"Nice work, Luna," he said, pulling a rope from his bag, then tying it off and shimmying down to the floor. He landed facing Lord Ostric, who bristled with anger, his arms wide as if he were about to enter battle. A glance to Luna proved that she was focused on whatever was behind Terran. Considering they'd made more noise than a fireworks display, he wasn't surprised.
Before he turned, the sensation of being near an essence made him dizzy. Corruption threaded through the life force, making him sick to his stomach. When Terran turned, he expected to find more skeletal centaurs, and while he was right, partially, it wasn't the undead that worried him.
Chapter Eleven
The stench of rot hit Terran, curdling his insides. The figure at the open door, standing beside a centaur the size of a mammoth, flesh half-melted from its bones, glowered with an easy confidence. Even if Terran couldn't see the red skull next to the name of his foe, Grimchar the Necrochanter, he would have been worried.
The cadaverous robes that sheltered the mage like a rotting cocoon put off an odorous stench. The face beneath the hood had been human at one point, Terran was certain, but time or raw power, or something darker, had warped it to caricature, along with open wounds and bruised leprous flesh. For the first time since he'd entered this world, Terran felt real, unadulterated fear. A primal concern that went deeper than the aches and pains of battle.
Terran was aware that the rotting beast beside Grimchar was the former Lord Ostric, and his decomposing body radiated an essence of the Mother Tree. Unlike the challenge of the peryton, he didn't think a few measly levels would help him defeat his foe.
"What a pleasant surprise," said Grimchar in a saccharine voice that seemed opposite of his image. "An offworlder, here to offer his soul for donation. Life has become infinitely more interesting now that you've returned."
Terran wrinkled his nose in confusion. Kingmaker was supposed to be a fresh world, created for their cohort. He shook off the suggestion, deciding it was merely a villainous phrase, a bit of backstory rather than truth.
"What are you doing with the Lord Ostric's body?" asked Terran.
Grimchar's eyes widened with surprise. "You know what it is that you face? How delightful."
Before Terran could react, the ghost of Lord Ostric let out a fearsome cry and charged his rotting body. But his incorporeal essence merely passed through both the undead centaur and the necrochanter.
Grimchar tilted his head. "Curious. You see something here that I cannot. An echo of the keep's former inhabitants? We shall discover this together in my laboratory."
Hoping to catch the necrochanter by surprise, Terran produced a pine cone and launched it at him. The mage caught it in midair, right as Terran triggered the spell. Grimchar squeezed the stone to dust in his fist.
Now knowing completely that he was outmatched, Terran turned towards the door, but Grimchar was faster. A flick of his wrist and rotting vines grew from the wooden floor, wrapping around Terran and Luna. Terran tried to turn them to stone, but as one crumbled to dust, three more took its place until he was wrapped from the neck down in writhing decaying vines.
"Come along," said Grimchar. "Your appearance will speed my efforts."
The mass of vines carried them into the laboratory behind the rotting mage and undead centaur. A huge contraption that looked like a water wheel connected dozens of brass tubes and lines that eventually led to a vat of boiling yellow liquid commanding the center of the room. Inside the container, a heart the size of a bucket pulsed with life force. As soon as Terran laid eyes on it, he knew the essence of the Mother Tree was contained within the still beating heart.
"What are you doing?" asked Terran.
"Extracting power," said Grimchar. "Immortality doesn't come cheap, so I will be glad of your donation. Now, tell me who you are."
Terran planned on resisting, but then the vines squeezed him like a vise, until his eyes were bulging from his head. The constriction ground his joints together, turning every muscle into an engine of pain.
"Terran," he spat out, and the vines relaxed, giving him a chance to breathe again.
"See, that wasn't so hard," said Grimchar. "Now, where do you hail from? And what are you doing here? And before you get defiant again, remember, I can just kill you and extract the information from your squishy mind."
"Not likely," said Terran. "If you kill me, I'll just respawn at my home."
