Warlock- Reign of Blood

by Edwin McRae

  Repairs weapons and armor items, both magical and mundane, without the need for a skilled weaponsmith.

  Tier 1: Return a single, lightly damaged item to pristine condition.

  “The life of a warlock is treacherous. To break one’s sword is to break one’s future.”

  - Garridar Stoneye

  He picked up the broken hammer shaft. If would have to keep his gear in top shape if these ‘away quests’ continued.

  Mark dug the hammerhead out of the Ghast corpse with the point of his sword, fitted the head to the shaft, slid Forge Anew into one of the spare spell slots and murmured “Forge Anew”. Splinters and fractures melted away until the sledgehammer in Mark’s hands was as good as new.

  He smiled, pleased with his choices and upgrades, and rested his mended sledgehammer on his shoulder while he looked over at Calder. The foreman was still examining the ghast corpse.

  “Are you looking to extract the iron out of that thing?

  “Seems a shame to waste it.”

  “True enough.”

  With no more monsters trying to rip his throat out, Mark used the quiet moment to admire the cavern. Minerals of every hue gleamed in Calder’s torchlight. The place was a subterranean rainbow.

  “What sort of ores did you say you were getting out of these mountains, Calder?”

  “Usual fare. Iron, silver, a bit of gold now and then. Deposits of arcanium too, but that goes straight to the druids. Standing order.”

  Mark contained a bubbling “squee” as he pictured his Volcanic Bastard Sword. The recipe required a fair chunk of arcanium, along with a disturbingly high number of rubies.

  “Any gems?”

  “Yeah, sapphires and rubies mostly. The occasional diamond cluster. It’s a good little mine this one. A decent yield for one’s efforts.” Calder’s tone darkened. “At least until those iron-nailed assholes turned up.”

  “We’ll have this mine asshole-free in no time.”

  “Why? You going somewhere, Mark?” quipped Dayna.

  Calder and Vari chuckled as Mark fixed Dayna his dirtiest look.

  “Ha-fucking-ha, Dayna.”

  20

  As they delved deeper into the mines, Vari had a chance to consider her future. She had escaped the clutches of the inquisitors in the hopes of finding refuge in Garland. She knew at the time that it wasn't going to be easy, and had never heard of a reiver defecting before. Then again, the inquisitors would never allow such news to spread, so the fact that she’d never heard of a precedent didn’t mean there wasn’t one. Even if there wasn’t, Vari was here now, alive so far, first reiver defector or not.

  She’d been confident that her skills as a healer would go a little way to ingratiating her with the Garland people, but had never imagined that she would now be in an adventuring party with a Garland ranger and a warlock, fighting to save the livelihood of a Garland village. Nor had she imagined that she would be fighting grotesque creatures in the dark bowels of some mountain. Yet Vari had always considered herself to be one to see the silver lining in any cloud. Not that the saying made much sense when she thought about it for more than a passing moment. Clouds generally had golden linings during the day, and the only silver linings happened at night, care of the moon. And that was the time when most things that wanted to eat you liked to get out and about. If anything, a cloud with silver linings was the very last thing you wanted to see, or would likely see when you did see one.

  Silver and gold lining aside, for the first time in her life, Vari was being presented with more than the two options she’d grown accustomed to during her life as a reiver. Survival versus a horrible death. Here she was, freeing slaves, battling monsters, and gaining quite a bit of experience while doing so.

  She’d leveled up from 4 to 5 after their first battle with the cave ghasts, and they’d later caught another pair of ghasts by surprise, adding a further 20XP to the pool. She also had two attribute points to use. Vari dropped them both into Spirit and then brought her stats up, just to have a quiet little gloat about them.

