“You should enter through there to keep any of the bandits from taking your family hostage and escaping out of the back,” Riccon said. “We’ll draw all of their attention to us once we start killing them.”
Jandar hefted his hammer, nodded, and jogged toward the spur. Riccon and Darvin approached the front entrance, keeping low and staying out of direct view of anyone who might be guarding the place. In Riccon’s beta testing, there were never any lookouts, but NPCs were not completely scripted and could wander around anywhere within the quest area.
Riccon checked his ingame clock. “We’ll need to hurry if we want to get back to Whitbell before our mandatory logout.”
Under pressure from health officials and gaming addiction groups, Quantum Mortalis required all players to log off for a minimum of six hours within a twenty-four hour period with at least two hours being consecutive.
“Holy crap, have we been playing sixteen real world hours already?” Darvin asked in surprise.
“Just about. Fifteen and a half to be precise. That still gives us about two ingame hours, so there’s plenty of time to get the quest done. We’ll task our avatars to return to town when we log out so they’ll be there when we log back in. Saves us the boring return trip.”
“That’s nice.”
“Yeah, it’s something they implemented when they decided there wouldn’t be any kind of fast travel outside of teleport stations, and even that threw Edison Pushard into a hissy fit.”
Darvin shook his head. “That guy certainly is obsessed about realism.”
Riccon picked up a pebble and bounced it off the back of Darvin’s head. “Yeah, but on the bright side, he made all of this.”
Darvin’s hand instinctually leapt up and began rubbing his minor injury. “Ow! Did he make you be a dick too?”
“Nope, that’s a product of being a nerd in school and the only child of over-indulging parents,” he replied with a chuckle.
The two crept toward the cave mouth hidden by an outcrop of rock. Riccon took the lead as only he had a semblance of stealth. He waved Darvin forward when he found no sign of anyone near the entrance. The entry was pitch dark, but they could see a faint flickering of light ahead, its source somewhere around a bend.
They found a candle perched onto a small rock shelf, leaving an equal measure of darkness compared to the paltry light it created. Another candle burned farther down the passage before the tunnel took another turn. The two adventurers had made it about a hundred yards into the cavern when Riccon pulled Darvin into a patch of darkness.
Riccon put a finger to his lips, which Darvin couldn’t see in the dark but understood the need for quiet. The arcane archer slowly stood and drew back his bow. Frost touch was the only imbuement he knew that did not create a telltale glow of magic, so he channeled the spell into the broadhead.
A silhouette appeared in the tunnel on the far side of a flickering candle. It quickly materialized into the shadowy form of a human male as he stepped into the small circle of light. Riccon brought up his UI and selected silent take down.
Riccon released his shot and smiled when the arrow took the bandit in the neck, literally freezing his voice in his throat.
You hit bandit from stealth with frost arrow. Bandit takes 23 damage. 15 points of physical damage (base 8 x 1.5 for sneak attack, +6 critical hit) plus 5 points of magical frost damage.
Silent takedown successful. Bandit loses remaining 10 HP (-10% XP.) You have killed bandit.
Your party receives 160XP (400XP -60% for silent takedown)
“I really need to get a crossbow,” Darvin whispered as Riccon looted a few silver coins and a brace of throwing knives from the corpse.
“All in good time, Padawan.”
“We’re the same level,” Darvin hissed.
Riccon smirked at him. “Our characters might be, but you have a ways to go before you’re on my level.”
“Whatever you say, Obi-Go Andblowme.”
“Come on, that’s like the fourth time you’ve used that one on me. It shows you have a limited imagination.”
Darvin scowled at his annoying friend. “The fact I’ve had cause to use it that often says far more about you than it does me.”
Riccon shrugged. “You’re probably right. Come on. There’s only five more bandits between you, a sweet sword, and becoming a full-fledged, death-dealing, self-buffing badass.”
“I like the sound of that.”
The two stalked down the tunnel as quietly as they could while moving fast enough to ensure they reached the bandits before the NPC could ruin the element of surprise and allow the bandit leader to escape. More light illuminated the tunnel ahead, the brightness significantly greater than that of the single candles lighting the passageway.
