That’s all he has to say? “Yes, you big idiot. But you died too, or at least you should’ve; I have no idea how I was able to heal you. Who…no, what…are you?”
He ignored her question as he looked at something that only he could see. “Wow! That thing was worth 150 Essence! How much coin did it drop?”
We’re not done with this conversation. She wanted to ask more questions, but she was exhausted from all of the surprises of the day and, if she was honest with herself, she didn’t care too much about it. The fact that he was alive when he should be dead was enough to satisfy her. For the moment.
Fred stood up, his clothes slightly torn where it had been smashed earlier, but the rest of him appeared pristine. He held out his hand to her, so she took it and he pulled her to her feet. She looked over at where the giant plant once stood and saw two silver pieces flashing in the ambient light of the dungeon.
Eisa walked over to grab them, excited that the day was turning out to be rather profitable. Aside from the gold piece she had received from Fred – which she still felt a little bad about – she had accumulated nearly 2 silver pieces from the dungeon run as her cut. Not only that, but she wasn’t going to have to pay any sort of fee to the Syndicate. A silver would let her live frugally for about a week, so knocking out two weeks’ worth of room and board in a single dungeon delve was a great start.
She picked them up and shoved them into her pouch, knowing that Fred didn’t really have anything to carry his portion in quite yet. Looking around for him to tell him the good news, she saw him standing over by the corner staring at the wall. “Hey, are you ready to go? We’re all done here.”
Fred stood there for another couple of moments before he seemed to forcefully tear himself away from whatever he was looking at. His face when he turned around was perfectly neutral; if she didn’t know better, she would’ve said he was trying to hide his anger. Why would he be angry? We just finished his first dungeon as an Adventurer, and he should be happy! He makes no sense to me sometimes…actually, make that always.
He loosened up a little on the way out, finally smiling again when he picked up the bag with the Dire Wolf Pup, Deecy, outside. “Yes, it was a success. Yes, we finished the dungeon. No, I didn’t do anything like that…” He was whispering to the pup, which was now in his arms as they walked along.
He’s talking to her like she understands him. Thinking back at the Dire Wolf’s dramatic transformation before they entered the dungeon, she realized that it was entirely possible that the beast actually did. And maybe even communicates back.
There were just so many things about Fred that she didn’t understand; the least of which was his talking/not-talking animal companion. She was more concerned about who or what he was, because she was sure he wasn’t human. She heard snippets of his whispered conversation with Deecy as they walked along the forest; they went on so long that she started to get frustrated.
“Alright! I can’t take it anymore! Before I go anywhere else with you, I need some questions answered,” she practically screamed out, stopping in between two trees in their path.
Fred was startled for a moment at her outburst, but then he looked at Deecy in his arms again and looked thoughtful. Looking back at her with the smile back on his face, he said, “Fair enough – what would you like to know? I can tell you some things, but others are better left unspoken.”
She wasn’t expecting him to capitulate so quickly, as he had been relatively tight-lipped inside the dungeon – but she wasn’t going to let the opportunity go to waste.
“What I want to know is who you really are. No, forget that question; what I really want to know is what you are, because you aren’t human – or at least none that I’ve ever seen or heard of before. And don’t deny it, I’ve seen too many things today that don’t make sense.”
He only hesitated for a second before replying. “Yes, I’m a bit different, but I am a human, at least in shape and form. That’s all I can say about that, though; it’s better for you and your safety that you don’t know.”
How would I be safer not knowing? She was confused by the answer, but she was glad that he was answering questions, even if it wasn’t exactly to her liking.
“Fine, I can respect keeping some secrets. But then how do you explain what you did repairing my destroyed dress? And your clothes as well?”
Before he could answer, she pressed the issue even further.
“Then there was the part where it looked like you conjured a bow and some arrows out of thin air – how do you explain that?”
She vividly remembered him doing that and knew for sure that he didn’t have a Pocket Interface Bag – since she had practically seen him naked after the spiders’ acid had destroyed most of his clothes. In fact, the only bag he had was the one he carried Deecy in. She looked at it again on his shoulder, seeing that without the small Dire Wolf inside, it was completely flat, like there was nothing else inside. Was the money he pulled out of there earlier all he had?
But then something clicked in her head.
She started talking hesitatingly, working through her thoughts as they coalesced into something resembling a question. “Did you…‘conjure’ up that silver at the DAS earlier? Was it real? Or will you walk back in there and be arrested for making illusionary copies of the real thing?”
Fred looked back down at Deecy for a few moments, as if he was having some sort of mental conversation with her. “No, I really think it’s for the best if I’m as honest as I can be. Trust me…” he whispered so softly that she could barely hear it.
He then held out his hand, palm up, in front of him. Less than a second later, a gold piece that looked eerily familiar materialized above his hand, dropping the last inch or so when it fully appeared. It had a very small notch on one side of it that was very distinctive…
Eisa quickly opened her pouch and took out the gold piece she had stashed in there after grabbing it from the Syndicate’s storage. Sure enough, it had the same exact notch in the same exact place!
