The bones clattered onto the pile with the rest, followed by the ragged torn up clothes from the robes of our foes. Maran and I stood over them, hands out ready to cast our spell. Maran had her book in hand and the first time she tried to cast the spell it failed, but a second attempt yielded her result. We tossed the globs of fire onto the pile and the pyre was lit.
“Sorry, not the fastest learner. First time was luck,” Maran said with an apologetic shrug.
I nodded and nudged my head towards our allies. “I see you are unharmed, I take it you used your ward spell?”
Maran thumbed the head of her axe and hummed. “Three mana, and it barely held two glancing attacks back. These guys must have had one hell of a fight when they were alive.”
The makeshift funeral reminded me somewhat of home as outside the shrine was a growing potluck of food. With the sun directly overhead, hot food and a religious building I felt memories of home creep in. Some of those funerals also resulted in fights, so I guess I really was feeling nostalgic.
My arm felt tingling next to the fire, perhaps from a sore muscle making itself known, or from something else. A reminder of what happened the last time I had faced powerful undead. “The gods like to meddle with us, or do we let it happen?”
“Hmm? Something wrong, battle buddy?” Maran asked.
“I just hope their spirits are at rest,” I said, waving off the concern.
Deception : Partial Success!
Maran shrugged it off and we added some kindling to the flames. The small pit would house their bones, and when it was done we could sweep the earth over it keeping any wayward spirits from hitching a ride on their bodies again.
“Before we head back I want to try something,” Maran said, pointing at the shrine. “There was a fight here for a reason, both parties were looking for something.”
With the undead remains burning we were confident in our safety and returned to the group. They had dragged out the remains of a few pews and a wood table with three legs for our campsite. A large stump plus a few waterlogged books from the shrine made a stable fourth leg for the table, and on the surface was table cloth making our picnic table. With Lin cutting up some jerky and a cook fire tended by the others we had the promise of a good meal ahead of us.
“What are you feeling today Josh? We have dried meats, fruits and Vensa is just about done with the eggs by the fire,” Lin said.
Lin was smiling and had her cloak open on account of the warm day. It was nice to see, but what I didn’t like was the red staining her white locks. I held up a hand to my cheek to get her attention. “Lin are you alright?”
Lin copied my motion and touched her face. It came back with sticky red fluid, dried blood. “Wow, it’s been a while since someone actually got me like that. Can you take over while I clean up?”
The cut was across her cheek, and while there was a lot of dried blood it didn’t seem threatening. I took the knife from her and she went to the side to clean up and bandage herself, with Yara stepping in to help.
Ben sat down on one of the pews, and rested his bow on the table. “Got a hare, it should be good to add fresh meat to our meal.” He rubbed his hands vigorously and unclipped his cloak as well. “Warm day, innit?”
Glancing at the heaven revealed only a few clouds, with a full sun beating down on us. The pines around us were a wonderfully vibrant green, and snow melt dripped down their branches. The deciduous trees had little dots of green on their branches, buds showing new life.
“Seems a little early for spring,” I said.
I pointed the knife at the buds and narrowed my gaze. A prompt told me the reddish brown bark and gnarled branches made it a twisted ferrum maple, a tree with high concentrations of iron. The sap could even be used for tonics for good health.
Ben stroked at his short beard and sat back, straining the damaged pew. Under his cloak I could make out his dense dark green gambeson and the leather patches to give rigidity and protection to his vitals. Armour that was light, great for an archer on the move.
Ben crossed his arms and focused on the shrine. “Which begs the question, who damaged this shrine? The dark god cultists or the sunshine boy back there? I can feel Talok’s light, can’t you?”
“It did seem to get brighter when I said his name before…but why would he do that?” I asked, waving the knife at the burial pyre. I went back to chopping up the jerky into bite sized chunks and put it in a bowl beside the dried fruit bowl.
