Warning: These sample chapters have not undergone final rewrites and edit, and may differ from the final version or have tyops. Read at your own risk.
Copyright @2020 Fey Dreams Productions, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
The Eternal Journey, Book Three
By C.J. Carella
Akaton Blood-Drinker walked the land, spreading terror wherever he trod as he set forth to confront the upstart.
A tribe of the Folk – what Humans and other pests called Woodlings – felt the god’s presence from half a mile away and as one they fell on their bellies, mewling piteously for mercy and promising to sacrifice every firstborn in their tribe if he would spare the rest. He sent a fragment of himself to them, in the form of a rusty-red fog that rolled over the Folk’s camp, filling their nostrils with the stench of fresh gore. A Shaman rose to his knees and chanted a song of propitiation; for his piety, he was spared, along with his immediate family. The others screamed in agony as their flesh melted, becoming part of the crimson mist. In a moment, it was finished, and Akaton felt the life force of the consumed tribespeople flow to him as the fog returned to its maker.
Satisfied, the god moved on.
The upstart and his followers had lost a battle. Akaton walked past the mass grave where the victors had unceremoniously dumped hundreds of Folk corpses into ditches and covered them up. Inadvertently, the Humans had done something proper: the Folk were meant to feed the ground with their mortal remains in order for new life to grow anew. The dead were meant to provide sustenance for the living. The Blood Drinker nodded approvingly as he passed the gravesite – and froze, when he found another one that no longer held any bodies.
The corpses in the second mass grave had torn their way out of the earth, awakened by the unholy power of Undeath. The sight gave Akaton pause. He had known that the Upstart was an abomination, a Fae whose inner fire had been twisted and perverted in ways none had thought possible. That was the only reason he had abased himself by assuming a physical form and entering the Common Realm, where only a fraction of his true power could be brought to bear. An Undead Fae was a crime against all the Children of Light. Akaton had come to personally set things to right.
But now, more Fae-Blooded had been roused from Death’s cold embrace. Their life energies had been plucked from the cycle of rebirth that was the province of the Lesser Fae. That was another impossibility, but there it was. The Upstart could spread his contagion and bring others into Undeath. The Folk should have been immune to such things, but whatever devilry had created the first abomination was powerful enough to create more.
Akaton growled. His Incarnation had the body and four legs of a bear, along with a humanoid torso and arms where a bear’s head would be, all covered in thick tawny fur. The centauroid shape stood eighteen feet tall and twenty-four feet long; its multi-ton weight left deep footprints on the land. The elfin face of the Blood God twisted in inhuman anger; his antlered head shook and his eyes glowed red as his senses searched for the Upstart – and found him. The Revenant had overcome an Infernal Dungeon and now ruled over its Core, tainting it with the unwholesome energies of Undeath.
That was another mystery: the entities of Tartarus and those of Undeath were antithetical to each other, both hungry for souls to torment in utterly different ways. The Upstart was upsetting the fundamental order of things. He must be stopped.
The deity ran, making the ground shake and driving all living things within miles to flee in mindless terror. He covered the distance separating him from his quarry in scant minutes; any tree in his way was knocked down with little effort and even less compassion. Many Fae loved the fruits of Nature, but Akaton was a being of Death, and he knew even the mightiest oak was doomed to fall to him. He cared little for any life he destroyed with his passing.
The entrance to the Dungeon stood before him. A mere mortal or demi-mortal would have to fight through multiple levels filled with demons and their ilk. Akaton was not bound by such constraints, however. Through an application of Will and Power, he transported himself to the Core and its ruler.
“You are late,” the Upstart said, sitting on a throne of bone and gristle. Demons’ bones, to be precise.
The abomination had once been a lesser member of one of the Courts, the Seelie, if the god cared to hazard a guess. Minor Fae nobility were no match for the gods, although the Dukes and Kings of Faerie were a different matter altogether. Undeath had altered the Upstart in disturbing ways, however. Akaton saw what the entity before him had done to the denizens of the Dungeon, and, for the first time in millennia, he felt a stirring of doubt. Something new walked the Realms. And this sixteenth-level aberration was a mere manifestation of something far greater.
“Who is your master?” he asked the Revenant.
The Upstart smiled. “You finally begin to see what you face, Blood God. Rather than answer your question myself, I have a message for you. From my Master.”
A Notification unfurled before Akaton’s eyes. The Arbiters who ruled over the gods were fond of them. But this Notification came not from an Arbiter, but from one of the Makers themselves:
AKATON BLOOD-DRINKER:
YOU WILL NOT INTERFERE WITH THE ACTIONS OF MY REPRESENTATIVES. YOU WILL WITHDRAW FROM THE COMMON REALM AND INSTRUCT YOUR FOLLOWERS TO BEND THE KNEE TO THE POWER OF THIS LAND. OBEY OR SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES.
- VAZALAK ZOMBI
Akaton recoiled from the message, signed by the Maker who had brought Undeath to the Realms. Against such power, not even the gods could prevail. He had arrived ready for battle, wielding all the power he could muster in his lowly Incarnation, more than enough to lay waste to a city or shatter a Dungeon Core. But the knowledge that to act would doom him to the fate of the other Fallen Gods stilled his hand and drowned his rage with chilling fear.
“Are we finished here, godling?” the Upstart said mockingly.
For centuries, he had nurtured the power in the Foothills of what once had been the Green Cauldron, preparing for the day when the Wild Sidhe would rise and contest with the Courts of Faerie for dominion of Alfheim, the Realm of Light. Akaton saw those dreams and hopes turn into ashes in his mouth, his power usurped, his followers forced to follow the abomination the Maker of Sorrow had inflicted upon the land. All was lost.
Without giving the Upstart the satisfaction of an answer, Akaton left the Dungeon.
A Maker was involved in this affair, making direct action impossible. But no Fae ever relied solely on strength. There were many tools at hand in this very valley. One of them had dealt the Upstart a defeat, prompting him to seek refuge in the Dungeon. The new Lord of the Green Cauldron was a Fae-blooded Eternal, but was no friend of the Wild Sidhe. Akaton had been thinking of ways to deal with him.
Sometimes it was easier to let two problems solve each other.
Hawke Lightseeker blocked a thrust that would have skewered his left eye and countered with a swing meant to sever the attacker’s hand at the wrist.
He missed and barely had time to use his shield to deflect a slash aimed at his own sword arm. This was a tricky fight; he couldn’t use magic to defend or attack. It was all down to simple hack and slash, and his opponent was fast as hell. A flurry of blows drove him back, most of them landing on his shield with enough force to stagger him, while he waited for an opportunity. His sword was longer than his opponent’s, giving him a few inches of reach, but he was facing the wielder of two blades, moving them with tireless fluidity and weaving a complex web of feints, cuts, and thrusts. Striking back risked getting his sword trapped in a parry-envelopment maneuver, leaving him open for a counterattack he might not be able to block.
At the last moment, Hawke reversed course and stepped forward, leaning into the shield and crashing into his enemy. He thrust under-hand and felt the point strike right below his target’s ribs – just as one of the short swords smashed into his left temple with brutal force. Both fighters were driven to their knees by the near-simultaneous hits. Hawke’s Combat Log helpfully informed him that he had sustained a Critical Hit that would have dropped his Health below zero. At least, it would have if he was fighting for real instead of sparring.
“You win,” he said, dropping the training sword on the ground with mild annoyance. Hawke hated losing at anything.
“You struck a mortal blow before I brought you low,” Saturnyx Demons-Bane replied with a grin. “I would have preceded you into Hades, were we merely mortal.”
They were fighting a mock duel inside the miniature realm where the Fury inhabiting Hawke’s swords could manifest herself. They mostly used them for a different kind of exercise, but Saturnyx had been pestering Hawke about sharpening his swordsmanship, pun definitely not intended, so there he was, working up a sweat, and not in a fun way. Hell of a way to spend half of his first day off in almost a month, but Hawke had to admit that he needed the practice.
“Call it a day?” he said, rising to his feet and picking up the training sword.
Unlike the paired blades that he had been using since becoming a Twilight Templar, the wooden weapon – with a lead core to simulate the weight of the real thing – was longer, with a hilt that could be wielded one- or two-handed. It had been a while since he had fought with sword and shield, but he was going to be switching to that style fairly soon. He had a shiny new set of weapons waiting in his Inventory for that occasion.
“Unfortunately, yes,” Saturnyx said. “It is time to stop. You have a meeting with Captain Kinto in twenty minutes, another with Korgam Stern over lunch at the Copper Kettle, and after that you must go to the Death Spire to assign new Upgrades to your Domain’s many structures. And have dinner with Nadia afterward.”
Hawke sighed and took a moment to admire the sights. Saturnyx had fought the sparring bout naked, the way she liked to do most things, and it was hard not to stare at the redhead’s body, tight with muscle but soft and curvy in all the right places. Sort of like a hybrid between Gina Carano and Christina Hendricks. Maybe he could push his meeting with Kinto to lunch, and move Korgam’s to dinner. Or move everything to tomorrow.
“Get out,” she told him, knowing what the look he was giving her meant. “We shan’t be bedding today. Nor tonight, for that matter, for you have a date with the Spider Empress her own self. Unless she wishes to include me at some point.”
