The Dragon's Revenge

by Conor Kostick

  Sapentia called me. [Channel Sapentia/Klytotoxos] ‘Porting to near Safehaven now.’

  [Channel Sapentia/Klytotoxos] ‘Good. I’m all set.’

  Chapter 23

  The Tower of the Jewelled Skull

  Over a thousand years ago, the lands to the west of the Dragon’s Spine bore witness to the deeds of a lizardman necromancer of extraordinary ability, learning and power. Notrevity was her name and among her possessions was an artefact that was both gruesome and strong: the skull of one of her most hated enemies, converted by arcane and diabolic ritual into a jewelled repository of spirit. Long after the necromancer had passed to other realms, the skull remained, high up in the tower she had constructed and its lure drew many evil creatures to the tower and its vicinity as well as many foolish adventurers, seeking the treasure but always succumbing to the cruel mysteries of the necromancer’s tower.

  Epic 2 Player Guide.

  In the Epic 2 guide, there were only generalities about the background to the Tower of the Jewelled Skull. In game terms the tower was pretty much a whole expansion to itself, capable of taking players from level 20 at the first floor to level 50 in the heights. Unfortunately, the guide was deliberately mysterious about what we might encounter there. Or perhaps fortunately. Even though we were on a grind with a bigger goal in view, it was fun to be the first to explore a region and, hopefully, solve the quests.

  Since she could move fastest of all of us (with her Haste buff), I made Tuscl group leader and while the rest of the group (pretending to moan at the burden) carried my coffin through the hills, our shaman ran to the nearby stockaded town of Carrickmor, where she could sell my junk gear and, more importantly, pick up half a dozen quests whose resolution was to be found by exploring the necromancer’s tower:

  Abigail’s Lost Slippers

  Vengeance is Best Delivered

  Tregar and the Ogre Prince

  The Three Sisters

  A Cure for Derforgilla

  The Crimson Seeds

  By the time we had found the tower, having followed a narrow path alongside a gorge, until it swerved away from the river, up over the shoulder of a hill, Tuscl had caught up.

  Once assured that I was in darkness (they had entered the tower and closed the door behind them), I climbed out of my coffin, stretched and yawned. ‘That was a lovely nap.’

  Braja shook his head in disbelief. ‘Not only do you snooze the whole way, but you turn up in fancy dress.’

  ‘Here.’ Sapentia handed me a pair of Boots of Dark Elvenkind. I had forgotten about these and put them on with real pleasure, moving my high, hard boots to my inventory. ‘Also,’ she went on, ‘belt buckle of sea hag has been attached to belt and gives plus two strength, minus two beauty.’

  ‘Grythiss, none of us are going to notice if a lizardman is more or less beautiful. Would you like it?’ I asked.

  ‘Lizardman isss mossst grateful.’

  ‘Then we have Ring of Protection, plus one.’ Sapentia held it up and I recognised it from the boss fight against Morc Mac Dela.

  ‘That’s one to Armour Class and five per cent to resistances, right?’

  ‘Right.’ She nodded.

  ‘Braja? Do we think?’

  There was prompt agreement on this, so Sapentia threw the ring over to our cleric.

  ‘Your white cord is Summon Wind. North, East, South, West, once only per knot.’

  I took it and put it back in the pouch with the gems; it was more a sailor’s item than a dungeon-crawling vampire’s.

  ‘Then last. Necklace is Minor Spirit Absorption. Once per day first spell damage is turned into regained spirit, maximum twelve points.’

  ‘I’m afraid I do not understand this,’ said Raitha, ‘when you cast a damage spell, you get the first twelve points back?’

  ‘No. When you are hit by Magic Missile, say, for twenty damage, first twelve is absorbed and becomes spirit.’

  ‘Neat. And obviously you should keep it,’ I said.

  ‘Thank you.’ Sapentia tipped her head. ‘But not so obvious. If I play well, I do not get targeted. I think Braja. No offence. Aggro control can be difficult for healers.’

  ‘Agreed,’ I said and the necklace went over to Braja.

