by Shane Walker
“In this instance, however, you are trying to convince him to do something that is not a part of a direct financial transaction with you. Somehow, this is the first time you’ve tried to convince an NPC to do something that wasn’t related to a direct or indirect financial transaction.”
I guess that makes sense. It really seems like I would have gotten this sooner, but oh well.
“Well, that unfortunately makes entirely too much sense.” O’Brian said, bringing me back to the current situation. “My men will be loathe to go along with this, though. If we shift to targets like nobles and major businesses, there will be a higher risk due to increased security and countermeasures.”
Hearing that was almost like hearing a cash register ringing in my ears. “I may have a solution for that. My own company has been expanding its product line and we could almost certainly come up with a variety of things to sell the guild that would assist in these matters. We could provide Stealth-boosting armors, swords and daggers that don’t reflect light, even poisons to incapacitate potential witnesses without killing them.
“I assume you have a front or shell company to perform such transactions legally?” I asked with a knowing smirk.
“Oh you are very good, Mr. Alltrades.” he said with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. “We may have such capabilities, yes. That will depend on how you manage to deal with our little problem. I want you to go into the sewers and find where my men are disappearing to. We need all routes available to us. You fix this for us and we will accept the changes you and Rowan have presented. The survival of my guild and my men is paramount, and since both what I need done and what you want done are means to that end then this makes perfect sense.”
New Quest
Damn the Man, Save the Guild
Objective: Make the sewers safe for the Thieves Guild
Reward: Changes to the Thieves Guild policy and possible contracts with All Trades, Inc.
That seemed pretty straight forward, plus the Objective gave me wiggle room on how to deal with it. All I had to do was make it safe enough for the Guild to travel. I just hoped I’d actually have options when the time came. I always hated being railroaded.
“Well, it looks like we have ourselves a deal, O’Brian.” I said with a smile as the quest was auto-accepted. “Where do I go?”
O’Brian proceeded to lead me out of his office and through another door into a poorly lit hallway. The faint smell of sewer hit me immediately. There was no question this was the path into the sewer. I followed him as best I could until we reached an intersection with several torches. O’Brian stopped near one and pulled out a map.
“Here’s where you’ll need to go.” he said and pointed to a spot at least a mile from where we were standing. “You’ll want to take this map and this token. As long as you have the token on your person, the map will show you where you are in the sewers. The token and map are paired. It’s a special little trick we use in the Guild. It helps us navigate the sewers without revealing the location of anyone or anything else.”
“Clever system.” I said. “At least I won’t get lost down here. When I’m done, do I just come back the way we came down here?”
“If you want to ever get out of here, yeah.” he said with a slight chuckle. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep scouts on the lookout down here in case you’re hurt or something.”
“Oh thanks for the vote of confidence, guys. It’s much appreciated.” I said with an eye roll.
“Don’t underestimate the danger down here, Alltrades. I’ve lost some of my best men down here.” he replied, suddenly stone-faced and dead serious.
“Oh, come on! What’s the worst that could happen?”
35-Underground Movement
“Zen, I need some help over here!” I yelled down the corridor to my companion. We’d just been ambushed by imps for the second time in about fifteen minutes. The bastards were half my height, and had talons as sharp as steel. They could also throw fireballs if they engaged from far enough away. Thankfully they only attacked two at a time, which was how Zen and I were currently surviving.
“I find myself rather preoccupied at the moment, Jack!” came his response. He currently had my Thief Job equipped while I was using Ranger. I wish we’d had more time to look into gaining more Jobs so we’d have some versatility, but that was a problem for Future Jack. Present Jack was busy trying to land a hit on the little bastard in front of him. I used my Perception on him to confirm that the stats for these were uniform across the board.
Imp
Level 25
HP 500/500
MP 500/500
It was just like the last couple we’d fought. Even with that sort of HP pool, I could drop one in just a few hits. Unfortunately, actually hitting them was the problem. They must have had a Dodge skill comparable to mine for me to miss as much as I did. The trade-off was that they had next to zero chance of actually hitting me in my Ranger setup.
The Imp in front of me lunged suddenly with both claws out, obviously hoping to overwhelm my defenses. I’d seen what those claws did to the stone walls of the sewer, so I was very loathe to get hit by one, but it was time to take a risk. Rather than step back to prepare my defenses, I stepped into the attack. I feinted a lunge of my own with my arming sword Sherlock hoping he would try to sidestep it. He did exactly that, so I leaned onto my planted foot and spun my body weight into a spinning slash to the side he stepped to.
