by Aaron Jay
My bag of holding opened and items started appearing for my consideration. First, the books from Maddie: That’s a Spicy Desert: Flora and Fauna of the Quartzite Region by Liet-Kynes, Royal Geographer; You Shall Pass! How to Navigate Mines, Cave Systems, and Underground Kingdoms by B. Alexander Rogg. These looked useful. I set them aside. The last book she had given me was titled The Land: Catacombs by A. Kong. A quick leaf through it confused me. Nothing about catacombs or any other useful information in that one.
Stupid title, I thought. Looks like a fun read though. If I am stuck down here for ten months I’ll be happy to have it.
Next out of the bag were the items from the three kobold guards. These I examined closely. The items weren’t much in and of themselves: a pair of common bracers, a leather belt, and a leather cuirass.
Basic Kobold Guard’s Leather Bracers.
Leather bracers crudely created from giant armadillo skin.
AC Bonus +2 (arms)
Leather belt
A crude leather belt created from the hide of an unknown animal.
No AC bonus or other abilities.
Basic Kobold’s Leather Cuirass.
A leather chest piece crudely created from giant armadillo skin.
AC Bonus +2 (chest)
None of it was as good as the starter equipment that came with my guild package. The leather belt was pure japtem. I could sell it for a copper if I dragged it back to a store. I wouldn’t have access to a store for quite a while which also meant that if I needed a belt to keep my pants up there was no way to buy it either. Back into the bag it all went. Weight wasn’t an issue yet. Maybe some of this stuff would come in handy somehow.
Now came the possibility of something solid: Aabid’s equipment. What would a level eight Eastman have on him? I knew he’d be kitted out as best as he could for a mission with Maya. PvP rules meant that I’d only get one item off of him. At level eight he wasn’t going to be carrying a Girdle of Cloud Giant Strength. Not every item he had on him would be worth much. Everyone carries some junk: look at that leather belt I was toting around. Praying, I reached into my bag.
A pair of bracers.
They were made of leather with intricate engravings of waves, mountains, clouds and flames. The detail was stunning. The waves crested and troughed endlessly. The mountains had a depth and weight to them. The clouds sped through the sky coming together and dissipating. The fire licked and wreathed its way around the bracers. This was good.
Common Bracers of the Elements.
Initializes on equipping.
Infuse your melee attacks with the power of the elements. Upon binding choose one of the basic elements for additional damage and resistance.
Choose: Water, Earth, Air, Fire
A common item! It sounds oxymoronic to get excited over a common item but common doesn’t mean the same thing in the game as it does IRL. Mundane items with average quality were considered Basic items. Common ranked items were much better. As powers and unique materials were added, an item would move up through the rankings: Basic, Minor, Common, Rare, Major, Greater, Epic. To put it in perspective most players would be able to get their hands on a few pieces like this one only after years of playing, or by borrowing and paying it off over time. Think of it like a car. Back before the world ended, most people could get a car. Common but extremely useful, and expensive for most. Until the higher levels, common was about as good as it got for most.
This was the source of Aabid’s flaming arms. This was a step up from my best previous drop yet, the minor enhancement crystal that Arneson and the GMs gave me as recompense. Thank you, Aabid, you weaselly little prick. Your drop might actually make soloing this bitch possible!
Yet my HP counter still wasn’t back to full. Even with the bracers, the dungeon was too powerful for me. Maya was right when she saw what happened even with Aabid unintentionally helping me out. One group nearly took me out. Yet I hadn’t only taken out the kobolds, since Aabid had eventually stopped attacking the Kobolds and started attacking me.
