“Have you gone through a rift, have a level? Then the US Army wants you! Signing bonuses of up to $100,000 per level, and upon completion of basic training, promotion based on level and class.” Eric skipped the rest of the ad, resuming his podcast about how some of the creatures discovered in the rifts matching fables and myths suggests a prior incursion of some sort. An interesting thought, but not really relevant to his current situation. Just something to keep his mind busy in the back of the car.
Kendra pulled the car to a stop and they got out, meeting the two military members of their 'adventuring party,' at the raptor rift.
As they entered, they got a ping:
Quest given, dethrone the king, defeat one coltrex
Quest given, save the subjects, protect Dolacurta village
“What's a Dolacurta?” Guidry asked.
“No idea,” Kendra said as Eric used his Locate Animal ability and – nothing happened.
“What the hell?” Eric complained.
“What?”
“I can't use Locate Animal on Dolacurta, you think it is the name of the village rather than the species?”
“Or they are people, not animals,” Tilly pointed out.
“Huh, Locate Animal, orc.” Eric waited, “OK, so they might be people. I guess if they have a village that makes sense.” He frowned, “So how do we find them?”
“We get da two quests at the same time, no? Maybe dey be related?”
“So find the coltrex and we can save the village? Worth a try.” The large green arrow with yellow accents appeared, and Eric scowled at it. Then the group started following it.
The group spent almost an hour walking through the tall grass Interrupted every quarter mile or so by clumps of trees that were barely twice the height of the grass. The leaves were yellowed and the trunks were almost blue-black, and they seemed sickly to Eric, though he didn't know enough about the species to be confident in that.
As they approached another clump of trees, they heard a rattling shriek up ahead. It was soon followed by some hooting sounds and what sounded like a horn. Then they saw, towering over even the trees, a massive red birdlike lizard. It looked like someone had sized up a coltroraptor to 20 feet tall, then dyed the feathers pure red. They heard the rattling shriek again. The neck of the beast giving off an almost gravelly sound before the beak opened to release the high pitched shriek.
As Eric's group rushed forward they saw a dozen bipedal lizards with wooden spears hooting at the large creature. The lizards were short, less than 5 feet tall, with tan and green scales in a blotchy pattern, seeming to provide both camouflage and enough difference for the creatures to recognize each other. They had long snouts with sharp teeth, but their claws were short and seemed to cup the last joint of their fingers rather than just stick out from them. Bright green, blue, or grey eyes glared at the giant.
Eric watched as three of the lizards darted forward, shaking their spears, but they stopped short of actually using them. Then the monster swept its wings together on one of the lizards and lifted the lizard to its mouth, biting off the head and most of the torso. An arm fell bloody to the ground next to the creature as it ate the rest of the lizard.
This caused the rest of the lizards to break and run, and started a sort of three group chase. The lizards were running from the giant bird, and Eric's group were running after it. The bird seemed content to jog along, waiting for the lizards to be trapped or stop running.
A few minutes later Eric saw a cleared area up ahead. Inside were several short mounds, maybe 3-4 feet tall, with dark entrances, though Eric saw signs of fire at some of them. The lizards seemed to realize they had led the monster right to their home and turned to face it, spears ready. One threw a spear, the wooden point making a thud sound as it bounced off the scales under the monster's feathers. The only real effect was another rattling shriek.
The monster stopped, turning its head to glare at the lizards with each eye. It fluffed up its feathers and made a sort of bobbing motion with its head and neck. The group saw an opportunity with the bird ignoring them to use a threat display on its prey.
Eric used a Wind Slash, the twin blades of pressurized air cutting a swath of red feathers away, revealing mottled yellow-green scales. Tilly threw a metal tipped spear which pierced the giant creature's right leg from behind. Lashawn fired a burst of three rounds into the back of the creature, and Guidry fired a carefully aimed shot at its head. The bullets slammed into scales, causing them to shatter and fall away, but it was clear the shots didn't go deep. Finally Kendra fired her beamer, managing to hit roughly the same area Eric had. Scales burst and flesh boiled away, and the creature turned towards the group with fury in its eyes.
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It took just three hopping steps to cover the 30 feet of distance to the group, and then two wings swept down onto Kendra, clawed wing-tips grasped for her, only to fail to penetrate, or even get a hold of her. Angered the creature slammed a wing into her and sent her tumbling a dozen feet away.
“I guess we know the weakness of Personal Shield now,” Kendra quipped as she struggled to stand. She used a Shield on the group, as Eric used Bypass to get behind the foe again. Lawshawn and Guidry moved to either side, firing more to keep the attention of the creature than to hurt it, and Tilly replaced Kendra at the center of their formation, poking her spear into the creature's armpit to draw its attention. From behind the creature Eric used Wind Slash again, and the twin blades ripped into the gaping hole the beamer had made.
