Eisa stuck her tongue out at him and turned away, leading Fred towards the Residential Quarter to the south. Regnark quickly took the lead, however, because he probably knew what they were looking for better than the young couple. He never really liked to stay in the less-expensive DAS buildings in the towns he had visited over the years, so he had visited many an inn that catered to Adventurers over the years.
As the sun was starting to set, he finally found an inn that looked suitable – not too fancy and not too rundown (though, to be honest, he didn’t see any really rundown places like he would see in any other city he had been to). The Fire’s Eye was a low-key but well-taken-care-of establishment that surprised him when he walked inside. The common room was brightly lit with lamps and even a fancy chandelier overhead, and the clientele that filled it almost to bursting was a little more upscale than he was counting on, but it would do.
“It’s going to be extra for your pet – and you better keep control of it! I don’t need it messing up rugs upstairs, if you know what I mean,” the innkeeper told them sternly after Regnark asked for some rooms.
“I only have two rooms left – and you’re lucky I even have those. Two of my normal patrons ended up being caught in some sort of disaster over in the Craytion Kingdom and haven’t been seen since,” he added. “That’ll be 10 silver a night for each person, but it also includes three meals a day if you’re here for them. The wolf will be 15 a night, however – paid in advance. If you’re going to be staying for longer than a week, I have some slightly lower rates for you.”
Much more reasonable than the crooks in Death’s March, though still a little on the high side. He didn’t try to haggle with the innkeeper, though, as he still had a large bag of gold that Fred had given him earlier. “We’ll probably be staying for two nights,” he said, handing him a gold piece.
“Alright, no refunds if you aren’t here for the second night, though we’ll keep it open for you if you come in late,” the innkeeper warned them as he gave him his change. “Here are your keys – upstairs to the fourth floor and all the way down the hallway. Your two rooms are right on the end.”
Regnark thanked him and led the others upstairs, which were a bit of a tight fit for his large frame, but he was able to squeeze through by going a bit sideways. When they finally got to their rooms, they were quite richly furnished with fine wood furniture, a large soft rug running over the floorboards, and the beds actually looked big enough to fit his whole body. I guess the price was actually more than reasonable.
“Regnark, when we were shopping, we bought something for you,” Eisa said, surprising him. She pulled out large pieces of pristine-looking dark-grey leather armor from her PIB, placing them on the bed for him to see. His eyes teared up a little as he saw them all laid out; they reminded him of the days when he would delve through dungeons with his little brother. He never liked to wear bulky plate or chainmail armor, as he needed to be able to move quickly and it hadn’t meshed well with his Marksman Class.
“They’re…perfect. Thank you.” And they were; amazingly, it appeared that they had found some armor that would actually fit him. He normally had to have things custom-made because of his large size, but these seemed to be suited perfectly for someone of his stature.
“Not a problem. With Fred along, there isn’t much that we can’t afford,” she smiled as she looked at Fred, who blushed at the mention of his ability to Conjure up money on a whim. Regnark still thought it was crazy that he could do that, and it seemed somehow wrong – but he had to admit that it came in handy.
“Oh, and we got you another PIB because you said that you had to leave yours behind back in Northend when you had to flee. Again, I’m sorry about all that,” Fred said sadly, before taking a PIB off of his waist – which had been tied next to one of his own. “They’re more expensive than if you get them from the DAS, of course, but as Eisa said…” He shrugged and smiled weakly as he handed Regnark the Pocket Interface Bag.
It felt good having a PIB again; he felt a little naked without it sometimes. It was almost a requirement to have one when delving through dungeons, and he had gotten used to it always being there. Regnark tied it to his own waist and placed the large sack of gold pieces that Fred had given him and the permit he had obtained earlier.
“Don’t worry, we did plenty of shopping for ourselves, so don’t think you’re special or anything.” Eisa’s eyes sparkled in laughter as she pulled out clothes for themselves from her PIB. She laid a large pile of dresses on the bed – most of them in different shades of brown for some reason – and a smaller pile of shirts and trousers for Fred next to it. Near Regnark’s armor set, she also placed some accompanying clothes that he could wear under the leather. And then she pulled out shoes, boots, hats, coats, scarves, and other types of clothing for almost any type of weather or environment.
“Huh. I didn’t think we bought that much, but I guess I was wrong. You do know that I can just use my Conjure Object skill to make any of the things I touched out there, don’t you?” Fred said, looking a little embarrassed.
“Yes, but it’s nice to have some extra clothes just in case. I’ve been wearing the same dress – with some of your repairs, of course – for what feels like months, so I needed a little variety. Granted, most of these are brown because I felt more attached to the color, but there’s still some variety there,” she said innocently.
“They’re very nice, Eisa. I’m ready to get cleaned up and get to bed – we have a big day tomorrow,” Regnark told them, before heading out the door. He had heard that there was a bathhouse in the rear of the inn and took advantage of its presence – and the others partook of it as well. He had to admit that it was good to finally get out of his bear furs as he put on some of his new clothes Fred and Eisa had bought for him; while they were great for up north where it was at least a little chilly year-round, he had been sweltering in them down in the south.
