Current Quests
Secret In The Monastery: Reach a safe zone without the cultists raising the alarm.
Dave and Hugh remained silent while the builder cultists were in adjoining rooms, just in case. Once the cultists left, they made a slow journey back to the inside of the building. Once inside, on a whim, Dave looked up the location on his map.
“Chateau Chamois? I thought this was a monastery?” asked Dave.
“It is!” gasped Hugh. His wounds were starting to swell and it was increasingly difficult for him to move. “It was owned by a wealthy noble about sixty years ago who died with no heir and donated it to the church. It’s been a monastery retreat since.”
“Okay, that sounds like a rich person thing to do, sure.”
“Do you have a plan to get us out of here?”
“Nope, this is your house. Didn’t you want to go to the abbot’s room?”
“Yes, his study.” Hugh took a key ring from his pocket. “The abbot gave these to me before he died.” Hugh’s face fell. “He just ran into the lunch room, bleeding from the stomach, pressed the keys into my hands, shouted that we’re under attack and died. Right there. Leaning against the door.”
“That sucks, mate,”
“Sucks?”
“Ugh, colloquialism. It means, that’s awful.”
Hugh nodded.
“Why do we need to get to his study?” asked Dave.
Hugh snapped out of his traumatising reverie.
“Hmm? Oh, yes. Because that’s where the safe is. It’s full of essences and awakening stones! We’ve been preparing to summon someone like you for months but… circumstances. Doesn’t matter now. The thing is, we have the key and they don't, so we should be able to get into the safe, give you a bunch of powers and probably escape.”
“Why don’t we just climb out a window and run off to the nearest town?” asked Dave, bewildered at why the highly cerebral monk’s first idea was to go full action hero on the cultists.
“Open up your map. You see the cliffs and the grounds?” instructed Hugh.
Dave did as asked.
“Yep.”
“Then you can see the entire building is on an outcropped cliff. It curves around with the cliff on one side and a vineyard on the other? Well, the vineyard wall is two-and-a-bit metres high and runs from cliff-to-cliff with a gate, trapping us on this outcrop. They left a few men guarding the gate. Anybody climbing the wall will be seen and be stabbed on the jump down.”
Now that Hugh had pointed it out, Dave very much could see that. The house and grounds were like a giant letter D with the curve being cliffs, the chateau at the apex of the curve and the vineyard fence made the straight line of the D.
“So, we need magic powers to either level the playing field or find a way out?” said Dave.
“Personally, I’m hoping we just get some legendary rarity stones that give you a teleport-with-a-friend ability,” said Hugh, a hint of a plea to his voice.
“Any thoughts on how to get to this study?”
“Stealth murder?”
“Already played out. They’re searching for us.”
“Sneak?”
“How many ways are there out of this workshop, cellar and accommodation side of the house?”
“...One.”
“What? There aren’t doors leading to the outside? Windows even?”
“Well, yes but the gate guards will see us!”
Dave chewed his own lip in thought and then had an idea.
“But if we’re dressed as builder cultists?”
Hugh also brightened up.
“They’re all dressed in yellow and red. They’ll just see Builder cultists!”
Ten minutes later, the Builder cultists watching the vineyard and guarding the gate saw two of their fellows open a servant’s door at the cellars and make the long walk across the vineyard back to the front door.
“Must’ve got lost,” said one.
The other cultist next to him peered at the duo and just shrugged.
Hugh was white in the face and sweating from the pain of walking. They didn’t dare allow him to be supported while in view of the guards in case of awkward questions but they’d made it inside.
Dave was navigating mostly by the minimap, checking constantly for any red dots.
“I’ll hold you now,” said Dave and draped Hugh’s left arm over his shoulder so that the monk could hobble along one-legged.
Hugh nodded but awkwardly turned around, took the keys out of his pocket and locked the double doors leading outside.
“May as well,” he said and began going up some stairs and through some ostentatious doors.
Their luck was terrible. They’d accidentally chosen the wing that the cultists had decided to give the first thorough search of and had to double-back twice to avoid being caught. With Hugh slowing him down, it was difficult to find enough time between roaming cultists to make the hobbling dash to another safe hiding place, especially since this aristocratic residence was more roomy with longer halls and bigger rooms leading to a smaller frequency of doors to hide behind. By the time they made it to the spiral stairs leading to the abbot’s study, Hugh was dangerously white, sweaty and shaking. Dave was pretty sure he’d opened up some of his wounds with exertion and was bleeding through the improvised bandages. Dave practically carried him up the stairs, tiring himself out.
“Well then, come in!” said a reedy voice from inside the room, causing Dave and Hugh to freeze. “I don’t bite. Not unless you fools start getting scared of monks again. My idiot brother no doubt defied me and had his hands in the loot before clearing the house.”
While the villain was monologuing, Dave’s eyes drifted to the door. It was slightly ajar. He looked at Hugh.
“They picked it,” he whispered.
Dave bit the bullet and went for it. They were still in Builder cultist clothes and this man didn’t seem like the kind to remember all of his employees.
“Oh, yes lord! Good news, actually,” said Dave nervously.
Dave unslung Hugh’s arm leaving him leaning against the wall, opened the door just enough to slide into the room and advanced into the rather comfortable looking office with his head down.
“I just wanted to show you some keys we found on a monk we killed, lord,” said Dave as he advanced with his head down, grateful that Builder cultists enjoyed a cowled robe. He looked up just enough to see that a thin-set, balding man was staring at a large, iron safe set into the wall with what looked like lock-picking tools arranged on the large desk behind him. Dave selected him and found him labelled as ‘Builder Cultist Aristocrat’.
“Stop! Monk? I said to make sure you kill the outworlder, I don’t care about any monks,” snapped the aristocrat, turning around briefly.
“Yes, lord, of course!” grovelled Dave, “but since we knew you were working on the safe we thought you’d appreciate the keys. Maybe save a bit of time, lord?”
“Well, that’s true. Give them here, then!” ordered the aristocrat.
Dave walked over fumbling in his pocket for fake keys. Dave chanced a look at the man and saw that the man had turned towards him. In that moment he and Dave locked eyes and Dave knew he’d been made.
“Ice bolt!”
“Dispel!”
The aristocrat’s palm had extended towards Dave and grown an icy, blue crystal before Dave arrested the magic. Dave charged around the table towards the momentarily confused aristocrat, who was stretching out his palm for another try at an ice bolt, and performed a rugby tackle, driving the aristocrat off his feet and onto the ground. He punched Dave hard in the head and tried to scramble backwards to his feet but Dave leapt forwards, putting his body over the aristocrat’s hips, pinning him down.
“Ice bolt!”
“Dispel!”
Dave still had most of his mana but didn’t know how expensive ice bolt would be as a spell and hoped it wouldn’t come to a mana race. The aristocrat clearly had some martial arts skills as he attempted to perform chain punches on Dave who responded by putting the base of his palms over where his eyebrows should be in a boxer’s shell and leaned down through the blows until he was chest-to-chest with the man on the ground.
