“He moved!” Kedryn cried as Glade opened his eyes, blinking rapidly until he grew accustomed to the flickering torch light. It was a great deal more challenging as his eyes were incredibly sensitive from the mana poisoning.
“I… I don’t understand,” Riya stammered, rushing to Glade’s side. “Your mana saturation has been reduced. How is that possible?”
“Long story,” he grunted, “I’ll tell you later. What’s our status?”
“It’s great to have you back sir!” Kedryn said, helping Glade to sit up. “The Gnolls are dead, to include Black Robe, or Harneck the Smelly. Seriously, I thought we stunk, but that guy was just plain funky. We decided to let Slick finish consuming him after we got anything of value off of him. We thought it best seeing as was corrupted and all. Of course, that led to our boy dividing a couple of times.”
Glade arched an eyebrow.
“We destroyed all but one,” Riya reassured him, grabbing both sides of his head so she could look into his eyes. “I see your eyes aren’t bleeding, so you haven’t gone into the next stage of poisoning. Tell me, do you have any dizziness or nausea? What about swelling joints?”
“I’m fine,” Glade responded, gently trying to push her away before he paused. “Wait, what did you say about my eyes?”.
Riya slapped his hands down and forced his mouth open.
“Stick out your tongue,” she said with all seriousness. “To answer your question, I’ve read that there are several stages of mana poisoning, bleeding eyes come shortly after paralyzation.”
“How do you know all of this stuff?” Kedryn asked. “I mean, it’s awesome that you do, but you seem to know a lot of things.”
“Do you remember what I told you about enhancing your Natural Lore skill?” She asked while shining a conjured light into Glade’s eyes. “I’ve read everything I could get my hands on to enhance it. That is how my skill was able to identify Glade’s mana poisoning levels and that they had gone down.”
“How long was I out…” Glade began but was immediately cut off as Riya grabbed his face with both hands and forcibly rotated his head.
“Does your neck hurt at all?” she asked to which Glade tried to say no.
Kedryn chuckled before continuing with his report.
“You were out for about three hours, sir. Riya exhausted herself at least four times getting you healed back up. We had to dip into our stock of mana shards a bit but figured you wouldn’t mind. Oh, and all the Dwarves have been accounted for and unchained…”
“SWITCH!”
All of them flinched as Krazzik’s bellow reverberated down the tunnel.
“I hate it when he does that,” Kedryn muttered.
Glade glanced toward the surly dwarf as several others were pushing stone and dirt out of the way, revealing a partially excavated opening where once there had been nothing but rock wall.
Three dwarves, standing side by side, took their place, mining equipment at the ready.
“Make yer strikes count boys!” Krazzik cried. “Ready?”
All three dwarves nodded, a soft brown glow springing into existence around their pickaxes.
“BRING THE HAMMER!” Krazzik yelled.
“STORM THE WALLS!” every dwarf within earshot roared as the three with picks struck the rock wall with incredible force.
Rock was torn asunder as a literal wave of force pushed dust and bits of stone down the tunnel, like a storm had been unleashed indoors. The deafening sound of what had once been a cave wall splintered and crashed to the ground.
“What… What was that!?” Glade coughed, trying to force the words out when he could hear again. His enhanced senses caused his headache to progress from moderate annoyance to almost impossible to ignore.
“As I was saying sir,” Kedryn said, voice muffled as he covered his mouth and nose with the sleeve of his robe. “We were able to free all the dwarves. We are now working on a means of escape. Krazzik and the Slaghammers, which would be an awesome name for a band by the way, are using their mining skills and magic to bypass the collapsed tunnels. We know there are at least 5 more Gnolls below, but we don’t know when they’ll show up.”
“SWITCH!” Krazzik cried. “Clearing team is up! Two more strikes and we’re through, ye good fer nothin lay abouts!”
“Aye Chief!” came a tired response as a group of dwarves replaced the three haggard looking miners. Each and every one of them looked like they were about to drop.
“What in the holy depths of the Mother are ye doin!?” Krazzik bellowed. “Ye can rest when yer dead and buried! Now, move yer backsides, ye sorry excuses for bearded Gnomes! Me rheumatic gran could move faster’n that!”