“It’s a rough life,” Hawke said as he found himself returning to the Common Realm that he called home. “But someone’s got to live it.”
* * *
“I’m recommending Marko for a promotion to Opto,” Kinto said.
The Hunter and currently Captain of Orom’s Town Guard had gone from a grizzled man who appeared to be in his late fifties to someone twenty years younger. The truth was even more impressive; Kinto had been almost eighty years old when Hawke found an Alchemical concoction to turn the clock back. He could now pass for someone in this thirties or early forties. Weathered by a life in the great outdoors, but not old.
“Sounds good to me.”
The rank was roughly equivalent to lieutenant, which the Town Guard could use; it had grown its ranks to sixty soldiers total, including ten Adventurers, levels three to eight; two of them were Eternals like Hawke. Marko deserved it, too. He had been doing well, staying off the sauce and keeping corruption to the bare minimum you could expect in the current culture. Sometimes, people could surprise you when you gave them the opportunity.
Kinto went on. “As to the rest, things remain peaceful. Your fellow Eternals continue to behave, for the most part. There was a brawl yesterday at the Wine Bag, but the two parties involved took it outside and settled things where they could only damage each other. Fists only – well, some kicking as well, I’ve been told.”
Hawke nodded. The Eternals they had rescued from the Necromancer’s Stronghold had had almost three weeks to get acclimated to their new world. Out of forty-three people Hawke had found, thirty-one had decided to stay in the Sunset Valley; the rest had gone off to seek their fortunes elsewhere, singly and in small groups. Hawke’s Guild, the Earth and Realms Defenders, now numbered thirty-seven members; besides most of the Eternals, several members of the Town Guard and a few others who had become Adventurers had joined in.
“Anything else?”
“Only that, as per your orders, we are keeping well away from that Shadow Assassin of yours.”
Orom currently had two members of that very secretive Elite Class. One was Alba, the former server at the Copper Kettle who Hawke had mentored and who was now his chief spy and covert operator. Kinto wasn’t talking about her, however, since he didn’t know Alba’s true Class. The second Shadow Assassin in question had shown up a little over two weeks ago, pretending to be an eighth level Rogue by the – pretty lame, in Hawke’s opinion – name of Girl-Has No-Name.
She had gone straight to Hawke’s Keep and went on some song and dance about having arrived at the Realms somewhere near Alpinia to the south, after which she had wandered around until she heard about Hawke’s deeds in Orom. Girl, as she asked people to call her, was a gifted liar. Hawke would have bought her story hook line and sinker, if he hadn’t gained a few special abilities along the way. He had smiled and nodded while she told her story, all the while examining her with Advanced Mana Sight, which allowed him to observe and identify the many varieties of magical energy that flowed through all things. In the case of people, he could also pick up things like their emotions and the magic Schools and Elements they knew.
As he watched her and did his best to keep his poker face on, the status box and nameplate that floated over all Adventurers in the Realms changed before his eyes:
Girl-Has No-Name (Human) (Unknown Guild Officer)
Level 8(15) (??)
Health 438 Mana 361 Endurance 380
Hot damn, Hawke had thought when he saw Girl’s real stats, and was even more impressed when he found the telltale ‘frequencies’ of Darkness and Twilight Magic coursing through the alleged ‘Rogue.’ He only knew of two Elite Classes that had access to those schools of magic and could disguise their real class and level. And she had even hidden her Guild, which normally was also included in your nameplate. You didn’t have to be Batman to figure out what Guild she belonged to, and what she was doing in Orom.
“As far as we can tell, Girl has done little more than spend time with other Eternals,” Kinto went on. “No one has anything bad to say about her. But someone with her skills would not give herself away, would she?”
“No. She’s casing us out. Gathering intelligence.”
“After which she will return to Akila and pass it on to the Nerf Herders,” the Hunter concluded.
“Or she could knock me over the head, stuff me into an Inventory slot, and deliver me personally.”
“I am surprised your Fury did not suggest killing her on the spot.”
<I did,> Saturnyx said.
Hawke’s future father in law knew about the sword, but wasn’t in mental contact with it. Under the circumstances, having Kinto eavesdrop on Hawke’s second future wife would have been way too weird.
<I would have been the very model of discretion.>
You like to show homemade porn to people.
<Not to the parents of my bedmates.>
“She did,” he said out loud. “But killing her would send her off to respawn, and my guess is, she’ll respawn right back on the Nerf Herder’s compound. I’d be saving her a trip home.”
There was a way around that. During his final fight with the Necromancer, Hawke had learned a new Primal Force: Mind Magic. One of the spells he had picked up as a result allowed him to destroy an Eternal’s Identity. It had been the ugliest thing Hawke had done, and despite the fact that the target had deserved his fate, the process, which involved torture and getting to know the victim more intimately than anyone should know another living being, still gave him nightmares weeks later.
If there was no other choice, he would do it, but he didn’t want to.
“And you do not think we can take her alive, I know,” the Hunter concluded, not caring to rehash the argument.
Shadow Assassins could pull off many of Hawke’s favorite tricks, which made them impossibly hard to contain. Their short-range teleports alone could ruin a small army’s day. Hawke had proved as much by waltzing into the Nerf Herders’ compound and escaping despite being heavily outnumbered and out-leveled. If he tried to capture No-Name, she would cut a swath through his people, most of whom only had one life to spare. That was another problem with using Communion to zero her out; she had to be rendered helpless first, no easy task.
Hawke had a plan, and it revolved around one of the Dungeons up north. Girl had volunteered to join the expedition. Once they were inside a Proving Ground, their respawn sites would be moved there, which would allow someone to kill them god good. That cut both ways, of course. If the assassin wanted to take Hawke out, that would be the ideal place as well. Meanwhile, he was working on a Plan B.
When facing a mortal enemy, there were a couple of ways to end the threat. Killing was the surest. The riskier but more profitable way was turning said enemy into an ally.
There was the usual moment of disorientation from teleporting; when he could see again, Hawke was back at the Death Spire, the Stronghold that in many ways was the Sunset Valley’s main source of power.
The place had changed a lot in the last couple of weeks. Where only a relative handful of magic lights had illuminated the great cavern where the base of the tower was located, now the place was lit almost as well as a modern building from Earth. The project had cost a good deal of Mana, but the result had been worth it. Several shafts running through the mountain brought sunlight in through a complex network of mirrors, and hundreds of light runes were placed on every building in the complex. Most of those additions had been created magically, by spending the energy the Domain produced. Over 15,000 Mana, to be exact, and keeping the lights on would have a continuous cost of 250 Mana per day, but the inner side of the Stronghold no longer looked like the interior of a desecrated crypt.
Despite those efforts, there was a pervasive gloom inside the Stronghold the lights couldn’t quite dispel. Undeath had a way of doing that, and the nasty school of magic was part and parcel of the structures. The architecture was also unpleasant to look at, with lots of vaulted arches and disturbing sculptures of grinning skeletons and rotting zombies decorating walls and corners. Altering that was going to burn through a whole lot of Mana, not to mention involving a struggle with the sentient Stronghold Core that kept the place running. The collection of buildings still looked like what it had been: a fortress of Undead entities.
There were signs of life, however. Out in the distance, Hawke heard the clanging of a hammer beating a hot chunk of metal into shape. Katros the Smith had relocated to the high-level crafting building in the Stronghold, but it had taken a pricey government contract with the Domain to get him to agree. The problem with the Stronghold was that it was too far away from Orom and its outlying villages, without good roads connecting the two places and a major river in the way.
The only way to get there was to use a roughly-cut path that ran through the forest. A small army of laborers had made the road, which was ungraded and barely passable for wagons or horses, and not at any sort of decent speed, either. Then travelers had to cross a ford that had been improved into a causeway but still wasn’t anyone’s idea of a bridge, and then follow another crappy through the hills leading to the mountain where the Death Spire stood. Once there, the guards at the magic entrance would open it and let you in and go through a tunnel that still wasn’t as well-lit as it needed to be, and walk or ride another mile to reach the Stronghold. It was a two or three-day trip for most people.
The smith had been understandably reluctant to move. To convince him, Hawke had promised that he would personally deliver any items Katros made to their buyers in Orom, plus a government contract to make fifty suits of plate mail armor for the Town Guard that had taken a big chunk out of the Orom’s gold reserves. The arrangement wasn’t ideal, but the high-level blacksmithing facility allowed the Arcane Craftsman to make high-quality weapons and armor, and do so quickly and efficiently. Katros’ son was running the local workshop, and by all accounts was happy to be out from under his father’s supervision. Having apprenticed with the smith, Hawke could sympathize.
Flava the Alchemist had politely declined Hawke’s offer to move to the Stronghold. The Laboratory would be a huge boon for making potions and other concoctions, but the commute was just too much for her, even with Hawke offering to act as her personal Uber driver and teleport her back and forth. She had agreed to spend a day or two a week working there, but only if she could be home before sundown. Flava claimed the place had an evil aura around it that made it impossible for her to sleep there. Hawke was looking into magically relocating those facilities to Orom, but the Domain, Town and Stronghold menus all had told him that there were a bunch of prerequisites that had to be met first.
