by Dakota Krout
“Outside my pay grade.” Jaxon took a deep breath. “Smells nice, though. Better than the city by far. Should we go find this Bearington fellow?” There were only a few non-residential buildings in the entire town, so it wasn’t overly difficult to find the city hall. In fact, it turned out to be the smallest building within the town’s borders.
“This is a nice change,” Alexis stated as they walked into the building. “Government not using tax money to make itself look fancy? Most unrealistic thing about this entire game, and I’ve seen a man shatter a rock by staring at it.”
Their Spartan surroundings allowed them to see the man that must have been the Mayor. Sir Bearington was sitting at a desk talking to two others who were writing out his decrees. He looked up at them as they entered the building, huffing in annoyance at their interruption. Joe looked over the extraordinarily hairy man, a bit confused. His instincts were screaming something at him, and he could feel his skill ‘Hidden Sense’ going wild. No wonder the person who had scouted this town had said that something strange was going on. This place was sure to be the epicenter of oddity.
“Good morning. Sir Bearington, I presume?” Joe’s words were seemingly ignored, so he decided to get to the point. “I am here as a representative of my guild. Within three days, the majority of my guild will be joining us in the area. We have been charged by the Kingdom to bring this area back under the banner of Ardania, and I would love for us to begin our relationship on a positive note. Is there anything that we can do for the town that would allow us-”
The mayor stood, and at full height, he was an unbelievable eight feet tall. His eyes narrowed, and he glared at Joe before speaking with a booming voice. It seemed he had a cold, though, because a few of his words seemed a bit twisted. “You walk in here and tell me you want us to be friends at the same time that you are saying that your guild is coming to take over no matter what we do? To me, it seems that you should be treated as invaders coming to destroy our way of life, our entire bearitage!”
Joe had expected this reaction, to a degree. “We are not coming here to take over, nor do we want to destroy your heritage. We are coming to join the town, offer protection against monsters, and grow our communal strength. There will be no coups, no overthrowing of the local government.”
“So what do you call coming and changing things without permission?” Thick and hairy hands pawed at the air in agitation. “I’m not going to give you permission to do a dang thing. No land, no sale of goods, no… no, forgive me, that isn’t fair. I don’t want to be overbearing to this degree. Tell you what, man-cub. I’m elected. I’ll make this simple for you. If you go and get permission from every building owner in the town to come and live here, you can join us with a high reputation. Otherwise, you’re gonna be seen as invading outsiders, and we’ll do everything we can to make your life difficult here.”
“Why can’t we just buy some land and use it for our own purposes?” Joe challenged in reply. “You can keep your government and pipe dreams of not being a part of the Kingdom.”
“All the land ‘round here belongs to the town. No one needs to own anything more than their house or shop. No outside trade means no need to hoard goods in hope of selling them. We all participate in feeding and clothing our people. You wanna drink? You contribute more to the town in the form of grain, and we make alcohol. Need clothes? Bring them the equal value in food or other goods. We don’t want you here. You’ll destroy our economy just by existing.”
“What economy?” Joe was beginning to get upset. “This entire town is falling apart! Every building I’ve seen is built by stacking logs! Every winter you must freeze, and I already know for a fact what summer feels like! You are all surviving, sure, but none of you are succeeding! Everything that I’ve seen–from the houses to the clothes on your people’s backs–is one bad winter away from being completely erased from the world. Just like your citizens. We can change that! We can bring trade, skilled workers, and specialized tools!”
A deep rumble filled the room, but the mayor stopped the roar that was building in his chest. He took a deep breath and glared at Joe. “Tradition, boy. We haven’t had to change our ways in over a hundred years, when the kingdom pulled its forces and left us to fend for ourselves. They abandoned us. They basically fed us to the wolves, and we were forced to grin and bear it! Think on that for a bit as you look down your nose and change our lives to better fit your comfort level.”
Joe didn’t know how to respond to that, and even though he was fuming, he recognized that the man had made a good point. He shook his head violently. No! They might be content, but they were simply existing. None of them knew better, so they didn’t know what they were missing! Knowing the mayor wouldn’t want to continue their conversation, Joe simply motioned to his team and left. There was a quest notification waiting for him as he walked outside.
Quest updated: The Secret of Sir Bearington. The mayor of the town has issued a challenge to you to get permission from every person in town who owns a building. As this is a ‘secret’ quest, this is only one possible way of completing this quest. Reward for completing the quest using this method: Ability to join the town with a high starting reputation. Failure: A massive loss of reputation with the town’s residents if your guild relocates here.
Joe discussed this method with the other members of his party, and they all agreed that it had a very low chance of success. For now, though, this was the only clue they had been given. They decided that they would go door to door, and if worst comes to worst, they would likely still gain a plethora of small quests. Perhaps they would be able to find some other information that would open a new door for them.
They were right, and also very wrong. The party went to the first shop in town, the blacksmith. After discussing amongst themselves, they decided to have Bard do the talking. He had a high skill level in speech as well as a high charisma from his class. Entering the shop, they were given a searching, suspicious once-over from the proprietor. Bard cleared his throat and began to speak, “Goo’ mornin tae ye. We’re comin here to try and ge’ on yer goo’ side. ‘Ow ye feel about slappin’ on ah smile and tellin’ the mayor that yer think we’d be ah good addition tae this here town?”
