by M J Sweeney
The major-domo stood back, but waved the other hand in some arcane gesture. A weird sprinkle of black sand seemed to rain down on us. Suddenly, I felt like I was moving through treacle. Slowed! Then the major-domo began muttering some more, and I saw some black orbs gather around his hand. What the—? I activated Frenzy. That dude wasn’t a fighter anymore—it was a mage, or a battlemage.
The slow was now mostly negated for me, so I kept striking at the first rogue, and dodged a couple of swings from the cook. I already had Breath of Life going, and Elz, although slowed, seemed to be faring better than his opponent. Still, I activated Heart of Oak on myself and took a risk with a larger strike, clipping the first rogue’s head. It shook that off. Then all the black orb thingies glowing around the major-domo flew at me and sizzled past the defence of my armour. Each one stung and burned, draining my health. Dammit!
Then it really started going to shit. I managed to get my target down to 25% health, and Elz struck his rogue down to just under 50%, but we could not prevent them going into the fade. Then I noticed the major-domo was carrying a staff, having picked it up from where it was resting on the wall behind him. Rather than doing its fear attack, it now activated the staff, from which a grey aura of wispy smoke suddenly billowed. The health of the risen started to increase and renew, and while the major-domo concentrated, the staff continued to billow smoke and their health continued to rise. Fuck! I made a snap decision. “Fade! Run!”
I picked up my skirts, so to speak, and bolted. There was a hard blow to my ribs, piercing my armour, but as I was in motion, it wasn’t so bad. I kept going.
“Fuck-fuck-fuck-fuck…” I could hear beside me, but couldn’t see Elz. Fortunately, our run speed was significant, and we got out of there and back to the tree in no time. It was a scramble, and messy, but better alive than trying to bludgeon our way through some tough odds.
“All right. That went well, don’t you think?” I said, catching my breath.
Elz shook his head, panting and puffing even worse than me. “No. Not.”
“We need to rethink. Take out the mage first? If I charge him and you backstab, he should go down. Then try the rest?”
“Okay, try.”
We attempted it again, and tried to gang up on the mage. Activating Charge, and Holy Smite, I struck the creature solidly before it could get off a spell. With both of my healing spells active, I deflected a couple of wild blows as the cook flailed at me with its meat cleaver. The mage was not dead, sinewy, bony thing that it was. The rogues faded of course, but when the mage blink-stepped away from Elz’s sneak attack, and avoided imminent death, we were again at a disadvantage. The mage started to heal itself, and standing just behind the cook, it now had a defensive line.
Elz and I backed up and circled our weapons in front, and this time both rogues managed to gauge me—bastards!—one into the meat of my thigh, the other through my lower ribs. Ach, the pain! My health plummeted to just on 20%. It was a disaster, another cluster-fuck. Activating Frenzy, once again I ran for it—or limped with great speed—blood pumping and leaking from my wounds. Nevertheless I lashed out with my spear as I went.
Grunting from the impact, I took two more heavy blows, health dipping to 15%, then 10%, and then I was clear, down the passage, through the kitchen, and up the stairs to the next level. I kept running till I was all the way back to the tree. Elz then reappeared besides me. If it wasn’t for my renewal spells, I would have bled out on the way. Without my improved run speed, I’d also have been in trouble.
“Shit.” I looked at Elz, who looked down glumly. “This is a bit hard with just two of us. Plus we need better equipment.”
He looked up and smiled. “Help coming soon, no?”
Shortly, we came to an agreement. For the rest of that day I rested, and healed up, waiting until my two debuffs [-10% health] and [-12% stamina] were fully repaired.
For another ten days we farmed the place, amassing a great deal of weaponry and armour. We repeatedly tried to kill the mini-bosses near the bottom, but just couldn’t seem to tip the scales. Although my increased damage with the new passive skill was good, not even that was enough. We didn’t have enough fire power, nor enough healing, and they had plenty of both. And they outnumbered us two to one. Fortunately we never made a big enough mistake that one of us suffered a fatal wound. My lowered respawn chance was also a big risk, and made me nervous and cautious. Besides, Elz had grown on me. I really didn’t want the kid to die on my account, or from something stupid I did.
