Eight Era, cycle 1721 – cycle of the squatting dog, season of Unkh, day 307
It took a few days, but they finally reached mineshaft 173, which had recently gained the argot name “Caterpillar”. (It’s an incredibly esoteric story, which I won’t relay here, and the word “recently” is to be taken with a large pinch of dwarf influence. Speaking from a human perspective, it isn’t recent at all.)
Quest update: land dispute
How many more will die from a simple squabble over a bit of land on a planet full of land? But it isn’t for me to say.
Reward: nothing; I’m having a bad day, so I don’t see why anyone else should get a reward.
‘Which god is handing out these rewards? Miserly bugger,’ Ember complained.
There were a few coughs.
‘Oh, let me guess – your gods are as tight as you lot are?’ Ember decided.
‘Hey, that’s prejudice!’ Clang said.
‘Okay, lads, we’re four days out from my uncle’s place, and we’ve got good evidence from scholars about his legitimacy,’ Zyol began, but Alban made a dubious coughing sound. ‘Yes, Alban?’
‘Well, “good evidence” is a little strong,’ Alban countered.
‘Regardless, precedents are constantly based on less evidence,’ Zyol argued.
Alban conceded.
‘So, this is the final push. Let’s get it done,’ Zyol concluded.
This was easier said than done; as it transpired, the highway ahead was closed.
‘What bloody fool closed the door?’ Zyol shouted, banging his axe against his metal boots.
‘That would be Shaft Captain Christof,’ a dwarf shot back, stepping out of a guard house.
‘Shaft captain?’ Ember queried, tittering.
‘What fool is he to close a road?’ Zyol shouted back.
‘There’s an infestation of rattlespour in there; d’you know what that means, traveller?’ The same dwarf replied.
There were curses from the dwarfs.
‘Just cos I don’t let moss grow under me, sir…’ Zyol started, but Alban clamped a hand over his mouth.
‘So how d’we get past?’ Alban called.
The dwarf pointed in the appropriate direction. ‘Vent forty-two.’
The dwarfs grumbled and hiked the distance to the vent; they met a second group of dwarfs, and the two groups hailed each other.
‘Where d’your lot come from?’ the lead dwarf of the second party asked.
‘Plovdiv, and it’s been a bugger to get here, I’ll tell ya,’ Zyol responded.
‘Aye, we’ve driven up from the south of Ifẹ, and we’ve had our troubles too. I’m Grimjaw,’ the lead dwarf confirmed.
‘Zyol. You’ve got closures down there also? he enquired.
‘Not so much; more like turf wars. You head one way down a highway and you’re paying tax to an Axwinder, but you go the other way, and then Hilk is charging you tax. We had to wind our way around to avoid paying through the nose to travel,’ grumbled Grimjaw.
‘This succession is causing all sorts of feuds to be reignited,’ Alban agreed.
‘Tell us about it; now we’ve got cousin requesting backup for a plot of land you could spit across,’ Grimjaw complained.
Zyol’s party stilled.
‘You’re going to Shoreditch to support Nery?’ questioned Zyol.
‘You know of the claim?’ Grimjaw asked, concerned.
‘Aduen is my cousin,’ Zyol replied.
The two parties faced off.
‘Sounds like we’ve reached an imp’s arse,’ Grimjaw said. (That would be an “impasse” to any non-dwarf.)
‘Standard rules?’ Zyol asked.
‘Agreed,’ Grimjaw said with a grim smile.
‘What’s happening?’ Ember whispered to Norton.
‘When two sets of dwarfs on competing quests cross paths, then we’re honour bound to fight. Standard rules dictate we fight to 10% health before dropping out,’ Norton explained.
‘That sounds rather decent of you,’ Ember declared, surprised.
‘Well, we might have disagreements, but we’re all dwarfs.’
‘So I shouldn’t use abilities that can kill someone in a single hit?’ Ember checked, limbering up for the fight.
‘Oh, we enact a ritual before we fight, and when our health drops below 10%, we’re ejected out of the fight and our health stabilises.’
‘Gotcha, so there’s nothing to lose. We can have a bit of fun and work off stress.’ At that, Ember beamed, ready to enjoy herself.
