by Albion, Rex
He dipped his head until their lips met, and her tongue played against his, welcoming him into her mouth, as her hands caressed his back. Roxy pulled herself in tight, and he had to resist the urge to grind his stiffening cock against her. The goblin woman wasn’t nearly so timid. When she felt him against her waist, she shifted against him, teasing him mercilessly while they kissed.
“We should probably get on with the quest, right?” Vandal said, when he reluctantly pulled back from the kiss.
“Yes, we can play later.”
“Here, let’s see if we can form a party.”
Roxy nodded and a popup appeared, inviting him to group up. Vandal accepted it, and his heads-up display changed to show him some basic information about his new party.
“How did you do that? I was going to look for that.”
“Oh, you just think about inviting someone to a party. There’s a menu option somewhere, but lots of the simple stuff you can just think about it and an acceptance popup appears. That way, if you think about inviting someone to a party the next day, it won’t just send the invite immediately,” Roxy explained. “Here, you try it. Might as well start getting the hang of things.”
“You have left the party.”
Roxy had booted him from the party, leaving him little choice. It was easy though, he just thought about inviting her to a party, and sure enough an acceptance button appeared asking him to confirm. Roxy accepted his invitation, and he was back as the leader.
“Ok, that’s worth knowing.”
“It offered me the Thinning out the Herd quest, so I accepted that,” Roxy said. “It sounds worth doing, right?”
“Definitely. We can always do that and back out if it’s too hard, but I don’t want to go to the main chamber first off. We’d get slaughtered.”
Roxy held up her hands, “I don’t have a weapon either. Have you found anything I could use?”
“I found a couple of quarterstaffs outside, but they were nothing special. I was lucky to find this,” Vandal said, drawing his sword. “But it was under a weapon rack in the armoury, and that was all there was.”
“I wonder if more than one person can find it?” Roxy mused.
Vandal grinned, “Let’s find out. If not, I could always go outside and grab one of those staves, they’re just a little big, well, a lot big, for you. I’ve also got my rusty gladius you could use if we’re desperate.”
They went over to the armour, and he pointed to the rack where he’d found his sword, “It was under that rack there.”
Roxy nodded, and got down on all fours, which gave him a great view of her from behind. He must have responded audibly to the sight of her curvy bottom, because she looked back over her shoulder and winked at him, then wiggled her ass for his benefit.
“Like what you see, big boy?” she teased.
“You know I do.”
“Hey, I think there is something here,” Roxy said. Then she yelped in pain, “Ow fuck! Something bit me.” She snatched her hand back from under the rack.
“What was it?” Vandal asked, dropping into a fighting stance and getting ready to attack.
Roxy laughed. “Just kidding,” she said, waving her uninjured hand at him. “Got you! It just reminded me of that film where the young guy puts his hand in the log to prove his honour, and the beast bites him, then they put him out of his misery because he’s poisoned.”
“It’s a classic, but that was mean. Don’t think I won’t have my revenge,” Vandal sighed.
“Mmm. Sounds fun,” Roxy said. “Look though, I’ve got something too.” She stood up and showed him a strange blue crystal.
It looked like the inside of a geode, all angular spikes of sparkling gemstone, only it was turned inside out. It was mounted to a wooden shaft, only it wasn’t a smooth cylinder carved from a length of wood. Instead, it appeared to have been grown around the gem. The handle looked like it was a living branch, and thick twigs wound around the crystal, firmly holding it in place and winding back on themselves, as if a basket weaver had fashioned it.
“Well, it looks cool, and the glowing effect is mesmerising. But you know. What the hell is it?” Vandal asked. Was it an extremely expensive and flashy morning star perhaps? It was only about six inches long but if you hit someone on the head with it, they’d probably bleed quite a lot.
“Hang on, I’ll identify it,” Roxy said. She chanted a few words and held the crystal in front of her face while she concentrated on it for a few seconds. A green glow emanated from her hands, and her eyes too while she cast the spell.
