The Ghost Tower: A LitRPG Adventure

by Thomas K. Carpenter

  The deathhound reared up on its hind legs and lunged at Zara, who was still sitting on her sleeping bag. The berserker threw up her arm to protect her face, trying to roll out of the way. Her speed saved her from the worst of the teeth, but the hound managed to bite off a piece of her skin, and half of her hit points disappeared. Since they were down to only twenty percent of their hit points because of the decay, the attack was much deadlier than it would have normally been.

  Zara leapt to her feet and swung her axe directly at the side of the lunging hound. It made a sickening sound when it connected, sending the beast flying in the air. As it reached the apex of its flight, Terran blasted it with his Vocal Slam. Pieces splattered everywhere and the air was choked with the smell of rot. Luna, who had just appeared from out of the grass, jumped out of the way avoiding the fallout from the mess.

  "That was the most disgusting thing I've ever smelled," she said, tongue sticking out of her mouth. "Now I don't even have an appetite."

  "It doesn't seem right that something that gross could be alive," Zara said, spitting to try to get the smell out of her sinuses.

  "It reminded me of a cross between the things that attacked us inside Wunderlust Keep and the rot fiend. I mean if they had been massive dogs the size of a horse. They all had that rotting, sort of half-formed flesh," Terran said.

  "Well there's no way I can sleep here now. The smell is terrible, and I'm not touching that thing to bury it. Let's get out of here," Zara said, rolling up her sleeping bag. "I am looking forward to sleeping in my bed soon."

  "Oh good. I'm tired of eating your mushrooms. The sooner we get back to the forest, the sooner I can find something that doesn't taste like dirt," Luna said.

  As soon as they crossed back into the Rock Leaf Forest the next day the decay debuff disappeared. The return of their endurance and hit points made it easier to complete their return journey. Without having to make any detours, the group quickly traveled the Old Road back to Gneiss Glenn in just a few days' time.

  After going their separate ways, Zara back to her room at the inn and Luna to hunt for some food, Terran made his way to the barracks to return the brooch to Lhoris in exchange for the conch shell he needed. He found the captain with a group of warriors practicing moves with their long scythe-like weapons.

  "Terran, it's a pleasure to see you again," Lhoris greeted. "Did you have any luck at the watchtower?"

  Terran dug through his pack and carefully removed the brooch. He unwrapped it and held it in his outstretched palm. Lhoris's eyes grew wide as he gently picked up the exquisitely crafted tree pin.

  "This is even more beautiful than I remember. Ara is going to be so pleased." The burly captain smiled. "I'll go get the shell I promised you."

  Terran watched the new warriors step and lunge through each of their drills. He was pleased to see they were improving rapidly. The scythes looked more like an extension of their own arm now as they moved gracefully through the routines.

  "You're really doing a great job training them," Terran said to Lhoris when he returned. "They're making it look so natural to swing that long weapon." He quickly blinked away the notification that popped into his vision.

  You have increased the skill Leadership.

  Skill: Leadership 2 (CHA)

  Flattery can get you everywhere.

  "They are an easy group to train. Excited to learn and willing to correct mistakes, the best kind of recruits I'd say," Lhoris responded, handing Terran the large conch shell he had retrieved.

  "Thank you, Lhoris. This is a great help. I hope things go well with Ara," he said, winking as he left with the shell.

  You have completed the quest "Obtain a large conch shell."

  You are now level 13!

  Whoever said 13 was an unlucky number?!

  Terran was excited to see he had leveled up. He felt like level 12 had crept by. He spent his ability points in the normal Endurance and Charisma without thinking and glanced over his new stats.