‘Oh, there’re consequences. The losing side gives up one level of experience, so you go from level 30 to level 29, say, and they also give up half of their gold and an item each.’
‘What the fuck?’
‘So don’t take it easy!’
‘Do you know the Marquess rules?’ Grimjaw asked.
‘Aye. Is that how you want it to go?’ Alban replied.
‘We’ve got more fighters than you, so it seems only fair,’ Grimjaw retorted.
‘What are the Marquess rules?’ Ember asked Norton.
‘One on one; we nominate an even number of fighters, and if each side wins exactly half the fights, then the tiebreak is settled by the nominated champions fighting. Usually, it’ll be the leaders of the group, so Zyol against Grimjaw.’
‘First to three?’ Zyol asked.
Grimjaw nodded.
Zyol looked around at his party. ‘Norton, Five Nine, Ash… Ember. I’m the fifth.’
Grimjaw nodded again and answered without looking: ‘Horvat, Krauss, Silkinyte, Warden, and I’ll take the fifth spot.’
Norton strode forwards, holding his butterfly-bladed pole out, and waited as Grimjaw’s first – Horvat – joined him, holding dual picks, which were not too dissimilar to thick, chunky ice picks.
Horvat was fast, and not just fast for a dwarf. Norton was instantly on the back foot, flicking his weapon with small, simple flicks of the wrist to keep Horvat at a distance. Although Horvat was fast, he wasn’t agile, and he’d clearly expected to land the first blow; he was now starting to be pushed back.
Ability triggered: sixth sense
This provides awareness and intuition; you have the sensation of being watched.
Ember’s attention was distracted by the sensation of the hairs on the back of her neck lifting just before the interface message appeared. She peered deep into the shadows, and the sensation started to disappear, but she didn’t put it down to a false positive. Instead, she unfocused her eyes and looked into the dark. Something shifted in the corner of her eye; she moved her eyes slowly over to it, and – perhaps – part of the darkness changed.
She hit the dwarf next to her and pointed into the dark. ‘Check it out – can you see anything?’
The dwarf – who happened to be Silkinyte – looked into the dark, then at Ember and back to the dark, frowning. ‘Can I see the dark?’ he asked.
‘Look, you’re a dwarf, so the dark should mean something to you. What do you see?’ Ember persisted.
Silkinyte grunted and took a closer look, muttering about missing the fight. ‘It could be a stalagmite; not all the dark is even, you know.’
‘It’s not, but… over there.’ Ember’s finger shot out.
Silkinyte scratched his head. ‘Could be; it could be darker there than before. It’s not easy to judge, mind… It moved!’
‘That’s what I’m saying,’ Ember confirmed, nodding.
Silkinyte reached into his satchel, pulled out a porous-looking stone, made a fist with his hand and the stone cracked. When he loosened his grip, the stone was emitting a bright, clear light. He threw the stone into the darkness, which split into something like a cluster of black spiders.
‘Creepers!’ Silkinyte bellowed.
The dwarfs instantly broke apart and faced the threat; whatever creepers were, the dwarfs seemed to be put on edge by their presence.
New event: creeping horrors
Survive the waves of creepers.
Optional: find out where the creepers are coming from and what’s driving them out of their hidden dwellings
‘What is it? What are they?’ Holly asked, picking up the urgency from the dwarfs but not knowing what to do with it.
‘They’re vermin,’ Horvat spat through a bloody lip.
The creepers were tar black, and what little of their shapes were perceptible looked humanoid.
‘Concussion blast!’ Ash shouted.
There was a sudden thunderous explosion followed by a blinding light that seared Ember’s retinas.
Recalibrag
Recalibrating
Battle log:
Vestibular resistance failed, proprioceptive resistance failed, auditory resistance failed, oral resistance failed, olfactory resistance failed, visual resistance failed, tactile resistance failed
287 concussion-damage points
Recalibration complete
Affliction: sensory overload
You’ve been overwhelmed by a specialist attack, 12 minutes 34 seconds until recovery.
