by Sean Oswald
Out in the street, Dave started to question Talvenicus about the value of certain things, and he showed the man some of the copper coins and asked if these would be accepted. He was assured that those coins were of a common type used by Albia and its two closest human neighbors, and that, moreover, they were common enough to be valuable in trade even with non-humans even though the exchange rate might not be as good. From what he learned, it sounded like he would have plenty of money, but the mayor was a little unsure how much of the supplies that Dave was asking about would be available in the village’s general store. It sounded as though most people made their own clothes and that there wouldn’t be anything like weapon upgrades available.
When they arrived at the general store, Dave immediately understood the mayor’s uncertainty. The shop had plenty of room inside with multiple display racks and counters but almost all of it was bare with only one middle-aged man polishing some boots behind the centermost counter. The shopkeep responded immediately and warmly to his only customers, “Hello, hello. My name is Gunter, welcome to my shop. How can I help you?”
Talvenicus introduced Dave and only mentioned Jackson as Dave’s son. It had become apparent to Dave from his few hours in the village that children were expected to be seen but not heard although that didn’t seem to include Mira, who had been brought into conversations by the mayor as an adult. Dave made a mental note to ask Talvenicus about what the age of majority was in Albia. He realized that in many older societies, women were getting married by Mira’s age. Once Dave started speaking to Gunter, he learned that the shop could order most things that Dave might want but that it would take at least a week and maybe two or three to get them. He also said that he could commission new clothing which could be made in a day or two by some of the village women, although he was quick to point out that it wouldn’t be anything special. As far as weapons, Gunter had very little to almost no knowledge about anything besides a bow for hunting or a dagger. The more Dave got into the conversation with him, the more he realized that while Gunter had not been a serf as most of the villagers had been, that even as a poor merchant he was kept intentionally locked out of the things like weapons trade by the nobles.
This would be another issue to discuss with Talvenicus but in a twisted sort of way, it made sense. Earth power came more in the form of political power with the support of the military and police, but for the most part within a civilized country, the power the leaders enjoyed was more an outgrowth of a social contract between the governing and the governed. Which worked there, because even with a gun, one individual was not markedly more powerful than any other. Here in Eloria, though, it would be easy to conceive of a different dynamic because a person with the appropriate level, class, and gear could be almost godlike to level 0 serfs. Surely, money was still a form of power and likely political structures still granted some power, but Dave was beginning to suspect that personal power was ultimately what held sway. Definitely an issue to bring up with Talvenicus later.
For now, he was able to place orders to get four beds, plenty of bedding, a stone bathtub, multiple sets of clothing for each family member, and building supplies for a home other than the wood which he intended to source locally. When he asked about cooking pans and such, he was directed to Conrad. The sum total for his order even with the markup for transporting heaving things like bed frames and the bathtub only came to 3200 copper pieces. Talvenicus had already explained that 100 copper equaled 1 silver, 100 silver equaled one gold, and 100 gold equaled 1 platinum so the total value of the coins they had on hand was worth over 5 million coppers even after these purchases. Dave was actually feeling rather rich, for whatever that might be worth. Dave had even paid extra to have at least one set of clothes ready for all the family by tomorrow because he knew for sure that the girls would be itching to wear something other than the elven leathers they had on. He almost felt like the little kid up at the counter of a shop buying candy with the contents of his piggy bank as he took out twenty-five hundred coppers and seven silvers to make up the difference. Gunter’s eyes had bulged when Dave started pulling out all the coin from the pack on his back and had said that he only needed to put down fifty percent pending delivery, but Dave had insisted on paying in full now, saying that he trusted Gunter to deliver. Dave had learned long ago that building up some goodwill wherever possible was the best of plans, and it really didn’t cost him anything to build up this goodwill and instead freed him from having to carry around some thirty pounds worth of coins. He even added an extra ten gold coins, asking Gunter to keep a lookout for any weapons, specifically high-quality ones. Gunter had assured him that he would do exactly that as he eyed more money than he had ever seen at one time in his life.
From the general store, they went to the smithy, but while on the way, Talvenicus tried to caution Dave about carrying so much money around on his person. He told him that his order had undoubtedly been several months of income for the struggling shopkeep even after the cost of goods and transportation. Dave’s nonchalant reply was to ask Talvenicus if there was a safer place than on his person, which made the mayor smile, saying that he was right, there wasn’t any safer place.
Once at the smithy, Dave took an immediate liking to Conrad. His shop was neat and while it appeared to be that he specialized in door hinges, nails, horseshoes, and cooking pans, all of his work showed a high level of craftsmanship, at least to Dave’s untrained eye. When he commented on it, Conrad indicated that he had sunk most of his character points into smithing and because of taking on the class of a blacksmith, he was able to obtain a much higher level in smithing skill than he normally would be able to as a tier 1. This, of course, prompted a conversation between Dave, the mayor, and the smith about how common classes were in the village. Apparently, only Conrad and Talvenicus had classes, and they were both crafting classes. They were both taken back when Dave told them that Mira had been offered a class but turned it down. They had never heard of such a thing, but when he explained that she had later been given a chance to get a rare class if she met the rest of the requirements, it seemed to make more sense to them. Talvenicus still said though that if he had been able to obtain the sorcerer class that he likely would have remained in the army as they are in high demand and receive much better pay. Again, more issues to discuss later, Dave thought, but not now in front of Conrad, since he didn’t want to spread the true story of the origin any more than necessary.