  Vari of Karajan

  Class: Figurist - Level 5

  Progress to Level 6 = 264/500

  Body: 11

  Mind: 13

  Spirit: 16

  HP: 55

  EP: 80

  Skills

  Alchemy (Tier 1)

  Physik Perception (Tier 2)

  Horse Riding (Tier 2)

  Spells

  Mend Flesh (Tier 3)

  Puppeteer (Tier 3)

  Spells on offer

  Purify Blood

  Sculpt Bone

  Blinding Malaise

  Thanks to reaching Level 5, Vari now had three new spells to choose from. The notification had justified this by explaining that her overall understanding of anatomy had been greatly increased by her manipulation of flesh in Mend Flesh, and her control of both life force and muscle movement in Puppeteer.

  She was sorely tempted by Blinding Malaise. If she could temporarily blind their enemies, Mark and Dayna would no doubt make short work of them. Then again, if she chose Purify Blood, she could cleanse a patient of any poison or disease that may have invaded their bloodstream. Having seen many a reiver lose legs and arms to Greenvein, Purify Blood was not a spell to be sneezed at.

  And then there was Sculpt Bone.

  Sculpt Bone

  Grow and mold the target’s bones into the figurist’s desired shape.

  Casting cost at Tier 1 = 7 EP

  Tier 1: Must have line of sight and be within 3 meters of the subject. Limited to 1 large bone or 1-3 small bones (e.g. finger bones). Targeted bones can be bent, broken or grown up to 150% of their original mass.

  “We are but sinew and slime without the noble architecture of bone to uphold us.”

  - Kerisk Bloodfinger

  Vari rubbed her hands in quiet glee. That meant she could equip her puppets with bone claws if they had none. Or, she thought with growing excitement, she could snap an enemy’s fingers at a touch.

  Very ‘handy’ for ‘disarming’ reiver warriors, she punned merrily to herself.

  Battling reiver warriors in the name of Garland. That line of thinking brought her back to the word “adventurer”. She toyed with the word as her party picked their way down a narrow, winding tunnel, choosing their steps carefully in the bobbing light of Calder’s lamp. The term "adventurer" was not commonly heard among reivers. They were mostly happy to eat, drink, smoke, and follow orders to earn their monthly wages. Why strike out on your own when the reiver nation provided everything you could possibly want? Why bother with adventures when there were regular raids and skirmishes to partake in?

  Vari, according to her mother, had been one of those children. Never satisfied. Full of questions that no-one else thought to ask. Full of ideas that no-one else seemed to have. Full of hopes that no-one else dared entertain. Vari supposed it was those questions, those ideas, and those hopes that had led her to where she was right now. And the fact that her mother would neither understand or approve meant, at least to Vari, that she was definitely on the right track.

  She set her ruminations aside as her party emerged from the narrow tunnel and into a large cavern. The massive cave was filled with mining equipment, several tons of rubble, and something that her usually accommodating mind simply couldn’t fathom.

  It was like a paper wasp’s nest made of congealed fat. It glistened with sickly secretions and glowed with a bioluminescence that made Vari’s eyes throb in her skull. Its translucent flesh undulated as it fed upon the iron ore vein that dominated most of the cavern’s far wall.

  Within the pulsing mass of mucus and malevolence, Vari made out six curled bodies. Half a dozen ghasts, fully formed and ready to be born. Judging from the trail of slime leading from the creature down to the smooth tunnel mouth at the base of the wall, this thing was moving slowly around the mine, consuming vein after vein of ore in order to spawn more of its ghastly children. It was like swamp leech, slithering about a slum
bering body, sucking from veins and laying eggs in its wake.

  "That is possibly the most disgusting thing I've ever seen," said Mark, his voice thick with nausea.

  Dayna could only nod while Calder grunted his agreement and tried to keep his lantern steady with a hand that was visibly shaking.

  Vari pointed down at the ghasts that were picking their way through the rubble at the bottom of the cave, cleaning up scraps of ore left over from their queen’s feasts, and then at the queen herself.

  "We're going to have six more of them to contend with if we don’t destroy that thing, and fast.”

  Mark peered at the gigantic blob, his face growing a shade paler. "I'm sure glad you brought those explosives, Calder. Now we just have to get close enough to that thing to do do some proper damage."

