Keeper

by Tom Larcombe

  She stepped into the hall and was somewhat relieved when all eyes turned to her. All eyes except the single functional eye of Odin All-Father. He was staring at nothing whatsoever.

  But at least he's standing and not on his throne, she thought. That's a good sign since he hadn't stirred from his throne in ages when he was still distracted.

  His voice was soft but stern when he spoke.

  “Freyja, do you have any idea what is occurring here?” he said, shooting her a message that showed game coordinates to examine.

  She pulled them up and gasped. A veritable horde of creatures was on the move in the Forest of Fools, moving towards the border of the Meadowlands. She noticed that several of the bodies were inhabited by the consciousness of players from the special player database she'd only recently discovered.

  And is that one of those players in a Giant Wolf? she thought incredulously. And two of those creatures are from zones within the Forest of Fools whose requirements have yet to be met for those zones to even exist in the world.

  “I have a theory, All-Father,” Freyja said, seeking to placate him with his proper title.

  He looked up at her and when his single eye locked onto hers she felt only relief. Once more the eye sparkled with both an odd humor and a piercing intelligence.

  “Let me hear it.”

  “I told you before that there were world-traveling mortals stealing the bodies of our creatures, casting aside the intelligence within to wither and die. All of those who have done so are in this horde, as is the one responsible for the actual actions. He has the permissions of a Dev, but he is not one. I do not know how this may be, but he is currently in possession of the Giant Wolf that is beside the two who should not yet exist in this world.”

  “I cannot trace his identifier,” Odin said.

  “They have a special player base. I intercepted one of these players when he was slain in order to comfort him. In the process I discovered several things. The first I have already revealed to you, that is the Dev who is not a Dev. I also discovered the address and access code for their special player base. It is SF-07, access code: Papa Tango Bravo Foxtrot.”

  Odin held up a hand and she could sense him examining the data within the file.

  “They do, they cast aside the intelligences attempting to form within the new creatures, and they do so in such a manner that the intelligence simply withers away as opposed to returning to those of us who provided the creatures with the spark of life.”

  Odin stood straighter and thought for a moment.

  “This. Is. Unacceptable,” he said sternly, his words echoing through the throne room, the controlled anger behind them menacing.

  Freyja nodded her agreement.

  Odin locked his gaze on her.

  “You are not the trickster that Loki is, yet you have your own cunning. I'm sure your actions to date had nothing to do with supporting the world-traveling mortals against these abominations,” Odin said.

  “Certainly not,” Freyja said, her words dripping with a saccharine sweetness that was more effective than sarcasm at delivering her true message.

  “In your cunning, you do not break the rules and yet you frequently manage to do the things that need to be done regardless of their relation to the rules.”

  Freyja dipped her head in acknowledgment.

  “I am assigning to you the task of defeating these abominations, removing them in whatever manner you must, all according to the rules. Do you understand me?”

  “I do, All-Father,” she said, this time putting the respect into the title that it deserved.

  “I feel the hand of Loki in this. We've not seen him since before the world-traveling mortals arrived, but I fear that hiatus is at an end. Be wary.”

  “As you say Odin, if I may be dismissed to work on this problem?”

  “By all means, go. If you need assistance, within the rules of course, feel free to call upon me.”

  Freyja backed her way out of the throne room, keeping her expression neutral as she did so. Once she was out of the room and the doors had closed she allowed herself the triumphant smile that had been trying to emerge on her face through most of the discussion.

  So, Odin is nearly himself again, and he has tasked me with the very task I'd been working on anyhow. I wonder if that is a coincidence or if he has regained his own cunning and discovered what I've been working on?

  ~ ~ ~

  Eddie stared at the receding water. They'd moved down to the floor that the next set of stairs led to and the stone was slick with slime from its long inundation. Even so there were three doors visible as well as another set of stairs. They were waiting a few more minutes before proceeding. The doors were fairly tight and water still seeped out from under them. It had been pouring out for several minutes, but the flood had slowed. They hadn't wanted to open a door and get washed off their feet by a rush of water, but it looked like there wasn't enough water left behind them to do that any more.

  Allie called out, getting everyone on their feet.

  “Alright, I had a thought Tiana. We do have weapons that can damage the skeletons. Not as many, maybe, but several at least. So I want you to target whichever type of undead that there's more of when we encounter them. Then we'll focus the others down as quickly as we can, wait for you to regenerate mana, then continue.”

  In further discussion they'd discovered that Tiana could keep her spell, Light of Life, up for an unspecified duration and it did damage to one undead type every second. The type of undead had to be chosen at the original casting though. It also had a mild healing effect on living creatures. The problem was that it also had a ten mana per second cost and if she were at full mana she could keep it going for about forty seconds before running out of mana. The first undead she used it on had only required about eight seconds worth, but the second batch had taken longer.

  That suggested to Eddie that the undead were growing stronger as they progressed down the dungeon. With only two data points he couldn't be sure, but that made sense from what he knew about traditional dungeons as well.

  Well, it sounds like we'll get some more data points shortly, he thought as he heard a scrabbling noise behind the door Allie had them approach.

