Chaos Unchained- The Mad Smith

by Brock Deskins

  You possess an eternity stone of air. Would you like to bind it to your settlement, YES or NO? Binding the eternity stone of air will unlock its full potential. You may also use it to expand your border by placing it up to half the distance between the eternity stone used to create your settlement or stronghold and its current border. Using the eternity stone in this manner would extend your border 2.5 miles in one horizontal direction, if choosing the maximum border size, or an additional 2,500 feet in altitude or 500-foot depth by placing the stone the same distance up or down from another stone.

  Know this: While eternity stones are bound to you, another can claim them if they conquer you and claim your territory. Other than bequeathing to another, this is the only way someone can acquire your eternity stones, so defend your lands and people well.

  Note: Once you place an eternity stone, it cannot be moved again for one week.

  Jandar looked at the others. “I’ve established a settlement using the earth stone with a border five miles out from where we stand. That is also the maximum range of the stone’s influence. I can place the air stone here as well or up to two and a half miles from here to expand the border. It won’t increase the earth stone’s range of influence. By my estimation, that puts our border about a mile beyond the base of the mountains and two miles out to sea. I could expand our borders another two and half miles to the north, east, or west, but that would claim a significant amount of Capria’s land. The only other option that won’t increase conflict with King Aelim or a local khan is to place it here or farther south and claim some of the small islands offshore.”

  Nyx snorted, “I think we’re about as far up on Aelim’s shit list as we can get, so screw whatever he thinks.”

  Saefa nodded. “I agree. It is unlikely we will build anywhere outside the mountain range anyway, so the border is largely arbitrary, but it would expand your control and the stone’s power farther from our homes. That might be crucial if Aelim or others discover that Lahar is no longer a cursed place and wish to take it for themselves.”

  “Can someone take an eternity stone if they find it?” Nyx asked.

  Jandar shook his head. “No. It is bound to me, but I can pass them on to another if I choose. The only other way is to capture the settlement.”

  “Then I suggest we place the other perhaps two miles northeast of here to better guard the pass leading in yet overlap Shibo enough that its influence extends a short distance out to sea,” Saefa replied.

  Jandar considered the Caprian’s words and agreed with his logic. “OK. Let’s get back to our mounts, set the stone, and hope we can reach the caravan before nightfall.”

  Jandar and his party found a deep cleft in the side of the inactive volcano roughly two miles from Shibo. The sun was setting and darkness shrouded the narrow chasm. Lexon conjured a light for them, which revealed dozens of small tunnels about the size of a man’s head bored into the rock walls like Erdrorian cheese.

  Tiny eyes gleamed from within many of the burrows with an occasional glint like light reflecting off polished metal. The cleft extended perhaps two hundred yards before ending in a hundred foot-deep wedge. Jandar removed the eternity stone of air from his inventory and brought up its screen.

  You have selected an eternity stone of air. You can use this stone to create a settlement or stronghold or extend the border of an existing land already claimed using a different eternity stone. You are within range of an established settlement. Would you like to establish another settlement or stronghold or extend Shibo’s border? Select either ESTABLISH SETTLEMENT or EXTEND BORDER. Be warned, extending your border or establishing a settlement in territory claimed by another could result in conflict. Note: Once you select either option, you cannot move the stone or change its purpose for 7 days.

  Jandar chose EXTEND BORDER.

  You have extended Shibo’s northern border by 1.8 miles and its eastern border by one mile. Using an eternity stone to increase your borders does not increase any other eternity stone’s area of influence beyond its 5-mile limit. Your eternity stone of air has an area of influence of 5 horizontal miles, an elevation of 5,000 feet, and a depth of 1000 feet from where you place the stone.

  By using the eternity stone to expand your settlement’s border, you have unlocked the stones full potential but not all of its abilities. Only time, practice, and research will reveal its untold secrets.

