Extra Credit

by J. Arthur Klein

“Goldshanks?” I laughed as I accepted the invitation and looked at the party menu.

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  [11] Gavin Goldshanks [Archer]

  HP100%

  MP100%

  SP100%

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  [10] Sev Daywalker [Bloodknight]

  HP100%

  MP100%

  SP100%

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  “Holy crap! You’re level fifteen? Maybe we aren’t screwed,” Sev said as we headed to where the scouts and the caravan master were still discussing strategy.

  “Master Timmin,” Gavin said. “We’ve got some reinforcements.”

  The halfling looked over at me and sniffed in disdain, “A kobold? Pitiful. He’s even smaller than I am.”

  He looked back at Gavin and Sev and said scornfully, “Just do your job and protect my investments or I’ll ensure you never work again on this continent!”

  QUEST UPDATE: Raiders in the Hills

  Additional Criteria: Defend the Wagon Train. (0/1)

  Reward: +200xp, Additional XP bonus for each guard that survives the attack.

  The scouts gave me an apologetic look behind the halfling’s back and sighed as he retreated inside the wagon circle.

  “Wow. What a dickhead,” I said and then looked around to make sure I hadn’t offended the NPC guards.

  A few muffled laughs was enough to let me know my first impression of the caravan master was an accurate one if his own hirelings were so ready to agree with a stranger.

  One of the guards flashed me a grin. “He does pay well at least.”

  The scouts climbed onto the wagons as their horses were led away, readying their bows and watching where the gnolls were forming up into a brick of hyena flesh, four wide and three deep. The first rank held massive shields made of splintered planks that looked like they’d been ripped straight from the wreckage of the previous caravan.

  “Looks like we’re running out of time,” I said as I took out Banzai’s skull and cast Dark Shield on the party.

  I tossed my warriors’ skulls up onto one of the flanking wagons as well, earning a strange look from the scout.

  “Ok everyone, don’t hit my undead,” I said and called my minions back to activity.

  The skeletal amigos equipped their bows and knelt down on top of the wagons, earning some cautious looks from the scouts.

  Banzai’s appearance caused more of a stir as he moved forward into a defensive position in next to Sev and the spear wielding guards.

  I quickly cast Dark Shield onto Banzai and then climbed on top of a stack of crates so I could have a clear view of the battle while keeping the front line within range of my aura when it was cast.

  [P] Me: I probably should have asked this sooner, but what do you guys do?

  [P] Sev: I smash. He pew, pew, pews.

  [P] Gavin: I’m an Archer, I specialized in crossbows so can fire this big mamajama pretty well. Sev’s a Bloodknight. It’s a hybrid tank/DPS class. He gains more armor and mitigation the more damage he does. But he’s got to constantly be swinging, or he loses the buff, so it’s a marathon.

  [P] Me: Ok. The gnoll zombie’s a tank, the skeletons are all DPS, and I’ll be rotating between fixing the zombie, debuffing the enemy, and DPS.

  As we finished up our little conversation, the gnolls picked up speed to jog towards us and I cast Aura of the Grave, watching the bubble rush out of me and just barely reach Banzai.

  When the gnolls got into arrow range, the scouts and my skeletons fired, their arrows arcing towards the enemy lines.

  Most of the arrows were blocked by their makeshift defenses but a few managed to get through. A loud twang rang out behind me as Gavin fired his monster crossbow. The bolt shot across the field and pierced through a gnoll’s giant shield and nailed the wood to its bearer’s chest, dropping its health by almost a third.

  [P] Me: Hey Gavin, if you can get a bead on their leader, take him out. If we can eliminate him, I think these guys will fall apart.

  [P] Gavin: Roger, Roger!

  When the gnolls were about twenty feet out, the front rank split and the back ranks threw a volley of heavy barbed spears towards our ranks. Whatever intelligence that was left over from Banzai’s former life gave him the insight to raise his shield at the right time, blocking the pair of spears aimed for his large form.

