by Galen Wolf
'Heal me!' He yells back to Elizabeth B.
She takes a second to comply as if remembering his previous tone with her.
Bernard sees me. 'He snuck off. We didn't know he'd come up here.'
I need to turn round. Reza's right behind me, I can't afford an auto-crit, so I wheel and push my shield up into Reza's descending sword.
I block. My healing potion's off cool-down so I take another sip and I'm 650/850.
Then I hear a hissing and thick smoke fills the room — another of Bernard's smoke screen potions. He probably thought because it worked last time, he'd use it again.
But it's stupid here now. I can't see a thing.
And then I think maybe it's not so stupid at all.
We can't see them, but they can't see us. Their party's broken up and, given their guild discourages all initiative, they don't fight so well when nobody's giving them orders, while my guys are crazy individual fighters.
Maligon shouts, 'Get the healer first.' He must mean Fitheach. But it's not bad advice. Reza's stumbling around near me, swinging his sword, but I go looking for Elizabeth B.
I loom out of the smoke to find her cowering in a corner. She must have thought discretion was better than courage and was planning on waiting till her bigger guildies had killed us.
She's not so lucky.
She backs up against the wall. 'I'm not your enemy, Sir Gorrow. I've never done anything to hurt you.'
That's not strictly true on either count.
I don't talk. A quick death is kinder.
I strike her once for 1515 and she's dead. She's low level, and it doesn't make me feel good, but it had to be done.
<150xp>
The Elder Vampire has found me, but I'm not concerned, one on one. I have the Star Silver on my sword to get through his damage reduction anyway.
He leaps and hits me for a hundred but I shield bash him away and hack down left and right. I get a Doublestrike. I'd rather have had a Doublestrike on Reza, but I won't turn it down.
It's dead. I get 250xp.
Crazy an NPC gives more than a player, but she was only Level Nine.
I'm going after Reza.
Then I remember I have a hundred skill points to allocate. I put all of them into Divinity, increasing my bonus from saintly blessings to 60%. My sword now carries a base damage of 2560.
Bernard's smokescreen begins to dissipate. It's not gone completely, but it's easier to see across the room. To my horror, I see that Reza and Maligon are toe to toe with Fitheach and Bernard, but Morrigan is bent over the stricken Tye. The wizard is lying on the cold stone floor, his fiery hair splayed out and blood is pooling around him. But he's not dead. The Morrigan is bent over him drinking blood from his neck.
I don't know anything about their skills, but this vampirism is bound to be doing her good, and doing him harm.
I rush to his aid. She sees me and stops drinking, looking up, blood dripping from her chin, mouth like a bloody rose. Almost casually, she casts necrotic energy into the wizard and I see him die.
I grit my teeth and rush her.
She stands up, but she's not fully prepared and I get a crit.
Morrigan has lots of skills, but her class is not heavily armored and my sword goes through her leather like a hot knife through butter.
I feel almost overpowered as I hack her down for 2580.
<500xp>
I get less Xp because I've just levelled, I guess.
Anyway, she's dead.
Turning from her pale ghost, I see Maligon finish Fitheach with a wicked blow from his sword. The saint falls in a heap.
Bernard is backed against the wall, blood running from him. He holds up his alchemical sword to ward off the swords of Maligon and Reza.
I yell at them. 'I'm here. Come for me!'
Without turning, Maligon snarls, 'Get the knight, Reza, while I kill this runt, then I'll come help you.'
Reza nods and turns to face me, the same uncertainty in his eyes.
Maligon spins his sword around but Bernard jabs him first and one of Bernard's runes triggers in a flash and Maligon falls, back blinking his eyes which have gone white like those of a boiled fish. Bernard has blinded him.
Bernard goes forward to press his advantage, but the Death Knight is flailing with his sword and he catches the alchemist across the shoulder. Bernard's been overconfident. Even blind, Maligon is dangerous. Bernard stabs him again, but the sword comes down, wild, unaimed, but still deadly. Bernard dies.
Reza is still watching me, as if working up his courage.
And then, Maligon turns, eyes blinking out the blindness as the effect of the rune passes, but I see he's bleeding. Bernard has got him with one of his bleed runes.
With a gasp and a grunt, Maligon falls to his knees as his life bleeds away.
The dungeon levels to Level Five.
'Just you and me now,' I say.
With a scream, Reza comes at me. He hits me for four hundred and I sip my way back to 650/850.
Then I hit him. They've killed my friends, but instead of filling me with rage, I'm cold. My blows are calculated and disciplined. All my bonuses work as they should. I block, I get double strike, I jab, I lunge. And blood's running down his armor. He's wounded me, but I've wounded him more.
He heals well, but every time I hit, instead of 500, like I was doing before I levelled, I'm now hitting him for 760 when all his defenses and mitigations are by-passed.
He can't win this, and he knows it.
Suddenly, he throws down his sword.
'I surrender. Let me go.'
I realize that with Maligon and all the rest dead, none of his guild will see his cowardice.
I pause.
He says again, 'You've won. Just let me go.'
Funny how no one wants to die, even in a game.
And I think of vengeance and I think of honor.
And I choose honor.
'Okay. You can go. Turn round, walk away. If you make it through the traps, you're free to leave.'
He grunts, and without speaking, turns and runs off.
The Salamander killed him as he fled.
27
Wind-Down
I'm alone with my NPCs. I'm in my chamber with Asterix, Oliver Stone, Armand the Tall, Geraint the Blacksmith, Simon the Vendor, Thorvald the Miner, and Jason the Brewer.
It's them I should really be worried about. If the Fangs of Koth, or other of Satanus's minions get to Silver Drift, they'll be gone and dead forever. No resurrecting for NPCs, all their skills and all their levels will be gone.
'So you beat them, sir?
'Kind of. Everyone else died: Bernard, Tye and Fitheach.'
'That's a shame. But they will resurrect,' Oliver says.
'But Satanus's followers now know we're here and they will want revenge,' Armand says.
'Any sign that they know about the Secret Valley?'
He shakes his head.
That's one thing at least. I turn to Jason. 'How's production?'
'Good. Lots of potatoes. Lots of beer. The mules are breeding, population's growing.'
That's good. I ask what we're at.
'A hundred and two.'
I sit forward. 'A hundred and two?'
He nods.
'So we've got our village milestone?' I'm so excited I could burst.
'Yes, sir.' It just appeared in the central chamber of the mine.' He's grinning too.
'So I can bind there?'
Asterix laughs. 'I should think so. Why don't you go do it?'
I stand. They follow me through to where a granite obelisk stands about three feet tall in the central chamber. Torchlight illuminates the letters carved in its side.
SILVER DRIFT
As I come close, a message pops up on my HUD.
I know they'll come for us, and later I'll be standing on the hillside watching anxiously for my friends to return so they too can bind here at Silver Drift, but for now a sense of confidence grows in me, of hope almost.
I look at the NPCs who are watching me with smiles on their faces. I clear my throat. 'I'll tell you what we're going to do. We're going to send a message to King Arthur down south across all that enemy territory. And we're going to tell him that Silver Drift stands with him. That we're waiting for his return and we will be a beacon of his truth here in the north until he can come back again.'
And with that, NPCs as they are, they all break into a cheer.
<<<<>>>>
More by Galen Wolf
Camelot
Camelot Overthrown (1)
Camelot Dungeon (2)
The Greenwood
A Player in the Greenwood (1)
The Runesmith (2)
War in the Greenwood (3)
The Bard (4)
Plague in the Greenwood
Darkworlds
Darkworlds London (1)
Darkworlds Paris (1) Coming Spring 2018
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