“That was harder than it needed to be,” Heather sighed as she slumped to the floor in the workshop.
They spent the better part of a day dragging Legeis's armor through the swamps. Every pest hidden in the mist made an appearance, including a giant crab thing with four claws. She lost seven skeletons, and one of her special vine ones. The bone champion was wounded three times, and she was low on magic again.
When they reached the cliffs, the job didn't get any easier. The cart barely fit in the tunnels and had to be taken through the narrow halls. Here she learned why Legeis made it with only two wheels. It could be tipped up and turned around tight corners, but the progress was slow. Eventually, they all had to help push the thing along to get it into the base. Then they arrived at the wide hallway that would make the trip easier, but first, they had to descend twenty stairs. Once again, they all had to grab hold of the cart, carefully guiding it down every step. Heather strained muscles she wasn't even aware she had until finally arriving at the workshop where they all lay about panting.
“I have never had to move so many heavy things until I met you,” Frank said.
“Part of knowing a girl,” Heather teased. “You men are supposed to help us move heavy things.”
“I should have eaten you when you fell down my stairs,” he sighed.
Breanne and Quinny laughed as Heather looked at the kingdom heart. She turned the crystal over in her hand, trying to guess what to do next.
“Let's hope I can figure out how they did this,” she said and slowly got up. She spent the next two hours reading through notes and small journals that littered the tables. Breanne and Legeis helped, going over papers as they searched for anything that discussed how the stone was used. There was a surprising amount of documentation, but most of it was theory crafting, or discussions on ideas, with no explanation of how. Heather finally found a clue by putting three pages that discussed the stone together. As a whole, they showed how anyone could draw a soul from the buffer, provided they could cast a spell that called from the buffer. The class that did this the most was, of course, the necromancer, but some others did as well. There was a notation on a class called a summoner, and another called an animist that was also good at it.
The trick was to use the stone as a focus, casting the spell that called through it. What she found fascinating was that technically all her skeletons were NPC's. They were just stripped-down versions of them, with little in the way of function. It talked about how it was possible to trick the system and pull a far more intelligent NPC out instead, thus creating a more powerful skeleton. It even noted the success Hathlisora had with this process and how her guardian was significantly enhanced. It also talked about soul binding, a method of ensuring that the same NPC soul was called back if a minion was slain. There was some conjecture on how this process didn't always work. Sometimes the NPC came back but with no memories of the previous existence. Here again, they highlighted a failure of Hathlisora's and the minion that was lost.
Heather read through a page that discussed how to use the pattern on the floor. It detailed where the crystal needed to be positioned and how to focus on it. She studied the summoning method a dozen times before moving to the pattern to go over every detail.
“This is actually rather easy,” she said. “You just place the crystal here.” She accentuated her point by putting it down in a triangle at the top of a ring. “Then you put the thing to be imbued with a spirit in the center. Then I stand in the lower circle and cast a summoning spell.”
“How do you control how smart the spirit is?” Frank asked.
Heather read the bottom of a page and studied the description of this process.
“You have to write it out on paper using special ink. Then you burn that paper and scatter the ashes over the object you're animating.”
“It can’t be that easy,” Breanne said.
Heather shook her head. “The ink has things in it like dragons blood, and specters essence.” She turned and pointed to the table where a simple glass flask stood. “But I think they have some made already.”
Quinny picked up the flask and swished it around before setting it back down. “I guess that’s ink,” she said.
“There is plenty of paper on the table,” Legeis added. “I could write down exactly how I want it to work.”
“The notes say it has to be exact,” Heather added. “You need to spell it out in extreme detail, or you get wild results.”
They waited as he penned his instructions, explaining every movement and method of operation in as much detail as he could imagine. When done, he had two pages that were taken to a brass bowl. They used a candle to set them on fire while the suit was maneuvered into place. They stood it up as the smoke drifted in the air and waited for it to burn out. Heather gathered up the ashes and threw as much of it as she could over the battle suit. Satisfied the ashes were spread over the suit, she took her place in the lower circle.
She took another look at the pages and read the details. It had to be a summon for a single minion, but would not be filled by a normal host. It would instead be filled by a soul pulled through the crystal. Heather assumed that meant one less available for Gwen, but it was a small price to pay to get her stone back. She thought for just a moment of keeping the stone for herself, so she could learn more, but shook it away.