“AYE CHIEF!” They cried, upping their pace. Glade watched them work for a moment, seeing the intense signs of fatigue and malnourishment. They wouldn’t be able to last at this pace.
“Krazzik says we’re almost through,” Kedryn continued. “We also stripped the dead Gnoll’s of anything of value.”
Glade coughed again, waiving the dust away from his face. As it cleared, he could just make out the piles of items under layers of fresh rock dust not too far away.
He instinctively tried to activate his Aura Sense to identify the items.
Warning! The skill Aura Sense is unavailable to you due to your damaged Mana Channels.
Glade sighed, rubbing the dust from his eyes. “My identify skill isn’t working. Any chance you can just tell me what we have?”
“I believe I can help with that,” Kedryn said as a prompt appeared in Glade’s vision.
You have found Banded Whip of Subjugation. An interwoven whip of iron bands and natural leather. Used to both intimidate and subdue any threat.
Damage: 9-12
Durability: 23/25
Grade: Well Crafted
Rarity: Uncommon
Weight: 4.3 lbs
You have found Slavers Whip. A simple leather wrap, poorly assembled.
Damage: 2-5
Durability: 7/15
Grade: Poor
Rarity: Common
Weight: 1.3 lbs
You have found Pitted Steel Dagger x 12. Crude dagger made of poorly refined metal.
Damage:1-3
Durability: 10-15/20
Grade: Poor
Rarity: Common
Weight: 1.0 lbs
You have found Rusted Steel Short Sword x 7. Crude short sword made of poorly refined metal.
Damage: 4-7
Durability: 14/20
Grade: Poor
Rarity: Common
Weight: 2.5 lbs
“How?” Glade asked.
“Our bond,” Kedryn said with a shrug.
“Something we still need to address,” Riya growled as she finished her examination of Glade.
“I know,” Kedryn said. “But as I said before, we would have absolutely consulted your elders if they were available. But we need to use the resources we have available now. Not later. If we don’t, we might not survive.”
Riya didn’t look happy, but neither did she complain. Glade decided to keep his mouth shut on the subject. Afterall, he had agreed to the Kid’s proposal regarding the bond in the first place. Most definitely not one of his greatest moments.
Turning back to Glade, Kedryn continued speaking. “Anyway, the bond allows us to share information we find important back and forth. That’s how I learned you had damaged your mana channels and were suffering from mana poisoning. Once I figured that out, it was easy to deduce I could share what I see with you. Awesome, right?”
“Good initiative, Corporal.” Glade said. “How were you able to get your identify skill to provide so much detail?”
“Honestly, I asked Bragden for help. He pointed some things out to me on each of the items and now my Natural Lore skill is showing more information. It’s like Riya said, the more information I’m exposed to, the more versatile the skill becomes. It’s not perfect by any means, but every little bit helps.”
Again, Glade was impressed. The Kid had shown some real initiative.
“I see most of the weapons are less than stellar, but beggars can't be choosers,” Glade said, turning their attention back to the piles of loot. “Too bad we can't count on the dwarves still collared to help with defense in case more Gnoll’s show up.”
“Like hell we can’t!” Krazzik growled in elvish as he walked up from behind, surprising the three of them.
“Don’t ye gimme that look,” he said, switching back to his native tongue. “Ye did na think I could speak elvish? Ha! Heard everything ye said.”
Turning to Glade, Krazzik extended his remaining hand.
“I wanted to give ye me thanks. Not only did ye kill Black Robe, you and yer friends saved me clan and me boy. Fer that, I be truly grateful.”
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Congratulations! You have completed the quest, A Chief’s Plea I. Not only did you complete all conditions related to the quest, but you far exceeded the first and third success conditions. You rescued 100% of the dwarves without any casualties, you saved Chief Krazzik’s son, and you eliminated 80% of their captors.
Note: Because Bei’Kedryn Serevlir, a royal elf, accepted the quest on your behalf, all rewards are doubled.
Dwarves Rescued: 63. Experience earned: 1,050 (1575 XP x 2 / 3)
Total amount of XP earned for killing 20 Gnolls and 1 Warg is doubled: Was 1696 XP per person, is now 3392 XP.
