Legends of Tarthirious: The Complete Collection

by Zachariah Dracoulis

  “Any other…” I trailed off when I noticed that Gerry had apparently ditched me, his wood covered self nowhere to be seen.

  “Yep.” I grunted as the weight of another ball hit my warding, “Seems about right. Thanks Gerry!”

  “No problem,” he replied with a smile as he appeared directly behind the stationary brothers, “going up!”

  I gotta admit that watching the brothers get launched in the air by a malicious tree filled me with a great deal of pleasure, especially seeing as the gits didn’t even have the dignity to die, instead just getting knocked out as they were pinned to the ceiling.

  “Good one.” I said with a smile as we got shifted into the next room.

  Gerry nodded proudly, “I thought so. How many levels do think this place has?”

  I thought on it a second as I tried to picture the tower in my mind and failed, “Dunno, there’s a few though. You not having fun?”

  “Are you kidding me?” Gerry laughed, “This is bloody brilliant. Have you been getting EoC reports though?”

  I shook my head and got ready for another wave, “I reckon they’ll come at the en…Well… that’s not good…” I trailed off as a new combat text popped up.

  Armelia Fireheart and Grand Gerry the Good have issued a challenge in the Narthgal Tower. A Family of Ogres answers the challenge.

  4x Level 40 Ogres, HP: 30000/30000.

  Ogre discovered.

  Journal entry made.

  The stone grey monsters stood at a solid fifteen feet tall and weighed at least a ton, their tattered loincloths doing little to hide that their family was mostly male.

  “You think you’d be able to use that heal sigil of yours?” Gerry asked as he darted to the other side of the room, splitting the ogres’ attention between us.

  “Not without potentially bringing this whole place down on our heads. I’m not seeing a lot of exits in this place.”

  Two of the ogres started to barrel their way toward me as soon as I’d finished my sentence, their massive hands dragging along the floor, tearing up what I can only assume was a very expensive carpet.

  Without a second thought I shot a few bolts of lightning their way, only realising the error of my action once I’d let the magical bolts go.

  The lightning, though potent and supercharged, glanced off the ogres’ thick skin, arcing dangerously close to Gerry who was clearly having troubles of his own.

  “Watch it!” he cried out as he narrowly dodged an anvil sized fist.

  “Sorry!” I shouted back as I ran for my life away from the fast approaching ogres.

  “Arrows?” I asked as I tried to remember what worked best against ogres.

  “Won’t get through their-piss off!” he shouted as the sound of stone being smashed echoed throughout the room, “Won’t get through their skin.”

  I wanted to pull up my journal and give it a quick once over to see if I could spot what kind of weapon I needed to fight the stony bastards, but as one of them crashed hard into the wall directly behind me I realised that that probably wasn’t a realistic goal.

  Before long I’d cycled around the entire room and come to land side-by-side with Gerry, the ogres closing in on us from both sides as we waited our inevitable doom.

  “Wait… the charging!” Gerry let out excitedly, “They have to charge each other, that or we crush them in a mineshaft.”

  I skipped over scolding him about how there wasn’t exactly an abundance of mineshafts in our vicinity and got ready to roll.

  “We have to wait until they’re just about to hit us, you ready?”

  “Ready.” I replied, holding back the apprehension in my voice as best as I could as I felt the ground rumble beneath my feet and watched the ogres roar toward us.

  “Now!” Gerry shouted at what seemed to be past the absolute last second, but I did as I was told and leapt forward, landing in a roll that ended with me a good twenty feet from where I started.

  We both spun around to face our attackers as they smashed into each other in a mess of grey and red, their nails digging into each other’s flesh as they blindly attacked what they thought was us.

  “Hit ‘em with everything you’ve got!” Gerry shouted before launching a barrage of trees and vines at the compromised ogres.

  I launched what I had, which honestly wasn’t a lot compared to what Gerry was using in his brutal bombardment.

  It was all over after a few seconds of fiery attack and gory impalement and suddenly we were on top of the tower, black and red clouds surrounding the massive platform we found ourselves upon.

