You have found Hermit's Cave, this spot is now shown on your map.
You receive two thousand experience.
“Hello, any hermit at home today?” Dumadin called out.
“You are not Bjorn,” came the lilting voice of an elf, “did he send you? Perhaps with supplies?”
Sighing with relief that it was indeed the hermit's cave and not another bear den they stopped a few feet from the entrance. The cave ran into the cliff wall and twisted away to the right, illuminated by a light from deeper inside. “Yes, Bjorn sent us to drop off supplies to a friend of his, an old adventuring buddy.”
“Well, well, now. Don't stand around outside, come in oh mighty adventures and finish your quest.”
Shrugging to each other they entered the cave. The trio stopped and blinked at what lay before them, this was no ordinary cave. This was a home, a working home at that. There was a bed off to the left which was mostly made and a few chairs were clustered around a small table. The table was cluttered with various herbs and vials as if the occupant had been in the middle of making potions. Off to the right was a loom with several bolts of light gray cloth piled near it. Towards the back wall was a small smelting pot and an anvil. In the center of the room was an open fireplace with a chimney like structure above it. Standing next to this was an old elf, smiling at their goggle eyed expressions.
“Welcome to my home. I am Thallien, but you can call me Al. Bjorn always had such a hard time with my name. Please come in sit, make yourselves comfortable and let us speak. Oh, and let me take those supplies from you.” Thallien gestured them to sit and accepted the bag of supplies.
Quest completed: Take food to the Hermit.
You receive two thousand experience.
Collect your reward from Thallien.
Kittish and Terets suddenly found themselves looking at UI message asking them to pick a new ability; they'd reached level five on turning in the quest. Terets without a moment's hesitation took Stealth, happy in the thought of being the sneaky bastard he wanted to be. Kittish took Weaken, a single target poison-based damage over time (dot) spell with a duration of 30 seconds.
Blinking their eyes clear they glanced at Al, who was chuckling at them. “Ah so young you are. I am surprised Bjorn sent you out here with Theodore living so close by. You must have done something to give him the idea that you were capable.”
Dumadin gave a small sigh knowing his friends were again above him in level, then turned to Al. “We rescued a maiden from a pervert outside of his inn. Then we helped him fight off a mob that wanted to kill him and loot the inn. After that he asked if we would bring you these supplies to help you.”
“Oh, Bjorn the silly fool. I have always told him that sometimes the metal needs to be tempered before being forged. Alas he never had the knack of smithing like his father. Bjorn always dreamed of running an inn instead. While I can see you are of sound soul, your bodies are still a bit weak. Nothing that a bit of time won't cure quickly enough. However, without aid Theodore would gut you in short order, so let me see if I can help with that.” He stood and began collecting items from around the room.
After he was finished he piled the assortment on the table in front of him. “Now, let us see what we can do for you all. A dwarven shield bearer missing his shield, a sneaky young blade without decent blades, and an elven beauty who surely keeps you all alive. Let's start with the lady as is polite and proper.” He lifted up an exquisite silver necklace in the form of leaves, and an iron shod staff. “Here is a sturdy staff once used by a wonderful lady much the same as you, and her necklace which she always claimed helped her keep me alive.”
He handed the items to Kittish and smiled at her words of thanks as she examined the staff and necklace. As she examined the necklace more closely her eyes widened “Oh, Thallien, this is mu...” Thallien waved his hand to cut her off.
“Keep it, it is meant to go with you at this point. Yes, I know what it does and have a better idea of its worth than you do, my dear. The Necklace of Double Healing. We found it long ago during our journeys together. The lady bade me, before she passed away, to give her necklace to someone with both beauty and brains. I judge you have both and will not take it back.”
Kittish relented and fastened the necklace around her neck and gave him a deep bow from her seat. “I hope to be as worthy of it as she was, Thallien.”
“Please just call me Al, all of my friends do.”
Moving on, Thallien looked at Terets and smiled, “I do believe you have a lot in common with Bjorn. I never thought a dwarf could be so sneaky until I met him. He has his best gear with him still, but he did leave with me some of his old weapons. A pair of short bladed swords, which you would seem to prefer, judging by your current weapon. Easy to conceal, yes? Take these two blades with Bjorn's blessing, if he ever blessed anything.” Al handed the blades to Terets and sat back watching him.
Terets accepted the blades and placed one into his empty scabbard, replacing the blade Theodore had knocked out of his hand. He held up the other blade, comparing it with his remaining original sword, admiring the workmanship of his new weapon. “These were clearly made by a master swordsmith, and I shall do my best to use them well.”
“Bjorn's father would be happy to know that they have found use again, if he was still alive that is. I tell you this now, Bjorn always preferred to attack first from stealth with those blades. I never asked him why but I am sure you'll discover the reason in short order.”
Terets bowed in his chair to the old elf, “My thanks Al, I look forward to finding out.”