Ember was lost in a world of misery and confusion as every sense sent erratic signals to her brain. Tinnitus, blinding after-images of light, the feeling of motion sickness, the smell of pepper, the feel of someone scraping nails over her skin – all five senses were being inundated. Ember dropped onto her butt and leaned back on her elbows, but instead, she fell sideways due to the effect of the sensory overload upsetting her balance. Giving up, she took out a cigar, which took several attempts to light, and waited out the time.
Affliction finished: sensory overload – time eclipsed
Ah, blessed relief. Ember stood and prepared to fight. Many of the creepers had icons hovering above them indicating various status effects, but not all the creepers had been affected. Luckily, not all the dwarfs had been either, and none of the dwarfs with Zyol were suffering from status effects; instead, they were holding back the swarm of creepers. Alas, Ember spotted a few of Grimjaw’s party down and clearly dead, including Silkinyte.
‘It’s no use; there’s too many of them,’ Norton declared, wiping thick, viscous, black fluid from his forehead.
‘Fall back!’ Zyol screamed, and then used an ability to strengthen his command.
Ability activated: retreat
Zyol has activated the retreat ability; as you’re in Zyol’s party, you receive the following boosts:
Automotion – you can follow Zyol even if you can’t see him
Double time – you can move twice as fast whilst expending the same stamina as you would at half the speed
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Hidden reserves – a boost of 100 stamina points, which will hold no deleterious after-effects
Ember was the first to retreat, feeling no shame at all; she was so outside of her comfort zone against these creepers that she doubted she’d last a minute against them. She sprinted up the incline and burst out into what turned out to be a channel carved from a cliff, with a wide river running along it. There was also a group of boats sailing close by, and Ember was about to call to them when the dwarfs burst from the tunnel and the creepers swarmed over them all.
‘How fucked are we?’ Ember asked, half turning to the person closest to her before concentrating on the fight.
‘These things are conjured; the short version is they can only be harmed with substances categorised as being under the moon’s blessing, so silver and moonstone,’ Horvat replied, cutting through the arm of a creeper, which turned to black mist before instantly reforming.
‘So, we’re proper fucked,’ Ember grunted. Receiving a slash across her arm, she looked down and watched as a grey tinge appeared where the creeper had struck her. It burned like a sting from a poisonous jellyfish.
‘Well, most dwarfs carry a double-headed axe, with one side moon-blessed; the Horvat clan use Dru’ki – I don’t know the common name – on one side and gaad on the other,’ Horvat explained, taking another swipe and stepping back. ‘However, we pawned most of our items to get here quicker; there haven’t been creepers in decades!’
Ember danced back and forth, taking pot shots at the creepers when she could. ‘It still seems like a bad idea to de-arm yourself when fiend incursion is on the rise everywhere.’
Horvat screamed a battle cry and charged down three creepers, each of which re-materialised after his flurry of attacks. He ducked, lashed out, dodged and parried as the swarm sensed blood, and even Ash’s silver-packed bombs didn’t thin the numbers noticeably. Ember spotted a lone unexploded bomb, and she used a dodge-roll combo to reach it. The fuse was burned out, and despite Ember’s name, she knew no fire spells. Instead, she used her iisjomfruen, which created an ice clone, and she got that to jam one of her daggers into the fuse, which sparked the powder and detonated the bomb. Ember was struck by the shockwave and then tossed through the air, and her ice clone exploded.
New badge awarded: friendly fire
Yes, it happens so often that we actually have a badge for it!
“Rewards”: area of effect damage ↑↑↑, accuracy ↓
Battle log:
Hit with concussive damage, 200 hit-damage points
Hit with ice shards, 25x4 piercing-damage points
Ember staggered to her feet, turned at a sudden cry from a dwarf next to her and became blinded by a spray of arterial blood that coated her eyes as a creeper severed the neck of a dwarf.
Fortunately, it wasn’t the first time she’d been splashed by someone’s blood, so although her rhythm was upset by the surprise, she was able to recover in time to spot a claw swipe and turn to catch it on her arm, so it didn’t open her gut.
Battle log:
Hit with 100 slash-damage points
Affliction: bleeding
Lose 100 hit-damage points every 5 seconds for 900 seconds
Affliction: poisoning
The creepers have a poison in their claws that retards clotting; the duration of the bleeding is doubled.
A blinding light appeared, and the intensity of it after days in dwarf tunnels was actually painful.
