The Ghost Tower: A LitRPG Adventure
Page 1
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
CONTENTS
MAP
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
About more LitRPG
Special Thanks
The Hundred Halls Universe
Also by Thomas K. Carpenter
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
The Ghost Tower
Book Three in the Kingmaker Saga
By
Thomas K. Carpenter
&
Rachel J. Carpenter
Copyright Information
The Ghost Tower
Book Three in the Kingmaker Saga
A LitRPG Adventure
Copyright © 2021 by Thomas K. Carpenter
Copyright © 2021 by Rachel J. Carpenter
Published by Black Moon Books
www.blackmoonbooks.com
Cover Artist/Illustrator Copyright © 2021 by Bad Moon Art Studio
www.badmoonart.com
Discover other titles by this author on:
www.thomaskcarpenter.com
This is a novel work of fiction. All characters, places, and incidents described in this publication are used fictitiously, or are entirely fictional.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, except by an authorized retailer, or with written permission of the publisher. Inquires may be addressed via email to thomaskcarpenter@gmail.com
CONTENTS
The Ghost Tower
MAP
About the Authors
Special Thanks
Other Works
Copyright
Start Reading Now
Chapter One
The figure in the cavernous brown robe whistled a happy song while he worked, clinking glasses and tubes together for percussion, a lightness in his heart that hadn't been there for hundreds of years. Black vines crept across the table, moving jars and tins out of the way, bringing him utensils as he desired, their resurging effectiveness reminding him of the power he'd once enjoyed.
Grimchar the Necrochanter caught a glimpse of himself in a polished silver pan and for the first time in a long time, he didn't recoil, but pressed his finger against his wrinkled, spotted cheek, celebrating the good fortune that had stumbled upon his door a few days ago.
"Oh, tralala," said the ancient mage, his gaze falling upon the adventurer that hung nearly motionless in a yellow vat of preservation liquid. "What a delicious energy you bring to the tower."
The poor sot had escaped the continent of Belavar on a pirate ship, which had crashed north of Salt Luck. His bad luck had continued when he was captured by a marauding band of Crag Trolls, who'd failed to keep a good eye on their charge. The adventurer, Falimar, had escaped with the help of his sentient cloak, but in his haste to escape, had stumbled through the Silent Plain and miraculously found Grimchar's tower. Grimchar knew these things because the information from Falimar's mind was slowly transferring over as he sucked him dry of energy.
The project Grimchar was working on slowly took shape under his aged hands, long fingernails as black as coal. His first chance encounter with an Offworlder back at Wunderlust Keep had not gone as well as his more recent one, destroying a valuable black crystal chip that he'd found recently. Nor had he known at the time that Terran was the leader of Gneiss Glen, a point of knowledge that would have ensured more caution. Grimchar had been focused on the rotted body of Lord Ostric, which had contained a valuable essence, not realizing the real prize was in the young man with the lynx companion.
"I won't make the same mistake a second time," said Grimchar to no one in particular.
If he weren't bound by the game world rules, he could have marched into Gneiss Glen, slaughtered the Rock Leaf Elves en mass, and taken the "mother" lode in one fell swoop, but having given up his former position within the game for a shot at immortality meant that he couldn't take the most direct route to his goal.
But he wasn't worried.
The hard part, surviving during the time between, when there were no Offworlders to feast upon, was over. It'd taken a lot of judicious planning to make it this far, but unlike his unsuspecting victims, he wasn't affected by their challenges.
The rot vines lifted a seething black mass for Grimchar to examine. The spores had taken a long time to perfect, but he knew they would do the job. He pressed his hand against the sickly yellowish sphere at the center of the room, drawing energy for the next task. His tired body wanted to take it for his own and rebuild broken flesh, but such luxuries were not yet at hand. Eventually he would be able to revel in health, but until then, sacrifices had to be made.
The fell energy that came from his outstretched hands crackled in the air, forcing the spore mass to shrink as it was compressed. Grimchar leaned into the creation, gritting his teeth so hard a molar in back split, spilling cancerous pus down his throat, but he persisted, maintaining the flow of magic from his hands. If he failed in his task, then nothing else would matter.
As the spore mass crunched into its final shape, hunks of hair fell from his head, and his pinky fingernail fell clean off, shattering into yellow-brown smoke when it landed, but then he could release the flow and watch the item cool, hissing nightmarishly.
He lifted the rot shard from the vines, which crumbled to dust, their purpose complete, and examined it closely. After a full ten minutes of study, he let the relief flow from his lips in a wheezing sigh.
"It is finished," said Grimchar, weary from effort.
But he wasn't finished. There was one more step.
The necrochanter made the long procession to the bottom of his tower, past the garden and his library, ignoring the buzzing of wings and gnashing of teeth that flittered around his head. A bone in his right foot snapped when he reached the bottom floor, but such pain was a familiar friend.