  Summon Minor Wind Elemental: Summon 1 large, 2 medium, or 4 small minor wind elementals. Elementals can follow basic commands and relay spoken messages. Communication between the elementals and the caster is instantaneous. Wind elementals have a maximum movement speed of 80 miles per hour. Wind elementals are impervious to non-magical attacks. Cost: 25 energy per hour or 200 energy every 24 hours. Commanding the elementals to go beyond the range of your elemental stone of air will cost additional energy.

  Major Wind Wall: Summon a 50 mile-per-hour wind along your border 1 mile deep and 250 feet high. You may increase or decrease the area covered as long as you do not exceed the maximum volume. Reducing the volume will increase the wind speed. Cost: 250 energy every 24 hours.

  Summon Minor Wind: Conjure a consistent 20 mile-per-hour wind to perform work like propelling ships or turning windmills. Cost: 100 energy every 24 hours.

  Eternity Stone of Air’s maximum energy pool: 1000.

  The eternity stone will now regain spent energy over time, the amount depending upon the level of your settlement and its daily production score. Current production score: 0. Assign citizens to specific tasks to increase production score. Every production point your settlement generates will increase the eternity stone’s recharge rate by one point. The type of energy created is dependent on the type of work performed. Assign citizens to work the air to produce air energy. Current eternity stone recharge rate: 25 energy per hour.

  “It’s done,” Jandar said.

  “Then we must find my people and guide them here with all haste,” Saefa said. “The narrow pass is an excellent defensive point and can be hardened significantly with little effort.”

  “I agree.”

  Nyx had stopped paying attention to Jandar’s activities when a creature poked its head out of one of the burrows carved into the chasm wall. It looked somewhat like a cross between an armadillo and a porcupine. She had not been able to see much past its wide, flattish head, but it clearly had narrow plates or wide quills, or perhaps elongated, pointed scales, covering most of its surface.

  The pointed scales atop its head lifted like a bird ruffling its feathers when Nyx crept closer. “Hello, what are you?”

  The creature cocked its head to one side when she spoke then clacked its teeth together several times. Its eyes were solid black and gleamed in Lexon’s light. Its scales also had a brilliant sheen to them, only they were silver and copper-colored. Judging by the scales on its head, the creature was probably quite pretty with its two-tone metallic armor.

  Nyx opened her inventory, drew out a chunk of cheese, and broke off a piece for the creature. “Are you hungry? Is that why you’re giving me puppy dog eyes?”

  The spiky critter reached out tentatively with a stocky, muscular arm. It had six fingers, four of which were tipped with short, conical claws with the same metallic glimmer as its scales. The other two were on opposite sides of its hand and looked like opposable thumbs with talons like pairing knives sticking out of them. These curled back toward its wrist as it reached for the proffered morsel.

  The creature took the bit of cheese between two of its fingers, snatched its hand back, and shoved the tidbit into its wide mouth. Nyx had expected rows of fangs like most of the more bizarre monsters she had seen in the game, but its teeth looked more like small bricks or crenellations. They sounded like stones grinding together as it chewed the bit of cheese once before swallowing.

  It poked its head out of the hole a bit farther and looked at Nyx with pleading eyes. Nyx grinned and gave the creature another piece of cheese. The clacking teeth drew more of the anima
ls from their dens. Within seconds, a score of glossy black eyes stared at her. Nyx broke the block of cheese into several pieces and began distributing them, but there were more creatures than she had cheese.

  One of the creatures darted back into its den and reappeared a moment later, clacking its teeth excitedly to draw Nyx’s attention. Nyx moved closer, and the animal rolled something to the edge of its burrow. She reached out and took the baseball-sized object.

  You have found iron ore x1.

  “Is this for me?” Nyx asked. “Are we trading? OK.”

  She reached into her inventory, took out a hunk of cured ham, and cut off a piece for the spiny little merchant. The creature’s teeth ground together and clacked with excitement. Nyx took the gesture to mean that it found her payment sufficient. Several of the other creatures vanished back into their dens and reappeared moments later with offerings of their own.

  Nyx began cutting the ham into cubes and exchanging them for the animals’ offerings.

