“And you didn’t think to put a warning in there?”
Ritlo shrugged and finally put down the tankard, “Figured it wouldn’t matter.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because I figured that anyone who was daft enough to go up there would just end up getting killed.”
I have to be honest, I wasn’t expecting that reply, “So why put up the contract?”
“Townsfolk wouldn’t quit pesterin’ me about it,” Ritlo replied before grabbing up another tankard and going to work on drying it, “so, up goes that piece o’ parchment, everyone leaves me alone. Look, are you gonna grab your reward and leave or what?”
I was still a bit thrown off, but I figured that there wasn’t much point in continuing the conversation and settled for a simple nod.
Received 5000 gold.
18,885 gold.
“I… what?” I stammered out, “That seems a bit excessive, doesn’t it?”
“Good pay for good work,” Ritlo replied, “and I know someone you could see about getting that green stuff under control, if you’re interested.”
“For a fee?” I asked, expecting to be swindled out of a good deal of my reward.
“No fee, just the promise that you won’t end up replacing that Aldok and taking residence up in the mountains.”
It almost seemed to be too good to be true, and then I realised what the catch would be.
“I’ll lose my position in the Necromancer Order, won’t I?” I asked, not really wanting to know the answer.
“Aye,” Ritlo replied, giving me a stern look as he did so, “and the world’ll be better for it. It’s up to you, but I hope you make the right choice.”
I didn’t like the way he’d worded that, like there was some kind of ‘right’ choice, but I could definitely see that there was a good and a bad choice.
On the one hand, giving up my position in the Necromancer Order didn’t seem like it’d be particularly fun, especially considering how I’d decided to go all evil and have a blast with that side of the path.
But then again, I could always get the information, then not do anything with it until I’d had my fun.
“Alright,” I finally said with no small amount of disdain, “how do I fix it?”
“There’s an old wizard, guy from the old world,” Ritlo said, lingering on that last part a while after marking my map that had somehow appeared on the counter, “he’ll know how to purify you.”
I snatched my map back and slid it into my knapsack like a child ensuring their last lolly wasn’t eaten by anyone else, “Is there any chance he’ll try to kill me given my current… appearance?”
Ritlo shrugged his large shoulders and gave me a half-smile, “Maybe, but you might get lucky. It’s up to you whether you seek him out, though I will say I doubt you’ll have a good time doin’ business with folk if you hold onto that darkness for much longer.”
“Heh, whatever you say.” I replied dismissively before turning away and heading back toward the door, “Farewell.”
“Good day.”
Progress made in mission: Back From the Dead.
Objective completed: Talk to Ritlo the Innkeeper.
Objective added: Go to the Wizard.
“What an odd man…” I trailed off as I left the inn and walked over to the less-than patiently waiting Shadow-Stal, “Now, let’s go get my gear repaired, shall we?”
Armelia: Chapter 10
After successfully intimidating a blacksmith into repairing all my weapons and gear for free, I decided that I was going to do my best to put off getting myself ‘fixed’, mostly because I looked like the kind of mage you’d find at the end of a particularly gruelling dungeon.
“What say you we go and kill that Qock guy now?” I suggested as we rode out of town, “I reckon it’d be a good way to ensure that we don’t get absolutely brutalised by a gang of necromancers at some point down the road.”
Shadow-Stal didn’t respond, but Fluffy did that thing again where she slid down to the ground and started leading the way.
“Two against one.” I said proudly before stroking Shadow-Stal’s mane, “Don’t worry though, you always end up having fun when you get to kill some things.”
I suppose that should’ve been an indication of my potential turn to evil, the fact that I’d gone ahead and kept the gnarliest, murder-happy, and genuinely brutal horse in all of Tarthirious.
That, or it was a sign that I was far more naïve back when I’d first gotten him, perhaps thinking subconsciously that I could turn him over to the side of light and goodness.
Or it all meant nothing other than the fact that I didn’t want to get rid of my first horse because I was lazy as all Hel.
In any case, I found it all to be rather enjoyable, riding around with my cracked and evil skin, my ghastly looking horse, and my snake that would end up growing to the size of a bus.
The sun had begun to set and the world was starting to get coated in the inviting, if not slightly titillating darkness by the time I got across the vast land and had come to Ailren’s snow-capped fort.
Oh alright, so I teleported to where I could and took as many shortcuts as humanly possible, sue me, would’ve taken me hours upon hours otherwise.
Anyway, I’d gotten about fifty feet up the road from the fort before deciding to dismount, taking note of the fact that it was pretty odd for someone of Qock’s standing to take cover somewhere as bland as a random, abandoned fort.
“Hey!” I hissed at Fluffy who, in her excitement, had decided to start slithering her way toward the two obviously freezing guards posted at the ten-foot-high wooden gate, if you could call it that.
It was more like a gap, like somewhere that had recently had a cart or horse go through, and everyone had just decided that that was where they’d come and go.
“Fluffy, get back here!” I snapped before realising with a literal face-palm that I could simply make her disappear and did so.
Equipped Armelia’s Long Bow.
