by Taj McCoy El
Defense*
2
increase defense
1 point
Attack*
2
Increase attack
1 point
Strength
1
Increase Strength
1 point
Stamina
1
Increase stamina
1 point
Agility
1
Increase agility
1 point
Affinity*
2
Increase affinity
1 point
Rapport
1
Increase Rapport
1 point
You have: 10 points
Since she roughly understood all the physical increases, she took a look at the increase rapport section first.
Increase Rapport
Increase your bond with your companion and the ability to communicate intricate ideas. Also increases your understanding of your companion and their motivations.
Well, that’s a gotta have. I need some partners in crime. Now, what about increase Affinity?
Increase Affinity
Your companion has an elemental affinity which grows based on how much of that element they come into contact with, ingest, or absorb. Increase affinity directly increases the percentage of your companion’s elemental attribute.
Okay, now I gotta see what that does too.
She took the points and distributed them +1 to defense, attack, affinity, rapport, stamina and strength. Before she closed the window, she saw that the next level of each upgrade was now 2 points.
She decided to use the last four points to upgrade her defense and stamina. That way she can run away and isn’t too squishy.
Companion tab
Companion 2 Name: Deanna
Species:
Iron Rötten - Female
Level:
2
HP:
83/85
Disposition:
Ally
Abilities:
Bite and Claw. Bones, hair and teeth have been magically infused with iron. This gives this subspecies of rötten a higher attack and defense rating. +1 to Base for Attack, Defense and Affinity
Upgrades available - Deanna
Defense*
4
increase defense
3 points
Attack*
3
Increase attack
2 points
Strength
2
Increase Strength
2 points
Stamina
3
Increase stamina
3 points
Agility
1
Increase agility
1 point
Affinity*
3
Increase affinity
2 points
Rapport
2
Increase Rapport
2 points
You have: 0 points
Every level seemed to be one point more expensive than the level before it.
Urgh…that’s gonna be a tough climb.
Mayah turned her head to Prometheus who was calmly preening herself. She had grown about an inch taller and her hair had gotten thicker and spikier. Her legs were a bit thicker and seemed stronger. Riker was sniffing her up and down while scurrying around. Deanna snapped at Riker, and he quickly jumped back.
“Hey! Don’t snap at him,” Mayah scolded. “If it wasn’t for him you may not have been brought back to life.”
Deanna respond by lowering her head and squinting her eyes at Mayah, The rötten equivalent of a hmfff. Riker kept his distance while looking forlorn.
“Don’t worry about it buddy. If you want, I can give you an elemental upgrade as well.”
Riker looked up at her as if saying, really?
“Yes sir! I give you my word.”
Riker spun around happily squeaking and chittering.
“Now that that’s done, I have to go see what’s down these tunnels before it gets dark. You guys can come with me if you want or you can stay here.”
Riker looked a little sheepish until Deanna stood up and made her way back over to the darkness. Riker followed pensively. Mayah laughed at the little guy trying to be brave for his girlfriend.
She activated the club light and the entire end of the stick became a glowing ball. It was brighter than the single Light (W) rune but the light was still pale and didn’t hurt her eyes. Then she walked into the darkness.
9.3 Winner, Winner…
For the last three hours Mo had been trying to dodge everything the Knockers could throw at him, Literally. They were having a great time. He, however, was about to call it quits when a notification distracted him. It was at that precise moment that an empty bottle collided with his head.
Shazzing…gnarlzy, he thought holding up his hand to stop the pelting that had begun when he stopped moving.
“Cut it out guys!” he yelled over the uproarious laughter. "I quit! I quit!!!”
Of course, the bottles kept coming, and he had to dash out of the center of the room
“It be about toime, Moy shoulder catapult was getting a little toired.” Bonkers massaged his shoulder to more than a few snickers. He motioned to a knocker who brought the lights back to full and opened the curtains.
Mo pulled up the notification.
Omen Shadow
Level: 3
In total darkness, your shadow surrounds you like an early warning system. Any motion around you for a space of 9 inches will be seen with your mind’s eye.
+3 Perception
Sweet that was what I was looking for anyway.
Mo walked over to a table and sat down with Bonkers and his team.
“So, Bonkers, have you been able to take quests?” Mo asked seriously.
The Knockers were lighting lamps to be able to see normally again.
“Not in recent toimes. It’s ’ard enough to get food without getting into a brawl. The priest at the temple of the eight helps us procure foods when he can but not many others will give us the toime o’day.”
“I’m going to go see if there are any quest to help us get enough reputation to bring you along.”