It shrieked, in pain this time, and spun around. It slapped Eric with both claws, digging into his right thigh and the left side of his ribcage. Suddenly it hurt to breathe. Eric realized he was being lifted up, and saw the beak of the creature approaching his head. As he was about to be bitten, a wooden stick hit the creature's face, and Eric grabbed it instinctively. It pulled back in surprise, then moved to eat its prize again. Eric pushed both arms forward, jamming the stick into the hinge of the creature's jaw and preventing it from biting. He heard gunfire, shouting, and the firing of the beamer, but could only focus on holding back the massive beak.
Then it tried a new tactic, putting all it's weight into its head, and slamming Eric into the ground. He winced as the breath was painfully shoved out of him. To his horror he realized he had dropped the wooden spear, and it was no longer in the jaws of the creature. Then he realized it wasn't moving. “Eric!” the group was calling.
“Here, owwwww, Lesser Heal.” Eric cried out to them. Once they pulled him from under the corpse, he had to use his spell three times on himself before it didn't hurt to breathe, then he used it on Kendra for the scrapes and bruises she got from being tossed along the ground.
The group realized that the lizards they had helped were either Dolacurtas or residents of Dolacurta-it still wasn't clear, when they got the notifications:
Quest complete, dethrone the king, defeat one coltrex
Quest complete, save the subjects, protect Dolacurta village
Whatever they were, they were prostrated before Kendra, and a moment later other lizards came out offering worked stones and shells in the form of bracelets and necklaces to her, joining their comrades in bowing completely to the ground. “What, um, thank you, but I'm sure our quest rewards will be enough. Eric, what are they doing?”
Tilly laughed, “Eric was using magic they understood, I was using a spear which they clearly know of, and the regular guns while noisy were probably not visible. Then you blast the power of a sun out of your hands into the creature – several times!”
“Oh, well I always wanted to be regarded as a goddess, I was hoping for a big, beefy guy to think that way, not a bunch of little lizards.”
The tribe kept pushing their treasures at Kendra, so she looked through them and found a necklace and bracelet she liked, putting both on, before pushing the rest back. One of the lizards widened their eyes, and the rest turned to them, chattering and hooting. Realizing that they wouldn't fit the giant corpse in a single item storage, the group began to butcher it, Eric taking the best cuts of meat while the others took hide, long bones, and all the teeth and claws of the beast. The lizards seemed to recognize what they were doing and began to help, using stone knapped knives to skillfully separate hide from meat, and meat from bone. When the party's storage was full, Eric pushed some of the rest a short ways towards the lizards' village, until they realized the rest of the body was theirs to eat and use. Then the group went home.
Alicia gasped, “Three-thousand experience!!! Also, 'ding.'”
It was soon clear that between two quest rewards of 500 XP and killing the beast, that everyone had gained a level. Eric saw:
Level gained! HP increased 79>98, MP increased 105>129, 2 free attribute points, 4 free skill points, 3 free ability points. You have increased to tier 2, Ability merge Find Ally, Locate Animal and Locate Rift combined to Locate. Wind Slash, Water Blast and Sun Bolt sufficient for Elemental Blast, 6 invested upgrade points gives two greater upgrades to Elemental Blast (2). Escape, Bypass, and Long-Stride combined to Travel, 4 invested upgrade points gives one greater upgrade to Travel (1), one ability point refunded. Lesser Heal upgraded to Heal at cost of one ability point. Shelter cannot be upgraded, Enchant cannot be upgraded, Identify Enchant cannot be upgraded.
Status:
Eric Brown, Traveler 10, 29550/33000 XP to next level
HP 79>98, MP 105>129
Str 12 (12), Dex 14(14), Con 13(13), Int 18(18), Wis 12(12), Cha 18(18)
Skills Diplomacy 8, Insight 7, Perception 7, Wilderness Survival 4, Mapping 1, Pathfinding 4, staff 1, aim spell 8, enchant 2, merchant 5, jeweler 1.
Abilities Travel (1)-group of up to 10, Elemental Blast (2), Locate, Heal (1), enchant, identify enchant, Shelter
Unused stat points 7 Unused skill points 16, unused Ability points 5
Tier 2 classes available:
Traveler (2)
Emissary
Elemental Mage
Enchanter
Ranger
Eric looked at the descriptions for each class:
Traveler (2) Continuing the traveler path, enhanced movement and personal safety abilities, social skills, develop mapping ability.
Emissary, a prestige class for the traveler, an Emissary strives to be a good representative of their people, developing ties and good will. Gains social skills and abilities, as well as defensive abilities for self and others.
Elemental Mage, a class focused on increasing spell power by focusing on the elements. Gains additional elemental abilities which are not all focused on combat, and the shape elements skill.
Enchanter, a class focused on enchanting, reduces required materials to enchant, reduces soul cost to enchant, increases power of enchantments.
Ranger, An expert on the wild, able to use many weapons, able to befriend animals and able to use a few nature spells.
Eric was also able to determine that the last three classes were tier 1 but allowed as a cross class option, more digging revealed they would likely be less powerful than a true tier 2 class.