by Phil Tucker
“Actually, yeah,” she said. “You’ve been surprisingly fun to talk to.”
“Charisma ten, baby! And! Diplomacy!” I leapt to my feet and did a little shuffling dance from one side to the other. “I should party with goblins more often.”
“Now that is good news! Charisma ten makes you practically bearable.” She smiled.
“Oh, and there’s more. I want you to come back with me to the goblin tower.”
“OK, your diplomacy just failed you.”
“No, not for head soup. Though you’re missing out. I found this weird time-stop spell thing I want you to look at. There’s a guy trapped inside it. He looks kind of awesome, and I’d love to figure out a way to free him.”
“Oh?” She sounded suddenly very interested. “What did he look like? Maybe I knew him.”
I described the guy, but Lotharia shook her head. “I’ll have to come take a look. Maybe he joined after I left.”
“Well, let me spend this delicious XP and we can go. I’ve actually got enough to buy my first real spell.”
“Oooh, now we’re talking. Lemme see.” She keyed open my sheet and scrolled down. “You’re growing fast. Nothing like a noob leveling in a ridiculously dangerous zone.”
I opened my sheet again and scrolled down to the available spells. “I’ve been working on defensive and evasive talents so far, but maybe it’s time to pick up a little offense? Death Dagger sounds pretty sweet.”
“Yeah, but that’ll eat up all your mana, meaning you can’t Shadow Step in for the kill and get back out.”
I frowned. “True. But doesn’t your Summon Fog kind of make my Night Shroud redundant?”
“My fog doesn’t douse flames, which is useful. And I think you can dispel your shroud, whereas my fog lingers after it’s cast. Hmm. Ebon Tendrils looks like a pretty good utility spell that might double as an attack. Half your strength and dex would give it strength four, dex six. Not the best, but enough to maybe help you flank an opponent, opening them up for a Backstab.”
I sat back and pondered my options. Out of curiosity, I opened my available talents window to see what had replaced Minor Magic and Double Step.
Sabotage Defenses, Distracting Attack, and Pin Down were still available, but there were two new additions:
Darkvision
XP Cost: 100
- The darkness is no barrier to your sight, and reveals its secrets to those with the means to probe its depths.
- Mana Drain: 1 to activate, 1 to maintain every ten minutes.
Wall Climber (I)
XP Cost: 75
- Vertical surfaces can now be scaled with alarming rapidity, allowing you to climb them at four times your normal speed.
- Pre-requisite(s): Ledge Runner
“Did you see my new talents?” I looked up at Lotharia. “Darkvision sounds amazing.”
“But you see the XP cost? Welcome to the bane of reaching ever higher levels. I’m warning you. Things are going to start to slow down, and soon all those tantalizing goodies are going to haunt you, floating just beyond your character sheet but feeling forever out of reach.”
“What are you saving up for?”
Lotharia sighed, swiped away my sheet, and opened her own. “This beautiful, insane spell called Ice Grip. I’ve been wanting it since I arrived in Feldgrau. One hundred XP to coat the ground in ice that traps all enemies in its grip for a short period of time. It would have made all the difference in escaping the draugr and skeletons down there.”
“You still want it?”
She nodded. “We’re so underpowered here that anything that lets us get away would be key.”
“True enough.” I examined my options again. I really wanted Death Dagger, but I was ages away from level four and earning more mana.
Was it worth grabbing a couple of talents now, and one spell upon leveling? Or should I save to get two spells in quick succession?
Planning far into the future when in Death March mode felt futile. After all, a single mistake could kill me today.
Lotharia closed her screens and stood. “Ready?”
I selected Pin Down and closed my screens too. Better to make sure I lived today than plan big tomorrow and not get there. “Actually, mind doing a little more reading? I’m all out of mana and could use a nap in the sun over there.”
She patted the straw by her side. “Come on over. I’m going to have to teach you how to meditate soon, but for now I’d love to read this chapter again for the third time. Maybe I’ll even understand it this time round.”