“And now let us see what we might have for you, oh shieldless one. In my day I could stand up to anything, I was the bulwark that protected my friends and companions. Seems so long ago now. Here is a shield to defend those in need and a wonderful hand axe. I have no need for the shield any more, and very little use for an axe.” As Thallien finished speaking the trio looked and realized that the elf was indeed missing his left arm from the forearm down.
“What befell you that you are missing the limb?” Dumadin inquired accepting the shield and axe from the elf.
“Oh that is a long tale and have forgotten much of it. Please, accept these items with my joy.”
Dumadin checked the axe which his UI listed as Heavy Deep Iron Axe. When utilized with a shield it allowed the user to counter attack after any successful block, but at a high aether cost. The shield was called Shield of the Righteous, when equipped you could block any attack against a party member but it required a flat 25% of aether regardless of level. Dumadin's eyes looked about to pop out of his head as he gasped and looked at Al.
“I can only say thanks be unto you Al, these gifts are mighty and I couldn't even begin to guess their value.” Dumadin bowed deeply to the elf from where he sat.
“Good, I am glad none of you fussed too terribly much about accepting my gifts. I invite you to stay for a day or two. Feel free to use the forge, fish in the stream, collect any useful herbs and make use of what tools you require. The bed is mine but sleep anywhere else you choose. I am sure you wish to fight Theodore, but before that we should talk. I am tired now, and tomorrow will be soon enough. The forge will not wake me, indeed nothing will until I wish to wake. Enjoy your gifts and time as my guests. You should know that the canyon is considered an arena area. Duels fought there do not result in death, only unconsciousness for a short time.” Thallien went to his bed and was soon fast asleep.
The trio quietly exited the cave and started examining their gifts. Kittish explained hers to the group first. “The staff is called Slow Death, it gives a bonus to any dots that I cast, and I just picked up Weaken, which is a poison dot. The necklace is called Double Healing, it lets me place a marker on a target and when I cast a heal the person marked also gets a copy of the heal and it doesn't cost any extra aether.”
“Wow, two heals for the cost of one. That's pretty freaking powerful. Should make it easier for you to keep me up for a long time,” Dumadin
said. “I got a Shield of the Righteous and a Heavy Deep Iron Axe.” Dumadin explained the abilities of his new gear, and Terets growled in frustration.
“My new swords are called Tankard's Blades. They have a very high durability, means they'll last a while. All the UI says in the description is peek-a-boo. We probably need to duel and see what they do. At the moment they seem kind of underwhelming compared to yours and Kittish's.”
“Sure thing man, I hope they do something cool.”
Terets triggered his new Stealth ability and faded out of sight with shimmer. When he realized Dumadin was still tracking him he dropped out of the group and watched as Dumadin's eyes couldn't track him anymore. “Out of curiosity what did that look like in group?”
“Like a heat shimmer, until you dropped group now I got nothing. Neat that you can speak in stealth and it doesn't give you away. Can't even tell what direction it's from. Okay let’s do this.” Dumadin hefted his new shield and axe and began moving around randomly, trying to keep his friend from getting behind him.
With no warning he felt the bite of twin blades in his back and lashed out with the axe. The axe hummed as it split the air, and kept on going as there was no one there.
“What the fuck man?” Dumadin said, his life having been cut by 15%.
“Oh these are nice. If I'm unobserved by a hostile target then after striking my target, I can immediately go back into stealth even though I'm in combat. It does cost a big chunk of aether, but I could probably get a few more attacks off which would make it easier to kill a target. Oh, and they let me use the backstab ability for the cost as if I had it already, and if I get the ability it'll only cost half the aether. Hah, these blades are epic!”
“Okay then mister sneaky bastard, I think that's good enough. We found out what peek-a-boo means. And it's awesome that your new toys are as awesome as-” Dumadin began, then Terets sank his blades into the dwarf's back once more. “GAH!”
“Truce it is,” Terets laughed and ran towards the cave.
Grumbling, Dumadin watched his friend go, “Jackass.”
Chuckling at their antics, Kittish healed Dumadin up and walked with him back into the cave. “Why don't you make some buttons with the copper? If nothing else we can sell them in town next time we're there.”
“Good idea. Should see if Felton has had any luck with crafting so far as well. Since we got new weapons, I can send our old ones to him as well as what I make from the ore I'm getting. Need to see if jackass can get hold of Amythyst, so I can make her a new weapon for when we meet up.”
“Sounds good. In the meantime, let's take the day to relax. Maybe we should make Terets catch one of these fish for dinner.”
“Felton, how you doing with the crafting?” Dumadin whispered his friend.
Felton replied, “Doing okay, we've been doing well. Emilia's been getting me some ore. She has been telling me it's kind of scary, luckily the returns on the ore are decent. How've you guys been doing?”
“Not bad, made it to the quest guy and he hints he'll give us another quest tomorrow. We got some nice gear from the quest and I've been gathering ore. So I was thinking of making some stuff and then sending it to you. You should be able to break it for some mats and then make something from that. This way we can both get some xp from it. It'll be a bit before we get back to town, but thought I would give you a heads up.”