The attack left a large gash across the Imp’s chest, but didn’t quite bring it to 80%. Next I used my momentum to follow up with a stab with the parrying dagger Arsene. The now off-balance Imp was forced to take the attack to the gut, leaving him at just over 60% health. I followed that up with a shot from both arm crossbows and left it at under 25% health. These things clearly did not expect to be injured because they nearly ceased functioning mentally after taking that much damage.
Looking down at the monster as it lay on the ground, I almost felt sympathy. At least until I remembered that Zen explained these were actual hellspawn and were unrepentant evil creatures. That made executing it with a sword thrust to the neck slightly easier.
I looked up and saw Zen was struggling. While I was busy with mine, another pair had shown up and were flanking him. I realized I wouldn’t get to melee range in time to save him if things went south, so I pulled out my hand crossbows and started to rain hell on the imps.
No pun intended, of course.
The first one dropped quickly since its back was turned, but the fireball that barely missed my head told me that I had at least one Imp’s attention after the easy kill. I ducked behind a pillar to reload just in time to dodge the second fireball. Apparently two had broken off of Zen and came for me.
I popped back around the corner and sent as many bolts as I could at the two approaching imps, careful not to hit Zen in the crossfire. Now that they were watching, they were much harder to hit. It took a full cartridge of bolts in each weapon just to bring them down to 40%. I hadn’t hit the sweet spot where they shut down from the pain, but they seemed content to let this devolve into a good old fashioned shootout.
I, however, was not going to let it go on. I had a finite amount of ammunition for my crossbows and they did more damage in a single hit than even my new swords. I decided right then that one flash bomb was worth multiple cartridges worth of bolts.
“Zen, bring yours towards me! It’s go time!” I yelled.
Zen, being able to sense my intent through our link, ran towards me with his Imp in tow. I didn’t even have to signal for him to shield his eyes. When the flash bomb left my hand, he timed it perfectly to make sure he didn’t give anything away. I could almost see him counting in his head before we both looked away at the last second.
When I opened my eyes, all three Imps were on the ground screaming and covering their eyes. Thank the gods that worked because the idea they were immune to blinding attacks didn’t cross my mind until about .5 seconds after the flash bomb left my hand. I really needed
to see if there was a way to detect immunities and resistances with higher levels of perception.
Gameplay mechanics and my questions regarding them sat very low on the priority list for the moment, however, so I quickly completed the grisly task of executing the defenseless little demons. While it was not an “honorable” way to win the fight, I was in a sewer fighting creatures from hell. Honor was the last thing on my mind.
“Jack, we should stay closer together from here on out. That could have gone very badly if you hadn’t brought flash bombs.” Zen said as he looked to be catching his breath.
“You’re right. We work better as a team.” I said as I threw my hands up in surrender. He was right of course. “If, no not if, when we run into more let’s use the same tactics as we did in the orc dungeon. I keep their attention and you unload with Sneak Attacks. Sound good?”
“You mustn’t keep being the one in danger, Jack.” he replied as he furrowed his brow in frustration. “My mission as animal companion isn’t just to fight by your side. It’s to protect you. I can’t do that if you keep volunteering to stand in front and get attacked.”
“What can I say, I’m a sucker for punishment. Besides, I want to protect my friends when I can. If only to make up for the times I couldn’t.” I said without really meaning to. All the talk of protecting friends brought back some very bad memories that I didn’t really mean to get into with a character in the game.
“I understand, Jack. I truly do. Our link carries emotions across it regularly and I can feel your unease whenever the idea of protecting one’s friends arises.” he explained. “Something you regret happened in your past. I promise I won’t press you to discuss it, but if you ever want to know that I am here for you as your friend.
“I will say this, however: you cannot carry the burdens of your past the way you do now. You see yourself as walking a path with this weight on your back that makes you stronger, but in reality you are trying to swim with the weight tied around your neck. You may be afloat now, but eventually it will drown you. Don’t let it.”
Holy shit. Up until now, I’d taken the realism of the game for granted, but it couldn’t be ignored after this. My kitsune companion was expressing a legitimate concern for my mental and emotional well being. Not only that, but it was completely unrelated to any events in-game. It made me want to re-examine all of my interactions with NPCs up until now, especially Rowan. Did he send me to the Thieves Guild as a part of a pre-determined quest chain? Or was it simply that Rowan Vonn, the artificial intelligence, was concerned for the future of his city and his kingdom and sent me because he truly saw me as a kindred spirit?
It was all too much to try to process right then, especially with the ever-present shit smell permeating the very virtual fibers of my digital being. I made a mental note to come back to it and decided to move on with things for now.
“I’m sorry to worry you, Zen. I promise when we finish here, we can work on getting some sort of Defender or Vanguard class for you to use so you can act as tank instead of me. How does that sound?” I asked, hoping this plan would make him feel better.