We acquired a couple of better close-range melee weapons for him to use:
/ Ancient Steel Short Sword / Uncommon
[+10% Accuracy]
/ Ancient Steel Dagger / Uncommon
[+5% Damage]
Elz took both of those, as they were better than the ugly daggers he had. We both levelled up in that time. I gained level 29, which was awesome, and Elz gained level 34, then level 35. It was slower progress for him, but still, there were some nice improvements.
After some persuasion, I managed to convince Elz to do some sparring and training with me. At first he was wary, but when he understood the purpose, he was happy enough to play. Mostly, or at least initially, this amounted to him going into the fade, and me vainly trying to hear him and adjust my stance and spear to full defence.
If I became more mobile and did some of the flashier twirls that my teachers told me not to do with my spear, he didn’t have easy access to strike me. He still managed to get in close more often than not, at least in the beginning, but my skills at hearing and detecting him improved slightly to match. Anything that helped me sense faded opponents was a good thing—and I needed it now more than ever.
When it came to a straight-up fight, he also wasn’t an easy opponent. He was fast—faster than me unless I activated Frenzy. Fortunately for me (but maybe unfortunately for our group) rogues did not normally get this ability. I had to be careful if I did activate it; otherwise, if I went into fatigue mode, he was able to tag me “dead” rather easily. I did have more health than him, and my ability to deflect a number of his attacks meant that if I landed a few lucky critical hits (which I was getting better at), I would claim the victory. At such times, Elz was quite a happy loser. He was philosophical about such things, and didn’t mind when I managed to put him on his ass more than once. I thought this an admirable trait.
We swapped some ideas of different skills; in particular, I showed him some of my dirty tricks with grappling, arm-bars and leg-locks, that kind of thing. He was agile, but had a hard time if I applied my full weight and strength. He showed me some nasty moves with his daggers, how to attack rapidly, with a kind of ‘double v’ in and out dual-wielding strike, and using them to puncture through the vulnerable joins in armour.
He also had an interesting, and at times devastating attack with his club, when he could surprise me—a leaping attack from the fade, which could cause stun, do critical damage, and grant status effects like broken bones and movement debuffs. If it didn’t land, he was usually caught flat footed and vulnerable himself, and unable to fade again straight away.
We discussed tactics many times. I wished we’d bought some holy water, but beggars can’t be choosers. We hadn’t had enough room in our packs anyway. I thought about that for a moment and looked up Divine Power.
/ Holy Water /
[Any clean water from a natural source (stream, river, lake, ocean) can be used in the ritual for making holy water. The damage done to the undead is equal to 2x the level of the Priest or Divine Warrior creating it (up to level 50, maximum 100 points) and lasts for one round per 10 points of Charisma. Ghosts and Liches are immune]
/ Ritual for Holy Water /
[Meditate (one hour) on the presence of the Divine, hold out the Holy Symbol of its power, and chant the Deity’s name thrice]
[Number of vials produced equal to one per hour per 2 levels of Priest, per day - Minimum level 20 (Deacon)]
Damn it, again! That was the secon
d time I’d been stupid for not reading enough about the details of my abilities. I could have been making holy water all this time. Looking through our stuff, however, I shortly found we were lacking in one vital ingredient—empty jars.
Chapter 34
A few days later, when two wagons, two teams of horses, and a patrol of high elves arrived from the west, I gave a loud cheer. The Ell’Escow guardsmen had shown up. Elz had faded to the background. Not only had Alhain come, he was sitting on the first wagon, but so had Maximus, who was guiding the second.
I shook both their hands and thanked them profusely. “Gods, am I glad to see the both of you.”
Maximus was looking around bemusedly at the location, wondering what all the fuss was about, so when I pointed out the stacked weapons at the back of the hut, he started to grin. “Permanent delve?” he asked.
“More or less. And all ours until the bad guys arrive.”
Max rubbed his hands together a little greedily. Not only would he make substantial profits from us, they’d also managed to stop at two elven towns along the way, despite the hurry, and he’d been trading goods as he went. His wagon was now mostly empty, but still had piles of cloth and what looked to be cosmetics stacked neatly at the front end.