  Sev whirled his hammer and deflected a spear coming his way out of the air, avoiding a painful wound. Nearby, one of the guards wasn’t so lucky and was hit by two of the nasty projectiles, pinned to the ground through his stomach and thigh.

  The next in line looked over to his companion and winced as the man collapsed, sliding slowly down the spears until halted by the barbs. We weren’t even fully engaged and we were already down a man.

  The rest of the spears missed their mark, embedding in the ground or in the wooden wagons, but they had served their purpose: distraction.

  The gnolls charged in, funneled into the narrow space between the wagons to be met by our tanks and a wall of spears.

  The gnolls leading the way took heavy damage as our spearmen set their weapons to take the charge. The press of the back ranks of gnolls drove the first rank forward, impaling them even further on the spears. The spearmen were well trained, extracting their spears and thrusting them into the injured gnolls, critically injuring or killing the initial strike force.

  Banzai and Sev were anchoring the center of the line, the gnoll zombie’s massive form able to hold back the weight of the initial assault while Sev applied his massive hammer to the enemy, gathering a trail of red mist behind his hammer as it smashed into the hyena-men.

  I targeted one of the gnolls in the middle of the pack and cast Cripple and Rot, adding the components for maximum effect and then spreading the love to the rest of the pack with Miasma.

  Arrows continued to rain down upon the heads of the gnolls from the amigos and caravan scouts, filling the shoulders and chests of the massive beast-men with feathered shafts and chipping away at their hit points. As I watched, one unlucky gnoll took an arrow to his eye and dropped like a stone.

  The second wave of gnolls surged forward as their commander barked out an order, the gnolls fighting with renewed fury.

  Another loud twang cut through the sounds of battle as Gavin’s next bolt flashed through the air and struck the gnoll commander in the shoulder, passing completely through the creature and leaving a hole the size of a baseball in his flesh.

  The commander’s health dropped twenty percent from that single shot, but instead of being crippled by the massive wound he seemed to grow in power.

  Banzai’s health was getting low, so I cast my repair spell and then turned my gaze back to the boss who was leading his remaining forces in a brutal charge, his gigantic claymore lashing out at the spearmen, cutting several of them down and opening the way for more gnolls to break through.

  I targeted the boss with another Cripple, slowing him down and making him more susceptible to my spell damage. A series of Necromantic Bolts halted his charge and allowed our lines to regroup, Banzai dashing in and sending the commander stumbling slightly and gaining the boss’ aggro.

  Engaged now, the boss was still able to do quite a bit of damage due to the reach of his weapon, and the wounds he was taking in turn were minor in comparison to what he was dealing out.

  I cast Rot on the boss, watching his muscles sag slightly as the corrosive mist sank into his flesh.

  The scrum was getting crowded with the gnolls pressed together tightly. It was the perfect spacing for Miasma, and with another casting I spread the debuffs from the commander to the remaining gnolls.

  I scanned the masses as I cast my Necromantic Bolts into the tight cluster of enemies. Since the gnolls were all around my level, the damage that Sev and Gavin were able to apply wasn’t as effective due to the level difference, but was still pretty impressive for their level.

  The gnoll commander let out
another battle cry and pressed forward, driving Banzai back with a massive front kick that sent the warden flying through the air to crash into the side of a wagon.

  The zombie’s health dropped to close to twenty percent from the blow, and he slowly struggled to regain his feet.

  Sev stepped into the gap. His hammer was a blur, and his flesh was coated in a layer of fresh red blood.

  He threw himself at the enemy, his hammer crushing the chest of one gnoll before lashing out to strike the gnoll commander on the hip, wounding the joint and sending him stumbling with a limp in his step.

  The commander retaliated with a loud roar, his giant claymore flashing through the air to strike the Bloodknight across the midsection.

  Sev folded over the blade and was pushed backwards, his legs giving out from underneath him as his health dropped by a quarter.

  He started to rise almost immediately, but by the time he rejoined the battle his skin had returned to normal, the brief period of idleness being enough for him to lose his bonus from the constant carnage.

  Alternating between repairing Banzai and blasting gnolls with bolts, I watched the enemy forces dwindle.