Staring at the Skald sweating from the heat of the forge, the blacksmith tried to parse his words. “You need me to give you a pass to join our town? A whole mess of people that’ll come here and bring fancy new smithing techniques and run me out of business? You want me to lose my job with a smile on my face?”
“Ah mean, ah think we’d be happy to help ye out if ya needed sommat done,” Bard stated lamely.
A smile curled the lips of the blacksmith. “Now we can talk! In fact, I do have something you could do for me that would make my estimation of you increase heavily. My family used to run a mine in the area, but it was overrun by Wolfmen a while back. They eventually abandoned it, but now, all sorts of critters call it home. You clear out every monster in there for me, and not only will I give you a glowing recommendation, I’ll give y’all a discount on ores and a few hundred gold.”
Quest alert: Foreboding Ferrum. To get into the blacksmith’s good graces, he has asked you to clear his family’s iron mines. His words don’t match the glint in his eyes, and it is likely that you are being sent to your death. Why are you waiting? Accept already! Reward: Reputation and a discount on ores. 300 gold. Failure: Cannot progress in this branch of the quest ‘The Secret of Sir Bearington’. Accept? Yes / No.
The party looked at each other uneasily. Joe decided to take the initiative with his favorite phrase, “We’ll do it.”
“Excellent.” The blacksmith’s lips curled upward in pure satisfaction. “You have a map? Let me mark the location of the mine for you…”
~ Chapter Twelve ~
They were walking away from the sounds of metal being pounded flat when Jaxon suddenly contorted his face into a strange expression. “Did anyone else think that was a bit strange?”
“The fac
t that you are calling something else strange simply proves that it was creepy beyond words,” Alexis stated flatly, her irritation overriding her typical shyness.
Jaxon smiled at her with an overjoyed look replacing his previous one. “Thank you for having such faith in my judgment! It… it means so much!” He actually seemed to wipe away a tear.
“Jaxon…” Joe put his face in his hands. “Just… alright. Alright! We are low on time, so we should go to the mine right away. First, we need to find a place to set our bind point so that we don’t get tossed all the way back to Ardania if we die somehow.”
“Ah saw ah small temple back ah ways,” Bard supplied casually. He thought a moment longer. “Less than tha’, smaller, mayhap a shrine?”
“A shrine?” Joe grinned at the idea blooming in his mind. “Can you find the way back?”
“Easy.” Bard led them through town and out the gate. They walked for a few minutes, to the point that they were sure Bard had no idea where he was going. Just before Joe decided to say something, Bard pointed at an overgrown and rotten shack that stood about ten feet off the road.
Joe walked over excitedly, and sure enough, there was a small effigy contained in the room. He walked closer, and it started to hum with a weak power.
Would you like to make a donation of mana, stamina, or coin to the final shrine of the Spriggan, minor deity of nature and fertility? Yes / No.
There was an odd feeling of hopefulness attached to the words, and Joe nearly felt bad about selecting ‘no’. He stepped closer to the shrine, and a different kind of glow washed over him. Another message appeared, this one tinged with panic.
The shrine of the Spriggan is devoted to this forest and is a lesser nature deity. Your status as a Champion has been recognized! If you move any closer to the shrine… you moved closer! Stop! A call for protection has been issued to the beasts in the area. Leave now, and you will not be hunted! …Please go away.
Joe stepped forward and touched the effigy, even though he felt bad for doing so.
You have found an unguarded shrine! As you are not currently under attack, you have the option to rededicate this shrine to your deity. Would you like to do so now? Yes / No
Joe selected ‘yes’, and the image of a woman formed from a tree warped. Soon, the stone drooped and collapsed into a mud puddle. From the puddle rose a book, the decay and moss that had covered the previous effigy nowhere to be seen. Joe felt a pull on his mana, and a full half of it was drained from his pool of power.
The mana he lost washed outward, reinforcing and repairing the small shack that had been built around the shrine. The shape of the small building began to change; the triangular roof turned into a stone book placed upside down, and the walls became books placed open and upright. It was a beautiful building, eye-catching and somehow subtle at the same time. Soon it looked like a proper rest stop, or a comfortable place you could come and study on a lazy evening.
You have converted the final shrine of a deity! Unless one of their champions can muster the power to undo your conversion, any blessings this deity has given out will be removed, and any abilities bestowed will be turned into skills. Any progress gained by their worshipers will be retained, but all extra effect from the divine will be lost.
You have earned a reward from the continuous quest: Reclamation of the lost. After making a new shrine for Tatum, you have been blessed! You have gained: +1 perception. +1 free skill point. You have gained the buff ‘pierce the veil’ for thirty-six hours.
Pierce the veil: Illusions and mind-altering effects are 50% less effective. Likelihood of finding rare items is increased by 5%. Time remaining until buff ends: 35:59.
“What did you just do to this place?” Alexis gaped at the changed building, running her hands over the smooth marble the walls appeared to be made of.