“Ice bolt!”
“Dispel!”
The man was scrabbling, clearly not having been taught much, if any, wrestling arts. Dave moved his hands from his own face down to the cultist’s lapels, got a deep, cross-collar grip with both hands on the aristocrat’s thick robes and started choking the man, bearing down on him with all his weight.
The aristocrat stopped trying to punch and yanked at Dave’s hands to get oxygen back in his lungs. He managed to hold up Dave’s weight for a few seconds and gasped for breath.
“Ice bolt!”
“Dispel!”
Dave continued bearing down on him as the aristocrat’s struggles got more frantic with panic, scratching at Dave’s eyes and face. Dave didn’t even notice that Hugh had entered the room and so was surprised when Hugh collapsed into the brawl above the aristocrat’s head and grabbed the man’s wrists, restraining him as Dave choked him unconscious.
When the body went limp, Dave drew a hunting knife from his inventory and, fighting down rising bile, stabbed into the cultist’s jugular vein. The body started sparking, Dave looted and checked his text box. One hundred and fifty ice quintessence. Nice.
His quest, secret in the monastery, was done and Hugh had a question mark above his head for Dave to turn in. He touched Hugh’s arm and got a belt of arrow holding as a reward and a racial ability evolution. He mentally clicked the text hyperlink and a notification window opened up in Dave’s vision.
Quest: [Secret In The Monastery]
Objective complete: Reach a safe zone without the cultists raising the alarm.
Reward: Racial ability evolution. Your racial ability [Stranger In A Strange Land] has evolved to include [Bringer Of Change].
Bonus objective complete: Bring the monk of Knowledge with you.
Bonus Reward: Extra racial ability evolution. Your racial ability [Bringer Of Change] also affects allies.
Dave looked at the ability quickly. Bringer Of Change: Awakening stones that you apply to yourself or others are more likely to have rare, powerful and synergistic effects. That seemed good! He got a new quest from the centre of the desk which he tapped and skimmed the text of: Escape The Chateau. It was pretty much what the title was.
Hugh was still on the ground, looking worse for wear. Dave helped him crawl away from the spreading pool of blood and then poured a cup of water from a pitcher on the desk, brought it to Hugh and helped him lift his head to drink.
“Lock the door,” said Hugh weakly, taking out the keys and offering one to Dave.
Dave went to the door, closed it and locked it, came back, dragged the bleeding body onto a decorative rug and then covered the body with the rug and dragged it off to the side of the circular room.
“Is there anything in here that can help you? Healing potions? Are they a thing?” asked Dave.
“They are but we don’t have any. Justin panicked and poured our emergency supply of potions down the dead abbot’s face while he -” Hugh’s voice cracked. “I should’ve stopped him but I didn’t want - I’d have had to knock him or something out to stop him. He was in such a panic.”
“Hey, don’t think about that. Surely this abbot kept some snacks in here? You need your strength.”
“Sweet biscuits in the bottom drawer,” said Hugh, pointing.
Dave got them from the drawer and sat with Hugh while he sipped water and nibbled on the biscuits while resting, wiping tears from his eyes.
“They’re all dead,” said Hugh. “Good workmates. Fellow worshippers.”
“Hugh, look at me,” said Dave firmly, looking straight into Hugh’s eyes. “Now isn’t the time to mourn. Now is the time for recovering strength and decisive action. Okay?
Hugh locked eyes with Dave and nodded.
“Besides, we got a bit of our own back, didn’t we? Now, let me change your bandages then, we can open that safe and wreak havoc,” said Dave with as much satisfaction as he could.
Hugh pointed out the emergency medical supplies in an open chest that was definitely missing potions but was, thankfully, full of real bandages and a healing ointment suitable for superficial wounds.
“My wounds aren’t superficial but it’ll help with the clotting,” said Hugh.
Dave dutifully applied some healing salve into Hugh’s wounds, seeing for the first time how deep they were. The leg wound was halfway through the side of the leg into the muscle and the chest wound had cut to the rib bones. He winced in sympathetic pain with Hugh as he applied the ointments but knew that doing a good job was more important than sparing Hugh any pain. He finished with a compression bandage and helped the pained monk into the desk chair.
“Ooh, you’re a terrible nurse. I almost bit my own tongue!” gasped Hugh.
“Fair, but you’ll be fine now, right?” asked Dave.
Hugh nodded, already looking a bit better.
“Did you notice what the aristocrat said before we fought?” asked Dave.
Hugh shook his head wearing a curious look.
“He said that he’d asked his men to kill the outworlder and that’s me, right? He said he didn’t care about the monks, only that they killed me. How could they know about me? You didn’t know you’d summon me, didn’t you say?”
“Yes. That’s weird. This is an astral research centre of Knowledge. I guess that somehow the Builder cult figured out we were doing research into duplicating the Asano event and thought we’d already done it?” said Hugh, clearly speculating.
“Doesn’t matter right now,” said Dave. “Just that I know they’ll continue hunting me even if I escape. Thoughts for my future self. They’re trying to kill us right now. Anyway, shall we?”
Dave gestured at the safe and Hugh nodded. Dave walked over to the safe with the keys and unlocked it. It was a large safe, set into the wall but not hidden and upon opening, Dave saw that most of the bottom of it was taken up with a large, jewellery box which he heaved onto the table in front of Hugh.
“Okay, what’ve we got?” said Dave, handing the keychain back to Hugh.
“I don’t know, I’m just a technician,” said the confounded monk, gingerly shifting in his chair. “I wasn’t given an inventory list of our secret essence stash.”
“Fair enough. We’ll just have to figure it out, eh?” said Dave, trying to reassure the still pale holy man who nodded. “You should do the honours and open it. After all, you summoned a being from another universe to get here today. You may as well look at the riches before I eat them all.”
Hugh grinned a bit, opened the jewellery box and glanced inside.
“Oh! Err…” said the monk.
“Well?” Said Dave.
“It’s quite a lot but nothing good. So-to-speak,” said the monk, exposing all the layers of the box, which was bigger on the inside, and displayed many stones.
“What do you mean?” said Dave and together they started browsing through the stones, the monk recognising stones with learned knowledge and Dave by selecting them and seeing the tooltip.
“Well, just looking at the lot, there’s nothing epic or legendary here. But, I suppose that's to be expected. This whole astral research centre was supposed to be a bit secretive.” said Hugh, browsing through the essences before him, putting one of each unique type on the table and putting the duplicates back in the box.
“And, transporting anything but common goods would have attracted questions, I suspect?” said Dave, taking over from the monk making a display of the range of essences. Hugh sat back in the desk chair with a pained groan.
“I expect so. I, for one, am regretting that now,” said Hugh to the ceiling with closed eyes. “Be really great right now if there was a… I don’t know. Renewal, potent and… dimension or something.”