  Raitha stood in front of me and handed me a bag, which I took and which immediately appeared in my inventory. Inside were scrolls containing all the hunter spells up to level 35. Next he passed me a decent hickory bow, which I slung over my back and a quiver with a hundred fine steel arrows. Just wearing these made me feel more like a hunter again.

  Our group was standing inside the closed, high wooden doors of the tower’s entrance. The wide, gloomy hall had a tiled floor with a pattern on it, something like a pale silver comet against a deep violet night sky, if the comet’s tail were sinuous rather than straight. Six doors came off the hall, three on each side and at the far end, in the darkness, a wide set of stairs led upwards.

  ‘We can make this place our spawn point,’ said Sapentia.

  ‘I guess we should.’ I was a little hesitant because if for some reason a powerful opponent ended up here, we could get caught in a cruel cycle of respawning and being killed.

  Braja was evidently thinking exactly the same way as me. ‘No trains, everyone get that? Right?’ he said. If our efforts went pear shaped, it would be much better to die as a group than to try to run and risk bringing mobs to our spawn points.

  Sapentia snapped back at him, ‘No one here are noobs.’ And then she began to cast. One after the other, our avatars filled with blue light that dispersed like a bubble popping, accompanied with a pleasant chime.

  You will respawn at this point after death.

  ‘I guess I’ll scout,’ I offered. After all, I was a hunter class, which in the outdoors were definitely the scouting class. More than that, though, if there were unpleasant surprises ahead, which there was bound to be, my immunities might prove crucial. No one answered, so with a whistle and a spring in my step (shame the silence from the boots didn’t work until nightfall) I tried the first door. It was locked. Maybe I should have got a rogue to join us instead of a shaman.

  As doors went, this wasn’t the most robust looking, so I leaned back and gave it a strong kick. A very strong - Strength 23 - kick. With a mighty crack, the wooden panels tore from the metal lock, the whole of the door twisted, wrenching itself free of its hinges and falling to the ground with a loud slam.

  [Group] ‘And thus we see how the hunter stalks his prey, silent and deadly he creeps up for the pull; completely surprising his enemies by his unexpected appearance.’

  [Group] ‘Thank you for the commentary, Raitha.’

  Beyond the wreckage was a kind of stable, only without the stalls. Hooks and poles protruded from the otherwise bare walls and from them hung leather harnesses. On the floor were carts, boxes and bags. The place suggested a certain degree of social organisation by a person or persons who could mobilise dozens of mounts at the same time.

  [Group] ‘Other doors are opening!’ shouted Sapentia.

  I stepped back out to see humanoid figures hurrying out of four of the remaining five doors, weapons already drawn.

  Grythiss gave a bitter hiss. [Group] ‘Black Yhandis, hated enemies of lizardmen.’

  There was no other strategy available here than the one that had worked in the Celtic barrow. Running swiftly around the room I swung my iron scimitar as I passed by the mobs and gathered them in my wake. They were impressive-looking: like lizardmen, except their reptilian skin was a shiny black, with a gold streak running back from their foreheads. Their eyes were striking too, bright blues or reds, flecked with that same gold.

  I ran up four or five stairs and then turned towards the crowd gathered around me. It was a theatrical moment and even though I had a slight qualm about what might happen if I wasn’t immune to their attacks (would they aggro everyone at the door and bring about the train that Braja had warned of?) I couldn’t help myself.

  ‘Come on then, ye scurvy
dogs, do your worst!’

  They certainly tried. I was crowded in upon, until all I could see were the fierce eyes, angry snake-like mouths, and the flicking forked tongues that came from them.

  You have been hit by a Black Yhandis rogue for 0 damage.

  You have been hit by a Black Yhandis rogue for 0 damage.

  You have been hit by a Black Yhandis warrior for 0 damage.

  You have been hit by a Black Yhandis warrior for 0 damage.

  You have been hit by a Black Yhandis warrior for 0 damage.

  You have been hit by a Black Yhandis hunter for 0 damage.

  Great.

  ‘What do we do?’ asked Tuscl.

  ‘Wait and let me get a bit more aggro, then very carefully, Raitha will tag one for you.’

  Soon after, Raitha called out. ‘Incoming, a Black Yhandis cleric!’

  ‘Eslowed,’ announced Tuscl.

