The worst part of his search for Kaid was not the endless tension of facing another beetle or a pint-sized killer hiding in the grass, but the grass itself. The long sharp blades sliced anywhere they could find skin. His hands, wrists, and exposed knee had been turned into swaths of searing agony. ‘Death by a thousand grass cuts.’ The damage was negligible and repairing it was no problem for a healer, but Joe's healing did not extinguish pain entirely. A portion of an injury’s soreness lingered for a while. The repeated leaf-edge slices were turning into a real form of torture.
Joe had started looking for Kaid by heading all the way back towards the lake, stopping when he reached the area where the massive tangle of red thorny vines broke out of the dark forest. He got as close as he dared. From the distance, he checked the whole front of the crimson patch. He could see plenty of white bones littered under the brambles, but no acerbic dehydrated gnomes. Turning back he hiked through the field. About halfway back, he encountered a third beetle but Joe had a pretty good idea of how to fight them by now. Their faces and heads were their most vulnerable areas. One good shot to either and the oversized bugs slowed down enough for him to avoid the long hooked mandibles.
Joe eventually worked his way through the vicious grasses, back to where he had fought the second beetle. While he was distracted by a new grass slash along his knee, a red flashing warning appeared at the edge of his sight. His health had just dropped by half. He felt a sting across his lower back but, to be honest, it was not as painful as the stupid grass knick to his leg. Regardless, Joe dashed forward away from whatever had cut him. That is when the real pain of injury hit him. As soon as he stretched those muscles to run, the slice went from a cold sensation to a sharp sickening burn. Another cut grazed him as he opened the distance between him and his attacker.
You have restored 71% of your total health. Your current health is at 100%.
Your skill [Healing Touch] has increased to rank 13.
When Joe thought he had enough of a lead, he stopped and spun around. He looked back to see if Kaid or something else was behind him. His trampled path allowed him to view further back through the high weeds. Sure enough, the murder gnome was on his trail. Kaid’s face had lost its perpetual snide scowl. It was set in a dull expressionless mask. He had several burrs on him that Joe could see, including one hooked into the small man’s rat-nest of hair. Blankly staring at Joe, Kaid slowly stalked along Joe’s track. The only thing animated about him was his knives. Kaid’s arms were whipping back and forth, shearing through the grass stalks. From the waist up the little terror was Chucky but he was trudging along like Jason or Micheal. If Joe had not moved when he had, Kaid would have cut him apart a moment ago. While Joe’s healing was strong enough to bring him to full health from just a couple of hit points, each heal took a few seconds to cast. Judging by the speed at which Kaid was slashing, if the waist-high cutthroat caught up to him, Joe would take damage far faster than he could heal it.
Normally, Joe knew he would have no chance of outrunning the little maniac. Kaid had taken great pleasure in demonstrating how much faster he was than Joe during their walk to Brandy Mere. There in the weeds, Joe easily was able to leave zombie-Kaid in the dust. Joe angled away from the trees and plowed deeper into the grass. When he came up on a pretty big rock poking up out of the ground, Joe hopped up on it. As soon as he had a foot down, he changed his angle hard to the left and jumped as far as possible off the rock, clearing a section of grass without trampling it. He hoped this would put a break in his trail. Joe kept running for another minute before crouching down into the weeds.
He immediately noticed the muddle-headedness of burrs trying to swamp his thoughts. Joe tried to move his arms to pluck one off and found he couldn’t. It was getting harder and harder to think at all. He found himself standing, staring at a spiny ball, noticing hints of violet and fuscia where the long hooks came together in the center of the mass. The nagging feeling that he should not just be standing there faded away. It was replaced by a desire to walk back towards the treeline. He oriented on a spot further from the lake than he had been so far and felt that is where he should go. Where he needed to go. Joe also was certain he should just let go of his cares. He had done it once already. That was how he had left the pain of the hospitals behind. He could do it again. He could leave everything behind, all of the rest of it.
‘The rest of it’ … Joe’s mind called forth snippets of his last couple days: flaming herons gliding through a mirrored lake, Madam Spooner’s wondrous expression flexing her fingers, Thornton’s incredulous eyebrows, Nella’s determination as she helped him with the bandages, Buck’s joyful loving gratitude, Rhiley’s smile. Out of the haze, a thought flared into being. It burned brightly, like a fire through dry straw. ‘I don’t want to give those up!’
Joe marshaled his will and forced his arm to move. From somewhere deep inside himself came a smell that made Joe think of molten metal. The scent of smelting iron or copper created a small space between the foggy lethargy and Joe’s sense of purpose. With the [Iron Mind] trait smoldering within him, Joe placed his staff against his chest and swept it down across his body, scraping off the hooked pods. He slid the bar across his arms next. Then he brought it down the back of his legs. Each sweep came faster and more focused than the one before it.
Suddenly, he could think clearly again. He looked down at the pile around him, only to see one of the burrs climbing ever so slowly back up onto his boot. The spiny balls actually moved on their own, like ticks. Joe kicked it away with a shiver and checked himself for any others he had missed. When he was sure he was clean of the bewitching seedpods, Joe spent a minute using his staff to golf-drive the evil orbs as far away from himself as he could.