  You have found iron ore x3.

  You have found copper ore x5

  You have found silver ore x7.

  You have found gold ore x2.

  You have found vanadite ore x2.

  You have found bloodstone x4.

  “Nyx, what are you doing?” Jandar asked.

  Nyx turned her head and grinned at him. “Creating a trade partnership, apparently.”

  Jandar walked closer and saw the creatures poking their heads out of the rock wall. “What are they?”

  Nyx shrugged. “Other than cute and hungry, I have no idea.”

  Saefa walked over and gasped. “They are ferrocenes!”

  “You’ve seen them before?” Nyx asked.

  Saefa shook his head. “No one has seen one for at least a century. They were thought extinct. The creatures are extremely valuable. Their spines are made of pure metal metabolized from the ore they ingest as they dig vast tunnels through the mountain. People used to harvest them as easy sources of metal. The older the ferrocene the higher tier metal it can ingest. The oldest, those estimated to be over three hundred years old, can have spines made of pure endrium worth thousands of gold.”

  Nyx turned back to a ferrocene and cooed as she fed it a piece of smoked meat. “Nobody’s going to harvest you, are they? If they try, we’ll gut them like fish and feed them to the hogs, won’t we? Yes we will. We’ll gut them and feed them to the hogs.”

  Jandar was taken aback at how easily she made such a vicious and macabre promise and knew she meant every word. “We should be going.”

  Nyx waved at the ferrocenes as she followed the others. “Sorry, guys, I’m out of food and have things to do. I’ll come back with more, I promise.”

  “Do you always make such odd friends so quickly?” Jandar asked when Nyx caught up with him.

  Nyx shrugged. “Sometimes. You should try it once in a while. Besides, they’re adorable and really smart. They figured out they could barter for food almost immediately. I can’t believe people used to kill them just to get some metal.”

  “Yes,” Saefa rumbled, “in retrospect, it was a foolish and short-sighted thing to do. Had people realized trade was possible, they might have gotten a small but unending supply of ore without the onerous and dangerous task of mining. It was simply easier and more profitable in the short term to harvest the pure metal from their bodies.”

  Nyx scowled. “Nice to know greed and stupidity transcends worlds.”

  They found their lizard mounts where they had left them. It was dark with only a crescent moon to light the way. They relied on the desert striders’ keen eyes to navigate the chasm until it opened up to the greater desert beyond.

  Saefa looked up at the starry sky. “Finding them might prove difficult. We could pass within a few hundred yards of them without knowing. Perhaps if we split up we can locate them quicker.”

  Jandar thought for a moment. “I might have a way to find them, or at least cover far more ground than even the desert striders are able.”

  He slid off his mount and sat down in the sand not knowing how using the eternity stone’s power might affect him. It was a good thing, for when he summoned the air elemental and looked through its “eyes” he nearly toppled over.

  A small dust devil kicked up a cloud of sand and mindlessly waited for Jandar to issue it a command. Instead of giving it a task, he mentally urged it to move. Its speed was amazing. The elemental glided over the ground astonishingly fast. The creature did not see as other beings with eyes saw. It displayed sharp, colorless images as information was relayed to it by how the air touched and interacted with the world around it.

  Jandar commanded the creature to fly upward, and it did. The solid, monochrome mass representing the ground dropped away and expanded in his vision. Distance did not seem to matter, as he was as aware of the things far from him as he was those near him. His vision did not decrease with distance. It grew smaller yet its clarity never diminished.

  That did not mean his vision was infinite. There was apparently a limit to how far the elemental could receive information from the air around it, so Jandar had to urge it to fly onward. He reached the border of his territory in a few minutes, crossing the five miles with ease. The moment he commanded the elemental to go beyond the eternity stone of air’s influence, a message appeared.

  Your elemental has gone beyond the range of the eternity stone used to summon it. Doing so incurs an additional maintenance cost of 25 energy per hour for every mile beyond your eternity stone of air’s limit. Dispel your elemental or move it back into your stone’s area of influence to avoid the maintenance cost.