Neither of us had an answer, but I felt like something foul was going on behind the scenes. There was a few minutes before lunch was ready and I sat with Ben, busying myself with checking logs. There were little hits of experience dribbling in, and I had more than enough to level, but Rolada’s words gave me pause.
Seeing my level go up was cathartic, something to focus on during the madness of fighting for my life. That, and I did like seeing it go up. It gave me new and interesting things to look forward to each time I opened the talent pages. Amid the logs telling me I had dodged an attack and dealt a grievous blow to the warlock I saw a black and gold message.
Note by Scholar Livy
Wonderful news our recording of the ancient texts with the adventurers was a success! Only one of them set off a trap that took off his leg, but worry not for their health, one of Ishaka’s priestess have been cleared to give him a rejuvenation spell with the experience debt paid for.
Should you find yourself with galewood or zephyrus birch and a hearty helping of air infused mana crystals we could help you make a small flight worthy airship! I will admit it’s a bit of a wild expenditure, but the prospect of applying ancient theories is quite intriguing.
I also want to say congratulations student, I see you have achieved success with your magical crafting. We will still be busy cataloguing and organizing our notes for the next while, but should you require assistance feel free to reach out.
Included in the message was a blueprint for a docking tower for my town and the rough cost of an airship. A small sum of roughly ten thousand gold for an air worth vessel fit for a handful of people and loot.
“Yeah, not happening any time soon,” I laughed.
Ben stretched and opened the cork on a bottle. “You're telling me, this new talent I’ve been saving up for costs six skill points, I don’t even know if it's really worth it. But being able to control arrows mid flight if I miss seems good. Also, drink?”
I took the offered bottle and sipped the sweet cold cider. “Might be better if we warm it by the fire. But that sounds like a good talent, especially if you use spell arrows like that.”
Ben shrugged. “Yeah it also gives some passive accuray and lets me impose my primal magic into mundane arrows, so that helps against ghosts, but then I’m a bear at the circus. I’ll be great with the bow, but what about at home?”
He watched Yara finish cleaning up and healing Lin’s cut, and his brother worked with Vensa and Maran to gather the cooked eggs, fire baked flatbreads and hare steak. “All me and Timberwood have done for years is hunt beasts, and a magic bone boy outplayed me with my own arrow. I’ve ruined some friendships by going nose to the grindstone, and for what?”
The ranger’s shoulders were tense, and the man seemed to be beating himself up. I summoned a fire orb under the bottle and heated the cider to a warming drink. Ben took it back and sipped at it, seeming pleased with it.
“Mind if I share some thoughts?” I asked. Ben gave me the go ahead and I let out a breath I had been holding. “At first some of my companions only joined me because I had a roof over my head. This place seems to get everyone to step over each other, to get stronger as quickly as they can. But now after we had time to grow and get better at our own things we can help each other more. I got my ass kicked a few times, but now I’m slugging back just as hard. It’s a good feeling, but it’s okay to slip sometimes. It lets your friends shine.”
Ben finished his cider, setting the bottle down with some finality. “That’s good when it's heated up.” He deflated into the bench, lost in thought. “I know what you mean, folk are always worrying about their pockets and numbers going up. But I hear you, let folk be good at what they do. So when I almost blow myself up again you use that gust spell you hear?”
I tapped the gem on the cloak, and let a sly smile touch my face. “I can only store three mana in here, and I like to use it myself to jump around. Let’s keep blowing ourselves up to once a day.”
The others stepped in and the table was set. Conversation was non-existent as the bowls of assorted foodstuff turned into a free for all. My stag hare steak was stolen off my fork by Yara, and in return I stole her fresh biscuit which she had slathered butter and honey on. The eggs vanished in the blink of an eye and bottles of drinks vanished beside people only to reappear across the table. By the time the feeding frenzy was over I had the final biscuit, chunk of egg and steak in my possession. I put it together in a sandwich, and I felt the envious glare of Lin come from beside me.
“Can I help you?” I asked, holding my sandwich mere inches from my mouth.
