Eight Era, cycle 1721 – cycle of the squatting dog, season of Unkh, day 211
The next few days passed peacefully. Amaka was able to increase her skills and was starting to feel good about her progress.
Skill increased: foraging level 8
Skill increased: standard bow level 7
Skill increased: tracking level 6
Skill increased: sneak level 4
Skill increased: navigation level 2
Skill increased: traps level 3
Level up! Level 4 (3,149 experience points to the next level)
A clump of damp leaves, in deep orange and brown, were picked up and slapped into Amaka’s face by a wind that had greater piercing damage than her hunting arrows. Her hands were turning pink as she pulled the arrow from her kill, and, with agile fingers, she skinned it and segmented it. Wiping her hands on a large, sodden leaf was enough to clean the blood off her hands, and she then brushed her damp hair clear from her eyes.
Amaka looked up into what was quickly becoming a storm and she cursed, stuffing the meat into a leather bag, which was then itself stuffed into her main satchel. Quickly, Amaka unslung her bow and stowed the string away before the rain could ruin it.
The storm intensified, and it was almost painful in its ferocity, so she made for cover in a nearby cave. Amaka found some dry wood in and around the cave, took tinder out of her tinderbox and struck up a fire; Amaka hadn’t had the patience yet to start a fire without it.
Amaka had been eating berries, nuts and any plants her senses indicated might be useful; she’d gained around eight different ingredients and had suffered the runs twice. The worst thing to come out of the last few days was the realisation that cooking was also a skill and one that wasn’t easy to get. She’d undercooked meat in stews, burned meat to near charcoal and had bits of roots stuck in her teeth for days. Finally, she’d reached level 1, more from mistakes than from actually making a successful meal, but it did mean she could cook meat on a fire to make something edible, but mixing ingredients was still beyond her.
New skill: cooking
To bring out the maximum from an ingredient doesn’t just mean distilling it down into its purest form; the perfect stew or belly of pork can be more beneficial than the greatest health potion.
Fat ran down her hands and burned Amaka’s fingers as she bit into the steaming meat. She nearly burned her palate in her hunger, and held a chunk of meat pinched between her teeth. She breathed in through her nose and then out through her mouth in an effort to cool it down without burning her hands further. The blister on her palm from all the healing spells had killed her nerve endings, so she held the steaming meat in her damaged right hand as she ate.
Once she’d eaten, she warmed her backside at the fire, slept for a while and then cleaned her nails with an arrow.
Amaka looked for a break in the clouds or any sign that the rain might stop eventually, hopefully. She sighed, as the sky showed no let-up in the clouds; she decided to explore her small cave.
As she took a step, there was a crunch, and Amaka looked down with her stomach clenching; it was a tell-tale sound. Slowly, Amaka pulled her foot back up, hardly able to look at what she’d trodden on. She let her breath out in a long exhale. It was just the skull of a rabbit or rat, or possibly a small fox?
Amaka held her burning branch higher and stepped deeper into the dark. There was movement far off in the cave; Amaka peered into the dark and took a step further. It was too large to be a fox, even a large fox, and also nothing with four legs moved that way. It was distinctive; only something that was moving about on its arms could move like that.
It hadn’t seemed to notice Amaka, or if it had, it was ignoring her. Part of Amaka was telling her to move back, to get to the fire and warmth, but her feet seemed intent on taking her closer.
Amaka whipped around; there had been a soft clatter behind Amaka, like someone had kicked a small skull accidentally. Amaka felt her foot snag on something, her momentum pitched her off balance and she fell sprawling to the floor. But the floor wasn’t there, and Amaka fell further down until her head cracked against stone. There was pain so intense that it seemed to white out her vision, the world spun uncontrollably, something was hitting her over and over, and there was blood – which smelled and tasted so like iron – that was interwoven with mud and confusion until oblivion mercifully claimed her.
Amaka vomited and passed out.
Amaka’s next action was to vomit once more; perhaps oblivion was preferable to the garbled mess her sensations were overloading her with. As slowly as she could manage, Amaka crawled up onto her knees, which was indeed very slow as her arms shook uncontrollably.
