by Galen Wolf
Also in the chest was a dagger. Daggers were good for me and I wondered whether the loot was class specific. The dagger was sheathed in a beautifully worked red leather scabbard. I lifted it and pulled it out to examine it. The blade was etched with powerful runes and the dagger identified itself as Mournblade. I saw its properties were that it had a 20% chance of critical hitting and when it hit critically it removed 1 to 4 levels from the victim.
I needed to get back and help Ajora and Achilles and Elfhair, but I hesitated while I took a second or two to go through the new skills that level 10 had given me.
Very usefully I now had Double-venom which allowed me two deliver two poisons per stab. I also had, from the Stealth skills set, the ability to disguise myself as air. That sounded weird but potentially useful. I also had the Unmask skill, which could combine with the Goggles of Darkest Night - a useful skill. In the Ranger skill set. I had the ability to fletch arrows, which meant I had an inexhaustible supply of arrows now and also the arrows I created would get +1 per every two levels, so currently, I could make +5 arrows. I also got the ability to tend herbs and poisons. No longer would I have to wander the Greenwood looking for herbs and poisons to pick but now I could actually grow them in a garden.
I saw Level 10 in survival gave extremely useful skills – one was Eagle Riding. Now I had my own eagle! I guessed that I could summon it with the Call Ally skill I got at Level 8. I also had another survival skill – Cheat Death. This allowed me to die one time and instantly res, though I would suffer the normal loss of one level per death. It was only usable one time per death so I couldn't stack it. Even so, it was a good skill. In Poisons I only got one new poison, and that was Death Cap.
Death Cap was only curable by using the herb Sky Balsam. Sky Balsam grew only in the mountains, so was a rare cure few players would have.
I switched on my Cheat Death skill. There was no point calling an eagle here in these narrow rooms. Also my Tiger and Wolf, which I had dismissed were still on cool down. There was five minutes until they were able to be re-summoned.
I made my way cautiously down the narrow stone stairs in case the NPC guard had re-spawned. That would be strange because I looked just like him. However, there was no sign of his return.
On the way down, I looked again at the small white mushrooms. As I had suspected they were in fact Death Caps, conveniently placed there by the developers. Because no one had been here for a long time to pick them, there was quite a luxuriant growth of the tiny shrooms. I plucked a good number and put them in my leather pouch.
I got to the bottom of the stairs and listened for what was happening in the King's Chambers. It was strangely quiet. I could hear someone talking but no sound of combat. That could be a good or a bad thing
#
Level 10.
Hp 135, 70 mana
Saves:
Dodge 17, Toughness 12, Willpower 2.
Poisons:
Double Venom - deliver 2 poisons per stab or arrow
Death Cap - kills without warning, only cure is Sky Balsam. Toughness Save at -10 penalty.
Stealth:
Air - disguise yourself as air, broken on movement.
Unmask - remove illusions such as invisibility or disguise from an opponent.
Ranger Skills:
Fletch Arrows - unlimited arrows +1 to hit and damage every 2 levels (so for me that would be +5 to hit and damage)
Tend Herbs/Poisons - no longer limited to finding poisons and herbs in the wild, I now had the opportunity to grow them in my garden.
Survival:
Call and Ride the Great Eagles.
Cheat Death - once per life, ignore a death effect. One hour cool-down.
Herbs:
Hylas - creates empathy. Someone blessed by Hylas cannot fight for 1 second per level of bestower. Willpower save roll every 3 seconds
Jacaranda: Restores 200-400 mana
#
As I went through the red door into the throne room, the scene I beheld was very different from the one I left. I took a second to work out what was going on. Loki was talking to Elfhair, and Elfhair was tied up with the thieves' ropes in the centre of the floor. He had her trussed up like he had done to me the time he robbed me.
I saw the ghosts of Ajora and Achilles shimmering nearby. As for the other Horrabians, their ghosts also hovered in the Royal Chamber. This was odd: why hadn't they gone to resurrect, then returned to help Loki? Then I guessed: there must be some effect operating in the Chamber that stopped ghosts leaving. A quick scan of the floor revealed an Anchor Rune dropped near Loki's feet. If it was his, he was so determined that none of our party would leave that he didn't mind denying the opportunity to resurrect to his own city-mates. And he clearly didn't think he needed their help.
