Eight Era, cycle 1721, season of Unkh, day 221
Ember dived to the floor; the first volley of arrows missed her miraculously, but, from the cries of pain, many if not all of the dwarfs had been struck. It was clear why so many ambushes had been planned at that location: the rock sides were steep and smooth, making it impossible to climb, and the archers above had an unimpeded view of their prey below.
Ember rolled as she landed; the sounds of the arrows striking flesh behind her were sickening to hear. She pushed off the ground and withdrew a dagger just before the second flight of arrows was fired, and this second time she wasn’t so lucky. An arrow took her in the thigh and a second struck her a flesh wound in her gut.
‘Don’t attack them with swords, fools; keep using your bows!’ Fatemeh shouted.
Ember looked around and saw that the bandits Fatemeh had assembled had broken ranks and engaged the dwarfs at close range – the better to steal any valuables before someone else did.
The dwarfs were down, but not out. As the bandits charged, the dwarfs rallied and met the bandits, with swords against axes.
Zyol was the first to cross blade edge to blade edge. He caught a bandit’s swing at an angle, causing the bandit’s strike to fall short, whilst Zyol strike was swung with the skill of a snooker player; the deflection caused Zyol’s strike to sink into the bandit’s arm.
The bandit’s scream of pain was covered by Pidarp’s yell of fury as he charged under the wild swing of a bandit and sunk his axe into the bandit’s knee cap. Using the forward motion of his run, he headbutted the bandit’s crotch; the bandit doubled over as Pidarp continued his run and pulled his axe free to sink it into the bandit’s back.
The bandits had underestimated the dwarfs’ toughness – their literal toughness. Living underground, and spending their whole lives mining and carrying large rocks had given the dwarfs impressive physical stats, and the dwarfs had a racial ability that opened the first two body gates and first spirit shen. So, whilst they were being peppered with arrows, the arrows were shoddily made and had little chance of slowing a dwarf down. The arrows should have at least been steel hunting arrows, at a minimum, to be able to do any damage to them.
Ember, however, as a result of living in the shadows and silence, was a difficult target to spot in the dark tunnels – even without activating any special skills. She had developed a naturally silent walk, and she could stand nearly perfectly still, so the eye tended to avoid her when in large groups. This meant that the arrows caused damage, yet, in the melee, the bandits seemed to mostly ignore her, allowing her to deal devastating back attacks for a damage boost.
The dwarfs knew the importance of using the right tool for the right job, and their axes were short so that they could be swung quickly when at close quarters, and had been designed with one side to deal maximum slash damage and with the other side being a flat ball to deal impact damage; if the bandits weren’t having their guts cup open, then they were having their kneecaps broken.
Ember rolled to her knees, used a hand to take the weight off her injured leg and kicked out, catching a bandit on the knee cap. She used her hands to roll backwards, and exploited the momentum to lash out and catch the bandit again – and this time she felt his kneecap pop, and the bandit screamed in pain.
Ember pushed up off the ground, crouched in a ball, launched herself off the floor with all the power in her thighs, and brought her knee up as she leaped and cracked her knee into the bandit’s jaw, shattering it in an explosion of teeth and a spray of blood as the bandit bit through its tongue.
Ember was an assassin, so her preferred fighting style was stealth and critical hits – and she was partial to a bit of poison too. However, in a melee, she was like a cornered honey badger: she didn’t care to play by any rules and she fought to kill. She went for joints, with the intent to dislocate or shatter, she went for the groin, she bit, she gouged eyes, and every part of her body was a weapon from elbows to her head for a headbutt on a bandit’s nose – it was all fair game as far as Ember was concerned.
Ember caught a punch to the ribs and staggered, then the follow up punch caught her in the face and she went down. This time, there was no clever roll or quick kick to the kneecap; Ember needed a moment to let the world stop spinning as her stomach exploded in pain as a bandit kicked her so hard she left the ground.
Affliction: dizziness, winded
Dizziness, 13 seconds remaining
Winded, 1 minute 2 seconds remaining
You have suffered a bruised diaphragm and transversus abdominis muscle.
Lose 5% stamina points, 3% health points, 5 vitality points, 6 endurance points and 1 dexterity point. Each exhale will hurt like a motherfucker and each inhale will be stunted.