What she needed to summon was another guardian pet, but she was only allowed to have one. What would happen to the bone champion if she cast a spell to summon another? The notes didn’t say, and it would take a week to read every document in the workshop. The only clue she had was the reference to the soul being unaligned and suggestible. She decided to cast the ghoul version of the spell, hoping the difference would protect her bone champion.
As she began the spell, the others stepped back, watching as her hands began to glow. The notes said the inner ring would trap the spell, allowing her to focus it on the stone. As her spell grew, the circle at her feet began to glow blue. The light traveled around the ring arriving at the stone. It began to pulse with white light as she called for a servant.
The white light turned into a cloud that began to stream inward like smoke, pouring over the armored suit. The runes around the center began to glow, and a humming filled the air. She felt something pulling at her as if a wind was blowing out from inside her soul. There was a slight tingling as she reached out a hand and called for a minion. The drain was immense, as far more magic than was normally required began to flow out. The kingdom heart filled the room with light as Heather reached for it, focusing the spell to the heart.
“Heather!” Frank cried as her feet left the floor, and she began to glow with blue light.
“Stay where you are!” Heather shouted as she pulled her hand back, drawing from the stone as a ball of golden light burst forth and flew into the armor. A moment later, the spell was completed, and the armored suit stood motionless as the sound died away, and the glowing runes faded. Heather fell to her feet, stumbling as Frank caught her and held her up.
“Are you alright?” he asked as she panted and nodded her head.
“Did it work?” she whispered.
“How would we know if it did?” Quinny asked as Frank helped Heather to a chair by the wall.
“I gotta get inside,” Legeis said. “I wrote in the instructions that it could only be controlled from the cockpit.”
They waited as Legeis stepped into the center and used a clever series of handholds built into the chassis to climb up. He settled into the open top so that only his head was visible and buckled two straps over his chest.
“I hope this worked,” he said before reaching for something Heather couldn’t see.
The armored suit shuddered and then took an unsteady step, going no more than an inch as they looked on in wonder. It took a second step but wobbled as if about to fall over.
“I gotta figure out how to keep my balance,” Legeis said as the armor raised a fist.
“So, it does work?” Heather asked as Legeis moved the other arm.
“Maybe,” he called down and worked a control. The armor attempted to take another step but stumbled as Breanne scrambled to get out of the way. Legeis caught himself with an arm, using a table to stay upright. “I might need to invent something that auto balances this thing.”
“You didn’t think of that sooner?” Frank asked.
“Hey, none of this officially part of my class. I am abusing all sorts of things to make this work. I could build a mechanical guardian like her skeleton, so I used parts of that process and scaled it up.”
“How do the golems keep balance?” Quinny asked.
“I guess the NPC spirit is supposed to balance it,” Legeis replied.
“So, you have an NPC spirit, let it balance it,” Heather said as Frank fussed over her.
“I don’t know how,” he replied.
“I'm fine,” she said and waved Frank off. “I just feel tired.” He nodded and stepped back as Heather worked on an idea. “You made controls so you could move the arms and legs, right?”
“Yeah?”
Heather nodded. “Stop trying to move the legs and just push it forward. Let the spirit control the legs and do the balancing.”
Legeis scratched at his chin and then adjusted something before looking out. “Alright, here goes.”
The armor shuddered again but took a clean step, arriving perfectly balanced.
“Hey, it works!” he cried. “I guess I didn’t expect the NPC spirit to be able to assume so much control.”
“Finally,” Heather sighed. “I have completed a task, and it didn't lead to another.”
“Honestly, this is how role-playing games work,” Frank said. “Every task leads to more.”
“Great,” Heather sighed and sat down. “I feel drained.”
“You were already low on magic,” Frank said with concern in his voice. “We should have waited until tomorrow to attempt this. You should rest a day before doing anything else.”
“I agree,” Breanne added. “I am honestly surprised you’re still awake.”
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“I’m fine,” she insisted as Webster jumped to the table beside her. She put a hand over and began to stroke him as he made a shrill purr. “I want to check the mirror next.”
“Don’t be foolish,” Breanne insisted. “You don’t have the strength for that, and we might need you for combat.”
“She's right,” Frank agreed. “You should rest a night, at least.”
“I didn’t pass out this time,” Heather argued. “I just feel a little exhausted.”
“Maybe she gets better at it the more she does it,” Quinny suggested. “If she goes blue a few more times, she might hardly be tired from it.”
“We have no idea what’s happening to her when she does that,” Breanne countered. “She may be doing some kind of harm.”
“No harm is lasting in this world,” Quinny argued. “Besides, she has a super pet now.”