Other Reward: Pending
Congratulations! You are now level 6! Through hard work and sacrifice you have advanced along your path. Let the knowledge of who you are and what you stand for guide you throughout your journey.
As an Enlightened Human you gain 5 attribute points to allocate, with an additional point auto allocated to the attribute most used since the last level gained.
Note: One attribute point has been auto allocated to Chance.
“I just leveled!” Riya gasped.
“As did I!” Kedryn smiled.
“Aye, congratulations to ye! It be well deserved,” Krazzik said, a gentle smile on his face as he looked upon his people.
Glade followed the dwarf’s gaze, seeing the young dwarf he and the others had saved helping with the excavation efforts. For the first time, he noticed the boy’s soft features and wide eyes, tale-tell signs of someone with down syndrome.
While the other dwarfs wore their exhaustion openly, the boy was trying to skip and roll a large rock at the same time, all while calling encouragement to his fellow workers.
“It was an honor to help where we could. By the way, what is your son’s name again?” Glade asked.
“Dabbin,” Krazzik replied, his fatherly pride in his son evident for all to see.
At hearing his name, Dabbin looked up from his work and gave them a beaming smile.
“Bapa!” Dabbin crooned, running up to his father without hesitation to give him a hug. Much to everyone else's surprise, the boy continued to give out hugs to whomever happened to be in the immediate vicinity before skipping back to his rock, which he started to roll back the way he had come.
“Sorry ‘bout that,” Krazzik said, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. “The boy just doesn’t know when not to give out them hugs. Gets it from his Mam.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Glade replied, feeling his first genuine smile in a very long time. A quick glance showed that Kedryn was also smiling at the boy. However, Riya was openly staring at Dabbin. Something he would likely have to ask her about later. “That just brightened my entire day. But shouldn’t we tell him he’s going the wrong way?”
“Bah, he’ll figure it out soon enough. Now, back to business. Ye know me name and me clan, but we haven’t been introduced all good and proper.”
“Apologies, there didn’t seem to be much time when we first met,” Glade responded. “I’m Captain Glade, and these are my associates, Corporal Serevlir and Ms. Loshere.”
Kedryn stepped forward offering his hand. “Call me Kedryn.”
“Har de har har,” Krazzik snorted. “Seriously, what be yer name lad?”
“Ummm… Kedryn is my name,” the Kid responded with an odd look.
“Yer kiddin,” Krazzik said, eyebrows shooting to the top of his forehead. “Yer tellin me yer name be Kedryn? As in, Kedryn Serevlir? What kind o’ messed up parents ye got that they’d go and stick ye with a name like that?”
“Why? What's wrong with my name?” Kedryn asked with just a hint of defiance.
Glade believed he was finally starting to understand what nonplussed must look like as he took in both Kedryn’s and Krazzik’s reactions.
“It’s something I have yet to discuss with them,” Riya responded, pinching the bridge of her nose with her fingers.
“When…” Kedryn started only to be interrupted by Riya.
“Later,” she said with a sigh. “We’ll talk later.”
Krazzik looked between the three of them, waiting for more of an explanation. When one wasn’t forthcoming, he shrugged and moved on.
“Well then. Thanks to ye and yer… friends, me people are no longer enslaved to the slagging Gnolls! More to the point, the young royal here took control o’ the slave rod and issued us new orders. Now we can stick it to the thrice damned dogs!”
Glade arched a brow at Kedryn, sending a silent question on this new piece of information.
In response, the Kid held up a small black baton with brass engravings while sending the specs over to Glade.
You have found a Slave Rod (Common), a magical device of unknown origin. Can impart limited commands to no more than 75 attuned slave collars. Holder of the rod commands the slaves.
Note: Cannot be wielded by collared slaves.
Durability: 32/40
Grade: Well Crafted
Rarity: Uncommon
Weight: 3 lbs
Glade was really starting to like this prompt sharing ability.
“I’m glad to hear that you can help with the Gnolls. Though, I’d feel better if we could just get the collars off you,” Glade said.
“Aye, me too. But see’n as ye done burst yer channels like an overripe melon, we won’t be able to take advantage o’ that rare spell o’ yers.” Krazzik said.