The world was spinning, and her muscles were soft rubber. Her hands brushed against something cold, so Amaka leaned forwards and rested the side of her head against the cold stone. The cold soothed the pain and the spinning, which moved the world around like a churning ocean and made Amaka feel oddly like she was drowning.
The coldness of the stone gave Amaka an anchor to cling to as the spinning slowly settled, although the intense, throbbing pain continued.
An ugly icon was blinking insistently in her lower vision.
You have been badly concussed.
All spirit attributes lose 10%.
Your skull has been fractured.
All spirit attributes lose 5%, all body attributes lose 5%, and max health reduced by 70%.
Warning: falling asleep whilst concussed is extremely dangerous; seek help immediately.
You have broken your arm.
Lose 7 strength points until it is healed.
New quest: the dying of the light
You have got lost in a dangerous system of caves. Fight your way through or find your way out before it’s too late…
Rewards: upgrade to your navigation skill available for clearing out a cave system, other reward(s) unknown
Failure or refusal will mean spending your life lost in the dark.
Reaching for her water bottle, Amaka spat out a mouthful of stale mud and blood, and then swallowed a mouthful of icy water. The sharp coldness broke through the malaise that had gathered around her thoughts. Gingerly, Amaka poured a little over the side of her head where the pain was emanating from; a shiver ran through her, but the cold was soothing, and she let out a sigh of pleasure. But her leather bottle didn’t hold much, and she stoppered it to save the rest.
‘There’s two dead up here, and signs of a third one taking a tumble,’ stated a voice that was harsh, high-pitched and spoke in an accent that made every other word sound like there was a “z” in it.
‘It can’t be one of theirs; they don’t stumble over their own traps,’ said a second voice.
It wasn’t an accent they spoke in, but a language that Amaka had never heard of before, yet, somehow, in contradiction to the normal laws of language, she understood perfectly what they said.
They must have moved in silence, as the next time one spoke it was nearly on top of Amaka, who hadn’t heard a sound.
‘There’s blood,’ the first person declared.
Amaka’s stomach dropped at the word “blood”, and she tried to scurry back into the rocks, her eyes straining in the gloom. Her eyes twitched, her vision blurred momentarily, and the shades of black in the lightless cave became shades of grey, white and black like the world had been drawn using charcoal pencils. It wasn’t great for her depth perception, but it did outline all objects.
All seeing eye: active
One of the objects was the face of a creature, which appeared so suddenly that Amaka nearly swallowed her tongue.
‘It isn’t a carok; it looks like a human,’ pondered the creature.
Amaka stared at the creature, and words appeared next to it like a listing in a bestiary.
Name: Regious
Race: ebu gogo
Genus: nomad
Affiliation: unknown
Specialisation: unknown
Not much is known about this peripatetic race; reports of their existence put them as precursors to humans on the Sphere. Their temperament, their drives, their preoccupations and their reaction to xenos are all unknown. It is advised that you treat them with caution, although any knowledge of them could be valuable to scholars. Increase your lore to learn more.
Class: C
State: curious
Level: unknown
Health unknown, stamina unknown, magicka unknown
Endowments: unknown
Curses: unknown
Skill increased: lore level 2
Skill increased: lore level 3
Bestiary increased
Specialisation quest unlocked: those who walked before us 1
You have discovered a race little is known about; continue your explorations, both out in the world, and in lost and hidden tombs of lore.
This is a quest for the profession of scholar; due to you not being a qualified scholar, this quest will not be trackable for further study. Any clues and evidence you find for the location of a rare race will not be added to the questline, and your word will not be enough to convince scholars of your findings.
Rewards: experience gained for each race discovered, accolade points for each race discovered, potential new skills, quests and more to be earned
The rare races are isolated (such as the deep dwellers of the dwarfs), worth 800 experience points and 50 accolade points; rarefied (such as the cyclops), worth 1,400 experience points and 75 accolade points; rare/extinct (such as the druids), worth 2,500 experience points and 175 accolade points for discovering things left behind by them; quixotic (such as the bogeyman), worth 6,320 experience points and 232 accolade points; mythical (such as the kraken), worth 10,000 experience points and 500 accolade points; and angelic or daemonic, worth 50,000 experience points and 1,000 accolade points.
