the guard said, "And not the least bit realistic."
Miles shrugged. "We need to train for the conditions we're faced with. That was a good start, everyone, but it looks like we're not just fighting the ice golems anymore."
They made it to the hill and alternated keeping watch with investigating the twisted triangular pillars of carved stone that stood out from it like a crown. Just as he'd heard about the canyon to the south, this site had inscriptions that described how to use the "normal" magic system to make tools more effective for a scene. "How does that actually work?" Miles asked.
Eva was talking it over with the other newly initiated people. "Looks like you can take a 'create advantage' action on a weapon or something, to put one or two free +2 uses on it. Hardly anyone had taken the Magic skill here until now, so we've got some new wizards. Including me; I'm using this minor milestone to swap out my 1 Stealth for 1 Magic." Other people were doing the same thing to get Magic onto their skill list, now that it was useful to them.
Miles got a minor milestone too, but didn't feel like fiddling with his stats. When the others were done, he paused to study the markings too, asking, "GMs, do I get any benefit from this?"
[No, as you have already conquered the Wind Shrine.]
Fair enough. He was making the crew more capable, anyway. Once they'd finished, they set out again. Along they way they harvested bones, meat and hide from the wolf-things. By sunset they made it back within sight of Fort Necessity, which was on fire.
Everyone stared. Miles said, "I leave for one day... Come on, everyone! They need help."
Eva said, "Is it the dragon?" There was no sign of mighty wings in the air.
The group jogged ahead. "You tell me, Eva. The Hexapods based all this on your games. Does the name Iskandar come from them?"
"No, but it sounds like a good dragon name. I'd guess it's a white dragon, with ice breath rather than fire. Evil alignment, straightforward destructive tactics. Or at least that's the stereotype."
Miles said, "If we're not heading right into a dragon battle, I'm going ahead." He stopped and summoned himself a simple rug, then tried to figure out the Magic Carpet spell.
"Take me along."
"I need you with this group in case of yet more trouble. Keep marching."
Miles cast his spell, taking 3 mental stress, and the carpet lurched up off of the ground. He yelped and lay flat atop it as it rose to above everyone's heads. He tried to think of it as like a zero-g rocket sled, but under gravity a magic carpet was a frightening way to fly! His knuckles were white on the rug's front edge as he began to learn its steering. Faster then he would've liked, his mount raced along the plains toward the fort.
On closer inspection, the fire licked at the east and north sides of the stockade. It wasn't everywhere yet, but the fort's nearby river was unimpressive and there were no pumps. The people were probably whacking at flames using sheets and curtains.
Miles veered toward the worst of the flame and conjured a heavy tarp to smother it. The defense roll went badly, threatening him with 4 stress. He burned a point to save himself from injury, then commenced literal carpet-bombing against the flames.
Between his efforts and the people who'd beaten at the flames, it was over before the group with Eva arrived. The east wall and part of the north had collapsed, taking the mess hall with it. "How did this happen?" asked Miles, sitting up on his carpet as it hovered a meter off the ground.
Thorn said, "While you were gone, the enemy attacked by stealth." He pointed to several scattered kobold corpses with the same white scales as the dragon's minions.
"Then we need to keep better watch."
"What we need is to refuse to play along. Do you realize that the enemy has effectively infinite resources and surveillance? Whichever of your mad theories is true, there could be an endless supply of these marau
ders ready to pounce the moment we split up."
Miles answered loudly enough for all to hear. "You know what? You're right about that. The aliens are trying to observe us, to poke us and see what happens. The last thing we want to do is bore them, because we then lose the initiative and invite them to decide what happens next. The Maker wouldn't want us to sit here waiting for someone else to shape the future." He sighed. "Is anyone hurt? Let's make sure all wounds are being treated, and then we'll start repairs and prepare for a Wind Temple trip."
* * *
The GMs sent an ice golem after one of the scouts, but she made it back safely. The miners got harassed by a kobold raiding party and had to kill two to get another supply of iron. Not even the lumberjacks were completely safe; they saw a beast lurking in the woods like the one Miles had once hid from. Miles didn't discuss it with anyone but Eva, but with the level of threat rising, the aliens probably meant to give him extra incentive to move on.
