Seeing the arrowhead, Kyran felt immense relief. Only on seeing it, did he realise how much the thought of being trapped alone in this cavern scared him. So, thought Kyran, jubilant, some form of civilized people inhabited these caverns. His thoughts raced forward. If he could befriend or ally whatever tribe lived here, his chances of survival would increase exponentially. At the very least they should be able to direct him on how to reach the surface, or even help with defeating the undead, assuming of course that the hunting party even made it this far.
He tried not to get ahead of himself and cautioned himself that he had little reason to believe any tribe down here would be friendly, everything he had met so far had tried to kill him. Nor did he even have reason to believe that the arrowhead was anything more than the remnant of an ancient civilization.
Nevertheless, his optimism persisted. After all, if you had to live underground, where better than the shores of an underground lake to found a settlement?
His scrying spell faded and his vision of the tunnel two hundred metres away disappeared. Briefly he pondered approaching the tunnel for a closer look but his essence pool was low after the constant scrying so he decided against it. Instead he decided to complete his exploration of the cavern.
Hours later, Kyran sat down wearily, his scouting done. He had discovered nothing else of note. There were no other signs of life and while the eastern rock face of the cavern was fissured and seamed, it contained no other tunnels. At least he had confirmed that he was the cavern's sole occupant. One welcome piece of news, was that through his continuous scrying, he reached civilian level three.
You have cast basic scrying 17 times (1,275 XP gained: 6,075/6,000 Civilian XP). Summary Cost: 544 Essence. You have obtained a total of 6,000 civilian XP and are now level 3. 4 Civilian skill points and 1 ability point gained.
It was now early evening, and he decided it was best to leave scouting the tunnel until tomorrow. He had yet a few more chores to complete tonight, not least of which was seeing to his levelling. He had gained two levels in the battle with the skeletons and he had still to allocate the points. First, he reviewed his combat skills and abilities.
Combat Skills (18 SP Available)
Psi Skills:
Beast Bonding: 12.7 (5 base)
Body Control: 2.0 (1 base)
Light Armour: 6 (5 base)
Psionics: 0
Psi Armour: 0
Telekinesis: 6.1 (3 base)
Telepathy: 0
Will Regen.: 0
Magic Skills:
Air Magic: 12.8 (5 base)
Earth Magic: 12.8 (5 base)
Essence Regen.: 0
Fire Magic: 12.8 (5 base)
Supportive Magic: 7.6 (3 base)
Wands & Staffs: 0
Mystical garments: 0
Spellcasting: 12.8 (5 base)
Water Magic: 7.7 (3 base)
Racial Skills:
Longbow: 0
Longsword: 4 (5 base)
His magic skills had shown their value in the battle with the skeletons so he maximised his air, fire, water and earth magic skills again. The remaining skill points he added into telekinesis. Its increased power made teleport (self) a viable escape skill. This meant leaving his healing and sword skills unchanged in favour of increasing light armour and beast bonding.
Your base skill in beast bonding, light armour, telekinesis, air magic, earth magic, fire magic and water magic has increased to 7 (the maximum allowable at your current level).
His next task was to decide which combat abilities to unlock.
Available Combat Abilities (8 AP available)
Beast Bonding: Enrage Beast.
Body Control: Boost Health, Boost Speed.
Telekinesis: Teleport object, Hold.
Telepathy: Confusion, Terrify, Sleep. (Locked, skill of 1 required).
Air Magic: Shocking Hands, Blur.
Earth Magic: Earth Tremor, Poison Ward.
Fire Magic: Fire Shield.
Supportive Magic: Restore Health (Others), Healing Aura, Restore Mind, Detect Magic.
Water Magic: Freezing Hands, Ice Wall.
Longbow: Focused shot, Long shot, Quick shot. (Locked, skill of 1 required).
Longsword: Disarm, Focused strike.
His battle with the skeletons had taught him the danger of injuries in combat. He needed better personal protection and so he unlocked fire shield.
New ability learnt!
Ability: Fire shield
Skill: Fire magic.