“Yeah, sorry about that,” Glade said. “As soon as we figure out how to heal them I’ll get to work on releasing the rest. What else did we find worth noting?”
“14 gold, 47 silver, and 92 copper,” Kedryn replied. “We also found two unidentifiable magic rings on the Shaman, two pure mana shards, and a small, locked chest.”
“Magic rings?” Glade asked.
“I know, isn’t it awesome?! Unfortunately, Riya can’t identify them with her Natural Lore skill and we thought it best not to equip unknown rings to find out what they are just in case they are cursed.”
“Cursed?” Glade asked, wondering why he was even surprised anymore. Of course, there would be curses.
“It is well known that Shamen often place curses on their items so others can’t use them,” Riya said. “I highly recommend not putting them on until we can get someone with sufficient skill or ability to identify them.”
“When ye get a moment, have Bragden take a look at them,” Krazzik joined in. “He be our clan scholar. We also have a Verser, but he’s ‘bout as worthless a pickaxe made o’ flowers.”
“Riiight,” Glade said, drawing the word out. Just when he thought he was getting the hang of things he now had to deal with magic jewelry, curses, and verser’s, whatever they are. “Anything else?
“They had lots of food in one of the back corners,” Kedryn provided.
“I would na be calling that food,” Krazzik said with a grimace before spitting to the side.
“Still, it’s something,” Glade interjected. “What about the crossbows and spears we saw? Why aren’t those in the pile of weapons?”
“Several o’ me boys are standing guard at the entrance round the corner,” Krazzik said. “They be the ones that have the crossbows and spears, seein as the other weapons be heading fer the scrap pile. O’ course, I would barely call em spears. The tips are made of pitted iron for cryin out loud! Too soft to do any real damage. And don’t get me started on the crossbows. Why anyone would make ‘em out o’ fresh pine is beyond me. Worthless I tell ye.”
“Will they kill the Gnolls?”
“Oh, that they will. But the weapons be far more likely to break on ye than a good sturdy dwarven made spear or crossbow.”
“They’ll have to do. So, what’s our next step?” Glade asked the group. “Do you think your men could use the weapons to fight the remaining Gnolls?”
“Normally, I would na hesitate. But me boys are on their last legs. We been working these tunnels for the better part o’ a month with little sleep and hardly any food. If’n it weren’t for the Gnoll’s Alpha, I still might consider it. But as it stands, we’d be slaughtered, every last one o’ us. All me boys are doing right now is making sure we have as much warnin as possible.”
“What can you tell me about the Alpha?” Glade asked.
“A right big ol’ beast. Bet me position as Chief the Alpha be an apprentice level body mage at least. Not quite certain which path he be on exactly, but he be a dual blade wielder and is faster than a greased-up gnome on Downs day.”
Both Kedryn and Glade stared at Krazzik.
“A greased-up Gnome?” Glade asked, a hint of confusion in his voice.
“Aye, on Downs day.” Krazzik said with all seriousness.
Riya did her best not to laugh.
After an awkward moment of silence, Glade decided to ask a more relevant question. “What's a body mage?”
“Another name for a Corporeal mage,” Riya quickly interjected as Krazzik gave him a strange look. “Someone whose magic is focused internally to the body, though they can adapt to other spheres depending on which path they are on.”
Krazzik’s unusual look made it clear that Glade should have known what a body mage was. Something he was going to need to either address with the dwarf later on or be more careful how he asked his questions in the future.
“That’s why we decided on focusing on escape,” Kedryn said. “Once Krazzik’s people get us through to the other side, they’ll collapse the tunnel, effectively cutting the Gnolls off so they can’t follow.”
“The lad has the right o’ it,” Krazzik said, still giving Glade a searching look. “Once through, we can rest up a bit in peace. Speakin o’ which,'' Krazzik turned his head and bellowed, “SWITCH!”
Everyone flinched at the surprise roar, Glade letting a wince break through his stoic demeanor as his extremely sensitive hears were now ringing.
The three dwarves who had been resting close by groaned as they slowly got to their feet.
“Is there anything else we can do to help you and your clan?” Kedryn asked after Krazzik turned back around.