Despite the hardship, everyone was okay for now, and better prepared, and more comfortable within the fort's walls. After another monotonous meal he asked Eva, "Are you sure you don't want to ask for ice cream powers? I could really go for some better food."
"Actually, that's another reason to head south, to pick up the other crops you mentioned."
"We'll do that too," he said.
* * *
The question was who to bring, and how many. He thought of the puzzle about carrying a fox, a chicken and some grain across a river without leaving eater and food unsupervised. Samatra was one of the ones who wanted to meet their duplicate in the south colony. Thorn and his closest loyalists abstained, on the grounds that Miles was lying about the whole thing for some reason. Miles wasn't eager to force anyone to come along. But with nearly 200 people here, it seemed impractical to split the party and probably return to find the fort under attack again.
After pacing and fretting, Miles said, "We need more allies. Eva, keep everything from exploding while I visit the friendly kobold village south of here."
He took the day to make a call on the nearest lizard village, the last one he'd reached before getting captured. Finding it again was going to be tricky. He equipped his magic carpet with handholds and a storage pouch, then set out by air. He alternated between soaring low along the ground at high speed, and pausing to rise like an elevator for a better view. The carpet wasn't able to keep up a combination of high speed and high altitude, and he was just fine with that.
He'd been captured after heading north from the Wind Shrine, so he headed south along the river that fed Fort Necessity, toward the long east-west hills.
[Survival check: Skill 2, dice -1.]
"I'm Ambassador to the Hexapods," he said. "This is directly related to establishing diplomacy." With the kobolds, really, not the aliens, but that ought to count.
[Marginally acceptable. Fate point spent. Accept a total of 3? Difficulty is 3.]
Miles scowled. A tie meant that there'd be some minor catch. "Fine."
An arrow appeared, pointing roughly southeast along a bend in the river. He was on the right track, then, but kept alert. The next time he stopped to rise and scout, he heard buzzing. Another of the giant dragonflies was heading for him.
Miles dropped as quickly as he could stomach it. He hopped off of his carpet and levitated it in front of him like a baseball bat, saying, "Come on, bug!"
A howl sounded in the distance. Miles said, "I got a tie. That's supposed to be a minor drawback, not a near-death experience!"
The insect zoomed in from 2 zones away. Miles kept his distance and magically swatted at it, but did only a single point of damage. There was another howl, and a wolf-like monster appeared 3 zones away. The second round began. Last time he'd fought the wolves they dashed 2 zones and attacked in a single turn, so he was safe for one more round.
He risked another attack on the bug, this time smacking it to the ground, dead. His Magic skill of 4 made him pretty formidable. But now the wolf was snarling at him, pausing just on the far side of a zone boundary.
Miles vaguely recalled that by standard Fate rules there was an initiative system for deciding whether the wolf would get to jump him before or after his turn. The GMs had been handwaving the turn order. Their timer was ticking down, and the wolf was staring at his legs in anticipation.
Miles kicked the broken bug toward the wolf, saying, "Chew on this first!" His body paused in the moment of kicking, off balance yet not falling.
[Using Survival as a substitute for Athletics. Skill 2, dice 0. Created advantage "Bait".]
The wolf sprang forward, but the bug struck it in the muzzle. Gravity reasserted itself and Miles landed on his feet. The wolf seized the insect and tore into it.
Round 3. Miles grabbed his carpet and climbed onto it, gesturing to make it rise. "The Bait is still there. I want to spend another fate point to use it again, to say the wolf is still focusing on it this turn." That left him with one more point.
The move worked. Miles was now around five meters up, where a translucent grid indicated he was in an aerial zone above the wolf. Since he was safe, probably, he decided to bomb. He cast a spell to start dropping heavy canvas rolls from as high up as he could.