When he reached the entryway, an enormous black arm, covered in bark and insects, reached through the opening, collecting the rot shard from his hands. The mere touch of the creature made his skin turn black and crack like a baked desert. Grimchar cackled lightly as the beast marched away from his tower.
"A trap within a trap," he said, leaning against the threshold. "It begins."
Chapter Two
A flash of light forked across the sky as the air vibrated with an explosion of sound. Luna stood under a tall Rock Leaf pine tree, tail twitching, ears flattened to her head, looking out into the thick darkness. Her matted gray fur clung to her lithe frame as the heavy rain drenched her even through the boughs of the wide tree.
"This is miserable, and it won't get better anytime soon," she said to Terran through their mind link.
"Come on, quit lagging behind," Zara called out to Terran as he stopped next to Luna.
"We aren't going to find the thing in this kind of weather. Let's just find a dry cave and wait the
storm out," Terran suggested to everyone.
"Any tracks will be long gone by the time this storm ends. We need to stay on its trail right now," Zara responded, trying to rest the demon arm on her hip.
"Seems like the trail of death it leaves behind makes it easy enough to track even without footprints," Newt suggested meekly while avoiding eye contact with Zara. As soon as the rain started he had put his tome away and kept his head down, looking like a sad puppy having had its bone taken away.
Only Flynn seemed to have no opinion on the matter as he tossed a skull from hand to hand waiting for the others to make a decision. When he noticed they were all watching him, he gave a noncommittal shrug and kept juggling the skull he had simply named Skully.
"Look, Zara, we're all miserable. We can get back to hunting when this mess clears out. One good lightning strike and we'll respawn back at the settlement and have to start all over anyway. Let's find a dry spot," Terran said.
Zara let out a huff of breath. "Fine. I've never seen people complain so much over a bit of water. Don't blame me if this thing destroys the whole forest because you wanted to stay a little dry."
Three days prior a scout had returned to Gneiss Glen reporting a creature roaming the Rock Leaf Forest leaving a path of death in its wake. The elven scout wasn't sure what the creature was because she had not seen it, but she did find the forest was dying in a linear fashion as though its mere presence brought death to the land. Terran had immediately agreed to set out to find and destroy whatever was killing the newly re-established forest, and had asked his friends to join him.
It had felt like they were setting out on a long-awaited adventure together when they left the settlement an hour later. Everyone was in high spirits because it was the first time in many months that the group had been able to be together. After Terran had been transported upon death to Belavar due to a hag's curse, the group had been separated and Terran had worked for months to get back with his friends.
As they trudged through the rain looking for a cave or heavily wooded area to wait out the storm, Terran was reminded how much more difficult it could be to do things in a group. There was so much compromise needed, and Terran had gotten used to doing things on his own. Sure, Luna had an opinion, but seldom did she disagree with Terran, making it easy to get things done.
The group finally found a rocky overhang large enough for them to sit mostly out of the rain. After a long look at Zara, Newt sat down, pulled his tome out of his pack, and proceeded to keep his nose in his book. Zara got out her whetstone and, using her demon arm to hold her large double-sided axe, honed the edges. It was a tedious affair as she tried to control the arm, which kept trying to make large sweeping strikes with the axe instead of calmly running it across the whetstone.
Flynn sulked in the corner, cradling Skully in his palms. "I'm sure this bad weather is my fault. This crap seems to follow me everywhere," he lamented to the skull.
"That's ridiculous, Flynn. Thunderstorms happen all the time. They aren't your fault, it's just a weather pattern," Terran retorted.
Flynn raised his eyebrows in disagreement. "If you say so, boss."
"I'm not the boss," Terran bristled.
"I'd say you are. You are the leader of Gneiss Glen, after all," Zara piped up.
Luna remained silent as she licked her paws, watching the group with half-lidded eyes. Terran idly rubbed behind her ears, trying to avoid another argument. He was the leader of the settlement and lived in a chieftain's hut, but he didn't think of himself as the leader of his group of friends. Zara was the bossy one, she did most of the leading. The last time he had pointed that out he had inadvertently begun a long argument ending with Zara storming off muttering something about being called a "bossy bitch." He had apologized the next day, but it still hurt his feelings that the group seemed to be angry at him for trying to do the best he could when he was all alone.
"Did you guys run into anything like this on Moranne? Any idea what we're up against?" Terran asked, deciding it was best to keep everyone focused on the task at hand.
"There were certainly some strange things going on," Zara responded, sitting up a little straighter. "But we never saw any one thing that just left a trail of death like this. Plenty of destruction caused by armies though."
The band of friends had found the results of whatever the creature was doing on their second day. The newly vibrant forest had changed overnight. Leaves had withered on the trees, silence prevailed, indicating all the wildlife had gone, and it looked like someone had taken a brown paintbrush and covered the once green landscape. Flynn had even found a nest that had fallen from a tree, filled with the corpses of featherless baby birds huddled together.
