by Ian Rodgers
She shook her head. “Does trouble follow-sneak around you at all times? I must wonder if you are perhaps cursed.”
“You can say that again,” Dora muttered under her breath. She then shook her head and glanced around the alley. “Let’s just get out of here before more trouble finds us.
“Wise,” Long-Tail-Shadow stated, agreeing with the idea and she pointed at a building on the opposite end of the street. “There, that is the building we must enter.”
It was a roughly conical structure made of a honey colored brick. The whole thing was upside-down, with the point dipping below the street level and connecting to another building a whole Floor deeper.
I glanced at it worriedly. “Are you sure? Because there are a lot of orcs stationed around it.”
Long-Tail-Shadow grimaced as she saw the two-dozen green-skinned criminals standing about, but nodded. “Annoyance-problem they are, but structure-building is indeed right-correct. Need to stealth-sneak in.”
“Should we cause a distraction to get them to move away from the entrance?” Dora suggested.
“Good-smart idea,” the Rakkar agreed. Three minutes and a heated discussion later, we had a plan for forcing the Iron Bristle orcs to move aside.
“Cover your noses,” I warned them, and once all three had clamped hands over their nostrils, I rolled forward and pointed a tendril at the group of orcs loitering in front of the building.
Seconds later, a greenish purple haze began to appear around the street, and several orcs doubled over, heaving and retching. They scattered, trying to escape the cloud of foul scents I had conjured up.
Behind me, Dora, Gaelin, and Long-Tail were all gagging and trying not to breathe.
“Oh, that is nasty!” Gaelin choked out.
“My hands do nothing!” Dora wept even as she kept them clamped over her nose. Long-Tail-Shadow whimpered in agreement, her eyes watering.
“Calm down, it’s just an illusion of a smell,” I told them. “It’ll fade within a few minutes and won’t cling or linger, so let’s go now, while the orcs are distracted!”
They looked up and saw that the thugs previously gathered around the entrance had fled, leaving the way clear. We all rushed through the fog of illusory scents I’d laid down. Thanks to my unique biology, I was able to shut off my sense of smell, which I was quite pleased about. I’d experimented with the False Scent spell before, and it was an illusion-type spell to make whoever smelt the gas smell their least favorite scent, amplified ten-fold.
Once we’d fled into the interior of the building that was marked with a green lotus, I waved a tendril and dispelled the potent scent-based spell and my friends breathed in the fresh, if slightly dusty, air with gasps of relief.
“Never again,” Dora moaned, before turning to Long-Tail-Shadow. “So, we just go down?”
“Yes-yes, down we go!” Long-Tail’s head bobbed up and down. “The basement-bottom connects to the attic-top of the building on the Floor beneath! Stealth-sneak through it, and we arrive-reach our destination!”
“This city’s architecture is bizarre but surprisingly useful,” Gaelin mused as we headed off to find the stairs leading down. “Fun, too.”
“I just want to leave this place already,” Dora sighed. “I’ve had too much excitement and fetch quests for one day.”
“This is nothing,” I snorted, Gaelin nodding beside me. “I once had to do a mission for the Adventurer’s Guild that had me traveling halfway across Varia just to get everything I needed, and then the client canceled, saying they actually already had everything they wanted, they just forgot where it was in the first place!”
“Ouch, that sounds annoying,” the Healer winced.
“Lily and I had a quest like that, once,” the halberdier said, recalling his own time as an adventurer. “A woman wanted a certain kind of flower, so we had to run around Sanc Aldet trying to find a florist that had one. And we did, but they wouldn’t part with it without a seed of it to replace it, meaning we had to find a Druid to help us with that, but he wouldn’t do that without us doing him a favor… Ugh, that was a long Cynday…”
“Hush-quiet! We don’t want to be spotted-noticed!” Long-Tail hissed at us.
“Um, who owns this building anyways?” I asked, noting the Rakkar’s worried glances as we delved deeper. A loud buzzing interrupted her before she could reply.
“They do,” Long-Tail-Shadow said weakly, pointing a paw at a spinning cloud of green and black bees that were surging towards us.
