Keeper

by Tom Larcombe

  Ferring had it a little easier. Apparently it was easier to adjust to something a couple feet shorter than you were than to something a couple feet taller and much stronger. Private Ferring had complained several times, at least until he managed to access the spell listings of the Ancient Shaman he was controlling. Once he'd seen that he'd redoubled his efforts and it wasn't long before balls of fire and bolts of lightning were flying around the clearing causing the rest of the squad, those who had yet to try possessing a monster, to run for cover.

  Harmon called a stop to training for the day.

  “Alright you two, back to your normal avatars. Tomorrow, we'll pull some creatures in for the rest of the squad to try out, but you two are going to take the day off.”

  He looked around the clearing. Scorch marks, drifting smoke, charred wood, and fallen trees littered the area.

  “But first, clean up your mess,” he said.

  ~ ~ ~

  Eddie was all ready to work the next morning. He and Tiana had agreed that they'd go work on the smithy in the morning, then after lunch they'd go down and work on her temple plot. When they got to the smithy site they found Brandr swinging his ax at a tree and Jern already at work, putting in stones to fill out the design.

  “I have to remember to ask Ingolf if he can help out here,” Eddie said. “It's not that I begrudge paying Brandr and Osmond the extra coin, but Ingolf is significantly faster, and much better at splitting the logs into rough hewn planks.”

  “We can do that right after lunch if you like, as long as we get a fair bit of work in on my plot after,” Tiana said.

  “Thank you, maybe we will. Although if Paul comes by the inn for lunch like he has been while working on the houses across the street from it, I might just ask him then.”

  “That works too, now we need to get to work here or we won't get much done today.”

  Several hours later Eddie stopped cold. He'd heard a sound that he didn't immediately recognize.

  “Hey, hold up everyone,” he called out.

  He had to repeat himself once so that Brandr heard him, but then he listened to the otherwise quiet surroundings.

  “I think there's someone up on the spur,” he said. “At least I think I hear voices and metal on metal up that way.”

  Jern immediately stood.

  “I think that's it for me today then. Don't want to be around here if any of my kinsmen show up. I'll head out to the road and back to the farm that way. You be at the inn tonight Eddie?”

  “I'll see you there Jern, drinks are on me again since you've been doing a lot of work on the smithy for me.”

  “Aye, and I thank you for that too, that ale of yours ain't a mushroom brew, but it's got a bit of kick to it still.”

  With those words, Jern trotted off into the trees between the smithy site and the road, disappearing in less than a minute. Meanwhile the sounds Eddie had been hearing grew louder. He climbed a bit up the spur, pausing to let the lightheadedness pass when he changed zones.

  He headed for the cave that he and Tiana had found before, discovering that she was right behind him when a ball of light sprang up in the cave proper. Remembering that he now had his own magic as well, he popped up a help screen.

  Help fox fire, he thought.

  Fox Fire:

  Some decaying woods emit a faint light called fox fire. This spell will duplicate that, but at a much brighter level. This spell may be targeted at an opponent to give anyone attacking them an increase in their attack ratings or it may be used as a light source.

  Target: May be targeted at a living creature. The spell is wasted if they resist. May be cast on a piece of decaying wood, providing light equivalent to a torch.

  Range: If targeted on a living creature this spell has a ten yard range, requires line of sight.

  Type: Nature, requires material components.

  Components:sliver of dead wood, component is consumed by the spell.

  Duration: X=Nature Magic Skill level. If targeted, spell lasts for (10*X) seconds. If used as a light source duration is (10*X) minutes.

  Cost: Varies (1-10 mana), based on skill level in Nature magic.

  Eddie grabbed a sliver of wood from his inventory and held it in front of him. He'd tried some of his spells, and gathered components for all of them. It was easy to use his magic, especially the spells without a verbal component. In his mind he visualized the sliver of wood giving off light and thought:

  Cast Fox Fire.

  The wood immediately started glowing with a greenish-blue light. The light it put off was the equivalent of a torch, slightly less than Tiana's spell, but hers had to stay within a certain distance of her target, while he could leave his behind.

  He tossed the glowing wood into the cavern, nearly to the edge of crevice they'd discovered before. The voices were louder now, sounding as though they were getting closer.

  “Someone down there?” Eddie called out.

  “Yeah, that you with the light?”

  “Yup, we provided some light. Need a hand?”

  “Nah, we're just putting in a rope ladder instead of a single rope line for people to get up this cliff face, be up in a few minutes.”

  Eddie moved deeper into the cave and glanced over the edge. They had their own torches down there and didn't seem to need any help, so he went back to the mouth of the cave.

  “I guess they're making it a regular highway,” he said. “They're putting in a ladder instead of a rope to get up that cliff.”

  “Well, there is supposed to be a safe route between Hammer Hold and the Meadowlands now. I'm guessing a ladder will make it safer still,” Tiana said.

  “Yeah, but if I get trade going like I want, we'll need to carve some stairs into that cliff, or something. I don't relish the idea of them trying to get iron to me up a rope ladder. That would slow things down an awful lot.”