  Calder took a bottle from his jacket and handed it to Mark. "It's an open and drop formula. Once you pop that cork and the air hits that brew, you’ve got about five seconds before it goes off.”

  Mark tucked the bottle in his belt and looked to Vari and Dayna. "Ready everyone?"

  Dayna nocked an arrow and fired at the closest ghast. It bounced off the creature’s back scales but Dayna was quick to follow the first arrow with a second. This time she scored a hit in the creature’s side, just below the armpit where the flesh was bare. The thing howled and started to struggle up through the rubble towards them. The other three cocked their heads, almost in unison, as they listened for the intruders. After only a couple of seconds of sniffing and listening, they too were climbing towards Vari and her friends.

  Mark met the first of the ghasts with a shout of "Arcane Edge!" The head of his sledgehammer twinkled with a magical glow as he brought it down upon the first ghast, breaking through its raised arm and pulverising the creature’s shoulder. The ghast lashed out with its remaining claw but Mark was able to sidestep the attack, showing remarkable balance on the unsteady slope of rock. Then he brought his hammer upwards, smashing the head into the ghast’s jaw. Bone cracked, red blood spattered, and the ghast tumbled down onto the rocks.

  Vari considered using some of her essence to animate the slain ghast but thought better of it. With only one arm, and its jaws now unable to bite, it wasn't going to be much help. Instead, she readied herself to heal Mark as the second ghast leapt at him, its long, iron claws reaching for his throat. Mark tried to dodge again, but this time one of his boots slipped on a loose stone and he fell in an ungainly heap. Although the accident saved his throat from being slashed open, the ghast still ripped a jagged line through his armor and into the meat of his shoulder.

  Despite what Mark had said to her about prioritizing healing for herself and the others, Vari disagreed on just about every level. She'd provided healing support in one or two reiver battles before, and the officers had always commanded her to heal the frontline fighters first. After all, they were the ones most likely to take the hits, and the tough, armored warriors were often the only thing standing between the enemy and the more vulnerable archers, officers and figurists.

  Vari murmured "Mend Flesh" under her breath as Mark struggled to his feet and raised his hammer to meet his assailant’s next attack. The rift in his shoulder sealed over so quickly that he was able to deftly knock aside the creature's reaching claws with the haft and thrust the head into the ghast's gaping maw. Iron teeth broke away as the beast bit down, raw iron spikes no match for tempered steel and Mark's enhancement spell. Mark then shoved the choking thing backwards so that it sprawled onto the stone and swung his hammer down onto its chest. There was a wet crunch followed by a few twitches and spasms as the creature died.

  "Look out, Mark!" The words leapt to Vari's lips as the third ghast, the one sporting one of Danya's arrows from its side, lunged at the warlock. It had hunkered down and crept low to the rocks so as to avoid being turned into a pincushion by the string-happy ranger.

  Vari could see that Dayna was aiming at the fourth ghast. She either hadn't seen the creeping ghast or had simply decided to switch to an easier target. Either way, Mark was about to wear the consequences.

  There was nothing for it. Mark was bringing his sledgehammer to bear, and not quickly enough. He was about to have his throat ripped out.

  Vari mentally selected “Sculpt Bone” as her next spell and then shouted its name at the top of her lungs. The magic poured from her like scalding steam from a boiling cauldron. She gritted her teeth against the pain and focused all of her attention on the ghast’s outstretched hand, snapping its first three fingers just above the knuckles. The beast howled in pain and shock. Its strike faltered, giving Mark enough time to lean out of the way. Before his assailant could recover, Mark brought his gleaming hammer down onto its head, landing the blow square upon its nose. The ghast’s face caved in and the creature dropped to the rocks in a limp heap.

  Mark raised his eyebrows at Vari but she headed off his questions by pointing at the Ghast Queen. Mark nodded his understanding and, as quickly has he could on the loose rocks, clambered down the slope and then up the short incline. Soon he was face-to-oozing-mass with the feeding monstrosity.