Affliction: glare
The light has caused a physical affliction in your body from the pain and distortion. Your movements and mental processes are reduced by 5%.
‘Boss, we’ve got action over here!’ a voice cried.
The next few minutes were a confused cacophony of sounds and grey blurs.
*
Ember and all the dwarfs were lying on a cold surface with damp cloths over their eyes. After the light – which wasn’t particularly intense but comparatively blinding – the creeps had quickly fled, being creatures of the Creeping Dark, one of the many mythical Darks the dwarfs speak off. It meant that the rescuers had to do very little fighting.
Event complete: creeping horrors
You’ve fought off the incursion of the creepers but have failed to find the cause or their origin.
Reward: 500,000 experience points
Level up! Level 40 (70,063 experience points to the next level); new attribute points available, so would you like them to be automatically assigned? Yes/No
Ember got to her feet and shook her head; she’d met someone once who’d possessed an ability that completely healed them on levelling up. It was times like this when she really hated that cocky bastard. She chose not to have her stats automatically assigned and saved them for later. It was a sweet reward: three levels, which would allow her to increase her reflexes to the point she could unlock counterstrike on her parry skill. Or she could increase her poison resistance to 40 points, which would equate to 40%! There were lots of possibilities to ponder, including the possibility of spending the points on removing her specialty and going in a different direction. Her assassin and thievery skills weren’t going to be useful in her new future. Maybe she’d be a bandit or frontiersman; heck, she’d always liked the sea, so maybe she’d become a buccaneer!
With a jerk of recognition, her mind returned to the present; the reason the sea had wandered through her mind was that she was on a boat!
‘What happened?’ she asked, patting down her clothes to check all her hidden items were still where she’d left them.
‘Another one’s awake, Angie!’ a voice shouted, and Ember spotted a woman dressed in baggy clothes, though the bits of her skin on show were deeply tanned.
‘Well, maybe this one can give us some answers. You speak common, girl?’ the one who was presumably Angie enquired.
Ember wiped her brow and took a look around. Three other dwarfs were up: Norton, Horvat and someone Ember didn’t recognise. Strange, she’d spoken to Norton and Horvat, and they’d both spoken common to her.
‘Yeah, so what happened?’ Ember asked, and then belched and held her stomach. ‘Yuck. What’s repeating on me?’
‘Sailor salt; it’s a… well, it’s best not to ask what’s in it. You got a name?’ the woman asked.
Ember took the woman’s word for it and didn’t ask further about whatever it was that was trying to escape from her stomach. ‘Ember. But if you’re in charge here, you’d have a scan-like ability and would know that. This is a travellers’ boat, right?’
‘Right on both counts, Avigayil Al-Rawashdeh – Angie for short. And we prefer “tinkers” or “Anasy” – “traveller” is an offensive name.’
Ember belched again and had to swallow a lump of vomit back down, which had come up with the belch. ‘Right, Angie, so what happened?’ she asked.
‘Well, we’d like to know that ourselves. We were travelling in convoy with a few other boats of ours, then we saw what looked like dwarfs fighting, only to notice as we drew near that you seemed to be fighting with shadows. Then, we realised you literally were fighting shadows; Sammy over there used his light spell, and poof! The shadows scarpered. Next, Ioan used his constraint spell, and you all fell over like a group of NCs,’ Angie confirmed. (An “NC” or “non-combatant” is a slur or insult suggesting the person is below level 5.)
Ember yawned and scratched her boob, nonplussed. ‘Yeah, the fight really took it out of us.’
‘Is that all you’re going to reveal?’ Angie prompted.
‘I know the value of words to the Anasy,’ Ember retorted.
‘Come now, don’t be tight-fisted. The least you owe us is a story.’
‘We do owe you something, that’s true, but I’m not about to talk about the land of the dwarfs – that’s their story.’
‘’Tis a fair point,’ Angie relented. ‘So whose story is it?’
Ember shrugged. ‘Alban or Zyol – if either of them survived. So many have died; I never thought death would bother me this much.’
‘Sounds like you’ve got yourself a story; care to share?’ Angie prompted.
Ember shrugged. ‘I thought I was the one fucking life in the arse, but it turns out that life was double pegging me instead.’