The mage sauntered to Terran. The stench made him want to puke, but he kept his lips squeezed shut and stared back at the necrochanter. Grimchar extended a long finger with a black cancerous nail at the tip, and placed it against Terran's forehead.
He expected pain, or a psychic invasion, but he didn't expect the interface that hung in his vision at all times, showing health and mana and status effects, to fade as if it was slowly being powered down. Weakness, as if Terran hadn't eaten in weeks, invaded his bones, while Grimchar's wounds and blackened flesh repaired themselves. The feeling of being sucked dry left Terran shaking at his core. Grimchar pulled his finger away after what seemed like minutes, but had probably only been a few seconds.
"Now that you've had a taste, you understand," said Grimchar. "I'm afraid you were very unlucky today, to have wandered into this place. Lucky for me, but unlucky for you. Your companion as well, what is her name?"
He didn't answer at first. The gray lynx had been quietly struggling against the vines. But when they constricted around her and she gasped for breath, he hung his head low and said, "Luna."
"Very good," said Grimchar. "Now let us continue with our experiment with your donations."
The necrochanter snapped his fingers and the rotting corpse of Lord Ostric returned to the huge water wheel, using his front legs to turn the device. As it spun, chains rattled and mechanisms turned. Boiling liquid sputtered. An air of doom filtered through the space, and Terran had a front seat to it. Grimchar approached the contraption, adjusted dials, and flicked his rotten nail against the brass pipes to clear a clog. The whole thing radiated power that it drained from the Mother Tree essence, underlined with a faint vibration that hung at the edge of his hearing.
Terran hoped that the vines would loosen as Grimchar focused his attention on his experiment, but there was no give, leaving him unable to use his hands for spells. Luna looked to him with dread in her eyes, and he found it hard not to share her despair.
The ghost of Lord Ostric appeared by his side. "I am truly sorry, Lord Terran. I have mistakenly led you into a perilous situation, which I can do nothing to affect."
"I accepted your quest willingly, you have nothing to apologize for," whispered Terran as he eyed the contraption for weak spots that he might exploit with Sonic Disruption. The translucent material looked stronger than glass, and considering the power pulsing through it, he didn't think he could break it. "But if you could, check the other side of that device. See if there's a critical link somewhere."
"I see not the purpose," said the ghost of Lord Ostric.
"Do it anyway," whispered Terran.
The ghost trudged to the back side of the device as Grimchar coaxed the flames beneath the brass tank. Luna gave him a questioning glance, which he shook off. He didn't want Grimchar to get any ideas that he still had a chance.
After a brief examination, Lord Ostric returned. "I'm afraid I didn't see anything."
"Describe it to me," whispered Terran. "Every detail."
"There were pipes that ran to the tank, liquid that moved between them, devices that I didn't understand, boxes, connectors," said Lord Ostric.
"Anything that vibrates? I hear something faint at the upper register of my hearing," whispered Terran.
Lord Ostric furrowed his brow, which made his bushy mustache waggle up and down. "A small black crystal was suspended between two metal catches, then after—"
"A black crystal?" he said. His voice was a little too loud, as Grimchar turned towards him, a questioning look in his eye. Terran held his breath until the necrochanter turned b
ack to what he was doing. Lord Ostric nodded. "Is this significant?"
While he knew little about the crystals that could grow on the Mother Tree, he knew that the black ones were powerful. This piece must have come from the old tree, before the destruction. Terran wondered if he could affect it with his voice, somehow interrupt the flow of power. He considered just belting out Sonic Disruption, but a black crystal was made to power dangerous magical effects, so he doubted that a basic spell would interrupt it.
Hoping to test the crystal, Terran hummed a few notes in increasing scale, but he was too quiet and it seemed to have no effect. With a wary glance towards Grimchar, he opened his mouth for a middle C. The pitch was off because his voice trembled, so he tried again, hitting it on the second try. The necrochanter kept at his work, which encouraged Terran to try again with a different note. He climbed the scale until he hit F, which caught a faint vibration from the opposite side of the room.