The ebu gogo are a quixotic race.
Congratulations, you have discovered a quixotic race: ebu gogo
Many stories of ebu gogo exist, but knowledge of them is not freely shared; as an outsider to the scholars you will not be allowed access to their information.
6,320 experience points and 232 accolade points
Warning: you are not a scholar, you have lost these accolade points
Level up! Level 5 (2,831 experience points to the next level)
‘What, human? Well, it’ll be dead when the carok patrol gets here.’
It wasn’t Regious who spoke, and Regious frowned at the words; he then scratched his eyebrow and looked pensive. With a guilty look over his shoulder, Regious bent down, placed a hand over Amaka’s face and muttered a few words.
A moment later, the warmth of magical healing spread through Amaka’s head. It wasn’t the same raw heat that Amaka’s magicka caused, but was instead a warm, pleasing heat, like that in freshly baked bread.
He left before Amaka could get her mouth working, and, as she poked her head over the rocks, there was no trace of Regious or his friend. Then there came the sound of footfalls, and Amaka’s head whipped round; the world continued to move and spin for a moment. Two figures, who were distinctly different from the ebu gogo, entered, speaking in a low snarl.
Name: Garnavarn
Race: carok
Genus: artificial
Affiliation: broken
Specialisation: scout
Specialisation is chosen at level 20, and it allows for new abilities and techniques to be learned by exchanging character experience for specialisation experience. This means that, should you choose to level up a trait of your specialisation, you will remain on your current level and all experience learned will go into your specialisation.
Class: D
Caroks were created by the wizard Malward to guard his tunnels. They are simple creatures with few desires or needs. They have an intense dislike of the light, and are naturally suspicious and distrustful; they guard their homes jealously, setting both traps and patrols continuously to stop anyone approaching their queen. They are limited in growth, and are loyal to their queen unto death. When a second queen is hatched, half the caroks will leave to start again. They have shown no desire to trade with others and are considered little above pests. Increase your lore to learn more.
Harvestable items: eyes, hair (rare)
State: bored
Level: 20
Health unknown, stamina unknown, magicka unknown
Endowments: none
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Curses: none
Bestiary increased
Their guttural language was also translated in Amaka’s mind. The two caroks took a side tunnel, and Amaka stood quickly and looked wildly around. She spotted the slope she must have fallen down and scurried over to it. She clambered up, but it was steep and damp, her feet skidded and she slid down; her fingers scrabbled over mud, rock and roots – trying to dig her nails into something – but there was nothing to gain a purchase on, and she slid down again and again.
Agility test failed
Amaka sat in a damp clump on the floor, with tears of frustration falling silently, her hands slick with mud, and damp seeping into her clothing. Amaka shivered and stood, unsure of what to do next. She spotted her bag; somehow, it had also fallen down and it lay beside a side tunnel. Amaka picked it up and clasped it to her chest. With one final glance around and no other ideas, she headed down the tunnel.
She hadn’t gone far when she noticed a carok standing alone and facing the wall. After a silent pause, the sound of water slapping against mud started, and Amaka blushed.
Name: Rgnark
Race: carok
Genus: artificial
Class: D
Harvestable items: eyes, hair (rare)
State: relieved
Level: 16
Health unknown, stamina unknown, magicka unknown
Endowments: none
Curses: none
‘Come on Rgnark!’ a carok called from the distance.
‘One moment, one moment!’ Rgnark replied looking around idly. ‘Is someone there?’ he called, peering over to where Amaka had stood a moment before.
Amaka froze, her mind reeling, but with no thoughts coming into it.
Rgnark called again, and the second carok asked what he wanted, but Rgnark replied saying he’d found something.
Amaka heard the conversation in a daze, her heart in her throat, and her hands fumbled in her bag and her fingers closed around something.