Description: Creates a protective bubble around the caster that blocks incoming attacks and reflects damage back to melee attackers. Twice as effective against fire-based attacks.
Rank: Novice.
Cost: 40 Essence.
Execution time: 5 seconds.
Buff: A maximum of 10 x skill of non-fire damage blocked, or 20 x skill fire damage. 50% of the damage blocked is reflected back to melee opponents (spell may be applied to self only).
Duration: 10 seconds x skill.
Grasping roots had proved itself to be an effective crowd control spell. He decided to add to his repertoire by learning ice wall.
New ability learnt!
Ability: Ice wall
Skill: Water magic.
Description: Creates a frozen wall of ice at the targeted area. Warning: Only one ice wall may be active at a time. The wall is twice as resistant against water-based attacks.
Rank: Novice.
Cost: 40 Essence.
Execution time: 5 seconds.
Area of effect: Wall of length of 1m x skill at targeted area. Maximum wall width of 1m.
Range: Up to the caster’s direct line of sight.
Duration: 10 seconds x skill.
Debuff: Causes all creatures caught in the wall to be frozen. Cannot be resisted. Frozen creatures take damage over time.
Wall strength: 10 HP x skill.
As was becoming his practice now, he saved the remaining combat AP for a rainy day. Next, he considered his civilian skills and abilities.
Civilian Skills (4 SP Available)
Leadership Skills:
Commander: 0.7 (1 base)
Feudal Lord: 0
Governor: 0
Mage Lord: 2.4 (1 base)
Scrying: 1.4 (2 base)
Travelling: 1.4 (2 base)
Racial Skills:
Nature Lore: 2.4 (2 base)
Available Civilian Abilities (1 AP available)
Commander: Share sight, Drain Minion Health.
Governor: Basic Torture, Interrogate, Drain Minion Will. (Locked, skill of 1 required).
Mage Lord: Channel novice spells, Drain Minion Essence.
Scrying: Detect Scrying.
Travelling: Travel (self), Teleport Barrier.
Nature Lore: Gather plants, Encourage growth, Harvest beast remains.
He again maximised nature lore, scrying, travelling.
Your base skill in nature lore and scrying has increased to 3 (the maximum allowable at your current level). Your base skill in commander has increased to 2.
In light of his discoveries in the lake, gather plants would be a useful ability and so he unlocked it.
New ability learnt!
Ability: Gather plants
Skill: Nature lore.
Description: Enables the player to harvest plants and ingredients.
Rank: Novice.
Cost: 40 Stamina.
Execution time: 30 seconds.
Range: Caster’s touch.
Effect: Percentage of ingredients harvested is 1 x skill (rest of plant destroyed).
He reviewed his profile after his choices.
Profile (Condensed)
Name: Kyran Seversan
Race: Elf
Combat Level: 7 (53,235/56,000)
Civilian Level: 3 (6,075/12,000 XP)
Health: 70 / 70
Stamina: 470 / 500
Will: 1020 / 1020
Essence: 37 / 1200
Attacks
Physical: 10.4 (slash).
Mental: None.
Spell: 17.9 (fire)
Defences
Physical Defence: 8.7
Psi Defence: 7.0
Spell Defence: 7.0
Combat Skills
Beast Bonding: 17.8 (7 base)
Body Control: 2.0 (1 base)
Light Armour: 8.4 (7 base)
Psionics: 0
Psi Armour: 0
Telekinesis: 14.3 (7 base)
Telepathy: 0
Will Regen.: 0
Air Magic: 17.9 (7 base)
Earth Magic: 17.9 (7 base)
Essence Regen.: 0
Fire Magic: 17.9 (7 base)
Supportive Magic: 7.7 (3 base)
Wands & Staffs: 0
Mystical garments: 0
Spellcasting: 12.8 (5 base)
Water Magic: 17.9 (7 base)
Longbow (Racial): 0
Longsword (Racial): 4 (5 base)
Civilian Skills
Commander: 1.4 (2 base)
Feudal Lord: 0
Governor: 0
Mage Lord: 2.4 (1 base)
Scrying: 2.2 (3 base)
Travelling: 2.2 (3 base)
Nature Lore (Racial): 3.6 (3 base)
Vassals & Minions
Maximum allowed: 5 (7 base)
Current: None.