  Aha, that’s why we had the shaman.

  Even though the Black Yhandis were between levels 20 and 24, I could tell from looking at the group box on the UI that my friends had no difficulty fighting just one of them at least. Grythiss never fell below half before having his health restored to full, while the mob’s hit points steadily declined.

  A Black Yhandis cleric is dead. You gain experience.

  ‘Incoming, a Black Yhandis hunter.’

  ‘Eslowed.’

  ‘Death to the Black Yhandisss!’

  Despite the fact that mobs crowded around me, the height of the stairs allowed me glimpses across the entrance hall to my friends in front of the door, where Grythiss stood tall in the breastplate he had looted from Morc Mac Dela, his gleaming turquoise longsword leaving a faint trail as he swept it before him. Quite the hero and completely in his element as he fought his ancient enemies.

  You gain experience.

  Steadily, efficiently, we worked our way through sixteen mobs with no downtime needed. By the end of the fight, we’d all levelled and I put my new attribute point into Dexterity again.

  ‘Is okay to wait a second? I equip my new group haste?’ asked Tuscl.

  ‘No kidding it’s okay,’ answered Braja for us all and I made my way over to the door while Tuscl sat and was presumably adjusting her UI so that her new spell was stored and then slotted into her list of active spells. Speaking of which, I still had my level 7 and level 14 spells to equip. Hunters could have two active spells from a choice of five at 7 and that rose to three from eight at level 14, four from twelve at 21. I learned just the three level 14 ones and put them in the active box: Light Heal, Gather Shadow and Leave no Trace. The first was very weak in comparison to the heals of Braja or even Tuscl. The second gave me concealment, which was like a weak form of Invisibility, and the third was potentially the most useful, even though the situation in which it came good was rare. For ten minutes per level, I would not leave a trail to follow.

  With a wave of his hands and a yellow flare that settled on all of us, Tuscl cast her group Haste. Now we were faster than most unbuffed humanoid types, which gave us options (like sprinting out the tower) if the situation went horribly wrong. I’m sure we all felt more confident for it.

  ‘Off you go, vampire,’ said Braja, ‘scout that last door. See if you can find the fancy-dress party you’re looking for.’

  The final door on the ground floor opened easily, was well lit with several lanterns and, to my surprise, was occupied by a human male wearing an apron.

  ‘Good morning, please don’t attack me, I’m just a merchant.’

  ‘A merchant?’

  He gestured to the tables that lined the room. On the nearest were dark, round loaves of bread, bottles, bunches of grapes, bowls of apples. The next had miscellaneous gear: lanterns, backpacks, rope, spikes, tools. Further up, there were small-sized weapons and on the table opposite, larger weapons and pieces of armour.

  Slowly, I walked around the room, deliberately turning my back on the merchant, giving him the chance to attack and reveal this whole set up as a trap. Nothing untoward happened and when I looked at him again, noting the grey hair and the wrinkled hands, he was smiling.

  ‘This is unexpected,’ I said. ‘Are you friends with those Black Yhandis?’

  ‘The Black Yhandis have recently arrived at the tower. Before them were dark elves. Before them were ogres. All have let me trade.’

  ‘You’ve been doing this a while?’

  The merchant said nothing but still had an amiable expression on his face. I tried again. ‘You have traded here for a long time?’

  ‘My name is Thros. My home is Carrickmor. Many are the people who try to discover the secrets of the tower. I have made my living, catering to them.’

  ‘How much is a loaf of bread?’

  ‘For you, six silver.’

  [Group] ‘Are you all right, my friend?’ asked Raitha.

  [Group] ‘Good thanks. All come up. It’s a merchant and I’m pretty sure he’s for real.’

  Soon, my group came clanking in and looked around, probably with as much amazement as I’d felt.

  ‘How much for all these?’ Tuscl dumped a pile of loot on the floor, the poor-quality weapons and armour of the defeated Black Yhandis.

  Moving over to the items and quickly assessing them, the merchant looked up at Tuscl. ‘I’ll pay seven silver and five copper.’

  ‘That’s outrageous. Is worth nearly a gold.’

  ‘I don’t haggle. You can choose to accept my offers or not.’