Lin said nothing at first, but gave me the biggest poutiest cat eyes in existence. “Please?”
My spirit almost broke, but my hungry stomach growled. Fighting took a lot of energy and I wasn’t going to be able to sling spells and fight without fuel. I looked between Lin and my sandwich, and when my eyes went back Yara was beside her putting on the same face. “You too?”
Yara then slipped in behind me, setting her chin on my head. She wiggled her fingers and summoned the ring of binding. “Technically as I am your wife I could call in this favour.”
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
Tim let out a wheezing laugh, and held a hand up to his scarred throat. He rasped out something and nudged his brother who waved a hand. “Eating with your girl is fun eh? Last woman Tim was with ate more off his plate than hers.”
I grabbed my butter knife and chopped the biscuit in half, handing one half up to Yara. She inspected it, then stole the other half. “This one is bigger.”
Lin frowned and put her hands on her hips. “Really? Well now I won’t tell you about the gold chain I found in the dirt here.”
Insight : Failure!
I hesitated to chow down and looked carefully at Lin. I didn’t need a skill check to tell me she was holding something back, and her tail swished behind her like she was ready to pounce. I looked past her to see something off about the side of the shrine.
Perception : Success!
+3 XP gained.
I dropped the half sandwich, which Lin happily gobbled up and ran over to the shrine. The front of the building was covered in soot and pits from the thorns, but this side was remarkably clean in comparison. Too clean if there had been a battle here before. I reached out and felt the side before bringing my hand back to see my glove had soot on the fingertips. It was an illusion.
The others jogged over and I held up a hand. We began poking around the sides, searching for a break. In the dirt along the sides of the shrine we found a few coins, a broken potion bottle and strips of dirt cloth. Maran was looking at her spellbook and holding onto a piece of glass lens, mouthing out short phrases of magic. The lens sparked, and she held it up to her eye. “Right of your hand Vensa, yeah right there beside Yara’s.”
Vensa plucked out a dirty block and the wall of the shrine was distorted, it shifted until the illusion died and we were facing a damaged wall with a raised dirt mound. Yara kicked at it, peeling off the top soil to reveal a door handle. Vensa waved us back, and before our eyes dropped her cloak and clothes. She only wore a crop top of thin cloth and undergarments. Lin nudged me, wiggling her brows, but I was more curious about what she was doing. Vensa then fell forwards, transforming before us into a long limbed canid, a maned wolf.
Her paws easily dug up the soft earth, and she grabbed a dirty rope attached to the door handle and pulled, revealing a hidden cache below the shrine. Vensa scented the air, and pawed down the steps carefully. Once she reached the bottom there was a minty green flash of magic in the basement and the nearly naked woman poked her head back up. “I hope you are all in the mood for some treasure.”
Lin blew her a kiss. “Are you part of the treasure I can take home?”
The beast-kin druid stuck out her tongue and Maran threw her clothes down to her. We lit lanterns and headed on down to see piles of carefully hidden goods. Chalices, knives and robes that had weighty religious tones covered several rough tables. There were hidden healing supplies and stacks of incense sticks that made the room seem rather nice.
Vensa held up a small crate full of healing potions. “These can help the caravan.”
“Hang on a second, is it okay to take from a religious site like this?” I asked.
Yara held a chalice in her hand set with green stones and waved it. “I’m bringing this one to Nadya, since this one is for a Henienkia priestess.” She then picked up a silver chalice lacking any engravings or iconography. “This one is for general use, it can be for my pocket. Better in our pockets than the dark cults around here.”
Joining in on the search I found scrolls with basic cure spells on them and tucked them into my bag. Some of the healing supplies had spoiled and I only found out when I went to pick up a herb and felt it squish in my hand, oozing out foul gunk onto the dirt floor. I shook out of my hand and fought the rising bile in my throat. The nice smell of incense was doing a great job of masking the rot. Then another scent hit my nose, wet pine mixing with damp fur.