Hawke took one last look at the inner courtyard from the third floor before going back to work. There were a couple of guards heading back to the barracks and a group of Arachnoids delivering food to the same barracks. Besides them and the bear-shaped Nature Guardians that were part of the permanent garrison, there was no other foot traffic. Not exactly a bustling settlement. At least the view was better from the third floor. He had moved the Domain Interface there, on the grounds that conducting business in the basement of the great tower was too depressing.
The holographic map of the Sunset Valley occupied most of one wall on the room he had converted into his Oval Office. It was oval, of course, with a balcony that looked down on the vast cavern where all the major buildings in the Stronghold were located, and it was now the destination of his Node Travel ability. He opened the Domain Interface to get started:
Sunset Valley (Level 4 Domain)
Current Population/Maximum Pop.: 4,892/15,000
Warning: If its population decreases below 4,000, the Domain’s Level will be reduced to 3.
Available Mana/Mana Pool: 2,116/17,159
Mana Recharge/Day: 1,500
Mana Sources:
Orom: Level 1 Keep: 100. Level 1 Temple of Shining Father: 100. Total: 200
Death Spire: Level 5 Mage’s Tower (500), Level 10 Mana Node (Death) (200), Level 2 Death Temple (200), Level 2 Darkness Temple 200. Total: 1,000
Other: Level 10 Mana Node (Darkness): 200, Level 5 Mana Node (Nature): 100. Total: 300
Current Mana Expenditures: 850/day. Minions: 400 (Death Spire). Processes: 150 (Light Runes, Death Spire). Enchantments: 300 (Orom: Undead, Demonic and Fae Wards. Death Spire: Undead, Demonic and Fae Wards).
Enchantments Available: Arcane Appointment, Call to Arms, Demonic Ward, Empower Champions, Empower Defenders, Fae Ward, Undead Ward.
Hawke had fixed all the damaged structures in the Town and Stronghold. That and bringing light to the gloomy Death Spire had eaten a lot of Mana even with Hawke contributing as much as he could. If he spent ten hours a day doing nothing but pumping energy into the Domain, he could nearly double its generating capacity, but he rarely had that opportunity. He did so now, adding 16 Mana to the Domain’s reserves by turning 800 of his personal energy units into a frequency that the Town and Stronghold could use. The fifty-to-one exchange sucked, but it was supposed to improve as he raised his level as a Steward, an Arcane Vocation that let you manage Settlements and Fortifications.
Today, he planned to take care of some old business. Hawke opened the Stronghold menu and scrolled down until he found the Structure he was planning to upgrade:
Death Temple (Level II)
A temple provides a link between mortals and the pantheons they worship. The gods gain the devotion of their worshippers, which they can return in the way of Mana and even miraculous gifts. At Level I, the Temple provides the settlement with 100 Mana per day. To raise the Temple to the next level, you need to add four Upgrades. Note: The Arcane Official in charge of the settlement must have no worse than a Neutral Reputation with the deity or pantheon in question.
Current Upgrades: 8/8: Divine Presence I, Monument III, Power Focus I, Sacred Architecture III.
Upgrades Needed for Next Level: 8/12.
Available Upgrades: Divine Presence II (250 Mana), Monument IV (400 Mana), Power Focus II (300 Mana), Priesthood School (200 Mana), Priest Investiture (100 Mana), Reliquary (150 Mana), Sacred Architecture IV (400), Sacred Vessel (250 Mana).
Hawke opened the individual entries to learn more about each of them.
Divine Presence II (250): All Temples dedicated to Active Deities contain a fragment of their spirits, which those sensitive to such things can feel. This connection can be strengthened, allowing worshippers and priests to partake on some of the deity’s essence, and the deity to become more aware of and likely to act through the Temple. Increase effectiveness of spells linked to the Temple’s deities by 10% per level. Increase the chances of Divine Intervention by 1% per level, modified by circumstances.
Monument IV (400): A work of art depicting or celebrating the deity’s likeness or aspects.
Power Focus II (300): While fighting or casting spells inside the Temple, worshippers of its deity can raise their effective level by the Power Focus level.
Priesthood School I (200): An adjunct building that allows the Residing Priest to teach Novices. The School can house and raise one Novice per level. Prerequisite: Priest Investiture.
Priest Investiture (100): Confers a Priest of the appropriate deities with the power to officiate from the Temple grounds. The Priest must be willing to assume the responsibility and must be at least match or surpass the Temple’s level.
Reliquary (150): A repository of a holy object from the appropriate deity. Requires a Relic of the appropriate pantheon.
Sacred Architecture IV (400): The Temple is configured in a way that enhances its power and influence. Each level of this Upgrade increases the effectiveness of all other upgrades by 10%.
Sacred Vessel (250): Summons an item imbued with the deity’s Essence. Each level of the Vessel provides 100 Mana per day to worshippers acting in the service of the deity. It also increases the chances of Divine Intervention by 1% per level.
Hawke had decided to improve the Death Temple. The trio of goddesses to whom he had sworn an oath of fealty wouldn’t be thrilled, but as long as he stuck to the rules they had imposed on him, he should be all right. He would rather have his benefactresses be miffed at him than deal with a pissed-off Maker and his band of Death Gods. On the other hand, he didn’t want to throw too much mojo at the Grim Reaper. To get the Temple up to third level needed four Upgrades.
He had the Mana to spend, and in return the improved Temple would increase its Mana generation by 100 points of day, so in effect the expenditures would pay for themselves in short order. All he had to do was decide which improvements to buy.
There were no Death Priests among the Eternals in town, so he decided against buying Upgrades that required a resident cleric. He bought Monument IV and V for 900 Mana, Sacred Architecture IV for 400, and, because it was relatively cheap, Divine Presence III for a mere 250. As soon as the 1,550 Mana had been invested in the Temple, an image of the obsidian pyramid appeared in the Domain display and began to blink. He ‘clicked’ it and a screen opened up, showing the pyramid-shape temple.
The ground under his feet rumbled and the cavern where the temple was located began to change before his eyes. The temple was five stories above the Oval Office, but everybody in the Stronghold felt the shifting earth and stone as they flowed like water under the incredible power the Realms could muster. Hawke couldn’t even begin to guess how much energy was needed to increase the size of the cavern, or where the tons of obsidian blocks that were added to the pyramid came from. The sight was so shocking that he almost forgot to turn on his Advanced Mana Sight. Almost. He needed to understand the way things worked if he wanted to eventually control them.
Through his enhanced senses, he saw how the Mana he had spent into the project had been used to open a hole in reality, creating a temporal opening into another world that resembled the teleport spells that he used but also had elements of summoning spells. The energy had opened a gate between different dimensions or Realms, bringing even more Mana in. Whoever or whatever was on the other side was doing most of the work, creating or transporting the needed materials and then reshaping them as easily as a mortal could draw a picture or imagine something happening. Hawke caught a glimpse of the power of a god, and realized how pathetic he was by comparison. The reshaping of the temple took vastly more energy than the combined total of every spell he had ever cast since arriving at the Common Realm, and he felt certain that the whole thing had been routine for the god or Maker involved.
Got a long way to go, he reminded himself.
<Remember that, next time you feel like acting in a petulant or insolent manner toward a Higher Being,> Saturnyx said. <You are already a mosquito, and you persist in becoming an annoying mosquito.>
I know. I’ll keep the dumbassery down from now on, he promised.
When the magical construction project was complete – the whole thing took a little over five minutes – the pyramid and the area around it had grown significantly. The cavern was twice as big as before, and the pyramid was half again as tall, forty or fifty feet, Hawke guessed, comparing it in relation to the dog-headed statues watching the entrance. The display shifted and showed him the inside of the temple, where the Grim Reaper had grown in size to a height of well over twenty feet, and was now painted colorfully instead of being solid black; the Rolex on its bony wrist now gleamed as if made of real gold – no, Hawke realized, it was real gold. A mental command zoomed in on it, and he saw it was an actual Rolex, only four times bigger than a normal watch. Its second hand was ticking normally; the hour and minute hands were set on twelve o’clock. Bizarre.
There were now four statues around the Maker of Death, instead of three. The lesser gods of death were all now depicted in living color, and looked lifelike enough to suggest they might stand and up and start walking at any moment. The new addition was somebody Hawke had never seen before: a sort of centaur, with the lower body of a bear, a furry humanoid torso with a pointy-eared vaguely Elflike head, and twisted horns.
<Akaton Blood-Drinker,> Saturnyx said. <One of its affinities is Death, which makes him a fitting companion to the other three. Worshipped by some of the Wild Sidhe, who are weak enough to make sacrifices to gods instead of relying on their own power.>
The name sounded familiar. It took him a moment to remember Gosto mentioning Akaton; the Woodlings of the Shadowy Foothills and the surrounding forests were his followers. Hawke didn’t think it was a coincidence that he was now a fixture of the Death Temple.
<Gods rarely involve themselves in the affairs of the Common Realm. But he must be aware of what is transpiring in those lands.>
“Rarely? I’ve been here a couple months and I’ve chatted with four gods so far.”