“Would they be good?” asked Dave, putting yet another hand essence aside.
“You’d probably be able to heal me and then hopefully gate me to a safer place!” groaned Hugh.
Dave shortly finished lining up all the different essences, having decided, upon reflection, to put all the duplicates into his inventory. Hugh was in no condition to carry them.
“Well, that’s the lot. These things are thematic, right? It’s good to pick ones that go with each other? That’s the impression I got from my help menu,” said Dave and looked to Hugh for reassurance who was nodding along. “Well, this one seems good. A knowledge essence? I like knowledge.”
Dave trailed off and mused upon the other uncommon essences. A balance, a couple of feast, a flesh, a mirror. He looked for themes. He guessed that mirror and hammer were always bad together. Flesh, rat and trap? Well, that’d give very different results depending on which side you were looking at it from. Light, sword and balance seemed likely to make him a jedi so, he kept that in mind.
“Read the manual,” wheezed Hugh gesturing at the safe. Dave quickly popped over to it and took out two books from inside. They were published by the Magic Society. That seemed good. It gave the impression that there were professionals for this kind of thing, which seemed properly organised on the face of it. The books were titled, ‘The Abridged Guide To Essences’ and ‘The Iron Ranker’s Field Guide To Awakening Stones’.
Dave flipped open the Abridged Guide and looked at the chapters. He saw that it was mostly a technical book of definitions where you could look up an essence, what its common powers were and what to expect from life with that essence. He had a thought.
“We’re short of time, aren’t we Hugh?” asked Dave.
“Yep," said the man who was thoroughly enjoying the act of slow breathing around a chest injury.
“Since I’ve already got the book in hand. I technically have access to the information?” Dave persisted.
“Where are you going with this?”
“Your goddess already knows the answers?”
“You know she can’t do things for you. There’s rules!”
“Yes, but she can talk to you and if I tell you what I’m looking for and you’re guided to narrow down my options, we’d save a lot of time and she wouldn’t be letting me know anything I couldn’t find out for myself.”
Hugh paused, seemed to be waiting to hear more and then deflated.
“Speak,” said Hugh, cautiously optimistic.
Dave stared seriously at the table. What he mostly knew about himself is that in gaming, jiu-jitsu and pharmaceuticals, what he was the best at was strategies that were planned, methodical and, to everyone watching, a series of economical decisions leading to an inescapable victory. It often worked out quite well because if he’d made a bad decision, you could often see the inevitable lack of victory coming and just go do a different plan instead. In gaming, which seemed the closest touchstone for this world to Dave, he’d always been good at playing a solid support character. Never charging in, but organising the charge well and making sure that whoever did charge in, would win when they got there.
“This is a magical world. Magic is power here and I’ve already got the magic essence so, give me a list of the possibilities in front of me that’ll make me a really good wizard. Or, an archmage. I want really good magic, I think,” said Dave, nodding to himself.
“Quill. You write,” said Hugh, gesturing for Dave to take notes as he dictated his goddess’s words. “Adept and pretty much anything but especially staff, balance, any elemental, knowledge or song. Knowledge and mirror. Knowledge and… book? Are you sure, Goddess? Well, of course you are.”
Hugh lay back down wincing again.
Dave looked those combinations up quickly. Magic and adept almost always paired to make the Master confluence no matter the third essence but that third essence would set the theme of what spells or abilities were being mastered. For example If he picked the sword essence with magic and adept, he’d likely get sword and sorcery abilities. A real spellblade. If he picked staff, probably spells and magic staff abilities.
He kept on reading. Magic, balance and any elemental ability made you a solid caster of that element. A fire mage, a water mage and an earth mage were possibilities. Magic, knowledge and song made for the bard confluence which Dave dismissed immediately. The Beatles were his favourite band but music was not his talent. Magic, knowledge and mirror were interesting, producing the mystic confluence, likely to give abilities around revealing and deceiving but magic, knowledge and book gave an interesting confluence essence…
“Spellbook? I get more spells?” asked Dave.
“No, not really. I suppose she mentioned that one for completeness. Nobody uses that one. Not adventurers. Mostly for industrial applications,” said Hugh.
“Why’s that?” inquired Dave.
“Their spells aren’t cast from mana anymore. Or, they are but not in the same way. You still have mana but you can’t cast spells from it. The spells use spell slots which take half a day or more to recharge. Real powerful spells, I hear, but only a handful of spells at once.” He chuckled. “There’s jokes about them. What did the booker do after his first kill? Yeah? He went home!”
Hugh smiled at his own joke but Dave kept reading.
“It says that they have to write their own spells, these spells are effectively cast at a rank higher than these bookers actually are? Why aren’t they just… careful with their spells?” asked Dave. He was confused. These guys sounded great! Not limited to a single set of abilities, able to adapt to any situation. In theory, sure. But, he felt like it was a good theory.
“No idea. The goddess says that you’re not wrong.” mumbled Hugh, sinking as far into his chair as he could. “She says, follow your instincts.”
Dave set his jaw, picked up the knowledge essence. It was an oblong stone covered in irregular dots and every dot was connected to every dot immediately around it via crack-like structures like an interconnected network. He lay down on the floor, scrunched up a bit of his robe, stuffed it in his mouth and activated the essence in his hand. The stone dissolved into a mist that went for his face and streamed into his eyes, nose, ears and mouth. He revisited the pain from earlier. It felt like taking in steam that settled deep inside of you. Dave rode it out until it was gone and then checked his chat box. You have used: [Knowledge essence] you have gained a new knowledge ability, [Epistemology]. Dave selected the tooltip to get more information about his new ability.
Epistemology: Using this ability allows the user to learn facts that are widely available in public libraries of the goddess Knowledge or other archives you have been given access to about an object or person using keywords. E.g. ‘value’ can be used on items and ‘vulnerabilities’ on monsters.
Dave quoted the text for Hugh’s benefit and immediately used the ability on a dead cultist.
You have used [Epistemology] on [Builder cultist] querying [vulnerabilities]. None.
“Hmph,” said Dave, “well, I suppose the vulnerabilities are a bit late to ask you.”
He selected a candle and used the ability again to query ‘materials’.
You have used [Epistemology] on [Candle] querying [Materials]. Beeswax. Cotton, braided.
“Okay, cool.” said Dave.
“Candles are hot,” murmured Hugh, confused.
Dave picked up the book essence which unsurprisingly, looked like a stack of paper fused together. If a book could fossilise, it’d look like this essence. Lying back down with a mouth full of robe, Dave absorbed the essence. This time, the visual effect was of the essence breaking into individual paper leaves which fluttered on an ethereal wind straight at Dave’s skin, pushing into his body.
You have used: [Book Essence] you have gained a new Book ability, [Paper Mill]. Once again, Dave tooltipped. This spell creates a desired paper construction the size of a large book for the caster in a desired shape. High mana. One hour cooldown. There was a section to select for more information which Dave briefly looked at. It went into his menu and gave him more technical information about the spell’s mechanics that he ignored for now because right at the moment, three glowing orbs came out of his body, rotated around each other in a complex pattern, briefly merged their light and became his confluence essence hanging intangibly in the air. Dave reached out and took it with his hand.