  Vari took in a deep breath and held it. She was almost certain of her summation of the creature, that it was a mindless thing, born only to feed and spawn. Vari was relying on her Tier 2 Physik Perception and her observations of wildlife during her training as a figurist, and was pretty certain that the queen's children were her only defense, similar in that regard to a queen bee.

  Of course, if she was wrong, she was about to see Mark thrash and suffocate inside that gelatinous hulk, or witness him reeling and choking as he succumbed to a cloud of toxic spores or some gaseous expulsion of poison. Yes, he would return to them. He had an unnatural knack for resurrection that was beyond Vari’s comprehension, but still, such experiences could drive a sane man completely over the brink.

  It was only when Mark had unstopped and placed Calder's flask beneath the queen, and begun his ascent back up the slope towards her, did Vari allow some air back into her straining lungs.

  "Look alive, all! Find cover!" hollered Calder from behind the large rock he'd already chosen for the occasion.

  Mark reached Vari a moment later, puffing and wheezing. He reeked of blood, some of it his own, some of it touched with the sour sulphur of the ghasts. They hid behind a boulder, their eyes meeting as a roar overtook the cavern, rattling the rocks about them and bringing a rain of pebbles and clay down from above.

  Through the cacophony, she found Mark still looking at her, a curious half-smile on his face. She returned a smile of her own and then, when the final echoes had died away, they peeked together over the top of the boulder at the devastation they had wrought. The queen was gone, reduced to a steaming smear. Her unborn children an assortment of body parts, charred and scattered.

  To their left, Dayna let out a triumphant “yeah!” as she crawled out from under a ledge she’d crammed herself beneath. Calder appeared from behind his rock a moment later, nodding with pride at the effectiveness of his explosive concoction. As Vari pondered her chances of getting his recipe, a notification sprung up before her eyes.

  Your party has slain four Level 3 Cave Ghasts.

  Your XP reward per party member = 40 XP

  Progress to Level 6 = 304/500

  Your party has slain the Ghast Queen.

  Your XP reward per party member = 100 XP

  Progress to Level 6 = 404/500

  Congratulations!

  You have completed the quest, "Depths of Corruption".

  Your XP reward per party member = 50 XP

  Progress to Level 6 = 454/500

  Yes, Vari thought to herself with a smile, I think I can get used to being an adventurer.

  21

  Serik lifted the helm from the altar and turned it in his hands. It was much lighter than he'd expected, the silver and gold having been tooled with immaculate care and efficiency.

  He wanted to wear the thing, he wanted it badly, the urge itching in his palms, making
the hairs on his forearms stand on end. He ached to lift the helmet, to fit it over his skull, to stand proud, safe and regal with this beautiful artifact as his crown. Part of his mind warned against these urges, shouting from the back of his skull that they were not to be trusted, they were feelings not of his own creation. But that hollering voice was but a muffled murmur against the sonorous humming of the helmet's wishes. Serik's mental protests quietened to a whisper as he raised the helm over his head and slipped it on.

  Nothing happened. Serik turned to the sergeant and shrugged. "Just a pretty helmet, it seems."

  The sergeant didn't look so sure. She peered at the helmet warily, even took a step back. Serik noticed that her leg had already healed from the wound the Mouth of Gahratha had inflicted on her. He pointed at the smooth skin now showing through her torn breeches, a spot that had been a mess of lacerated meat only minutes before.

  “What tier are you on for Vigorous Healing?” he asked.

  “Four.”

  Serik was rather taken aback. He was only on Tier 3. “Really? What was your previous posting?”

  “Karajan Highlands.”

  Serik nodded. That explained it. The Karaji hill tribes were as sneaky as they were wild. Few reivers survived that tour without a stabbing or ten.

  He slapped the helmet with the palm of his hand a couple of times, hoping to awaken whatever slumbering power lay within.

  The sergeant took another step back. "I wouldn’t do that, sir. Fucking thing’s been sitting here for shit-knows how long, and whoever put it here probably did so for a bloody good reason."

  Serik smiled knowingly. "Yes, for me to find it. Now if I could only just-"