Miles Boone
Level 3
Exp: 3,551 (6,000 to next level)
Hit Points: 27 (8 +1 Con bonus per level)
Str 13 (+1)
Dex 12 (+1)
Con 13 (+1)
Int 12 (+1)
Wis 12 (+1)
Cha 12 (+1)
Luc 0* (-%$)
Titles: Wheeler Dealer, 1st Student of the Old Ways
Skills:
Novice Alchemy 0/250 to Beginner Level
Novice Blacksmithing 0/250 to Beginner Level
Novice Crafting 0/250 to Beginner Level
Novice Herbalism 0/250 to Beginner Level
Novice Leatherworking 0/250 to Beginner Level
Novice Mining 0/250 to Beginner Level
Journeyman Trader 111/1000 to Master Level
Unallocated Skill Points 2**
*n/a
** Skill points can be allocated to increase innate
proficiency in a skill
Looking at my character sheet reminded me of one more thing that could be helpful. Maddie and her creepy eye slicing ritual. She had called it “giving me an upgrade.” I had been avoiding thinking about what she had done since it actually affected my real body. What had been on that memory stick my father had given me? I went back through my logs until I found the notice that I had waved away in my rush to get back into the game.
Upgrade: Eye of The Hunter
Current Attributes: Feline
Engage? (Y/N)
Not a lot of information in that notice. The notice and the ritual Maddie used gave me a number of guesses and possibilities, but who knows what would actually happen if I engaged the upgrade. I was convinced that this was part of my father’s gift. I could log out and go see him but I rejected that idea. Maya had told me that she and the Eastmans would be happy if he became involved. Or, more involved. He knew what my situation was. He gave me what help he could and what advice he could. For whatever reason, he told me what he told me. Be guided by my instincts, informed by experience. And my instincts told me that my father was trying to help me--that whatever he had done to me he thought was for the best.
Bracing myself for the pain of my eyes being somehow sliced again I hit engage. After a moment I unclenched. There was no pain. Nothing seemed different. No horrific pain was a good start. Other than letting me know that Eye of The Hunter was engaged and it had the current attributes of Feline, the system interface offered no clues. I couldn’t figure out what it was doing or what it would do. Time would tell if this would be a help with this dungeon or not.
The last bit of housekeeping before starting off was the minor enhancement crystal. I removed it from my bag and launched the system control for the item. Like all children in our society, I had studied the rules of the game. I knew what kinds of bonuses could be added via a minor enhancement crystal. But, with my unique game situation I wanted to look at the actual list of bonuses and think about them, given my stats and generally horrifying imprisonment.
All the greats of weapon and armor abilities with the word minor in front of them scrolled in front of me: Minor Flaming damage (+1 flame damage)… Minor Frost damage… Minor Earth… Minor Air… Minor Bane (effective against a specific type of monster)… Minor Dancing… Minor Holy… Minor Piercing… Minor Poison… Minor Slashing… And if I attached the crystal to a piece of armor, I could receive minor defense against all of these. If I attached it to a tool I could get a bonus to mining or smithing or whatever. Depending on what I attached it to and what I chose, the effects were extremely varied. There were sub-categories too.
Poisons that caused weakness or paralysis or extra damage, for instance. At such a minor level, paralysis would paralyze merely the body part the poison hit, and then only until the creature recovered. Given the level disparity I’d likely only get a few moments of paralysis. A huge benefit but not enough to let me solo this dungeon. I could enhance my smith’s hammer to make it particularly
effective at crafting shields. But that wouldn’t get me through the dungeon either.
The more narrowly tailored the benefit, the stronger the effect. The four basic elements (fire, earth, air and water) were a good way to think about this. Minor Flame added a bit of fiery damage. For some creatures this was no different than any other type of extra damage. Some creatures had natural affinities for or against a certain element. So attacking a Magma spider with a flaming arrow might mitigate the damage you deal or even heal it. Other creatures were extremely susceptible to a certain element. Attacking a Frost Troll with a flaming axe would do significantly more damage. Another good example of how greater focus increased or decreased the effect of the crystal was crafting. I could make my alchemy set particularly good at crafting healing potions, but it would then be less capable of crafting other types of potions.
