Walking back to the Loigen farm, Joe had dozens of questions churning around in his head but after Groven, Azbekt, and Kaid, he was a bit gun-shy about asking them. So far he had had terrible luck with the surly people in Illuminaria. He did not want to make a new enemy. That could mean having to start again somewhere else.
It would get him out of his date, which might be a good thing. Joe was pretty sure his upcoming rendezvous was going to be another disaster.
Eventually, curiosity won out. As they stepped out from under the thick trees, into the open area around the man’s home, Joe finally could no longer contain his questions.
“Who was that woman I saw? And why did I see her? I know it had to do with your touch but not why? And that woman! She was … ” Joe’s words drifted away as his mind brought her image to the forefront of his thoughts again.
“Perfect. Yeah, yeah. She does that to mortals and fey alike. You bein’ a halfling probably got a double whammy from her. That is Gloriana ye saw, the Queen of the Swan Court, one of the nobility of the feyfolk.”
“But why did I see her? Why right then?”
“Yer fey heart was not yet born, changeling. I may be retired now, but I was a Swan Knight of the Sun Court back in the day. That kind a thing don’t fade enough to stop a sleeper from wakin’ up.”
Joe was sure that Corra thought these were explanations but all they did was prompt more questions without making anything clearer. The old geezer and Kaid were cut from the same cloth.
“Is there any chance I can get you to start at the beginning?” Joe asked sheepishly. “I really don’t want to be a bother but I have no idea what you are talking about. Where I come from halflings are short little guys with hairy feet and the queen of the fairies is called Titania.”
“Uhh that explains it. You’re one of Goodfellow’s boys,” the man stated, still walking towards his house.
Joe wanted to bury his head in his hands. Another riddle. “Goodfellow?” he tried, hoping for just one straight answer.
“Robin Goodfellow. Mortals call him the One Above, though seems mighty pretentious for such an imp as he. The Goodfellow is the doorkeeper between worlds. He lets the pixies through at night to clean and cobble. He lets the wild hunters head home when the morning sun starts to dawn. He plucks mortal souls from far-off lands and drops them willy-nilly about. I am assuming yer one of them,” he said, finally turning his head enough to glance in Joe’s direction.
“Yes, that's right,” Joe breathed, relieved to finally be making some progress in this jumble of a conversation. Oddly enough, the one answer he received from Corra Loigen he was pretty sure was not entirely correct. It seemed to be shaded by the knight’s perspective. It did not match what Joe had experienced with Hawking. The depiction also didn’t come close to how others had described the One Above to him.
Regardless, Joe wanted to pick his next question carefully. If he asked something stupid, he’d either get more inscrutable answers or the cranky old knight might just stomp back into his house leaving Joe with nothing. Halfling he could guess at, likely meaning half person and half fey. It was also a fact or phrase he probably could look up back at the Adventurers Guild. The Swan Court was also specific enough that he might be able to research its meaning.
Joe went for the question he felt he had the least chance of uncovering on his own. “What did you mean that my heart was asleep?”
“Yer mixing up what I said. You were asleep since your heart hadn’t yet been born. A fey untouched is just a seed and dream. Takes another fey to kindle yer heart and wake ya up. When ye and I touched, I woke you. Granted if I had known you weren’t yet born, I damn sure would have kept my distance. Now don’t you be claiming no kin rights. It don’t work that way anymore.”
“I’m not making any claims, sir. I’m just trying to figure out what you're talking about.”
The man stabbed his staves into the ground and huffed loudly. “Well, I ain’t got the time nor the inclination to start teaching tots the way o’ the worlds. You wanna know the wheres and wherefores, go find yerself a right teacher. I got work that needs doin’. My time ain’t free ya know.”
Corra stepped up onto his porch and glared at Joe. “I’ll give ya one free slice of advice. Consider it a birthday present. Get yerself back to the mortal’s fort, boy. Ye need a whole lot more simmering before yer cooked enough to tackle them woods on yer own.”
“Thank you. Both for the advice and the rescue, Mister Loigen. I will definitely rethink this quest before I try it again.”