"Quiet, Offworlder, I'm trying to work," said Grimchar without turning around. "If you would prefer, I can stuff one of my dirty socks in your mouth."
The revolting thought of his stench brought bile up Terran's throat. He swallowed it back, focusing instead on the note that he'd hit. It hadn't been quite right, a slight warble, which he thought might indicate that it was either a flat or a sharp...no, it was a sharp, he was sure of it.
Terran blew out a breath, picturing the note in his mind before he opened his mouth, hitting right below the F-sharp, then adjusting to catch the pitch. The note caught the crystal perfectly. The whole contraption shook as his voice connected with the black crystal, annihilating his thoughts. Time slowed to a crawl. He was both Terran and the crystal. The room warped with temporal waves, like refracting existence through the lens of the black crystal.
Grimchar screamed. Some vines squeezed, some decayed to dust, while others writhed away like snakes in a religious frenzy.
Connected to the black crystal, it felt like he could keep up the note forever, but he knew it would destroy him in the process. The brass tubes shook and the yellowish liquid boiled, splattering against the domed roof of the container.
Whatever Grimchar had created, Terran could sense it was like a sculpture spinning on a needle, perfectly balanced. But the vibration was tilting it off-center, threatening to throw the whole thing into the temporal void.
Poised at a threshold, he knew that if he stopped, it would spin back to normal and Grimchar would silence him permanently. But Terran was at his limits. The black crystal required sacrifice.
Terran pushed.
The destruction happened in slow motion. He watched dispassionately as the tubes and containers came apart, not blown outward as if it were an explosion, but as if time had reversed for them individually, and the lineage of their creation ceased.
In his voluminous robes, Grimchar watched in horror as his labors unwound. He glared at Terran—who was still suspended on that infinite note—then in the haste of self-preservation, splashed out a spinning portal and disappeared, right before the black crystal imploded.
Chapter Twelve
Terran's surprise at waking in the wreckage of the room was doubled at the concern on Luna's face as she patiently applied her sandpaper-like tongue to his forehead. His body ached as if he'd been tumbled down a mountain, but his health and stamina were at full.
"Is he gone?" asked Terran.
"If it is Grimchar you mean, then yes. As for your friend, the ghost centaur, I can't help you," said Luna, sitting back on her haunches.
Terran groaned as he pushed up to a sitting position. He was surrounded by the once-contraption: disassembled, smoking ooze of melted metal, glass shards stuck into the ceiling, and yellow liquid collected in a perfectly circular pool in the corner. At the center of it all beat a living centaur heart, pulsing on its own, though connected to nothing as the rotting undead body that had assaulted them previously was nothing but dust.
"Lord Ostric?" he asked to the empty air.
He spoke the words a second time into the platinum signet ring, but nothing happened.
"They're both gone, I think," said Terran. "Grimchar escaped, but I don't know what happened to Lord Ostric. Strange as he was, I rather liked him."
"And I would have liked to have met him, or at least seen him." Luna nodded towards the beating heart. "What are you going to do about that?"
From his sitting position, he sensed that the corruption had been removed. No longer trapped within Grimchar's diabolical machine, the living heart was slowly dying, sustained only by the powerful essence of the Mother Tree.
Terran approached the heart, its ventricles pumping and laboring for a body that didn't exist anymore. He wished Lord Ostric was present, but sensing he didn't have much time left, he reached to the heart. The essence left the organ as a white light, flowing into his hand.
You have received an essence of the Mother Tree
As the heart deflated, shriveling into a hard clump of once-living cells, a sonorous gong in his ears signaled the completion of the quest.
You have completed the quest to rid the Wunderlust Keep of the source of undead
You have increased reputation with the Wunderlust Centaurs
You are now level 10!
The acquisition of the essence and level felt bittersweet without the ghost of Lord Ostric. He'd only known him a short time, but he felt some kinship with him due to his vassalship to the Rock Leaf Elves.