Most players couldn’t afford to buy, make, or craft the perfect tools for specific jobs. Furthermore, one couldn’t always predict what mobs were going to be encountered. So, a mace that was created to smite undead might be useless when a bone golem, that was neither undead nor susceptible to blunt force damage erupted from the mausoleum an adventurer thought was going to be easy pickings. The mace would be no better than attacking with a wet noodle.
If I wasn’t sure what would be most effective against whatever The Mines of Madness! had in store for me, I had to turn the question around. What could I affect about myself?
The simplest way for me to make sure that the enhancement would work for me would be to turn my spatha, buckler or lorica into something like a Lorica breastplate of Strength. The +1 to strength would put me over into the next ability modifier range. With a 14-15 in Str I’d get a +2 to all strength based effects. Every hit with a melee weapon would carry more damage. I could carry more weight but my bag of holding made that less of an issue. Adding to my intelligence, Dexterity, Wisdom or Charisma wouldn’t change much for me until I got to add one more ability point. Those characteristics were two points away from the next bracket. Level four was coming up though. That would give me the ability point I’d need pretty soon. Or, I could kick up my constitution. I’d heal and recover faster. I’d have more endurance.
But because HP was derived by a combination of a player’s constitution stat and level, I couldn’t increase my HP with stat enhancements. However, I could increase my HP by 2% if I used the enhancement to make an item into an Item of Minor Life. Avoiding a death and its penalties would be a pretty huge benefit. The battles I’d already survived as a solo player and the fight at the entrance proved that even a few extra hit points could be the difference between life or death.
My finger hovered over the Minor Life enhancement. Survivability as I soloed wasn’t actually my biggest weakness. My eyes closed and I calmed my breathing trying to think clearly. My biggest weakness isn’t my HP. My biggest weakness is my lack of luck. Or is it? My biggest weakness is unknown. My weakness is ignorance. Is that my greatest weakness?
Ignorance is an easy weakness to address. Study and work will fix it. The volumes that Maddie had left me with came out of my bag. Don’t act without thought. Thought requires knowledge. I started to read.
I started with the book on mines and adventuring underground. It turned out that I wasn’t sitting in a tunnel but in an adit. A tunnel has two entrances or exits. An adit only has one and as far as I knew there was no other way out of the Mines of Madness! I was also resting on a pile of gangue. That is to say, the useless rock surrounding the ore. Up above me was the head wall, or ceiling. Guess it needed a different name since your head was always going to bang against it down here. As I read, I noticed a game counter filling. I learned the difference between a natural cavern and a stope, and between a shaft and a crosscut. With a ding the counter finished. My mining skill increased by 100 and I acquired the Spelunking skill.
Spelunking gave me greater ability to explore and survive in caves and tunnel systems. I was less likely to get lost or disoriented. I could recognize and discover water, edible plants, and creatures in this environment. I could climb underground more easily. I could sense creatures from farther away and I knew more about the characteristics of the common monsters and dangers I’d encounter underground. I immediately added one of the skill points I still had from roll up to this skill, bringing my spelunking skill up to beginner level.
By this time I was fully recovered, but instead of moving on I decided to study the other useful volume that Maddie had given me. It was a survey of the area surrounding Quartzite. As I read, my herbalism increased and I learned about the plants I could collect in the desert. I wasn’t sure that this was really going to be that helpful while stuck in the mines and was almost going to stop but I felt that Maddie must have had a reason for giving this to me. The monsters of the Quartzite area were many and varied. There was a long set of ethnographic surveys of the different orc and kobold tribes found in the area surrounding Quartzite. This Liet-Kynes fellow was astoundingly thorough: the Skullsplitter orc tribe, the Thornspike Kobold tribe, the Dunecrawlers, the Venomspitters, the Wyrmmdiggers, the Fremen tribe. The desert around Quartzite was filled with tribe after tribe. Details of their shamanistic practices, elemental connections, social organizations, mating habits, crafting practices abounded. If I knew which tribe I’d be facing, I’d know quite a bit.