  Some of the footmen were crawling away from the fight, bleeding out and likely to die, so I activated my cloak and teleported down off of the crates and force fed them some healing potions to get them back into the fight.

  The commander was facing off with the three remaining spearmen that were in fighting shape, his giant sword breaking their spears and landing several wounds amongst the NPC warriors.

  Sev and Banzai arrived before the gnoll leader was able to finish them off, giving the wounded soldiers enough time to retreat back to the wagons.

  Sitting at less than twenty percent health, the gnoll commander was now the lone survivor of his little band, the rest being systematically removed by hammer, bolt, or arrow.

  The commander didn’t seem to give a damn. His eyes were bloodshot and wild, and his claymore was doing a fine job of taking apart both my zombie and Sev together, but another loud twang put an end to it all as Gavin’s crossbow bolt lodged itself halfway through the commander’s skull.

  “Got him,” Gavin said from behind me and I couldn’t help but laugh.

  Your Party has killed 12x Gnoll Raider! You have gained 800xp!

  Your Party has killed a Gnoll Raider Commander! You have gained 150xp!

  QUEST UPDATE: Destroy the Gnoll Raiders along the southern road. (13/10)

  QUEST UPDATE: Defend the Wagon Train. (1/1)

  QUEST COMPLETE: Raiders in the Hills!

  You have gained 700xp!

  Bonus: 4/10 Spearmen remaining. You have gained 100xp!

  Please see the innkeeper to collect your monetary reward.

  CONGRATULATIONS! You have reached Level 16!

  You have gained 2 Intelligence!

  You have gained 3 Attribute points and 18 Skill points!

  Your Hit Points, Mana, and Endurance pools have increased!

  All three of the players present for the battle were surrounded by the glow of leveling up. I’d already been most of the way through the level from the giant amount of XP from the tomb quests, so the combined XP from this one and the gnolls were more than enough to bring me over the finish line.

  I resisted the temptation to immediately jump into my character stats and rushed over to the commander’s body instead, capturing his soul in one of the Rough-cut Emeralds I’d gotten from the tomb.

  Sev and Gavin had chosen to get their loot on as well, searching through the pile of gnolls for anything useful.

  Once all the bodies were looted, Gavin and Sev started piling up the loot off to the side while Gavin examined each piece with a critical eye.

  Letting them do their thing, I tried to collect as many souls as I could in the Rough-cut Malachite I’d crafted. Unfortunately for me, out of the five corpses I was able to get to before the timer ran out, I was only able to capture a single soul. Losing four cut gems hurt, but not as much as it would have if I’d had to purchase them.

  I started dissecting the gnolls, looking to see what I could take from these beasties since I didn’t need their bodies for making zombies. I collected six Gnoll Skeletons, five pieces of Gnoll Hide, nineteen doses of Gnoll Blood, and a Gnoll Liver.

  After that I headed over to Gavin and Sev, who were still looking through the loot. There was a small pile of gold and trinkets, a bunch of bloody and torn mixed leather armor, and a few standard large weapons. Nothing that was really useful to me other than to sell.

  “Nice fighting guys. That crossbow really packs a punch! And damn Sev, your hammer was crushing it out there,” I said with a chuckle as Gavin groaned at my pun.

  Sev just nodded, looking through the gold and trinket pile while Gavin responded, “You too. Those archers really helped keep the gnolls honest, and while it was weird to have a giant armored gnoll zombie fighting for us, he was doing pretty well for an NPC tank.”

  “Find anything interesting?” I said, looking at the piles.

  “Mostly junk armor and weapons. If you don’t want any of them, I’ll just break them down for parts,” he replied. “There are a couple baubles in there that aren’t identified, so I don’t know what they do. I’ve got the Appraise skill so I can tell they’re worth between two and five gold each, so it’s likely a minor effect.”

  He shrugged and continued, “We can have them identified when we get to Sommervale and split them then. The money comes to about twelve gold each.”

  He handed me the coin while Sev loaded the armor and weapons into a large sack that he dragged over to one of the wagons.