Opening his character sheet, Terran decided that he needed to be sinking ability points into Charisma now that he was a Crystal Bard. It would help him with running the settlement and negotiating with traders. Since his Earthen Mage spells were mostly based on Endurance, and survivability was a priority, he put the second point into that category. As he examined the results, he realized that level 10 had increased all of his abilities by one point in addition to the two he'd placed for leveling.
Character: Terran
Level: 10
Class: Earthen Mage
Crystal Bard
Subrace: Rock Leaf Elf
Champion of the Mother Tree
HP: 270
Mana: 380
Sta: 600
Strength: 5
Intelligence: 11
Endurance: 15
Cunning: 4
Agility: 4
Charisma: 6
Spells:
Stone Touch (unique)
Rock Shards
Rock Wall
Earth Geyser
Hide in Plain Sight (1 daily)
Sonic Disruption
Skills:
Improvisation (INT): 6
Commune with Nature (CHA): 3
Nature's Lore (INT): 6
Stealth (AGI): 7
Earth Sense (END): 4
Battle Song (CHA): 2
The other stat increases were a welcome addition, giving his lesser-used skills like stealth a boost. Maybe Luna wouldn't think he was such a club foot while sneaking through the forest in the future.
In the wreckage of the laboratory, Terran found some gold and silver in a pouch, along with a fat emerald that would be worth a nice price, but he could find no sign of the black crystal. He hadn't expected to as the destruction seemed to have come from it, but he was at least expecting to find crystal dust, or tiny shards.
When they returned to the throne room, the two shiny pieces of barding still lay crushed beneath the metal chandelier, but the bones had turned to gray dust.
Do you wish to add Wunderlust Keep as a vassal state [Y/N]?
The question hung in the air while he contemplated. Of course, if the keep had been populated by Lord Ostric and his formidable centaurs, it would be an easy yes, but was there a downside to taking on the keep without anyone to hold it? Fearing he might lose the opportunity later, Terran accepted it. A spot formed on his settlement page for the keep, along with a [UO] designation for Unoccupied.
Back in the main room, Terran examined the strange circular device on the wall, c
arefully touching the runes and the caches where smaller items had once sat. When he focused his attention on it, as if he were casting a spell, new information appeared.
Wunderlust Transfer Portal [Defunct]
You have been given a quest: Restore the Wunderlust Transfer Portal
Reward: We can't help you if you haven't been paying attention
Transfer portals cannot displace objects or people without an equilibrium of material returning. In the days of the Keep, after negotiating using the green crystals of the Mother Tree, the transfer portal was used to move goods across the land and to transport diplomats between empires.
Having a portal would be a huge boon to his settlement, but it didn't look like it could easily be returned to working condition. Not only did he have to get the keep up and running, which required beings to take it over, the portal itself was missing pieces. But if he could, maybe he could get his friends back.
Before he left the keep, Terran gathered the heart of Lord Ostric, which had become as hard as stone. Using his hands, he dug a hole in the soft soil of the courtyard, reverently placed the organ into the hole, then carefully covered it back up.
"Here lies Lord Ostric Steelhooves, Lord of Wunderlust Keep, Scourge of Crag Trolls, Protector of the Western Hills, Keeper of the Autumn Flame. May he rest well, for his efforts mattered in both life and undeath." Terran paused in thought before adding the final dedication. "For hoof and steel."
With Luna at his side, he left the keep, heavy of heart. Terran collected the box that Vievel had abandoned, and set off for the glen.
When they arrived days later, a fire crackled beneath the idyllic canopy of ever-autumnal trees. Terran wished to join them. He needed companionship and the sight of friendly faces, but knew he had to deal with the essence first.
The Mother Tree seemed ready for him upon his approach. Though there were no outward signs, he sensed an eagerness for the return of the essence. As he placed his hand against the warm wood, a soft light left him, returning to the Mother Tree. He sensed a vision approaching, and more prepared than the first time, he managed to sink to his knees as the world disappeared…
The Crystal Bard: A LitRPG Adventure (Kingmaker Saga Book 2) Page 8