“Come on,” I muttered to myself as I ducked off into the snowy forest, “get your shit together…”
I didn’t particularly enjoy blaming myself for things, felt like I was dancing with the Devil that was my emotions, so I quickly forced myself to accept that the little slip was simply because I’d been playing for far too long.
Not that I was thinking about stopping, no, it was just a reason that was simpler to swallow than accepting that I’d made a mistake.
“Now, who’s first?” I asked with a sick sort of delight as I drew an arrow and looked between my two potential targets, ignoring the fact that, courteous of my glowing, I was entirely too visible in the treeline.
The necromancers didn’t appear to notice though, which isn’t altogether surprising considering what I had was basically a pretty new skin. That being said, it was the sort of thing that would’ve totally broken any sense of immersion that I’d had at any other time, and it made me aware of just how much I was willing to sacrifice in order to ignore what was going on in the real world.
I finally loosed my arrow, hitting the guy on the left in the neck.
Critical Hit!
2x Sneak Damage!
Apparently oblivious to his mate’s gruesome but silent death, the guard on the right continued to stare out into the forest with a sort of bored look on his face, even as the one on the left hit the ground and managed to spurt him with a little bit of blood.
“Well, so far, so good.” I said confidently as I nocked another arrow and got ready to take out the second guard, “This is gonna be easier than I-”
I didn’t get a chance to finish my sentence, Shadow-Stal had already come barging out of nowhere, smashing into the remaining necromancer like a train with hooves, and taking him along for a bloody, bludgeoning ride.
“That was…” I trailed off, waiting for some kind of alarm to sound and everyone in the fort to come streaming out, but eventually resigned myself to the fact that, despite Shadow-Stal’s brut
al and loud murdering, the rest of the necromancers were completely ignorant of what was going on just outside their walls, “unexpected. Who the Hel hired these guys?”
Ailren Qock’s Fort discovered.
Journal entry made.
With all the stealth of a shadow in the night wearing an invisibility cloak and a-oh alright.
I stumbled through the front gate like a complete nonce, accidently stepped in a fire, woke up a group of very angry dogs, and practically kicked in the rickety door of the relatively small fort with all the finesse of a kid with brain damage rollerblading around on an oiled floor in a china shop.
Would you believe though, I didn’t alert a single bloody guard throughout the entire cacophonous ordeal.
Seriously, not a one.
“You all are bloody useless,” I scoffed as I went up a flight of stairs and narrowly avoided smashing my head into a trap made of bones hanging from the ceiling, “talk a big talk about being ‘Father’ while you what, dick about, jerking each other off?”
Unequipped Armelia’s Long Bow.
Equipped Necromancer’s Bane.
I probably shouldn’t have held such strong resentment for Qock’s group of sycophantic zombies, but there was something about the guy that left me feeling somewhat uneasy.
In an attempt to steer my focus to more productive things, I started taking in the structure around me.
It was a rather simplistic design, few black flags hung here, a couple of skulls there, but it was also clearly rotten to the core, and I couldn’t decide whether it was due to Qock’s followers ignorance of the problems, or if they were simply too blinded by their love and trust for Qock that they were willing to overlook the practically blinding issues.
“Shit!” I hissed as I ducked back around a corner mere moments before getting almost literally run into by one of the necromancers.
For the longest time I waited for the necromancer to start shouting out a warning to his compatriots, but when I snuck a quick little look around the corner I discovered that the necromancer had turned around and resumed his patrol of other areas.
“Oh, this is almost too easy.” I muttered to myself as I made my way toward the necromancer’s back, his torch’s weak light flickering off my serrated dagger’s blade as I got close enough to strike.
Critical Hit!
2x Sneak Damage!
+1 Singlehanded Blade Skill.
Progress: 36/100.
+10 XP.
Progress: 1770/7500.
He was dead before he hit the floor, the blade sinking deep into his neck while I used my free hand to lower him gently to the floor so as to avoid making any unnecessary noise.
“Seriously, are you guys even… trying?” I practically gulped as I rose to full height and saw a rather stunned-looking necromancer staring at the body on the floor, “Well, you see, the thing about that is-”
I cut myself off mid-sentence, instead opting to leap forward and slice the necromancer from Adam’s apple to family jewels in one swift motion.
Critical Hit!
My lungs felt about ready to leap from my chest right along with my heart as I watched the second necromancer topple to the floor, his cold, dead hand still clutching his torch.
“Alright then,” I whispered as I dropped into a crouched position and resumed my scanning of the halls, “no more cockiness, got it.”
Armelia: Chapter 11
With a newfound fear thrown into the mix, I’d become almost anally careful with my movements, going so far as to pause at each and every corner and doorway to ensure I wasn’t going to have another close call.
The process was actually a bit of a bitch though, and as I reached the top floor of the fort I couldn’t help but feel like I’d wasted ten solid minutes for nothing.
Still though, it was better than getting locked in a fight with a dozen-odd necromancers.
Anyway, I eventually found my first closed door, which I took as an indication that someone important was behind it and assumed the best.
With possibly an unhealthy amount of adrenaline coursing through my veins, I smashed through the door and darted across the room to the bed in a heartbeat, not bothering to take in any of the room beyond the sleeping necromancer and his oddly flamboyant resting area.
