War Aeternus: The Beginning
Page 43
Fine leather boots offer 6 damage reduction over the surface they cover, reduce energy spent on travel by 15%, and increase the effectiveness of sneak by one rank when worn. Chapter 4.
Leather gloves offer 5 damage reduction over the surface they cover and increase grip strength on weapons. Chapter 4.
Leather pants offer 5 damage reduction over the surface they cover, reduce energy spent on travel by 15%, and increase the effectiveness of sneak by one rank when worn. Chapter 4.
Cloth Armor offers 3 damage reduction over the surface it covers and also reduces damage from heat or cold based attacks by 5%. Chapter 4.
Bronze sword Deals 8 damage. Chapter 4.
Oak bow Chapter 5.
Bronze Dagger Chapter 5.
One box of unwritten letters Chapter 6.
One silver dagger Chapter 6.
One tower shield Chapter 6.
Ling loots a longsword Chapter 6.
Sturdy Leather Boots Chapter 7.
Armor Pants Chapter 7.
Armor Chest Chapter 7.
Armor Wrist Guards Chapter 7.
Short Sword Chapter 7.
Tower Shields Chapter 7.
Sturdy Leather Armor Helmets. Chapter 7.
World Stone Shards: These, when connected to form the original world stone, will allow the user to bypass the murder-spree of other heralds and claim victory for his god.
Three blank pages from the Book of Endless Dreams Chapter 12
Skills
Golem Sculpting: Allows the user to create a living creature out of an inanimate material, like clay. The higher the level, the larger and fiercer the creature will become. The golem will be telepathically linked with the user, and this does include sight, so we recommend new players read the ethics handguide before using this skill.
Appreciative Drunk reduces the inebriation stat penalties by 1% flat, such that with level 1 appreciative drunk the player will only suffer 49% Intelligence, 29% coordination, and 29% reflex penalties. It also will add other stats depending on the user’s accomplishments or properties. These Combat skills are changed while Drunk as well:
Unarmed Combat changes to Drunk Fu.
Swordplay changes to Tipsy Blade.
Sneak changes to No Squeaky Floorboards Please.
Swordplay: Improves reasoning and execution with sword-related skills.
Sneak: Improves one’s ability to stay hidden, move silently, and act undetected.
Unarmed Combat: Improves one’s ability to fight without a weapon.
Cooking: This skill improves one’s ability to manage time and ingredients in the kitchen.
Trap Detection: This skill helps one notice the hard to see traps and devices that could very well spell about one’s end. It also improves the ability to recognize a person’s biological gender for some reason, programmers have yet to discover why.
Faith Healing: This skill allows one to use one’s own spirit to heal and patch up the wounds of himself, or others.
Locations
Satterfield: Within the southern kingdom of Spicy Noodle Chicken Surprise. Spicy Noodle Chicken Surprise is a kingdom founded and still being currently ruled by King Red Ramen of the guild Heroes of Eternity.
CowTip: While this town sounds ridiculous, it’s because the war of eternity game creators were incredibly hungry and thinking about beef tips when they wrote this part of the questline. Please, try not to let hunger influence your own naming choices.
Random:
Members of the Church of Augustus: Those that are still alive have all learned how to ask the right question to the great Book of Augustus, and thus have achieved near immortality. Unfortunately, they haven’t learned to play games, thus their own god doesn’t hang out with them as much.
List of gods and their titles:
Mary God of Blood
Troll God
Sord God of Rising Numbers
Angelica God of Regrets
Cadwe God of Poetry
Cadwe God of Ambiguity and Awkwardness
Nevir God of Fashion
Erik God of Spices and Smells
Chmilenko God of Uncomfortable Silences
Lenfers God of Architecture
Siegman
Quests
Cattywampus Catch
Cattywampus Catch part 2
Monsters, Mobs, and Enemies:
Ravenous Wolves: Because regular wolves are far too cute and cuddly to attack anyone.
Bandits: If there weren’t bandits, it wouldn’t be a game in a fantasy setting. Honestly, how are there always so many?
Bandit Leader: Because if a bandit is going to break every rule in town, he needs to find order somewhere in life. Having a good leader can give the bandit that much needed structure and discipline.
Corrupted Sloth: The name kind of explains what it is… but sure. Type it into a search engine and guess for yourself. The programmers, and the lore book writers, were both too lazy to put a real answer here.
Dire Wolves: Larger than the original wolf, more ferocious than the ravenous wolf, these are creatures to be admired, but not domesticated. Attempting friendly relations with the Dire Wolf has led many a fan to his death.
Drill Mites: This is what happens when mosquitoes become even uglier, deadlier, and more heinous and then decide to adopt the social habits of wasps. Avoid at all costs . . . much like I’m avoiding the obvious mosquito pun here.
Gan Ceann King: This type of wicked and fierce fighter can quickly take your head just as fast as he lost his own. Be careful when crossing them, and never play poker with them. This is generally advised with anyone whose eyes and face you cannot see though.