“Run-scatter! Get to the basement-bottom!” she cried, and we bolted, running as fast as we could with the swarm behind it. I cast a few low-powered Wind spells at the insects, hoping to disperse them, or at the very least inconvenience them.
It worked for a while, the cloud of insects being scattered by the harsh bursts of air I shot at them, but the swarm learned fast, and was soon avoiding my spells by opening up holes in their mass to let the attacks pass through harmlessly.
While running from the rapidly adapting swarm, we came to a large spiral staircase that led downwards. Dora gulped as she stared down at the sheer number of steps to take.
“There!” Long-Tail shouted, pointing at the bottom of the stairs where an old stone door stood. “That door leads to the Fourth Floor!”
“What are we waiting for?!” Gaelin asked, and grabbed Dora, picking her up in his right arm and Long-Tail-Shadow under his right, and proceeded to leap from the top of the stairs. His Shapeless Raiment snapped open, creating a parachute that slowed their fall.
I followed behind, jumping down and using magic to slow my descent. I reached the door first and jiggled the handle with a tendril.
“It’s locked!” I shouted up at the trio as they drifted down when it refused to open.
“Owner must have locked-sealed it after I used it last time!” Long-Tail-Shadow called back. “See if you can pick-hack the lock-seal!”
I stared at the door, trying to spot a way to open it. There was no physical lock that I could see, and there were no magical defenses, either. Peering closer, I spotted some globs of resin smeared into the gaps between the door and its frame.
‘That must be it! He glued the door shut!’ I realized. A thin tendril, no thicker than a hair, emerged from my body and I prodded some of the gunk sealing the door. I sampled some of the material, ‘tasting’ it with my unique biology.
‘Hmm, some sort of tree sap-based substance. Heat should soften it up,’ I mused as I analyzed the resin. I began to grow more tendrils and placed them around the door frame, before silently casting a simple Warmth spell from them, the energy directed right at the sealant.
By the time my friends landed, I’d melted away most of the gunk keeping the door stuck.
“Is it open yet?” Dora asked, blushing faintly from being carried by a man.
“Almost got it…” I replied, but the droning buzz of our pursuer caused her to frown and Long-Tail-Shadow to stiffen up in fear.
“Let’s go!” Gaelin cried out, shoulder checking the door. With a crack, the door burst open, globs of semi-melted resin spraying outwards. To our surprise, a cry of pain rang out as we saw an orc, covered in Iron Bristle piercings, clutching at his face where hot tree sap had spattered over him. No doubt a guard to keep watch over the exit.
Gaelin carefully stepped over the cringing green-skinned criminal, letting Dora and Long-Tail-Shadow down afterwards, and I followed behind him, closing the door as I did so. I caught a glimpse of the swarm appearing in the air near the foot of the staircase. The cloud of greenish bees took the shape of a humanoid figure and shook a fist at me before the door swung shut.
“Should we be worried about this guy?” Dora asked, kicking the downed orc for emphasis.
“Nah, he’s no threat to us,” Gaelin replied, not bothering to spare a glance for the pitiful green-skin. “We should just head back to the warehouse and take the teleporter back to Lord Grandor.”
“You’re running errand-tasks for the Hollow Ston
e?” Long-Tail-Shadow gasped in awe.
“It’s mostly materials for making us weapons,” I stated. “We need them to fight the Void.”
“Th-the Void?” Long-Tail gasped, tightly grasping her bandaged left hand, and Dora nodded.
“Yup! Turns out I was a Chosen One all along. And these two with me are the same.”
The poor Rakkar looked fit to faint as she stared wide-eyed at all of us. The Healer patted her softly on the shoulder.
“Hey, it’s okay! Nothing’s changed between us! You’re still my friend, got that? Being a Chosen One won’t make any difference,” Dora said soothingly.
Slowly, the rat-woman nodded, but there was a definite hint of fear in her eyes. Whether Long-Tail-Shadow was afraid of Dora’s newfound power and status, or the thought of being chased by Void-spawned abominations for associating with one of the few beings capable of challenging the Void, was still unknown. But Dora gave a strained smile. It wasn’t hard for me to imagine that she felt she was going to lose a friend after this revelation.