I went to finish the job, a quick stab and twist in the spine, but then Qock woke up, and I was forced to watch him rise out of bed like I was in a cutscene.
“What the Hel is this shit?” I snapped as Ailren locked me in conversation, and failed to say anything for a solid ten seconds before getting an incredibly shocked and offended look on his face.
“What are you doing in my quarters!?” Qock shrieked in an annoyingly high-pitched voice, “You have no right to…”
“No right to..?” I replied confusedly.
“You… you killed him…” Qock trailed off almost fearfully, “But, why are you here then, if not from being sent by him?”
“Simple, I don’t need anyone contesting my rule.” I said boldly, “And from what Aldok said, you have the potential to do that.”
It was at that point that Qock’s face decided to contort into something closer to offended than fear, “Potential?” he snarled derisively, “Girl, I have much more than ‘potential’, I am the Father of Tarthirious’ Necromancer Order, as recognised by many of my followers.”
“What followers? The people who you exposed to your way of thinking and no one else’s?” I mocked with a grin, “I take it there’s not much room for wiggling in your little group, is there? Your way or no way, right?”
“No,” Qock replied somewhat abashedly, “I mean, I’m not about to allow people to bring unnecessary conflict into my organisation.”
“But you do allow those people to have their voices heard, right?” I asked, knowing the answer, “Right?”
“I mean… it’s not like I’m going to allow those people to stay, it could potentially cause discontent amongst the rest of the necromancers.”
“Mmhm, sounds completely reasonable and not at all like a regime being led by an oligarchic system of misinformation and societal control.” I said almost automatically, “I guess it’s fair to say that you wouldn’t distribute power amongst your people if you were given anything remotely real, right?”
“Well, of course I’d have to hold the majority of the control,” Qock replied innocently, “but that’s only so someone worse doesn’t come along and snatch it up before a real necromancer can. Besides, a rising tide raises all ships.”
“Sure thing.” I chuckled, ensuring that he knew that I didn’t buy what he was selling for a second, “Any last words?”
“You can’t kill me,” Ailren Qock scoffed, “I’m the Father of Tarthir-”
“Yeah,” I interjected, stabbing him in the gut with the necromancer-killing knife as I did so, “heard you the first time.”
Progress made in mission: Path of the Necromancer.
Objective completed: Find and Kill Ailren Qock.
Objective added: Escape Ailren Qock’s Fort.
I spent a few seconds standing over Ailren’s corpse, waiting for it to come back to life and start throwing me around the room, but he never did.
“Damn it…” I quietly muttered to myself, “It’s just one disappointment after another with you people, isn’t it?”
Unequipped Necromancer’s Bane.
To be perfectly honest, I was starting to get a bit disappointed with the quality of the missions and the fact that they’d been so damned easy, but it occurred to me as I slipped out of Ailren’s room that there was a reason why everyone and everything I went up against was proving to be about as difficult to fight as a recently drugged quadriplegic.
I’d lost my booster.
Sure there’d been a few fights here and there where I’d gone up against enemies without Gerry, but they were so few and far between that they didn’t even register next to all the battles and quests I’d done with him.
Without someone there to
directly affect the enemies’ level and, thereby, their strength and overall ability to kick my arse, I was passing through them like they were nothing.
That’s when an idea came to me, and I took a moment to pause just inside the fort’s gates and clean up my list of jobs, removing the ones that I’d forgotten about.
Custom Journal altered.
Learn magic.
Go to the MoDA.
Work on increasing:
Archery (22/50)
Singlehanded Blade (36/50)
Speech (11/50)
Enchanting (1/50)
Smithing (51/100)
They were simple notes, I know, and it certainly didn’t have the importance of things like kicking Aldok’s arse, but it was also something to work towards.
The goal was simple, level up a couple of semi-useless skills and a few useful ones as much as I could so I could get myself to a halfway decent level, with the semi-useless ones acting as padding so that the difficulty could spike without me being too multitalented.
Problem was that, despite my sudden direction and new goals, I still didn’t quite know what I wanted to do.
“Dive in and level up as quickly as possible…” I muttered to myself before looking over to my quest log, “or knock over a couple more quests?”
I wanted to make my missions more interesting, sure, but at the same time I kind of felt like I wanted to finish up with the college crap so I could start anew with something like the MoDA or demolishing the Likbrog gang.
“What to do, what to do…” I whispered to myself as I finally stepped off the fort’s land.
Progress made in mission: Path of the Necromancer.
Objective completed: Escape Ailren Qock’s Fort.
Objective added: Kill Aldok Dethrisr.
Objective completed: Kill Aldok Dethrisr.
Objective added: Go to the Girit Mage’s College.
End of Conflict Report:
3x Level 8 Necromancers.
1x Level 15 Grand Necromancer.
+1850 XP.
Progress: 3620/7500.
“College it is.” I chuckled before whistling for Shadow-Stal, who was apparently having the time of his life trampling the corpse of the guy he’d taken out before, “Come on, we’ve got a long ride ahead of us.”
Legends of Tarthirious: The Complete Collection Page 56