  Character: Terran

  Level: 13

  Class: Earthen Mage

  Crystal Bard

  Subrace: Rock Leaf Elf

  Champion of the Mother Tree

  HP: 377

  Mana: 380

  Sta: 750

  Strength: 5

  Intelligence: 11

  Endurance: 17

  Cunning: 4

  Agility: 4

  Charisma: 10

  Spells:

  Stone Touch (unique)

  Rock Shards

  Rock Wall

  Earth Geyser

  Hide in Plain Sight (1 daily)

  Sonic Disruption

  Vocal Slam

  Silky Suggestion

  Clear Thinking (1 daily)

  Skills:

  Improvisation (INT): 6

  Commune with Nature (CHA): 3

  Nature's Lore (INT): 6

  Stealth (AGI): 9

  Earth Sense (END): 6

  Battle Song (CHA): 14

  Tracking (INT): 2

  Bardic Endurance (CHA): 7

  Crystal Harvesting (CHA): 2

  Subterfuge (CHA): 1

  Leadership (CHA): 2

  As Terran continued through the settlement he saw that some improvements had been made while they had been gone. There was a small marketplace with a few empty stalls set up near the inn, which now had a sign hanging above the door dubbing it The Singing Tree Inn and Tavern. Flowers had been planted all along newly created paths that connected the various trees on the ground, giving the whole place a friendlier feel.

  A dwarf that Terran had never seen before was watering the flowers outside of the inn. Terran preferred not to use his analyze ability on NPCs if he could just speak with them to find out who they were, so he called out to the dwarf. "Afternoon! You must be new here," he said with a friendly smile.

  The dwarf returned the wide grin with her own gap-toothed smile. "Why yes, and you must be the infamous Terran the Tenacious. Pleased to meet ya. I'm Elsie Firebrand. My cousin Gavrel said ye'd be needin' some help running the inn and tavern here, so I came to offer my services. Petram said it would be fine since yous weren't here. Business has been boomin' since I showed up, might I add. We started selling the ale Jondar has brewed up, and the coffers have been full ever since. Make sure you come by tonight for a round or two. I'll give ya one on the house."

  "I'm glad you decided to join us. That entrepreneurial spirit must run in the Firebrand family. Welcome to Gneiss Glenn, Elsie. I'll be sure to take you up on that offer."

  As he turned to leave, Elsie called back to him. "Oh, one more thing, Mr. Terran. I was noticin' that it's a little hard for traders to get in and out of the settlement. If you want to open things up, I'd suggest you widen the road and the gate so they can easily pull their wagons through. I'm sure you'd see those stalls fill up in no time if ya did that," she added, nodding her head towards the empty stalls.

  "That's great advice, thank you. I'll get some people to start work on that as soon as I can."

  Terran couldn't help but smile as he made his way to Petram's tree. After days in the Silent Plain and on the road, he was happy to be home and see the settlement flourishing. He still missed Chanterelle desperately, but time had started to ease the pain of her leaving a tiny fraction, and he knew she would be elated to see all the progress that had been made on her home.

  The shaman was humming a song as he swept the floor under his table when Terran entered the hut. He stopped and leaned on the broom with an easy smile. "Well hello, our intrepid leader. I hope your trip was a success. Sit. I'll make us some tea," he said, motioning for Terran to sit down by the fire. "Tell me of your adventure."

  "Well we fought a swarm of giant beetles and barely managed to survive the Silent Plain to get some Bells of Dagrath. I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own hammock tonight," Terran sighed.

  "I take it the Silent Plain is still uninhabitable?" Petram questioned while pouring boiling water into mugs, creating th
at restorative mint smell that Terran had come to love.

  "Yeah. The whole area seems to be cursed or something. The only creatures we saw were some stick bugs that seemed to feed on the shellflowers, and the deathhound that attacked us on our last night," Terran said, cradling his mug and sniffing deeply.

  Petram's eyes widened at the mention of a deathhound. "A diseased tree, deathhounds, and rot fiends. Something evil is stirring. We need to find an arborist as soon as we can."

  "I have two of the items needed to grow the emerald crystal. I just need the large emerald now."

  Petram stared off into space. "Did you happen to get more than one shellflower from the Silent Plain? If the stick bugs were feasting on it, perhaps there is some property of the flower that would be useful to us, but I'd need to experiment to find out."

  "As a matter of fact, I did," Terran said, reaching into his pack to get the flowers he had harvested. "I didn't want to risk having to go back there if I needed more than one. How many do you want?"

  "Just two for now, but I can keep them all safe and preserved for you while you get the emerald if you'd like."

  "Yes, thank you, Petram," he said, handing all of the flowers to the shaman.