“I would greatly appreciate that, Jack. Thank you.” he said as the tension visibly left him. “If you insist on being target practice for these abominations for now, however, I will not argue.”
With that we continued on down the path. We ran across a patrol of four imps around halfway to the target area. It was strange considering O’Brian hadn’t mentioned his men disappearing in the areas that led up to my destination. Maybe this was new? The more likely answer was that it was in response to Zen and I killing so many of them that they started looking for the reason patrols weren’t returning. It seemed ironic that it was basically the same reason Zen and I were down in the sewers to begin with.
We lucked out in that the imps all had their back turned to where we approached from, so I signaled for Zen to drop into Stealth with me. We got close enough to engage quickly and I rolled a flash bomb along the ground so that it went off in front of them. After that, Zen and I dispatched them as quickly as we could instead of risking the blind wear off and one from this group potentially alerting others.
After that run-in, Zen and I agreed he should scout ahead in Stealth to make sure there were no more groups like that larger than two. We found three more pairs along the path using this strategy and dispatched them using our tried and true “let everything try to hit Jack while Zen backstabs them” method.
We finally arrived at the marked area and began our search for any sign of the missing thieves. The goggles I’d invented for crafting once again proved their worth when I spotted small scraps of paper along one wall. I followed the trail and gathered all of them up, then spent a few minutes piecing them together, but I had a feeling I knew what it was already.
Sure enough, the scraps were from several different Guild Maps. “It looks like they destroyed the maps so the owners couldn’t be tracked once they went missing.” I said aloud after staring at the maps for a few minutes. “And once they were destroyed they lost whatever enchantment made them work, so there’s no tracking the owners now.”
“It’s odd, though, isn’t it?” Zen said.
“What’s that?” I asked. The whole thing seemed odd, but he seemed to be referencing something in particular.
“That they destroyed the maps and not the tokens. If they didn’t want someone found, all they had to do was destroy the tokens.” he explained.
“That is strange. We can worry about that later, though. I think I just found the entrance.” I said, tabling the discussion about motivations for now.
“What makes you say that?” Zen asked.
I waited for him to turn around and pointed at the strange hatch covered in very demonic looking runes.
“Oh, just a hunch.”
36-Who Does Your Taxes?
“Well, how do we gain entrance?” Zen asked from over my shoulder. I’d taken a knee in front of the runed entrance to try examining it more carefully. I was terrified of touching it, though. Everything screamed trap.
“I have no idea.” I replied. I couldn’t exactly read demonic script. Well, maybe that wasn’t entirely accurate. I tried casting Identify on the script to see if it came up with anything even though it wasn’t a magical item. I figured it was a long shot, but I got slammed with notifications almost immediately.
New Spell Developed!
By attempting to use a spell for an unintended but similar purpose, you have developed a new spell!
New Spell!
Interpret Level 1
Divination
Interpret allows the caster to comprehend unknown written languages and scripts for the duration of the spell. Increasing the level of this spell increases the duration.
Interpret has increased to level 4!
Divination has increased to level 12!
You have Interpreted Demonic Script!
You have Interpreted Inscription Runes!
New Skill!
Trap Finding
Level 1
Increases the chances of detecting traps without activating them.
Trap Finding has increased to level 4!
I really didn’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth, but it would have been better if it had added the functionality to Identify. Instead it was eating up more of my limited spell level cap. Still, it was a nice boon to be able to read what was on the entryway.
What I really didn’t expect was that there were two separate scripts there. One was apparently an Inscription that protected the door and the other was instructions for opening it written in the demonic language.
“Well,” I started once I had thoroughly examined the writing with my new spell up. “I think I know how to get us in here, now. The defense is simple but clever. The entrance has to be rotated a specific way to open. The problem is that when you rotate the door into the correct position it lines up the script in a way that causes a massive detonation.
“At the same time, mo
difying the script improperly will also cause it to detonate. Here’s where the fun begins, though. You see, any door that has a lock on it has a way to unlock it because someone is supposed to be able to get in. That’s the greatest weakness of locks. They’re only really intended to keep most people out.”
“Well that’s an interesting way of looking at their purpose I suppose.” Zen said as he leaned in closer and cast the Interpret spell he now had access to. It was good to know that updates were instant, at least.
I pointed out the spot that would line up so he could see it, too. As I examined the overall layout, I realized the entire script actually broke up into sections, with each section adding a specific function to the overall inscription.
With that revelation in mind, I went about checking each section carefully until I knew exactly what the unique function of each section was. That was apparently the right way to go about the process because I found a small section that was dedicated to the portion of the script that protected the script itself.