by Kyle Johnson
He’d also helped her set up a mana fractal to organize and concentrate her SP. It lowered her overall pool and regen rate, but each Spell cost less SP and her casting was both faster and more powerful. She’d been reluctant at first, which he understood – no one wanted their SP pool to drop – but he explained that eventually, she’d end up with effectively more SP, since each Spell would cost significantly less and do a lot more for the cost, and eventually she’d agreed.
Aranos had also played around with the shards he’d collected from the lanohtar’s broken sword. The metal looked and felt like steel, but it wasn’t; it seemed to have an affinity for necrotic mana and was both harder and more brittle than high steel. That was why the sword had shattered under Saphielle’s shield attack: it would cut through things that steel wouldn’t, but without mana to empower it, it was easy to break. Somehow, he guessed, the Avenger had nullified the mana inside the blade with that last attack. To be honest, he had a feeling that Saphielle’s incapacitation was as much from using that final Ability as from the necrotic attack by the lanohtar.
It took him a while to find the correct entry in Ilmadia’s book, and once he read it, he understood why.
“Voidsteel, also called banesteel, is a creation of the Darkness and, as such, is forbidden in all the Realms of Light. The method of its creation is unknown, although it is believed to involve the sacrifice of an innocent and unwilling subject. It is known that voidsteel is created from ordinary high steel and that, once forged, it cannot be melted down or reforged without destroying the metal completely. It is harder than steel but very brittle and must be infused with mana to be at all useful. It can only effectively channel the darker forms of magic, such as void-based mana, making it dangerous for the wielder as well as their opponent.”
Aranos was loath to examine the metal, but hesitantly, he extended his magical senses to study the shard. He could tell immediately that it was, indeed, based on steel – it had the same basic crystalline structure – but the pattern had been altered, and some sort of impurity had been added to the blade. That impurity was why it was brittle; each tiny imperfection was a stress point in the metal.
Curious, Aranos tried to draw out the impurities, but they didn’t seem to exist as far as his High Mastery Ability was concerned. He frowned and tried a different tack, shifting the metal around the impurities and lifting them out, squeezing each one to the surface. The black shard turned crimson in his hand, and Aranos swore and dropped the metal as a gush of foul liquid erupted from its surface and splashed on his skin. His Scent Ability identified the fluid instantly.
“Blood,” he muttered, wiping off his hand. “Somehow, the metal is infused with crystallized blood.” Aranos doubted it was as simple as quenching a blade in blood; the impurities had been set in a very specific pattern that would channel mana effectively, and normal blood wasn’t really a conductor or attractor for any specific type of mana, as far as he knew. Some sort of Enchantment or ritual had to have gone into crafting the blade, but as the book said, it would be impossible to melt it or reforge it. Doing so would burn off the blood within it and either destroy it or turn it into normal, if excessively fragile steel.
By the time his training was done, darkness was starting to fall, and he could feel that Silma was returning. Their bond was deepening, and sometimes he could almost sense what she was thinking and feeling even without her sending the images to him. He checked once more on Saphielle – the snarl of necrotic energy within the woman was much smaller, now, and he sighed with relief as he realized that she was finally fighting it off on her own – then headed downstairs to greet the fenrin and hear her report.
It’s as you thought, pack leader, the wolf told him silently as he translated her words for everyone. The undead pack came from the tunnel we sought. It eluded us because it doesn’t open toward elven lands, as we thought, but points toward a gap in the northern mountains”
“Actually, kind of makes sense in hindsight,” Meridian sighed. “I mean, Aranos here told us the dwarves dug out everything below ground, right? If they made the tunnel, too, I could see them aiming it at their own home instead of someone else’s.”
“While that is an astute observation,” Rhys observed with a smile, “one might feel more impressed had you arrived at it some days ago.”
Meridian snorted. “You didn’t think of it at all, so at least I’ve got that, Druid.”
Rhys sighed dramatically. “Indeed, I did not, and the fact that it occurred to you first makes me question if being in the Corrupted Lands is finally dulling my wits.”