“W-we still need to scurry-hurry to escape-avoid more Iron Bristles,” the Rakkar said, hastily turning away from Dora. “You said you have a teleporter?”
“Yeah, it’s in a warehouse on this floor. Hard to miss it: it has a huge hole in the side from the first time Dora visited this place,” Gaelin joked, trying to ease the tension. Long-Tail laughed nervously, before leading us towards the warehouse district of the Fourth Floor.
As we slunk through the dark streets and back alleys, I rolled over to Dora’s side.
“Don’t worry too much,” I tried to reassure the blonde half-orc. “The same thing happened to me when I was discovered to be an Ooze in a tiny village called Norhelm.”
“Oh? How did that turn out?” Dora asked me, curious.
“Err, well, not so good,” I admitted. “See, the person who discovered I was disguising myself was the daughter of a farmer, and she had a crush on me after I saved her from a Dire Boar. So, when she found out I wasn’t even remotely human by stalking me and catching me transform into my true form, she uh, took it badly.”
“How badly?” Dora asked, giving me a concerned look.
“Pitchforks and torches bad,” I replied dryly, before snorting. “Who even does that anymore?”
“This isn’t really cheering me up or making me feel better about the situation between me and Long-Tail,” the Healer pointed out, and I mimed a shrug.
“Be glad your friend hasn’t tried to chase you out of town with pitchforks and torches?” I offered. She slapped her forehead and groaned.
“Sorry, not too good at pep talks,” I admitted weakly. “But what I was trying to get at was that the reaction and outcome could have been worse. And even if Long-Tail-Shadow decides to distance herself from you, at least you have us.”
Dora sighed, before reaching down and petting me softly. “Thanks, Jellik.”
“Please, call me Jelly,” I said, but she giggled and shook her head.
“Not a chance,” she snickered.
We ran on, the mood lifted, until Long-Tail-Shadow raised a hand. We stopped behind her as she sniffed the air cautiously.
“Lots of orcs near-ahead,” she revealed, peering around the corner. “Is warehouse-structure the one with big hole in its side?”
“Yes,” Dora admitted, and the Rakkar nodded.
“Rush-smash through the orcs. Get to portal-vortex. Leave. Sound like plan-idea?” she asked us, and Gaelin stepped forward.
“Leave the vanguard position to me,” he declared proudly, pounding a fist against his chestplate. Long-Tail nodded in acceptance, sliding to the side and pressing up against the alley’s wall to allow him to pass.
With a battle cry, Gaelin charged into the mass of orcs, sweeping his halberd in front of them, bowling over the guards positioned around the defaced warehouse. He refused to kill them, though, and simply left the orcs groaning in pain or unconscious.
“Go-go!” Long-Tail-Shadow cried out, shoving Dora and me. We booked it for the hole in the side of the wall, and I could sense that the teleportation array was still intact based on the swirl of dimensional energy that clung to the building.
All four of us made it inside the warehouse, and Gaelin took up position near the opening, guarding it and keeping on the lookout for more Iron Bristles.
“Let me activate the teleporter so it takes us to Grandor,” I said, rolling over to the array. I pressed the emblem the master smith had given me against the ring that contained the vortex of dimensional magic.
Runes along the surface of the jade ring glowed purple and silver, and the portal turned iron-grey with flecks of gold swirling about within.
“Come with us, Long-Tail!” Dora shouted, grabbing her friend’s paw. “You’ll be safe with us!”
“Safe?” the Rakkar repeated, confused.
“Do you think the Iron Bristles will just give up on chasing you? If you don’t come with us, you’ll be surrounded by gangsters and criminals, all after your head! And even as skilled as you are, I don’t think you can make it out safely with so many of them surrounding the area!” Dora pointed out.
“She’s got a point,” Gaelin piped up, his head poking out of the hole in the warehouse. “I can see a large number of angry, metal-studded orcs coming this way. Including the guy you hit with that spell, Jellik.”
“Does he look mad?” I asked, and Gaelin snorted.