I wondered whether to hit Vanish or to rely on my NPC disguise. A second's thought, then I decided to trust the disguise. I strolled to the side of the stairs that led up to the pyramid the Royal Throne rested on, and took up a position as if I was a guard that had recently re-spawned. I hoped Loki would think this was a guard we had killed when we entered.
I was thinking fast. I had to work out how to save Elfhair. I strained to hear. What the hell was he saying to her? Then Loki lurched forward with his electrical dagger and Elfhair groaned and slumped to the ground dead.
A wave of relief flowed over me - at least he wasn't stealing all her gear like he had with me. And then he did a strange thing, Loki reached into his inventory and pulled out a resurrection scroll. He read it out and Elfhair came back to life.
He began talking to her again. I was shaking with anger at his cruelty, but I had to be clever. I stepped closer, trying not to draw his attention. I could hear better but still not make out everything he was saying. However, it seemed the reason he'd driven out her lover was that he was jealous. It seemed that Loki had a thing for Elfhair but she didn't reciprocate and so he had made it his life's work to torture the poor druid she did love.
After he resurrected her and gloated, he stabbed her again with his dagger and again she died. Then he got another resurrection scroll out of his inventory and raised her back to life. Each time she died, she lost a level: he was reducing her to Level 1.
I Appraised her and saw she was Level 12. Already littering the ground were those items of equipment she could no longer use. She had been a level 20 and relied on high-level items but now she was a level 12, she couldn't use them and they lay useless nearby.
It was then he noticed me standing there. The benefit of looking like an NPC is that to player characters you're normally invisible, but Loki realized there was something amiss. He frowned, looked again and used his Unmask skill to strip the disguise from me.
"You!" he screamed.
"Me!" I screamed back.
"I going to fucking kill you," he yelled. He rushed at me, rather clumsily for a high-level character, I thought. I saw with my Appraise skill that he was Level 19 now – and I remembered the pleasure of killing him outside. Even so, I was a Level 10, and that was a big difference. If I'd had my allies with me I would have stood some kind of chance. Part of me considered waiting for death. Offering myself as a sacrifice if he'd leave Elfhair alone. If he killed me, maybe I'd even rage quit as I had done the first time he'd attacked me. I tightened my jaw. No - I was a different character now – a wholly different toon. "Bring it, big ears," I sneered.
Still running, he said, "why do you always call me big ears?"
"You have to ask?"
Then he was on me.
I had my new dagger Mournblade, and my old trusty stat-damager, The Weakener, but my skills were no match for his and I knew it. I flipped right; I wasn't going to give in without a fight.
He pivoted and rushed where I'd landed then I flipped behind him, disappearing in a puff of black smoke and reappearing a few seconds later behind again. He knew what I'd done of course, but as I sailed over his head I managed to lurch forward and stab with both daggers. I heard a new sound effect �
� an ominous bass drop sound, and I saw Loki had been reduced from level 19 to level 17. I almost kissed Mournblade.
It was a good start.
Loki cursed in his fury. He ran at me and sank his electric dagger in my upper chest and scored 50 health points damage on me. At full health, I had 135hp in total. I couldn't take much of this. I staggered backwards and he stabbed me again. Damn him for critting. I had 25 hit points left and no more Kumquat. I reached for Hale Fruit from my pouch to heal myself but I realized he had poisoned me with Vomwort. I couldn't face eating anything and I panicked. He stabbed me again, and I died.
Loki grinned in triumph. But what a wonderful skill Cheat Death was. In a flash of white magic, I was instantly resurrected with full hit points and mana. I wouldn't be able to do that again for a while, but it surprised him enough to give me seconds to check my pets. I saw that I could summon both the Wolf and the Tiger. I reached into my inventory, took out the black and gold Tiger figurine and dropped it to the ground. Its growl filled the chamber as the huge cat came to life. My HUD registered the summon, and was frozen for the two seconds it took to call the wolf. While I stood immobile, the tiger distracted Loki. It leapt on him and shoved him so he stumbled backwards as it bit his forearm. Then the newly summoned Wolf joined the fray snapping at Loki and causing him more damage.