  “Inventory, Eddie. They just drop it in and zip up the ladder.”

  “Oh yeah, I forgot the NPCs have one too, even if it is smaller than ours.”

  A noise inside the cave caught their attention and they turned to see a party of eight dwarfs pull themselves over the lip of the cliff one at a time. The dwarfs immediately headed for the entrance and when they made it outside, Eddie had no trouble distinguishing the players from the NPCs. Two of the eight dwarfs were staring at all the trees surrounding the spur, their mouths slightly agape in wonder. The other six were simply chattering among themselves, talking about the bonuses the hammer dwarf race provided.

  “Hey, I'm Eddie.”

  He noticed the unfocused look on several of the player's faces.

  “Thanks man, this is an awesome race,” one of them said when his eyes refocused.

  Wow, talk about rude. I think four of them just evaluated me right off, Eddie thought. But whatever, I don't care, really. Except for the fact that now they know I'm the one that completed the quest to make the race available. I should've kept my mouth shut.

  “No problem, I had no idea that was going to happen when I finished that quest.”

  “This game does that to you sometimes, hides rewards that you'd really rather know about first,” one of the dwarfs said. “I'm Delgar. Now, there's a hamlet around here somewhere? That's why the race opened up right, because you founded a hamlet?”

  “Yeah, pretty much. If you head straight that way, you'll find a road. Turn right when you get to it and it'll take you there. I've got an inn and a bunkhouse down there if you need a place to stay and have a few coins to spend for lodging.”

  Another one of the player dwarfs burst into laughter.

  “He sounds like you Delgar. Always thinking about the coins.”

  “Yeah, and how many times have I had to spot you coins for this or that, Pellin? You'd do better to worry a little bit about them yourselves.”

  He turned back to Eddie.

  “One more bit, we got a couple of levels back in the training grounds and newbie area in Hammer Hold. Anywhere around here appropriate for
level threes and fours?”

  “If you're in a group, you can probably manage normal patrols in the Forest of Fools to the south. I wouldn't go into the mountains though, it's an orc area for levels fifteen to something. There's also a bunch of wildlife in the Meadowlands themselves. No coins on those, but if you bring the drops and corpses to the inn, I'll buy them from you. Still don't have my own source for meat, so that would be useful.”

  A third dwarf player snickered.

  “Bunnies?” he asked.

  “Bunnies, nubbies, deer, raccoons, all kinds of stuff at levels one to five.”

  “Nubbies?” the dwarf asked.

  “Yeah, think of really big bunnies with blunt horns on their head. Hurts like hell if they ram you with them, at least if you aren't wearing armor.”

  The dwarf laughed again.

  “Well at least it doesn't have to be bunnies, but if we do kill some, how much will you pay?”

  “One copper per bunny corpse or bunny meat drop, one silver per deer corpse or venison drop, there's some other things out there that are good eating too, but we'll negotiate that if you find some of them.”

  “Ain't a lot, but every little bit helps,” Delgar said. “What's that?”

  He was looking at the smithy. The main shell was almost finished, with only the roof to go.

  “Putting in a smithy here. I'm hoping to trade with Hammer Hold for metals to work.”

  At that, one of the NPCs lost his awed look and turned towards Eddie.

  “Offering what in return?” the dwarf asked.

  “How about charcoal? I was told that you don't get to smith as much as you'd like to due to a lack of coal. I think I can get a charcoal producing operation running, use some in my smithy here and trade the rest to you if you want it.”

  The dwarfs face took on a suspicious look.

  “And just who be tellin' you such things?”

  Eddie thought fast, actually it had been Jern, but he wasn't going to reveal that Jern was in the area.

  “A dwarf named Opron, he was the first of you I saw using the new route to the Meadowlands after it opened.”

  “Oh, that crazy made it through? All he could talk about was forging, but we wouldn't give him the coal for it. So he set out for the Meadowlands. We all thought he'd died, until we heard that there was a route open that led right here.”

  “Yeah, he's the one I'm building the smithy for. I need a smith and he needs a smithy, so we made a deal.”

  “I'll bring your offer to the elders, I imagine they'll be interested but want to negotiate for themselves.”

  “That's fine, if I'm not here you can let whoever is at the smithy know and they should be able to find me.”

  “If that's all?” the dwarf NPC said.

  He cleared his throat, turned towards the dwarf players, and held out a hand. Delgar sighed and stepped forward, drawing a silver from his pouch.

  “Come on guys, we all agreed,” he said.

  The rest of the dwarf players stepped forward, each handing a silver to the NPC. Once he had one from each of them he handed half the silvers to the other NPC and they both disappeared back into the cave.

  “I guess I can finish the roof tomorrow maybe,” Eddie said. “Should we show them the way into town?”

  Tiana nodded. Eddie noticed some eyes going unfocused once again.

  “Awesome, a decent level priestess for the area,” Delgar said. “Do you offer spells for sale?”

  “Normally I'll just heal or buff people if I see that they need it, but I am building a temple, so I wouldn't be adverse to donations for it,” she replied.

  Delgar chuckled aloud.