While the guys were away, Emily, Mira, and Sara all stripped down out of their elven leathers and climbed into the rather large bathtub. Back home, it would have been more the size of a four-person hot tub. Emily didn’t even want to ask why the mayor would need a tub that size as she could only think of reasons which would make her not want to use the tub. As important as this bath was to her, she was willing to just push that curiosity out of her mind. Sara, of course, had no reservations and was happy to jump into the bath. Certainly, she was past the age where she would want to take a bath with anyone, but the events of the past three days had made her not want to be far removed from her parents.
Mira, on the other hand, was struggling greatly with insecurities. Oh, intellectually she knew it was her mother and sister, but she still didn’t want to be naked in front of them. The irony of a teenager’s insecurity being that for most of the rest of a woman’s life she would kill to have the body she had when she was fifteen, but at that stage, she was nothing but insecure about it. Emily couldn’t help but notice Mira moving slowly and seeming very reluctant to get undressed. Finally, she had had enough of it. “Sara, cover your eyes while your sister gets in the water so she can have some privacy.”
Sara promptly complied while giggling and when Mira still wasn’t moving, Emily added, “What are you waiting for now, a royal invitation?”
“Well, can you cover your eyes too, Mom?”
A low soft chuckle burst forth from Emily as she contemplated the incongruity between Mira who would stand in front of charging beasts, hurli
ng flames at them and the self-conscious girl afraid to be seen naked by her own mother. “Sweetie, don’t forget, I used to diaper that bottom of yours, but if it will make you feel better…” Her voice faded off as she used her hand to cover her eyes as well, only removing it a minute or so later as the water of the tub splashed with the addition of a new body.
With the drama now over, they all settled in to enjoy the bath. Well, that is to say that Sara splashed way too much but both Emily and Mira were still able to enjoy the water. Relaxation led to conversation and that led to a discussion about what they thought they should do with their unspent character points, and in Mira’s case, her stat points as well. Mira at first questioned if they should wait for Dad to get back and include him in the discussion, but Emily was having too good of a time bonding with Mira over something, anything. So while she didn’t outright dismiss the idea of getting his input, she expressed the opinion that he wasn’t needed. After all, Mira had already displayed a great talent for the magic of Eloria and both of them either had a class or had been offered one while Dave couldn’t say that.
In the end, the feeling of girl power was shared, and they decided that Mira should divide her 6 stat points equally between Constitution, Intelligence, and Charisma. As for her character points, they decided to experiment with some of the other mage skills. So first she put 10 points into Concentration. Her ability to maintain a spell while under duress was critical and had already saved her life once, so it only made sense to add to that.
Concentration: Adds 2%/level to resist spell feedback from interruption.
Next, she spent 10 points on Esoteric Senses, and wow, was she happy that she had. Her eyes got wide as knowledge of the skill filled her mind and suddenly, she could sense everything around her with so much more clarity.
Esoteric Sense: Has a passive 6th sense out to 1'/level. Has an active 6th sense which requires 5 mana/sec to use out to 20'/level. Has an extended range of 500'/level for cost of 50 mana/sec
They played some games where Sara would hold up varying numbers of fingers behind Mira and yet with her new senses, Mira was able to flawlessly know exactly how many fingers were being held up. It wasn’t quite like seeing the fingers, but it was just a perception that she knew not only how many fingers were being held up but also exactly where they were in relationship to herself. Then she channeled some mana into the skill and while it cost a staggering amount of 50 mana per second, she was able to sense everything out to a full mile. The inundation of raw information that flooded her mind was so overwhelming that she threw her hands up to her head and cried out.
Emily crossed the short distance between them in the tub and tried to assess if something had hurt Mira, but finally, she conveyed that it was amazing. She had been able to sense everything in the town. She had sensed exactly where Dad and Jackson were and had literally known that they were counting out coins to pay someone at that moment. Mira did her best to describe the sensation, but words failed her and ultimately, she said as much. They decided that this was a skill that would require some practice before using it out in any sort of dangerous situation, but that it could potentially be invaluable if Mira could learn to handle the flow of information. Mira didn’t say it out loud, knowing how religious her mom was, but this made her feel like some sort of god looking down from above and seeing everything.
Excited by her two choices so far, Mira decided to add 10 points into Magic Focus: Evocation. This increased the range, damage, duration, and area of effect of all of her Evocation spells by 10%. While that was nice, she could only imagine how impressive this could become at higher levels. The chance to add more blades to her Ice Dagger spell or to increase the arc of her Flame Fan spell would just be too good, but as good as it was, Mira insisted on saving her last 12 character points for if something else came up.
