Level up!
XP (1420) -> (170)
Level (13) -> Level (14)
Priest (3) -> Priest (4)
HP (130) -> HP (140)
Mana (24) -> Mana (26)
Wise (10) -> Wise (12)
Adam had thought about which statistic he wanted to increase, but seeing as they were getting deep within the forest, they may need a Priest who isn’t completely useless. With an increase in his Wise score, not only would he have access to more spells for the day, but each of his spells would be more powerful too.
Days passed by as they continued along, heading through the forest. The journey had become more of a trudge now, though it had sped up when the minotaurs took over. They had eventually come to a small hilly area which the minotaurs were familiar with, and with their ability to recall their paths, they knew exactly where they needed to go.
Adam had spent some time socialising with the minotaurs. He found out they weren't bad folk at all, in fact, they were pretty decent folk. He could tell almost all of them apart, except for the twins, though one of them had a scar across her shoulder, which allowed him to identify her.
He found that minotaur culture was very similar to that of the Iyrmen culture, though with one crucial difference, and perhaps the most important difference.
They cultivated tea.
"What's this?" Adam had asked during one of their breaks.
"Tea," Sharly replied. She was he twin without the scar, her twin being named Scarly, which was an unfortunately funny name in hindsight.
"Tea?'" Adam asked, his ears perking up. He looked at the murky liquid, noting how the colour was close to dirt. He stared at the women incredulously for a moment before she sipped on it, and the familiar sight of tea-enjoyment filled her face.
The tea had been brought in front of him, and by British law he had to drink it, especially when she seemed so satisfied. So he did, cautiously bringing it up to his lips before he sipped it gingerly.
It was a muted flavour, quite woody, Yet there was a pleasantness about it. It was as though he was going for a brisk walk during a sunny afternoon, feeling the warmth on his skin. He was heading through a field of waist high grass, his hand extended out to feel the blades of grass against his palm, the tips of the grass tickling him.
"This tea is delicious," Adam said, brought out of his tea-enjoyment.
"Thank you," Sharly replied, a smile upon her face. "We call it the meadow brew."
Adam smiled. "It's the perfect name."
“We have been practising such techniques for generations now,” Sharly said. “Very few have the same taste as we, so we are glad you enjoy it.”
“It’s utterly delicious,” Adam said as he sipped again.
“We have heard rumours that the elves make tea well as well,” she said.
Adam smiled. “The rumours are true, though I do not have the tea leaves that I require to brew some for us. I will journey for them and brew you a cuppa one day.”
Sharly smiled, revealing the rows of white teeth. “I would like that.”
Adam had took to them quite fondly after finding out such knowledge about them. Anyone who made decent tea was a decent person, for that was a fact of life, enshrined within British laws. Not many knew about such laws, for there was a license required to view the old laws, at least that’s what his father had told him when he was a child.
Eventually they had come across a small village. The buildings were run down, with overgrown plants and weeds about the area. This place had been in disuse for some time, though the minotaurs had once been this way many years ago it seemed, for there was an area that was slightly less overgrown. The buildings were barely fine to live in though, allowing Adam to save his Mana.
Entalia created a pair of towers as she always did, allowing each of them to feast and bathe in peace, with a few bedrooms for those that preferred the tower walls than the run down buildings. The minotaurs took the village buildings as their own domain, though the Iyrmen did so as well.
"Would you like to join my chambers tonight?" Entalia asked.
Adam threw her a look, fighting back his warming cheeks. "I think, perhaps, I should sleep under the stars tonight. It had been some time…"
"You're right, it has been some time. Would you mind if I slept nearby?"
"Oh, I suppose that's fine…" Adam said, not entirely sure how he felt about that. The woman seemed to be teasing him, though she smiled innocently, and Adam was even less sure about the entire situation. Yet she hadn't really done anything so far, so he had to give her a little bit of faith.
There was a rustling nearby and Adam threw his gaze towards it. Entalia had taken a step towards it. A moment of silence followed before a shadow darted out of the forest trees.
The figure was tall and lean, with white hair and dark eyes. They wore the typical attire of an Iyrman, and now sported a great many bruises and wounds. It was Rendor, who stopped running when he saw the familiar faces.
"Heinov!' he exclaimed, with the gold ranked Iyrman approaching the scene swiftly. "I have come," he said, "to bring the last stories!" With the declaration, Rendor collapsed. Heinov managed to catch him just in time.