  “I love this game,” he said. “If you want to do something, you can. Even if it's way out there, the game somehow manages to make it possible if you're willing to work for it. Let's go.”

  “Lucky, let's go back to the inn,” Eddie called, but the cat didn't show up.

  Eddie realized that he hadn't seen her since they'd left the inn. Lucky had been right with him then, but darted out into the woods after something.

  Maybe she just caught something big and ate too much so she took a nap, he thought.

  He was worried about her deep down though, she hadn't been acting normal lately.

  ~ ~ ~

  When they got back to the inn Eddie was relieved. He saw Lucky out in the field near Paul and Becky. He called her over and the dwarfs got slightly nervous until they saw her jump into Eddie's arms. Lucky furiously licked Eddie's face, seeming very happy to see him.

  “That's okay, I was just worried about you. You can go back and play with Becky if you want.”

  Lucky whined and squirmed out of his arms, moving around behind him and giving a fearful glance out towards the field. Eddie's eyes narrowed.

  I wonder, he thought. Evaluate.

  Becky Rogar

  Human Female

  Level: 2

  Class: Druid

  Health: 24

  Mana: 41

  Stamina: 54

  You are currently unable to obtain more information about Becky with Evaluate.

  He held back the growl that he felt like making.

  “Watch me for a minute?” he asked Tiana.

  “Sure, why?”

  But he was already pulling up his in-game browser and navigating to the help on classes in Light Online. Sure enough, when he found the druid class, one of their first tier spells that they had available from the start was Charm Animal.

  “Damn it, I don't believe she'd do that, but...”

  “Do what?” Tiana asked.

  He quickly explained the situation to her, how Lucky had been missing a lot recently, how she'd just whimpered when he asked if she wanted to play with Becky again, and how Becky was actually a level two druid, who might have access to the charm animal spell.

  “So I think she's been charming Lucky to stay with her. I wouldn't be surprised if that's how she made level two also, using Lucky to fight with her. I don't suppose you have any long term buffs that help resist mind control, do you?” Eddie asked.

  “No, but I might have something else that will help.”

  She rummaged through her inventory for a moment, pulling out a necklace similar to the one that Lucky already wore.

  “What's that do?”

  “This is a fetish. I got it from a goblin shaman before I met you. This one in particular helps resist mind-affecting spells. It gives a bonus to resisting them, then a second chance to resist them if you fail your first chance. Plus, and this will tell us if your suspicions are true, if someone casts a mind-affecting spell on the wearer, and the wearer successfully resists it, the caster is inflicted with a massive headache that will prevent all spell casting for twelve hours.”

  “Did you hear that Lucky? Would you like another collar? One that will protect you from people making you do things you don't want to do?” Eddie asked.

  Lucky sprang out from behind Eddie's legs and twined about Tiana's. She stretched her neck up and Tiana smiled as she bent over and placed the fetish around Lucky's neck.

  Evaluate, Eddie thought.

  Lucky

  Type: Animal(pet)

  Young Bobcat (female)

  Level: 4

  Armor: 38

  Health 43/43

  Attack: 27 (3)

  Dmg: 2-8/2-8/3-9

  +5 attack (necklace slot 1)

  Status: Pet

  Fetish: resist mind control (necklace slot 2)

  There, he thought. If what I suspect is true, that should help. Hopefully the very next time she tries anything, but if I'm right Lucky will resist sooner or later and then we'll know for sure if we find Becky within twelve hours. And she comes by the inn every night with Paul, so we'll know.

  Eddie headed for the inn. The dwarfs had already gone in after discovering that Lucky wasn't a threat, so he wasn't surprised to see them surrounding a table when he went in himself.

  “Lunch will be ready in about half an hour,” Ed
die said. “Would you folks like a small beer on the house while you wait? It's horrible stuff, really, but it's free.”

  “What do you mean, horrible stuff,” Delgar replied. “It's automatically good beer if it's free. I'd be happy to accept, I'm sure the rest of the lads here will too.”

  A round of nods greeted his words and Eddie went over to the bar. He returned with the six mugs of small beer and set them on the table. The dwarfs each claimed a mug and Eddie headed for the kitchen. He'd overheard them making plans as to what they wanted to do and they seemed eager to see how well the new race would work.

  He helped Liv finish lunch prep, then went out to help serve since there were more people than normal there. The six dwarfs were still there, as were Paul, Becky, and Paul's helpers. There were a few other people sitting at the tables as well, adventurers whose names he didn't know. Between him and the server they got them all taken care of in just a few minutes.

  “Hey Paul. I was wondering if I could borrow Ingolf for a day or two. I've got some more trees to clear,” Eddie said, approaching Paul's table.

  Paul grinned and rubbed his hands together.

  “Well then, what are you planning on doing with the trees themselves?”

  “Make charcoal to trade with Hammer Hold and use some for planks to finish the smithy. I've got Brandr and Osmond working on it, but they just aren't as fast or as good.”

  “Tell you what then, I'll loan him to you if we get to keep fifty percent of the lumber he drops.”

  “Highway robbery! I suppose you want me to pay him on top of that?”