“Back you foul creatures! In Grindel’s name, I command you! Back!” a voice rang through the forest, barely heard through the trees as Jim stealthed his way closer to the heart of the Ubarion Peninsula.
“First person I’ve heard in like two weeks,” Jim muttered to himself as he picked up his pace and moved toward the voice. “Sounds like it’s one of the Paladins they sent out here to keep the undead from spreading too far. What are they doing so deep in the Peninsula?”
“Back!” the voice called out again. “I will smite you with Grindel’s might if I must! Back!”
“Are they afraid to fight the undead?” Jim asked aloud as he moved through the forest, the voice growing louder. “Or are they cornered by some wolves or something? I hope it’s not more wolves, all the prey ran away from the undead and the predators dumb enough to stick around are getting sick and starving. I can’t get any meat from them and if I can’t restock my Bag of Colding with fresh food soon, I’ll start starving myself.”
Following the shouting voice, Jim moved toward it as quickly as he could without making any noise and he soon came on the scene he only mildly expected to find.
Standing back against a tree, spear brandished threateningly as they cowered as far behind their shield they could get, was a person wearing chainmail and a tabard with the symbol of Grindel prominently displayed on the front. Surrounding the tree, growling and snarling were four wolves, mangy and clearly ill, the beasts’ rib cages stretched their skin and showed signs of clear starvation among all four of them.
“Back!” the armored man, by his voice, yelled at the snarling wolves. “Back I say!”
With a quiet sigh, Jim nocked one of his unenchanted arrows and took aim at the wolf closest to himself. He imagined that to the cowering man, an arrow suddenly sprouting from the wolf’s neck, killing it immediately, as another two flew through the air and impacted more of the wolves was a sight that was as close to a miracle if there ever had been.
Snapping and bleeding, the only wolf to survive taking one of Jim’s arrows lunged in his direction just as another arrow ended its flight through the air to take the poor creature in its throat. Since he was distracted by the sight of most of his tormentors dying so suddenly, the man was distracted as the last wolf charged him and crashed into his shield knocking him to the ground and snapping hungrily at his soft throat hoping to get an easy meal from the whole ordeal.
By luck more than his skill, the man’s shield was knocked back into him as the wolf crashed into him, and neatly covered his face well enough that the wolf was unable to get at its target. Snarling and growling, the wolf jumped off the man and took off into the woods at its fastest speed as Jim ran forward and aimed a kick at the creature.
Missing the wolf that was now in full retreat, Jim’s foot instead impacted the man’s back as he rolled with the wolf’s jump and took the full weight of Jim’s kick on his kidney.
Screaming and gasping in pain, the man curled into a ball as Jim swore and comically jumped up and down to keep his balance while cradling his foot.
“Son of a bitch!” Jim screamed.
“Grindel save me!” the man begged.
As the two dealt with their respective injuries in their own way, they entirely failed to notice the two people, also bearing Grindel’s symbol, who walked into the area and watched them.
“Found Garric,” one of the two said bluntly. “I think he found the Cartographer, too.”
“With all the yelling he was doing, I think the Cartographer found him,” the other said as Jim finally lost his balance and fell down. “I think they’ll be fine.”
“It was lucky for me you came along when you did!” Garric insisted to his fellow Paladin as the other member of their party tended to Jim and his various bruises from nearly two weeks roughing it through the woods while avoiding undead as best he could. “That damned man tried to kill me, I tell you! By Grindel’s eyes, I swear it!”
“So you’ve said,” the Paladin said with a deep sigh. “But again, I would tell you to look around and see the three, slain wolves that were menacing you and to remember the fourth that was attempting to savage you. The Cartographer was saving your life and a bit of bad luck for both of you collided.”
“The only luck I’ve had is good luck!” Garric insisted. “If you and Sera hadn’t come along then, I’d be dead!”
“He seems really worked up,” Jim observed to the woman, a Priestess of Grindel, as she healed his broken toe. “Doesn’t seem to care that he’s the reason for my worst injury after three weeks without help or seeing a town.”
“Garric’s always been a little….. Emotional,” the woman said.
“I heard that!” Garric yelled before the other Paladin pulled his attention back to himself.
“Only a little?” Jim smirked.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Anything else is rude to say aloud,” Sera said. “How does that feel? Grindel’s miracles and Divine Spells aren’t known for their healing abilities.”
“It’s much better,” Jim assured her as he wiggled his toes and felt no pain. “Thanks a bunch.”
“It is no trouble,” the Priestess said with a smile. “High Priest Chesterfield sent the three of us to seek you out so that we could offer you supplies and any aid that you might need. I was chosen because of my mastery of Grindel’s gifts of healing.”
“Was Garric supposed to be the one that ran through the whole place screaming my name until you found me?” Jim asked jokingly.
“Perhaps,” she said with a smile as she tried to hide her laughter.
“Sera!” Garric said. “Come away from him! He attacked me! Clearly he is in league with the necromancers responsible for this undead plague!”
“Garric, give it a rest,” the older Paladin said with a sigh. “You’ve seen the portraits of the Cartographer, you know that this is him. He already apologized. Just let it go.”
