Therion, the leader, greeted me with a tight bear hug. I had to cough to get him to let go of me. He introduced me to the others, a roughly outfitted band of barbarians in leathers and furs. I knew his NPC, the redheaded, hot-blooded Kjen, already. Robby Five-Fingers was a thin dark elf who, living up to his name, only had five fingers total. His left hand was replaced by a contraption that resembled the bastard child of a grappling hook and a crossbow. Murderin’ Matt, a Risi with a tusk jutting out from his underbite, wielded a massive hammer. He covered his face with a beefy hand to hide his blush when I looked at him. I didn’t see the ones who had been with us at the inn in the mountains.
“Did ye get the bastard that killed me Edni?” asked Kjen, his face earnest.
I gave him a thumbs-up and sat. He sighed, relieved.
“Now,” I said, taking a seat and wishing I could order a beer, “what can I help you gentlemen with?”
“First”—Therion lowered his voice to a whisper—“did you break out of the castle?”
He must’ve meant the Inquisition HQ and jail. Cecilia had warned me not to reveal her informants as her agents. I nodded and stole Kjen’s drink, as was tradition. “Yeah, they caught me not paying for my meal at this fancy joint and had some bird escort me in ‘just to chat.’”
The group accepted this answer as sufficient. Kjen ordered me my own mead and stole his drink back. “We got word from one o’ our men that our hideout has been taken o’er by monsters,” he said as the waitress left to refill our cups.
“Surely you left more than one person on guard?”
“Yeah, we did,” Therion said flatly.
I sighed. “I see. So, it’s a rescue mission then?”
<<<>>>
Quest Update: Fallen Among Thieves
You’ve successfully earned the trust of the informants at the Broken Dagger. Follow them to their hideout and help them reclaim it. Look for any survivors to get information on who did this for the Inquisition.
<<<>>>
“Now, it’s not that we care or anything, you know,” said Matt. “Rose should be fine in stealth, if she has any skill.” He took a drink and pounded the table. “And honestly, it’s the fault of the dead men. What sort of rogues are they? They should’ve snuck away in stealth.”
I touched Matt’s hand gently and asked, “How do you know they’re dead?”
The table grew silent. The men perked up only when the waitress brought us more drink and used that as an excuse to not answer.
“Why do you need my help? Why don’t you take it back yourselves?” I asked again, another way. I subtly cast Acuity to see if that gave me answers. More Grieving debuffs, but no Curse of Serth-Rog, at least. There were a few points missing from their Health, Spirit, and Stamina bars still, even after the food and drink restored some.
Finally, Therion spoke. “We tried that,” he said. “We’re not used to asking for help, but there’s some good coin in it for you.”
“If you’d be so obliged as to help an ol’ widower again,” added Kjen.
<<<>>>
Quest Alert: Mining Your Own Business
In addition to freeing up Commissar Cecilia’s informants to drink and know things as a living, Therion and Kjen have personally asked you to help them clear their compound of monsters and rescue any survivors. As a friend. A personal favor, really.
Quest Class: Common
Quest Difficulty: Hard
Success: Clear the hideout in the Tanglewood and rescue any survivors
Failure: Abandon your comrades; Survivor dies
Reward: 5,000 XP; “Whatever loot and coins we can spare, we promise. You can quote us on that.”
Accept: Yes/No?
<<<>>>
I accepted the quest and dismissed the notification with a wave of my hand.
“I’m in.”
“See? The sister of the cloth is alright. That was easy enough, right lads?” asked Therion. The others toasted their mugs in agreement.
“On one condition,” I added.
They all paused mid-drink, staring at me. I grinned and held out my hands for them. They sighed and set their drinks down, grumbling. Kjen and Therion gingerly placed their hands in mine, unsure where I was going with this, while Matt and Rob held hands under the table and avoided eye contact with any of the other rogues.
“Dearest Gaia, Mother of all Creation, Protector of all Souls—” I intoned.
“See, Therion, I told you I didn’t like Imperial priests,” whispered Kjen.