The elder huffed once in reply before spinning about and tromping back into his house. He didn’t quite slam the door this time, which Joe took for a hopeful sign. Another thing Joe would look into was what were suitable bribes for retired fey knights. That man had answers if Joe could just figure out how to get him talking.
----------------------------------------
“Well that was quick,” Kendell announced as Joe stepped back into the cool air of the adventurer’s hall.
“Yeah. That was a complete catastrophe. Thanks for having me check in with Mister Loigen. He ended up saving my ass out there.”
She looked him up and down with a worried expression while she answered. “He does that sometimes. I wouldn’t count on it though. He almost always helps kids. With adults, it’s hit or miss whether or not he steps up for them.” Her expression grew concerned. “You ok. You look ok but …” Since Joe had healed all his injuries, he looked nothing more than a bit dirty. “I did not think you were just going to head straight for the quest on your own. I would have warned you if I did. That quest is going to take some firepower or teammates.”
“It also needs something I don’t have. A good ranged attack.” Joe rolled his shoulders still feeling the remnants of the bruising he took before Corra chased the badboons off. “They just hung out up in the branches and pounded me with those huge nuts they throw.”
“Oo. That must have sucked. Well, the good news is you are in the right place,” Kendell replied cheerfully. “Not only do we have a huge assortment of skills, which you get discounts on since you are an active Fort Coral quester. We also have some really great trainers on hand. Myllo is here now and he really knows his stuff. I’m sure he can help you pick a skill or advancement that will help you.”
She wrote a new note on her chalkboard and gestured for Joe to follow her.
“Do you have any open slots or are you fully allocated?” she asked as they walked past the library.
“I have one free point and three points in spirit open,” Joe recited from memory.
“Wow! That is great,” she exclaimed walking at Joe’s side. “That gives you so many more options. With that much spirit, it will almost surely be a magic ranged attack but you never know. Myllo can get really creative. I’m sure he will help you come up with something really cool.”
The two of them walked past several rooms. Joe glanced into the ones with open doors. Two of them looked like clerk’s offices and the third appeared to be a classroom. The next room was a workshop, which is where Kendell turned into. The space resembled a school art studio. Objects, both finished and under construction, littered the wall-to-wall shelves and two large worktables. Materials were everywhere, on shelves, in buckets, boxes, and baskets, hanging on the walls and from the rafters.
In the middle of all this creative chaos stood a race Joe could not place. He was too thin for a dwarf but he had roughly the same height. He also sported a large braided and beaded red beard. He had humanish hands with fingers between the long tapered digits of a gnome and the squat blocks of a dwarf. He had the pointed ears of an elf and his eyes had flecks of colors in them that could not place with any race he yet knew.
Myllonell Grensward: Korrigan: Conjurer/Artificer/Strategist 34
Joe was positive that korrigan was not one of the race options he had seen. The name pricked his memory but he could not place it exactly. He was pretty sure it was another fey race.
“Myllo,” Kendell called, drawing out the ‘o’ for the fun of it. “I have a customer for you. This is Joe and he has not yet had a guild workup. He just sailed in and then charged right out after the badboons on the Serabuk trail.”
“Much to my chagrin,” Joe admitted.
The bearded man looked up from a complicated frame of gems and gears. He looked back down at the contraption and then returned his gaze to Joe and Kendell.
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“Might as well. Pretty sure this,” he stated, holding up the device, “is still not right. I have no idea how the heck it was made, let alone how to fix it for Isais. Let’s go do something productive before I chuck this miserable gizmo out a window.”
Despite his words, Myllo carefully placed the gadget in a straw-filled box before hopping off his stool. Joe had a moment of disorientation as Myllo approached. When he stuck out his hand to greet Joe, it seemed like he was taller than he had been on the other side of the table. It couldn’t have been more than a few inches difference but it was noticeable. Joe couldn’t tell if his eyes were playing tricks on him or if it was some weird perspective about the room.
Regardlessly, he grasped the proffered hand and returned the quick but vigor shake.