As the last one sailed out over the field of grass, he knew he had to come up with a real plan. Somehow Joe had to avoid Kaid, avoid the beetles, not get lost in high grass, find the main plant, destroy it, all without getting too many burrs on himself in the process. Pulling the burrs off the pint-sized slasher was not going to be a viable option. The deadly little gnome would shred him long before he could be deburred. The only reason Joe was still alive was because of [Iron Mind] and the fact the burrs could not puppet Kaid with his usual speed, perception, and accuracy.
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After a heavy breath, Joe uttered to himself, “Work the problem.” That was the go-to advice of Mr. Tierney, one of his favorite teachers. The burrs were probably connected to the main plant, which he needed to find. Thanks to that moment of almost enthrallment, he knew he was looking for a spot along the forest border further from the shore. So what tools did he have?
Joe thought through the meager list of skills and traits he had, but none of them seemed like they would help him. Joe considered his [Anyone] trait. Besides the inexplicable [Mark of Death], [Anyone] was his most nebulous and potentially versatile ability. Could he use it here? He was pretty sure he could not just take traits from creatures he encountered. They had to be shared with him. Even if he could, what would he get anyway? If he could copy something from one of the monstrous burrs, he worried it might make him even more vulnerable to the mind-control. Finding a beetle was no help either. Their resistance was structural, not a power or ability.
As he flipped through his character sheet looking for something else he could use, Joe stumbled across a window label [Party]. He remembered accepting Kaid’s invite but he had not investigated what that meant at the time. Opening the screen he saw a headshot of Kaid and one of himself. Next to his head, there were three bars for his resources; health in red, stamina in yellow, and mana in purple. For Kaid, he only saw the health bar and the stamina bar, both for the gnome were at least three-quarters full. Also under Kaid's portrait were a few icons. The first was a hooded head with a line through it. Focusing on the symbol Joe saw the text ‘Dysfunctional’ appear next to the icon. The next icon looked like a head wrapped in chains. That one read ‘Dominated’ when he checked it.
‘This could be helpful.’ Joe tried to cast [Healing Touch] through the interface. While it didn’t raise Kaid's health bar any, Joe suddenly had a strong impression that Kaid was to his left. Joe jumped sideways, swinging his staff in an arc hoping to block the cutthroat’s sneak attack. The staff tangled in the weeds but thankfully there was no blade-bearing Kaid. Joe waited, staff at ready, standing still and listening but a minute passed and nothing happened.
Confused, Joe tried opening the party window again. This time he did not cast on the icon for Kaid but instead just concentrated on it. The same feeling returned. This time it felt like Kaid was in front of him since Joe had spun to face that direction a few seconds ago. So Kaid was somewhere that way, which happened to be in the same direction as he thought the main plant was. Joe wished there was some way he could tell how this all worked. As soon as a window popped into view, Joe slapped himself on the forehead.
The [Party] interface is a multi-purpose system tailored to each class. Leader types such as Marshals or Knight Commanders will have significantly more functionality than solo-focused classes such as Snipers or Barbarians. As a Healer class, you will be able to see the resources you can restore and have a minor targeting ability so you can get to those in need more efficiently. Your support role allows you to discern negative conditions your party members are afflicted by.
“Thanks, Hawking. I can’t believe I forgot about you. Wait, only negative conditions?”
Correct. Your role in the party is to manage negative resources and conditions. Positive conditions are the providence of Leaders and those who maintain such buffs.
“Will I be able to see all negative conditions?”
Negative. Many conditions are hidden from passive observation. For example, the majority of mind-controlling effects are far more subtle than the brute domination of the Beguilburr. It is very unlikely you would be informed of a vampire’s [Blood Charm] or the [Enchanting Hex] of a witch without a specific skill.
“Good to know. I’ll bet if I could see enchanting hexes, I would have seen one at Granny Growlbee's. So, dominated is pretty straightforward. What does dysfunctional mean?”
The dysfunctional condition indicates that the impaired creature cannot access some or all of its special abilities.
“Ah, that makes sense. Thanks. The Beguilburr can't use all of Kaid’s skills. Speaking of Kaid, I know he is that way. Will I be able to tell how far away he is?”
Not with your current skill set. Granted you know he is within long range of you. If he was beyond that you would not be able to sense his direction at all.
“And how far is long range?”
Approximately 150 meters, or 500 feet depending on your preferred measurement scale which you did not assign during character creation. Do you wish to do so now?
“Let’s stick with feet. Is there a map feature?”
Affirmative but you do not possess any of the requisite skills to access it.
“Can you access it and tell me where the Beguilburr is?”
Such a question is beneath you, Joe. You know my purpose is not to solve your problems for you.
“I know. I figured it was worth a shot … you know with Kaid’s life being in danger and all.”
Joe waited for a reply but clearly Hawking was immune to guilt-trips. As Joe sighed, the irony of this situation occurred to him. He could just head back to the Granny’s house on the waters of Brandy Mere with the saddleleaf in his pack and get the cure for Sarsa Dellham. That would complete his quest and be significantly safer than trying to save the most irritating person he had ever met, in either world.
Joe threw his head back. He stared at the sky and groaned. He knew it was a terrible and very possibly fatal idea to attempt to save him but he couldn’t leave Kaid out there. Closing his character sheet, Joe started going through his inventory. It did not have much more in his stuff than he did on his sheet, but a few items caught his eye. Slowly an idea started to form.