His die roll was good for Magic and terrible for Mind. His clothes constricted, transforming into a mass of belts and zippers that covered him but did little to warm him. [5 stress. Minor consequence: Belted.] The GMs had correctly guessed he didn't want to spend his last fate point to reduce the damage.
But the canvas attack whacked the wolf, making it howl. It leaped up at him, getting alarmingly close with its high jump, but its jaws were still out of reach. Miles attacked again and this time killed the beast.
He sat on his flying carpet, catching his breath in his suddenly tight leather outfit. "Ugh. I'm treating this right away. Using the Magic skill, right?" The dice rolled, and he got a [Treatment in progress] notice, but there was no immediate physical effect.
Since he wasn't under attack anymore, he got down and grabbed the dead monsters to carry with him for trade. The carpet supported their weight easily. He flew off again in the direction he'd scouted.
Soon he found the kobolds' town. They stared up as he arrived. He landed, saying, "I want to give you these creatures and trade with you."
The kobolds had started growing the berries he'd traded to them a while ago, and sold some back to him. That was one crop he could add right away to Fort Necessity. He was more interested in another offer, though. "I want to hire warriors to defend my people, against the tribe that serves the dragon."
"The Whitescales? Hss!" The locals stamped the ground. "Hate them!"
"Will you help us fight them, then? I can give you as much cloth as you want. Tents, warm clothes, blankets."
"To live with humans? How long?" The chieftain wrinkled his snout as though offended by Miles' smell.
"Let's say a few weeks. And then we're going to fight the dragon."
"Hss!" The whole tribe drew back in fear.
The GMs announced, [Charm skill 0, roll -2, +1 bonus for your words. Difficulty rating is hidden, but you are currently failing.]
Miles cursed. He'd come to diplomacize at them without actually having the right skill. He could maybe accept a victory with a serious drawback, but it would be better to retreat. "Sorry to trouble you," he said. "I'll return later."
* * *
He flew back to within sight of Fort Necessity, which was not on fire. After managing to get rid of his belts and zippers and dressing in an improvised wool toga, he approached and landed. He dropped off the berries to get somebody to start growing more, then reported his failure to Eva.
Eva said, "Then we need someone with the Charm skill at a good level. And your best option is... Thorn."
"That's what I was afraid of. What a charming fellow. Has he got it at level 3, then?"
"I think so, with Melee somewhere on there. I guess he figured he'd be using it to command his fellow humans, then kept it for use on
lizardfolk when that didn't work."
Miles said, "It did work; he used it for social attacks against me. The question is what Thorn is going to want in return for his cooperation, if we can't find someone more helpful."
* * *
"I'm your best bet," said Thorn, conferring with Miles and Eva over lunch. "I do indeed have Charm at 3, according to this ridiculous rule system, and I'm willing to spend my daily fate point to boost that."
"And your price?" said Miles.
The captain looked at him with pity. "You've taken command in the king's name, Hochen. I don't recognize your actions as legitimate, and the crown will be hearing my full report after we've resolved the situation." He gave a broad shrug. "Until then, the crew has decided to side with you, and at this point my resistance will only endanger us more than you're already doing. Therefore you have my obedience in this matter."
"Well, that was --"
"In return for which, I expect you to put the mission first, as I do. You will not use my crew as your cannon fodder, there to charge in and die to the dragon's flames --"
Eva put in, "Frost."
"Frost, while you use their sacrifice to get a +2 to some die roll. Is that clear?"
Miles faced him down. "First of all, their deaths are likely only temporary and illusory, given the simulation we're in."
Thorn said, "We have no idea. We're dealing with alien psychology. For all we know, our friends are not waiting alive and well in a video arcade."
"That's true. But as I was saying, even assuming death is real in this world, I'm not planning to use the crew that way. They'll be playing a support role, yes, but the plan is to cast boosting spells, build traps, and otherwise clear the way for me and Eva, who have the most power to end this."
"Which leaves the dragon fight for you. I'm happy enough to let you be the ones to fight it, but what's in it for you to lead the charge?"
"Someone has to," Miles said. "And we're the most qualified. If you want to come along and help directly, you're welcome to."