Ember rolled onto her back, coughing blood; each breath felt like she was inhaling nails. Someone stood above her, raised their foot and stamped down on her face, but Ember had pulled a knife out and held it two-handed, so the bandit stamped down onto the pointy end of a knife. The bandit screamed and hopped back, and Ember summoned a knife of ice and stabbed it into the bandit’s foot once, twice, three times whilst she was scrabbling to her feet. A sudden loud call filled Ember with extra resolve and strength.
Pidarp activated the ability Hammer Fall, as you are in Pidarp’s party you receive the following boost(s):
Ability timer(s) reset, 25% fortification to all stats
Ember felt the strength returning to her and then some; she should have checked the levels of her party as Pidarp’s ability sounded high level.
Ember activated her bounty-of-the-snowdrop ability and felt a strange sensation pass through her head – like a sudden and fleeting brain freeze.
Your stats have levelled sufficiently for a single ability to be mutated; do you choose bounty of the snowdrop?
Ember mentally agreed; after all, the boost wasn’t permanent so it didn’t really matter what she chose.
Bounty of the snowdrop has mutated into Iisjomfruen.
As you fight, a second shadow image appears to fight by your side; it mimics what you are using and deals 75% as much damage split between the same damage types as you are currently using and frost damage.
This ability can be used once in 132 hours, lasts for 1 hour and has a range limited to 1 yard from your person.
As this is a newly unlocked ability, its first use will not trigger the cool-down period.
Ember activated the ability immediately, and it felt as though someone had walked over her grave and she shuddered. Now, when Ember moved, a ghostly silhouette appeared in her wake.
Ember’s fighting style was a mixture of gymnastics and movements similar to yoga stances, which wasn’t the most effective, but then she normally ran away when outclassed or outnumbered. There wasn’t any reason for her to fight fair, and she felt no shame fleeing combat. But, now, she was stuck in a melee and obviously outclassed.
Ember struck out three quick kicks to a bandit’s knee, then groin and then solar plexus, and then ducked a swing from a different bandit; her shadow form rolled over her back and delivered a kick to the first bandit’s chin to continue the assault, and Ember received a notification icon.
Combo strike
Performing rapid strikes creates combo attacks, which deal increased damage depending on the combo size; 1% increase to each chain in the combo.
The bandit went down heavily, and Ember stood up after ducking the second bandit’s attack and struck out with her elbow at the bandit’s temple and kneed the bandit in the calf. Then her shadow form belted the bandit with an upward palm to the nose, and the bandit staggered back, bleeding. Ember punched the bandit in the spleen and Ember’s shadow form then blocked a strike that Ember hadn’t fully registered – it was just a movement she saw from the corner of her eye.
‘To me!’ came a call, and Ember glanced around to see Zyol rallying the dwarfs to his side.
Ember moved towards Zyol, but the bandits closed ranks. Ember’s shadow ran ahead of her and hit the closest bandit with its shoulder, knocking the bandit back, and Ember jumped onto the back of her crouching shadow, and sprang up and over the staggered bandit as the other bandits struck out, missing Ember but shattering her ice shadow and forcing the ability to end early.
Ember landed, staggered on her bad leg, and then, unexpectedly, she was grabbed and thrown. She landed on her shoulder and allowed the momentum to roll her before she staggered to her feet, expecting to be attacked at any moment.
But no attack came, and she got to her feet and hobbled over to Zyol. Looking around, she noticed Pidarp over by where she had been, facing the bandits and attempting to fight his way over to Tarmire, who was down and bleeding heavily.
A strong hand grabbed Ember by the waist, and it held her like an iron manacle.
‘Go, we need to rally,’ Zyol commanded, pushing Ember over to Alban.
‘But… what about Pidarp and Tarmire?’ Ember questioned.
‘I’ll go,’ Zyol offered; there was blood covering his left eye and cheek from a scalp wound, and he had blood splattered over his chest, but he seemed in good health regardless.
Pidarp made a noise of frustration as the bandits held him back from Tarmire, and Pidarp actually screamed in frustration. He looked around and noticed Zyol, Ember and Alban still waiting for him.
‘Run. What are you waiting for? Run!’ Pidarp shouted. His attention distracted, a sword was stabbed into his chest, and he staggered back, crying out in pain.