‘Not a classic storyteller, are you?’
‘Oh, I’m sorry; let me start again and regale you with my story. I never thought the word “story” could sound so fucking pretentious.’
‘Hey, show a little care, girl; we did save you.’
‘Yes, you did – and you didn’t have to,’ Ember said. Then, she dropped onto her arse before lying down and pressing the heels of her palms into her eyes. ‘Shit, everything’s so fucked up.’
‘That’ll be the stamina exhaustion kicking in; that’s why you’re crashing emotionally,’ a new voice said, and a cold hand gripped Ember’s wrist, checking her pulse.
‘Leave her be, Stina; she’s a moody bitch,’ Angie declared.
‘Don’t worry; life isn’t nearly as bad as it feels right now,’ Stina stated offhandedly.
‘You mean this mood will pass?’ Ember asked.
‘No, I mean it might. Sometimes you just have to let your feelings go. So stop crying and stuff your face with some spice pot pie,’ Stina scolded, thrusting a pastry into Ember’s hands.
Ember sat up and bit into the hot pastry. Juices sprayed out, and she pulled it away quickly, but her face and chest were already dripping with a pungent, red juice. She swore through a full mouth, wiped her face on her sleeve and started dancing around as the spice kicked in and her mouth began to burn.
The door to below deck slammed open, and Zyol appeared, in deep discussion with Alban and Grimjaw. Zyol made eye contact with each of his party, and each time, he jerked his head in the same direction. His party took the hint and assembled around him – all but Holly, who was still too new to be included.
Firstly, Zyol looked over at Grimjaw’s group for a moment before addressing his party.
‘So, the immediate situation is that Grimjaw’s no longer heading to the confrontation. He feels he’s managed the situation poorly, and it’s affected him. The lack of silver and the creepers… Well, it was unfortunate, but he and his party feel like they’ve lost battle focus, and so they’re probably going to go to the mines and get their heads back in the game,’ Zyol stated.
‘Good job, too; a bit of community service will do them good,’ Norton affirmed to general agreement from the group.
‘Also, we’re being given a lift. When we’re dropped off, we’ll have a day’s walk to the Forth Causeway, and three days from our rendezvous before a nice experience payout,’ Zyol concluded.
There were mutters and nods of approval.
Quest update: land dispute
Your journey nears its end; travel to Shoreditch and meet up with Aduen.
‘We’ve lost many people – good people – but life is hard, and regardless of what we do, every day carries a high chance of death. That being the case, I think we can feel proud of limiting our losses,’ Zyol said, pounding his fist against his chest. ‘So, drink, relax and dance!’
(The idea of dancing when discussing death, as Zyol is, carries the subtext that Death is a terrible dancer; there’s a dwarf folktale about someone keeping death at bay by challenging Death to a dance off.)
Shortly afterwards, they sailed out of the tunnel and were met with a chill wind and billowing, black clouds.
‘Storm’s a-coming,’ one sailor said.
‘And we’re sailing right into it,’ Alban confirmed.
*
‘Here we go again,’ Ember said whilst scraping shit off her boots as the Anasy boat sailed off, leaving the party ashore in a dank-smelling bog.
‘Did you end up paying the Anasy to take your letter, Holly?’ Clang asked.
Holly hesitated for a moment. ‘Yes, it’s been a while since my sister’s heard from me. I thought it was worth it.’
‘You wouldn’t catch me paying a gold to get someone to take a letter,’ Zyol mocked.
‘I’m close to my sister,’ Holly explained defensively.
*
It was a miserable – yet, thankfully, uneventful – hike to the dwarf tunnel.
‘Slow down now; something’s not right,’ Clang said on returning to the group, having travelled ahead with Flynn as the group’s pathfinders. Flynn wasn’t put off by Clang’s habit of talking continuously, which is why Clang had originally become a scout – his first party leader threatened to cut out his vocal cords if he didn’t stop talking.
‘What have you found?’ Zyol asked.
Clang showed the party over to an innocuous part of the tunnel walls. ‘Really, it was Flynn who spotted this; he’s got a nose for this and acute senses. I was about 5 yards back as I have a slower pace when I’m checking for traps and ambush—’ Clang began, but he was cut off.
