After respawning, the party sat around their table in the Bird and Baby, they checked their equipment while grumbling about overpowered enemies.
"Seriously", Polly said. "That thing wiped us out with hardly a second thought. Did anyone get a good look at what level it was?
"Yah", Caisin replied. "It was level 23."
"I am struggling to see how a level 23 creature is even allowed in a starter area like this.", Lance shook his head. "We need to get back there before there are reinforcements." Everyone except Lance nodded.
"Hang on, if I am counting correctly, we all have two respawns. I can't ask you to help me anymore with my quest."
Sparky seemed to speak for the group, "Lance, you have been a true friend to me, and I know that I will not forget you even if I am forced to leave this starter area." The mage looked around, "I won't forget any of you."
The party nodded as one, stood and moved to the door. On the way back, Lucinda laid out a plan of attack and they all agreed.
A couple of shadows slipped up to and over the nearly sheer cliff face and then across a small finger of high ground before slipping down the other side into the canyon. Lance and Lucinda approached the cave entrance with great care and as they looked down into the cave mouth they could see the trip wire that the mage and priest had triggered completing the total party wipe. They carefully scanned the landing below and carefully descended to the next level of the stairway, to a place that would be well out of the reach of the giant. Only when they had completed their scan did they carefully return to their party.
The big fat doe that had leaped out of the forest wandered dangerously close to the giant who was sitting directly in the entrance of the valley that led to the dragon's lair. The giant drooled into its beard, obviously hungry as the doe wandered around just out of the behemoth's reach. Finally, the giant rose up tenderly on feet that plainly hurt and lunged for the deer. The deer darted out of the way, again staying just out of reach. The giant arose and lunged again and the deer with preternatural speed darted just out of reach again. On the third cycle, the party sprinted out of the woods unnoticed by the hungry giant in pursuit of its next meal. As they passed into the valley and around the corner the deer suddenly became wise and darted back into the forest in an area with particularly thing undergrowth.
The group of adventurers descended the stairs carefully and eventually found the bottom of the stairwell. Polly was the first to notice that everything was different. Gone were the rows of stone goblins and in their place a castle gate stood open. The wall that bisected the room where the goblins had been reached up to the ceiling thirty feet up and was made up of cut stone covered in lichen and moss. The gates opened into what looked like a maze with the hallway branching three ways just inside the gate.
"We can get to this later, maybe," Lance said. "We have business with a dragon that cannot wait." The party agreed and they headed for the back wall.
Each of the players retrieved their coin and put it in their slots and when all were in the door flashed once and disappeared. But this time the coins did not re-appear. Sparky looked deeply disappointed at this but pushed forward until the corridor lit up like it had the previous time.
"I see you have returned and that you have been successful in your mission friend Lance", the dragon grinned the sort of grin that was both comforting and terrifying at the same time.
Lance saw and quickly cleared a popup in his HUD. "We have sir, would you like the goblin shaman's staff as a memento?", he replied in Greek.
The dragon laughed, "And here are my young adventurers offering me a gift. Yes, I would enjoy that piece as part of my collection and as a reminder of our friendship."
Lance pulled the shaman's staff out of his pack and it floated out of his hands toward the dragon.
Once the staff was prominently settled in the pile of treasure behind the dragon it spoke again, "I believe you have another item of interest with you?"
Lance nodded and pulled the white dragon sword from his inventory. It too floated toward the dragon but it was set aside and not added to the pile. "You have earned the gratitude and assistance of my sibling White. Call on us in your time of need."
"Now, how shall I reward you for your further service?" The dragon pondered for a moment and then in clear English the dragon said, "Step forward Polly."
Polly looked shocked but stepped forward, "Yes Mr. Dragon." And she bowed a little bow.
"You enjoy being useful to others but are not making full use of your abilities. I believe that this will help." A robe extracted itself from the pile of treasure under the dragon and settled into her hand.
"Thank you, sir, I will seek to be worthy of this gift", Poly said as she stepped back.
"Grog, step forward"
Grog came forward and bowed deeply from his waist.
"You are brave and honest and also seek to help others, but have not been good at defending yourself. This should help."
A shiny steel breastplate floated forward and Grog bowed again as he received it and stepped back.
"You are next Caisin."
Caisin stepped forward and bowed the same way Grog had.