‘Go,’ Zyol said, pulling Ember over to Alban who stood by the edge of the chasm.
‘But Pidarp!’ she cried.
‘He’s buying us time; now go!’ Zyol ordered, and he pushed Ember, who lost her balance on her injured leg, and fell off the path and down into the chasm.
Far quicker than should have been possible, Ember hit the ground, and then Zyol and Alban landed beside her, although, where Ember had landed heavily on her side, they landed feet first and carried her into a dark recess.
‘What… what happened?’ questioned Ember.
‘The tunnels are laden with secret paths and whatnot, to help us escape the creatures of the deep. And, in this case, an ambush of topsiders,’ Zyol explained.
‘But… but the ground… how?’ Ember stammered.
‘The rock is cut in such a way that the path blends in perfectly with the cliff face; when you see it from any angle, your eyes will assume it is a sheer cliff side when, in fact, a path runs not too far from the surface. It should keep us safe from anyone following us.’
‘How did you survive all those arrows?’ Ember asked, as the dwarfs seemed unaffected; at least, she didn’t notice a single limp.
‘It takes more than basic iron arrows to take down a dwarf,’ Zyol said, showing Ember a wound from an arrow was little more than a flesh wound.
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‘Where’s Sisal?’ Alban asked.
‘He went down to the arrows; he used his skill to get the enemies to focus on him, and, because of him, we managed to make it to the drop, but he didn’t make it with us,’ Lyre confirmed.
‘What, but Sisal was strong, how could simple arrows take him out?’ Zyol asked.
‘They had more than basic arrows you know; I found this in Ennolk,’ Lyre stated, showing Zyol an arrow head he’d snapped off.
‘It looks like steel,’ Zyol declared, taking it.
‘Analyse it, boy,’ Lyre suggested.
Ember also used her ability to read the arrow.
New item: unidentified arrow head
This arrow is made from a steel composite – the details of which you cannot see.
‘That’s odd; it says “unidentified arrow head”, but my lore is high enough to identify a steel arrow head,’ Ember confirmed.
Zyol said he’d got the same information.
‘It isn’t just steel, right; the steel has been moulded around an impurity – a nugget of uranium, I’d wager,’ Lyre posited.
‘What’s that?’ Ember asked.
Lyre elucidated, ‘There are many different gods, right, but they each tend to fall into a group: the Norse gods, the troll gods, our gods, the Egyptian gods and the Greek gods. The Greek gods were first formed from the chaos of the cosmos, right? Then Gia arrived and birthed three children, one of whom was Uranus, who fell in love with Gia and she birthed many more children from the coupling, one of whom was Kronos. Kronos killed Uranus and buried him deep in the earth, and Uranus poured all his hatred, fear, and anger and… well, everything he was into the rocks, until the rocks themselves absorbed his spirt, you know. This malice was so intense that the rocks became toxic and bear his name in warning: uranium.’
‘So, this arrow head is poisonous?’ Zyol asked.
‘Just so,’ confirmed Lyre.
New item: steel arrow head of malice
This arrow is made from steel encasing a core of uranium. The god’s hatred has tainted the steel, and any who are struck by this arrow – even so much as a nick – will be inflicted with uranium poisoning.
Skill increased: lore level 23
‘It’s an evil weapon,’ Ember said.
‘He was a cruel god,’ responded Lyre.
‘That’s why Tarmire dropped so quickly. These arrows shouldn’t have caused much more than flesh wounds; they’re splinters. But Tarmire was fighting sluggishly; I think he was poisoned by the arrows,’ Zyol said.
‘I thought poison just lowered your health bar?’ Ember queried.
‘It can, but poisons are nefarious; I don’t know much about uranium poisoning, yet weakening of strength isn’t much of a stretch,’ declared Lyre.
‘Those traitors were using tainted arrows!’ Zyol cried.
‘I’m not sure you can call them traitors,’ Ember stated.
‘There were dwarfs with them,’ Zyol said, punching his fist into his palm.
‘We’ve got a problem with Clang,’ Alban interjected casually.
‘What’s wrong?’ Lyre asked.
‘He’s turning pale and sort of sweaty; he may have been poisoned by the arrows,’ explained Alban.
‘You don’t seem very concerned,’ Ember replied.