"The destruction is terrifying," Flynn whispered. "If this thing makes it to the settlement what will happen to the Mother Tree?"
"I don't know," Terran said with a frown, still absently rubbing Luna behind the ear. "I'm worried about that too."
When the rain cleared out an hour later the group continued on their search at Zara's breakneck pace. Terran wasn't sure where she got her energy from, but followed willingly. He had spent the hour quietly contemplating what would happen if the creature reached the settlement. By the time they left he was shaking with anxiety and driven to defeat whatever was threatening the life of the forest.
The group of five traveled in silence. Several times Luna broke off to scout ahead and relay her findings back to Terran with their mind link. He didn't tell anyone what she was doing, because he didn't want them to think he thought they were incapable on their own. No one even mentioned her absence, so he didn't have to lie about anything.
As the sun was peeking over the horizon, bringing a line of pink to their vision, Terran ran right into Zara's back when she abruptly stopped. She turned and held a finger up to her lips as Terran opened his mouth to apologize for the collision. Luna's ears flattened to her head as she stood as still as a statue. Flynn bounced on his feet and quickly stashed Skully in the pouch on his belt, leaving his hands at his waist on the hilts of his daggers.
Terran followed the line of Zara's finger as she pointed towards whatever had caused her sudden stop. At first all he saw was more trees, but as his eyes focused he could make out a large black shape about fifty yards ahead of them.
They quietly ducked behind some tree trunks as the thing slowly came towards them. The nearer it drew, the heavier the air became. Terran found himself struggling to take a breath as the black noxious gas surrounding the creature crept its way towards the group. The gas seemed to coat everything around it. Terran watched in shock as leaves withered on their limbs and died immediately. The surrounding forest became silent and still except for the creature and its aura slowly making its way towards them.
Luna hunched down next to Terran looking ready to pounce, or run the opposite direction, as the creature drew near enough for them to see through the gas it was exuding. Terran's stomach lurched as he saw a black, rotten tree about fifteen feet tall slowly ambling towards them. Insects had burrowed into its bark and a carpet of them skittered all over the creature. The noxious gas and more bugs were spilling forth from its gaping maw. Scars oozed a black, tar-like sap over its entire body as it lumbered closer, massive limbs for arms and legs.
"What are we going to do with that disgusting thing?" Luna asked telepathically.
Terran used his analyze skill before answering the lynx.
Rot Fiend - level 18
Maybe you can defeat this thing if you figure out a way to stay out of the aura.
Terran was formulating a plan of attack when from his right Zara roared in anger, brandishing her great axe, and charged directly at the rot fiend.
Chapter Three
Time slowed to a crawl as Terran watched Zara run screaming directly towards the rot fiend and its death aura. He wasn't sure how to stop her, but he was certain that getting inside that aura was a bad choice. Without a dedicated healer in the group, running headlong into a death aura seemed
like the worst idea possible.
"NO!" Terran screamed at Zara's back. "Don't get in the aura!"
He wasn't sure Zara had even heard him through her rage until she skidded to a stop just inches from the black, noxious gas. But it was too late. She slammed her demon arm elbow first into the stone wall Terran had erected behind her as she tried to back away from the rot fiend.
"Holy crap that burns!" She screamed in pain as the noxious gas touched the skin on her other arm. Immediately an angry red boil the size of a cherry formed where the gas had contacted her skin.
With more speed than he thought capable, the berserker rolled to the left, past the edge of the wall, and dove behind it. "What the hell, Terran?" she screamed at him.
"I meant for it to go in front of you."
Tendrils of the black gas snaked their way around and over the stone wall like a living thing. Zara leapt to her feet just as Newt triggered his gravomancer ability, pulling her closer to him and pushing the rot fiend back a few inches. Terran was shocked by Newt's ability, but the ease at which Zara adjusted to flying through the air meant she had done it several times before. Although not near as tiny, she looked like an axe-wielding ballet dancer leaping through the air towards the mousey Newt, who stood no chance of successfully catching her. Instead, she landed right next to Newt in a battle stance, ready to attack.
As soon as Zara landed, Newt switched targets, pulling the disgusting creature towards them. Terran panicked until the fiend slammed into the rock wall he had just created, shattering the stones into pieces, losing a small chunk of its hit points. The sudden change of position of the rot fiend left the slower moving noxious gas trailing behind, exposing the decomposing tree. Luna leapt into the fray, clawing at the enormous gnarled trunk of the fiend, shaking Terran out of his stupor.
Terran held out his staff and sang an F sharp, sending a Vocal Slam at the rotten tree. Only a few hit points disappeared from the creature's health bar, but it at least did some damage.