  Jern took his stance in front of the door. One step forward would allow him to block it while Tiana cast her spell over his head. Allie and Eddie were a step to the side of Tiana, both of them available to fire at a chunk of the room over Jern's head once the door was opened. Dominic could step in and replace Tiana when she dropped her spell and Becky, Karl, and the animals were watching the party's backs since there were lots of other entries to this area.

  They didn't want to enter the room right away because the sounds of scrabbling and groaning were loudest from this door. They expected a large group of undead and wanted to thin it out before going directly into melee. They'd discussed the plan and everyone had agreed to it.

  Eddie, with his high agility, had been selected as the one to open the door. He slid in next to Jern and reached out. Karl had already inspected the door for traps and not found any. The door was not locked, although the knob took more force than he'd expected.

  Probably from its long submersion. I can't imagine that would be good for any sort of machinery not designed for it, he thought.

  With a grunt and a rasping, grating noise from the mechanism, the knob turned. The door opened into the room so Eddie gave it a gentle push and stepped back.

  Jern strode forward slamming the door with his shield. The door swung into the room and slammed into the wall with a loud crash. Jern's hammer swung out keeping the door from swinging back in front of them as he set his stance.

  Looking over Jern's head set Eddie's heart racing. There was a mob of zombies and skeletons in a massive room. He couldn't see the whole room from his angle, but it looked like it was some sort of communal meeting room, maybe a temple, or some sort of massive room for addressing large crowds. It was full of undead who were meandering around the w
aterlogged remains of benches or pews. The seating was strewn about the room, obviously having been shifted around by the water they'd drained.

  The biggest problem was the furniture, it offered cover and concealment even if the undead didn't seem to be taking advantage of it. Their heads had turned when the door opened and now they were all staring a Jern with a crazed, hungry look. There was a wordless cry as the undead started shuffling and staggering towards the dwarf. Jern simply hunkered down behind his shield.

  “Eddie lad, you might need to be healing me some until Tiana finishes her spell,” Jern said.

  The dwarf's face turned back towards the room and he began to swing his hammer back and forth, setting a pattern with his weapon and picking up speed as it traversed through it over and over.

  Eddie started firing. Allie had already started to do the same. Tiana's clear voice carried over the other sounds. She'd pitched it to carry and when her hand began to glow and light shot out from it into the room, her voice grew louder still.

  Eddie was targeting zombies, knowing that they'd be the most effective target for his arrows. Tiana had chosen skeletons for her spell this time and their bones began to vibrate as the seconds continued to pass. Jern's hammer pattern was obviously a defensive one. It wasn't doing a lot of damage to the undead but it was driving them back, for a few seconds anyhow. The undead were rapidly becoming packed enough that there was nowhere for his hammer to shove them when it struck.

  “Gonna try something,” Eddie yelled, “No, not conjunction,” he added when he saw Tiana frown.

  He quickly skimmed the help file on one of his new spells, wanting to make sure he remembered it correctly.

  Help wall of thorns, he thought.

  Wall of Thorns:

  The common bramble is an underappreciated plant, but in the hands of a user of Nature Magic they can prove a formidable defense. This spell allows the caster to summon a wall made up of a version of these plants with enhanced thorns.

  Target: Must be targeted on soil or some other growing medium.

  Range: Line of sight, out to two hundred feet.

  Type: Nature magic, requires components

  Components: A thorn from a bramble, thorn is consumed by the casting

  Duration: X=Nature Magic Skill level. (5*X) minutes.

  Damage: This wall will cause damage to any creature attempting to push through it. Damage is equal to the caster's skill in Wall of Thorns times their class level. A creature may pass through the wall if they succeed at a resisted strength check (strength check with penalties equal to the caster's level in Wall of Thorns). If they fail their check they will be trapped in the wall taking damage, if they succeed their check they will move through the wall at one tenth their normal movement rate, taking damage as they move.

  Cost: Varies (5-15 mana), based on skill level in Nature magic.

  Eddie had noticed the silt coating the floor when he'd glanced in and he hoped that it would qualify as a growing medium. He pulled a thorn from the pouch on his belt where he kept spell components handy, then thought.

  Cast wall of thorns.

  He visualized the wall in a semi-circle around the doorway, one that would stop additional undead from crowding the doorway unless they managed to push through the wall.

  “Yes!” he cried, with an accompanying fist pump, as the wall took form just as he'd visualized it.

  He started firing at the closest zombies, the ones on their side of the wall. At the same time the skeletons that he could see all began to vibrate, shedding bones as the vibrations sped up. When Tiana saw that she stopped chanting, the skeletons continuing to vibrate until they'd fallen apart into their constituent bones.

  Jern had changed the pattern of his hammer. Now that there were fewer opponents that could reach him, he went on the offensive. Throughout it all Allie kept firing, but she was firing at the opponents on the other side of the Wall of Thorns now.

  Zombies were trying to push their way through the wall, leaving gobbets of flesh stuck to the thorns. They were making progress, but it was slow progress and Eddie chose the ones trying to get through the wall as his own targets.