Secret Discovered: Roxy cast Identify and appraised the powers of a Sapphire Geode Crystal Fetish. 25 XP
“It says it does +1-2 Zap damage, and +1-2 healing over time,” Roxy said.
“Great. What does that mean?” Vandal asked.
“Zap is my basic attack spell. Normally it does 1-3 damage, so this boosts it to 2-5. It’s like a tiny lightning spark I think but I basically started in that cell, so I haven’t used it yet. I’ve got a heal over time called Vigorous Heart which now heals for 4-5 hit points 1 per round,” Roxy said.
“That’s going to be helpful. So, you’ve got a ranged attack, a heal and can identify stuff. Good to know.”
“Yup and I’ve got a buff called Imbue Strength which gives you +2 to melee damage for a scene so I’ll cast that on you when we get into combat. It also buffs you with Strength +2 if you need to lift heavy stuff or break down a door or something,” Roxy said. “I’m pretty sure a scene means the length of a full combat or say the time it takes to explore an area of a dungeon. It’s a bit nebulous. But I’ve got a notification that it’s still running, and I can recast it when I need to. We get magic points back out of combat, so I think I can keep it up when you need it.”
“Yeah, I definitely want that. That’s a big bonus at this level,” Vandal said.
Roxy nodded, and lifted the fetish up. The crystal began to emit a blue tinged light, and the brightness in the room went up. “It can do this too,” she said, stating the obvious. “Shaman fetishes often have additional one-off powers and what’s really cool is, they don’t cost any magic points to use.”
“Wait a minute, the game gave you a light fetish?”
“Yup.”
“Did you really need any more?” Vandal asked gleefully.
Roxy giggled. “Naughty. A girl has many needs, I’m sure this won’t be the only fetish I pick up playing this game. Maybe you can help me delve in some more nooks and crannies and see if we can find more?”
“Better ones?”
“There have to be some. I understand fetishes are very popular with shaman players.”
“I’m sure they are.”
“I know I’ve always thought they were cool,” Roxy said. “What does your sword do?”
“I don’t know.”
“You haven’t identified it?”
“I haven’t got a Scroll of Identify yet, so I couldn’t.”
“Give it here then and I’ll see if I can identify it for you,” Roxy said. Again, she cast her Identify spell and handed it back to him. “Sounds like it might be useful outside, but less so in this place maybe?”
Vandal inspected the weapon’s properties and nodded. You couldn’t expect much from a level one item, but this was a rare quality weapon and had lots of little bonuses. It would be quite nice against any orcs, if they could find some in the area, but it was still better than his gladius and he’d be less likely to require a tetanus booster shot after wielding it for a while.
Elven Shortsword: Level 1 - Rare Weapon
Damage 2-5
1 handed
Fast
Magic: Orc Bane +3 damage vs Orcs
Boon of the Hunter +1 Stealth in Forests & Wilderness
Guardian of Elf Home +1 Dexterity when defending Elven land
Description: A good quality Elven shortsword, made for the forest rangers who once defended this green and pleasant land.
“Yes, do you think this s
till counts as Elven land? I’m guessing it was them that built this place.”
“I don’t know. Maybe. You’ll have to stab someone and find out,” Roxy said, with a sly smile.
“The stealth will come in handy anyway. I kind of love the loot, even if I’m still level one,” Vandal said.
“The developers said, they wanted progression to be slower than some games do at the early levels, so it doesn’t just get overpowered too quickly.”
“Makes sense,” Vandal said, then paused. “Put the light out, I heard voices,” he whispered.
Roxy didn’t dispute his hearing; she just doused the glow from her fetish. Vandal closed the door of the armoury behind them, and they both pressed their ears up against it, listening for whoever was coming.
“No, I’m telling you, you won’t catch anything.”
“I might. Goblins are filthy, aren’t they?”