“Then maybe we should all quiet down and let our scout tell us how we can get into the city and maybe wrap all this up?” Phil suggested with a chuckle. “Or do the two of you want to take this outside?” Meridian gave the Druid a wry grin; the elf shrugged in return but stayed silent.
Thank him for me, Silma sent to Aranos, who promptly did so. As I was saying before I was interrupted, I followed the trail of the undead to the tunnel, which was extremely simple. They weren’t trying to hide their passage at all; any of the pack could have followed it. The tunnel stands unguarded and unwatched, although there is a wall of green light some distance within that I believe will damage the elves and humans.
“It appears the necrotic zone extends underground, Oathbinder,” Geltheriel observed. “Have you completed the Spell that will protect us from it?”
“I’ll do it tonight,” he assured the group. “We should be fine to head out in the morning…”
There’s more, pack leader, Silma interrupted him. There were tracks leading into the tunnel that didn’t belong to the undead. They were human – at least, three of them were. The fourth was something that I’ve smelled before but can’t place. They went into the tunnel after the undead had left and never came back out.
Aranos recounted her words, and the party sat in silence for a moment. “Who could that be?” Phil finally asked. “Did someone follow us from Stoneleague?”
“Oh, bloody hell,” Longfellow swore, rising to his feet and throwing his arms into the air. “Someone’s going to complete the Quest before we do!”
“Not very likely,” Aranos grimaced. “They went in the necrotic zone hours ago and never came out. By this time, they’re probably off to respawn or so weak that they’re hiding from the undead and trying to figure out how to escape.”
“You thinking about rescuing them?” Phil asked quietly.
“Nope,” Aranos said firmly. “If they’re Travelers, then they’ll respawn and be the wiser for it. If they’re not, then they’ll probably be dead before we can get to them. Besides, we’ve got our own concerns in the city, and they don’t involve whoever these people are.”
“Agreed,” McBane spoke up. “Although if we do run into them, it would only be sporting to help them get out of the city, right?”
“Okay, yeah, if we happen to find them, we should help them out,” Aranos agreed. “But we don’t have time to go looking for them. Everyone agree?” Aranos was surprised when everyone nodded, but after a moment, he realized he shouldn’t have been. The players were all eager to complete the Quest and see if they couldn’t get their Advanced Classes. Rhys was too practical to want to go out of his way to save a group of humans, and Geltheriel’s mind had doubtlessly run the same way Aranos’ had. A group of strange humans appearing just when Aranos suspected someone was communicating with the leadership of Antas was too big of a coincidence for them to ignore.
“Tomorrow morning, then, first light, we head out. Everybody get some rest; I have a feeling we’ll need it.”
Although Geltheriel took the first watch, Aranos wasn’t tired; his rest earlier had taken care of that need for the day. He returned to the top floor, where Saphielle still rested in his tent, and sat cross-legged, his back to the wall where he could see both the door and the window. With nothing else to do, he dropped into his mindscape to finish his Spell and do some Skill training.
Completing the Spell req
uired him to basically exhaust the mana crystal he’d brought. As he called it up in his mind and began to renew the flow of SP to it, an idea struck him, and as he began fashioning the shell the next time, he slipped a filament of death mana in with the spirit mana holding the barrier together. The sickly, gray energy wound throughout the shell, dimming the green radiance of it, but it didn’t seem to be affecting the stability of the construct. Aranos grinned as the addition held; the death mana would do a tiny bit of damage to anyone crossing the barrier, but that wasn’t really the point. His hope was that it would also stymie the life sensing Ability that the undead seemed to possess, or at least reduce the range at which the party would be spotted.
Stealth would be key in the city; if they were going to have a chance to take it, they only had two options. They could do it piecemeal, which would likely bring the forces of the undead crashing on them in a wave, or they could find and restore the city’s Heart. Doing that would probably destroy most of the undead and would weaken the rest enough that the party could hunt them down at their leisure. The Heart was the key to the city, and thanks to his research in Eredain, Aranos had a feeling that he knew where it was.