  “Boss battle?” I asked as I looked over the six large spikes around the platform that made it feel as if we were in the palm of a large monster.

  Or our new bathtub, whatever.

  “Boss battle. We could try jumping it? See if that lands us in Tarthirious.”

  I knew that there was no chance in Hel that Gerry would want to skip out on the ending of what was turning out to be a pretty amazing side quest.

  “No way, I’m seeing this through ‘til the bitter end.”

  “I see that you have bested my warriors!” a dark voice bellowed from within the clouds, “You must be true champions of your realm to have made it this far.”

  “We’re only lucky,” I said modestly as I looked around for the source of the voice, “if it weren’t for that I’m sure we wouldn’t have been able to fight your champions.”

  Being humble seemed like the best idea when talking to black and red storm clouds in Hel, wouldn’t you agree?

  “How… meek of you to say such things.” the voice continued, the booming and anger quickly replaced with something more calm and proper, “I don’t suppose you think you’d be up to the challenge of fighting something as powerful as all of those past challengers combined?”

  Gerry and I shared a look before I decided on our response, “No.”

  “Good!” the voice said from behind us, forcing us to swivel to face him, “I am the Daemon Lord of War and Combat, Litoriz, and I am so glad to finally have someone here who isn’t so foolish as to think that they can fight me. Welcome to my plane.”

  Litoriz was certainly less creepy than our last Daemon Lord, but that didn’t mean I had to trust him, not yet anyway.

  “Thank you,” I replied after realising I’d gone silent for a few seconds, “but why have you brought us here?”

  “Why isn’t it obvious? To discover who among you in the plane of Tarthirious has the strength to fight alongside me and my army once I launch my unholy war.”

  “Yeah,” Gerry whispered in my ear with a little laugh, “how did you not get that?”

  “I’m afraid that we can’t do such a thing,” I said after giving Gerry a little smile, “it would go against everything I believe in.”

  It felt weird channelling my druid side, even I’ve got to admit that going to war with an entire plane of existence sounded awesome, but that was something for Daemion to do, not me.

  “Ha! You think you have a choice?” Litoriz laughed, “No, I’m afraid that when I come for you in the afterlife you will be serving me.”

  I went to argue, a speech all ready to go in my head, but that’s when Litoriz decided he’d tired of us.

  “Be gone,” he said before throwing us off the tower with a flick of his wrist, “I will come for you when the time is right.”

  I was positive we were gonna die as we plunged toward the horde beneath us, that this was some kind of response to us not accepting his immediate will, but right as I started growling at myself about how everything I owned would be trapped in Hel when I respawned we hit soft grass.

  “Are we…”

  A sigh of relief slipped out of me and I nodded, “Yeah, we’re home Todo.”

  End of Conflict Report:

  Grand Gerry the Good: 1x Level 30 Orc Warrior, 8x Level 20 Ranirds, 2x Level 35 Battlemages, 4x Level 40 Ogres.

  Armelia Fireheart: 1x Level 30 Orc Warrior, 7x Level 20 Ranirds, 4x Level 40 Ogres.<
br />
  Total experience awarded:

  Grand Gerry the Good: Max Level Reached.

  No Experience Points awarded.

  Armelia Fireheart: +12375 XP.

  Level 14 Completed!

  Level Up!

  Level 15 Completed!

  Level Up!

  Level 16 Progress: 3195/6000.

  10 Skill Points awarded.

  You have unspent Skill Points, open the Skills Menu to upgrade your Attributes!

  Mission Completed: The Narthgal Tower.

  +2500 XP.

  Progress: 5695/6000.

  “You know what?” I laughed as I got to my feet and realised I was overdue for a level up, “I reckon I should spend those SPs. Gimme a minute.”

  HP upgraded!

  HP: 6000/6000.

  Attributes upgraded!

  48 Strength

  48 Dexterity

  47 Intelligence

  56(+10) Wisdom

  ‘Age and practice has made you wiser than most, your ability to cast spells and enchant items growing as you follow your craft diligently. Your spells have become much more powerful as you’ve become able to channel the powers of the universe through your body.’