As I read, the next skill acquisition counter filled up. Hours had passed and I was getting hungry. I took out some of the rabbit meat and started setting up a fire. That is when I noticed that it was dark yet I had been reading comfortably. The Eyes of the Hunter! I seemed to be able to see in the dark. Thank you, Maddie! I wondered if there was more to the upgrade. Not that darkvision wasn’t incredible, but when someone infects your eyes with an unknown tech you are bound to want all the details.
I resumed my studies. There were a few possible tribes that the Kobolds infesting the mine may have belonged to.. The book said nothing at all about the mine itself. I wasn’t entirely convinced that knowing which tribe I faced down here would help me, but I reminded myself that knowledge is power. The counter filled and finished with a ding.
You have acquired the skill: Local Knowledge. Novice 0/250 to Beginner.
I used my last skill point and moved it up to Beginner. Only 1000 more points and I too could write like this Liet-Kynes, Royal Geographer fellow. Actually, I’d have to move past Beginner before I could write a tome that could impart skills. I’d receive another skill point at level five and at every fifth level after that. You can increase your skills through use, practice, trainers, or study as well. After a certain point, the skill point from leveling is necessary for improving a skill you don’t work on daily.
The Bracers of the Elements still needed to be equipped and its element chosen. And I needed to apply and use my enhancement crystal. After the study and the skill points, I still didn’t know what to do. It was insane, but my intuition was telling me that there was some small chance of me beating this dungeon. I could survive underground. I could see down in the depths. But I needed to be able to fight the things I would find down here.
I looked wearily through my inventory one more time. The same stuff that had been there before. Rabbit meat. Water skin. General dungeon crawling equipment that Smitty had let me buy at terrible but not Nate level prices. Crafting equipment. The useless belt. The armor from the Wyrmmdigger Kobolds… wait…
Basic Guard’s Leather Bracers of The Wyrmmdigger Kobold Tribe.
Leather bracers crudely created from giant armadillo skin.
AC Bonus +2 (arms)
Now when I looked at the bracers and the other items I saw that they were obviously of the Wyrmmdigger tribe. First, the stitching pattern used the traditional serpentine pattern that was a hallmark of all the Wyrmmdigger leathercraft. Also, the shade of giant armadillo skin was the same most of their herds held. There was no way it could be anything else. Local knowledge for the win.
I was up against the Wyrmmdigger tribe. What did I know about th
em? A lot. They were blood enemies of the Dunecrawlers. Their blacksmithing was well thought of amongst the tribes of the desert. More than most, this tribe was invested in the belief that they were distant descendants of dragons. Their dragon heritage beliefs had sent them down a dark, dark road. They had been following a vicious program of eugenics; that is, if anyone other than humans can engage in eugenics. Anyway, they were breeding themselves in an attempt to regain their dragon heritage. Culling and forced castration was standard practice. Their priests decided who could mate with whom. Needless to say, the priesthood were the ones most often allowed to breed. All of this eugenic madness had led to one outcome. The tribe was deeply connected to the fire element. Their fire magic was top notch for creatures of their level. Now Aabid’s fireball failing to take out any of the kobolds made sense.
The Wyrmdigger fire affinity made one of my choices simple. I donned the bracers. Looking at the four different elemental symbols embossed on the leather I chose the waves. A flicker of light ran across the bracers and the pictured waves grew and flowed faster and faster down the bracers and towards my hands. The clouds on the bracers turned dark and rain began to fall. The mountains were eroded quite a bit and numerous waterfalls and mountain streams flowed down their sides. With a hiss, the flames disappeared entirely. I drew my sword. Water seemed to wash up out of the waves, streams, and rainclouds on the bracers and flow down over my hands and along the blade. Drops of water fell from the sword tip, vanishing before hitting the ground.