I grinned and threw a saddle blanket over the straw next to her, then lay down and wiggled till I was comfortable. It was indescribably delicious to stretch out in the sunshine beside an attractive young woman and allow myself to sink into a doze. I opened my eyes once as I fell asleep and caught her watching me. We smiled at each other and then I drifted away.
When I awoke I saw that I’d regained two mana points. Good enough. We hurried back around the castle bailey perimeter, and were almost at the goblin tower when bellows echoed from within the ruined gatehouse. I ducked down into a crouch and moved as quickly as Stealth allowed me to, Lotharia following my lead. Not being able to sprint was agonizing.
Four ogres entered the bailey, and I immediately could tell which one was Mogr. He stood a foot taller than the other three and must have weighed an extra couple of hundred pounds. His skin had darkened to an ashen gray, and his teeth were so large they practically looked like tusks. Bones were tied into black, greasy hair, and he carried a huge double-headed battle ax propped on one shoulder.
I ducked my head and focused on reaching the tower door. Each time I moved quicker I felt Stealth giving way, the shadows receding from around me, my intuitive sense of hiding slipping. Each time, I forced myself to slow.
Luckily, it sounded like the ogres were arguing. I couldn’t understand their harsh language, but it Mogr was angrily refusing what the other three were demanding. Perfect.
I reached the door and knocked anxiously. “Barfo!” I hissed. “Kreekit! It’s me! Let me in!”
Barfo’s eye appeared in the knothole. “Mogr!”
“Come on! Please?” I glanced over my shoulder. The ogres had stopped amidst the stakes to face each other in an angry circle. “Open the door a crack!”
“But Mogr is out there!” Barfo sounded genuinely distressed.
“I’ll— I’ll bring you whatever head you want to cook with if you let me in. Promise!”
“Promise?” Barfo hesitated, then pulled the beams away, and a moment later Lotharia and I slipped inside.
I nearly collapsed in relief. The thought of trying to evade four ogres in a closed bailey was not an enticing one. “Thank you.”
Lotharia ran her sleeve across her brow. “Yes. Thank you.”
Kreekit emerged from one of the tents, Dribbler close behind her. “You the friend?”
“Yes,” said Lotharia, and had the wit to bow low. Ah! The wonders of charisma fourteen and Diplomacy (IV)! “I am honored to make your acquaintance, grand chieftain of the Green Liver tribe. I’ve heard of your bravery and am very impressed.”
“Yes,” said Kreekit, clearly surprised and pleased. “Of course you have! I have a lot of bravery to be heard about. Good, good.”
“Soup?” asked Barfo, raising a ladle from his black pot and wiggling it enticingly at Lotharia. “Some ear in it!”
“Why, yes, please!” Lotharia rubbed her tummy enthusiastically. “It smells delicious!”
Barfo beamed even as I stared incredulously at Lotharia, but she ignored me.
“But my friend here wants to show me something upstairs,” she said. “Could I eat your delicious soup when we come back down?”
Barfo paused, considered, then nodded. “I save your soup right here. It stay hot for seventeen minutes.”
“Come,” said Kreekit. �
��I show you the sticky light.”
“Sticky light?” I asked, following the little goblin up the steps.
“Yes. You touch it, your hand sticks. Happened to Red Bean. Very funny! He was stuck for days before he cut his hand off.” She shook her head fondly. “Stupid Red Bean.”
We rounded the curve of the stairwell and emerged into the second-floor chamber. I stepped aside, giving Lotharia room to approach.
“Wow,” she breathed. “This is some crazy advanced magic.” She walked around it. “And you’re right. It’s being generated by that sphere on the ground. This won’t run out for centuries – its own magic is working on it, making its mana burn exceptionally slowly.”
“And the guy in the center? Do you recognize him?”
Lotharia shook her head sadly. “No. But he’s wearing the uniform of the Winter Guard. From the amount of chain he’s wearing as opposed to plate, I’d guess he was a squire. That’d put him at about my level, maybe a little higher.”