“Ye might wanna go see farmer Driskel.” A voice said from behind him.
“Farmer Driskel, who’s that?”
“He’s got himself what youse would call, an ongoing chicken problem,” Bonkers replied wistfully, sending a few laughs through the room.
“Why does this sound like it’s worse than what you’re telling me?”
“Probably because it is,” Bonkers said matter of factly.
“So, no details, huh?”
“You’ll get all the info you’ll need when you get there.” He looked at a scruffy man hunched over his table nursing a beer. “Hey, Crassel!”
“Yah boss,” the scruffy pile replied.
“Draw these lot a map to farmer Driskel’s and make it quick.”
“Why do I have ta der’it?” he growled.
“Because you’re the only one with the cartography skill, ya right blasted numbskull. Now get to work a’fore oi have to put my boot to yer backsoide.”
“Aye, aye. Keep yer girdle on…” Crassel grumbled and started pulling out some paper and a quill.
“So, Crassel will get youse the map—and youse shouldn’t be in the woods after dark, moind you. That’s about all the help oi can give ya. Anymore would be cheating.”
“And why would it be cheating?” Mephi asked.
“We’ve got an ongoing pool to see who can finish the quest. First one to do so gets free drinks for a month.”
“So, we’re just lambs being sent to the slaughter?”
“No shame in not finishing the job me lads, everyone ‘ere has had their taste of failure at Driskel’s, even me.”
A hearty round of ‘hear, hear’ went up from the crowd.
“beep- So if
we finish this job, we’ll be able to say we’re better than you, right? -boop” Ziggs chimed in.
“Maybe, Maybe not. Depends on who you’re talking to. You could probably say it roight now if you fancied, but some of me boys’ave a chip of considerable soize on their shoulder. And most of moy men have decoidedly large knoives besoides their chunks.”
“In other words, no,” Mo groaned.
Bonkers placed a hand on Mo’s shoulder and said, “Glad you can read between the loines, boy-o. Crassel, ain't youse finished yet?” Bonkers roared.
“Been finished.” Crassel roared back, and then spit on the wall.
“Then why didn’t you say anything?”
“Because you just told me to give its them, but they ain’t moved a muscle towards the door yet!”
“Crassel, oi swear by the eight oi’m going to ruffle more than a few of the feathers you call your brain! Now get over here and give it them.”
Crassel walked across the room muttering and cursing to himself. He smashed the rolled up paper into Mo’s hand so hard it mostly crumpled, and then he spit on the ground at Bonkers’ feet.
“That’s better moy lad,” Bonkers exclaimed, ignoring the spittle. “Now toddle off, the real men are talking.” He shooed Crassel with both hands and bopped the retreating knocker atop his raggedy leather cap with a less than gentle fist. Crassel turned muttering invectives to himself and didn’t stop even after he was seated and sipping from his mug, bit of foam flying through his tirade.
“Now, where were we? Ah, yes. Now that you’ve got the map to farmer Driskel’s oi suggest you get there. The sunloight waits for no one.” With that he turned and headed toward a group of knockers deep in a heated discussion.
Mo turned to Mephi and Ziggs. “So, you guys ready to do this?”
“beep- It’s not better than chucking bottles at you, but it will do. -boop” Ziggs green glow rippled with purple. Mo believed that was a sign of sarcasm and took a deep breath.
“So, Ziggs how did you get down first?”
“beep- I have my ways. Ha ha ha ha ha. -boop”
"I hate this trash can,” Mephi rankled.
“beep- Who let the skunks out? Poot…poot, poot, poot…-boop”
Mephi growled and Mo just facepalmed and said, “Let’s go before I kill you both.”
✽✽✽
They took the walk through the city. Mo was still entranced by the artwork that adorned the buildings. Ziggs and Mephi argued like kids in the back seat on a family car trip. More than once Mo had to split them up.
Why can’t we be a normal team? A little consideration maybe, some compassion and empathy? But no, I get stuck with the two tunes who can’t harmonize. It’s partially Mephi’s fault because he’s just biding his time and can’t take a joke. It’s partially Ziggs’ fault because he loves to poke the bear. And it’s mostly my fault because I can’t get them to cooperate. Maybe I should just figure out a way to let Mephi go do his thing that way I only have to deal with Ziggs. At least Ziggs wants to be here.
Mo could hear the two of them arguing behind his back—again. He groaned tuning them out hoping that they would work it out, but deep down he knew that was a long shot. They had left the city proper and had walked up into the hills surrounding Drahtspule. Following Crassel’s map they had made good time.
Say what you want about Crassel he makes a good map.