His first target, though, was the Vault. If they could gain access to that, they could complete Geltheriel’s Quest and maybe even find Advanced Classes for the players. That would give them time to work on the rest of the city, and it would be easier if the players and Rhys were all more powerful. Again, he had a pretty good idea of where the Library was, roughly, and the Vault would only be accessible through it.
It took him fifteen minutes of pouring SP into his mental construct before the Spell crystallized in his mind. Once it was done, he began to consider what he could do with his newest aspect. Vital mana, he knew, could basically do anything nature mana could, plus it could directly affect the LP and Stats of creatures. He supposed he could use it to directly drain LP from a creature, but that seemed like it might be a Corrupted Spell. After all, it basically replicated his former Energy Drain Ability, and that had been Corrupted.
That didn’t mean he couldn’t affect someone else’s LP, though, he realized. Vital mana didn’t just redirect the energy of LP; it could also transform it into other forms within a creature. LP could be turned into SP and vice-versa, at least, within himself. If he could do the same thing to another creature, he could turn a Warrior’s LP into SP that they likely had no use for, or a Wizard’s SP into LP that they didn’t need. He’d rather use his Mana Vampire Perk to drain a caster of SP, of course, but it was always good to have another option.
It took him a while to envision what he wanted in his mind. The hardest part was connecting to the target’s LP pool without touching them; if the Spell required contact, it would be pretty worthless, since he spent as little time in melee as he could. He started simply, imagining a single uruk bound in Void Paralysis, about as easy a target as he could imagine. He first realized that his mana tendril had to be composed entirely of vital mana, or it would only interact with the target’s SP pool. Next, he discovered that a creature’s LP had significant inertia; it was performing a specific purpose, and it didn’t want to be diverted from that. It took a significant effort of willpower to shift the creature’s vital energies the direction he wanted, and it wasn’t until he diverted a large part of their pool into his Spell construct that he could gather sufficient energy to get the energy moving.
The creature didn’t have mana spirals, of course, but it had a tiny globe of unaspected mana where its spirals would have been. Aranos guided the vital mana out of the LP pool into that prismatic sphere, watching as it grew and swelled the longer he held the connection. At the same time, the monster’s LP pool dwindled, until it was a weak, pulsing glow that seemed barely capable of keeping the uruk alive. At that point, the flow stopped, and Aranos couldn’t restart it, no matter how hard he tried. Shrugging, he renewed the image and restarted the vision, this time imagining the uruk no longer held but engaged in battle with Geltheriel.
He replayed the scene several times, finally draining his SP to the 50% mark, where he stopped. There wasn’t an urgent need for the Spell right now – he had damaging Spells in plenty, and unless this one turned out to have a fantastically high transfer rate, it probably wouldn’t be as cost-effective as something like his Composite Bullet. However, the new Spell wasn’t an attack, either, and that meant that he might be able to use it against an opponent that was otherwise protected from him. Technically, it was a buff – he was boosting the target’s SP at the expense of their LP – so he wasn’t sure if things like shielding and barriers would protect against it. In his mental visions, they didn’t, so long as he wasn’t attacking the creature directly, but things didn’t always work exactly the way they did in his visions.
He spent the next hour training his Skills, boosting his Animal Handling, Beast Lore, and Dodge Skills up to the Adept ranks. When he was finished, he pulled up the day’s notifications, noting that thanks to his earlier training, the last of his Stats had finally jumped over 50:
Through special training, you have gained the following:
Str +4 (Grueling)
Dex +2 (Grueling)
Agil +2 (Grueling)
End +2 (Grueling)
Per +2 (Grueling)
You have reached your daily limit for Physical Stat Training!
Further training will have no benefits until a full rest is completed.
You have increased your Str Stat to more than 50 points! By surpassing this threshold, you have advanced this Stat to a new level and gain a bonus based on your playstyle:
Lifting and Carrying: Your lifting and carrying capacity is boosted by 25%.