Combat Abilities (6 AP available)
Novice:
Beast Bond I, Extend Bond.
Truesight, Fire Dart, Slippery Ice, Grasping Roots, Fire Shield, Ice Wall.
Base:
Calm beast, Mind over matter, Teleport (self).
Blend, Barkskin, Flaming Hands, Restore Health (Self), Water Armour.
Civilian Abilities
Novice:
Travel (self), Basic Scrying, Gather Plants.
Base:
Inspiring, Channel Essence, Show Hostiles (map), Show Portals (map), Show Plants (map).
Equipped Items
Full set of Chitin armour (20 base armour).
Basic longsword (6-10 base slash damage).
Kyran was well satisfied with his progress. He had some time yet before he needed to turn in for the night. He decided to use the time diving for cave fungi.
After a physically strenuous hour of diving and gathering he had a respectable collection of cave fungi arrayed on the lake shore.
You have harvested 43 colonies of cave fungi (900 XP gained: 6,975/12,000 Civilian XP).
Acquired: Cave Fungi x 43.
Type: Food.
Weight: 4.3 kg (total).
Special properties: None.
Description: Edible source of food.
That night he had an especial treat for his supper. Seared rock beetle with drizzled cave fungi! Yummy. Chewing mechanically on his supper and reminding himself of all the upsides of variations in diet, he reflected on his day. Not only had he discovered another food source, he had discovered a potential way out of the cavern and perhaps a possible ally. His discoveries today had him feeling more upbeat and confident about the future.
✽ ✽ ✽
Aveyad and Tyeliss paused at the shaft entrance. “The tracks end here again,” said Tyeliss.
Aveyad nodded, “It must have either fallen or jumped in.”
Tyeliss snorted, “Foolish of it, if it jumped in.” He paused, then asked, “Do you think it is still alive?”
“If it is, we will find it at the lake,” replied Aveyad.
Pointing at the tunnel ahead, Tyeliss said, “It will take us at least two days of hard travelling to reach the lake by this circuitous route. Should we abandon the skeletons and follow through the river?”
“No, we will need them when we meet the champion. We take the long route,” replied Aveyad. Avoiding the shaft, the hunting party set off once more in pursuit.
First Contact
Can an Immortal be killed? Long has the Brotherhood speculated on this. In short, we do not know. But many amongst us fear that such is impossible. After all, why else would the Gods, after a war that spanned eons, imprison the Demons, their hated fellow immortals, instead of destroying them outright? And why too, would Eld entrap the Gods within the self-same prison instead of seeking their destruction? These are troubling questions, from which I can draw only one conclusion: that being Immortal, ‘death’ would not be final for such beings – from Observations on the Gods and their Champions, secret text of Dagzid, Brotherhood scholar.
You have slept 9 hours. Will, essence and stamina completely restored. The date is 05 Jul 2603 AB, and the time 10:04.
Day Five in Myelad, and Kyran began to believe that he would never see the sun again. Last night in an attempt to relieve aching muscles, he had formed a mattress from the cave fungi. Alas, it hadn’t worked. He had still awoken stiff and sore, but technically rested (according to the game at least) with full pools of essence, stamina and will.
He spent a few minutes loosening up, then packed up his meagre belongings and hiked to the spot his scrying had revealed to contain the decayed bones and broken spearhead. It was a short uneventful walk. Nearing the spot, he slowed his approach and scanned the surroundings cautiously. There was nothing in particular that warranted this cautious approach, nothing but the new streak of paranoia that was fast becoming ingrained in his psyche, courtesy of his harrowing experiences over the last few days in this subterranean world.
Reaching his destination proved anticlimactic. The broken spearhead was just that, and the decayed bones were unidentifiable. Kyran did not have the skill to decipher the age of the bones or the spearhead. For all he knew, they could be days old or hundreds of years old. Disappointed, he looked around. He could see no other signs of life. That left only the tunnel.