“I… polished it up?” Joe offered with a too-innocent smile. He tuned out other distractions and tried to follow his ‘hidden sense’. After a few minutes of crawling around on the dirt floor, he brushed aside a clump of dirt and found a small symbol. Pouring mana into it, he gained the option to add this shrine as a fast-travel node. “Yes, yes, and yes!”
He hid the symbol by replacing a bit of dirt, and watched as a bright white circle appeared around the shrine. No one else reacted, which made him nod in satisfaction. Exactly the same as last time, the circle was only visible to people that had access to it. Joe smiled as he looked around; now this shrine would act as a fast-travel destination! “Looks like we can set this as our bind point. Just walk up to the shrine, and you should get the option.” He bound himself here, and the others followed suit. After making sure they were all prepared, the group started walking, following their map to where the entrance of the mine should be.
Sound from the forest started to wane as they approached their destination. There were fewer birds chirping, fewer small animals rustling in the underbrush, and even the vegetation in the area seemed lackluster. Joe noticed that there was a strange fungus growing on some of the trees, and some of the smaller plants were visibly wilting. Was all of this an effect of whatever was in the mine?
They drew closer to their destination and found an overgrown trail that had likely been the main road to the mines in the past. The area around the mine entrance was filled with young growth, mostly long grass and ferns with a few saplings mixed in. This area must have been clear-cut to allow better access, but over time, nature had begun creeping back in.
“I think that’s the entrance.” Alexis pointed at a hole in the world. It was a logical conclusion; the trail went straight to the hole, and this was where they had been directed to. The mine didn’t look like much, but Joe supposed not everything had a grand entryway. In fact, seeing the state of the town, Joe would have been far more nervous if there was a grand doorway awaiting them.
They trudged over to the mine, nervous energy filling them as they waited for whatever trap this was to be sprung. Nothing jumped out at them, and none of them fell over from unseen attacks. They walked into the mine, finding that after the entryway, it widened enough for two of them to walk side-by-side. Joe inspected the others for signs of claustrophobia but only saw typical wariness. Even if they would be freaked out in real life, there was something about knowing that you would be revived if something went wrong that was… freeing? Hmm, that didn’t quite cover it. Was there a word that meant ‘the ability to be totally reckless’?
“Wait one momen’.” Bard coughed into his fist to clear his throat and started chanting lightly, “Bones of iron and skin of stone, like calls to like… now leave us alone!”
For a single moment, Joe felt like the earth was pressing down on him. He felt like he would be smashed into the rock around him, swallowed deep into the mantle. Then it all fell away. Taking in a shuddering breath, he locked eyes with Bard. “What in the world did you just do?”
Bard shrugged and gestured at Joe. “All of ye now have ‘protection from earth’. Half damage from any earth based sources! Didja think ah was only some fancy axe-man? Ahm ah Skald, blast it!”
“Bones of steel you say?” Jaxon looked at his fingers, trying to determine if the buff would have any impact on his abilities.
“It’s ah metaphor, and ah clearly said 'bones of iron'!” Bard slapped wiggling fingers away as Jaxon reached for him. “Get off!”
“Really good idea. Thanks, Bard,” Alexis muttered quietly. Joe smirked a bit; it seemed their most introverted member had taken a shine to their performer.
They walked deeper into the mine, but while Joe continued walking boldly, the others were faltering. Joe looked at them quizzically, but they didn’t return the look or explain their actions. When Alexis spoke up, he found his answer. “Um, did anyone bring a torch, by chance?”
Right. Joe had Darkvision. He waited for the others to answer, but no one spoke up. “No one has a torch? We came to a mine, people!”
“You are the party leader, are you not?” Jaxon smugly stated into the darkness.
“Planning falls on you.”
“I can see in the dark!” Joe was getting frustrated; his team only seemed to focus in on their areas of interest. Wait… there was something there. An idea. “Hey… Alexis?”
“Um, yes?” Alexis could hear the dark satisfaction in Joe’s voice; it added a creepy undertone to his words.
“Why should we all slink into the darkness and fight unknown amounts of creatures? What would you need in order to fill this place with poison?” Joe’s enthusiasm faded a bit as she shook her head.
“Taking out the entire mine? I’d need a barrel the size of a man, two hundred sets of my needed herbs, some way to stop the finished product from dispersing, a delivery system, and also a stopper or seal to stop fresh air from getting down here.” Alexis was listing things out on her fingers, checking some unknown list in her head. Apparently, this was something she thought about fairly often.
Jaxon spoke next, “Couldn’t we build an extra smoky fire in the entryway and poison the place that way?”
Alexis seemed to be in her element. “No, that’s a simplistic myth. If this was a single-room cave, that might work. A mine tends to have air shafts drilled throughout, not to mention that smoke moves up, not down. If you can find a way to block the entrance, keep air going to the fire, and blow the smoke down the tunnel without adding fresh oxygen… then that would work.”
“So what yer sayin’ is tha’ we ah gooin’ in, and we should naw keep blabbin and telling tae beasties that we’re comin?” Bard shook his head and lifted up a thick bundle of sticks. “Ah stepped outside, collected these, and came back in tae time it took ye to fight it out! Didja even notice ah was gone?”