Riccon and Darvin reached the entrance to a large chamber lit by a campfire in its center. Five bandits sat on rocks or an upended log, eating, drinking, and talking, unaware of death stealing silently toward them. Almost silently. Their boisterous conversations kept them from hearing Darvin’s heavy footsteps and the occasional sound of his shield scraping against his chain hauberk.
Two forms, barely visible on the far side of the fire, sat bound at the wrists. Their element of surprise lasted only a moment as Jandar burst from a narrow cleft in the chamber wall to the players’ right.
“Lenora, Jesse!” Jandar shouted.
“Father!” Jesse cried out over his mother’s gasp of surprise.
The bandits leapt to their feet but relaxed when they saw only a single man, a blacksmith given the hammer he wielded and the leather apron covering his front.
“Looks like we got us some company, boys,” the bandit leader drawled even though one of his gang was clearly a woman.
Jandar hefted his hammer. “Let them go! I don’t care about what you stole; just let me have my family.”
“Well, now that’s where we have a bit of a problem,” the bandit leader said. “We can’t let valuable goods go for free. It’s bad business. Then there’s the whole alerting the authorities to our little hideout, and that’d be even worse for business.”
“It’ll take us the entire night before we get back to Whitbell and could tell anyone. You and your people could be long gone. Besides, the boy you let escape already told everyone where you attacked the wagon. They’ll figure out where you’re at just like I did.”
The bandit nodded and rubbed a chin covered in several days’ worth of stubble. “I reckon your right, but I also reckon it’ll take some time for them to mount a posse. Your friend went to Whitbell, but any real lawmen will have to come from Middale, and that gives us plenty of time to fix that broken wagon and haul away our goods. If you decided to go to Middale instead of back home to Whitbell, we would find ourselves either in a good deal of trouble or having to scurry away with only our tails between our legs. Nope, I don’t see us coming out on top by letting any of you go.”
Jandar’s mind raced. He needed a way to secure his family’s safety before the adventurers arrived. They wouldn’t let the bandits just leave. It wasn’t their way.
“I have a wagon and two horses just outside. You could take it to wherever you’ve stashed the goods you stole and be gone long before we could walk to either town. There’s no changing the fact you killed Grady, but the law in Middale will put a lot more effort in finding a woman and a boy than they will some stolen goods.”
The bandit leader nodded slowly. “Yeah, I reckon you might be right about that.”
“Then you’ll let them go?”
“Naw. I figure we’ll kill you and keep them and your wagon. The woman and boy will fetch a good price in Aglax.”
The bandit leader drew a fine longsword from the scabbard at his hip and advanced on Jandar with his gang following just behind him. Jandar’s eyes flashed between the bandits and his family as he set himself for battle. One of the bandits cried out in pain and dropped to one knee as he clawed at the arrow protruding from his back.
“Shit!” The bandit le
ader cursed. “There’s more of them! You three go deal with them. Burr and I will handle the blacksmith.”
Three bandits, one of them the only woman in the group, broke off and charged toward Riccon and Darvin. The one Riccon had shot in the back climbed to his feet and took up a position next to his leader. Two of the bandits raised crossbows and loosed their quarrels at the adventurers. The third took a few more running steps and hurled a throwing knife.
Darvin raised his shield and the two bolts bounced off harmlessly, but he yelped when the knife struck him in the leg. “Damn it! Why did I forget to lower my pain level?”
Bandit’s throwing knife hits you for 6 points of damage.
Riccon loosed an empowered arrow, striking one of the crossbow wielders in the shoulder. “Because you’ll be a better man for it.”
“I really need to get some leggings!”
Darvin had no more time for complaining as the lead bandit rushed in with a shortsword in one hand and a dagger in the other. He blocked the shortsword with his shield and brought his sword around in a swift arc. The bandit leapt back and deflected the blade with his dagger. He sprang forward in an instant, stabbing for Darvin’s throat.
The Templar initiate parried the strike with his sword, rushed inside the bandit’s reach, and bashed him with his shield. The bandit stumbled backward. Darvin pressed his attack, hitting him with his shield a second time and knocking him to the ground. He hacked at the prone man until he stopped moving.