  “Is it a two or three times multiplier when you hit fifty Wisdom?” I asked as I scrolled through my fast filling journal, neither Gerry nor I deciding whether we wanted to jump up on Shadow-Stal yet or if we wanted to take a break.

  “I think it’s two, then five at the next one, then ten at a hundred… That sounds right, yeah?”

  I nodded and smiled as I flexed my cramped fingers, the cold clearly doing more harm than good as we sat practically motionless.

  “You started to get sore as well?” Gerry asked, noticing that I kept stopping at random intervals as we started back over the hill.

  “Yeah, it’s like my joints have bolts in ‘em.”

  Kylia: Chapter 5

  “Wanna shut it down for half hour?” Gerald asked as I pulled off my headset and rolled my head and rubbed my neck.

  “I’d say so, yeah. What do you wanna do?”

  He shrugged and smiled, “Wanna head outside for a bit? I’d hate to spend the entire time we’re here locked away.”

  “Sure,” I said, ignoring how much safer I’d feel if we stayed inside, “why not?”

  After that we went to quite a lot of effort to make sure we were wrapped up enough to go outside, as a result we ended up looking like Russian toddlers with overprotective mothers, which was cute for about five seconds.

  “What’re you doing?” one of the guards asked gruffly in his thick northern accent as I went to push open the door, “You should be stayin’ in there.”

  I sighed as I remembered the guard change over which apparently meant we’d lost the ‘fun’ ones, “We just want to get some fresh air,” I said as politely as I could, “you’re more than welcome to join us.”

  Things went silent for a few seconds as the two guards undoubtedly shared serious looks before the first activated his walkie-talkie, “We’re on the move,” he said as he pulled our door open, “now we ain’t gonna be stayin’ out ‘ere long, are we? Not exactly safe for you two.”

  The talker was a tall fellow, probably about six-and-a-half foot, and well-built, which directly contrasted his short, skinny compatriot. Both of them had nice enough eyes though, which is all I could really see on account of the balaclavas and helmets.

  The big one had a good nose too.

  “We just thought we’d get some fresh air.” I said, looking around at the brilliant snowy vista that surrounded us, the winding road that went past the front of our temporary home seeming barely familiar as the solid five inches of snow buried the old tar.

  “Well you shouldn’t need long then,” the guard grumbled, snapping me from my dream-like state, “let’s get a move on.”

  I felt uncomfortable going for a walk with armed men, kinda took away from how romantic it was to get away from it all with Gerald, like a constant reminder that no matter what we did we were still under constant threat of death.

  “So what do you guys do besides this?” Gerald asked, apparently not feeling the tenseness I was whatsoever, “Mostly just guard work or..?”

  “We mostly do stuff like this,” the other guard said, revealing with his accent that he was certainly closer to home than the first, “ain’t exactly a whole lotta options, eh? Not for fellas like me an’ him anyway.”

  “Not much room for fun then, huh?” Gerald laughed as I tried to see if I had mastered the ability to die of awkwardness on command.

  I don’t know what it is, but something about people I’m with talking to those not directly in our group makes me want to peel my face off over and over again until I die.

  I am strange.

  “Nah, not really. How ‘bout you two? We ain’t been told much aside from make sure you don’t die.”

  “Oi!” the first guard growled, “Let’s try and keep their personal lives’ personal, alright? Last thing we need is for you goin’ ahead and getting attached to these two. Remember the Lindons?”

  “The Lindons?” I asked curiously before I could stop myself, “Who’re the Lindons?”

  “Just a couple we was sent to take care of,” the second guard said, “we ended up gettin’ to know each other and then one day after the protection detail got called off I headed over for a bit o’ dinner and find out they’d been put down by some professional killer. Weren’t a nice surprise, ‘specially on account o’ the fact that I brought me daughter around for it.”

  The first guard let out a long, tired groan, “You just don’t know when to stop talking, do you? Alright, I think this has been enough outside time, back to the cottage.”