“Nice to meet you Myllo,” Joe exclaimed. “I have been winging it so far, so I would really appreciate any advice you might have.”
“Well met.” the bushy-bearded man replied. “Let’s head to the study. All the materials are there. You won’t mind me taking a look at your scroll, I hope. The secretive ones make this process so much harder.”
“I don’t mind at all but I have to warn you it might not work. I have a trait that obscures assessments. The last time I tried to share my scroll, the man I shared it with couldn’t read any of it.”
Myllo stopped short and spun around on his heel. “Good thing we caught that now. Saves me from having to come back for it. I’ve got a scryglass around here for cutting through passive deception abilities. If I can just remember where I put it.”
He walked back around the desk and Joe could hear the sound of drawers opening, being rummaged through, and closing.
“There she is,” he crowed, holding what looked like a large magnifying glass. “Ok, let’s go.”
They entered the room Joe had thought looked like a classroom. Myllo indicated for Joe to sit at a desk in the front row. This room too featured shelved prominently but where the workshop was myriad of confusion, these looked like well-ordered library shelves. Books, many arranged by series, filled the shelves.
Two walls contained thick manuals that were fairly uniform, like a law library. The books started about waist high. Below the volumes were long drawers.
The third wall had just a single shelf bordered by two large windows. The volumes in this case were far more random and less well-maintained. Joe guessed that they were personal journals. They came in all sizes and colors ranging from tiny index-card scaled notebooks to leatherbound scrolls as well as a few large ledgers.
The last wall was dominated by an extensive chalkboard. There was some old writing on it, a list of skills, most of which Joe had never heard of but they looked interesting. [Jungle Razor] sounded very cool. So did [Deviluge].
“All-righty-now. Let’s take a look,” Myllo stated, standing over Joe. “Would you please open your scroll and let me see what ya got.”
Joe complied, sharing his scroll. Myllo first looked at it without the glass. Joe could see his focus sliding around on the floating ethereal parchment, not locking on to anything.
“You sure do have a strong obscurement going, Joe. I’m getting nothing either.” He lifted the lens and Joe heard him mutter. “Here goes nothing.”
Joe felt the glass focus on him. It was almost like a gentle push of someone’s hand against his forehead. Joe could feel ‘mental muscles’, for lack of a better word, tense up to push that touch away. Joe fought that instinct and instead relaxed against the push, actively trying to let it through. As soon as he did the pressure faded away and Myllo’s expression perked up.
“There we go. Wasn’t sure that was going to work. Let's take a look …” The korrigan’s voice trailed off. Joe watched his eye sweep back and forth, reading lines. They would stop every now and then to focus on something before continuing.
“You have a pretty decent support class going here. Tons of defense. I like that mobility skill you’ve got. I’ve never seen [Hunter’s Pursuit] on a person before. Usually, it’s a beast skill.”
He read for a few more seconds before speaking again. “Alrighty. Now I have to ask, what is your plan? It looks like you started specializing Healer but then you seem to have added in a bunch of martial skills that don’t really fit that spec.”
“So I don’t really want to be bound to only go adventuring on teams. I don't mind working in a team but I would also like to be able to go and do some solo questing too.”
“There are plenty of communities in the area that would offer quests to a healer. You don’t need to fight for them. We’d just need to get you a fast travel ability and you’d be set.”
“But that's the thing. I want to go exploring. I want to hunt through old ruins and fight monsters.”
“Well … The good news is Fell Bane Hunter is a really great step in that direction. The other bit of good news is you have not gone so far that we can’t smooth this out. Combat-oriented healers can be beasts on the battlefield.”
Myllo stepped up to the chalkboard. He wiped away the old notes and started writing out what he had seen on Joe’s scroll. The man had an amazing memory. He only had to check back one time before he had it all laid out on the slate. He had not only the skill names but their ranks and notes on the non-common ones.
“Where do you want to start,” he asked, not yet turning around.