Even though I hadn't died, I lost a level by using the Cheat Death skill. I was now Level 9 again.
I had lost the ability to identify and pick Death Cap but I could still use it on weapons. I took one of the small mushrooms out of my pouch was about to rub it on my dagger when Loki flipped forward past the Wolf and Tiger and stabbed me in the side. My left leg broke from his poison and I crumpled, dropping the Death Cap. Lying on the floor, I was able to eat athillias, because Wolf savaged him and he had to back off to heal. When I ate the athillias, my leg immediately cracked back into place.
Tiger jumped onto Loki's back and brought him to the ground. I cartwheeled over and stabbed Loki and removed more levels with my Mournblade dagger and its huge crit range. Loki was now level 14. Things were starting to look a bit more even. I saw that he was down to 45 health. Loki turned and stabbed at my wolf and it died in pain as his electric dagger caused massive damage.
That just left me and the tiger. Loki reached into his inventory and pulled out a blue healing potion and he was back up to 70% health. Tiger went for Loki. He ignored my pet and came for me, but before he reached me Tiger bit his leg, and caused him more health damage taking him down to 53. At that point Loki used his Vanish skill and disappeared from sight. He would now be totally invisible for 14 seconds.
I stood waiting for him to reappear circling round and looking in all directions. Elfhair lay on the ground seriously injured with hardly any mana left.
Loki appeared and jabbed at me with his dagger, but I dodged and he missed. Tiger attacked him and bit Loki's throat. I could see from Tiger's health bar that it was seriously down. Loki decided to finish the Tiger before finishing me and he turned and stabbed it death. But while his back was turned, I stabbed him again and once again I was lucky with my crit and reduced him to Level 10. If it hadn't been for Mournblade, I would be dead.
And now we were more or less equal. I was Level 9, and he was Level 10. As we circled each other in the throne room, I realized I was actually a better fighter than him. While he'd been a high level and able to bully everyone he had had it easy. He rarely fought anyone of his own level or ability and instead picked on low-level characters. That had made him lazy and weak.
Loki was no longer using his deadly electric dagger. I grinned as I realized it was because he was too low-level now.
He hit me again taking me down to 85 hp, but I healed up fully with a Hale Fruit. He lurched at me, but instead of stabbing me, he blew out one of my smoking pipes. Then he stabbed me with his dagger and I recognized the familiar heave in the stomach that signified he'd poisoned me with Vomwort.
I went to smoke my pipe and cure the Vomwort with my Licorice Root, but the pipe was of course out. When he saw I'd failed to heal the vomiting, he gave a wicked smile.
"Soon you die, Ranger worm!"
I was in a panic. I had nothing to light my pipe with. I was going to vomit myself to death and be unable to cure or heal. It looked like the end had come. I cursed myself for being too cocky. It seemed he'd got the better of me after all. I looked around at my friends' ghosts watching the combat with anxious looks, the corpses of my dead pets, and the seriously injured Elfhair. Once he killed me, he could get back to torturing her with no one to stop him. I roared in anger.
Loki lurched at me again and stabbed me. A strange mental affliction possessed me, and I looked at the daggers in my hands and was disgusted by them. Pan poisoning had given me weapon phobia. I threw them to the ground, and much as I wanted to, I couldn't pick them up again. My breathing grew raspy. The second dagger clearly had Riddlewort on it giving me asthma. I couldn't smoke a curing pipe now even if I wanted to. I barfed again losing more health. I was well and truly fucked.
Loki threw back his head and laughed.
It looked like the tide had turned. I had been so certain not very long ago that I was going to finish Loki, that I was the better fighter, but now things were different. I hit my Vanish skill and disappeared.