‘Duran’s beard, Clang; I don’t care how you found it… What is it?’ Zyol pushed.
Clang picked up a chunk of twisted metal. ‘To me, it looks like plate mail. I mean, look here; you can even see the joining lattice. Look how this plate is twisted; there’s a split from something sharp, yet it’s twisted too. It must have had some force behind it. Now look at the metals; this looks like a metal fibre to me – but I’m no expert. Also, the lattice is tied using string rather than being welded or joined some other way. That tells me it was expensive. And lastly – and again, it’s not my specialty – I think it was held together not with metal, silk or spider thread, but with thread made from fur. I assume it’s from an obsidian jaguar – or something else with tough fur. Thread from fur isn’t the most expensive, but it’s up there. To me, this has come from someone with money, and the damage tells me it’s someone without experience,’ Clang explained. ‘And there’s blood, so… yeah, there was a fight, but the lack of anything else tells me that it was a trap, not ambush.’
‘So we’re looking for traps, people!’ Zyol shouted to the group.
‘You’re an assassin, Ember; you should be good at spotting traps,’ Norton suggested.
Ember shrugged. ‘I’ll give it a go, but every race lays traps differently, and I’m no expert.’
‘We’re less than three days out; let’s not take our eye off the diamond just yet,’ Zyol warned.
They moved cautiously, except Flynn, who ran off and jumped, and then something suddenly caught the light.
‘What was that?’ Five Nine asked no one in particular.
‘I think the light was the glint of the blade,’ Ember stated.
They approached Flynn cautiously and checked the spot he’d jumped on.
After some investigation, Ash jumped up and down on the spot. ‘Pivot trap,’ Ash decided. ‘You walk over the first part and arm the trap, then you pass over the second pressure point, and the trap is sprung.’
‘Is it manually armed, to make it a repeating trap?’ Ember queried curiously.
‘See, this is the part I’m not sure about,’ Ash apologised, taking Ember to the other pressure point.
After a moment, Ember frowned. ‘It’s not arming,’ she said.
Ash tugged at his beard.
‘So, what? They’re only interested in stopping people coming in?’ Ember pressed.
‘This is the quickest way to Aduen’s land; if you wanted to get to Nery’s place, you wouldn’t come this way,’ Ash suggested tentatively.
‘So, Nery won, and he’s stopping any who are faithful to Aduen from arriving?’
‘Not necessarily; it could be that Nery acted before Aduen anticipated it, and Nery’s captured the entrance. Unfortunately, that’s best-case scenario.’
‘So we’re walking into an ambush?’
‘Again, perhaps not. It could be that they have confidence in the traps and are ignoring this entrance, but we’re going to have a fight on our hands, one way or another.’
They continued at a slower pace; Flynn would often spot the traps first, and his simple method of disarming them was to set them off. The traps were set for dwarf height and never stood a chance of hitting the wiry terrapin.
‘This all seems a bit slapdash. Is Nery really expecting this to protect his force from Aduen’s reinforcements?’ Ember questioned, disarming her fifth trap; she’d received a badge some three traps ago and could now literally do it with her eyes closed.
‘I agree. I think what we’re finding is rather disturbing; this tells me that an attack from Nery is imminent,’ Alban concluded sadly.
‘There are some camps, but the fires are scattered. I think they’ve already left,’ Clang said after using his farscape ability to scan in the distance.
‘In that case, let’s pick up speed, dwarfs; we’re late to the party!’ Zyol shouted, and then he stormed forwards.
They struck out at pace that was quick but not a run, and within an hour, they could hear the cries of battle. Shortly after, they arrived at a battlefield, and Ember couldn’t separate the sides at all.
Party invitation: Zyol has forwarded you an invitation to Aduen’s party
When Ember accepted it, a small map appeared in her vision and each combatant had a health bar above them, which was in yellow for the friendlies and green for the invaders.
Quest update: land dispute
Make sure Aduen survives.
Additional: for each enemy you kill, should your side win, you’ll gain double experience points
Additional: for each person your party kills, should your side win, you’ll gain 10% of the total experience points
‘This is it, dwarfs; charge!’ Zyol bellowed, and he rushed into battle.