  ‘Let’s accept and use this guy for offloading junk. It’s probably what he’s here for. By the way’—I turned to the merchant—‘I don’t suppose you have magic items? Potions of Healing, that sort of thing?’

  ‘I have magic items, indeed, although not very many. Usually, the explorers of the tower keep their magic finds. They have, however, at various times sold me some spells they cannot cast and three items they cannot use.’

  ‘We are fine for spells, unless you have unique ones, but what other magic have you got?’

  The merchant looked at Tuscl. ‘Do you want to sell these to me for seven silver and five copper?’

  ‘I esuppose so…Si.’

  ‘Thank you.’ Having passed the coins to Tuscl, the merchant then went to the back of the room and unlocked a cupboard. He took out three items and displayed them on the front of a table: a small cap, a cloak and a lute. Sapentia picked them up, one by one, and put them down again.

  ‘Cap of Invisibility, rogue gnome only. Cloak of Beauty (plus two), elven sorcerer. Lute of Dismay, bard, level thirty required.’

  ‘Oh well. Thanks for showing us. We can’t use any of these.’

  The merchant shrugged and stood there attentively.

  [Group] ‘Right so, let’s resume. If you wait at the foot of the staircase, I’ll pull to the landing and you tag from there.’

  The bare stone staircase led to a wide landing, from which you turned completely about and went up again either on the right or on the left, with the next set of stairs being each half the width of the main ones. I took the left and carefully peered over the line of the floor. Another wide hall, this time with three doors facing me. A war banner hung on the right wall, a large painting of a moonlit lake on the left. No mobs.

  Standing at the right-hand door, I listened. Nothing. Then I opened it. A long room, with smashed furniture, no lights. Swapping to the middle door I had better luck. Again, when I looked into the room I saw a lot of broken furniture, but I also saw eight Black Yhandis and a war dog: large, muscular, with a spiked collar. It was the barking of the dog that got everyone to their feet.

  ‘Good morning. I’ve a message for the officer in charge.’

  They did not want to play along. An arrow came whizzing over and hit my cheek.

  You have been critically hit by an arrow for 0 damage.

  One of the lizardmen was casting and I noticed how the little golden spines running across the centre of his black head and down his neck all stood up as he did so.

  ‘Sorry
, wrong room it seems.’ I jumped away and ran to the landing, feeling the benefits of the acceleration of my Haste buff. I had time to draw my iron scimitar before the first of them arrived. After I’d taken a battering to no effect and after some fiery bolts smashed into me without doing any harm - to my relief, because I couldn’t be entirely sure I was safe from a magical attack, it was probably fire based - I invited Raitha to pull.

  ‘Incoming, a Black Yhandis hunter.’

  ‘Eslowed.’

  ‘Doom to the Black Yhandisss!’

  And we were off again, grinding through the mobs of the first floor. In less than an hour, we’d killed seventeen of the black-and-yellow patterned lizardmen and all of us, bar Tuscl, had levelled up. With a feeling of satisfaction, I put my new attribute point into Dexterity (it was surely going to be Dex all the way now, as while Spirituality was good for spellcasting, I had to gear myself for one crucial act: firing an arrow at a dragon). This was going well and I felt happy.

  There were another twenty-one Black Yhandis on this floor, levels 23 to 27, accompanied by a mini boss, a captain level 30. With care, I was able to pull them in groups of no more than four, which made it a little less stressful for me. Ever since that dark elf had managed to hit me, I was anxious on pulls, in case one of them had a means of circumventing my immunity to weapon damage. Not that I could do much about it here. There was no kiting room and if I ran for the tower doors, I’d inevitably train my friends. In a situation where I was taking damage, probably, I’d just have to die.

  With my main priority being on mobs and grinding, I didn’t spend much time exploring. Yet there were features of the environment here that were interesting. Like the bedroom that had been ransacked and a pentacle painted on the bare wooden planks exposed beneath a torn carpet. There were mysteries here and quests and stories. And as far as I knew we were the first players to enter The Tower of the Jewelled Skull. As I went through the rooms though, I told myself not to lose sight of the bigger picture and kept to task, being rewarded by my reaching level 16 with a few mobs to spare on the second floor.