“Is my bone champion still alright?” Heather asked and looked over to where it stood motionless by the wall. It certainly didn't seem harmed in any way, but who what harm might be going on magically.
“She needs a day of rest,” Frank insisted, drawing her back to the argument going on.
“I could use a day to get good at driving this thing,” Legeis added as he took another step. “Then, I could take the armor with to help with whatever is on the other side.”
“Fine,” Heather relented as her stomach growled. “Oh, don't you start,” she said and poked it. “I have enough of things growling at me.” It responded with a roar that made her stomach twitch.
“Sheesh, that thing sounds angry. Did you eat when you got up?” Quinny asked.
Heather thought back and realized she hadn't. In fact, she hadn't eaten the entire trip to get the armor. If she was out for three days and the trip took two, that meant she hadn't eaten in over five days! Her stomach growled loudly as the realization hit, and she sighed.
“Please tell me that kitchen is still here,” she groaned.
“It is, and it’s magically stocked,” Breanne said with a smile.
“It has cookies,” Quinny added.
The growl that came from Heather’s stomach echoed in the room as she tried to silence it by squeezing with both hands.
“Wow, that thing is vocal,” Legeis said as he peered over the rim of the suit.
“It gets grumpy when it isn’t fed,” Quinny laughed.
They parted company as Heather stalked off to find the kitchen. She made the bone champion carry the scythe and spoke to Webster as he happily scurried along beside her. She arrived in the kitchen to find a lot of bare shelves and empty cupboards. However, there was a metal locker of some kind, and when she opened it, her stomach cried out for joy. It was full of foods, cookies, cakes, bread, fruits, jams, butter, and a dozen other things. There were glass carafes of various liquids to drink, and she sampled a few after carefully smelling them.
She spent the next hour in the kitchen sitting at a nearby table eating a pile of cookies and a slice of cake with a carafe of milk to wash it down. The cookies were chocolate chip, soft, and pliable, as if freshly made. The cake was some kind of chocolate layered cake with strawberries between the layers. She tried to get Webster to sample a cookie, but he only played with it, batting it around the table.
As she chewed her tenth cookie, she sighed with delight. “I need a kitchen like this.”
“You can have this one,” Frank said as he came in and warily looked at the bone champion.
“Are you two still fighting?” Heather asked as she noticed the glance.
“I don't know,” Frank replied. “Sometimes, it behaves very possessive of you, and other times it is fine.”
Heather studied the skeleton where it stood along the wall and shrugged. “I kinda like him being protective, it’s what he is supposed to do, but I don’t want him hurting my friends.”
Frank shrugged and shambled closer to the table to sit in a chair across from her.
“I tried the cake too. It's very good.”
“Are these foods magically replenishing?” Heather asked before taking another bite.
“Yeah, everything in that cabinet replenishes at morning.”
Heather closed her eyes with a smile as she chewed. “Maybe I do want to stay here.”
“We could if you wanted to,” Frank insisted.
Heather looked up and shook her head. “How will I control this?” she asked. “I will be like the wizard, only able to alter the rooms I add to it, but not the existing ones. This kitchen will always be like this; I will never be able to alter it.”
“Maybe, and maybe not,” Frank said and looked around the room. “Somebody must own this, but they either don't live here anymore or.”
“Or they are dead and can’t respawn,” Heather finished.
“Maybe,” he replied.
“Even if they are dead and not respawning, I can’t take over, can I?”
“We thought that maybe you could,” Frank said in a half-committed voice. She smirked and took another bite of cake, savoring the mix of flavors before replying to his comment.
“So how do I take over another players base?” she asked.
“Were not sure, but you were able to dominate somebody else's undead, and use them.”
“That’s a standard ability,” Heather replied as she waved a fork full of creamy frosting at him. “I don’t have any steal a home from another player spells.”
“But you can establish a home here,” Frank said. “You should be able to take over all the tunnels and rooms that aren’t being used.”
“I can build a tower, not spread out through a cave system. I don't have any special controls to do anything outside the tower beside the garden ring.”
“Breanne is certain there is a way to do it,” Frank insisted. “She said it is something like how ghosts can haunt an abandoned player building.”
“Hmm, I will have to think about that one and look over my spells. Speaking of this base, why are these tunnels and rooms still here?” she asked. “Shouldn't they have all gone when the wizard and rogue left?”
“They should have,” Frank admitted. “But Breanne has an idea as to why they didn’t.”
“And?” she pressed.