  Jandar ignored the warning and pushed on. Several minutes later, he found the caravan. The soldiers had found them again and were giving chase. At both group’s current speed, the army would overtake the refugees before they reached Shibo.

  “The caravan is in trouble,” Jandar said.

  Saefa began to climb back onto his mount. “Then we must hurry.”

  Jandar shook his head. “We could probably get to them in time, but I’m not sure there’s a lot we could do. They have wide-ranging scouts and pickets out. We won’t be able to ambush them as we did before, and they’ll just pick us off with volleys of arrows.”

  “Then what do we do?”

  Jandar sighed and looked to Lexon. “As much as I hate to admit it, I think Lexon is the only one who can help.”

  “Me?” Lexon asked before drawing himself up. “That’s right. When times are truly dire, only a master bard can save the day.”

  “Novice,” Jandar corrected.

  “Extraordinarily talented novice,” the bard countered.

  “A novice with far more luck than skill.”

  “I’ll take it. So what’s the plan—preferably one that does not involve arrows or swords or danger of any kind?”

  “Get to the caravan and use your magic to speed them along,” Jandar said. “With any luck, you can get them inside our border before the archers come within range.”

  Nyx asked, “What should we do?”

  “Go with him. Make sure he reaches the caravan and prepare to fight if they don’t make it. I’ll travel with you until we reach our border and use the wind elemental to slow them down as best I can. When I’ve used as much energy as I can spare, I’ll come aid you if needs be.”

  “Well, well, well. Who’s leading the charge and who’s hiding in the back now?” Lexon crowed.

  Jandar scowled at him. “I’m not hiding. I’m positioning myself where I’ll best prove useful.”

  Lexon winked and wagged a finger at him. “You keep telling yourself that, and eventually, even you’ll believe it. I speak from experience.”

  “You’re going to experience my hammer upside your head if you don’t get moving.”

  “I see you’ve chosen to skip denial and go straight to anger. Not surprising given your history. Soon you’ll move onto bargaining, swearing to Matrice you’ll make up for it in other ways. After that comes depressio
n. I suggest drinking gratuitous amounts of alcohol to resolve that little problem. Lastly comes acceptance. You accept and love yourself for who and what you are. I can’t recommend strongly enough that continuing to drink is the only sure-fire way to ensure you don’t slip back into any of the previous stages.”

  Jandar’s hammer leapt to his hand and crackled with electricity.

  Lexon vaulted onto the desert strider’s back behind Nyx. “Yeah, all right, I’m going.”

  The three darted off on their mounts after Jandar pointed them in the right direction. It would take them at least half an hour to reach the caravan at the lizards’ top speed. He pointed his elemental at the nearest enemy scouts and enveloped each one in turn in a stinging, blinding cyclone until they retreated.

  Jandar chased the forward units back before tearing through the army’s main body. Gear not secured properly went flying, and horses bucked and kicked in fright, many bolting and dislodging their riders. Once Jandar had bought the caravan a little more time, he sped the elemental back to within the eternity stone’s border to avoid the steep maintenance cost.

  When he estimated Nyx and the others had reached the refugees, he sent the elemental back out, keeping a watchful eye on the stone’s energy reserve. It needed to have at least 250 energy remaining in order to effect the second part of his plan, and the elemental’s compounding cost due to being outside the eternity stone’s border drained it quickly.

  Looking through the elemental’s viewpoint was dizzying, but he was becoming somewhat accustomed to it. When he reached the caravan, he felt more than heard Lexon’s harp as the magical notes reverberated through the air, giving the exhausted refugees just a bit more energy to hasten their steps.

  Even so, the army was close behind, perhaps sensing that if they failed to catch them soon they might slip from their grasp. They weren’t wrong. All they needed to do was make it another five miles and they would be safe. Jandar would see to that. He would build a wall out of the bodies of those with malicious intent attempting to enter his settlement’s borders.