From his text box, he saw it was his anticipated Spellbook essence. Dave squared his shoulders and stepped into the adjoining bathroom. He’d read briefly about the purging which happened after absorbing a confluence essence and he wanted to be prepared. He took off all of his clothes, placed them outside the door and sat right over the drainage grate in the middle of the floor. He looked at the spellbook essence. Ultimately, it was just a large quartz with a miniature book in the centre but it was elegant and neat.
Dave activated his confluence essence and watched as the crystal-bound book levitated, glowed, dissolved leaving only the book behind and promptly shot into his forehead. When he finished whimpering, Dave checked his text box. You have used [Spellbook essence]. You have gained a new Spellbook ability [Vancian Spell Slots of Eldritch Capacity]. All spells are cast at ten ranks higher in power with additional effects. Dave clicked the spell slots button and read more about his abilities.
These spells are cast with magical power equivalent to ten ranks higher than their actual level, although they do not progress into the next rank of magic. You have four natural spell slots, with additional slots available through mana regeneration or restoration abilities and each method provides one extra slot. Spell slots recharge within a maximum of twelve hours, with recharge times reduced based on your Spirit attribute. Once fully recharged, a spell slot can be assigned a spell, allowing that spell to be cast. Spells derived directly from essence abilities are always available and can be cast through any spell slot without needing assignment.
Dave was halfway through reading when the purging came upon him. This was the process of the body going up a magical rank, where the body rejected all the magical impurities inside of it which manifested as ‘noxious effluent’. Or, so he’s read. Even with the warning, it was brutal.
He vomited black gunk, puss came out of his tear ducts and he sweated a thick, foul-smelling slime. It came in waves making ten seconds feel like a full minute. Dave convulsed as he coughed up something long and stringy from his lungs and something acidic came from his ears. He gasped for breath in time for another wave to hit and handfuls of snot streamed from his nose.
Eventually the waves faded and he was glad to find a pail of soapy water afterwards and scrubbed off the worst but it wasn’t enough. He pulled on a lever he found to make more water splash down on him. He was still using a wet towel to sponge his body when Hugh called him in a fierce whisper.
“Dave. Dave!”
Dave poked his head out from the bathroom.
“What is it?”
“Outside!” hissed Hugh.
Dave listened, forgetting his own sickening stench for a moment. The cultists that were stationed outside at the gate were at the door and shouting, asking if everything was going alright inside. Dave realised that the drain must lead straight outside and not into a septic tank. The wind from the cliff would be blowing the smell of the purged material towards the guards who’d come to the door to investigate.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Oh, shit.” said Dave as the sound of the cultists died down and the sound of them hammering on the large main door came up to them in the tower.
“There’s nothing for it,” said Hugh, his eyes wide. “You’ve already taken the spellbook essence. You can’t cast with your mana pool, can you?”
Dave felt for his own powers and noticed his HUD had switched to show a new resource; four iron rank spell slots across the bottom of his HUD and he felt two new spells, [Dispel And Quell Magic] and [Paper Mill Production], in his mind, able to be channelled through one of these new slots. His stomach dropped and Dave shook his head at Hugh.
“Well, start on awakening stones! You might get a useful ability,” said Hugh in a hushed voice. “Here, I got some likely looking ones lined up. Here, take this first. A preparation stone. It’s likely to give you your spellbook.”
Dave took it, used it and read from his text box. You have used [awakening stone of preparation]. You have gained a new knowledge ability [Stop and Think]. This ability gives the user the ability to stop time for a short time excluding their own senses and thoughts.
“Ugh, I can stop time to think a bit,” reported Dave.
“Well that’s good, we do need time right now!” blurted Hugh.
Dave looked at the table full of awakening stones and used his new ability. Time stopped. He couldn’t move, not even his eyeballs. He couldn’t breathe. But, somehow, that was fine. He guessed time had stopped so he didn’t need to breathe. Fortunately, his HUD still worked so he selected all of the awakening stones on the table one-by-one and mentally made a list to put aside for now.
He let time proceed, picked up the awakening stone book and used [Stop And Think] several more times while on the pages describing the stones he’d just looked at, compared the information about his own abilities in his HUD and then at the advice section at the beginning of the book. In all, it only took a few moments of real time.
“Okay, I have a plan. My spell slots ability says ‘Spells from essence abilities are considered always memorised’ right? So, I should take stones that work well with my essences and along the way, I should get a powerful spell that I can cast without memorisation, yeah?” asked Dave.
Hugh was surprised at this sudden amount of understanding from Dave and shrugged. Dave helped himself to a mind stone.
You have used [Awakening stone of the mind]. You have gained a new spellbook ability [Living Spellbook] which can be ritually summoned as a familiar. You have gained the spells [Dispel And Quell Magic] and [Paper Mill Production] in your spellbook. He glanced at them quickly. They were powerful versions of the skills he already had, now dispelling all magic in a 20-metre radius and the paper mill now creating up to a metric ton of paper with no cooldown. Still, there was a fight coming. He kept taking awakening stones.
You have used [awakening stone of the magus]. You have gained a new magic essence ability [Tools Of The Magister]. Dave read the tooltip. “I can use magic items and drive magic vehicles?”
“Useful,” said Hugh, “but not here!”
“I was hoping for a force bolt. Give me the other one of the magus. Force bolt or eye beams, pray to Knowledge!” said Dave. Hugh did so and Dave immediately used it.
You have used [awakening stone of the magus]. You have gained a new Magic ability [Aura Of The Magister].
“I have an aura that makes mine and my allies' equipment better?”
“Well, that’s something!” said Hugh, who hefted a candle stick holder feeling it was heftier than usual. Or the blood loss had made him delusional. It was hard to tell.
“I’ll try the rare stones. They sound neutral with respect to damage but maybe their rarity will help?” mumbled Dave, a little bit of pleading entering his voice as the sounds were getting louder outside. Hugh nodded encouragement.
You have used [awakening stone of persistence]. You have gained a new Spellbook ability [Prestidigitations]. You have gained the prestidigitations [Evocation of Learned Spellbook], [Grand Mage’s Gravitas], [Magician’s Meagre Magics], and [Pauper’s Paper Production]. Dave quickly stopped time and read his abilities. Apparently, [Prestidigitations] were spells so minor that they had no cost and no incantation, just a gesture. Hence the name. Relief flooded his body as he reverted back to real time.
“I can record memories, summon my book, clean stuff, do little magic tricks and,” Dave paused triumphantly for effect, “make a paper construction that I can carry.”
Hugh just looked at him quizzically. In response, Dave made a lawn dart and tossed it on the desk for Hugh to inspect. It made a wooden thump.