Frank scratched at his head and looked down at the cake.
“Have some,” Heather said. “I know you don’t need it, but I am sure you still enjoy cakes.”
He nodded, and she cut a piece for him and slid it over on a plate.
“Now, what did Breanne say?”
“She said that maybe these tunnels were made the old fashioned way,” he replied as he tried to use a fork with his long fingers and nails.
“The old fashioned way? You mean digging it out by hand?” she asked, hardly able to believe anybody would take the time to dig tunnels through a mountain.
“She said the necromancers did it all the time. They used ghouls like me to do the tunneling and armies of skeletons to haul away material and polish the walls smooth. She said the necromancer's capital city was so large because a lot of it was made by hand. Skeletons cutting stone blocks, and working in crews to build walls and streets.”
“But they aren’t that smart,” Heather insisted then stopped to think. “What if they used a process like we just did for Legeis? What if they reprogrammed the spirits going into the skeletons to be smarter.”
“That’s what I was thinking,” Frank admitted as he dropped his fork. He looked down at it and sighed, flexing his long fingers that made fine control hard.
“You can’t grip the fork?”
“No,” he admitted and looked said.
“How did you eat the last piece?”
He clawed at the cake with a long nail, and she got the idea.
“Here,” Heather said and reached over the table. She took up the fork and carved off a corner of cake, holding it before him.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I will feed you,” she said with a smile. She laughed when his naturally narrow eyes went wide in shock.
“I can do it,” he insisted, but she waved the fork in front of him.
“Common, open up,” she insisted. “And let's talk about using undead to do work.” He sighed, and she had to look away from his grisly mouth, but she got the forkful in and readied another.
“Since there is a necromancer focus here, she thinks a necromancer might have used undead to build the larger base,” he said as he chewed.
“I suppose that’s reasonable,” Heather admitted. “But why go to all the trouble?”
“It isn't much trouble,” he argued. “The undead never tire or need to rest. They can work all day every day on a task. With ghouls to do the digging and skeletons the finer work, a place like this could be carved out in a month.”
“Huh,” she replied and fed him another bite. “So, the tunnels might remain even if no player were here to manage them.”
“Right,” he said as he chewed. “But that doesn’t explain the kitchen or the workshop, or some of the other special rooms.”
“Could the workshop be manufactured, too?” she asked.
“I guess so,” he replied as she cut another bite of cake for him. “Breanne said the necromancers were building those focus things by hand, so maybe they built the other room by hand.” She fed him the bite and tapped at the table.
“What if all of this was made by hand?” she asked. “There is nothing special in this kitchen but the one metal cupboard. Couldn’t that be a magical item?”
“It could be, I guess,” he replied before she shoved another bite in his face.
“If that’s the case, then maybe I could take over this, or use it at least,” she replied as the thought swam round in her head. “But you have so much invested in your graveyard already.”
“I can recover that quickly,” Frank replied. “Especially if we work with the city. We could let people know there is a player graveyard and haunted forest to draw players in. A city would mean people here almost every day, and we would grow fast.”
“But what if they want to reset you?” Heather asked. “One jerk player can steal all your progress, and Breanne makes it sound like half the players are bad. We sure have met a lot of terrible ones.”
“It is a high ratio,” Frank admitted. “But maybe we can work something out with Gwen to help protect us. She could make rules that say players can’t reset us.”
Heather was skeptical and lifted another bite as she heard an “Awwww” from the doorway. She looked up to see Quinny and Breanne watching from the hall.
“It’s just like beauty and the beast,” Quinny said right before Breanne swatted her.
Frank quickly stood up, and nervously stepped back as Quinny sauntered into the room.
“Oh, don’t let us ruin the moment,” Quinny said with a smile.
“What moment?” Heather asked and looked around.
“You should rest,” Frank said and scratched at his head. He quickly turned and exited, slipping past Breanne.
“You really can’t help yourself,” Breanne said as Quinny took his spot and started to dig into the cake he left behind.
“I was only playing,” Quinny retorted.
“Did I miss something?” Heather asked.
Breanne shook her head and walked across the floor; her elven eyes fixed on the cake. “Quinny has been teasing Frank and trying to upset him.”
“What? Why?” Heather replied as she turned to Quinny.
“I’m not teasing him, or trying to make him upset,” Quinny argued as she chewed a bite of cake. “I was just talking to him about what he wanted.”