“Here, you can have this one too. In fact, you can keep everything you picked up in the dungeon, because I can always Create more. And don’t worry, it’s permanent; it won’t disappear on you tomorrow – or ever, for that matter.”
He can conjure gold out of thin air! She took the proffered coin wordlessly. The possibilities of having an unlimited source of funds raced through her head, but there was something about the entire thing that was bothering her.
“You obviously didn’t become an Adventurer for the money, so…why? Why go through all this?” she asked confusedly.
“You’re right, I didn’t come to Gatecross looking for more copper, silver, or even gold pieces. I have no need of money, to tell you the truth; instead, I came to your town because I’m looking for allies in my…endeavors.”
Well, that wasn’t cryptic or anything. “What kind of endeavors are you talking about? Trying to take over the world or something?”
Fred laughed at that initially, but his face turned all serious-like. “Not to take over the world, no. Too much responsibility, I would think. I originally just needed help to investigate something, but now that I know that I can make myself stronger, that’s my focus for now. Once I’m strong enough, I might be able to finish my…investigations by myself, so that I won’t put anyone else in danger.”
“And what would these investigations do for you?”
His face turned neutral again, similar to how he appeared staring at the wall inside the last room of the dungeon. “Ultimately…answers. And when I get those answers, I can get revenge on the ones that murdered my parents.”
His parents were murdered? That might explain how messed up he seems sometimes. Although orphans weren’t a rarity in the Craytion Kingdom, they usually sprung up because of a dungeon delve gone wrong or some other sort of accident. But rarely murder; there were too many ways for royal inquisitors to find out the truth to be able to hide a crime like that.
“Does that
satisfy your questions?”
Not nearly, but it will do for now. “No, I have thousands more – but they can wait. Let’s get back to town and get some rest. I was originally planning on going out again, but I don’t think I could handle another delve today.”
Chapter 28
Fred watched Eisa turn back to their previous heading, snaking her way through the trees in the direction of Gatecross. He hurried to come up behind her and eventually got the chance to walk next to her; having finally put Deecy back into the bag so that he could have his hands free, they walked in companionable silence, each thinking their own thoughts.
“Why do you do this, Eisa? It is just because of the money?” he had to ask after a while, needing to know her motivations.
He could tell that his question startled her, though he thought it might be just because they hadn’t spoken for a couple of minutes. She didn’t respond right away, nor did she in the next quarter-mile of traveling. Finally, with what looked like a lot of thought had gone into it, she answered.
“I’m not going to say that the money isn’t an important part of it, otherwise it would be much more difficult to live and survive outside of the dungeons. Weapons, armor, and other items all increase in price as you get more powerful; money provides a way to keep up with your own abilities. Imagine yourself with another few points in Brawn and using a simple iron knife: one strike with that and you’re liable to snap the blade clean in half by yourself. So, yes, it is important, but it’s not everything.
“I grew up without many friends in a town so far to the south that you’ve probably never even heard of it. The allure of joining an organization that fostered the formation of familiar groups of like-minded members was too tempting to pass up; as soon as I joined when I was 16, I never looked back. Grouping up with other people, becoming more powerful as time went along – these were all great, but not necessarily what has kept me looking forward to the next dungeon delve day after day.
“I much prefer to use my wits to figure out how to keep my group alive, solving the sometimes-puzzling traps hidden throughout the dungeons, the challenge and high I felt from successfully completing an entire delve, the comradery of the groups I’ve known for so long…” She trailed off toward the end and didn’t continue.
Fred stayed silent for a while as they walked together, respecting her obvious need for silence. Something about her last statement about comradery, however, sparked a memory.
“Does this have anything to do with why Jaymes told me to avoid you before I even met you?”
She stopped, looking shocked. “HE SAID WHAT? How dare he! It’s bad enough that my reputation is what it is, but he can’t just go around blocking all my attempts to find another group!” she said furiously, before thinking it over. “Well, I guess he can, technically, but it’s just not fair because it’s not my fault!”
Obviously, this is what he meant – she’s a bit touchy on some subjects. He let her rant and rave a little longer, and eventually she calmed down enough to continue their journey back.
“Leave it alone – she obviously doesn’t want to talk about it. I’m not sure if you picked the right one to put your trust in; she seems like she’s got some issues that have nothing to do with you.”
He knew he should probably heed Deecy’s advice, but he just couldn’t leave it like that. He had to ask; if he wanted to put his faith in her, that was his prerogative – though he wanted to make sure it was for the right reasons.
“What happened?”
He thought she might be reluctant to speak about it; on the contrary, she seemed eager to tell someone her side of the story.
“You might not believe me – just like everyone else – but I didn’t do anything wrong, I swear. Just because I was the only one to come back alive from my group doesn’t make it my fault that they died. However, no one seems to believe that…” Eisa trailed off again – but only for a moment.
