Xangô POV: Day 11

Current Wealth: 0 silver 0 copper

Current Debt: 6 gold 44 silver 20 copper

We woke up hours later, and frankly we were lucky enough to be waking up at all. I’d been conscious, still, when they started beating us. When the fight stopped being a fight, and descended into torture. I’d heard the kicks and punches bouncing off my own body, felt the sting of my own innards sloshing around inside. Known the visceral, indescribable fear of being certain that I would’ve died already without my choice of Skillpoints, and the horror of lying there, immobile, wondering whether that fate had befallen my friends.

None of my bones were broken. That was the first saving grace I noticed, testing it with utmost care as I gently pressed down on them to see. Ribs first, some pain but nothing sharp, then knees, elbows. Collar and jaw. It took me more than a few minutes to be certain, and only after I’d triple checked did I finally allow the relief to permeate me.

Broken bones, now, might have killed me anyway. I could feel the coin pouch absent from my side, and I’d already noticed the trolls were gone. If we were left with weeks of healing to do, we’d be dead before it was finished.

We. Not me, we. My friends hadn’t been checked yet, and they hadn’t put half as many points into Toughness.

Solitaire was closest, having been beaten down right beside me, and I barely even needed to move to reach him. I still moved though, and my body protested harshly in response. Aches, dull, deep and burning like hot coals from an hours-dead fire. They’d be with me for a long time, I knew. I could only hope they didn’t affect movement as much as they were gnawing at my mood.

With a careful hand I felt first for Solitaire’s neck, and almost wept when I felt the familiar pressure of blood circulating beneath. He was breathing, his heart beating, and that meant he was living. Or his body was at least. Until he woke up I couldn’t be sure what might be wrong with him beneath the surface, couldn’t know whether those vicious fucking thugs had turned the smartest man I’d ever met into some drooling vegetable, but for the time being I’d found a beating heart and pumping lungs.

A rush of rage went through me, displacing the relief and driving my fist down hard on his chest. It did exactly what I might have hoped, dragging Solitaire awake with a gasp and a slurred curse, eyes wide, face tight with pain. Thoughts visible in his expression, and filling me with a delight I’d never known I could feel. He sat bolt upright, then moaned in pain, convulsing back halfway to the ground as he felt all the same agonies I had.

No broken ribs, at least, or else he’d still be thrashing around. It’d been a stupid thing to hit him like that without checking first, but I had no time to dwell on that. Beam was still asleep.

I examined him more gently, and was joined in doing so by Solitaire after a few moments for him to check himself. Again, it seemed we’d been lucky. No massive, crippling injuries. His bones, at least, seemed intact, his body wasn’t swelling enough to be suffering from internally pooling blood, and his breathing was stable, if strained. The one point of concern was a stab wound beneath the ribs, which Solitaire assured me would be more painful than dangerous. Sitting back, I considered the merits of waking him up.

God knows how we’d survived the night, with all the freezing cold, but we had. I could feel the chill now, though. Were we all fit to move? If not, waking Beam up would only be a torment, exposing him to cruel weather that he couldn’t escape. And that was assuming he wasn’t in some recovery coma.

Hang on, I was an idiot, I didn’t need to trust my own judgement on this at all.

I looked at Solitaire.

[Appraisal]

* Class: Revolutionary

* Level: 5

* Condition: Haggard

* Modifiers: +4 Speed

* Statistics: Strength 6(4), Speed 10(7), Dexterity 8(6), Stamina 5(2), Toughness 6, Alertness 8(7), Charisma 3, Intelligence 10

* Inventory: Jeans, T-shirt, flick knife, rocks(x4), dagger

* Class abilities: Detect Element II

* Current Experience Points: 83/140

* Unspent Skillpoints: 0

Well, that didn’t tell me much. “Haggard”, what the fuck did that mean?

No, hold on, it did. I’d seen that condition before, it was how we’d been shortly after arrival. Worse than the day before, and better than near-comatose. So…Not a disaster, hopefully. I turned my gaze to Beam now.

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Condition: Haggard.

Not as awful as it could’ve been, though the fact that we were all low in stats again didn’t do much to inspire my confidence. We could move. We had to move. And we would move, or else we’d freeze to nothing where we lay. Reluctantly, I leaned over to shake my friend awake.