They met again afterwards, but before they retired for the night – his first real opportunity to sleep as a newborn “Shard” – Fred wanted to talk to him about his new abilities. He tried to explain again that he couldn’t actually do anything, but he was interrupted.
“I know – but I want to try giving you some Dark Mana to see if we can unlock your Status screen. The others weren’t able to access it until they had acquired more of their Mana type, so I’m hoping that the same will work for you,” Fred told him.
This whole “Mana” thing was still strange to him; he could see what looked like some sort of aura surrounding Eisa and Deecy – brown for the former and red/blue for the latter – and it had become “normal” to him even after less than a day. But for him to have it to use? He could vaguely see a translucent dark aura around his own body, but as he couldn’t do anything with it, he had been ignoring its presence. The strange thing, though, was that he wanted to do something with it – he just didn’t know what or how.
“Ok, go ahead—”
A large black orb quickly formed in the front of Fred’s chest, and then shot across the space separating him and Regnark. It hit his own chest and seemed to melt into him…and there was a euphoric tingle that started at the spot where the black orb hit and quickly traveled all throughout his body. He shuddered a few times and exhaled in satisfaction, but all too soon the feeling was gone.
“Wow, what was that?” he asked, slightly disappointed that the experience didn’t last. However, he noticed that he still felt good – just not as good as that initial burst.
“That was a hundred units of Dark Mana. Increasing your own maximum Mana isn’t quite one-to-one as I’ve discovered with the others, but I’m hoping that is enough to get you up to the next Shard Level and unlock your screen.”
Regnark wasn’t sure if it was working, but he could gradually see the aura surrounding him start to darken, albeit by only miniscule amounts. That was apparently enough, because he experienced a sort of *click*, and the screen that Fred had been talking about popped up.
Shard Status
Regnark McConald
Elemental Origin: Dark
Shard Level: 2
Next Mana Threshold: 250 Dark
Dark Mana: 100/100
Necromancy Options
Permanent Reanimation (Base Cost: 15 Dark Mana)
Special Abilities
Summoning Circle (Base Cost: 30 Dark Mana, Base Upkeep Cost: 5 Dark Mana per hour)
He practiced a couple of times with it and found that he could close it and bring it back just as easily as his Syndicate Interface, which made it convenient. He wasn’t exactly sure what it all meant, however, so he explained what he saw to Fred.
“Well, your Dark Mana totals should be self-explanatory, as you can think of them similarly enough to your Power or Stamina that it shouldn’t be too confusing. As for your other abilities, I’m assuming you can guess what Permanent Reanimation is – we just don’t have a corpse nearby for you to demonstrate. The Summoning Circle is a new one for me, though – thoughts?” Fred asked, looking at the others.
Deecy seemed to have no clue, but Eisa offered up a possibility. “I’ve heard about an old story that the original demons and their ilk, that the Dark dungeons apparently use were originally ‘summoned’ from their deep underground realm by humans. This was before Adventurers were aided by the SDIAs and the Power in everyone was quite wild, of course, but I always thought it was some sort of children’s story to scare children. Maybe there is some truth to the myth, though.”
I can summon demons? He wasn’t sure how he felt about that, but he supposed it wasn’t any worse than reanimating corpses to fight for him. “Should I try it?”
Fred held up his hands in a stopping motion. “Uh, no – we don’t know what it could do in a confined place like this; what if it destroyed the building in the process or got someone killed? We can’t take that chance this close to finding my Guild and those townspeople. Let’s wait until you can do it without having to worry about being jailed or exiled…or worse.”
Probably a good idea. With that discovery and the day that they’d all had, they all turned in for the night, with Regnark and Deecy sharing a room and Fred and Eisa sharing the other. He was almost positive that nothing was going to happen between the other two tonight; one, because they were both too tired to keep their eyes open; and two, Fred didn’t have a clue what he was doing. During the darkest nights up in Northend, Regnark had seen a deer look at his un-shuttered bright lamp with a shocked and confused expression on its face – that was exactly what Fred looked like most times when Eisa was near him.
Learning from their previous stay in Death’s March, Regnark laid himself down on the bed with his clothes still on – though he made sure to store his new leather armor in his PIB before he closed his eyes. As he was quickly falling asleep, he belatedly realized that he hadn’t eaten anything all day – and yet he wasn’t even the slightest bit hungry. Huh, that’s very strange. I wonder why this Mana makes it so that I don’t have to eat, but it does nothing for being sleepy…
He never finished the thought as sleep enfolded him in its sweet embrace.
Chapter 38
The next morning, they woke up refreshed – and still alive and with all their possessions, unlike what would’ve likely happened in the previous town if Deecy hadn’t detected someone trying to get in. They had slept with their clothes on and their possessions close by anyway, just as a precaution. When Fred woke up, Eisa was draped over his chest drooling on him in her sleep again, which seemed strange because she had a very nice down pillow that she had completely ignored. This time, at least, she didn’t seem as flustered to be woken up in that position, so it didn’t really bother him if she wanted to sleep that way if it made her more comfortable – it certainly didn’t bother him.