Krobken: The Krobken are called the ancient guardians of the Worldstone Shards, installed by the programmer at the same time as almost every other NPC. In this case, the word ancient doesn't feel right, but the lore book says so, so the game guide must adhere.
Gaming Terms:
Aggro: The proclivity of a monster or NPC to attack a player or another creature. Often used within the phrase ‘draw aggro,’ which basically means to get a monster’s attention or force it to attack a certain target.
AOE: Area of Effect. This term refers to skills that affect multiple targets simultaneously, whether friendly or not. Typically, the particular skill being used determines the range of affected targets.
Buff: To increase or augment the abilities of another player or character in a game. When someone “buffs” another person, they’re making them better at their job.
Drive: (as in VR drive) The device used to access a virtual reality world.
EXP: Experience. Gained from killing monsters, completing quests and assisting other players. Necessary for increasing one’s level within the game.
LOS: Line of sight. You can’t attack what you can’t see.
Nerf: A dreaded term for many avid gamers, this is the word used to describe when a game manufacturer makes a class less potent in its field.
NPC: Non-Playable Character. Characters within games that are controlled by the computer (artificial intelligence).
PK (RPK): This term can be used interchangeably as either a noun or a verb. Thanks, 1337 sp34k. As a noun, it refers to a player killer, someone who participates in actively killing other players. As a verb, it means ‘to have been killed by another player.’
RPG: Role Playing Game. Often used as MMORPG.
VR: Virtual Reality.
MMO: Massive Multiplayer Online (game).
About the Author
Charles Dean has an English Degree and an MBA. He's worked in multiple service and sales level jobs.
He spent most of his childhood playing every story based RPG and reading every fantasy book he could get his hands on. When he finally ran out, as the price of books and games was rather costly, he tried writing his own. The first LitRPG he produced was a simple Diablo 2 fanfic, involving the president becoming a Paladin in an epic quest to save the world from a treacherous demon's nefarious plot. Unfortu
nately, this book was part of a creative writing assignment for a school project and the teacher deemed it 'too violent.' It would be over a decade later until he finally had free time to begin his next attempt at a LitRPG with his original series The Bathrobe Knight.
Special Thanks
A special thanks to the amazing efforts of those who sampled the earlier, less-than-edited version of this book. We thrive on the feedback of our readers, and these proud souls stepped forward and deserve special recognition. The fearless, the brave, the beta readers:
Florian Cadwe
Clifford Lenfers
Ramon Meijia
Nir Singher
Kyle Satterfield
Chris Pelham
Leon Kirshtein
We would also like to give a big shout-out to the guys at LitRPGSociety. This group revolves around the exciting new subgenre of Fantasy and Sci Fi, LitRPG! LitRPG incorporates aspects of video games or RPGs into stories; this can be through setting, clearly defined character progression, or even familiar gaming tropes.
Other Books by Charles Dean
The Bathrobe Knight:
Darwin, a video game addict, was sitting in his bathrobe and slippers playing his favorite MMO on a Christmas night when an uninvited guest breaks into his house to steal his belongings. After the scuffle is over he finds himself transported into one of the sword and magic RPG-style MMOs that he has always loved to play, albeit one he has never heard of, where he has to overcome trials and tribulations at every turn as he fights for his life alongside new companions.
Available on Amazon
The Bathrobe Knight Volume II:
Having gone from a simple video game addict to the leader of a band of refugees, Darwin continues to cut his way across the world of Tiqpa searching for a home. Be it his home in real life, or one for his people in the game, the sleepless warrior presses forward. Unfortunately for him, each step he makes changes the fate of Tiqpa, a fact that is not welcomed by those who inhabit the lands.
Available on Amazon
The Bathrobe Knight Volume III:
Our hero carries on down the path that has been laid out before him. He must wrestle with the task of leading a new race of Demons and grapple with a madness that threatens to completely consume him–all while working with a bounty on his head and thousands seeking to kill him.
Available on Amazon
The Merchant of Tiqpa
Tiqpa, the first VRMMO to hit the markets, has become a world in and of itself with its own burgeoning political structure and growing strife between kingdoms and players. This unknown terrain, ripe with opportunities, becomes a new frontier which Locke, a blacksmith, tries to use to pay off real-world debts. But when he is betrayed by one of his business partners, he finds himself caught between his growing lust for revenge and his very real need for capital.
Available on Amazon
The Merchant of Tiqpa 2
When a diplomatic mission goes off the rails, Locke quickly finds himself between a rock and a hard place as old urges and new desires clash to shape the life and death decisions that he is forced to make. He soon realized that a mysterious new organization is pulling everyone’s strings and calling the shots from the shadows, and it seems to have the uncanny ability to anticipate his every move. Ultimately, he must choose between saving a friend’s life or a kingdom from the brink of corruption
Available on Amazon