“Hells yeah he’s mad. Who wouldn’t be after being hexed and having a trouser accident in the middle of a crowd of people he’s supposed to be leading and oppressing?” the halberdier retorted. Suddenly he ducked and a ballista bolt tore the air where Gaelin’s head had been a second before, the massive siege projectile embedding itself in the wall. “Oh, and he’s packing heat. And lots of it!”
“Just great,” I sighed, before pointing a tendril at the portal. “Everyone, get in! Dora, you go first!”
“What about yourself?” she asked worriedly.
“I have to be the last one through, otherwise the portal will stop leading to Grandor’s forge, and you’ll be trapped on this side,” I explained.
“Understood,” Dora said, and dragged Long-Tail-Shadow over to the teleportation array. “Come on, Long-Tail! Let’s go!”
She ran through, pulling the distressed Rakkar along with her. I shook myself in amusement, before turning my attention to Gaelin.
“You’re next!”
“Be safe!” he shouted, dashing towards the array and all but jumping in. Looking back at the hole, I could see that the Iron Bristle gang had gotten a lot closer, and their leader was scowling at me through the opening.
“Bye!” I called out, waving a tendril cheerfully at him as I called upon a powerful spell.
I had no idea if they could follow or track us, since Grandor’s emblem had all sorts of defensive features inlaid into it. But, I wanted to make absolutely sure, so I crafted a huge ball of compressed plasma, which would expand violently several seconds after I left. It would wreck the building, and utterly destroy the teleportation array on this side.
My spell complete, I lobbed it above my head as I dove through the flickering vortex of grey and gold.
I was spat out of a portal with a loud ‘Krump!’ of displaced air as part of the explosion I’d left behind in Down was transmitted briefly through the teleportation array. Then the portal faded, and I was left lying on the ground at the feet of the master smith himself.
“Well, did you get the stuff?” Grandor demanded, a glint of excitement in his eyes.
“Yup!” I happily informed him, and began to remove it from my Dimensional Pocket.
The Hollow Stone rubbed his hands together in glee, before turning his attention to the others who had emerged from the portal before me.
“Alright, I’m going to need your help every so often to finish up your weapons. Are you ready to sweat?” he asked.
“Um, no,” Dora replied honestly. The dwarf just cackled and slapped her on the shou
lder.
“Well, you will.”
The half-orc groaned and Long-Tail-Shadow giggled. Gaelin just tapped his foot impatiently. As for me, seeing a master creating my own personal weapon was quite exciting. I couldn’t wait to start!
Chapter 13: Forging a Legend
“I wasn’t expecting blacksmithing to be so boring and repetitive,” I complained, sitting on top of a spear that’d been driven into the ground outside of Grandor’s forge.
We’d finished our obligations to help him, and he’d thrown us out of the workspace in order to complete the final touches to our weapons, leaving us with some rare relaxation time.
Gaelin huffed in amusement beside me. He was sitting on the ash and soot strewn dirt, his back leaning up against a massive blade that would be best used by something close to a hundred feet taller than himself.
“I can’t imagine what you were expecting, though. Even if he does have some neat tricks, like adding Yeti dandruff to the quenching barrel so the water would be the perfect temperature no matter how hot the rest of the area got, it’s still a job that involves banging bits of metal together over and over,” the halberdier replied to me.
He then glanced over at where Dora and Long-Tail-Shadow were sitting. The two young women were chatting beneath the shade provided by a massive battle axe. Dora was grinning widely and even Long-Tail was opening up, her actions and gestures less shy and wary and more animated.
Yet I couldn’t help but notice the way Gaelin was staring, almost glaring, at the Rakkar next to Dora.
“Knock it off, Gaelin,” I sighed. “She’s harmless.”
“I know that! But I can’t help feel something is off about her,” Gaelin responded, forcing himself to look away. He clutched at his left arm unconsciously.
“Ever since that Void Wisp cut me up and infected me with its foulness, I’ve been sensitive to the presence of Void energy. When I confronted the World Rebellion Apostle in Val’Narash, my old wounds were screaming at me in agony. And they’re acting up around her,” he revealed.
