“Be careful when taking advice from a Summon. If it can speak, it can deceive. And I’ve not yet met a conversable Summon that didn’t have an agenda of its own. Other Summoners I knew would say ‘it’s always possible’. And those others are dead.”
- Excerpt from Anecdotes of an Adventurous Acolyte, by Veigus Witsbane
A shape emerged from the darkness—far quieter than Percy had anticipated. He’d only noticed the creature because it came into view directly in front of him. And, he imagined, it wasn’t trying to remain unseen.
A kobold! The boy realized. Like the one he’d run into before, this creature had yellow eyes with horizontal pupils. Two long braids of hair fell from its chin and connected to an iron ring over its chest. Chips of glowing crystal were weaved into the beard alongside colored glass beads. Unlike the other kobold however, this one’s teeth were straight, sticking far out of its closed mouth.
Percy’s tome vibrated and he detached it, allowing the book to do its thing. He realized that it hadn’t done this when he’d found the Night Light Crystal, figuring it to be a monster-only encyclopedia.
#037: Rafael, Servant of Silvaroth
“You know my name?” the approaching creature asked smoothly, tilting his head to the side. He spoke much clearer than the first kobold. Percy wondered why.
“Yes. Silvaroth told me to call for you.”
The creature appraised him, his eyes gleaming in the magical light. After a minute, he nodded. “I can detect my master’s aura on you. But… he isn’t here.” He squinted.
Silvaroth spoke up before Percy could respond. Rafael is my most loyal of servants. Inform him of our contract and he will assist you.
Percy nodded. “Silvaroth and I made a contract.” He gestured to his deck box. “I need to fill out my deck. He mentioned earlier that his servants would be willing to help me.”
The kobold’s eyes flicked down to the box at Percy’s waist, and his eyes lit up with understanding. A toothy grin grew up his face.
“I see my master has been caught up in quite the conundrum. I will, of course, be happy to assist you.” And without another word, Rafael beckoned with a clawed hand, leading the boy down a side tunnel. As they walked, Rafael told Percy about the dragon’s history.
“My master, the great Silvaroth the dragon, is a powerful and benevolent person. You seem surprised to hear me say this.”
Percy laughed. “Well it’s just, he threatened to eat me if I didn’t best him in a game of riddles.”
Silvaroth rumbled, I’ve come to believe that you didn’t.
A sore loser, of course, but Percy didn’t say anything.
The kobold started again, “My master can be quite irritable just after waking. Don’t take it to heart. He’s really quite benevolent. Centuries ago, when I was just a youngling, my family lived in a desert. It was a harsh environment, even by desert standards. We scrounged for food and water every day. Some days we starved. But my ancestors had lived this way for generations, so why would we think it could be any different?”
Percy nodded. He understood what the kobold was saying, but it was very different from his own experience. Every day, he’d hoped to be adopted into a loving family. A loving, wealthy family. He’d dreamt of what his life could’ve been like every night. But never in his wildest dreams had he believed something like this could’ve happened.
Rafael continued, “One day, my family and I were attacked by a vicious demon. A creature of earthen persuasion, of which I admittedly remember very little, burst from the ground while my father was scavenging. In mere moments, I’d lost him. My mother told me to flee, running out to keep the fiend at bay. I stumbled across the barren landscape and for days I fled, unable to sleep for fear the ground would erupt beneath me and swallow me whole. Eventually, I collapsed, exhausted and thirsting. And the ground rumbled beneath me.”
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This is my favorite part, Silvaroth added.
He paused, and Percy prompted him to continue, “And?”
“And the sun turned black, the hot earth cooling beneath me, and a figure descended from the sky. And as the earth exploded nearby, my saviour, my master, the great Silvaroth himself, rescued me. I have served him ever since.”
Silvaroth chuckled. Hear how he describes me, human? That’s loyalty.
Percy stared at the creature for a moment. “But did he kill the earth demon?”
It was Rafael’s turn to laugh, a deep throaty chuckle that reminded Percy of Ms. Morrison, his orphanage’s matron—a kind woman who was rather fond of tobacco products. “Have you not met my master? Of course he destroyed the fiend. Aha. We’re here.”
The group entered a large chamber with natural stone ramps leading off in several directions. Here, Night Light Crystals rose from the ground to the ceiling, natural pillars of light which reflected off the obsidian walls. The roof was far above them, and Percy could see specks of light like stars dotting the roof. It was cooler than the before, probably due to the absence of lava.
Here, kobolds worked in groups, hauling carts of materials from out of tunnels and down the ramps, depositing them into a massive pile at the center of the room.
My hoard, Silvaroth stated proudly.
“It’s a nice hoard,” Percy replied. Best to stay on the dragon’s good side.
Yes, it is.
“Yes, it is,” Rafael echoed. “A fine hoard, indeed.”
He turned, leading Percy into a side chamber filled with glassy ovals of every color of the rainbow. Each was the size of a football, and they were placed delicately into carved divots in the floor, with just enough space left for the two to walk through the room if they desired.
Rafael waved a hand at a cluster of three blackened ovals with veins of red that seemed to throb angrily. “Please, use your magic on these.”
Ignoring his vibrating tome, Percy drew a blank card from his deck box. “What are they?” he asked as he approached the rocky footballs, not really needing an answer. He had a hunch about them, and his cards identified them as soon as one was absorbed.
Explosive Egg
Cost: 1 Mana
Summon - Egg
This Summon cannot attack. Destroy the Summon that destroys this Summon.
Generates 1 Fire, 1 Shadow RPT.
0 / 100
“An exploding egg? That actually sounds really powerful. And dangerous. Cool!” He quickly absorbed the other two eggs Rafael had indicated, then looked around. “Wait, is it safe to leave those in here? Aren’t these other things eggs, too?”
The kobold nodded. “They are, but those blackened eggs usually crumble away into dust if we don’t touch them. And it’s impossible to predict when a batch will go bad.”
“Usually?”
Rafael smirked. “They’re never dangerous if left untouched. And if they don’t disintegrate on their own, they can turn into a white egg. A dragon egg. But that’s rare. Unfortunately, that’s all I can offer you from in here. The other eggs aren’t worth using your magic on, and I’m rather certain I wouldn’t hear the end of it from their mothers if I allowed you to do so.”
Percy grinned. “Probably not. So, where to next?”
“Next, we see the golems.”
---
The golems were colossal. Not as large as Silvaroth, but they stood at twice the height of Percy and nearly triple his width. The roughly humanoid shapes moved slow, pulling huge carts or punching massive holes into the walls for the kobolds to sift through. It was a fascinating process.
Percy was allowed three of them. Any more, Rafael said, would put an unnecessary strain on his people’s resources. They weren’t easy to make after all—or so he claimed. And who was Percy to argue? He didn’t even understand his own magic, let alone something that could animate rock and turn it into a natural robot. He just shrugged and examined the cards.
Basalt Golem
Cost: 3 Mana
Summon - Golem
Generates 1 Fire, 1 Earth RPT.
800 / 1,500
“Ooh.” He didn’t have a definable metric to work with yet, but Percy believed these cards were powerful. Having seen what they were capable of, if it was accurately reflected in the card, their attack stat seemed high.
He admired the art on the card while Rafael led him past Silvaroth’s massive hoard and into another room with three smaller piles of treasure.
“There are also three hatchlings I’d like you to take with you. They’re troublemakers, and it would greatly ease the tension in my community if we didn’t have to worry about them stealing from the carts or eating our food.”
“Hatchlings?”