You hit bandit with your shield, causing 3 points of physical damage. Your foe is off-balance. You hit bandit with your shield, causing 4 points of physical damage and knocking your foe to the ground. You hit bandit with your sword for 12 physical damage: 8 base damage + 50% vulnerable target. You hit bandit for 13 physical damage: 9 base + 50% vulnerable target. You have slain bandit. Your party gains 400XP.
Congratulations! You have learned a new skill: Shield Bash.
Shield Bash, Tier 1: Bash your enemy with your shield and put them off-balance. Off-balance debuff decreases target’s dodge and parry and increases chance to be knocked down. Knocked down targets are considered vulnerable. Damage to vulnerable targets increased by 50%. Damage and chance for applying debuff is 1/2 base shield armor rating + strength modifier + shield skill. Requirements: Character Level 5. Shield Level 5. Cost: 20 Stamina.
“Woot!” Darvin shouted. “New skill!”
Riccon loosed an arrow at one of the crossbow wielders and hit him in the shoulder, forcing him to take cover behind a small outcrop of rock. “Nice!”
The female bandit looked from her comrade to the dead bandit near the adventurers and began backing away. “Boss, this ain’t going so good!” she shouted over her shoulder, narrowly dodging one of Riccon’s glowing arrows.
The bandit leader glanced over his shoulder as he ducked beneath Jandar’s swinging hammer. “Well, shit!” He snapped his head back around as he took a step away. “Sorry about this, Bill.”
The bandit kicked his cohort hard in the back, sending the man stumbling into the blacksmith. Jandar caught him in something resembling an embrace, shoved him away at arm’s length, and brought his hammer down on the crown of his head with a sickening, squishy thump.
“Grab the boy!” the bandit leader shouted at the woman as he jerked Lenora off the ground, wrapped an arm around her throat, and pressed the point of his sword into her back.
The female bandit sprinted toward Jesse and held him in front of her as a human shield.
The bandit leader put his back to a wall and began sidling toward Jandar. “This is how this is gonna go. You’re gonna let us pass, and we’ll leave your woman and boy outside the cave all safe and sound. Got it?”
“That doesn’t work for us,” Riccon said and shot the wounded bandit before he could get behind his two comrades and the hostages.
The bandit leader looked at Jandar. “Looks like your friends don’t care about your family.” He glanced at the woman holding Jesse. “Cut the whelp’s throat. Maybe that’ll convince them we’re serious.”
“No!” Jandar roared as the woman shifted the dagger in her hand to carry out the order.
Jandar reeled his hammer back and sent it tumbling end over end. The heavy steel head smashed into her face, leaving it a bloody mess. She fell to the ground, releasing her hold on Jesse.
“Wow,” Riccon said, “I never saw him do that before.”
The bandit leader glared hatred at the blacksmith, ran his sword through Lenora’s back, and charged him. A strangled cry gurgled from Jandar’s throat. He grabbed the messer sword from the dead bandit near his feet and met the leader’s charge. While the bandit leader was clearly the superior swordsman, Jandar’s fury powered his strikes and made him fight like a berserker.
“Should we help him?” Darvin asked.
Riccon wagged his head. “Naw. Let him soften him up for us. Remember, we need everyone to die in order to get your sword.”
“Hey, the other one isn’t dead yet.”
Riccon turned his gaze back to the fallen female bandit. She was clutching Jesse’s ankle and slowly dragging him back to her. She raised her dagger and plunged it into his small body.
Riccon breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank God. I was afraid I was going to have to do it. That would have been unpleasant even for me.”
Darvin looked as though he wanted to vomit. “I’m really hating this quest.”
“That’s why very few people know about the sword. I don’t know who wrote the script, but they were a real sadistic fuck.” He drew back an arrow and killed the woman with a well-placed shot.
“Are they, or are we? I feel like we’re in some kind of human social experiment—and we just failed.”