“It’s made of paper,” said Hugh in an unsure tone.
“Paper is just processed wood. Not as structurally sound, but just as dense. I know I wouldn’t want this thrown at me,” said Dave.
Hugh tested the thing in his hand. He didn’t know if it was Dave’s new aura, but the heft of it reminded Hugh that large books are very sturdy objects and the point of the dart, although brittle, was still a point.
“I agree,” said Hugh. “Continue.”
Dave used the next awakening stone on his mental list hoping that it too, would give something useful in the now. You have used [awakening stone of adventure]. You have gained a new Spellbook ability [Ritual Codex].
“Umm, I can cast ritual magic from my book,” said Dave. “Not as useful as I’d hoped?”
“Not unless it comes with the ability to ignore reagents,” replied Hugh. “We can draw a circle in this room with the chalk over there but without reagents all we’ve got is free circles like essence and awakening stone rituals use,” Hugh said idly while going through some throwing motions with the lawn dart.
Dave quickly checked the ability’s details in his HUD.
“Umm, only spirit coins are free for me so long as I have it in my spellbook! And my spellbook counts as a circle!” said Dave giddily.
“Your spellbook?”
“Oh yeah.”
Dave cast [Evocation of Learned Spellbook]. A spellbook sparkled into existence hovering in front of Dave at perfect reading height. Hugh’s eyes widened but he accepted this new development.
“And does it have any power stacking rituals inside?” asked Hugh.
In answer, the book flipped open and flicked through pages as though on an ethereal wind ending on a page of contents that was entitled ‘The Rituals Of Dave Bauer’. There were only two.
“Afraid not, but at least we’ve got a sturdy friend. Right, Spellbook?” said Dave. Again the pages moved, this time revealing words.
“That’s good. Moving onto - wait, hang on a sec,” said Dave. “Spellbook, that list of contents, that has the ritual for essences, right? They’re a basic ritual? Free?”
“Hugh, we can make a magic circle,” said Dave, quietly but urgently. “Spellbook can be a magic circle and you have three spare essence slots.”
“Oh, no,” said Hugh, his eyes wide.
“No, seriously. This works. I’m certain that your current essence is one of knowledge, right? You can also load up on two more essences right now. It’s our best shot at staying alive!
Hugh just sat there looking like a deer who’d found some headlights.
“Come on! Why aren’t you loading up on essences?” insisted Dave quietly. The sounds from outside were those of people moving heavy objects within the chateau.
“I’m a monk, they’re not meant for me,” said Hugh, shocked.
“Not meant for you? You’re the only bloody survivor and we’re about to be killed. I’d say you have a right!” hissed Dave.
“It’s against the will of my Goddess!”
“She’s a smart woman, she’ll understand!”
“But I’m saving myself for later!”
“Saving yourself for the bloody afterlife! What if I don’t get any good spells? You’ll be dead!”
“Knowledge will preserve us.”
“Yes, she has! By giving you a bucket full of essences!”
Hugh didn’t have an answer for that and seemed momentarily stumped.
“She… is strangely silent on the matter,” said Hugh slowly.
Dave took advantage and plucked up a life and an adept essence from the table.
“Take these in there. You’ve dedicated your life to being an adept of knowledge, yeah? These suit you and you’ll probably get a healing ability and a mystic confluence.”
Hugh took the essences in hand looking like he was about to cry. Dave was already summoning a wad of paper into the lock of the door to prevent it being picked again. A loud crack outside of the main door being forced open and more cultists running inside made Hugh jump, then he scowled at the pain it caused him.
“Oh, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn. Fine!” he wailed, limping into the bathroom. “Saving myself for years on research thinking I’ll get gifted a dimension or astral essence and this is what I get?”
“We’ll get you some nice awakening stones, buddy!” Dave called after him quietly. He dragged the dimensional jewellery box full of stones to the bathroom door, put his spellbook inside the door and quickly did the ritual for Hugh while they both touched the book which had opened to a page with a ritual circle on it. Dave chanted the words to activate the circle and Dave felt him use the essence.
While Hugh absorbed his new powers, Dave turned back to his own heap of stones. He selected an awakening stone of the hand. You have used [awakening stone of the hand]. You have gained a new book essence ability [Telekinetic Scribe]. You have gained a new prestidigitation [Attack Of The Razor Quills]. Dave willed the tooltip to open and glanced over the details and grinned. Finally! An offensive ability. He could enchant up to five normal sized writing implements, or their equivalent for larger writing implements, to savagely attack a selected enemy so long as Dave concentrated on keeping up the attack. From the reading of the details, their scratches would only achieve superficial wounds but Dave figured that a bunch of sharp quills in the face of his enemy would be a good distraction leading to an easy drubbing.
To Dave, this was also confirmation of a little hypothesis he’d been building in his mind: Stone rarity, both essence and awakening, was a trap. Merely a way of classifying the frequency of powerful rocks. For an adventurer who wanted a complimentary skill set, not a list of random disconnected abilities, it was the theme that mattered. Although, he suspected, there would be exceptions. He thought about the dimension awakening stone Hugh had just mentioned, used [Stop And Think] and quickly looked it up. It commonly gave teleport abilities and, at higher ranks, dimension hopping. He figured that’d be worth breaking from a theme for.
But Dave didn’t have any legendary stones capable of teleporting him away. What he did have some powerful rocks that fit his theme of a spreadsheet-making, QC manager-wizard and by G… by Knowledge he was going to keep on going. He picked up his next awakening stone.
He’d read that with the magic essence it was common to get a sight-based ability and so cautiously tried an eye stone. You have used [awakening stone of the eye]. You have gained a new Knowledge ability [Magic Eye]. You have gained a new spell [The Clairvoyant Eye Of Transvection]. Dave checked the spell briefly and found it to be a spell that created an invisible magic sensor that was good for scouting. A good spell, but not the sight-ability he’d hoped for.
Hugh interrupted his musings over what awakening stone to select next with an audible sigh of relief emanating from the bathroom.
“You good, buddy?” ask Dave tentatively.
“Yes, I am,” he said, sounding stronger than Dave had ever heard him. “I took the Life essence, I got a healing ability and I’ve mended my wounds.”
“Great, you catch your breath and then take the next one,” said Dave, happy that the amiable monk was no longer in need of urgent medical care.
The door handle to the office rattled at that moment and Dave froze.
“Eh? Who’s there? Why’s this locked?” came a voice from the other side. Another voice, indistinct in the distance answered him. There was a short pause.
“Can’t! There’s something in the keyhole!” shouted the voice. The distant voice shouted again.
“Okay, you get them!” shouted the voice back and then said in a sneering tone into the door, “Hiding are ya? Don’t worry. We’ll get you out, little monk.”
“Right, that’s your breath caught, yeah?” whispered Dave.