“—Hallowed be thy drink. I will be drunk, at home, as in the tavern—”
They burst into laughter and smashed their mugs together.
“—And lead us not into incarceration but deliver us from hangovers...”
“Barmen!” Therion finished with a grin.
Incandescent
We headed to the portal platform in the upper quarter, near Stonemount. Normally men of their dress and level would be frowned upon in such high society, but with me there, that suddenly made it okay. Little did anyone know that despite the gold bangles and fancy robes, I was the one who was so broke I’d have to borrow a coin to rub two together, and the rough looking mercenaries were the ones who had more dough than a bakery.
For a handful of shiny silver from the rogues—involuntarily donated by some of the others in line—the mage portaled us to Ravenkirk, just south of the Avilynn section of the Tanglewood on my map.
We stumbled out of the portal onto a dirt road. Ravenkirk was a small village of about two hundred residents with white-plaster houses with thatch on the roofs and trimmed in wood. Ornamental rowan trees, short, with clusters of bright red berries, decorated each house. I brushed myself off and immediately went to inspect them, remembering the delicious sweet and sour pop in my salad.
I pulled out my cookbook to check what else they could be used for: jams, juices, vinegars, pies, wine, candies—
“We plant them for protection,” said Kjen, appearing at my side and plucking a bunch for us to snack on. “Legend is, they mimic the tree of life that grows underneath Eldgard. Wherever Gaia shed blood to protect her realm, a rowan tree grew.”
“There sure are a lot of trees here,” I said, closing my book and looking around.
Kjen shrugged and popped a few in his mouth. He winced at the tartness. “They’re sweeter after the frost,” he said, laughing. “Edni used to put them on roasted deer. She was a Firebrand, y’know. Roast the deer right in the forest while on ’er hunts.”
Therion snatched the berries out of Kjen’s hand. “Don’t get distracted,” he scolded.
I picked a bunch for myself and followed the group due north. He had a point, and I wasn’t so poor I couldn’t pay attention.
The forest was large, thick, and old. Its high canopy was marked by beech and alder, whose thick trunks, twisted like muscled arms, ended in spindly, outstretched fingers for branches. The trees had shy leaves, a hand’s length away from touching, which let in enough dancing beams of sunshine for a hodgepodge of flowers to grow between moss-covered stones. Leaves a fiery red and yellow showed the end of season. Despite the sun high in the sky, in the shadow of the forest, the air held a distinct chill. A mixture of wild sounds, mostly insects and various woodland critters, filled the air and overpowered the trickling sounds of a gentle stream nearby.
It wasn’t a long trek off the main road. When I asked if that kept the hideout not so hidden, Therion explained they wanted to be close enough to pick off travelers.
“Not like, you know, Travelers like you and me or Matt,” he explained, “but like—”
“People traveling,” I finished for him.
“Yeah,” he said. He paused and held his hand out for some of the rowanberries. “You’re taking this news rather well, you know. I didn’t think you’d actually take me up on my offer back at the inn. I didn’t think you priestly sorts would be okay with stealing.”
I had to think about that for a second as I handed him a bunch of red be
rries. On one hand, I’d readily admit that stealing was wrong in most circumstances, especially if the thieves were preying on people who were desperate for every coin they could get to ensure their survival. Like me. On the other hand, the leader of the Darkling sect, Cian, had gotten under my skin in more ways than the sickly veins of the black when he said that it’s much easier to refrain from stealing when you’re well-fed.
And regarding informants of the Inquisition, being able to assess travelers through the empire was valuable information for them to have. Was it worth harassing the citizens? I couldn’t say for sure, but it didn’t sit right with me. Ultimately, there wasn’t a lot I could do to change these men’s actions or the structures that sanctioned them. My job was only to heal them and complete the mission.
“I am but a trusted servant of Gaia. I am not here to govern. Also, I get the feeling the Lady of Luck smiles upon those who make their own,” I said. “Besides, I spent last night raiding a holy temple,” I added, not fully lying but not entirely explaining the context.