Allih had not come, as he needed to stay in Ell’Escow, but the guardsmen and scouts he had sent were definitely competent. I knew a few of them also, which was nice and familiar. Like family had arrived. I shook hands with Sacheen, a shortish high elf who was also the leader of the scouts.
They looked over the pile of weapons behind the shack, and when I showed them a few of the better magic pieces, they murmured their approval. I’d previously unearthed the buried weapons Marcus and I had wrapped in his tarpaulin. While showing them all of that, Elz blithely appeared in their midst, once he’d been satisfied they were friend and not foe.
“A good haul,” Alhain commented, “But probably only enough for one of the wagons.”
I smiled. “Ah yes, but that’s just the small pile.”
We took them to the large oak tree beyond the outer perimeter of the ruins. We had stopped lugging all the gear to the cabin some time ago, as it was a waste of effort. The rest—the best items from the last two and a half weeks—were piled under the tree to the side of my camp. As the risen had been more powerful these last months, they were also carrying more equipment. The mound was considerable.
Alhain whistled in appreciation. “All this from the last few weeks?”
“Elz has proven to be a hard worker. Ideally, I think you’ll need to come back a few weeks from now to collect the next lot we amasse, with hopefully everything done and dusted by the beginning of Bourndas.” If we survive, I thought a little bleakly.
That afternoon we had the arduous task of dividing up all the weapons and armour so it was of roughly equal proportions. I had loaned money from Maximus, commissioned Alhain for his skills and expertise, and hired the Ell’Escow guards and scouts through Allih. For their services, we were donating all of the mundane loot to them (an equal three-way split), whatever we could find.
All of the magic items, any possible artefacts we might find, and specialised body parts, Elz and I would keep. Although we’d probably sell most of that to Maximus anyway, plus I’d be paying him back what I owed him. The little green sprite was likely to be a lot wealthier very soon, all said and done. I wasn’t complaining, as he’d been willing to go out on a limb for me, loaning me money and goods, despite our earlier conflict.
1380 olde elven swords—long sword and short sword
670 olde elven short bows
4000 + normal arrows
590 olde elven chain mail—various (common)
280 olde elven leather armour—various (common)
52 magic weapons—short bows, short swords, long swords (uncommon)
266 magic arrows—various (uncommon)
37 magic elven chain mail—chest piece, boots, gauntlets (uncommon)
18 magic elven chain mail—chest piece, boots, gauntlets (rare)
26 magic elven leather—various (uncommon)
They were impressed at the sheer quantity of weapons and gear, which made up enough to equip a small army. It seemed that Ulgorrim’s minions had an absolutely massive collection of such weaponry, acquired over more than one millennia, and all stored in the moon’s shadow—some unseelie fortress—for their use on respawn.
There was also a lot of damaged and rusty weapons and armour—mostly from my previous season here—and these I just gave to Alhain for smelting or to do with as he wished.
Maximus and Alhain had some nice gear for us in return. Firstly, Elz was handed two wrapped shortswords—the Humble Gladius.
/ Humble Gladius / Elite Silver-Steel Shortsword
[+5% Armour Piercing, +5% Damage, +5% Attack Speed, +5% Accuracy, +5% Reduced Aggro] (Requires 40 Agility)
/ Random Ring / Legendary Copper, Iron and Silver
[+5 Vitality, +20% Shock Resistance, +10% Crushing Resistance, +10% Mental Resistance, +5% Life Leech Resistance, +15% Reduced Aggro, 1 Random Reset/Month] (Rogue only: burrow dwarf, goblin, vinar—binds to user, cannot be stolen once equipped, can be looted on perma-death)
The ring Elz had bought was fascinating. He’d bought one with some set stats that he liked, which was also why it was so expensive. But in future, if he wanted to change any one feature of the ring, all of the others would randomly change. And this could only be done once per month. Changing it might be handy at some point, or just really frustrating and annoying. It was also fortunate that he could wear it at all, as the ring was normally restricted to burrow dwarfs, goblins and monkey-folk.