“Adept essence let’s go!” said Hugh. Dave once again put his hand on the spellbook with Hugh and there was promptly a light shining out from the gaps around the door. Dave had already moved back to his own work at the awakening stones. He selected a vision stone, which also had a good chance to give a sight-based ability, or eye beams, but might also interact with his book essence and, from what he’d read, give him the ability to take photographs. There are worse hobbies, thought Dave. He used the essence.
You have used [awakening stone of vision]. You have gained a new Knowledge ability [Scry]. You have gained a new spell [The Stationary Scry Of Farseeing]. Dave checked them out. A quick skim proved the spell to be the ability to project your senses to a known location. A scouting or clairvoyant spell. Not what he wanted here and now but he was sure that if he lived, he’d get some use out of that. He used his next stone while listening to the hacking laughter of the man outside and the noises of the monk inside the bathroom remembering to disrobe before taking his confluence essence. Dave idly noticed that he’d never re-robed himself. There were more important things but he quickly jumped into his pants anyway.
Hugh briefly bellowed something about a confluence essence before another light shone from under the door to the en suite. Dave used Stop And Think to tactically pause time and quickly flick back and forth through his books, Dave then picked up, opened and addressed his spellbook.
“Do you access your knowledge through me?” asked Dave. The spellbook flipped a page.
“And you’ll remember anything I read and anything I write into you?” asked Dave.
“And thus, you have access to my HUD and all the information therein?” asked Dave.
“And if I gain another knowledge ability, you’ll be connected to that, too?”
“And if I want to write my own spells, I’d better actually take an awakening stone that is all about putting ink on paper, huh?” concluded Dave.
“Alright, artistry? Calligraphy is artistic. Hell with it, artistry definitely goes with books anyway. Okay, here goes, Spellbook!” said Dave in rising panic and used the artistry stone. You have used [awakening stone of artistry]. You have gained a new Book essence ability [Artist’s Instant Image]. You have gained a new spell [Maestro’s Instant Image Of Many Forms]. You have gained a new prestidigitation [Scribbler’s Instant Image]. Dave checked; the prestidigitation was just a smaller, less convincing version of the spell and the spell printed convincing, life-like images into the world. Stop And Think gave him enough time to read that it functioned like an illusion spell.
As Dave selected his next awakening stone he could hear Hugh was getting over his purging.
“This has got to be it. Another awakening stone of preparation? Prepared spells? It’s thematic too,” said Dave.
He was rushing in his nervousness. He really needed a powerful spell to stop the man knocking and jeering from the door who was bringing friends to kill him but it just wasn’t coming. He was getting some great utility spells but they were impossible to appreciate right now.
You have used an [awakening stone of preparation]. You have gained a new spellbook essence ability [Transcribe Spell]. Holding his breath, Dave willed the tooltip to show. You can discover and record magic spells into your spellbook through study. You can transcribe low level spells on scrolls for later use. Dave let out a breath, it was a good ability and maybe the cultists would take a long time to get the door down?
“Thanks, Spellbook,” Said Dave, visibly sagging under the pressure. “Still, best to make haste.”
“I wish I’d thought of that. Anyway, how about this for an offensive option? An awakening stone of delivery. That’s close to deliverance. Sounds biblical, eh?” said Dave.
You have used [awakening stone of delivery]. You have gained a new Book essence ability [Mail of the Magister]. You have gained a new spell [Mail By Appointed Rounds]. You have gained a new prestidigitation [Swift Message Of The Mind]. Dave checked them. Both were distance messaging abilities. The first would deliver entire letters via a moving dimensional space and the second, a, at this level, thirty-five word, one way, line of sight, radio ability.
“Aww, come on. Postal service?” wailed Dave.
“Thanks Spellbook,” said Dave. Browsing his available awakening stones, he found a memory stone and used it, figuring nervously that if delivery still went with a paper themed interpretation, he may as well stick to his theme guns. The concept of memory was likely to go well with the magic, knowledge and book theme very well.
You have used [awakening stone of memory]. You have gained a new knowledge essence ability [Library Of The Mind]. Dave read the tooltips. The new ability looked like a perfect memory recall ability and he immediately used it while thinking about the entrance of the room where the man outside was knocking and taunting. Dave’s senses were immediately taken back to his own point-of-view as he ascended the stairs to this room.
“I want to be an alive detective! But yes,” snapped Dave.
“Are you arguing with your spellbook?” Hugh somehow asked while trying to turn his mouth inside out as he came out of the ensuite bathroom, fully clothed.
“Huh, I suppose he is,” said Hugh with a dumbfounded acceptance.
There was the sound of heavy kicking against the door as the promised cultists finally arrived. Dave and Hugh both abandoned everything and rushed to put their shoulders to the door. The cultists on the other side were jeering unintelligibly and one was pushing a sword blade through the gap between the door and the wall like a vision of what would happen next to their bodies.
The gap between the door and the wall, thought Dave and had an idea. Dave dashed to a chair, pushed it over to the door, looked between the top of the door and doorway to the outside staircase roof he’d just been below with Library Of The Mind. He could see a thin strip of the staircase roof and the tops of assorted weapons waving as their users kicked the door as hard as they could and then, he summoned a dense, solid sphere of paper into existence into that thin strip of staircase roof he could see above their heads.
There was a sickening, wet crunch mixed with a simultaneous, floor-shuddering bang and the sound of screams. Then, the sound of screams continued along with the sound of a tonne of paper rolling down the spiral stairs to the tower bottom, crushing the people who were in the way.
“We have to follow it. They’ll recover and come back,” Dave, white faced and feeling actually feeling sick now that he had an acceptance of this new reality and the killing he had to do.
“What the Knowledge did you do?” asked a shocked Hugh.
“I can summon up to a metric tonne of paper. So, I made a ball of solid paper and dropped it on their heads,” said Dave.
Hugh nodded and gestured for a weapon. Dave gave him the axe and took an arming sword for himself. Dave tried to unlock the door. He couldn’t and remembered that he’d stuffed a wad of paper in the locking mechanism. He used Magician’s Meagre Magics to burn the paper and blew into the lock to clear it. Then sheepishly, unlocked the door with shaking hands.
The door slid open with difficulty as it pushed the corpse of the woman who had been foremost kicking the door. Dave’s HUD displayed her as having lootable items so he bent down and touched the body to retrieve them.
“You’re dead,” wheezed a familiar voice next to them. It belonged to the first man who had been jeering the whole time. He looked like he had a broken arm and leg. “You’re all going to die. The Builder - “
Dave closed his eyes and stabbed him in the neck as he was speaking. He felt sick about it but it was that kind of situation. Without opening his eyes, Dave touched the body just in case there was loot, mentally accepted, turned away and went down the stairs.
There were two more broken bodies on the stairs. They weren’t moving and Dave could tell by the way his HUD marked them as lootable that they were both already crushed to death. As he got to the bottom of the stairs, Dave noticed the spherical summoned-paper boulder left a trail of cracked wood, blood and was buried in the wall opposite the stairs.