  "There is a seed to plant as well. I just harvested it yesterday, so there's still a little time." He took the seed off the shelf and handed it to Terran.

  "I know we need the arborist's lab, but since I don't even know where to find an arborist yet, I'll turn this into the healer's hall and assign you a few assistants from the newcomers."

  Petram nodded. "That seems wise."

  The pair sat in silence sipping their tea for a few minutes until Petram took a deep breath. "Well I should get back to work, and you might want to check on your friends. It seems Flynn may need something to do with his time," he said with a smirk.

  Terran raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

  Petram shooed him out with his broom. "Go see for yourself. He's probably at the tavern."

  The smirk on Petram's face made Terran feel like whatever was going on with Flynn wasn't an emergency, so he decided to get his work of planting the seed and assigning occupations done before joining his friends at the Singing Tree.

  As the elves sang the song to grow the healer's hall tree, Terran assigned three healers, two builders, two gatherers, and two people to help Elise at the inn. He saw that having the healer's hall gave the entire population 5% increased health regeneration as long as they were near the settlement. While looking through the resources available he decided to use some to add a gate and widen the main entrance as Elsie had suggested. Gneiss Glen was shaping up to be a great little settlement.

  Settlement: Gneiss Glen (Tap to rename)

  +20% defense

  +25% attack

  +20% damage

  +20% food production

  +20% morale

  -5 days seed production

  +5% HP

  +5% AC

  +5% health regeneration within settlement range

  Level: 3

  Vassal State: Wunderlust Keep

  Essence: 0/5

  Crystals:

  Azure (Sonic Attacks)

  Fortifications:

  Bramble wall 1/1

  Watchtower 0/5

  Gate 0/2

  Population: 90/225

  Housing: 10/30

  Seeds grown: 11/30

  Days until next seed harvesting: 8

  Total Buildings: 12/30

  Barracks (Level 2) 1/1

  Fungi Garden 1/3

  Shaman Hut 1/1

  Chieftain Hut 1/1

  Orchard 1/3

  Leaf Armory (Level 1) 1/1

  Weaponmaker (Level 1) 1/1

  Crystalline Conservatory 1/1

  Aviary 1/1

  Archery Range 1/1

  Inn 1/1

  Trading Post 0/1

  Healers Hall 1/1

  Arborist Lab 0/1

  Occupations:

  Unassigned: 4

  Orchard Tender: 3

  Mother Tender: 1

  Armorer: 1

  Captain: 1

  Shaman: 1

  Tenders: 2

  Warriors: 12

  Loamers: 10

  Weaponmaster: 1

  Gatherers: 10

  Builders: 8

  Vassals: 29

  Falconer: 3

  Innkeeper: 3

  Healers: 3

  Resources:

  Food Stores: 1,509

  Loam: 692

  Healing herbs: 198

  Leaves: 311

  Sap: 18

  Hibernating Shrooms: 18

  Terran closed out all the tabs and focused on the song the elves were singing. It was a joyful, yet eerie sound twisting through scales and crescendoing at the tops of the branches. Terran's smile disappeared when he saw that the healer's hall, like the inn, was diseased. A single branch was covered in dead, blackened leaves. He had hoped the disease was just in the previous seed, but seeing a second tree with the blight made him more anxious to find an arborist. First he needed to find a large emerald, grow an emerald crystal, and hope they could use it to scry the whereabouts of an arborist.

  The elves finished their song and the tree was complete when Terran was startled out of his mental checklist by the sound of Flynn apologizing.

  "I'm so sorry, Ara. I was just trying to help. The barrel was full, so I was going to bring it to you," Flynn said, head hung in shame.

  Terran wasn't sure if he should laugh or cry when he found the source of the interruption. Flynn was standing next to a sap tree, a broken barrel at his feet, covered from head to toe in the sticky sap. Leaves and small insects were stuck to the sap, making Flynn look like some kind of forest monster trying to camouflage itself.

  Ara was shaking her head. "Oh, Flynn," she sighed. "What happened?"

  "I picked up the barrel to bring it to you at the armory, then tripped over this root and fell, landing on the barrel. How am I going to get this sticky mess off of me?"