“And if we freed him? Would the player still be around to play his avatar?”
Kreekit frowned up at us. “Avatar?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I mean, would his spirit come back to his body?”
“Oh, of course,” said Kreekit. “Even if not, the All Soul would provide.”
Lotharia smiled. “She’s right. If the original player has signed off, Albertus would step in to simulate how the character behaved before.”
“Huh,” I said. “Fascinating. But that’s all theoretical. How do we switch off the time-stop?”
Lotharia studied the frozen man, frowning and chewing on a lock of her hair, then drew her scepter out from under her cloak. She turned to me, eyes lighting up. “Luckily for you, I’m an accomplished enchantress. I think I might have just the spell.”
I tried to remember her options. “Restoration?”
“Nope. Imbue. It’s a surprisingly versatile spell, and ultimately it will be what I level up the most. It allows me to change the state of any object, even to give weapons temporary magic bonuses.”
“How does that help us here?”
“I can also imbue items with anti-magic.” She winked at me. “See what I’m getting at?”
“No… wait. You could enchant something so that it wouldn’t be affected by the time-stop?”
“You’re not as dumb as you look.” She looked around. “Now we just need a long enough stick to smash it with.”
“Ooh!” Dribbler hopped up and down. “I have a big stick!”
“You do?” Lotharia smiled encouragingly. “Great. Could you get it for me?”
“Sure!” Dribbler’s beam was rapturous, and he began fumbling at the leather cords that held up his knee-length trousers.
“No!” I stepped between them. “Dribbler! Ah – we need a different kind of, um, stick – like a wooden one?”
Dribbler’s face fell. “Sure?”
“Yes,” said Lotharia, eyes wide. “Oh, god. How did that almost happen? Yes. A stick made of wood.”
“Hard wood?” asked Barfo, eyes gleaming.
“Watch it,” said Lotharia, pointing her finger at him.
“Dribbler happy to watch,” said the smallest goblin, and then cracked up. Barfo joined in, and the two of them rolled around on the ground, giggling like four-year-olds.
“How have I been outwitted by goblins?” asked Lotharia, shaking her head in wonder. “How?”
Kreekit kicked them both till they stopped laughing and climbed to their feet. “Enough! Enough! Go get wood stick, now!”
Still hiccupping with laughter, the two goblins ran downstairs, and moments later came back, carrying one of the heavy beams that had held the door closed. “Here,” said Dribbler. “Not as big as my stick, but still pretty big.”
“Yes, I’m sure. Now, put it down there and step back.”
The goblins did as they were told.
Lotharia moved her scepter over the beam. “I abjure thee, I compel thee, to resist with disdain, all manner of wonders and miracles arcane.”
Blue light streamed down from her scepter to soak into the wood, which quickly took on a silvery sheen as if it had been laminated.
“There,” said Lotharia. “It’s done, but hurry. It won’t last long.”
I tentatively touched the beam, but nothing happened. I gripped it with both hands and grunted as I lifted it up. “Do I just smoosh the time-stop bomb?”
“Yeah,” she said. “But be prepared to jump away if you knock it closer to us. The field will move with it.”
I hesitated. “You think there’s a way we can turn it off and use it ourselves against an enemy?”
“Sadly, no. That would require handling it and using magic to stop its flow. It’s pretty much a one-use item as a result of its very nature.”
“Too bad.” I hefted the beam and stepped up right next to the glowing blue light. I tried activating Uncanny Aim, but the silver thread kept slipping off the enchanted beam of wood. No go. “All right. Swing number one.”
I lined up the beam and brought it down hard. It hit the blue light and sank through it as if it weren’t there to crash next to the blue orb. Miss.
I dragged the beam back out. “Just a test run. Here we go. Number the two.” I swung again, and this time I connected. The blue orb shot out from under the beam, badly dented but not destroyed.
“Watch out!” I yelled as it skittered off to the right, taking its field with it. Chunks of bodies that had been trapped in the left side of its field fell to the ground. The goblins shrieked and danced away, but the field moved too quickly – Kreekit and Barfo were trapped as the blue light washed over them, parts of their bodies still sticking out into the air.