<Any one such occurrence would have been a unique, momentous event in anyone else’s life. You are, for reasons I cannot yet fathom, a special case.>
“Yeah, I feel real special,” Hawke muttered as he took a step back from the display.
Quest Completed: Render Honor to the Reaper
You have earned 2,500 Experience (-1,500 XP from going against Triune Goddesses, 500 diverted towards Leadership; 500 diverted towards Node Mastery). You have earned 400 Experience as an Arcane Steward.
You have found: 20 gold.
You have found: Pauldrons of Thanatos (Epic Quality Death-Attuned Item).
You have learned new Death spells: Death Cyclone, Song of Sorrow, Terror Gaze.
You have gained +100 Reputation with all Death-attuned deities as well as the Grim Reaper.
You have reduced your Reputation with the Triune Goddesses by 100.
You have failed a Quest: Purify the Temple
Current XP/Next Level: 17,383 /30,000. Leadership XP: 14,921/15,000
Current Node Mastery XP/Next Level: 7,723/8,000 Current Arcane Steward XP/Next Level: 2,580/5,000
“Well, it is done,” Hawke said.
He had a bad feeling that the goddesses were going to make their displeasure clear to him at some point, probably when he needed them most. Might be a good idea to drop by the Olympian chapel below the Stronghold and see if there was something he could do for them. Maybe improve the chapel into a full Temple. Something he should discuss with his mistress over their dinner date. And he would take care not to harm innocents even by accident. He was playing with dangerous forces, and he had no desire to graduate from Twilight Templar to Unholy Paladin or something like that. Not only would he turn evil, he would probably turn into an angst-filled emo boy and spend his time moaning about his cruel fate. Screw that crap.
Hawke turned toward the positive. First, completing the Quest had been his biggest XP gain since he had taken care of Necromancer Greg. In the weeks since then, he had mostly been attending meetings, although a few Steward-oriented quests had netted him a few hundred Experience here and there. Secondly, a Temple III produced 300 Mana per day, providing more power for future improvements or in case of emergency. He checked the spells, noticing that he had gotten one of the most devastating spells the Necromancer had been fond of using on his enemies:
Death Cyclone
Time to Cast: 5 seconds. Cooldown: 12 seconds. Cost: 180 Mana. Duration: Instant. Range: 200 feet. Effect: Inflicts 20 points of Death damage per level to any targets in a 15-foot radius.
“That can’t be right,” Hawke said. “This is powerful, yeah, but the Necromancer was hitting me for six and eight hundred damage per casting. Forty points of damage per level, not twenty.”
<The Necromancer class increases the damage and other effects of Death, Undeath and Darkness spells. And he likely wore devices that augmented his magic even more. Dedicated spellcasters are far more effective at their specialty than hybrid classes like Paladins or Twilight Templars.>
“I guess that’s fair,” he said, examining the other two spells.
Song of Sorrow
Time to Cast: 10 seconds. Cooldown: 10 minutes. Cost: 20 Mana. Duration: 5 minutes. Range: 300 feet. Effect: Anyone other than the caster’s Party members is afflicted with overwhelming sadness, with painful and traumatic memories becoming vivid in the victims’ minds. Targets can resist this effect, with a chance of success of 5% per Willpower point over 10, modified by level differentials and any protections and resistances. Affected targets are cursed for the duration of the spell, and suffer a penalty of 25% plus 1% per caster level to all tasks.
Terror Gaze
Time to Cast: 1 second. Cooldown: 1 minute. Cost: 8 Mana. Duration: 5 seconds. Range: 25 feet. Effect: Inflict a state of panic on a single target. The victim may resist this effect, with a chance of success of 5% per Willpower point over 10, modified by level differentials and any protections and resistances. Affected targets are driven into a panic and will flee the caster’s presence if possible. If cornered, they can fight back but will suffer a -50% penalty to all tasks.
“Okay, an area debuff and a soft control spell. Pretty useful stuff for a Paladin Ninja,” Hawke said while he checked the Epic Quality pauldrons. The shoulder armor pieces that had appeared in his inventory when he completed the quest were jet back with gold trimmings and an on the nose skull motif on its surface. When he put them on, it would look like he had mounted two black-and-gold skeletal heads on his shoulders. Not a perfect match for the black and blue Battle-Mage set he was wearing, but it didn’t clash too badly. And the stats made his eyes bug out:
Pauldrons of Thanatos (Epic Quality (Death Attuned) – Set Item)
Shoulder Armor Pieces
Item Level: 19 (Minimum Level 14).
Damage Absorption: Physical 25/45%; Elemental (All) 20/25%; Forces (All) 15/15%. Agility Penalty: 0. Stealth Penalty: -12% Speed Penalty: -5%. Durability 400/400. Requires Heavy Armor Skill and attunement to the Death Element.
Attribute Bonuses: +4 to Strength, Constitution, Intelligence, Spirit and Willpower.
Fear Aura: All living enemies within a 30-foot radius are afflicted with fear, giving them a -15% penalty to all actions. This effect can be resisted, with bonuses for Willpower and level.
Mana Storage: +150 Mana Capacity
Spell Focus: +20% to Damage to Death spells, -2/-20% to Mana cost, Casting Time, and Cooldowns for all Death spells.
Set bonuses: Two pieces: Double all Spell Focus bonuses. Three pieces: +25% Mana. Four pieces: +15% to Resistance against Elements and Forces (All). Full Set (five or more pieces): +100 Mana; Reduce Casting Time by 1 second or 10%, whichever is better.
He mentally grabbed the pauldrons from his Inventory, accepting the Soul Bind prompt, and the armor pieces magically fastened themselves onto his shoulders. The weight was noticeable; the black metal of the pauldrons was heavier than whatever alloy made the Battle-Mage set. It wasn’t much of a problem, though, not with his superhuman strength. What was more of a problem was the way the world seemed to get a shade darker all around him. The aura of fear the armor created didn’t affect him directly, but he could sense it even with his good old eyeballs. When he turned on his Advanced Mana Sight, he saw that the pauldrons projected a low-power field of pure Death magic around him. He bet that if got more pieces from that armor set, the energy field would become denser and do a lot more than terrify enemies.
The floating nameplate and stats that any Adventurer could see floating over his head currently had the title Lord of Sunset Valley, as well as Earth and Realms Defender Guild (President). He qualified for a different tile as well: Domort, Lord of the Dead. Not exactly what someone who had always liked to play Paladins wanted to be known for. The question was, could he use Death and Darkness to uphold the principles he believed in? At what point did the tools you used made your intentions irrelevant?
<You have chosen to thread a narrow path, easy to stray from. Hopefully you have surrounded yourself with people who aren’t afraid to tell when you are making a mistake.>
“Afraid? Everyone around me lives for the chance to call me a dumbass. But I appreciate you all.”
<Speaking of which, you have three hours before your dinner date. Time to get some work one.”
Hawke nodded grudgingly. In three hours, he could put more work into awakening one of his Chakras, the inner Mana Nodes that governed the flow of energy through his body. He had gained the ability to sense and manipulate Mana very early in his career, and he wanted to develop it; it had already saved his butt several times. And while he did that, he would pump Mana into the Domain’s reserves. With his Mana regeneration, he would add an extra 85 Structural Mana to the mix. It wasn’t much, but every bit helped.
The meditation round didn’t get him anywhere. He was working on his Root Chakra, the one located roughly on his butt. He had awakened the Solar Plexus Node, which regulated raw power, and the Sacral Chakra, which affected sexual energy and had revolutionized his love life, much to the pleasure of all three women in it. The Root Chakra was a source of stability and safety. He was learning more about Mana Channeling, with each successful mini-quest providing vital information. For example, he now realized he should have started with the Root first, to give him a solid base to develop his growing powers. His improved understanding of Mana showed him how the conflicts between the opposite forces he wielded were being contained there, creating a literal pain in the ass for him. If he opened it up, he might be able to flush the toxic byproducts that way.
The three hours he gave himself didn’t quite get him there. Every new Chakra seemed to take longer to open, and when he failed, the results were very painful. There were nerve clusters near all the Chakras he had worked on, and the negative flows of energy when he screwed up stimulated them in the same way that having a root canal without anesthesia was ‘stimulating.’ This time, he managed to avoid the worst of it, but he wasn’t going to be plopping down on chairs any time soon.
Oh, well. Time to go have a (hopefully) romantic dinner with the ceremonial ruler of the currently-extinct Spider Empire.
Nadia Morganna (Level 11 Elven Sorceress/Paladin) was currently acting as judge and jury, if not executioner, as she stood on her six spiky legs and addressed two dozen fellow Arachnoids in their incomprehensible clicking and buzzing language.
Hawke always found her transformation unnerving. Thanks to the Vestments of the Spider Emperor that she wore, she could transform into an Arachnoid, recognizable to him only because of the golden and jeweled crown literally screwed into her skull, the colorful spider-silk cape draped over her shoulders, and the golden scepter that she waved in her hand for added emphasis as she spoke. Behind her stood a large Arachnoid Warrior, Gzzatt, an outcast who had become Nadia’s personal bodyguard. The heavily armed and armored figure stood perfectly still except for his eyes, which were darting back and forth, looking for signs of danger. The quiet Arachnoid would have made a great Secret Service agent.