"You are brave and bold and love to lead, but you struggle to work as part of a team, I believe that this gift will suit you well."
A ring floated forward and settled into his hands. Caisin bowed and stepped back.
"Sparky master of lightning step forward."
Sparky could not keep the grin off his face as he took his place and bowed.
"You have mastered the mixture of fire and air that makes electricity but have ignored the base power you have been given, these gifts will help you become more balanced."
A pair of gloves floated down the hallway and directly onto Sparky's outstretched hands. He smiled again, bowed, and stepped back.
"Lucinda."
The thief stepped forward and a potion of swirling dark colors fell into her hands. She stepped back.
"And now for you, friend Lance."
Lance stepped forward.
"Of all of you, I understand you the least, a thief who speaks a magical language, a worshipper who will take no god except for an unknown one."
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Lance opened his mouth to speak.
"You can save me your arguments, I am not a real person of the type your God would save, and I also honor your choices. I believe that this gift will help you combine your skills and help you on your journey. A leather breastplate floated down the corridor with a steel cross embedded in the center. The cross glowed slightly with an internal light.
Lance received the dragon's gift and then bowed deeply and stepped back.
The dragon continued, "I understand that you desire to remove Borgakh, the priestess of Dajixian, from this world, and I can understand why.
"While not an atheist, I am a rebel from my god. Draxar the god of dragons is not as chaotic as Dajixian but is just as evil. I found myself tired of the needless destruction and plotting and refused to participate. As a reward, Draxar chained me here. But then the goddess of forests, Dryania, had mercy on me and gave me access to her network of pixies and other creatures and I had a purpose again."
A medallion on a chain floated down the hall and settled around Lance's neck. Lance looked at it and saw it was made of slate and had a dragon carved into it.
"Break this when you need help and White and I will come and assist you. Until then a little more advice may be in order. And here is something else you will need."
A small dagger floated down the corridor and landed in Lance's palm.
"This dagger is made in a similar way to the swords you have returned to us, the ones that kill dragons. This weapon will kill the first orc it draws blood from. Use it to kill Borgakh.
"Dajixian is a god of chaos, so expect a lot of illusion and misdirection. They are also a god of evil, so expect no quarter or honor from them in a fight. In particular, this priestess is very zealous and seeks to sow discord and chaos throughout the Hussar Valley. I believe her destruction will earn you the goodwill of many of your fellow travelers."
"Finally, we have the matter of the very angry Giant above us. Tistia, the goddess of giants, is friendly with my god, but not with Dajixian, so I find it strange that this Giant is working with their forces. It may be that there is some compulsion this giant is under, some evil spell that is causing it to act against its will.
"We will meet again, friends, but for now, it is time to say farewell."
A chorus of "Goodbye" and "Farewell" echoed back to the dragon as the light in the corridor again faded to black.
As soon as the corridor had faded the party left the dragon's area the wall closing up behind them. To Sparky's great delight a pile of gold coins greeted them.
"I got a notification during our conversation with the dragon and I think I know what it says." Grog smiled.
"Me too." Lance chimed in.
Lance pulled up his HUD for the first time in a while and saw the messages
"Level up, you are now level 10, you must choose where to assign your current attribute points before you receive the points for your new level."
"You have gained the ability Learn Weapon: you may now learn a new weapon at an increased pace, practice your ability to increase your level with that weapon."
"You have gained a class upgrade, choose your second class."
Lance immediately moved all of his unassigned points into wisdom and his new unassigned points also went into wisdom raising that stat to 26 from 14.
He held off on choosing his new weapon for now. But he knew the class he wanted: Charlatan which was the Thief -> Cleric path. As soon as he chose his class he was prompted with the following message. "You are now a Cleric of the Unknown God. As such you now have basic cleric-level healing, the ability to detect power, and access to two types of power. See the chart below for more details on the effects of choosing a power type as a Charlatan.
Fire: Elemental attack abilities
Water: Extra healing abilities
Earth: Defensive abilities
Air: Levitation abilities
Light: Illusion abilities
Dark: Sneak abilities
Order: Mapping abilities
Chaos: Anti-detection abilities
The list was not what Lance had expected, he thought clerics were all about healing. He took a moment to ponder his choices. Dark and chaos power would be an amazing complement to his current skills but he wanted to branch out. Fire and Earth would give him more staying ability and an offensive bump, mapping and increased healing would make him more useful to the party as a whole. He had seen the power of the wand of illusions but they had two more casts left on that item. Levitation sounded amazing and again something that would benefit both himself and the party. In the end, he chose Air and Fire one for utility and one for offense.