/ Staff-Spear of the Piercing Strike / Elite Ghost-Steel and Hickory
[+10% Armour Piercing, +10% Attack Speed, +5% Deflection]
/ Staff-Spear of Light / Elite Mithril and Ironwood
[+10% Accuracy, +20% More Damage vs Undead and Deepers, Light +1 (1200 Mana)]
/ Elven Cloak of the Forest / Elite Silk, Green and Grey Camouflage
[+10% Fade duration, +33% Fade in Outdoor Settings, +15 Move Silently, +10 Hide, Fade (5 Charges)] (Minimum Level 20, Elf Mage, Elf Priest, Elf Warrior only, once all 5 charges are used the cloak dissolves into gossamer silk threads)
I was really happy with all three of my purchases. The spears would be great value—particularly the second one right now. The capacity to cast light and do significant damage to the risen would be awesome. The other spear—of the Piercing Strike—was more general use. It would be good against any kind of foe. Its long steel head was beautiful to my eye, appearing to shimmer with subtle smoke and looking almost insubstantial as the sunlight waned. The Cloak of the Forest had been expensive for an item with limited charges—over 100 zorb, but needed for our current plan, and one of the only ones of its type we could get at such short notice.
Elz and I received our two master sets from Alhain, who solemnly handed them over with a short bow. We thanked him, Elz going so far as to shake his hand, pumping it vigorously human-style.
I looked at the two chest pieces. Both were made from specialised albino leather—animals that had been hunted or bred with that particular pigment, then had the skins treated and coloured to order. Albino leather was not usually left pure white, but rather treated to become different shades of grey. It was lighter in colour than the brown I was used to, and also a lot lighter weight.
/ High Elf Chest Guard / Albino-Leather
[+1% Damage Resistance, +3% Elemental Resistance, +2% Movement, Bonus: Adds Flat 1% DR and 5% ER] (+20% Bonus for Master Quality)
/ High Elf Bracers / Elite Albino-Leather
[+1% Damage Resistance, +3% Elemental Resistance, +2% Movement Speed, Bonus: Adds Flat 5% Attack Speed] (+20% Bonus for Master Quality)
/ High Elf Boots / Elite Albino-Leather
[+1% Damage Resistance, +3% Elemental Resistance, +2% Movement Speed, Bonus: Adds Flat 5% Movement Speed] (+20% Bonus for Master Quality)
/ Elf-Scout Chest Guar
d / Elite Albino-Leather
[+1% Damage Resistance, +2% Elemental Resistance, +2% Movement Speed, +2% Fade] (+20% Bonus for Master Quality)
Comparing those to my original piece:
/ High Elf Chest Guard / Rare Reinforced Leather
[+1% Damage Resistance, +3% Elemental Resistance, +2% Movement Speed, Adds Flat 1% DR and 2% ER] (+10% Bonus for Journeyman Quality)
Basically on the surface of it, the differences between the Master and Journeyman Level items weren’t much. It was only when you calculated the extra 10% or 20% bonuses from quality that a full set started to add up. And boy, did you have to pay for that increase in gold. With the grandmaster set, you could choose some specific upgrades to the implicit stats and custom build it a bit more to your liking.
The master set Alhain had made for both of us did look a little odd, with pieces of leather sticking out at odd angles in slightly different shades of grey, like different animal skins had been used. It fit perfectly, though. The scout leather was similar, except it had more of a military khaki colour, which faded into dark grey in places. Once Elz and I put on our armour and equipped our weapons, Alhain stood by and admired his handiwork.
“I wasn’t keen on making the leather look rough and unfinished, but I can admire the effect now. It still looks kind of matching, in a dirty, uncared for kind of way.” He gave us each a shrewd look. “Makes you both look a bit mean, to be honest.”
Elz laughed and did a little dance, waving his two shortswords wildly, his feet surged about in random directions, making him look a bit like Michael Jackson playing Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz. I was worried he was going to brain himself with the two rather sharp new weapons, but then he seemed to settle in to a kind of routine, the swords gliding about eachother, his footwork smoother. He turned it in to a kind of ninja-sequence, finishing in a classic deep stance—one leg forward, one leg bent, and one sword pointed overhead, the other one forward.