  “What?” Gerald scoffed in a way that most would never with an armed man, “We’ve barely been out two minutes! We haven’t even learned your names.”

  “Unfortunately we ca-”

  “Name’s Brian, Brian Turner, but everyone calls me Bri. And this sad sack ‘ere is Ronald. He goes by Ronald.” Bri chuckled, “Makes it kinda hard to have a serious conversation with him though.”

  Ronald grumbled again, “Makes me uncomfortable when you share my personal information with people.”

  “What? Like you first name? Heh… Ronald.”

  I guessed there was some kind of in-joke there that I was missing, that or Brian was a giant obnoxious douche. Either way I was eager for a subject change.

  “Who’s up for lunch?” I asked cheerfully, “I’m thinking subs, I could use some veggies that weren’t accompanied by a cubic ton of saturated fats.”

  Ronald seemed less than excited by my suggestion, but judging from the lack of a groan he was at least interested in my proposal.

  “Sounds good,” Bri replied, “I’ll call up and see what we can get delivered. We’ll have to go back to the cottage though, never know who’s bringin’ the food.”

  I started to wonder if all that was an elaborate ruse in order to try to get us to go back, but then I smothered the conspiracy theorist side of my brain with logic and reason.

  I found myself doing that often as of late, and to less effect each time…

  “Alrighty, let’s head back then.” Gerald said, deciding for the both of us, “I’ve been dying for some roast chicken.”

  “Oooh,” I replied excitedly, “yeah, me too. With some kind of sweet chilli sauce.”

  “Can we focus on gettin’ back to the cabin for now, hm?” Ronald snapped, “We’re awful exposed out here and I’d rather think with my stomach after the fear of imminent death was behind us, kay?”

  “Come on Ronald,” Bri teased, “where’s your sense of adventure?”

  Kylia: Chapter 6

  Lunch turned out to be pretty good once Ronald loosened up a bit. Granted a bunch of heavily armed men in armour significantly thicker than Bri’s and Ronald’s showed up in an armoured truck to deliver our food to us.

  Apparently the blokes in charge thought that ‘sandwiches’ was s
ome kind of code to indicate that we were being force-fed our feet.

  Other than that though it was almost like we weren’t under the watchful eye of the MPs, we were just a couple of people sitting on the floor by the fire and enjoying a meal.

  “So how long will you guys be watching us, eh?” Gerald asked between mouthfuls of chicken and lettuce, “Last guys weren’t here long is all.”

  Ronald and Bri shared a look, their balaclavas finally pulled up over their heads so they could eat.

  “Dunno,” Bri finally said, “I reckon we’ll probably pull a day shift though, at least. We’re pretty good at this kinda stuff, and we ain’t exactly got much goin’ on back home.”

  “Yeah,” Ronald scoffed before swallowing the rest of his sub in one bite, “try saying that after you’ve had a few kids.”

  “What?” Bri laughed, “You ain’t got any kids.”

  Ronald shrugged, “So? Point still stands.”

  Bri rolled his eyes at that and let out a little laugh before returning his attention to us, “You two plannin’ on havin’ any lil’ nightmares runnin’ about?”

  It was a fair question, not one I had an answer for, but a fair one.

  Gerald was a slightly less taken aback though, “Not sure yet. With the New Year coming up as quickly as it is I don’t think that it’s the best idea to be making plans that could affect a child’s quality of life, you know?”

  Ronald raised his eyebrow and smiled, “You really think you two need to worry about getting deported? Really?”

  “Well… yeah?” I said before Gerald could jump in, “Why wouldn’t we be?”

  “Because you’re… you.” Bri said with a sincerity that I didn’t think he was capable of, “I mean, if you two don’t end up bein’ able to stay, then what hope do the rest of us have?”

  I hadn’t thought about it like that, that maybe we were having a bigger effect on the general populace after being moved to a safe house on the other side of the country.

  Did people really see us as untouchable?

  “I don’t know about all that,” Gerald laughed meekly, “but I’ll still be operating under the assumption that the absolute worst thing is going to happen.”