As I searched for the source I saw there were a few oddities, weapons amidst the healing wares. Weapons with silver runes on the blades of swords, or on the sides of maces. I overheard Maran asking about them and Yara explaining how they are great against night creatures.
Perception : Success!
+1 XP gained.
I wiggled past Lin and Ben passing a set of knives back and forth to find a dirty rug swaying in front of me. I pushed it aside to find a low arch in the wall. I crouched and saw it lead to a hidden room, and I dug out my flashlight. The small hidden place was just big enough for two people and I crawled in to find various furs and cleaned skulls dotting the carved out shelves. The ceiling had the outline of a beast-kin man with a drawn bow, and simple carvings of animals fleeing from him. Sadly I didn’t see anything of note, the hides were stiff and cracked, and the skulls were for decoration.
I crouched to slide back into the other room until my gloved hand felt something in the dry dirt. I fished around and found a rope, which led over to a pack stuffed into one of the shelves. I opened it up to find some camping gear, twine, an axe and spare knife amid other various odds and ends. I shrugged and put it back, only for my hand to knock aside a deer skull by the pack.
The far wall shook, and I heard a click. Intrigued, I poked at the various skulls until another shifted. With a slight nudge I heard another click.
“Interesting,” I mumbled. I weighed my options about getting some help, but my curiosity was too great and I kept trying skulls until I found a small mouse skeleton tucked behind a wrapped up roll of leather. Beneath it was a circular stone disk with an etching of the man on the ceiling. “Bingo.”
With a gentle tap to pet the mouse skull I heard a third click and the far wall opened up to reveal a bow, and a huge quiver with straps for the bow to be mounted onto the side. There was plenty of room for arrows and a few throwing spears inside, their razor sharp heads glinting from my bright flashlight. After checking for traps and seeing nothing pop up I grabbed the bundle and returned to find everyone missing.
Lin’s voice filtered in from the stairs. “Josh! Where did he go now?”
Yara’s face was at the entrance and she waved. She looked at the bundle with interest and held a finger up to her lips, then smiled. “Maybe he went to relieve himself, Lin. Men can be particular about what tree they choose.”
“Let me go make sure he doesn’t get eaten, trouble loves to find that man,” Lin said.
Yara stepped down to meet me. “What did you find?”
“No clue, bow, arrows and javelins. Hidden behind some skull switches,” I said. I put it down and took out the bow. I felt a jolt course down my arm, the thrill of battle and the desire to run. The sensation died down and I was left feeling woozy on my feet. “Whoa…how weird.”
The recurve bow was made out of three distinctly different types of wood, layered on and held together by some kind of glue. The core of the bow was made with a nutty brown wood, and when I flicked it I heard a gentle hum come from the wood, as if it was singing a melody. The back side was made with the ferrum maple, the dense rust coloured wood giving it some solid feeling support. The front side had a black wood with greenish tones, giving it an oily look. When I rubbed a hand down it I could feel my hand glide like it was still well oiled. The grip was tightly wound rough leather with small stag hare antlers jutting out front, and furred hide.
Several question marks appeared over the bow, and one by one they started to reveal themselves. Yara held onto my shoulder and the text appeared faster, as if we were pooling our abilities to identify together.
“Bow of…Mercy?” I asked.
“I’m getting only one ability out of it, something called ‘Swift Mercy’ that deals critical damage to nearly dead creatures,” Yara said. “This might need some time.”
“Damn, wish I could find out now,” I said. I gave the string a pluck, hearing a songful note. “Sounds nice.”
There was a dull thump, and I jumped, shining my light on the ground of the hidden room. I used the bow to slide the dirty rug back and a deer skull was now on the ground, its non-existent eyes seemingly watching me.
“Let’s leave,” I whispered, reaching for the quiver.
We jogged out, and I nearly ran straight into Vensa. The druid woman sniffed the air and looked down. She plucked the string and her ears shot up. She snatched her hand back like she had been stung and hissed. “Kallio.”