“Being a healer is hard. You have to watch everything; not only do you have to make sure that you know who has gotten hurt, you have to guesstimate how much damage they’ve taken and be willing to make the hard choice on who to heal and when. It’s tough sometimes, and there have been some mistakes made and close calls, but I’d never lost a single person in any of my groups. I love the challenge being a healer class brings with it; I may not always be doing the actual fighting against the many dungeon monsters that I’ve been a part of taking down, but without me – they wouldn’t have survived to tell the tale.
“I had been with my group for almost 2 years. They were all a Rating above me – all D-Rated – and I felt privileged to be able to be a part of their team. Finding a healer for your group is sometimes hard; because they tend to be uncommon in the first place – and the fact that most of them tended to be a bit squishy in the defense department – most groups have to make do without one, relying on spending large amounts of their hard-earned coin on Health Potions.
“Everything was going great; we were smashing through dungeons like they were nothing. We were an up and coming group, and even the higher-Rated groups were noticing. A few guilds—" she noticed Fred’s blank-faced stare— “uh…guilds are small communities within the Syndicate that can be chartered for a fee, though that fee is so outrageous that normally only high C to B-Rated and above can afford them. They offer a lot of benefits that you can’t get just anywhere – but that’s not important,” she said, before switching back to her story.
“Anyway, some important people were looking at us to become a part of their community in the future. I knew that if we just kept the way we were going, we’d get there eventually; however, my groupmates didn’t want to wait. They wanted to impress those that were looking at us even more, so they convinced me to go with them to a low C-ranked dungeon. They were so confident in their abilities that they didn’t even buy the map for it from the Syndicate.
“It might not seem like a big jump from where they were in the high D’s to a low C but let me tell you – it is. Not only are the monsters harder to kill, but the traps start to become even more deadly. We were actually doing fine until we encountered a trap we’d never seen before. One second, we were walking along – with me bringing up the rear – and the next a wall dropped in front of the group, blocking the passageway. Nothing happened so we all started to back up, thinking it was just a detour; unfortunately, it was a diversion.
“Unbeknownst to us, the ceiling started to slowly, silently collapse. I saw it out of the corner of my eye and shouted a warning, but another wall made of stone cut me off from the rest of the group.” Eisa paused for a moment and collected herself, as she was starting to become emotional. Angry or sad, Fred couldn’t tell.
“I pounded at the wall until my fists were starting to get bloody, but to no avail. I threw the rest of my Power into spells trying to break through, but nothing I could do affected it in the least. I couldn’t see or hear what happened to them, but every night I imagine their screams as the ceiling smashed them into the floor…” She paused, lost in her memory.
So having nightmares of finding my parents’ remains at home for the last two years seems pretty normal now. Maybe I am human.
“Ten minutes later, the walls retracted into the ceiling. I found the remains of my group smeared across the floor near the rear wall; their bodies, weapons, and armor were pushed so far into the hard stone that I couldn’t even begin to extricate them – let alone bring them back with me. Upon further inspection of the area, I found two small switches along the wall, which I suspected would’ve stopped the ceiling from collapsing if they had used their heads and not panicked.
“And that’s essentially it; I had to go back to the city we were operating out of without them, or even a single item of theirs. All everyone knew was that I was the only one to come back – unharmed at that – so they all concluded that I either abandoned them there like a coward, or deliberately left them there to die. A high-Rated group went to the dungeon later to look for their remains
, but every trace of them was gone.
“Soon afterwards, someone somehow found out I was a Necromancer – which is supposed to be privy information – and the rumors circulated that I had killed them so that I could raise their corpses for my own sick ends. After that, my reputation as a healer was ruined, and no one wanted to risk grouping with me. I moved to Gatecross hoping to run from my reputation, but it appeared to get there even before I did. A month later, I was going to try to solo a low-rated dungeon – and that’s where you found me.”
I guess that makes sense why Jaymes told me to stay away; if no one believed in her innocence, it is more than understandable why someone wouldn’t want to group with her. Hmm…would I have thought the same thing if I had heard the “story” before meeting her? Would I have decided not to even trust her enough to ask for her help? He didn’t have an answer; his prior world living in a dungeon with his dungeon core parents didn’t lend itself to many social situations and complications. Most of what he had learned was from overhearing his parents talk, though that was what he guessed was primarily dungeon core-related politics.
Not necessarily the best of educations, but it was what he had to work with.
“For what it’s worth, I believe your story. You used your Power to help me survive in the dungeon, when you could’ve left me to die; if that isn’t enough, you also helped me out back in Gatecross when no one else would even consider it. I can’t see you doing what they are accusing you of – your recitation of events seems much more plausible.”
He could hear her sniffing a little and he thought she was crying for some reason, but when he looked at her face it was completely dry. “Thanks for believing in me,” she replied, her voice slightly choked-up, “but I don’t think it will matter if you believe me or not – no offense. As a relative newcomer to the Syndicate, no one would care what you believe; nor would you be able to convince anyone else to help me either. To the other Adventurers, you’re just a nobody without any influence, reputation, or power – so why would they listen to you?
Dungeon World: A Dungeon Core Experience Page 19