He stepped warily into the tunnel. Unlike the cavern it was dark and unilluminated. It stretched off in the distance without narrowing or sloping downwards. For this Kyran was grateful, he did not fancy heading yet deeper in the earth. Alert, he proceeded into the tunnel.
Expecting another long hike, Kyran was surprised when moving dots appeared on the edges of his map. These dots, encouragingly were not red, but a neutral grey. There were four of them and they approached from the hidden depths of the tunnel.
Caught unprepared and unexpectedly with potential friendlies, Kyran froze with indecision. Should he openly approach or first observe them from safety? His new sense of paranoia urged him to hide. Kyran rebelled. Such behaviour, he argued to himself, would not be in the spirit of the alliance he hoped to forge with this people. Intentions and trust mattered. Decided, he stood unarmed and in plain sight of the oncoming party.
With trepidation, Kyran watched the four creatures’ unhurried approach on his map. About thirty metres outside of his direct line of sight the creatures suddenly stopped, and excitedly started conversing with each other, in what to him, sounded like a serious of unintelligible clicks and growls. Kyran frowned in consternation. He had counted on seeing the creatures first; but considering that they lived their entire lives in the deep earth, it was not unexpected that they had superior sight in this environment.
He had also expected to understand them. I thought players were multi-lingual on this world. Yet all he could hear was a series of unintelligible grunts. Having already committed to his plan, Kyran gambled further and advanced deliberately, in an unthreatening a manner as possible. The creatures continued to growl at each other, seemingly unconcerned by his approach. Twenty metres from the creatures, his truesight finally revealed them. They were short, stunted beings, each no more than one metre high, with scaly brown skin. Their faces were long and narrow and ended in pointed snouts that were filled with short razor-sharp teeth. Their tongues flicked out constantly, tasting the air. Their bare hands and feet ended in blunt claws. Each was primitively dressed and armed, with a shapeless piece of cloth loosely fastened around the body and a long, bone tipped spear in hand. To Kyran, the four creatures were indistinguishable from each other. Insight revealed them
to be kobolds.
Creature: Feral Kobold
Type: Semi-Sentient (Savage)
Rarity:Uncommon
Level: 10
Health: 100 / 100
Attack: 7-12 (piercing)
Defences (Physical/ Psi/ Spell): 10 / 10 / 15
Special Effects:
Resistance to Fire (-50% fire damage).
Description:
Feral Kobolds are an offshoot of their more populous and advanced cousins, kobolds. Feral kobolds possess low intellect and are found living in the deep, dark corners of the earth.
Undeterred with the less than promising information, Kyran began addressing the feral kobolds, “Greetings friends, I –”
The creatures ceased their chatter and fixed their unblinking gazes upon him. Unobtrusively Kyran edged backwards. Without warning, one of the kobolds swung back his arm and flung his spear unerringly at Kyran. Kyran threw himself backwards, barely dodging in time. Scrambling to his feet, he tried again, “Wait, stop –” His only answer was another spear, this one less well aimed. “Please,” he cried. The other two kobolds charged. Abandoning diplomacy, Kyran turned and fled. The kobolds gave chase, growling and spurring each other on.
The kobolds were fast. Far faster than him and gained quickly. With battle no longer avoidable, he resigned himself to combat and began casting. Still running, he wove his essence into a sparkling shield of fire around himself.
Spellcasting interrupted. You have failed to cast fire shield.
Unfortunately casting while on the run was not easy. His concentration was jarred by his split focus and the spell fizzled out multiple times before finally taking shape. Essence shot forth from him and the fire shield bubble popped into place around him.
You have cast fire shield. At an effective skill of 17.9, it will block 179 non-fire damage or 358 fire damage. Remaining duration: 179 seconds.
And not a moment too soon either. He finished casting just as the first kobold reached him. With no time to cast further buffs, he turned, drew his sword, and with a downward slash, struck at the kobold.
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