Another prompt appeared, "Your power bar is now available and filled based on your Wisdom and Willpower stats. This power will be used to use power-based abilities out of your skill book, if you run out of power you will not be able to use any power-based spells until your power regenerates."
Lance got up and moved away from the group about 20 feet and sat down. He placed a dagger they had found on some mob in his lap and took out the small metal pen he had received from the witch's hut. He inscribed words on the blade, which took easily, and when he did he willed to push his power into the item. Something seemed to be blocking the power.
"So, Cletus, what am I doing wrong?"
"You have the right idea, but that enchantment requires light power; therefore you can't finish this enchanting. Probably would have blown up even if you did."
"Everything okay, Lance?" Polly asked.
"Yup, just trying some potentially dangerous stuff over here. Didn't want you to get hurt."
Polly nodded with a worried expression, "Take care then."
Lance put the dagger away in his bag and pulled his sword out of its sheath. He pulled out his enchanting pen again and stopped.
"Hey Cletus, can an item have more than one enchantment?"
"Yes, depends on the weapon but this one here can hold a lot of enchantments if need be."
"How are they activated then."
"Everything is intent-based, you can even make them action-based by writing the correct enchantment."
Lance then carefully inscribed the following two enchantments in a small fine script on the two sides of the sword.
"Καυτή φωτιά κατά την επίθεση" or "Hot fire when attacking"
"Έντονη φωτιά όταν κρατιέται ψηλά" or "Bright fire when held aloft"
Lance then attempted to push his power points into the newly inscribed weapon.
A dialog box popped up, "This weapon can take a total of 3000 power for enchanting. Which inscription do you wish to empower?"
Lance chose the attack enchantment and pushed all the power he had available to him, 260 points, into the inscription which then began glowing with a bright light, eventually fading to a dull but constant blue glow."
"Do you wish to empower more inscriptions at this time?"
Lance chose "No" and sat back admiring his handiwork but then frowned and picked up the pen again. He carefully inscribed the following on the blade just above the cross guard on both sides, "Soli Deo Gloria".
He sheathed his newly enchanted sword and returned to the group.
"What did you choose, Grog?" He asked as he drew near.
"I am now a Paladin and I chose fire and earth."
"Awesome, I also chose the cleric path, but my name is not as nice. I am now a Charlatan. I chose fire and air."
"Hmm, air is an interesting choice. Have you looked at your new skills yet?"
Lance pulled up his HUD and then his skill book flipping to the pages for fire and air. And read:
Fire
Description
Cost
Minor Fire Bolt
Causes a minor fire bolt to be released out of the caster's extended pointer finger causing minor damage and potentially igniting any flammable material in its path.
40 power
Fire Bolt
Causes a fire bolt to be released out of the caster's extended pointer finger causing moderate damage and potentially igniting any flammable material in its path.
80 power
Air
Description
Cost
Self Hover
Causes the caster to hover four to six inches above the ground. Caster may move normally (walking, running) but any small obstacles (rocks, caltrops, etc.) can be ignored and any chasm ten feet across or less may be crossed automatically.
5 power per second
Small Air Blast
Causes a blast of air from the infinitesimal to small range in power to occur at a place (within twenty feet of the caster) and at a direction all chosen by the caster.
20 power
Lance was a little disappointed with not being able to fully levitate himself but figured that skill would come as he leveled his Air skill. Overall he was pleased in the change to his character.
"I got a couple of fire bolt variations and the ability to hover and cause small blasts of air." Lance replied to Grog.
Grog smiled, "That is awesome. My fire abilities are more weapon based and my earth abilities allow me to increase my armor and my weight."
"Nice." Lance replied.
"Not to but in." Caisin butted in, "But what are we doing next?"
"I don't see why we shouldn't go after Borgakh right now.", Grog said.
"I agree, except for two things." Lance said, "We need to get past that Giant outside and I want a good nights sleep before we set out."
Everyone nodded.