Vandal could feel Roxy bristling with indignation beside him, and he reached out, gently laying a hand on her shoulder. He didn’t want to say anything that would give them away. Her eyes were ablaze with rage, when she looked at him, but she was in control.
“Yeah, but clean. They’re filthy in other ways. Anyway, The Defiler will protect us. We’re on a holy mission.”
“She doesn’t seem like a fitting sacrifice to Libidos to me,” the second man grumbled. “We should have found a virgin human.”
“A virgin? In Tinshire? You’d be more likely to find an enchanter’s tower in the middle of the village than a virgin within a league of this shithole. The High Priest says we can perform the ritual with her, so stop worrying about it.”
“I’m only bothered about catching something from her. I didn’t become a follower of Libidos to get a diseased pizzle,” the second man said. “Come on, let's go and fetch her and get this over with.”
Vandal squeezed Roxy’s shoulder gently and leaned in, “I’ll rush the nearest one, you zap the far one, ok?” She nodded at him, and he went to pull the lever, but she waved him off and mimed that she’d do that, so he could charge the nearest one, which made sense given that she could attack from the doorway and even a fraction of a second might give them an advantage.
Roxy pulled the lever and the door opened smoothly. The closest cultist’s back was to him, and he struck so quickly, his friend didn’t have time to cry out before Vandal closed the difference. He used Slash rather than Hack because he didn’t think he wasn’t going to go for the guy's limbs, so he’d rather have the damage over time.
Slash: 1 damage!: Bleed Applied: 3 damage over 3 rounds!
Surprise Attack: 10 damage!
Vandal grinned with savage glee as gouts of blood sprang from the cultist’s neck where he’d slashed him with his new sword. It was already a big improvement over his rusty gladius.
Behind him, Roxy muttered something, and the scent of ozone filled the air, as a loud crack and a flash sounded against the chest of the other cultist. He cried out in pain, and staggered but then he came on in a rush. Vandal put his boot in the back of his target, kicking him into the path of his friend.
The two cultists collided, and both fell to the floor. Vandal sprang forward and finished one off with a simple thrust of his sword, because he couldn’t use Whirling Decapitation with them on the floor. Roxy zapped one of them again. Neither got to their feet and he wiped his sword off on one of their shirts.
You killed two Cultists (lvl 1). 20 XP
“I really need to get something to clean this with,” he muttered.
“Mine’s less messy. But just rip off a clean bit of one of their shirts and shove it in your belt.”
“Unless you bash them in the face with it,” Vandal said, following Roxy’s advice and slicing a shirt into washcloth sized rags he could use. He couldn’t wait to find something with pockets, and a few utility pouches. The big man probably had themed rags to clean off his fancy throwing knives in his utility belt. Vandal Rags would sound pretty bad though, so he couldn’t see him giving them a name. “I bet smacking someone with that crystal would make them think twice.”
“It’s quite spiky, but I don’t think I’ll do that unless I’m desperate,” Roxy laughed. “They were disgusting. Talking about sacrificing me in some evil ritual. Bastards.”
“They’re dead now, and their friends will soon join them.”
Roxy searched one of the bodies and took his knife for herself. “We might as well leave anything we don’t need to use here. We can come back for it later, right?”
“Take the coins though,” Vandal suggested. “In case we have to back off. There are a lot of them in the main chamber, and I’m trying not to die before level three.”
“Good point. Better to be cautious.”
“I wish I’d been able to use my finishing move, every bit of experience counts, particularly while we are lower level.”
“You got one already? That’s great, which one?”
“Purely by chance, I was enjoying myself and the target was stunned, so I did a spinning head chop and got Whirling Decapitation.”
“Nice! I saw a video of that. It’s a classic for a barbarian. I’ll have to think about what kind of finishing moves I can do with Zap. I’m pretty sure there’s a ton of them out there, you just have to unlock them.”
“Shoot them in the balls perhaps?”