The rest of the information about the bow appeared to both Yara and I.
Bane Bow of Mercy
Tier V - Weapon (Rare)
This enchanted bow is for the hunting of prey, both mundane and exotic. It carried with it a double edged benefit that rewards careful hunters, while inexperienced hunters can taste its bane as Kallio, lord of the hunt, will not suffer fools.
+20% Accuracy and damage.
Tainted Shot : Venomvine Willow bark influences your arrows, leaving a drop of its poison in its veins. On hit you deal 1-6 extra poison damage, and the creature must make a constitution save or lose 1 of its physical stats for 1 hour.
Swift Mercy : Creatures near death suffer critical hits when struck with the arrows fired from this weapon. Critical hits deal an additional 50% damage.
Rust Bane : Non-magical armours struck by the arrows from this bow will be damaged, rusting away.
Song of the Hunter : The wielder of this bow can call on the spirits of the beasts they have slain, singing their songs of woe. The hunter must pick a target, sending the spirits to hound their quarry. While Song of the Hunter affects a creature they are considered to be near death, and can see the spirit world soon to embrace them. If the hunter fails to slay the creature in one hour they gain the foolish hunter’s curse.
Foolish hunter’s curse: -5 to luck, all incoming attacks have a 10% increased critical hit chance and shooting this bow inflicts the hunter with the effects of Tainted Shot. This effect will continue until the hunter sacrifices a beast heart in Kallio’s honour.
Vensa pointed at my magical bag and I stored the items away. “You might be best off to destroy that bow and harvest it for its valuable essences mage. Kallio’s items are always powerful and…dangerous, even to the user.”
“That’s a rather powerful weapon, and as long as Josh doesn’t use the song power he’s fine,” Yara said. She gave me a punch on the shoulder and nodded with approval. “Maybe you could find your demon wife a new halberd next time?”
Vensa gulped, her eyes locked on my bag. “Perhaps, but I personally do not wish to see it unless it is needed. The followers of Kallio who were gifted these items to sate their lust for power usually find their ends with them in hand, or are wise enough to bury them.”
I rested a hand on my bag and squared my shoulders. “I’ll consider it, but I might keep it and just avoid the song power. Besides, I’ll need more practice with bows before I’m confident enough to use it.”
The forest near the road cracked with the sound of breaking sticks. Maran jogged back towards us. “Found them!”
We met back by the entrance to the ruined shrine. Tim and Ben moved the furniture back in should it be needed again, while I lent a hand to bury the now ashen remains of the dead cleric and warlock. They had died in the service of the beings they served, I just hoped they were at peace. I didn’t want ghosts to come harass me next.
I placed a hand over the dirt they were under, feeling a hint of warmth from earth. “Stay down there for us okay?”
Lin and Yara waited for me by the road, and together we joined the other four. We walked swiftly with our spirits high, with a hot meal in our bellies and some new found valuables in our pockets.
“I got a magical dagger someone left down there, it glows pink around ghosts!” Lin said, presenting the weapon to us.
“What’s the range?” Yara asked. She stopped dead on the road and snorted. “Five feet? Lin you will already have a ghost grabbing your tail by the time this is any help!”
Lin stuck out her tongue and took it back. She stopped as we passed her as she double checked the enchantment. “Maybe Josh can make it stronger for me.” She did a dance in place before skipping to catch up to me. She held out a hand to lace her fingers with mine and did the same to Yara on her other side. “I like having a wizard companion, I should have dated a bookworm years ago! Also having a strong demon woman to stitch me up is nice too.”
“When we get home I can look into it. Let’s head back and get paid for now,” I said.
The warnings of the druid weighed on me. It was a fun find, a strong weapon hidden out of the way. Yet it was also a little too easy to get, and I could feel with that rush of energy when I held it, a piece on the board getting moved. But I held this piece, and if needed then I was more than willing to use it.