Although he couldn’t understand what anybody was saying, everything seemed to revolve around two Murk Arachnoids – male and female; he could tell them apart after spending some time with them – standing before Nadia; the wide gap between them indicated that they weren’t together in any way. From the way they answered her short speech by chittering angrily and talking over each other, they had some sort of dispute. And by the body armor on the male and the fine cloak on the female, neither of them was a common worker or peasant. Class divisions weren’t as big among the spider people as in other cultures, but they existed. Those two were chieftains or what passed for nobility among the scattered tribes that lived in the miles and miles of tunnels than chambers that honeycombed the entire mountain range.
After hearing both sides, Nadia spoke again, rose her scepter, and brought it down in the direction of the female, who literally bristled in anger, the short spiky hairs covering both halves of her body standing up on end like a porcupine about to attack. Nadia spoke again, and both sides of the dispute abased themselves, lowering their abdomens to the ground while their humanoid upper halves bent forward as far as they could. With that, the show was over the crowd dispersed, some going back to the homes in the once-small village that had become the unofficial gateway to the Death Spire, the rest beginning the long walk back to their own settlements.
Nadia noticed Hawke standing in the rear of the dispersing crowd and waved at him, calling out in the Arachnoid language before shaking her head and concentrating. With a burst of light, the were-spider body was replaced with Nadia’s shapely Elven form, complete with golden-blonde hair, inhumanly large lavender eyes, and slender physique. She was wearing a modest set of robes under the silk cape, and was smiling at him.
“Lord Hawke,” she said mock-formally.
“Your Webbed-ness,” he replied before taking her in his arms and kissing her deeply.
“Not in front of the Imperial denizens!” she protested. “They will start to gossip.”
“Let them. You can turn back into an Arachnoid and I’ll kiss you again, just to give them something to talk about.”
“You pervert! Trust me, you don’t want to do that. There are some major differences between the species. Nothing fits, and nothing would feel good on either end.”
“If you say so, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider Empress.”
“I take it that it’s dinner time? Easy to lose track of time when you spend most of your day underground.”
Hawke nodded. “And I’m not even late. Figured it’d be nice to walk you to the tower. I even had a couple of people set up the main dining room on the first floor for the occasion.”
“Fancy.”
“Only the best for Mistress Number One.”
“Mistress of the Lord of the Dead. My parents would be so proud.”
* * *
Necromancer Greg’s tower had a very nice dining hall, with a table that could seat twenty-four and an attached dance floor, orchestra platform and, of course, a huge bronze pipe organ with that filled one wall. Hawke had tried playing ‘Chopsticks’ on it, with disturbing results. No idea if the former Lord of the Dead had ever used it for entertaining. Hawke rarely got the chance, since people needed to travel for a couple of days to get there.
A couple of servants had cleaned the place up. While Nadia freshened up in the new bathroom he’d had built in an adjacent room, Hawke got a tablecloth for one short segment of the massive table, lit up a set of candles and set up a nice roasted venison and potato salad dinner that Tava had made for them, along with a bottle of wine and glasses from the Copper Kettle’s finer vintages. All of that stuff came from his inventory, as warm or chilled as it had been going in. The magical items of ‘holding’ made takeout and delivery easy and convenient. Eat your heart out, Uber Eats.
Nadia came in, wearing a summer dress she must have had tailored to order, since the style would be considered scandalously sheer in Orom. She looked almost Earthlike, except for her noticeable Elven features, reminding Hawke of the world he likely would never see again. He was glad of the sight, however. It also reminded him that he wasn’t the only person stranded in this world. Not because misery loved company, but because company could help ease everyone’s misery.
Gzzatt followed her in. After steadfastly refusing to join them for dinner, the bodyguard walked off to the dining hall’s entrance and stood at attention. Hawke nodded approvingly. At first, Nadia had been insistent in keeping her retainer away from her when she wanted privacy. That had almost gotten her and Tava killed when the Necromancer had briefly taken over Hawke’s body. Gzzatt had been standing watch in the villa’s courtyard; if anything had happened, he would have been too late to do anything except avenge the dead. Not anymore.
“Smells nice,” she said, sitting down while he opened the bottle and poured. “Good stuff.”
“I know I could have just as easily taken us back to Orom, but we both have work to do here, so I figured we might as well spend the night.”
“And your new bedroom in the tower is ready for action.”
“Thanks to you and Tava. I would have just thrown a mattress on the floor and called it a day. Instead, I’ve got a king-sized four-poster, actual bedsheets and blankets, curtains, and throw pillows. You ladies keep me civilized.”
“It doesn’t take much to make a home, rather than some place you happen sleep in, you know.”
“I know. I just don’t think about it as much, that’s all. But it does feel a lot nicer.”
They ate in silence for a bit, knowing they needed to get at least some business done over dinner but unwilling to be the one to start it. Finally, Nadia spoke first:
“I spoke to Korgam after your lunch meeting with him. He came over to visit from his new base camp.”
The Stern Company of Miners and Adventurers had set up an encampment in the ruins of an ancient Arachnoid city, about one day’s travel from the Stronghold. Three of the four Sterns were spending their days there, exploring the surrounding tunnels. The fourth, Crommen the Battle-Bard, was running a smaller mining camp south of town. The small band was stretched thin.
“Korgam wanted to hire some Arachnoids, didn’t he?” Hawke asked. “The Company is short-handed as hell.”
“He did, so we went to ask the local chiefs. It was a no-go, unfortunately.”
“The spider people don’t seem to like mining one bit,” Hawke commented.
“They have their reasons. I’ve been learning a lot about them, their history and culture, since I became sort of like their good luck charm.”
“And Judge Judy.”
She chuckled. “More like an arbitrator. Since I don’t have ties to any of the tribes, they figure I can be impartial.”
“So, about the mining.”
“Right. Turns out that they all know how to mine. It’s an ingrained skill, magically hardwired into their heads.”
“But they don’t like to use it?”
“The Fae created them by taking a species of near-sapient spiders and fusing them with humanoid bodies bred from humans and Elves. They also programmed them to mine. As slaves. Their entire species was genetically-engineered as a servitor race.”
“Jesus.”
“Yeah. They aren’t nice at all, our fairy cousins. They see all of us, Elves and Orcs and half-breeds, let alone mere humans and other non-Fae species, all of us, as little more than playing pieces. Legos to reassemble any way they want.”
“Worse than that. I liked my Legos. I get the feeling that the best we can get from them is contempt.”
<Correct,> Saturnyx said. <The basest Fae will look down on the mightiest human – or Elf, for that matter – with mild condescension at best, and outright loathing at worst.>
Nadia nodded and drank half of her glass of wine. “Pretty much. And we’re going to have to deal with them as we level up.”
<The Sidhe Courts and the Wild Sidhe can be found in most of the Realms. Contact, if not conflict, is nearly inevitable.>
“Awesome,” Hawke side. “But anyway, what you are saying is that the Arachnoids won’t mine for anybody. That’s the bottom line, correct?”
“Not exactly,” Nadia said. “A few chieftains offered to raid tribes farther off, ones that haven’t signed the treaties with us, and bring back slaves for us to use. That’s how they handle what little mining they do. Convicted criminals, mostly, but they aren’t averse to the idea of making slaves of outsiders, either, and by that, they mean other Arachnoids as well as different species.”
“Crap.”
Sometimes it was hard to forget that every species was capable of evil things. Every culture. That didn’t make them irredeemable, but you had to watch your assumptions, or you’d make an ass of yourself.
“I put a stop to that idea right away, of course,” Nadia went on. “Korgam himself was appalled. The Dwarves consider mining to be an esteemed, nearly holy vocation. To force people to do it goes against everything they believe in.”
“Okay, no Arachnoids in mining, I guess.”
“At least for now,” Nadia agreed. “I’ve explained to them that Korgam would hire people for wages, and to make them work no harder than any other laborer would. A few of them are mulling it over. With peace spreading out, a lot of adults could use the work. Less need for warriors means more idle hands that can cause trouble. Giving them a valuable trade might be best for everyone. Let’s give them some time.”
“Meanwhile, Korgam is going to go to Akila and bring back more Dwarves. We spoke about it before we took the Stronghold. Stuff keeps coming up, but that trip has to happen soon.”
Nadia nodded. “And you’re still worried about the Nerf Herders.”
“Yep. Kaiser Wrecker is dangerous. I don’t know how many Eternals he’s killed already, but he definitely had no problems with zeroing me out just because I didn’t jump at the chance of joining him. Guy is a psycho.”
“Does it matter?” the Sorceress asked. “We already have at least one of his agents here. And trust me, keeping a poker face while No-Name’s around is getting to be a chore. Luckily we don’t cross paths very often.”
“Only you, Tava and Kinto know about the Girl with No-Name. I don’t think she knows that we know.”
“You could be right. She could have left town at any time, and by now she has learned just about everything there is to know about us. The Domain, how many Eternals we have, and so on.”
“She wants more than what she’s got. But I figure when the caravan to Akila leaves, she’ll be on it, or follow right behind it. Especially if I’m in it.”
“Maybe you can work out a truce. Stay out of each other’s way.”