"Should I heal him?" Adam asked, grasping his amulet in one hand, holding out his other hand to cast a spell.
"No," Heinov said, "he may heal naturally. Will you allow him to sleep within the tower?" Heinov asked Entalia.
Entalia bowed her head and Rendor was taken into the tower, allowed to rest and heal up. Adam looked over to Heinov when he exited the tower.
"The last stories?” Adam asked. “Does that mean that the rest of his company is dead?"
"They may be," Heinov replied. "We must wait until he awakens to learn the truth."
News of Rendor spread through the camp and ill-fortune hung in the air. A group of Iyrmen, wiped out? Such a thing was unlikely, almost unheard of. The Iyrmen were powerful warriors, and no doubt many of them did die, but an entire group of them? What manner of beast could have done such a thing…
Though, the Iyrmen had a certain excitement about themselves. Something that had taken out an entire Iyrmen party? They would need to bring back the bodies one day, but they had such an important task ahead of them.
“Our primary focus is to explore the forest and find the source of this issue,” Asomin said. “We will return the bodies, but there are pressing matters to attend to. We cannot allow this to obstruct our goal, for the entire Iyr may be at danger.”
“There is an illness about,” Oshgar said. “There is honour in protecting the Iyr, but there is no honour in fighting the mindless.”
Arit bowed his head, and the conversation ended with that.
Adam remained awake for a long while, his eyes taking in the stars. He was deep in thought as Entalia arrived to break him of his thoughts.
"What are you thinking about?"
"Magical weapons," Adam replied back, simply.
"What about them?"
"I would like one." He was fairly high levelled, and those at his level would have a powerful magical weapon, even two. Yet his levelling had caused him to skip through it all, and though he was happy about it, there was an emptiness in levelling so quickly.
"What kind?"
"A longsword, I think. It’s what I prefer.”
“Do you have any idea about the enchantment?”
Adam looked at her suspiciously for a moment, but there was nothing wrong with just talking to her about it. “I would like for it to have a minor enchantment at least, something that would allow me to heal."
"A blood thirst enchantment?" Entalia asked.
"That’s one enchantment…” Adam said. It was exactly the enchantment he wanted. A blood thirst enchantment, depending on how powerful it was, allowed then user to heal whenever they dealt damage. If only he had access to such a weapon, for enchanting was a laborious affair.
There were many ways to learn enchanting, and though he had quite some skill in it, or at least he felt he did, it was still partially random. Knowing his luck, he’d never actually be able to create such a weapon through the process of creating it normally. One way to learn an enchantment was to break the enchantment of another to learn exactly how to make it, though such a process wasn’t the most respectable choice to make. Usually one could learn the enchantment after spending much time with the item, though the time required may be months, if not years.
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The woman stared at him long and hard, as though examining his expressions to find out more about him. This time she was not quite so sure of him, not compared to the first time they had met. She left him to his thoughts, waving a goodbye as she went to sit on a roof and then meditate there.
Adam remained thinking about he magical weapons for a little while longer before he closed his eyes. He let out a breath and darkness took him.
When they awoke in the morning, Rendor went about depleting their stock of soup. He was drinking and eating as though this was the first day he had ever eaten, and when he finally was done, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he grew serious, as serious as he could.
“I do not remember much, for everything is so fuzzy. They came together, a mass of beasts, familiar, and yet unknown. They were covered in ooze of purple and black, and they made no sounds…” Rendor looked beyond them, to another time. “A horde of bears, wolves, of minotaurs.” He looked to the other minotaurs. “Not like you, but others.”
Rendor continued to describe what they had found, undead during their first days, and then creatures of the forest beyond. They fought a few on the first few days, but then there came a mass of them. They could see something in the distance, a darkness, but soon they were overwhelmed.
“I… I can’t remember. I remember that I needed to run, to tell the last stories, but there’s… there’s something missing.” Rendor clutched at his head. “Damn it,” he said, slamming his fist against the wall. “Just because I was the weakest!” Tears flowed from his face freely. “I should have remained, I should have fought!”
“Trust was given to you, Rendor,” Oshgar said, patting the man on his back. “You have returned with their stories, and with your own.”
Rendor went to go let off some steam, punching a tree repeatedly. The rest of them prepared for their journeys ahead, their moods darkened by the news of the loss of an entire group of Iyrmen. Even the Iyrmen seemed darkened, for it seemed Rendor’s mind was affected by something.