“You mean about moving here?” Heather asked. Quinny laughed, and Breanne filled her in on how Quinny has been prying into Franks's history with women. Since they were trapped in the lower tunnels together so long, she had a chance to dig into his feelings.
“And what did he say?” Heather asked, now curious.
“He's never had a girlfriend,” Quinny replied. “And he is afraid to try and have one here. That's why he went for a gruesome and horrible ghoul.”
“Wait? He picked that so girls wouldn’t find him attractive?”
Quinny shrugged. “Well, no, he picked ghoul because he liked the race, but made his appearance as horrible as he could so he wouldn't have to worry about girls.”
“He had a choice?” Heather asked, now more confused than ever.
“He would always look like a ghoul,” Breanne said. But he could have made a range of changes that would have softened his appearance.”
“Just like I did,” Quinny interjected with a mouth full of cake. “I am a pretty zombie.”
“Huh,” Heather replied and looked down. “So he could look different.”
“Very different,” Breanne said.
“And you think he chose to look like that because he is afraid of women?”
Quinny laughed. “I don’t think he is afraid as much as he just wrote them off. He never thought any of them would show an interest in him.”
“So, what's the problem?” Heather asked.
“We are,” Breanne replied. “I suspect he never believed he would have three close friends who were women.”
“Beautiful women,” Quinny added with a dance of her fork.
Heather had to take a moment to consider that. Frank loved what he was, and was excited to build his lair, but he changed as they got to know one another. He became a good friend and protector, always there to try and cheer her up. He was her anchor in this world, making it more bearable as she stumbled through it. Now that she thought about it, he was more upset about this Hathlisora business than she was. He was worried it was going to upset her to keep pursuing it. He was delighted to read the letter and saw it as proof she wasn't Hathlisora. Did he think about her? Had she encouraged it by being so nice? She thought about feeding him cake just a few minutes ago. It was just a harmless thing between friends, right? Suddenly Quinny's joke about beauty and the beast made sense.
“Hey, Frank isn’t a beast,” she argued as Quinny smiled.
“Took you that long to figure that comment out?”
“Aren't you the one who told me we're all human on the inside?” Heather shot back.
“And so was the beast in the story, sheesh, didn't you ever watch the movie?”
Heather sighed and swiped another cookie as she pondered a storm of thoughts. She wondered what Frank could have looked like? She certainly had a lot of options in her setup and dabbled with a few choices while the changes weren't permanent. What could he have looked like if he wanted to? The question was pointless, she supposed. After all, he was set in his character now and well, happy with who he was.
“I am going to bed,” Heather said with a sigh.
“I didn’t upset you, did I?” Quinny asked.
“No, I am tired, and I want to sleep for another three days,” she replied and got up. Her minions followed along to the bedroom, where she left the bone champion outside her door and tucked Webster in on a pillow. She gently pulled the blanket over him and then undressed, tossing the dirty yellow dress over a chair. She climbed into bed and closed her eyes, hoping for peaceful dreams, but Frank kept coming to mind. She scolded herself for letting Quinny get into her head and cleared her thoughts, slipping away to the bliss of sleep.
The rock under her bare feet felt warm in the sunlight as she stood looking over a broad valley. A river meandered through it, in places making large looping bends. The slopes of the encircling mountains were covered in pine trees, creating a green wall before the mountains' gray stone soared up to end in clouds above.
She felt so at peace to be here, looking over the landscape. The scenery devoid of any sign of human activity until she spied the object to one side. There was a massive outcropping of rock near the middle of a large expanse of the valley. A beautiful house, at least four stories tall, stood at its peak. Ringed around it were terraces and gardens. A gentle road ran down one side spiraling around the hill to the valley floor. White smoke drifted lazily out of the chimney as she watched from afar.
She felt a sense of belonging while staring at the structure, and her heart desired to go there. With careful steps, she turned to look for a path down when a roar split the air. She looked up and saw a creature of glory; its wide, leathery wings spread as its golden scaled body glistened in the sunlight. The creature had a long serpentine neck with horns on its head. Four legs were curled under its body as it flew with might flaps of giant wings. It was joined a moment later by another smaller dragon with scales of a rich purple, and the two flew side by side.
Heather watched them fly in awe and felt a deep desire to join them, but something moved behind her. She turned and noticed a cave, its entrance hidden between a narrow opening in the rocks. She dared to step closer as she heard the sound of shifting stones. A moment later, a black tendril raced out of the cave and grasped around her waist. She screamed for only a second before it yanked her into the darkness, the light of the tunnel vanishing as she was dragged away.