“I can’t do that. When I made my oath, I took responsibility for what other Earth Eternals do here. Kaiser is going to kill a lot of innocent people if someone doesn’t stop him. I swore to be that someone. And I’m sure that a lot of the Eternals in the Herders are there against their will. Screw that.”
“So, what’s the plan? You’re not going to bring a super-assassin along on the way to Akila, are you?”
“We are leaving for Akila in no more than two weeks, hopefully sooner. Korgam has to set things up before he goes and leaves Egg in charge of the operation here. A few merchants in Orom will go when we do; they don’t want to risk traveling on their own. That gives me some time for Plan B.”
“The Dungeons,” Nadia said, not sounding very enthused.
“Well, one of them. I want to get a couple of levels and better gear. For me and everyone. A Dungeon run is the quickest way to do that.”
“Who’s going?”
“You, of course, if you want. Olaf Goode, who needs the levels. I’m planning on leaving him in charge of the Domain while I’m gone.”
“Yeah, he’s pretty smart and, more importantly, knowledgeable. And seems to be on the up and up.”
“He is on the up and up. Hard to lie to me when I have Advanced Mana Sight up.”
Nadia grimaced at that. “That’s great. Mind reading. Not ripe for abuse at all.”
“I only use it when I have to. I don’t need to know everything about everybody.”
“Just be careful, Hawke. Too much power can mess with anyone’s head. And the gods or whatever keep heaping more of it on top of you, for some reason. Maybe to see how much you can take before you break.”
“Saturnyx will keep me honest. She’s like an angel on my shoulder, except a lot scarier.”
<And I am keenly aware of the ways power corrupts both mortals and immortals.>
Nadia began to say something, but the echoing sound of a war-trumped interrupted her. That was the sign for imminent attack!
Sometimes, you didn’t need to find trouble. It went and found you instead.
Hawke and Nadia rushed towards the courtyard, followed closely by Gzzatt, and found the gates were still open, allowing dozens of Arachnoids to enter. From the looks of it, the entire neighboring village and quite a few were-spiders from other places were being let in. They were mostly workers and hatchlings, though, herded into one of the vacant barracks, under the watchful eyes of the summoned minions. The twenty human guards in the garrison were manning the battlements. Hawke was struck by how few troops he still had. A gigantic Darkness Guardian came thundering out of a barn-sized building where it spent its down time soaking in the shadows. He could summon a couple more, but the town’s Mana reserves were still very low after upgrading the Death Temple.
“What is going on?”
“The Arachnoids just showed up. Claimed monsters are tearing through the mountain and attacking them,” First Sergeant Don Juan said from up one of the battlements. As he spoke, he kept glancing down the tunnel, his longbow held in one hand. The Eternal was an Elf, so he could communicate with the locals a little more easily than most. “I let them in.”
“You did the right thing,” Hawke replied. The Arachnoids were now in a formal alliance with his Domain. Offering them sanctuary in the face of a new threat was part of the deal. “Stay on the walls. Remember to use the Inscription spells if you have to.”
Hawke had spent some time using his new Inscription ability to leave several pre-cast spells all around the Stronghold and selected areas of Orom. Any guard on duty could activate them by speaking code words, and the spells included a variety of offensive and buffing spells, as well as several heals and a couple of summons, all ready to be deployed at a word from one of the guards. There weren’t as many as he would have wanted because the process was time- and Mana-intensive, but anybody who tried storming the walls would be in for a big surprise.
Nadia was speaking with the terrified Arachnoids. Hawke left her to it and walked through the gate. More Arachnoids were pouring in, singly or in small groups. He could tell that the second wave of refugees came from more distant villages; the Murk people didn’t wear much clothing other than armor and cloaks, but they used bits of jewelry and other decorations to identify their tribal affiliation. The only Warriors he saw were wounded; he spotted one that was missing two of its legs and one arm. An expectant mother – the egg sacks on her lower abdomen were a dead giveaway – and a male worker were dragging the Warrior’s limp body on a travois made of hardened resin-like excretions rather than wood.
“I can help him,” Hawke told them in Common Fey, motioning at them to stop.
They did, and he knelt over the Warrior. Third level, with only two Health left out of his normal forty-nine, and several ‘bleeding’ and ‘crippled’ status notifications floating over him. Not good. He cast Lesser Healing, his most potent medical spell, on the Arachnoid. The bleeding stopped but the missing limbs remained gone. However, he was surprised to see the beginnings of limbs growing out of the mutilated segments.
<Your spell will allow him to regain his limbs, but it will take some days, and a great deal of food to finish the process you started,> Saturnyx explained.
Hawke nodded and explained the situation to the Warrior’s friends or relatives. He had fixed broken and paralyzed limbs with that spell before, but not one that had been bitten or torn off. Even magic had some limits.
<The common Healing spell will spur the growth of limbs in a matter of hours, and the Greater version will do so instantly.>
“Remind me to pick those up or find a teacher.”
<The first version is only available to fifteenth-level practitioners; the other to the twenty-fifth.>
“I’m still a low-level scrub, I hear you,” Hawke grumbled as he reached the end of the main tunnel, stopping to heal any badly injured Arachnoid refugees along the way. There weren’t many of them; whatever had happened didn’t seem to leave many survivors along the way.
Hawke reached a tunnel junction just in time to see Korgam Stern running up from another passage. The Dwarven Shield Master was moving at a brisk pace despite wearing over a hundred pounds of heavy Masterwork Quality plate armor that made him look like an oversized silver-and-green fireplug. A war-hammer that crackled with magical electricity was in his right hand; a shield almost as tall as he was hung from his left arm.
“It appears I reached you in time,” Korgam said.
“What do you mean?”
“Invaders tore their way through a cave wall we were exploring. Tarakken, they are, Elemental monsters that burrow through rock. Someone has stirred a nest of them.”
Hawke had never heard the word, but he could imagine monsters that could carve their own tunnels could also kill and maim Arachnoids by the truckload.
“Where are the others?”
The Stern Company currently had seven members; three of them were Dwarven Eternals, two of whom no longer remembered enough of their life on Earth to be anything other than the characters they had created, back when they had thought they were playing a game. Their dim memories of a world of electricity, cars and the Internet were useless to them; they had become Dwarves and the Sterns had taken them under their wing.
“They are holding our camp. More creatures were headed towards it. I decided the lads could hold them off on their own, so I came to warn ye, and to lend a hand.”
Nadia and Gzaatt appeared next to Hawke in a burst of blue Mana; her Jaunt spell allowed her and one passenger to teleport up to fifty feet at a time. “Mind if I join in?”
“What did the Arachnoids tell you?” Hawke asked as the three Adventurers followed the trail of fleeing refugees and abandoned possessions leading deeper into Arachnoid territory. The spider people could utter simple Common Fey words, but having a conversation with them was tough.
“Most of the civilians only knew monsters were coming. An advisor to one of the chiefs told me that the monsters come from a town down and to the northwest from us. I was there on my diplomatic tour; it’s one of the biggest settlements they’ve got, built next to a major underground river that empties out into the plateau.”
“Any idea why the attack happened?”
“The town – its name roughly translates to Big Web, by the way – has been expanding. Maybe they dug up something they weren’t supposed to.”
“Tarakken have been known to slumber for centuries,” Korgam explained as they entered a main tunnel headed to the town. “They are demi-elementals, creatures of Earth who are not bound by the limitations of creatures of flesh and bone. The Troglodytes and some Dwarven kingdoms keep them as beasts of burden. These were likely abandoned by their former masters and slept away the ages until some unlucky soul awakened them.”
Bands of Arachnoids from other tunnels came out. These were Warriors led by Shamans, marching off to deal with the invaders. After Nadia explained the situation, they formed up behind the three Adventurers. Most of them were below fifth level, which might be a tad low when dealing with monsters that had just woken up from a multi-century nap. Nadia told them to act as support for Hawke and Korgam, and from the way they hung back, they listened to her. Her title might be mostly ceremonial, but Nadia had earned a lot of respect by bringing peace to the mountains.
They picked up the pace to a steady six-minute mile or so; the Arachnoid forces struggled to keep up but lacked the high-level Attributes to do so and were soon left behind. Following Nadia’s directions, the small party left the main thoroughfare and took a descending tunnel to Big Web. The sounds of fighting echoed in the distance: metal on metal, angry or terrified buzzes and clicks, and heavy stomping and crunching sounds that didn’t bode well for the spider-people. Hawke included all four Adventurers into a Party, raising everyone’s level by two, among other bennies. The group cast their buffing spells on themselves and each other as they advanced. Hawke’s auras gave him magical armor, a heal-over-time, a damage absorption force field, and the ability to heal by inflicting damage with his weapons, among other things. Nadia had several Paladin spells that provided as much survivability for her, and Korgam’s shield-based abilities made him almost impossible to kill. Gzatt strengthened himself with an Elemental ability that temporarily turned his exoskeleton into stone. All four were glowing brighter than torches, each in a slightly different color, when they reached the settlement.
The tunnel opened up into a vast underground space, over two hundred feet wide and with a clearing a good seventy or eighty feet high. A walled town filled most of the cavern floor, or at least it used to. One of its walls had been reduced to rubble, along with many stone houses nearby. Large shapes, some the size of horses and a few as big as elephants, prowled through the town, hunting for the scuttling figures of Arachnoids.