“Oh, shit,” said Dave and activated [Stop and Think]. There were also two injured cultists in the same room who had been quietly nursing their injuries. A human man, who looked roughed up but otherwise fine and an elvish woman who clearly had a leg injury. Both had weapons within reach but Dave took his time to think and decided his best bet was to rush them. He unpaused and did so.
Dave rushed forward but the man was fast enough to get his hand axe up in time to block. Dave used his forward momentum, letting go of his sword and taking hold of the man’s axe-holding hand. Dave arm-dragged the man forward and down then turned sharply so the man tripped over the back of Dave’s outstretched left leg. Dave would have been speared by the woman’s short sword in that moment if not for Spellbook dropping in a controlled dive into the woman’s leg, causing her to drop and scream. His heart in his throat, Dave scrambled to stay on top of the man while also controlling his axe-arm.
“Kill her!” shouted Dave as Hugh arrived in the room. He could hear the woman recovering behind him and could practically feel his back prickling as he waited to feel a sword stab through him. Hugh hefted the lawn dart and pegged it right over Dave’s shoulder. There was a wet gurgling sound.
In that small amount of time, the man Dave was wrestling had started to pull a knife from his belt with his left hand. He didn’t get it out all the way before Dave grabbed his left wrist but the man was managing to use part of the exposed blade to cut into Dave’s leg before Hugh turned around and hit the prone man in the shin with his axe. The pain distracted the man enough for Dave to pry the knife from the man’s fingers and use it to stab him in the neck. Dave looted all the bodies in the area.
There was a scrambling noise from the next room and Hugh was the first to dash over and look in.
“They ran off,” said the monk with relief.
“Presumably to get reinforcements,” muttered Dave.
“We could follow them and find out?” mused Hugh.
“And follow them into their friends? No. Just hang on,” said Dave, remembering something, “I’ve got a sensory projection spell. A couple actually. I just need to see the spot and we can hear our enemy’s plans.”
“They’re probably heading to the main gate,” said Hugh.
“Yeah, I figured,” said Dave. “Nice throw, by the way.”
They ascended the stairs again, past the bodies and looked from the study’s window down onto the gate, about two hundred metres distant across the vineyard.
“Arise, an eye of transvection for my clairvoyance,” incanted Dave and his sense of self was instantly transported to eye-level at the gate where he’d been concentrating. He was an invisible, single eye and could move at will in any dimension. There were seven cultists in their colourful robes, armed with spear and shield, clearly preventing anybody non-cultist from exiting the monastery. The woman who’d run away from Hugh sprinted into view of the cultist gate wardens.
“What is it?” barked one of the guards when she got close enough.
The woman bowed her head, breathing heavily.
“Damien is dead. They have an iron ranker and he summoned a boulder onto the stairs,” the woman babbled. “Everyone’s dead, I only just got away.”
“Well, don’t say I didn’t warn him!” crowed the guard. Dave moved the magic eye to the side of the conversation to see both speakers and saw it was a woman with a hard, craggy face and she held her spear with practised confidence. She gestured at the runner. “You. Get back down the road quickly and tell our reinforcements to doubletime because that stupid noble Damien and his brother wanted the glory of The Builder all to themselves. Tell Greg that the rest of us will be at the entrances and exits like we’re supposed to be.”
“Yes, leader,” said the woman and ran off. Dave stayed a couple of more minutes with the eye and left when the cultists started small talk amongst themselves.
Dave came back from his spell’s-eye-view to a pensive-looking Hugh and a Spellbook, closed comfortably in his lap.
“Well?” asked Hugh?
“Well, we’ve got a little time. They’re just going to guard the outside and prevent anybody from leaving until their reinforcements arrive. Apparently, that was supposed to be their plan from the start.”
Hugh allowed himself to collapse into a chair with relief.
“We stink,” chuckled Hugh after a few moments.
“We do!” exclaimed Dave, and began shaking with laughter in his own chair. They allowed the relief of surviving for the moment to wash over them as they laughed.
“You still need a way out,” said Hugh, coming down from his mirth.
“So do you,” said Dave, following Hugh into a serious tone.
“Oh, I didn’t tell you because,” Hugh gestured wildly at the dead bodies and the staircase.
“Anyway, my mystic confluence gave me,” Hugh cleared his throat and quoted, “one with the elements: you can take on an air, earth, fire or water form. Each gives no special abilities except the inherent properties of the element and the ability to walk through and exist in that element.”
“Cool, so you can just… jump down the well, or something?” Dave asked speculatively.
“I was thinking about walking out on the air? So, I’m good,” said Hugh.
“Yeah, sure. So, I’ll just…” Dave’s voice trailed off pathetically.
“Yeah, I’m going to stay as long as I can, you’ve saved my life,” insisted Hugh.
“Good of you,” said Dave.
“Why don’t you take the most promising-looking awakening stones and finish off your power set?” suggested Hugh with a smile. “Maybe something will come up?”
“So long as you practise with your new abilities. At least one of us will make it out of here to tell your church,” said Dave.
Hugh agreed and began experimenting. Dave walked over to the dimensional jewellery box, sat down and reassessed the stones in them again. He asked Spellbook to display information about whatever stone he was holding and Spellbook responded by becoming the table of contents of a book called ‘The Adventurer’s Advanced Guide To Awakening Stones’ written and edited by several authors who all belonged to the Magic Society.
After a measured use of [Stop And Think], he selected a lantern awakening stone which was highly likely to interact with his magic essence to give him an astral lantern familiar. They could reveal hidden enemies, make ranged attacks with disruptive force energy, intercept magical projectiles and be subsumed into the caster giving the caster the ability to see hidden enemies and make those force bolts with their eyes. It sounded good, so Dave used the stone.
You have used [awakening stone of the lantern]. You have gained a new magic essence ability [Astral Lantern]. Pleased, Dave went into his UI and looked up the details. Just as advertised.
He looked up to check on Hugh who was in the process of seeing if his earth form could pass through walls. It couldn’t, so Hugh moved on to testing if it could punch real hard. Dave went back to his stone selection.
There was a navigation stone. Spellbook displayed the page and it caught Dave’s eye. It was commonly taken by sailors and explorers in combinations with water and earth essences but was noted as, ‘generally giving abilities that aid in the process of determining one’s true position or location, in the planning or in the following of a route.’ Dave realised that right now, he needed a way out and besides, navigation themed well with paper and knowledge.
You have used [awakening stone of navigation]. You have gained a new book essence ability [Find Page]. Dave, half disheartened but still curious, looked at the tooltip: Find all documents related to a search of the user’s choice in the area. Figuring that it wouldn’t hurt to try, he activated the ability, very low mana, and found a blinking, vertical bar at the bottom of his HUD, clearly waiting for a search term to be typed in.
“Secret tunnel?” said Dave hopefully.
A moment later, a blue marker appeared at the Abbot’s desk on his minimap. Dave jumped over to the desk, went through the drawers one-by-one until he got to a folder labelled ‘property taxes’ and excitedly extracted the blue-highlighted document scattering the rest of the paper in the folder on the floor.