“But-” Garric started.
“Let. It. Go.” the older Paladin ordered with a glare as his patience finally ran out.
“Yes, Sir Cobb,” Garric said quietly.
“Finally,” Cobb said with a sigh as he massaged his forehead. “To be absolutely clear, you are the Cartographer that we’re looking for, Jim, isn’t it?”
“That’s me,” Jim said with a nod. “Good to see you guys.”
“Yes, a pleasure,” Cobb said. “We were ordered to bring you supplies and take back any messages that you might wish to send. Grandmaster Ripspell was kind enough to agree to send us close to you and give us a way back.”
“Oh, awesome,” Jim said. “I hope you brought more arrows. I’m running low.”
“We have a great deal of them,” Cobb said, tapping at the pack that he carried on his back. “The wonders of spatial magics.”
“Awesome,” Jim grinned. “We should find a better spot to make camp than here. Come on, follow me. We’ll make camp, you can give me the supplies, and I’ll send you guys back with a copy of the map I’ve made so far.”
“Lead on,” Sera said with a smile.
“This is surprisingly detailed,” Sera observed as she watched Jim copy his rougher drawings of his map into one coherent whole on a sheet of parchment paper. “What are these circular lines for? I’ve not seen their like on other maps.”
“They’re for elevation,” Jim explained. “The idea is that everything inside of one circle, no matter how big, is a certain distance above the ‘zero point.’ Most people use sea level for that, but I don’t know how much higher or lower we are from that, so I made my zero the ground back here.”
Tapping his cruder map that filled multiple pages of his journal, Jim indicated the lowest point he could remember being.
“And all these landmarks,” Sera said quietly. “You were able to keep track of how high you moved while still keeping an eye out for these?”
“I wouldn’t put too much stock in my contouring,” Jim told her. “Since I don’t have any special equipment or spells, I had to go by memory and eye-balling it all. The best I was able to do was tell myself that there were hills here and there and they went about this high. Honestly, the contouring I did for the points that went deeper, like the ravines over here, is much more accurate in what it covers, since I was able to walk around them. They’re the points that I cross-hatched through, like here.”
“Just knowing the rough location of hills, ravines, and other changes in the landscapes will be most useful,” Cobb said. “Sir Nargen and High Priest Chesterfield are always saying that hills can hide anything behind them and if you don’t know that the land falls beyond your sight, then your foes can hide an entire army behind the horizon.”
“That’s probably why the armies back home started looking into elevation on maps,” Jim said. “It ended up being super useful, so everyone else picked it up too.”
“Are you sure that you only want to send back this copy?” Sera asked as Jim finished transferring his map-making efforts onto the parchment. “We are capable of carrying letters if you wish them delivered.”
“I’m sure,” Jim told her. “Last Stars like me can contact one another back on our world and keep in touch that way. Since I don’t have any natives that I’m friendly enough with to send letters to, I’ve been able to keep in touch with everyone else I needed to talk to and see.”
“Very well,” Sera said as she accepted the now rolled-up map and slid it into a waterproof, leather tube. “On behalf of all of Grindel’s children, and all the peoples of this world, thank you for your efforts.”
“No problem,” Jim said with a smile. “Now, I remember someone mentioned some supplies, so let’s get to that part! I’ve got some arrows to enchant!”
“Enchanting arrows?” Cobb asked. “Seems like a waste. Doesn’t the magic destroy them after they hit something?”
“It tends to,” Jim said as the older man and a grumbling Garric began to reach into the pack and pull out many bundles of arrows, all tied together in bunches of twenty. Without wasting any time or standing on ceremony, Jim pulled out his rune chisel and began to carve his most useful Glyphs onto the arrows before sliding them into his Deep Quiver. After nearly thirty minutes of carving, his mana finally bottomed out and he looked up to see the others all staring patiently at him.
“Sorry,” he said with a wince. “Like I said earlier, I was nearly out of arrows. Don’t think I had any that would have stood up to being enchanted either since they were ones I made with flint, untreated wood, and raw feathers. I kind of needed to work on restocking some enchanted ones in case Common Undead showed up. Again.”
“It is fine,” Cobb said. “It’s not often that I’m in the field anymore, but even I know the importance of maintaining your gear and combat capabilities. Now that we have you back with us, we have the rest of the supplies to give you. Mostly food-stuff, and not the sort that I would have expected to be bringing someone in the current situation.”
“Great.” Jim said with a grin as he pulled his Bag of Colding from his waist and held it open. “Just toss it all in here.”
“Bag of Colding?” Cobb said as he examined the item critically. “A sound investment for field exploration. Most just reach for a Bag of Holding.”
“This was cheaper,” Jim shrugged. “By a lot. It made more sense to buy this and keep all my food in here so it didn’t spoil than to buy a bunch of rations when I knew I’d get sick of them a lot sooner than I thought I would.”
“Plus,” he added, “other than arrows and some extra clothes, I really didn’t need to have all the extra space that a Bag of Holding gives since I was going to be on the move a lot.”
“True,” Cobb agreed as he reached into his pack and began to pull out fresh vegetables and fruit. “Very true.”