The Tarakken looked like the bastard children of lobsters, scorpions, and squids. Their armored bodies were bright yellow and ended in sting-topped tails. Eight thick segmented legs allowed them to move with surprising speed. A cockroach-like head with long cutting mandibles was flanked by two huge pincers and six worm-like limbs, each ending in an open maw. Just as the trio entered the cavern, Hawke saw one of the tentacles catch a fleeing Arachnoid with a swing that sent the poor bastard flying until he smashed into the nearest cave side. From the way the body deformed under the initial impact, the Arachnoid was dead before he hit the wall. Another tentacle sucked away the remains like some biological vacuum cleaner.
Greater Tarakken (Demi-Elemental, Earth and Life)
Level 15 (Elite)
Health 3,000 Mana 600 Endurance 1200
Young Tarakken (Demi-Elemental, Earth and Life)
Level 12
Health 600 Mana 120 Endurance 600
If nobody stopped them, those giant lobster things were going to wipe out the entire settlement.
“I count seven,” Nadia said. “Two big ones and five slightly less big ones.”
“Yep. Korgam, do you think you can call them to us?”
“I will try, Hawke Lightseeker,” the Dwarf replied. “Seven may be beyond my power to provoke.”
The Shield Master stepped forward, raised his war-hammer, and shouted with inhuman loudness. The Cry of Challenge reached all the Tarakkens in the cave, causing them excruciating pain for a few seconds and inciting them to attack the noisy stranger who had interrupted their party. Taunt abilities weren’t much good against intelligent targets, although some forced people to attack their users even when they knew it wasn’t the best thing to do.
In that case, all seven monsters stopped on their tracks, turned towards Korgam, and began to skitter toward him. He had caught their attention, all right.
Hawke stood by the Dwarf’s side and called for reinforcements. A Darkness Guardian that matched the big Tarakken in size if not quite in power arrived in a black cloud and charged towards one of the big critters. It had no head, four elephant-like legs, and a mess of tentacles ending in pincers, making it an ideal dancing partner for one of the Earth-based monstrosities.
Darkness Guardian (Shadowling)
Level 14 Elemental (Elite)
Health 1400 Mana 700 Endurance 1400
The Guardian was Hawke’s most powerful pet, but had the drawbacks of being usable only once a day, and for no more than fourteen minutes. The fight was unlikely to last that long, though. And he wasn’t going to let it do all the work, either. As his pet thundered forward, Hawke dropped a Death Cyclone on the monsters, followed by a Fireball and a Burning Light. The three area spells caught multiple creatures in their blast radius, and their gross damage should have been enough to destroy the younger monsters, but reality was always more complicated than theory. The Tarakken had strong resistance values against Elemental attacks, so only a fraction of the damage went on to drain their Health. In the Realms, it was hard to deliver a one-shot kill on anything close to your own level.
Hawke wasn’t alone, of course. Nadia’s own spell rotation (Fireball, Ice Storm, Ice Shards) inflicted even more damage; one of the lesser monsters was unlucky enough to be caught by all six spells and literally exploded under the barrage of Elemental energies. That left six. One of the big monsters and the Darkness Guardian tore into each other in a brutal flurry of tentacles, pincers and crashing bodies. The other Greater Tarakken went straight for Korgam; its Health had only been reduced to 2,374 by their first volley.
The five monsters tried to surround the Dwarf and overwhelm him, but Gzzatt guarded one of his flanks, striking with his enchanted two-handed sword. Hawke summoned a second pet – a bear-shaped Nature’s Guardian that wasn’t terribly effective as a fighter but could run interference against one of the monsters – just as Nadia called upon her six pet spiders, another ability granted by her Vestments. The new pets kept the monsters busy, allowing Hawke to tear into a single target with everything he had. A combination of spells and the Saturnyx Twins soon took care of another Young Tarakken; after making sure the remaining three were occupied, Hawke used Twilight Step to teleport behind the giant monster fighting Korgam and backstab it for a good fifth of the critter’s Health.
The demi-Elemental beasts weren’t pushovers, however. Without turning away from the Dwarf, the Greater Tarakken delivered a series of tentacle strikes against the annoying Half-Elf behind it. Hawke nimbly dodged two swings, but the third one landed squarely on his left shoulder. Despite the pauldrons’ protection, the blow knocked him down minus one third of his Health. He healed himself and rolled away from a fourth blow, and countered with a dual-cast Hammer of Light that burned a hole through the segmented carapace protecting the monster. The creature staggered; on the other side, Korgam’s war-hammer had crushed one of its pincers, crippling it, and Gzzatt had delivered several devastating blows with his hacking sword. Things were looking up.
A moment after he had that thought, the Tarakken’s stinger punched right into his back.
Warning! You have been poisoned!
You will take 75 Life damage per second for 25 seconds.
Since his Elemental resistance was 75%, that poison had a base damage of 300! Nothing normal could survive that. Between that and the 104 damage the actual hole the stinger had made in his back, Hawke was hurting.
I’m on it, Nadia told him through their sword link.
Putting his life in her hands, Hawke stayed on the offensive. Two tentacles and the stinger tail went flying off when he landed criticals on all three limbs. Each hit he inflicted also restored a bit of Health, courtesy of his Healing Blows spell. It wasn’t much, but between that, his aura and Nadia’s Paladin abilities, he kept breathing and fighting. Magical healing mitigated a lot of pain as well, so he only felt the poison burning him with a fraction of its intensity, which still made him want to roll over and die. He kept going instead. One could ignore a lot of pain by focusing on the task at hand.
He cast Twilight Step again, this time appearing in front of the monster’s six eyes. He locked gazes with it and delivered Death Stare. The massive beast shuddered in agony as the magic curse drained it of over two hundred Health. Before it could recover from the painful spell, Hawke drew each of his blades into one of the Tarakken’s eyes, scoring two massive criticals that did more damage than the Death spell. Even then, it wasn’t quite dead yet, but Korgam took care of that by using a Coup de Grace ability that did extra damage to heavily wounded enemies. The monster froze for a second before it slowly and almost gently settled down on the ground; a loot bag appeared over its head.
At around the same time, Hawke’s Darkness Guardian went down; it had fought valiantly but its higher-level opponent had been too much for it. The fight had been brutal for both monsters, though, and the Great Tarakken was down to half its Health. Hawke started his attack by severing the monster’s tail. After that, it was just a matter of everyone piling on and whittling down the monster while avoiding its deadly attacks. When it went down, only two smaller critters remained, both still fighting the other summoned pets.
“Leave me that one,” Hawke said, pointing at the less-damaged of the Young Tarakkens. “I’m going to try and Tame it!”
He’d been a Monster Trainer for well over a month and hadn’t tamed a pet yet. These things were hideous but deadly. By putting one to work, he might help undo some of the damage it had caused.
As Nadia’s spiders withdrew from the monster, Hawke used Stop Beast on it. The demi-Elemental hesitated for a second, trying to overcome the alien mind pushing into its own.
Young Tarakken has been Stopped.
Do you wish to Tame Young Tarakken? Y/N
Hawke confirmed the attempt. For the next twelve seconds, all he could do was concentrate on bending the creature to his will. The rest of the team quickly finished off the last beast. Nadia and Gzzatt kept the arriving Arachnoid reinforcements and the rallying townspeople from attacking the last monster. The Arachnoids relented without much trouble; the ability to tame beasts was known among them, and they didn’t hold grudges against near-mindless monsters, which made them more rational than your average species.
Young Tarakken has been Tamed. Taming duration: Fourteen hours.
For Taming a monster, you have earned 96 Experience (12 diverted towards Leadership; 12 diverted towards Node Mastery).
For slaying your foes, you have earned 1,120 Experience (140 diverted towards Leadership; 140 diverted towards Node Mastery).
Congratulations! Your Leadership has increased to Level Nine!
You have found: 12 gold; 2 Rejuvenation Potions, 1 Mana Potion, 1 Healing Potion.
Current XP/Next Level: 18,503/30,000. Leadership XP/Next Level: 15,187/25,000
Current Node Mastery XP/Next Level: 7,875/8,000.
After glancing through the notifications and pocketing the loot bags, Hawke went off to help Nadia, who had gone into the town to heal anybody who needed it. His new Leadership choice could wait until things settled down.
His duties didn’t end when the monsters were neutralized. In many ways, that was when they began.
By the time Hawke joined Nadia, there were only a few patients left. He helped a female Arachnoid with massive internal injuries, helped a worker with a missing limb, and rescued a couple of people trapped under a collapsed dwelling, lifting the debris off of them and healing their wounds. As he had feared, most of the people who were hit by the Tarakkens were beyond any help, mundane or magical. He glanced at his beast, which was obediently following him. Maybe six feet tall, with about the same width from pincer to pincer, and nine feet long. It wasn’t covered in the black blood of Arachnoids, but Hawke had no doubt it had killed some innocent villagers. Was keeping it around a violation of the tenets?
<A beast defending its territory is not evil. And under your control, it will not harm any innocents unless you order it to do so.>
Yeah, there is that.