With no money, our next direction was a bit…Uncertain. For all of a few minutes, then the familiar pangs of hunger took us, and we made a beeline for the church. I worried at first that they might reject us again, but instead they took one look at our faces and bodies before bringing out steaming bowls of porridge. We all sat down together, eating and talking, and only when we’d finished our meals did we start asking some questions.

“Excuse me?” I asked one of the nuns, a middle-aged woman with kind features that seemed to have been worn just a little bit towards cruelty in her hard years. She turned warm eyes on me, regardless.

“Yes my boy?” She replied, moving over.

I steeled myself, and explained what had happened to us, the ambush, the number of men, the result. She didn’t seem remotely surprised, for all of it, and only nodded in understanding.

“Hengrard.” She said, darkly, once I was finished, spitting at her feet. “He’s the ringleader for most of the local toughs. As dark a man as I’ve ever met, if there’s anything unlawful going down in Jhigral, you can bet he’ll be responsible.”

I swallowed, having known, of course, that we’d been mugged by a genuine gang, but nothing about the extent of their influence.

“Aren’t there proctors to help?” I frowned. “From the King?”

Proctors were one of the few saving graces we’d given Vorhazh, elites who, in the tabletop, had averaged level 25 and wielded the power to butcher armies. They were authoritarian, and harsh, but never corrupt.

She laughed at their mention, just a shade too scornful for my liking.

“Proctors? Out here? My boy, we get maybe one in the entire region of Jelric every year or so, and they’re almost always headed straight for Wolney. There’s less than five thousand people living in this town, as far as the censures can count, why in the world would anyone bother sending a Proctor here?”

My face burned with fury, even as I nodded in understanding. Of course. It made sense, rulers in worlds like this didn’t bother with the little people. That was just how we’d written Redacle to be.

The nun moved on shortly, leaving us with a solemn warning that we’d need to clear out after a few minutes more, whatever the weather. We barely even registered her words, all of us back to intense thought, and vicious fury.

“Animals.” Solitaire said, flatly. “We’ve moved to a world of animals.”

I eyed him, and realised I wasn’t quite able to tell how serious he was.

“Well our first priority now is food.” I cut in, deciding I’d rather not deal with whatever he was getting at. “If we only eat what the church gives us, we’ll starve. We’ve all seen that much already. The weaker we get, the less we can do.”

“We’re already weak.” Beam cut in, wincing. “You said we all had massive stat penalties, right? What more can we do?”

I swore.

“Fight something big and risk dying to it, I suppose.” Solitaire sighed, he seemed worn thin, suddenly. “We got experience for that giant troll, so I think we can safely conclude that magical creatures still level us up, goal or no. Now’s the strongest we’re likely to be until we can afford more food, and since Bastards number three through twelve nicked all our money, that means we need to go out and get some more to replace it. The longer we wait, the harder that will be. There’s no choice at all.”

I nodded, and swore again. They were both right, damn it, we just didn’t have any choice. I missed my home, I missed my bed, home-cooked meals, and the internet. I missed my family. I just wanted to leave.

There was no time for me to deal with thoughts like that. I had to live, first, then I could mope around as much as I wanted.

“What’s our first move?” I asked. “Another troll?”

Beam was nodding instantly, but Solitaire’s answer came slower, more thoughtfully.

“I think we should spend a few hours on…Experimentation.” He said at last. “You remember what happened with my, uh, element-spotting power?”

I nodded.

“Well, you told us that our Class Abilities had a 2 behind them, instead of a 1, right? Maybe that’s why it just suddenly emerged like that…And maybe, that means there’s more for the rest of us to get. Maybe your Appraisal has more tricks available.” He turned to Beam. “And maybe we can find out what your Beloved does.”

“Alright.” Came a new voice, turning us all towards the sight of another nun, this one rather less warm than the last. “You’ve had your five minutes, clear off now.”

We did so without much complaint, all knowing better than the piss off the literal hands that fed us. Once we were outside, the cold was as present as ever, but somehow made a bit more ephemeral than it was an hour earlier.

Now we had a goal, now we had a priority. Now we had, if we were incredibly lucky, just a pinch of hope.