Coming over a rise they saw a picturesque farm. The barn was red with white trim and a two story, whitewashed house looked as inviting as a postcard. It was about 14:30MJT when they approached the house.
They knocked and waited for an answer. A strong, middle-aged man answered the door. He was tanned as leather from his days in the sun and his eyes were beady. He looked at them dismissively and uttered one word.
“What?” It was gruff and offered no patience.
“Hello sir—” Mo started off.
"I ain’t no sir. I’m a farmer who works for a living, not some namby pants brown-nosing bureaucrat so call me Driskel.” He tersely interrupted.
“Well…Driskel, we’ve heard that you have a chicken problem.”
Driskel snorted. “You lot think you can handle it?”
“Well, would you mind telling us the problem first?”
“The problem is, that fool son of mine dropped a bag of elemental crystals in the chicken yard. He wants to be some kind of alchemist or some sort of thing like his uncle, when he should be helping his da till the land and care for the animals. Bah!
“Anyways, the chickens decided those crystals looked tasty and decided to swallow them whole. Made’em get all type’a crazy devil magic. I had to build that whole new barn as their coop but when I finished, they’d all run off. Went looking for them and found a few, but they somehow disappear after a few nights.
“I’d given up on the old chicks and got new chooks and don’t you know it, the new ones wind up leaving with the others. I’m out 100 chickens and so much gold that I figured I should try and find them to get a return on my investment.”
“Do you know where we could find them?”
“Out past the pasture, in the wood. But watch yourselves. You’re not the first ones to attempt it. People have died trying to get those chickens home to roost.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem for us.”
“Death isn’t a problem for ya?” Driskel chuckled. “What are you? One of those paladins?”
“Actually si…Driskel, yes we are.”
Driskel’s eyes widened at that statement, and he gave them another once over. “Paladins or not, if you don’t get all the chickens back in you don’t get any rewards.”
“What kind of rewards are we talking?”
You have been offered a quest:
Coop up the Chickens
Collect all 100 chickens and put them into Driskel’s new barn, alive.
Rank: D
Reward: 250XP + 20 silver
Failure: Killing any of the chickens or taking more than three days. You MUST collect all 100 chickens. Failure will also carry a negative reputation score from Farmer Driskel.
Do you accept?
Y/N?
Mo quickly accepted the quest and noticed Mephi do the same. Ziggs stood still and Mo assumed he accepted. It was hard to tell as Ziggs had no arms. Driskel went inside his house and came back with about thirty burlap sacks.
“These should help you out with the little terrors once they’re inside the bags they should quiet down. Now remember don’t be killing my birds. A broken wing or leg is okay I can get them fixed up from that. But if you kill my birds, you’ll have more to worry about than getting out of harm’s way.” With that he nodded and shut the door in their faces.
“Well, isn’t he just a peach?” Mephi surmised.
“beep- And why is the reward so low? -boop”
“Yeah, back in the village we got 30 silver for a find the cat quest, and that was super easy.” Mephi added.
“That’s a good question, Ziggs. We’ll have to ask Bonkers when we get back. Let’s get started while there’s still light”
✽✽✽
Mayah had examined the hole fairly easily after she crafted her rötten repelling light. Riker and Deanna had alerted her to a larger rötten that had decided to brave the light and tried sneaking up behind her. Mayah watched as they dispatched it. She got a measly 7XP from the battle, but hey, XP is XP.
The tunnel ended up in a six foot by six foot room of pipes that had three levers on the three side walls, and she Analyzed them all. The setups on each wall were identical. Three levers protruding from what she assumed were ball valves. The markings on the pipes that ran through the valves were still unknowns.
Maybe there’s a clue around the gate that I missed.
“I’ll have to check again on my way back…or maybe tomorrow. Yeah…tomorrow’s safer,” She sighed heavily. "I wish I had someone to talk to.”
In truth it was a problem that Mayah faced daily. Outside of her immediate f
amily there were only a few friends she truly had. Three out of four of them she had never met in person. One was her older cousin who taught her about punk and grunge.
Cousin Pearl is sooo cool…and still had a record player. Mayah basked in memories of the sounds that came out of those records—the records that Mayah’s mother had given Pearl.
That’s right I need to message mom. She snapped her fingers.
Mayah.Butler@CrysWeb
3:21 EST
Hey, Mom, how are you? I know it’s only been a few hours for you, but I wanted to check in and let you know that I’m fine. It was so good to see you and dad yesterday. Yesterday because it was yesterday for you as well as me. So I’m gonna go now. But you make sure you take care of yourself. You’re the heart of this operation…