‘Well, he’s ending his sentences after only a few words, it’s a welcome change,’ Alban confirmed.
‘He could die, couldn’t he?’ Ember enquired.
‘Oh, yes; we should definitely help him, only… let’s give it a day or two,’ Ennolk proposed.
‘It’s not as easy as that, you know; this kind of poison is insidious, so we’re going to need to have to act quickly because the effects are accumulative,’ Lyre explained.
‘Ah, that’s a shame,’ Alban said, shaking his head.
‘Is it easy to cure?’ Ember asked, as Lyre and Alban looked over Clang’s condition.
‘Unfortunately, I’m not a healer, so I don’t have access to any health-analysis spells, but we are good friends, so I do have a detailed view of his status screen. It doesn’t tell me the strength of the poison like a healing spell would, but it doesn’t seem so bad from the description. Here, Clang, drink this.’ Lyre poured a liquid slowly into Clang’s mouth. ‘My cousin runs an apothecary, so I get cure-all’s cheap.’
After a moment, Lyre frowned and examined Clang again. ‘That’s odd; it says he’s still ill.’
‘Maybe the cure-all… well, isn’t,’ Ennolk insinuated.
‘Possibly; I’ve never seen a literal cure-all, but the effects of the poison have been weakened. I’ll try using more.’ Lyre continued the process a few more times, letting a few drops fall into Clang’s mouth then checking his stats.
‘Any luck?’ Zyol asked.
‘Yes and no; whilst he is no longer poisoned, he is severely weakened. The cure-all removed the poison icon, but now he has to recover from the poison; his health has been capped at 25 points and will return slowly – I don’t have any potions to speed that effect up. The cure-all is strong, but it seems we’ve found a poison that is stronger. My view of his stats is limited; it could be that he’s still poisoned but I can’t see it,’ elaborated Lyre.
‘Is he fit enough to move?’ Zyol asked.
‘Indeed, but our progress will be slowed.’
‘Then we head for the Sage of Waning and continue our quest.’
There was a movement in the dark, and Ember threw an ice dagger at it instinctually; there was a squeak of terror, and a terrapin bolted from the dark and ran behind Alban, cowering.
‘What’s that thing doing?’ queried Zyol.
‘This little critter helped me during the fight; I think it’s the one that has been following us for a while,’ Alban said.
The terrapin moved hesitantly over to Ember and sniffed at her.
‘I think it likes you; you were the one it always went to for food,’ Alban declared.
Race: terrapin
Genus: octanine
Class: D
Affiliation: Hera
Harvestable items: none
State: hungry, curious, friendly
Level: 16
Health 800/800, stamina 800/800, magicka 800/800
‘Well, it is rather cute,’ Ember said. ‘I shall call you… Flynn.’
*
Their progress was indeed hampered, as Clang’s weakness meant they needed to rest every few hours, and so they’d travelled only some 30–40 miles two days later. Ember and the dwarfs woke early to a rather disheartening breakfast of cold porridge, bread and water that tasted of rocks – mainly because Ember had needed to refill her water bottle from a flow of water that ran down a wall they’d passed during the last day.
They had camped in a recess between hills. The path they had taken since the ambush had wound around deep, seemingly bottomless drops and through narrow paths, which was what made Ember realise she was underground – this was strange, considering she’d been underground for days.
‘What’s with this path? The road we were on before was vast enough to make me forget we were underground, but this one is claustrophobic at times,’ Ember said, having spent 20 minutes leaning forwards so as not to bash her head on the roof.
‘These roads are interlaced with hidden paths, as there are always dangers on the road,’ Lyre explained. ‘There are those who patrol the roads to keep them clear, we pay good money to those who are rangers down here, but we are practical and we know that we can’t keep them clear all the time, you know. So, we have these secret paths, which are narrow and mostly follow the natural curves of the geography to keep them camouflaged. But we pride ourselves on our tunnels, so it is no surprise that you’d forget occasionally that you’re underground. But, for now, we’re safe, if not comfortable, right, boy?’
‘Well, what’s with all these chasms? We’re underground, so shouldn’t the ground be, well… everywhere? Why doesn’t the ground above fall away?’ Ember asked, looking up.
‘The chasms are mostly natural, although there are things besides us that make them: giant worms and things. As for the reason, well, underground has its own geography, which is just as complex and changing as the surface.’