Melee Damage: Your melee damage is increased by your [Str x 1.25]%
You have increased your End Stat to more than 50 points! By surpassing this threshold, you have advanced this Stat to a new level and gain a bonus based on your playstyle:
LP Bonus: You receive 7.5 LP per point of End over 10. This is applied retroactively.
LP Regen: Your LP regen at 125% of the normal rate.
Spell Created: Death’s Ward
Rank: Novice 1
Weave a shell of energy that protects you from necrotic energy and hides you from life sensing Abilities.
Effect: Weave a shell of necrotic, spirit, and death mana that encloses an area 20’ in radius. Any Spell or Ability that is primarily necrotic in nature has its effect reduced to one-quarter beneath the shell. Any undead or necrotic creature crossing the barrier is slowed for 30 seconds. Any living creature who crosses the ward takes one point of End damage.
In addition, any Spells or Abilities that sense living creatures function at half the normal range through the barrier. Necrotic effects and life sensing Abilities reduced by a further 0.5% per Spell level.
Duration: 1 hour
Cost: 280 SP, 32 necrotic SP, 71 spirit SP.
+250 XP
I guess now the only thing that’s certain is taxes…
Skill Boosts!
Animal Handling (T) has gained a Level!
New Rank: Adept 1
Adept Level Ability: Your Animal Companion gains a new Ability, chosen at random based on your interactions with them. They will gain an additional Ability for every 10 ranks of this Skill you attain. You can attempt to train any tamed animal to perform simple tasks such as fighting, retrieving specific items, opening a door, etc.
Beast Lore (T) has gained a level!
New Rank: Adept 1
Adept Level Ability: Identify Rare beasts and animals. All Skill checks involving beasts gain a bonus equal to half this Skill, rounded down.
Dodge (T) has gained a level!
New Rank: Adept 3
Adept Level Ability: You gain your Dodge bonuses to attacks even when you are traveling in a non-standard fashion (flying, swimming, etc.) You have a chance equal to half your Dodge bonus to evade an attack that would normally be impossible to dodge.
Your Companion has gained an Ability!
New Ability: Cloud Leap
Effect: Boost your normal jumping height or distance by half your Agil Stat, in feet, rounded down.
Cost: 35 Stamina
Satisfied with his gains, Aranos rose from his mindscape into the darkness of the tower. He blinked stupidly for a few moments, a bit surprised by how dark it was. Clouds had rolled in while he was meditating and covered the wan moon and stars, making the distant, green glow of the city the only illumination. His Night Vision activated a second or so later, and the blackness vanished, replaced by a silvery vision of the room that had perfect detail but no colors whatsoever. Aranos jumped and lifted a hand, a Spell forming, as he saw that a figure sat in front of him, staring at his face intently.
“Be calm, Redeemer,” Saphielle spoke, one hand rising to brush back a strand of her unbound hair. “It is only I.”
“Saphielle,” Aranos breathed a sigh of relief, lowering his hand. “Sorry, I thought – well, I’m not sure what I thought. My ward’s active, after all, so…” His voice trailed off as he realized that the woman wasn’t wearing her armor, the first time he’d ever seen her without it. She had only a thin shift that hugged her frame and fell to her knees. His brain was shouting at him about that, as well as the fact that he’d never seen the woman with her hair unbound, but he was honestly too shocked to pay attention to it.
“I am well, Redeemer,” the woman smiled at him, sliding a bit closer to where he sat. “I am certain that was the question that you wished to ask me, yes?”
“Oh – yeah, I’m glad,” he stammered as his brain caught up to the rest of him at last. “I knew you would be; I’ve been keeping an eye on you, giving you little doses of restorative mana, but I think you’d have shaken it off without me. You’re just about the strongest person I know, after all…”
His words were cut off as the woman leaned forward and placed her lips gently but insistently against his. Her mouth and tongue were soft, warm, and wet, and Aranos hesitated only a moment before returning her kiss, pulling her against him. As he did, he realized that the woman had nothing on underneath the shift.