Glade gave his Corporal a sidelong look. The way the Kid had worded the question made it sound like he was hoping for something.
“Unless ye can speed up time or cleave through rock, I think not. What ya think, Captain Glade, where do ye believe you and yours can be of help?”
“Well, we’re not doing much good here,” Glade said. “I think we should head down to where the guards are.”
“Aye, that be a good idea,” Krazzik said. “Bragden be leadin the group o’ misfits guardin the tunnel seein as he be the best shot in the whole o’ me clan. We’ll send ye a runner once we’re through. Hopefully before the dogs come a callin.”
Krazzik nodded to them before taking his leave, already yelling at his people to pick up the pace.
“I was hoping he would have given us the second chain of the quest,” Kedryn quietly sighed as soon as Krazzik moved out of ear shot.
“Is that why you asked what we could do to help?” Glade asked, the Kid already nodding in affirmation.
“Is that how you get the second chain? By asking?” Glade oriented his question to Riya.
“How should I know?” Riya asked. “I’ve never seen a chained quest until I met the two of you.”
“Well, it was worth a shot Corporal,” Glade said. “Let’s gather our things and head down to where Bragden is.”
“Sir?” Kedryn asked as they began gathering their meager belongings. “I think now would be a good time to discuss a few things. For starters,” he said, turning to look at Riya. “What's wrong with my name?”
“I was hoping to have this conversation well before we met anyone else, but there never seemed to be a good time,” Riya said with an exasperated sigh. “But it's a lot more than just your name. Tell me, how did you come to be named Kedryn and attuned to the sphere of fire?”
“Well, I chose…,” he began before stopping and looking around. Dwarves were coming and going, moving rocks, carrying boxes, and any number of them could be eavesdropping. “This might be better discussed when there aren’t others around,” he finished with a grimace.
“A wise choice,” Riya said, her relief evident. Glade’s interest in the topic raised from mildly interested to wondering if they could find somewhere nearby that didn’t have any listening ears.
“What else is on your mind?” Glade asked.
“Oh, I wanted to know what you plan to do with the egg?” Kedryn asked, pointing to the black egg Glade was carefully placing inside their pack. “I’ve read up on some of the messages about it and, well… Let's just say I have questions.”
“For now, I’ll keep it,” he said, not wanting to get into too much detail. “We can talk about it later.”
“It seems like all we ever say is that we will talk about things later,” Riya said in exasperation. “I agree with Kedryn that we should wait to discuss his origins when we are in a more private setting. However, you delayed in telling me about your mana channels being torn, and we saw how well that turned out. I don’t see any Gnoll’s attacking us at the moment, and we are relatively safe. Why not talk about the Shaman’s source of dark magic?”
Glade froze, looking up to Riya.
“His source of dark magic?” he asked.
“Yes. At least, I believe so. I can’t get a reading off of it with my Natural Lore skill, which is very odd. Either it's too high a level for me to identify or it is so outside the realm of nature my skill doesn’t work on it.”
“Oh, maybe it’s a Dragon egg!” Kedryn said with a crazed grin. “You could be a Dragon rider!”
“Who in their right mind would want to ride a Dragon?” Riya asked, her eyes wide. “I can understand riding a Drake or a Wyvern, but a Dragon? That’s just suicide! Of course, if it was a dragon’s egg that would explain why I can’t identify it. Especially if it’s one of the Greater Dragon species.”
“Dragons are real?” Kedryn and Glade asked together, the Corporal’s eyes getting so big Glade thought they might fall out. His response was more on the incredulous side.
“Oh yes. Even the Lesser Dragons are death incarnate. Let’s pray the egg isn’t one of theirs. Not only would we be in danger if it hatched, any dragon within a league of here would smell it and come investigate.”
“Good to know,” Glade sighed. He had originally wanted to delay talking with them, but it looked like he would have to bring up his little ember sooner than anticipated. He didn’t think it was a Dragon, but if it was, they needed to figure that out sooner than later. “Let's find a private spot to talk and ...”
“They be comin!” someone cried in Dwarfen from further down the tunnel, interrupting Glade midsentence. “The Gnolls are comin! Everyone to arms!”