“I know they’re evil cultists but that’s just mean. Not that I’m not going to test it,” Roxy said, flashing him a malicious grin. Vandal laughed. “But use it if you can get away with it, as a party we get shared experience for kills so it benefits everyone to use finishing moves when it’s not a stupid risk.”
“Gotcha. Don’t worry, I’m not going to get bored of it any time soon so I’ll use it as much as possible, and I’m sure we’ll find more soon enough. I suppose we’d better go and thin the herd then,” Vandal said.
“I’m looking forward to it.”
Chapter Seven
The quest marker took them down the corridor that the two cultists had emerged from, and Vandal took the lead, keeping a few yards ahead of Roxy. She didn’t have stealth yet, but he couldn’t hear a lot of noise from her either. She was barely wearing anything and didn’t have much that would rattle or clang to worry about.
A side passage took them off away from the direction Vandal was pretty sure the temple was in, and into a barracks area. The first room held a mess hall, with barrels of beer and crates with bread, cheese and apples in them. It was simple fare, so they weren’t eating like kings here.
The second room was storage. There were crates along one wall, but a cursory glance suggested blankets and travelling gear, rather than weapons or armour. Some of the crates were empty but again, there were no cultists so he padded forward as quietly as he could, listening intently for the slightest sound that would give their targets away.
The next room was more promising, it was full of cots, enough for two dozen men at least but thankfully, they weren’t all occupied. Two men were sitting at a table, idly rolling dice. They weren’t playing a game though, Vandal realised. They were waiting for someone to rejoin them so they could continue their pastime. Fortunately, they were facing away from the adventurers, and another passage was opposite them. Perhaps there was a toilet back there? Or another dormitory?
Vandal moved forward, not wanting to give any more cultists a chance to return before he and Roxy attacked. He wasn’t dropping down on them or rushing out from a hidden room, so he was relying on his Stealth skill, which was quite minor. He decided to try something a bit risky this time.
Stealth Attack Success: Surprise Attack: 10 damage!
Whirling Decapitation! You spin around and lop the head from your opponent!
The cultist’s head came clean off his shoulder, and his mate would probably have fainted in surprise, if Roxy’s Zap hadn’t burned a hole in the back of his neck, killing him instantly. Either he was weak, or she’d got a damage bonus from surprise too!
“What the fuck!” came a cry from
the far passage, as three more cultists entered the room.
Vandal snarled and launched himself straight at them, “Die scum!” He heard Roxy chant, and then felt a wave of energy rush through him as her Imbue Strength took hold of him. It felt like the biggest hit of adrenaline of his life, as if he could do anything and he put it to good use.
Hack: 8 damage!: Critical Strike: +5 damage!
His first target went down in one hit, as Vandal’s sword tore out his throat in a spray of crimson fluid. The bonus damage from the Hack skill, and Roxy’s buff, combined with an extremely lucky critical hit, finished him off in one mighty blow. “Come on, who's next?” Vandal roared as he charged the others.
The second cultist had drawn his own sword, and parried Vandal’s first blow, launching a vicious riposte which scored a line across his forearm. The pain was excruciating, and it was only Roxy’s Zap spell that slowed the other cultist long enough that he didn’t also get a slash in at him.
Cultist Nicks you for 7 damage!: Cultist applies Bleed!
“We’re going to carve you up, barbarian scum!” the cultist who’d cut him boasted, and Vandal wasn’t entirely sure he was wrong. He seemed faster on his feet than the others had been, and blood was dripping from Vandal’s arm at a steady rate. He’d lost quite a few hit points from that blow, and his HUD showed a bleed effect with a countdown.
Vandal managed to dodge the next attack somehow and the tip of his blade smacked into the man's chest with a thud. It was a wild slash, and it didn’t feel like it had met with flesh. The cultist was wearing brigandine armour on his chest, and while it looked like dark brown leather with metal studs in it, Vandal knew from watching history videos that it was actually better to think of it as a cost-effective form of plate armour.