“Hurry!” shouted Lotharia. “They’ll die if their blood can’t circulate back into their bodies!”
I ran around the cylinder to where the blue orb now rested just shy of the trapped squire’s feet. If only I could use Uncanny Aim! I raised the beam high, then brought it crashing down with all my strength.
The blue orb crunched in a truly satisfying manner. The blue light flickered and disappeared. Kreekit and Barfo screamed as they staggered over and fell to the ground, surrounded by body parts that rained down alongside them.
But my eyes were on the youth in the center. His roar of defiance cut off as he staggered back, eyes wide, trying to adjust to how the world had changed in an instant. One moment he was in the midst of a horrific battle, then here we were. For him, not even a second would have passed.
“Invaders!” he shouted, raising his bastard sword high overhead. “Death to you all!”
11
“Wait!” I shouted, throwing my hands up in an attempt to placate him. “We’re not your—”
The youth roared. I mean, literally. He threw his head back and let forth a terrifying roar that no human should have ever been able to make. It sounded more like a lion, some massive predator that was about to demonstrate why it ruled the apex, and echoed off the tower’s walls.
Despite myself, my knees turned to jelly, my throat closed up, and I staggered back, overwhelmed.
The squire leapt forward, moving with ease despite his armor, and brought his glittering sword swinging around to take off my head. Panicked, unable to form a coherent thought, I activated Adrenaline Surge and brought my dagger up in the most insane attempt to parry.
Strength flooded my arms, and with both hands gripping my blade I blocked the squire’s swing – only to feel the force transfer through my blade, down my arms, and hit me in the chest like a wrecking ball. I lifted off the ground and flew through the air to collide with the wall three yards behind me.
I think I bounced, then crashed to the floor. I don’t want to think how bad that would have been for me without my adrenaline coursing through my veins.
“Stop!” yelled Lotharia. “We’re�
�”
My vision cleared to see the squire point his blade at her. “I challenge you to combat! If you have any honor in your soul, then get over here and fight!”
Lotharia’s eyes widened in panic and she mechanically marched forward, scepter held at the ready.
I activated Detect Magic. Thick cords of gold extended from the squire’s blade to wrap around Lotharia’s body, compelling her forward to fight him.
“Armed by the heart of glaciers, I cloak myself in the frigid north!” Her voice was barely audible as she spoke through her terror, but a moment later frost flowered across her body, forming crystalline patterns that quickly thickened until her chest, shoulders, and limbs were covered in thick plates of ice.
I had to get up. Any moment now my adrenaline would pass, and I’d be useless. And we’d be dead. Shaking my head, still feeling dizzy from the sheer force of the blow, I rose. What the hell could I do?
“We’re on your side, you idiot!”
The squire ignored my yell, and when Lotharia was close enough he lunged forward, spearing his blade straight into her chest. The icy breastplate shattered, huge chunks raining down, and Lotharia staggered back, uninjured but now vulnerable to his next attack.
Kreekit began to dance, hopping from one foot to the next, waving her hands and calling out in a sing-song voice, “Ribbits and giblets, froggies and fire, spirits of goblins, hold onto this squire!”
Ghostly forms appeared around the youth, foggy and insubstantial, but they latched onto his limbs and arms, and tittering mutedly as if from a great distance away.
The squire tried to shake them off, but would have had more success trying to shake off glue. Growling, he took a deep breath, and his muscles swelled with his lungs; veins appeared down the side of his neck as his shoulders grew broader, and he powered forward as if charging through mud to where Lotharia was helplessly shaking her head.
“Don’t make me hurt you!” she yelled, backpedaling.
I activated Pin Down and hurled my dagger. A silver thread guided its path right at the squire’s legs, and for a second I thought the talent was going to take him in the back of the knee, but the squire moved forward so that the dagger slammed into his boot, sinking through the back of the heel and into a crack in the floor.