  I nodded. “If you want, I can identify the items here. I’ve got the reagents on me,” I said, moving out of the way as the remaining guards dragged some gnoll remains out of the way of the wagon train.

  Gavin grinned. “That would be great,” he said and handed me two rings and a bracelet crafted from bones.

  I took a seat and cast Psychometry on each of the items in turn, revealing them to be minor baubles that added one to Strength. They were of much more use to Gavin and Sev, so I insisted they keep them and received a few more gold instead.

  I gathered my minions up, repairing my skeletons while I sent Banzai to chow down on the gnoll corpses I hadn’t bothered to dissect to heal.

  When I was done fixing the skeletons and went over to the pit to gather the zombie warden after his meal, I saw the fallen guard’s bodies lying in with the fallen gnolls. They’d been stripped of their arms and armor and just tossed to the side like yesterday’s trash.

  “What the hell?” I said out loud, looking around for the fat little halfling dickhead.

  I spotted him near the front of the wagon train and headed over. “Master Timmin, I think someone put your guards’ bodies in the wrong place,” I said and gestured over to the pile of dead.

  The halfling looked at me and sneered. “They’re where I ordered them to be. I don’t have room in my caravan for wasted space.”

  I know they were NPCs, and it was just a game, but damn that was cold. I almost regretted saving the caravan.

  “Last time I do something for you, fatty.” I said and spat at his feet, leaving him sputtering and stammering at my insult.

  My minions rejoined me as I made my way along the wagon train until I spotted Gavin sitting near one of the rear wagons. The golden-haired human was working over a small fire, knocking dents out of Sev’s breastplate and tightening up some of the loosened rivets.

  “Hey guys, I’m heading back to Sommervale now to turn in my quest and then heading to the mine for the night. You guys need anything before I go?” I asked.

  Sev just shrugged, but Gavin paused his work and set the breastplate aside, looking up at me. “You wouldn’t happen to have any iron, steel, or even bronze on you, would you? I’m running low with all the repairs our illustrious Bloodknight needs every day.”

  “Unfortunately, not. I’ve got a couple of leftover pieces of ore, but not enoug
h for any bars. I’ve got a crap-ton of uncut gems, and some hides of various types if you need leather.”

  The archer shook his head. “Nah, I’ve got a friend that does all my leatherwork for me. I don’t have nearly enough time to work on another profession after both armorer and weaponsmith.”

  “You’re a weaponsmith as well? Any interest in either of these?” I asked, taking out the Giant Ant Claw and Shadowtouched Talon.

  He examined both and his eyes bugged out a bit. “Damn, these are a bit above my current skill level but eventually I could use these to create some rare weapons that sell for thousands of gold a piece. You looking to sell?”

  “Yeah, I did some research on the ant claw and saw it sold for up to two hundred and fifty gold, so I could take two hundred for it if you want,” I said.

  His excitement faded and he replied, “Too rich for my blood. I’m barely breaking even between mats and sales of what I can make now.”

  After thinking for a minute, I offered him another deal. “How about this? I’ll give you the claw and the talon for now, and when you sell whatever you make from them later on, you give me twenty percent of whatever the sale price was. Or once you can craft steel, you craft me a set of full plate for whatever minion I have acting as a tank at the time.”

  His face lit up again and he thrust out his hand. “Deal!”

  We shared contact info and I added them to my friends list before handing over the mats and taking my leave. I dismissed my minions, gathered their skulls and then used my travel form fly back to town.

  On the way I spotted a lone zombie gnoll trudging along, still barely halfway to the second caravan. With a mental chuckle I dismissed the magic holding it together and watched it fall lifeless to the ground once again.

  Darkness had fallen by the time I reached the inn, and it was packed once again. After a short wait I was able to enter and collect my bounty from the gnolls.

  The common room was bustling, full of people eating, drinking, and just having fun with friends. In one corner of the room, a group of players was seated at a table playing what looked like a game of Texas Hold ’em, and in another section of the room was a roped off area where people were tossing knives and daggers in a more brutal version of darts. Everyone was smiling.