They stopped downstairs in the early morning hours to get something to eat; while they didn’t technically need to eat, they all enjoyed it and they wanted to keep up appearances. They didn’t partake of the evening meal the night before, and Regnark thought it prudent that they at least look normal.
Fred was glad that they did stop for breakfast, because the eggs, fruit, and spiced porridge were excellent – and was just the thing to fuel them on their way. After exiting the inn, they split up into the two teams from the day before and worked their way through the Residential Quarter, asking (hopefully) innocent-sounding questions about the people they were looking for. They didn’t want to call any undue attention to them if they were hiding out, but Fred and the others needed to take a risk to find out any information they could.
Eisa said that it made the most sense that they would be in the Residential Quarter, as it was away from the Syndicate Quarter and the gossipy Merchants. After a full day of searching and questioning the residents – at least those that would talk to them, because not everyone was very friendly or seemed to have time – about hearing anything about some brightly marked people who may have come to the city, they came up with not a single lead. Deecy had briefly thought about trying to recognize the scent of one of the people from her memories, but there were so many different smells inside of Allroads that it was almost impossible.
The next day, Fred woke up to find Eisa sleeping on his chest again, and he lay there looking at her for a while. What is this that she’s doing? That can’t be comfortable – her neck is probably cramped in that position and the constant up-and-down motion of my chest when I breathe has got to be bothersome.
“It’s probably some sort of mating ritual. I’ve never heard of it before, but then again, I’m not an expert on human customs.”
Apparently, Fred had been projecting his thoughts uncontrolled and Deecy had picked it up. “Is she waiting for me to respond and do the same to her? I would think it would feel uncomfortable for her if I did that.”
“I have no idea. You may need to ask her sometime – but if you’re going to continue with this mating ritual business, I suggest you do it later. We still have some of the Residential Quarter to go through and we’ll have to decide where to go if we don’t find anything there.”
Fred thought that was a good idea, so he woke Eisa up gently and got to his feet. It took a little bit for Eisa to get ready, but they were soon out and about in the Residential Quarter again. Before noon, they had investigated as much of it as they reasonably could short of going door to door and asking every single person.
“They’re obviously not here; someone would’ve seen them if they still had the marks above their heads, but there doesn’t seem to be any sign of them here. Are you sure the marks are permanent?” Fred asked Eisa, as he wasn’t technically alive when it had been done to them – he had been missing his head at the time.
“That’s what that Holy Paladin said, and as much as I hate him for what he did, I don’t think he lied about them being permanent. My worry is that they never actually came here and instead went somewhere else; either that, or they…never made it,” she said with a bit of hesitation in her voice. It wasn’t something that Fred wanted to consider, so she probably didn’t want to even bring it up.
“I have to believe that they made it here – we just haven’t found them yet. Based on the timing of when they left Death’s March, they should’ve arrived before we did, even with the help of your Goblins running most of the distance here. I think we’ve exhausted all of the easy possibilities here in the Residential Quarter – it’s time to investigate somewhere else,” Fred told them, with what he hoped was confidence in his voice. Privately, he shared some of her fears, but he just had a feeling they were there – he just needed to find them.
Therefore, they expanded their search to include the Merchant’s Quarter. They still wanted to avoid the Syndicate’s main area for now, because of the dangers inherent in making themselves known there, but they figured it was worth the risk to investigate in the new Quarter. Regnark said that since merchants talked with a lot of people and their gossip spread around quite quickly, it was entirely possible that if anyone knew of the
presence of Fred’s people, it would be them.
He was right, though it took hours and dozens of gold pieces in outrageously expensive “bribes” to get the merchants who knew something to share their information.
From what they could piece together, a very large group (Fred was happy to hear it was still large, which meant that most if not all of them had survived) of “Judgement-marked” refugees had shown up during the night less than a week ago, begging to be let inside. Normally, the gates of the city would close a few hours after dark and would reopen as soon as predawn started to light the sky; with the large mass of people begging to be let in, however, the gate guards alerted the appropriate members of the Allroads Government, who in turn informed the Syndicate.
From there, Fred and the others got conflicting information. A few accounts told of the group being brought inside and were being housed safely in the Syndicate Quarter; others said they were marched straight to the Government Quarter and never seen again; still others said they were refused entry and sent on their way; one merchant even said that they were killed by the guards and a few high-Rated Syndicate groups. The last one worried him a little, but he figured if something like that had happened, it probably would’ve been some news that was spread around a lot more.
They spent the rest of the day looking for more information from the merchants, but they didn’t learn anything more than what they had heard before. They went back to the inn, paid for another two nights, and resolved to cautiously do some searching in the Syndicate Quarter in the morning.
Unfortunately, their sleep was interrupted by people outside their door.
“Fred, we have company again. I don’t think there’s any running from these people, though.”
Dungeon World 3: A Dungeon Core Experience Page 31