Anything his pet did from now on was his responsibility. He had seen how Tava always took extra care to ensure Rabbit didn’t accidentally hurt anybody, which took some work, since the Dire Bear was closer in size to a rhino rather than your typical ursine, and even a playful swipe of one of its paws could put a linebacker in the hospital and anybody smaller in the morgue. The Young Tarakken was probably even dumber than a bear, making it more dangerous to have around people. Or was he? Once he knew there was nothing he could do to help, Hawke turned to the creature and used Analyze Monster and his Advanced Mana Sight on it, studying it from the inside out.
Young Terakken
Demi-Elemental (Earth, Life). Level: 12
Attributes: Strength 40, Dexterity 30, Constitution 45, Intelligence 9 (Non-Sapient), Spirit 20, Perception 20, Willpower 24, Charisma 10.
Characteristics: Health 600 Mana 120 Endurance 600
Armor: Physical: 40/50%, Elemental (All): 25/40%, Forces (All) 20/20%.
Attacks: Tentacles: 40-120 (Physical), Pincers: 50-150 (Physical).
Special Abilities: Burrow (100-feet/minute through earth, 50-feet/minute through stone), Poisoned Attacks (35 Life Damage per second for 20 seconds), Resistance to Mind Control (+10%).
His Mana Sight saw deeper into the creature. Demi-Elementals were hybrids, created by fusing an animal – some sort of crustacean from the looks of it – with a spirit of Earth. Life magic made the union possible, and the result was a being that could hibernate for centuries, eat through rocks, and were nearly invulnerable to normal weapons. Most Arachnoid Warriors could inflict maybe twenty to thirty points of damage with their attacks; against these things, they might as well try to tickle them. And it wasn’t as dumb as he’d thought, either. The pet would obey commands at least as well as a trained dog. He could work with that.
“One of the survivors showed me the nest,” Nadia said, walking up to him. “Or sleeping chamber, I guess. Didn’t see any eggs. Looks like whoever left them behind ordered them to go dormant and attack any intruders. The poor bastards who drilled into their chamber didn’t know what hit them.”
“It was Trogg work,” Korgam added. “There may be more chambers like this, scattered throughout the mountains. The Troggs are not as adept at building as my own folk, but they know their way around stone and earth.”
“Hopefully, they didn’t forget too many more of their pets in those chambers. Nadia, if you can pass on the warning, maybe the Arachnoids will be more careful opening up new tunnels.”
“There will be precious little digging for the foreseeable future,” Nadia said. “Rebuilding the walls and homes is going to take all of their time and energy for several weeks, if not months.”
“Too bad I can’t use Structural Mana to help fix things,” Hawke commented.
“You could if Big Web officially joined your Domain,” she said. “If the town’s leaders were interested. would you accept it? This place isn’t run by a tribe; it’s controlled by a Matriarch whose family built and maintains the walls and keeps the peace. I can talk to her.”
A part of him wanted nothing to do with expanding the Domain any further; he had quickly learned that the more people and settlements he brought in, the more meetings and mind-numbing admin stuff he had to do. But if he could help the town and gain another trade route, it would benefit everyone in the Sunset Valley. The Arachnoids were not only far more numerous than humans, they produced a lot of stuff that the people of the valley would find valuable.
“Talk away, but no pressure on either side, okay? Don’t want the Murk tribes to think the new Lord of the Dead is trying to boss them around.”
“I will be very diplomatic,” Nadia said.
“Do you think you’ll be done by the day after tomorrow? That’s when I’m leading a party to one of the Dungeons.”
“Not sure. Have you picked a Dungeon yet?”
Hawke shook his head. “Going to check both of them out first. Also planning on scouting the area, making sure the Woodlings aren’t gathering a new army, and maybe tracking down the damn Revenant.”
“If I don’t make it by the time you leave, Gzzatt and me will catch up with you a day or two later.”
“Good. Well, I guess I’ll head back to the Spire and pour some more Mana into the Domain reserves. Looks like we might need it.”
Just another day on the job.
* * *
Hawke teleported back to Orom, leaving Nadia to conduct negotiations with the Arachnoids. He had an appointment with his fiancée before going to bed. They were going to attend to a golden egg that was due to hatch that night.
Before calling her through Saturnyx, he checked on his Leadership options, now that he had earned another level:
Leadership Boons (Boon Level cannot exceed Leadership Level)
Charge I: Members in the Party are stronger when attacking. +10% to damage and spell effects when on the attack. Each additional level raises the bonus by 10%.
Chosen Foe II: Your Party will be stronger when facing an enemy of your choice, gaining a 20% bonus to all attack and defense tasks, damage, and effects. One species or kin can be selected. Additional levels will increase the bonuses against the same species. This Boon can be taken more than one time to choose additional enemies.
Command IV: Increase the maximum number of people in the Party from twenty-five to thirty-five, and remove level limits for Party members. Each additional Command level increases that total by ten.
Defender I: When standing on the defensive, all Resistances, attempts to overcome magical effects, and other defensive modifiers are increased by 10%. Additional levels increase this bonus by 10%.
Eyes of the Leader I: You can see through the eyes of any Party member within a hundred yards per level of this Boon.
Generalship III: You can raise the effective level of all Party members by three. Members who are not on the Path will become third-level Warriors with adjusted Characteristics but no new Abilities or Attribute bonuses. Additional levels increase the Party members’ effective levels.
Messenger II: You can speak to anybody in the Party and they will hear you as if you were standing next to them, at up to 100 yards per Leadership Level. Additional Levels increase this range by 100 yards. You can only use this Boon to reach one member at a time.
Shared Magic I: You can share some of your magic knowledge with your Party. At level one, one Party member of your choice can cast one spell you know. The spell’s effects will be determined by the member’s level, who will also have to spend the Mana necessary to activate it. Additional levels will allow you to teach more spells or increase the number of Members who can be given a spell.
The new Boon available, Shared Magic, could be extremely useful. Hawke ended up choosing Command IV, however, which would allow him to include as many as thirty-five people into his Party. Being able to raise the level of that many people could make a huge different in combat, not to mention the other Leadership bennies he had acquired. If war came to the Valley, he wanted to give the people under his command all the advantages he could.
Hawke took a look at his ‘character sheet’ after he was done. At fourteenth level, it got hard to keep track of all his abilities and spells. It didn’t hurt to review them regularly:
Name: Hawke Lightseeker. Race: Half-Elf, Eternal. Class: Twilight Templar, Monster Trainer. Level: 14
Experience/Next Level: 20,199/30,000
Attributes:
Strength 26(54), Dexterity 20(43), Constitution 37(69), Intelligence 22(26), Spirit 22(28), Perception 24(30), Willpower 20(26), Charisma 20(22)
Characteristics:
Health: 686 (20.9/min)
Mana: 562(862) (20.8/min)
Endurance 574 (19.9/min)
Identity: 18
Skills
Blacksmithing 3, Climbing 2, Detect Traps 3, Disarm Traps 2, Dodge 7, Lore 4, Shield 7, Spear 4, Stealth 4, Survival 3, Sword 7(21), Swimming 2, Tracking 3
Languages: Common Fey, Vulgate, Lesser Celestial
Perks
Aegis of the Fae, Dark Vision, Elementalist, Mana Sight, Sidhe Caster, Sidhe Speed Casting, Speed-Casting (Life and Light Magic), True Sight, Undying, Unlimited Potential
Spells
Animate Shadow, Armor of Life, Aura of Light, Bless Crops, Bolt of Darkness, Bolt of Life, Bulwark of Light, Burning Light, Consecrated Ground, Dark Step, Enlightenment, Dark Tendrils, Deadly Roots, Death Stare, Death Cyclone, Fireball, Gift of the Martyr, Growth, Hammer of Light, Hammer of Twilight, Healing Blows, Healing Wave, In Extremis, Indomitable Aura, Lesser Healing, Nature’s Grip, Nature’s Guardian, Send Thought, Sense Life, Shadow Leech, Dark Step, Shield of Light, Shroud of Darkness, Shroud of Twilight, Simple Spell Inscription, Touch of Light, Transference, Twilight Mantle, Twilight Step.
Special Abilities
Analyze Monster, Dual-Casting, Evolve Monster, Greater Bond, Identify Spell, Mana Channeling II, Dispel Magic I, Leadership IX (Chosen Foe I, Command IV, Generalship II, Messenger I, , Node Mastery IV (Node Recall, Node Sight, Advanced Node Travel), Monster Pet (Level 12 Young Tarakken), Ritual Magic I, Seal Inscription I, Spell Deconstruction, Spellcraft III, Stop Monster, Summon Monster, Tame Monster, Tantric Touch, Timeless Mind, Tulpa Creation I
Arcane Vocations
Blacksmith (Level Three, Mining (Level One), Skinning (Level One), Steward (Level Four)
He didn’t know what future levels would bring, although he expected that the next stages would mainly involve refining and strengthening the abilities and spells he had already acquired. But what he knew for sure was that the Realms would throw greater challenges in his way, to either increase his strength or kill him so that someone or something else could feed on the power he had accumulated.
It was a primal struggle, and the second-place winner lost everything.
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