The forest grew darker with each step they took. The minotaurs would often pause, their eyes glancing this way and that before they finally stopped at a path covered in the purple-black haze.
“This was not how the path was,” he said. “It was not so dark, not so cold…”
“There is evil magic afoot,” Entalia said. “Keep yourselves about you, there is a cursedness within the forest.”
They continued along through the silent forest, not even the wind daring to enter the darkness. The trees were no longer browns and greens, but darker, with blacks and purple painting the scene. There was even some slime dripping around them, squelching onto the floor. As they approached, they noted how the trees had those slimy tumours growing out of them, pulsing with unholy life.
Entalia looked about the trees, her hand rubbing along the dark bark. She reached out to one of the pulsing tumours, taking it into her hand. She felt it for a moment before she tore it out and then crushed it in her hand as though it was an orange, dark bits shooting all about before she tossed it away.
“Death is among us,” she said. She raised her blade and then marched forth, setting the mood for the rest. Everyone brought up their weapons, and Adam donned his shield.
“It was like this,” Rendor said. “When they came.”
‘Oh no,’ Adam thought.
Omen
4, 12
Everyone stopped, waiting. Rendor looked around, a little confused. He remained silent as they all waited, bringing his fists up.
Adam had thought Rendor had jinxed it, but it seemed that the world had not conspired against them. Everyone exchanged looks with one another, all thinking the same thing, and there was a collective sigh of relief. Not quite relief, for the Iyrmen were ready to fight, but they weren’t excited to fight such mindless beasts.
The group moved forward, moving as quick as they dared. The forest grew even more silent, so silent that they could hear their own movements reflected back to them.
It was nearing lunch, at least that was what Adam’s stomach was telling him, because no sunlight peered through the trees, or rather, no sunlight untouched by the purple tumours.
Then they heard it.
The low thrumming in the distance. The rippling aura of evil, dripping with malice and terror. It moved in the air like a wave, moving the brushes and branches with each pulse. The pulses came, once every so often, and Entalia paid keen attention to them, her elven ears flickering. She stopped to listen more intently, and the others stopped to allow her.
“It is within a mile of us,” she said.
There was a nod between everyone when they heard the shuffling and the movement. They turned to look, staring in the darkness as they grouped towards one another.
Adam’s senses were blaring, hearing the distant shambling. No doubt perfect for a-
“We should group together in clusters,” he said, and with that, the peoples each paired up with one another, though Heinov remained with Entalia and the half-elf.
Then came the shambling of various undead, most of them humans or minotaurs, though there were some skeletal beasts as well.
Battle Order
D20 - 1 = 4 (5)
Adam sighed.
A thunderous explosion echoed through the forest, and ahead of Adam a minotaur skeleton turned to face him. It began to bow before it charged, bolting towards the half-elf. He could hear those footsteps echo through the rest of the forest. As the creature appeared, Adam with shield ahead of him, the man quickly skid to the side, not at all reflecting his lack of quickness.
Attack
D20 + 8 = 18 (10)
Hit!
1 + 6 = 7
Vulnerability exploited!
14 damage!
Attack
D20 + 8 = 27 (19)
Hit!
1 + 6 = 7
Vulnerability exploited!
14 damage!
Then, recalling those words that had helped him finish a bone dragon, he threw out his fist. He struck the creature against its rib cage, cracking the bone under his fist, before he slid aside once more and then kneed it across its crotch.
“Sorry,” Adam said, not meaning to strike it against it’s gentlemanly area. That was not proper.
The minotaur turned and then raised its giant great-axe, swinging in a circle like a hurricane, but Adam brought up his shield, the axe glancing off the round edge.
Attack
D20 + 8 = 9 (1)
Miss!
Attack
D20 + 8 = 26 (18)
Hit!
1 + 6 = 7
Vulnerability exploited!
14 damage!
Adam smiled to himself, stepping forward and then circled around behind it. Heinov and Entalia had stepped aside, eager in battle with their own undead, a pair of skeletal minotaurs for each of them, not that they seemed to mind.
Adam threw another punch, though the minotaur had moved to face him and as such he missed through its stomach, though Adam then tossed his hand up, letting pieces of bone fly everywhere as the minotaur skeleton stumbled.
It raised its giant axe up and then swung down, but Adam stepped aside once more. For once he felt the grace of being a half-elf, even if it was encumbered by the heavy chain he wore.
“Is that all?” Adam asked, his voice sickly polite.