‘I can see why dwarfs can spend their lives underground; it is fascinating down here.’
Gradual steps made in a hillside led to a twisting path with a high verge on one side and a steep drop on the other; the path twisted, and the hillside collapsed, so the path ended in a sheer drop.
‘Landslide,’ Zyol announced, and he cursed.
‘Do we turn back?’ asked Alban, who was at the back of the group.
‘No, there are bits of a path left; it isn’t wide enough to walk normally.’
They shimmied around the landslide, and Ember’s heart was in her throat, but they pressed on. As they walked, they passed a bridge that towered above them; its abutments were lost from view, even though Ember could follow its progress for some way.
‘Where’s that go?’ she questioned, pointing up.
‘No idea; I’ve never known anyone who’s found a way onto it,’ Lyre said.
‘I was told that borrowers built it; I’ve no idea why they’d need it to be so big, though,’ Alban stated.
‘We’re bellow the Blue Forest; I always imagined it was built by the woodland animals and was an aqueduct that they used to sail along,’ Clang interjected weakly.
‘Really?’ enquired Ember.
‘Sure, I’ve thought that ever since I saw my first forest,’ confirmed Clang.
‘I love that idea,’ Ember responded.
‘I used to picture the small forest creatures – such as bunnies, moles, stoats, weevils, salamanders, pixies, tarantulas and foxes – making crude, little boats in which to float along down the river. I saw this clump of twigs and mud, you see, which was floating in the river, and I thought about the stories I’d been told about birds making nests to rent out to the animals, and I thought that maybe a beaver had made this little boat for the other animals. I mean, if it can build a great dam, then surely it could build a boat? Then maybe the animals could get a bird to spread its wings as a sail, and they could float downstream in spring days. Maybe they’d build little forts and fight it out in mock battles for king of the river and the king of the forest – the lion would crown the winner to be king for the day.’
‘I’m not sure you have the right impression of forest creatures. They aren’t that clever,’ Ember advised.
‘Are you sure? How do birds build houses then? I struggle with a pickaxe, and I have hands, but a bird only has wings. It must be bloody clever. And as for the badgers, it took dwarfs decades to understand how to dam a river, how to adjust the flow, how the fluid dynamics affect the ecosystem further down the river if there is too much or too little water, and how to judge the flow of water each new season based on rainfall further off that will affect the flow into the dam later in the year. So, if badgers can do that they must be at least as clever as us.’
‘I’m not sure beavers are capable of that type of thinking,’ Ember said uncertainly.
‘Well, whatever they are, they must be clever. That’s architecture, mathematics, geography, metrology, and diplomacy at the very least.’
‘Diplomacy?’ Ember queried hesitantly.
‘To negotiate with the other animals about water flow and such things. When we dam a river, we need to hollow out one side to take the storage of the dammed river, then design the city around the new flow of water, but that’s only because our dams affect only dwarfs. If we lived on the surface, there’d be humans and goblins and things to discuss the new flow of the river with, and we’d need to communicate all that with them, so we’d need a diplomat.’
‘I guess,’ Ember said uncertain. ‘I’ve spent most of my life on a mountain, and you don’t get beavers there, but I’ve travelled to a few cities and never seen a beaver diplomat.’
The bridge was soon lost from view as they entered another tunnel, and Ember became completely lost as the path meandered around.
The area had a fissure in the roof, with light streaming down. A path took them down into a little gully with a trickling river. Zyol rooted around amongst some decaying leaves, which had fallen from a strange group of trees with phosphorous leaves that were growing in the region. He pulled out a rope with which the group used to descend the steep drop, only to ascend again a few moments later. Although the steps were sometimes just flattish tree roots, at other times they were knee high to Ember, and the dwarfs really struggled at those points.
‘This can’t be an actual path,’ Ember panted, her heart thudding after the steep climb.
‘Well, it isn’t used often, but this is at last safe from our pursuers,’ Lyre said.
‘Why are there so many hills? We’re descending, only to climb straight back up again; it’s madness!’
‘It’s natural geography; it helps to conceal the path.’
‘It’s exhausting!’
‘Yep, 20 miles might not sound far when you think of a flat path, but when you’re winding through the protected path, it can take the best part of all day,’ Alban added.