Jandar witnessed his son’s murder over the bandit leader’s shoulder. He screamed with so much force that he could taste the blood oozing from his abused vocal cords. With a wordless snarl, he lunged at the bandit, ignoring the blade that plunged through his upper chest. He lifted the bandit off his feet and slammed him onto the ground.
The bandit leader rolled to the side, barely avoiding the sword descending toward his head. He rolled again and sprang to his feet, but the enraged blacksmith charged him, his messer swinging in wild arcs and driving him back. He parried a blow, but the power of Jandar’s strike threw his sword out wide and left him open. The blacksmith’s free hand snaked out, heedless of the pain from his injured shoulder, and struck the bandit in the face.
“Damn, I think the blacksmith might actually win,” Darvin said as he watched the brutal battle.
“Yeah. Better make sure.” Riccon drew back, empowered his arrow with eldritch energy, and sent it streaking across the chamber and into Jandar’s leg. “Oops, missed.”
“That’s cold, man,” Darvin said, shaking his head.
“But perfectly legit. Now you won’t feel compelled to bring justice to me. It was just a terrible accident from a novice archer’s lousy aim.”
“Yeah…right.”
Jandar’s leg buckled and he fell to one knee, giving the bandit leader a much-needed opening. His longsword swept around. Jandar tried to parry it but missed and received a deep cut to his upper arm. The blacksmith’s sword fell from nerveless fingers and clattered to the ground. The bandit leader wasted no time and plunged his blade through his chest. Jandar fell onto his side, his eyes locked onto the bodies of his wife and son before the world went black.
The bandit leader tried to run toward the cave system’s rear exit, but two of Riccon’s frost arrows caught him in the back and leg. Darvin ran at him before he could recover and finished him off with a few sword strokes.
You have killed bandit leader. Your party gains 1,500XP.
You find 4 gold, 68 silver, and 27 copper.
You find black leather hauberk, common. Armor type: Light. Quality: Superior, +20% to armor rating and durability. Armor Rating: 8. +5% hide in shadows. Durability: 19/25.
You find High steel longsword, Oath Keeper. Uncommon. Quality: Ex
ceptional (+30% base damage and durability.) Base Damage: 16/18 vs a sworn enemy or to uphold a sworn oath. Durability: 41/50.
You have successfully completed Templar quest: Deal with the Whitbell highwaymen. Reward: 1500XP. Allowed to take the Templar oath to become a full-fledged member of the Templar Order of Justice.
You have failed the quest: Bandit Kidnapping. The blacksmith’s wife and son did not survive.
Congratulations, you have gained a level. You have gained 1 point to your primary attribute. You have gained 1 attribute point to distribute where you wish.
“Wow, this is a nice sword for a newbie!” Darvin exclaimed. “No wonder it comes at such a heavy price.”
Riccon picked up one of the bandit’s crossbows and began talking like one of those TV commercials. “But wait, there’s more! Slay a bandit leader after letting him slaughter a family in the next fifteen minutes and we’ll throw in a free crossbow, just pay additional shipping and handling that’s nearly twice the value of the piece of crap product we’re sending you.”
Darvin laughed despite the grisly scene around him.
“That should last you to at least level 15. After that, I know where we can find better gear to take down tougher opponents,” Riccon said with a wink.”
“It sure is nice having a beta tester to play with.” His eyes flicked to the woman and her son. “I just have to keep telling myself it’s a game. It isn’t easy.”
“Now you know why AGGRO provides free counseling.”
“Yeah. I might need to use it if stuff like this keeps happening.”
“This is one of the worst quests for this kind of thing, unless you opt to play an evil character.”
Darvin shook his head. “Definitely not. Playing next to one is bad enough.”
“Hey, I’m not evil. I’m pragmatic.”
“You’re the devil.”
Riccon gave him an evil grin. “Yes, I am.” He lunged at Darvin and grabbed his hands. “Come dance with me under the pale moon light!”
Darvin pushed him away. “Gah, knock it off!”
Riccon laughed and picked his bow up from where he had dropped it. “Come on. Let’s steer the wagon toward Whitbell and log out. It’s on the way to Ambercross, and we can do the mushroom quest one more time before moving on.”
Chaos Unchained- The Mad Smith Page 7