New quest: the devil take the hindmost
Alone and in hostile territory, pick off the weakest to survive.
‘This isn’t real, this isn’t real, this isn’t real, this real isn’t, this isn’t real,’ Amaka repeated again and again as she snuck up behind Rgnark.
He shook out the last drops, and Amaka plunged the knife into the side of his neck.
Battle log:
Carok with skinning knife for slash damage, caught unawares x2 for sneak damage, carok hit on unguarded flesh x2 for critical hit, carok caught in jugular x5 for vital point
Carok stunned for 5 seconds by surprise attack
Carok staggered for 3 seconds by critical hit
Carok stunned and staggered for 10 seconds by attack on vital area
Slash attack on neck creates severe bleed damage (carotid artery), loses 20 health points per second
Rgnark stumbled back, his hand reaching up to his throat and groping blindly around the knife hilt protruding from his neck. Amaka looked directly in the carok’s eyes as the life left.
Amaka was frozen again, unable to tear her gaze away from the carok and the three zeroes next to his name to denote his lack of health, stamina and mana in death.
Then came the sound of the second carok, frustrated and with bad grace, stamping over to investigate what had slowed Rgnark.
Amaka blinked, slipped back into the dark of the cave, took her bow from her shoulder and strung it. The second carok noticed his dead colleague and hurried over, cursing and looking around for the culprit. The carok was now close enough to see Amaka clearly; its eyes widened and it started to speak, but Amaka loosed the arrow. It struck the carok in the chest and sunk into its heart; a horseshoe appeared in Amaka’s visions denoting a lucky shot.
Battle log:
Carok attacked with standard bow and arrow, dealing piercing damage, lucky shot critical damage x2, heart shot x5
Carok staggered for 3 seconds by surprise attack
The carok looked down, reached a hand slowly up, brushing the arrow, then fell, and it was dead before it landed face first in the mud.
Battle log:
Carok dies
Amaka scuttled back, her hand over her mouth; guilt, shame and fear washed through her and, suddenly, she was crying. Not soft, gentle tears but the type of crying that could easily become hysterical; the type of crying that made her body shake, and tears and snot run freely. She’d never killed a sentient creature before and she struggled with the knowledge of what she’d done. There was no one there to soothe her or to stop her, and she couldn’t stop. Her breathing was ragged, and it hurt to cry, but she just couldn’t stop her body from shaking. Part of her was scared it would never stop, but it did, and tired and exhausted Amaka uncurled slowly from her foetal position and looked around, confused and lost. One of the dead caroks was looking at her – looking into her.
You have been afflicted: stress
Your max health has dropped by 5%, your stamina has dropped by 2% and your magicka by 10.You are also more prone to irritation and may lash out unexpectedly.
Amaka kept catching the eye of the dead carok; it looked surprised and accusatory.
A short while later, Amaka was moving, getting away from the accusing dead eyes of caroks. She moved blindly and thoughtlessly at first, until she calmed finally and stopped to look around.
Something had moved; even in her blind fear, she had caught the importance of it.
Slowly now and cautiously, she crept, straining her senses for more signs of movement.
Something had moved. Large rat-like creatures burst from the ground around her. Diving to one side, she slashed out with her knife, feeling it almost jerk out of her grip as it bit into the gut of one of the creatures.
There was a blinding pain in her left arm, and she looked down to see a creature biting into her arm. A description of what the creature was filled part of her vision, and she blinked it away as a second and then a third creature bit at her, one at her thigh and one taking her in the chest. Amaka flailed blindly at them, panic overtaking her. Her knife struck out, taking one of the creatures in the back, and the feeling of the creature’s spine breaking echoed up Amaka’s arm and made her sick to her stomach.
The creature screamed, as its limbs were useless, and Amaka kicked at another as it charged. Her boot stuck the creature cleanly on the head; it was jerked to the side, ran full speed into a rock and its skull cracked sickeningly on a stone. Amaka then plunged the knife over and over into the last skeet, which stayed clenched around her thigh as Amaka’s knife and hand became stained red with blood. The ground was sprayed with skeet blood as Amaka stabbed it again and again, until her lungs burned, her arm shook and her stamina depleted. There were loud screams from the skeet with the broken back, which were growing in volume as desperation overtook it.