  Before long the zombies on their side of the wall were all down, although there were quite a few on the other side still, along with a few skeletons that had been out of Tiana's line of sight or range.

  “Movement at the rear,” Karl called.

  Allie kept firing.

  “Eddie, can you handle that, back those two up for the rear?” she asked. “Let us know if it's something strong.”

  “Done,” Eddie said.

  He took a step back and pivoted to see another small group of undead headed across the floor. One of the other doors stood open now and he guessed that's where they came from.

  “Becky, Karl, back it up, get close to me,” he called out.

  As they moved, he started firing his bow. There were three zombies and four skeletons coming at them from the rear.

  “Lucky, over here,” Eddie called.

  “You might want to pull Bubbles back, I'm going to put up another wall,” he told Becky.

  She shook her head.

  “They can take it, they can take a couple on their own if we leave them out there and keep the mobs' attention on us,” she replied. “I'll just growth both of them and they'll be fine.”

  Eddie blinked.

  She's right, really. If the two pets attack from out there but we're doing more damage, then we'll keep their attention, he thought.

  “Do it,” he said.

  “Lucky, go get 'em,” he yelled, pointing at a skeleton.

  He thought the idea would work, but he really, really didn't want to get licked by Lucky if she had zombie breath, so he'd work on getting all the zombies while siccing her on the skeletons.

  Becky muttered and gestured towards Lucky. Eddie's heart raced as he watched his cat grow significantly larger. All the while he continued to fire at the zombies.

  When Becky and Karl were close enough in, he cast another Wall of Thorns that grew in a semi-circle attached to the walls. His notifications started flashing and he glanced at them for a second before nocking another arrow.

  You have upgraded the spell Wall of Thorns to (2). Really, growing plants inside with no light? Good thing it's magic, eh?

  You have upgraded Nature Magic to (4).

  Eddie continued to fire as Lucky attached herself to a skeleton's leg. She worried at it for a few moments before the bone came loose, dropping the skeleton onto its side. She started worrying at a rib, while getting her claws into the rest of the skeleton's rib cage, tearing and shredding so the bones came tumbling onto the floor. A few moments later the skeleton went still and Lucky went into a crouch, ready to pounce on the next one.

  Becky had hit Bubbles with an Animal Growth now also and the rat was chewing rotting flesh away from the leg of a zombie, working its way up to the knee where it started burrowing in.

  Eddie's arrows had dropped one zombie by now and he switched targets. Karl had thrown the daggers he carried with him for that purpose and was drawing his shortswords, waiting for the creatures to start pushing through the wall so he could strike while they were slowed and easier to hit. Becky drew out a length of wood that wasn't long enough to be a staff. It was thicker and knobbier on one end, but not quite large enough to really be a club either. After she had it out, she started chanting again and the knobby end of her weapon began to glow.

  Now that's a useful spell if it is what I think it is, Eddie thought. A temporary enchant for wooden weapons would've been really handy back when I was starting out.

  By the time the creatures reached the wall and started pushing themselves into it, Lucky had dropped two skeletons and was working on a third. Bubbles had incapacitated the zombie he'd been working on, chewing apart the connections that held its legs on so now it was trying to draw itself along with its arms. Eddie finished that one off with a few arrows before pulling out his staff and joining Karl and Becky in defending
the thorn wall.

  Tiana called out from behind them.

  “Out of mana.”

  They finished off the last few undead while they were struggling through the wall and he turned back to the other fight. Jern was bleeding and Tiana had her mace out, since she was out of mana. She took the occasional strike over Jern's head when the undead got too close. Eddie stepped closer and dropped a Nature's Blessing on Jern.

  When they finished dropping the zombies right in front of Jern there was a larger zombie, almost eight feet tall, currently tearing its way through the wall. Another of the same type lay in pieces on the floor in front of Jern, evidently the author of the dwarfs wounds.

  “Dominic, most of the zombies are gone. Can you light up that thorn wall while he's tearing his way through?” Eddie called out.

  The only answer he got was a blazing line of light that left him blinking as he watched a small ball of flame strike the overlarge zombie and expand. The flames came within inches of Jern, but Dominic evidently knew his AoEs well. The thorn wall started burning and now the zombie was burning itself, taking more damage from the burning wall, and still getting stuck by the occasional thorn.

  Allie and Eddie focused in on it, firing over and over until it collapsed, just before it managed to finish fighting its way through the wall.

  “I think that's all of them,” Allie said, “but let's check. That's a big room and something could be hiding.”

  “I've got it,” Karl said. “Eddie, can you dismiss that wall?”

  Eddie shook his head.

  “Nope, but it'll burn quickly enough, give it a minute. The one behind us will probably last longer, I leveled the spell while casting it. Don't know if the duration will be with skill level one or two, but only a few minutes either way.”

  “If the one behind us stays in place, that works for me,” Allie said.

  Not so much for me, Eddie thought. I'd rather Lucky were on this side of it than the other since I saw her get hit a few times and want to heal her. That worked, but I think we won't do that again. Don't want to get separated from her during battle, I'd rather she were at my side.