  Although the loss of the sap was worrisome, Terran couldn't help but laugh at his friend as a leaf blew by in the wind and stuck to the side of his sticky face. "I think I have something that will help," Terran called out with a hint of laughter.

  "Hey, don't laugh. This stuff is horrible." With each step Flynn took towards Terran he picked up more grass and dirt on his feet. "Do you think dirt boots give an AC bonus?" he said, rolling his eyes at the mass that was accumulating on his feet.

  "Just stay there. I'll get some water and my pumice stone. Try not to pick up anything else while I'm gone."

  Even with Terran's pumice stone, it took most of an hour to clean all the sap from Flynn. While he worked to get clean, Flynn told Terran all the stories of the series of clumsy events that had taken place since he and Zara left for the Silent Plain. Flynn had managed to taint a keg of ale by accidentally dropping Skully into the open vat as Jondar was mixing in ingredients. He was lucky he didn't kill himself when he broke a rope bridge by falling while running with his weapons out, slicing through the supports. And he narrowly missed hitting Lhoris with an arrow as he accidently fired while trying to do some kind of spin move to impress a group of elves that were watching him at target practice.

  "Well the good news is it sounds like you're pretty good at destroying things," Terran said with a smile when his friend was done giving him all the details. "I think I have the perfect job for you."

  Chapter Ten

  The crash came from somewhere near the gate. The discordant noise was jarring in the ever-autumnal forest, which normally had a soothing quality to Terran, but the rot in the trees bothered him and now he was hearing things being destroyed. He knew that it was one of his companions, as he heard laughter rather than teeth-clenching rage.

  Upon arrival he found the gate at the bramble wall in disarray, looking like a pinpoint tornado had blown in, knocking the structure off-kilter, the soil torn and the base upended. Flynn, the sun-bleached skull on his hip,
stood near a pile of logs, half of which had rolled into the gate, destroying the fortified entrance. The ravine into the settlement had been great for funneling attackers into a choke point, but with the Trio gone, the threat of a major attack was not imminent, and the narrow path made it difficult for traders to visit. To continue growing, he needed more supplies, which had to come from outside sources, and the few traders that had added them to their routes had expressed difficulty. Terran would have expected cross expressions from the half-dozen Rock Leaf Elves tasked with the redesign, but there were easy smiles and a community of chuckles, which disappeared the moment he walked up.

  "It's not their fault," said Flynn, raising his hands with an exasperated sigh. "I am not ready to commit to admitting it was my fault, but depending on the potential punishment, I might, for the right price."

  This brought more levity to the Rock Leaf Elves, especially the women, who giggled behind cupped hands at the dashing Flynn.

  "Flynn... just tell me what happened," said Terran, glancing at the Rock Leaf Elves covertly. "No punishment, I swear."

  He would have preferred to put his arm around Flynn's shoulders and head to the Singing Tree for a round of ale—after all, their excitement for Kingmakers was about adventure and camaraderie, not deciding the structural integrity of defensive gates, even though the latter, to Terran's surprise, had become quite enjoyable. There was an interesting tension to deciding the priorities of how to grow the settlement. Currently, their bottleneck was the outside sources, which was why he wanted the gate widened and a better road installed up the hill.

  Flynn picked his way through the logs to rescue a hard purplish-red fruit from the ground. He had two more in his other hand. The Rock Leaf Elf name was novathalaine, though most called them nova fruits. Flynn had been calling them o-fruits, as in orgasm fruits, for the spine-tingling sensation they created. The orchard had begun growing them recently. Terran hoped to sell them for other materials the settlement needed, but they didn't last long enough to reach even Salt Luck.

  "Would you believe these lovely ladies... er, and gentlemen too," said Flynn, knocking his dark hair out of his face and flashing a grin, "have never seen juggling? I was demonstrating the technique with these o-fruits…" His eyes widened as Terran raised his eyebrows. "I was taking them to Elsie to see if they could make ale or some other alcoholic beverage from them. Anyway, when I threw one extra high, it scared a bumbler from the tree, and it landed on the pile as it scurried away. The next thing we knew, the logs rolled into the gate—it didn't even hit that hard—and then the whole thing just came away... I swear!"