Therion eyed the golden bangles on my wrist, a gift from Gaia. “You, uh, you get anything good?”
“How about you worry how you’re going to pay me when we’re done here?”
The hideout itself was no more than a little break in the rocks of a small hill. We crouched in the bushes together. The outline of my new rogue companions faded to a wispy purple, while my stealth skill leveled up.
<<<>>>
Skill: Stealth
Stealth allows you to creep through the shadows, making you harder to detect by hostile forces. Successful attacks from stealth mode activate a backstab multiplier for additional damage.
Skill Type/Level: Active/Level 3
Cost: 10 Stamina
Effect: Stealth 11% chance to hide from enemies.
<<<>>>
Soon enough, the place was crawling with monsters. [Kobolds], short bipedal creatures, with slouched backs, mouse ears, and beady black eyes much too large for their face, wandered around the perimeter of the cave. I counted at least ten. Some wore an unidentifiable skull on their face as armor and swung clubs of bone at various bugs in the grass. Others carried a pickaxe and swung pointlessly at the broken rocks scattered around the entrance. All of them had a mining candle on their heads and little canvas backpacks where they stashed the loot they found.
“Shiny!” exclaimed one, picking up an iridescent stag beetle and shoving it in his backpack.
I nudged Therion. At least, where I think he was. “Any word from Rose?” I whispered. I was eager to get to her if she was alone and scared.
“None yet, but I can tell you what happened,” said Therion.
He explained how Rose was playing Gentleman’s War with the rest of the crew when their traps went off. The others went to investigate, but there were too many, and they were overrun. Rose held back in stealth, to make sure she could get a message out to Therion. He hadn’t heard from her since.
“Normally kobolds only fight in groups of three or four, you see. Not mobs like this. And not here,” said Therion. “We used to see them up at the Broken Hill Mining Corp in the mountains to the west. Lots of resource nodes for ores, stones, and gems... if you can get past the critters. Sometimes we’d stealth past them, spend a day mining, turn in the mats, and go have a drink at the pub. The kobolds try to steal the resources for themselves though and—”
“You ask me, the miners are stealing from the kobolds,” interrupted Matt.
Robby shook his head. Kjen sighed.
“Regardless, it’s a level 12-15 dungeon,” said Therion. “It’s weird to see them so far away from it.”
“They don’t like being aboveground,” said Kjen. “Must’ve settled in.”
“Or all the loot we have in the hideout,” said Matt.
“Or that.”
I nodded at the information. I’d have to update the Commissar later. Maybe it was worth investigating.
“So why can’t you stealth past them here?” I asked. “What happened that you got your ass kicked and abandoned Rose?”
Therion hung his head and grumbled.
Kjen answered for him. “You see those wee little candles on their heads? The light makes it rather hard to sneak past ’em if they’re all clumped together like. Even harder in the daytime.”
The hideout itself was in a clearing, drowning in sunlight. It would certainly keep other rogues from trying to sneak in, but that worked against us as well.
“Were you able to get inside at all?”
Matt adjusted his footing and hefted his hammer over his shoulder. I spotted dried blood on the flat end. “They came back,” he said.
“We can get past the trash mobs,” said Therion, “but we used up all of our Health potions doing it.”
“Why didn’t you buy more?”
Robby cleared his throat but didn’t speak.
“Let me guess: you only had enough for beer, and a Health potion costs three gold a pop?”
“Bingo.”
“Right,” I said, standing up to leave. “And how are you going to pay me?”
Therion pulled me back into stealth and shushed me. “Listen, the loot is inside, I promise. Rose will have it. She also said that when she was able to do some reconnaissance for us, she saw a Kobold Shaman. He’s blind. Said he was ‘in tune with the ground’ and can ‘feel’ footsteps, so she didn’t get closer. What’s more, he carries a lantern that lights up the area. No shadows—”
“No stealth,” finished Kjen.
“Alright,” I said. “Get me up into that tree so it’ll be hard to target me, then do whatever you did that got you in last time, and try to kite the rest out. Be careful, though; I can’t put a shield on you while you’re in stealth or it’ll give you away.”