“What’s going on?” said Hugh, leaving some marks in the floor as he stepped towards Dave before turning off fire form.
“I have a way out!” exclaimed Dave.
“How?” repeated Hugh, but in a higher register.
“There’s a secret tunnel in the wine cellar! I got a new find page ability and I thought it was crap but then I figured what the hell and I searched for ‘secret tunnel’ and I got this!” said Dave rapidly, happily displaying the building plans and pointing at the tunnel.
“How do you open it?” asked Hugh, looking carefully at the details.
“I’ll use my Epistemology ability on it?” guessed Dave.
“Let’s go find out,” said Hugh.
They put all the valuable items into Dave’s dimensional inventory space and practically ran to the wine cellar. Along the way Hugh selected a few of the better wines to put into Dave’s inventory.
“Okay, it should be behind this part of the wall,” said Hugh, biting his lip and looking between the map and the wall. It was a dank space between a large keg and the wall.
Dave shrugged, activated his ability and mentally wrote Mechanism, into the flashing text area. A tooltip appeared next to the wall that read, ‘lift the barrel’. The indicated barrel was lying on its side on a stand. Dave grasped the barrel by the front and heaved upwards. The back of the stand moved with the lifted barrel until there was a click and the secret door swung inwards.
“YES!” shouted Hugh.
“OH, THANK HEAVENS!” shouted Dave.
Grinning at each other, Dave and Hugh slapped each other’s shoulders and laughed. Even Spellbook deigned to take to the air once more and flap a ‘congratulations’ into being on its pages.
“Right,” said Dave, still giddy. “Let’s loot everything, get some food, some water, spirit coins and run for it.”
Hugh nodded. Dave took the time to use his last awakening stone. After a bit of research with Spellbook, he decided that an eye stone was the best decision. An iron awakening stone would likely interact with his magic essence to give him magic armour but he wanted to heed the advice in the adventurer’s guide and make one last try at a sight ability. If this worked as he hoped, he’d get the ability to see magic.
You have used [awakening stone of the eye]. You have gained a new magic essence ability [Eldritch Eyes]. Dave let a long breath out and relaxed. Things were finally falling into place.
After looting the house, Hugh came back with a full pack and a face that suggested something was on his mind.
“What’s up?” asked Dave.
“I’m not going with you,” said Hugh.
Dave stayed silent but raised his eyebrows in invitation for Hugh to say more.
“We have to split up. They know we’re in here and they know it’s two of us and remember what that cultist over there said?” Hugh gestured through the house towards the study. “They're here looking for you,” said Hugh grimly. “And, if they come in here and don’t find a trace of you or me?”
“They’ll tear the place apart,” said Dave, catching on.
“And maybe, find the secret passage,” said Hugh, finishing the thought.
“Shit,” said Dave, but he nodded his head thoughtfully.
“So, I was thinking, you can make an image, right? I remember you dictating that out as you got the ability, yes? I’ll wind-walk off, over the river and the orchid with your image, right? They’ll see me and fake-you air walking in the direction of the nearest town, then they come in here and aren’t surprised that nobody’s around. I can survive on spirit coins for a couple of days while I air walk to that town. You’ll be safe, I’ll be safe and I can alert the Adventure Society to put a high priority job on the cultists,” said Hugh.
Dave was nodding his head and rubbing his chin the whole time. The plan made sense so long as it was done right. And Hugh was right to fear for Dave’s life. Despite the extra power of his spell slots, he only had two left and no large battle-spells to cast. If attacked in numbers, Dave would definitely lose. Creating a situation where his enemies wouldn’t look for him was ideal and Hugh would almost certainly be safe. Flying abilities were quite rare at iron rank and any that didn’t have an exorbitant mana cost, like Hugh’s, would also come with restrictions as harsh as Hugh’s who couldn’t do anything that wind couldn’t.
“Just make sure that you stay well out of weapons and ability range. As soon as they notice you, get even higher. Just in case, yeah?” said Dave, holding out his hand.
“I will,” said Hugh, shaking Dave’s offered hand in a firm grip.
“You don’t want to use any awakening stones before you go?” asked Dave, already knowing the answer.
“No, my goddess tells me she has a feeling about that,” said Hugh with a smile. “She also says that there’s a guide outside that you could be really good friends with. She knows it. Hand her this letter and she’ll know it was Knowledge who sent you.”
Dave believed this. After all, a goddess of knowledge ought to know. It was their job to know. Hence the name. He took the proffered letter.
“I’ll look for them. Thanks!”
Dave made an illusion of himself, at Hugh’s guidance, which trailed him and looked like a semi-transparent wind-version of Dave. They said their goodbyes in the poorly lit cellar and Hugh shut Dave in the secret tunnel. Then, Dave walked away from the only person he’d met in this world who hadn’t tried to kill him, feeling very alone.
----------------------------------------
“Yeah? Okay then,” said Dave, his eyes scanning quickly over his character sheet and then his notes. “Lord Winchester will use the horn of blasting.”
“Roll for initiative,” said Florian.
“Roll for avalanche,” countered Dave.
Marc blinked.
“Wait, avalanche?”
“Why?” groaned Krista.
“This’ll be good,” grinned Vash, leaning forward.
“Oh yeah,” said Florian, his golden retriever grin spreading as he rolled. A seventeen. His brow furrowed as he flipped through a chart. “Huh.”
“Why’d you do that?” asked Krista, disgruntled. Her halfling cleric wasn’t a fast runner.
“Skip to the end, Krista,” said Vash, rolling his eyes. “Dave, how is this not death by frost giant?”
“Because it’s already dead,” said Dave, tapping his notes. “NPCs shouting triggered avalanches. Any noise in these mountains can trigger one on a roll of fifteen or below. I checked earlier—fresh snow on that slope. A horn of blasting? Guaranteed.”
“But we’re in the area too,” Krista pointed out.
“Not for long.” Dave gestured at the map. “Vash has featherfall. We jump off the cliff.”
Marc frowned.
“The frost giant’s immune to ice damage, though.”
“No problem!” chimed in Vash, grinning. “Avalanches do bludgeoning damage. Remember?”
He would. His dragonborn sorcerer had barely survived one.
“Still,” Marc pressed. “It has a ton of health.”
“Not a health problem,” Dave shrugged, “Either suffocation under the snow or fall damage when it gets swept off the cliff.”
Florian glanced between the rulebook and his notes, sighing with a mix of pride and exasperation.
“Seventeen minus eight... yeah, avalanche was inevitable. You all jump off the cliff with Lord Winchester? One frost giant jarl worth of experience?”
“But no loot,” muttered Krista, shooting Dave a glare.
“Vash has detect magic,” said Dave smugly. “We can find it.”
“We jump off the cliff,” confirmed Marc, perking up. “Get me that magic axe!”