I hid behind a pillar. When I became visible again, he still didn't see me and he taunted me to come and show myself. I threw up again and reduced my health by another eight hit points. I was now on 45 health. A few more voms and I'd be his.
"Barcud," I heard Elfhair call weakly. "Come here."
I looked over to see where she lay damaged on the floor. She only had a tiny amount of health left though she still had some mana. For some reason she hadn't used it to heal herself.
"Come here," she coughed. She sounded angry at me but she could hardly lift her head from the marble floor.
Then I realized what her plan was.
When I broke out from cover behind the pillar, Loki shrieked with delight and sprinted across the throne room floor towards me. When I was within ten feet of Elfhair she threw an Allheal spell at me. Thank the gods. It cured both the Vomwort and the Pan poisoning. I no longer was throwing up and no longer would I always drop my weapons. I ran and cartwheeled causing Loki to misjudge his run and instead of stabbing me, he careened into me knocking me over. We both went down, but I got my feet quicker than him and saw where Mournblade and The Weakener were lying on the floor thrown down.
Using all of my Dexterity I rolled, hopped and jumped to snatch my daggers from the marble floor. He came to stab me again. I was still at risk. The Allheal spell had not given any more health points, it had just healed my afflictions.
With the daggers in my hand I tried to roll out of Loki's way. I vaulted up and tumbled like a gymnast, landing away from him and giving me seconds to reach and fumble in my herb pouch and pull out a small white Death Cap mushroom. I rubbed one dose on Mournblade.
He was at me but I dodged, rolling into a handstand and flipping, I leapt to my feet and ran up the pyramid steps towards the gold throne. Fortunately, King Praxis had still not re-spawned.
Loki ran up the stairs after me. He was at full health now. I jumped over his head, turned in mid-air and stabbed him. This time Mournblade did not critically hit, and I did not reduce any more of his levels, but I had delivered the deadly poison.
The cure for Death Cap was Sky Balsam, incredibly rare and valuable. The other benefit of Death Cap was that it gave no warning death message, just a queasy feeling in your bones.
I rolled down the stairs, righting myself to my feet at the bottom. As Loki turned to come down after me he was still smiling. By the time he reached the middle of the steps he realized something was wrong but didn't know what it was. At the bottom of the steps, preparing to stab me again, he collapsed and died.
A surge of XP leveled me to Level 10 again.
"Eat dirt, you big eared fucktard," I taunted his ghost.
I ran ov
er to Elfhair and spat a Hale Fruit at her, restoring her health. I held out my hand. "Give me some Raise scrolls."
"Why do you want those?" Concern was obvious in her eyes.
"I'm going to kill him and then raise him and kill him and raise him until he's Level 1 again just like he was planning to do to you - just like he threatened to do to me."
Elfhair shook her head. The ghosts of Achilles and Ajora were watching. I could sense their disapproval too. I stretched out my hand. "Just give me the scrolls. It's what he deserves."
Elfhair reached into her inventory and pulled out five resurrection scrolls. "I've got more," she said. "If you really want them."
"I do." I took the scrolls and walked over to Loki's ghost.
It was Loki's own Anchor Rune in silver on the floor that stopped all the ghosts leaving the chamber. With a voice quavering with hate, I began to read the scroll. But I got halfway through and stopped.
If I did this what would be the difference between him and me? After all the complaints I've made about sadism in this world and how it encouraged the worst in people, if I did this I'd be just another game-world sadist.
But I hated him so much. He was such a bastard. If anyone deserved to lose months of leveling, he did.
I cleared my throat. I read the first sentence then stopped. I still couldn't complete the spell. Then, I shook my head. I said to Elfhair, "I'm not like them, I won't do it."
Elfhair came up and stroked my back. "No you're not. You're a good man."
"Good elf," I said.
"Elves are just re-skinned humans, you know. They hardly even count as non-humans. Not like a slime, or even a dryad."
I raised one eyebrow questioningly, then laughed. She was funny.
She tugged at my arm. "Let's go. Let's leave this horrible place."
I stooped to pick up the Anchor Rune that stopped ghosts leaving. I was weary. "Yep, let's go."