Robby gave me a silent salute and faded into the air. Matt tried a few practice swings with his hammer, while Kjen and Therion helped me onto the highest branch I could reach. I had a surprisingly easier time climbing trees in this world than I did back on Earth.
Shortly, the last two rogues disappeared into shimmering purple outlines that faded the further away they were from me, until they were hidden in the bushes entirely. Someone threw a pebble. When that didn’t get the kobolds’ attention, whomever it was threw a copper coin.
A lone kobold waddled over, their black eyes transfixed on the shiny object in the dirt, and was quickly struck by a crossbow bolt to the forehead. This caught the attention of the group, who roared in surprisingly deep squeaks and hisses and charged the position.
A grenade blast greeted them. The survivors took a volley of bolts to the chest, and Matt charged out of a bush, swinging his hammer to crush skulls. He stopped to retrieve his coin while Kjen and Therion burst out of stealth, axes and knives flashing glints of steel in the sunlight. There was no need for aggro or a tank to manage it; the shimmers made the kobolds walk into the blades over and over. I occasionally cast Prosperity to give them some healing over time, or HoT, and once or twice I had to cast Charity to do a direct heal, but never the stronger version.
My Spirit bar was barely touched when Therion held out his arms to help me from the tree.
“You sure you need me for this?” I asked.
“It’s a lot easier with you here, trust me,” he said, beckoning me to jump.
I spotted a shadow behind Therion, then looked up at the sky. It was about noon. There shouldn’t have been any shadows.
Then I saw the kobold raise his pickaxe.
I threw my shimmering shield of holy light, Lenity, on Therion. He spun around instinctively, axe already in hand, and chopped off the kobold’s head in one fell swoop. The axe lodged itself into the tree with a thonk, nearly knocking me off my feet. I steadied myself, then used the axe handle as a step to hop back to the ground. Therion retrieved his axe with a grunt and joined me and the others at the cave entrance.
The kobolds inside refused to come out into the sun, no matter how many shiny gold coins Matt displayed between his
fingers. Instead they shrank into the dark recesses of the narrow tunnels and disappeared around the corner entirely.
“Guess we go in after them,” said Matt, shrugging his large green shoulders.
“What say we flush ’em out, eh?” said Kjen, pulling out a Firebomb Grenade.
Therion held out his hand to stop him. “Listen, that’s too risky. Remember what happened last time?”
The group shifted uncomfortably.
“Before or after Robby shot us all with ricochets?” asked Kjen.
Matt rubbed his nose and grunted, and Robby silently touched where an eyebrow used to be.
“If we had some liquor, we could burn that,” I offered, remembering how I handled the Black Temple in the Barren Sands.
Kjen feigned a gasp of horror and blessed himself. “Sister, how could you suggest such a thing? The spirits are sacred!”
Therion crossed his arms. “We need to try something new. Any other ideas? Priestess?”
Kjen held up his grenade again.
“No! No fire, no grenades, no AoEs of any kind. It’s too cramped,” insisted Therion.
I looked behind me. The sun was moving past the zenith, and we had shadows now. “Therion’s right. The same tactics won’t work, and I can’t heal through your own damage against yourself.” I popped Acuity to let me see everyone’s Health bars. It cost a few Spirit per second to maintain, but was worth it. Combined with my new golden bangles that converted a portion of Spirit used to Health, I basically had a constant HoT on me if I was running my triage magic.
“They like shiny, right?” I asked, holding some light in my hand from the cantrip. The others nodded in agreement. “All my spells make me a light source. Once we’re out of the sunlight, they will aggro to me regardless of what we do. So why not use that to our advantage?”
“Have ye gone mad? You’re not suggesting you take the hits, are ye, sister?” asked Kjen.
“I am,” I answered, though if I was being honest, to both questions. “My job is to keep you alive. I aim to do that.”
Viridian Gate Online: Schism: A litRPG Adventure (The Heartfire Healer Series Book 2) Page 5