Attack
D20 + 8 = 11 (3)
Miss!
Attack
D20 + 8 = 14 (6)
Hit!
1 + 6 = 7
Vulnerability exploited!
14 damage!
He smiled to himself and then raised his leg to kick, though found the effort of it a little too much and it unsettled him from his position, caused him to stumble aside.
‘Damn it,’ he said, hoping that no one else had seen him fail in such a manner. He then stuck to throwing out punches, doing the best boxing impression he could, striking the skull of the minotaur, whose head jiggled. Adam brought up his shield once more, keeping his fist to his chin.
Health: 140 -> 122
Unfortunately for him, bringing his shield up had allowed the minotaur to strike across the front of his thigh, and though the chain softened the blow, he could feel the light ache from the large axe.
He frowned to himself, thinking about how he was getting too cocky. ‘Come on, good chap, don’t get ahead of yourself.’
Attack
D20 + 8 = 13 (5)
Hit!
1 + 6 = 7
Vulnerability exploited!
14 damage!
Attack
D20 + 8 = 18 (10)
Hit!
1 + 6 = 7
Vulnerability exploited!
14 damage!
He inhaled deeply and then stepped aside the minotaur once more, throwing out a kick at the minotaur’s lowered head, though this time he actually managed to connect, only just realising the mistake he had made. He had only just told himself to not get cocky… He grabbed onto the minotaurs horn and slammed his shield into its skull before the vibrations filled through the creature’s body and its bone scattered all over the floor.
Adam held up the skull by the horn, stared down at it for a moment. It would make the coolest helmet…
He looked to the minotaurs fighting nearby, helping him and the others reach this far, and then he dropped the skull.
‘No, that’s far too inappropriate.’
He saw Alten and Robert, both facing a minotaur skeleton apiece. They were not faring too well as Robert was trying to deal with both, Alten not being much help. Adam leapt into the fray to assist the pair. Those giant axes missed the group of men, with Alten guiding one of the axes with his sabre, his eyes wide in fright.
Attack
D20 + 8 = 11 (3)
Miss!
Attack
D20 + 8 = 14 (6)
Hit!
1 + 6 = 7
Vulnerability exploited!
14 damage!
Alten pulled away from the minotaur in utter terror as it missed, though Adam took his place eagerly. He had to step aside to let Alten pass by, though, causing his fist to fly wide, but then managed a heavy blow against the minotaur’s skull, making it shudder under the force of his fist.
“I’ve got it,” Adam said as Alten remained on alert, his eyes darting all over the place.
The minotaur turned to Adam, his new opponent, and then raised his giant axe. Adam remained as still as a bee picking pollen, before the giant axe fell down. Adam pressed forward into the creature, causing it to stumble backwards as its axe sunk into the dark earth.
Attack
D20 + 8 = 18 (10)
Hit!
1 + 6 = 7
Vulnerability exploited!
14 damage!
Attack
D20 + 8 = 21 (13)
Hit!
1 + 6 = 7
Vulnerability exploited!
14 damage!
Adam and the minotaur met in battle once more, but this time Adam kicked its knee, realising he probably shouldn’t move his foot too high up in order to keep himself balanced, and then as the minotaur dropped. He punched it across its maw, the skull spun once as the creature crumpled into a pile of bone ahead of him.
Adam glanced about, seeing even more undead appear. These were not the minotaurs that had plagued them, but of smaller wolves, bears, and other creatures which weren’t quite as harsh, for they could not wield giant axes.
‘Well… that is an issue.’ Adam stepped out, trying to gather in an area closest to most of the creatures, reaching for his amulet of Belle.
Turn Undead: 1 -> 0
“Begone!” Adam exclaimed, holding onto his amulet as the area around him flashed white, purple soon encompassing once more, but not before the skeletal creatures fled from him.
‘I’m so glad that worked,’ he thought as Robert slew the minotaur which had been causing him some trouble. The pair nodded at one another.
Adam looked about to see that the rest of his allies were having very little trouble, but there was something about this fight, something that caused him to think twice. It had been far too easy, and there was something missing.
Where were all the creatures with the purple slime?
Then they began to arise, from the shadows around them, the purple-black tentacles which had been appeared from the shadows, as though transported towards them. They shot forth, Adam bringing a hand up to cover his face as it struck him.
Wise Save
18 + 5 = 23
Failure!
‘Failure?’
Then the world became noisy with silence, fading to nothingness.