“That's awful nice of you man, I look forward to whatever you can send. At the moment I'm the only one making anything here. Everyone else found out how much slower it is to do blacksmithing versus the other professions and gave up on it. Which will be great later, it'll give me a better understanding of some of the best things to make come launch.”
“Good plan, Felton. Okay, when I get the chance I'll send stuff off to you. Give our love to your wife and take it easy out there.”
Finished with the whispered conversation Dumadin turned to Terets, to see if he had gotten a reply from Amythyst.
“She isn't on right now, so I can't say. If you just going to craft things though, just make an assortment and she can pick what she wants, then you send the rest off.” Terets said, then shouldered a fishing spear and stepped out of the cave.
Dumadin shrugged and went to the forge and pulled out a copper bar to turn into buttons. Placing the bar on the anvil he waited for the blue overlay to guide him. A few moments later a ghostly hammer was hitting the bar, which seemed to flatten and then break into buttons. Nodding to himself, Dumadin copied what he had seen and sure enough a minute later the bar turned into buttons. Gathering them up he counted twenty buttons. He repeated the process until he ran out of copper bars. Once he was done one hundred bright shiny copper buttons had been placed into his pouch.
Next he took an iron bar from his belt and looked over the interface to see what he would be able to make. If he could find some charcoal he could make steel instead. Glancing around, he saw a bucket full of charcoal near a pile of assorted metal bars. He waffled on it even though the hermit had said to help themselves to all but the bed. Still, it wouldn't be right to take too much. He counted the charcoal and felt slightly better- over thirty pieces there and each bar of steel would only require one. Taking ten pieces of charcoal he moved the back to the forge and turned his iron into steel bars. He received fifty experience per bar, which was nice and nudged him along towards level five.
Glancing at the UI he noted that working steel was going to be hard. Sighing, he took the first bar and tried to make an axe. After two minutes he was done and examined the results. Terrible Steel Axe, better damage than his hammer had done but it had a few points less durability. He received two hundred experience, putting him a sliver away from level five. Next, he checked his stamina and noted it down to 30%. He decided to take a moment to eat a snack to replenish his stamina.
Dumadin went to the table where Kittish was working at alchemy. “Hey hun, got low stamina and...” was as far as he got before Kittish burst out laughing, causing him to blush.
“Not here you don't, last time it was close on two hours...”
“Not what I meant devil woman, good gods. I need some food, the smithing has taken a bite out of me.”
“Hehe, sorry hun that was a softball pitch if ever there was one. Here, have a wolf steak and get back to work.” She handed him a steak and he took it muttering about being picked on as he went back to the anvil.
After eating, he took another bar of steel out and decided to make a short sword. Two minutes of hammering yielded a Poor Steel Short Sword. The damage was similar to the axe he'd crafted but the sword had better durability. He received another two hundred experience and was now a breath away from level five. His stamina was at 50%, good enough for another weapon. Dumadin placed another steel bar on the anvil to make a second steel short sword, this time producing a Terrible Steel Short Sword. He noted the UI congratulating him on reaching level five and prompting him to pick a new ability.
Taking a moment to rest and reflect on his choices, he figured he only really had one and took Block. The ability gave him some permanent passive damage mitigation as long as he had a shield equipped, as well as a possibility of completely negating the damage from an incoming attack. The 25% aether cost applied only when an attack was completely blocked. Nodding, Dumadin gladly confirmed the choice.
Down to 25% stamina he called it good for the moment and went to sit with Kittish as they waited for Terets to come back with a fish.
After the fish was cooked Kittish tried some and found it to be a truly delicious. Dumadin and Terets each took a small bite and spit it out. Yup, it tasted of fish. Kittish laughed at them as they rinsed their mouths out with water, then each ate some jerky and cheese.
“We should log out for a bit and get some real sleep and food. See you back here tomorrow morning, Terets?” Kittish asked.
“Sure thing, don't wake the old guy,” Terets laughed and blinked out of existence.
“We're not that bad,” Dumadin grumbled, “mostly.”
Laughing Kittish logged out and awaited her love in RL.
THALLIEN'S REQUEST
The next day when the trio logged back into the game Thallien wasn't inside his cave. They found him outside, fishing from the pond.
“Morning to you three, I hope you slept well.” Al said as he recast his line.
“The sleep of the just for us two, probably like a baby for him,” Dumadin chuckled hooking a thumb at Terets, “You know, tossing and crying all night. He was probably hugging his pillow and mumbling to it.”
“Jackass,” Terets muttered, “I slept just fine. We didn't wake you last evening with all the noise did we?”
“No. When I sleep I do not wake until the right time. Thank you for the concern, though.” Al responded and nodded at Terets. “Are you off then today to try Theodore?”
Last Horizon: Beta Page 7