Emily was tempted to put points into some of the same skills but really wanted to focus on her healing and hopefully her ninja skills. She hated that she was not better able to fight for her family, so she perused the skill lists with that in mind. She also realized that with her racial stat bonuses and penalties, she was never going to be able to rely upon Strength but instead finesse. So the first skill she decided upon seemed perfectly tailored for her.
Agile Strike: Add damage on melee attacks based upon Agility rather than Strength. May use up to 2 pts of agility/level.
It would only allow her to use damage from 20 points of her Agility but that was a lot better than her 5 points of Strength.
For her next skill, she assigned 10 points to a skill she hoped would make her more effective in combat while also keeping with her motif. She really couldn’t explain why it was so important to her to be the healing ninja, but it was and so she went with it.
Bleeding Attack: Weapon causes wounds that bleed dealing an additional 1 HP/level dmg/tick for 1 tick/level. A bleeding creature is unable to naturally heal until the bleeding is stopped. Cost: 20 mana/tick to activate on weapon.
For the final skill that she decided to add at this time, she took a page out of Dave’s choices and spent 10 points in weapon specialization which increased her damage with a dagger by 50%. The funny thing of course in all of this was that Emily and Mira had always ridiculed Dave and Jackson for their interest in those stupid computer games, but here they were spending over an hour discussing and assigning points and simply having fun doing so.
About two hours after leaving the mayor’s home to go shopping, they had orders with the general store and Conrad. The latter having cost 8 silver since he had ordered a fair amount of cooking supplies and the metalwork for all the doors and windows in the house he envisioned. They returned to find Sara playing in the front yard with a dog and her puppies, Mira seemingly engaged in a private conversation with Aloysia, and Emily talking to Gertrude with very serious looks upon their face. After a brief discussion to bring each other up to speed, it seems that the two men that they had been unable to remove the wood from had taken a turn for the worse overnight and Gertrude wasn’t expecting them to make it through the day. She had apparently had to resort to drugging them into unconsciousness with some of her herbal concoctions because they were in such excruciating pain that they couldn’t help crying out. It had not only been a mercy to the men themselves but also to their families and neighbors. Emily was of the opinion that she could keep the men alive far longer with magic, but since the magic wasn’t removing the wood or even stopping it spread, she couldn’t be sure keeping them alive wasn’t actually a greater cruelty.
This led into a conversation about how if Emily could break into tier 2 that perhaps she could gain extra abilities that might save the two poor men. Dave’s jaw just about hit the floor when Emily suggested that it might be a good idea for them to go back into the Merkwood to help her get enough XP to reach level 10. After he laughed for a bit, he finally agreed to discuss a plan but insisted that they all needed to rest for the day. If Emily could keep the men alive today with magic, then they would all be better rested and with the first sunrise tomorrow morning they could go out. Talvenicus and Gertrude were both obviously surprised to find out how highly leveled the three of them were, and Aloysia didn’t hide her jealous expressions nearly as well as she thought she did.
Dave also insisted that if they were going to do this that they would need to spend the rest of their points to be as prepared as possible. He was pleased to learn that Emily and Mira had already done so, although they decided not to discuss the details in front of the mayor and his daughter. Ironically, it was Aloysia who kept cautioning that it was too dangerous to do this. She went into gory details describing how the treants and other creatures of the forest had ambushed her logging party. This was when Dave introduced them to a common gaming concept, the zone line pull. He explained how he would range out and bring back an enemy or two to the zone line where Emily and Mira would be waiting. Because they would be fighting at the zone line, it would be a simple matter to escape. None of them had ever heard of such a
use for the zone line, but it was one of those ideas that just clicked, making instant sense once it was explained to them. Dave was a little surprised that Talvenicus had never heard of such a thing since he had been in the military, but as the former military mage was quick to point out, such a tactic wouldn’t work against the sentient forces of goblin or orc raiders.
After half an hour of discussing strategy, Dave was ready for his bath, but he had learned another useful piece of information for working in Eloria. Dave had expressed that it would be easier to level Emily back up if she could get the bonus XP for the killing blow every time. Again, Talvenicus had seemed confused when he asked why they didn’t simply form a party and share the XP equally. It turned out it was as simple as concentrating on the concept of forming a party and then a menu screen popped open in his mind’s eye and he was able to see various options. It turned out that he could invite up to five other people to his party and could even assign roles to them within the party. Looking at the menu of the different party roles, it was clear that the benefits were fairly significant.
Tank: Total Defense increased by 50%, Total Health increased by 50%, Total Damage decreased by 50%.
Melee Damager: Total Damage increased by 25%, Teamwork/Fury/Bravery Skills cost 50% less.
Ranged Damager: Total Damage increased by 25%, Aggro reduced by 50%, Range increased by 25%.
Healer: Healing spells/skills increased in efficiency by 25% (50% when targeting the tank), Cooldown on healing spells is reduced by 50%.