Amaka looked down at a dead skeet still biting into her arm, and she bent forwards suddenly and vomited, though her stomach was already empty and only a glob of spittle left her mouth. Then Amaka spent nearly a minute dry heaving uncontrollably at the sight of the dead creature still biting into her. Finally, when she was able to control the vomiting, she grabbed the creature by the jaw and forced its mouth open slowly. The pain was unbelievable as the teeth scraped against her skin and blood gushed out of the wound.
She used haemostasis to stop the bleeding in her chest, arm and thigh, and then cast her weak-rejuvenation spell to restore some health.
Looking down at the screaming creature, Amaka trod on its face, so as not to have to look at it, and plunged her knife into its throat. Warm blood gushed over her hand, and she pulled the knife out quickly and wiped a shaking arm over her mouth.
Race: skeet
Genus: rodent
Class: D
Skeets are large rodents that are little trouble for the experienced adventurer, but can catch the unaware traveller off guard in an ambush. Where there is one skeet, there are often dozens, as they breed and mature quickly. Most skeets are little trouble when faced on an even battlefield, but their ambush instincts and their pack mentality make them harder to fight. Beware the brood mother. Increase your lore to learn more.
Affiliation: Bobolis
Harvestable items: teeth, tail, pelt
State: deceased
Level: 10
Health unknown, stamina unknown, magicka unknown
Endowments: of the Earth, resists hostile solidity magicka 35%; toughened skin, resists impact damage 12.5%, resists piercing damage 15% and resists slash damage 10%
Curses: none
Bestiary increased
Battle log:
Piercing damage sustained – skeet bite
Piercing damage sustained – skeet bite
Impact damage sustained – tackled by skeet
Lucky shot x5 damage, skeet hit in back by skinning knife – spine severed
Skeet paralysed
Skeet hit with impact attack (resisted) – kick, lucky shot skeet dazed by kick to head
Skeet hit with impact attack (resisted) – rock, skeet suffered broken skull
Skeet dies
Skeet hit with piercing damage (resisted) – skinning knife
Skeet hit with piercing damage (resisted) – skinning knife
Skeet hit with piercing damage (resisted) – skinning knife
Skeet hit with piercing damage (resisted) – skinning knife
Skeet hit with piercing damage (resisted) – skinning knife
Skeet hit with piercing damage (resisted) – skinning knife
Skeet dies
Skeet hit with piercing damage (resisted) – skinning knife
Skeet hit with piercing damage (resisted) – skinning knife
Skeet hit with piercing damage (resisted) – skinning knife
Skeet hit with piercing damage (resisted) – skinning knife
Piercing damage sustained – skeet bite
Piercing damage sustained – skeet bite
You are being weakened due to a high impact, persistent, pain-based attack
Skeet hit with impact damage – foot
Skeet attacked with skinning knife for piercing damage to throat x5 damage
Piercing attack on neck creates severe bleed damage (carotid artery), loses 20 health points per second
Skeet dies
Amaka looked at the creatures for a long moment, until the shaking stopped. Then she collapsed against the side of the tunnel and let out a choking breath.
New skill: knife
Make friends with your foe, get close to them – and then stab them in the back!
The blade is the most popular weapon in Sphere. Short shorts, daggers, claymores, rapiers and dual blades – there are perhaps as many types of edged weapons as there are ways to kill a man.
Like the bow, the blade’s abilities can be used across the different classes. Although someone might be level 1 with the dual blades, they could be a master of the sword, and their “skipping stones” fighting style will give them an edge with dual blades beyond the level 1 stats. Strength on the Sphere is more about knowledge and application than it is about raw power.
Skill increased: knife level 2
Skill increased: standard bow level 8
The bow string flexes to your pull, draw speed increased.
Line up your shot, release and hope they don’t move!
You kill with quickness and speed.