“Ranged attack,” Kendell blurted from the back of the room. Joe and Myllo both turned to her to see her cover her mouth. She had been so quiet that they both had forgotten she was there. “Sorry. Do you mind, Joe? I want to be a trainer too someday but I should have asked first. I didn't mean to snoop.”
“No worries, Kendell. Feel free to chime in.” Joe expressed, tipping his head at the seat next to him. He did not mind her help at all but he would rather she sit beside him and not lurking somewhere behind his back.
As she sat, he continued. “She’s right. The badboon fight was a disaster because I had no ranged abilities. I have a teleportation item but in the trees, it was no help. They could scamper away before I could get my footing up in the branches.”
“Ok. That’s a great place to start. You have plenty of free spirit. Are you thinking something targeted like [Mage Missile] or something big and explosive like [Fireball]?”
“More [Mage Missile]. Though I’d really prefer something a bit less vanilla. I mean the old standby’s become standby’s because they are solid but … I don’t know.”
“Nah, I get you. Half the fun of pulling out a signature spell is when everyone else has to stop and wonder what the heck that was,” the bearded man agreed with a dramatic waggle of his hands.
“Exactly!” Joe affirmed a bit louder than he meant to.
“We just got to be careful. Sometimes there's a reason a spell languishes in obscurity. Cause it sucks.” Myllo turned back to the board and asked his next question over his shoulder. “I gotta ask. How much are you willing to spend on this? You have enough points for a rare skill but they aren’t cheap. The go-to ones are going to run you ten grand. We could probably find you something off the beaten path for half that.”
“That is way out of my price range,” Joe admitted. “I’ve got about fifteen hundred gold.”
“That is enough for an uncommon,” Kendell interjected. “Also keep in mind that we could probably work out a limited line of credit with the guild. You haven’t been with us for more than a moment, so I’d have to pull some strings but I have a good feeling about you.”
“I agree,” added Myllo. He had written the numbers ‘1.5-2k’ up in the corner of the board. “It’s the guild’s duty to help young adventurers. An uncommon is the way to go even if the one we pick is a bit over your current means. So, let’s talk spells. Do you have a damage type in mind?”
“I’m not a big fan of fire. I’d also like to avoid the more ghastly types such as things like acid or putrefaction.”
“I know a lot of young adventurers feel the same. After a few years and a good coat of jading, those scruples often relax.
“Not always though,” Kendell argued.
“Yes, not always. Regardless, there are few choices that people with your inclination often look at. Lightning is very common. So is force, bludgeoning, spectral, frost, and luminous.”
“I don’t know spectral.”
Myllo started to answer but Kendell jumped in front of him. “Spectral damage attacks the spirit. They tend to be lower on the raw damage scale but they often are debilitating in other ways, weakening, dazing, etcetera.”
“Ok, those sound good. Where do we start?” he asked.
“Let’s start making a list,” the korrigan announced with unexpected glee. Joe was not really a list guy but one of the girls he gamed with exhibited the same crazy pleasure he was witnessing from Myllo. Scribbling out and crossing off options must be a form of cathartic delight for some people.
Myllo reached up and pulled down a second chalkboard, one that covered the first board. He started scribbling down spell names.
“Let me know if any of these don’t work for you,” the korrigan tossed over his shoulder. [Chain Lightning], [Lightning Bolt], and [Lightning Spear] started the list, followed by a dozen more electrical variants. Kendell suggested a few more that Myllo added in. As they all seemed like decent spells, Joe just nodded at each additional name.
They switched to cold next.
Joe leaned back in his chair, not able to help, but he was enthralled. The list grew and grew. Eventually, spells started being added to the borders vertically.
Finally, Myllo stepped back. “Whew, that’s a good start. Let’s start weighing them out. Many of these will just come down to aesthetics and damage preferences, but I tried to include as many as I could think of that had nice extra features to them.”
Myllo handed Joe a pad of paper and a pencil, while Kendell ran to grab the three of them a pitcher of beer. Joe smiled at the board. This seemed a bit like overkill but at the same time, he had been so hap-hazard with his character build so far. A bit of excessive structure at this point surely was overdue.