New ability unlocked: execution
The night, the day, an empty ally, a crowded tavern, a commoner, regicide, it matters naught to you.
If this lands as a fatal strike, you will either decapitate or gut your opponent; the benefit of this is that there is a chance you will inflict fear on nearby enemies.
This attack increased damage by 5% to the following damage types: critical hit, sneak attack, counter attack, vital-point hit, bleed, piercing. This skill costs 10 stamina points per each type of damage that is increased by this skill.
This ability requires level 10 in any attack skill (i.e. bow, edged or blunt).
New ability unlocked: precision hit
This ability increases your chances of hitting a vital point or a critical point on a target by 10%; increases your chances of inflicting bleed, impact and piercing damage by 5%; and increases bleed duration by 5%.
This skill costs 30 stamina points and requires level 10 in any attack skill.
60 experience points received from level 20 carok
48 experience points received form level 16 carok
70 experience points received from level 10 skeet
42 experience points received from level 6 skeet
98 experience points received from level 14 skeet (2,513 experience points to the next level)
Amaka wiped the sweat from her brow. The prompts helped; they made it feel more like a game, even if the leathery feel of the skeet and the coarse hairs that covered its body were still causing her skin to tingle. Amaka turned her attention to the skeets.
New item: skeet teeth x4
Uses, unknown; weighs 0.1 kg each
The teeth were large front teeth, like cartoon beaver teeth, and each skeet only had one set. The pelt of the skeet had holes from the fight, and, for some reason, only one of the tails registered as an item. There must be some hidden mechanic behind what made the tail useful.
New item: skeet tail x1
Uses, unknown; weight 0.2 kg.
She tried tasting a little of the tail, but nothing happened; whatever its use was, it wasn’t an alchemy ingredient.
Perhaps adrenaline was still in her system, as she noticed the skeet mounds the next time she looked, and she took to a knee, strung her bow and took careful aim.
Battle log:
Skeet attacked with standard bow damage and piercing arrow damage, caught unawares x2 sneak
Skeet dies
Skill increased: sneak level 5!
Amaka licked her lips then aimed again.
Battle log:
Skeet attacked with standard bow damage and piercing arrow damage, caught unawares x2 sneak
Skeet dies
Skill increased: standard bow level 9
The skeet cried out as it died, and there was a disturbance in the mud as the skeets waiting in ambush rose as one to avenge their hatchlings.
The next skeet flung itself out of the mud and at Amaka, who jumped back; a strange feeling accompanied the jump, a sucking sensation like being caught in a riptide at sea. Amaka felt it wash through her, and the world jumped suddenly and she was behind the skeets. She’d completely forgotten about her teleport!
She loosed two arrows, one killed a skeet and the other hit a skeet, but didn’t pass through its skin, and the skeet suddenly burst towards Amaka. Her arms shook a little as she nocked the next arrow, with the skeet bearing down; as she leased the arrow, the skeet jumped at her.
Amaka’s eyes widened as the skeet flew through the air, its teeth bared and saliva streaming. Her arrow flew into its open mouth, and the skeet hit Amaka in the chest, taking the wind from her lungs.
Amaka staggered back; breath wouldn’t come as she coughed and wheezed. Then she spotted the skeet crawling in the dirt. Amaka’s breaths were short and shallow, her stamina reading was near zero, and the bow shook wildly in her hands, as her low stamina made it impossible to aim. The skeet let out a loud cry, and Amaka loosed her arrow; it missed by a wide margin.
The skeet hadn’t moved, and as Amaka forced her breathing under control she noticed it would never move; the cry it had released was the last action it would ever take.
Amaka moved off again, slowly and carefully, watchful for skeet mounds and listening for the sound of marching caroks. After moving in the dark for long enough to make her feet and legs throb and ache, Amaka finally came across a small recess in the walls that was obscured by a stalagmite. As she settled down and kicked her boots off to let her feet breathe and rest, Amaka could feel her body shut down slowly as the relentless urge to move on gave way to exhaustion. Without realising it, Amaka passed out.