Name: Mark (Mark) Redding, Race: Human
Ht: 5’10, Wt: 160, Sex: Male, Archetype: Wizard
HP: 2 / 5 Mana: 0 / 39 MCU: 25 / 300
Stats:
Physical: 2, Moxie: 2, Spiritual: 2, Luck: 2,
Agility: 2, Magic: 3, Mental: 3, Energy: 4.
Relevant Skills: Elemental Magic - Fire, Intuitive Logic Leap, Gather Mana, Physical - Awareness
______________________
Each thunk of the axe against the tree made Mark's head hurt. Putting the cart between him and Charisse, he sat down and held his head rubbing at the sides. The sweat of battle drenched his hair. As a wave of pain subsided, he opened his eyes, and absent-mindedly cracked his knuckles while. With a sigh, he started free-flowing ideas of possible solutions. Wheel… round shapes… rocks…
Success! Mental Roll 5d10; 1, 7, 9, 2, 10. Three Successes; Skill Intuitive Logic Leap gained 3 experience.
Skill points to next level, 94
… shield, Mark stopped mid crack of his pinkie. "Fuck yeah," he said as he stood up. The pain in his head returned, and he reached out to the cart and held onto it for a moment. Closing his eyes, he waited for the wave to pass.
"Mark, you're bleeding," Reggie said.
Mark opened his eyes and looked to his friend. Looking down, he did see some blood on his clothing but didn't see any wound. Glancing at his cake in blood hands.
"Not mine," Mark said as he rubbed his hands together to try and get rid of the blood.
"Just hold still." Reggie stepped up and placed a hand on Mark's shoulder.
Spell Effect: Healing Touch, heals 5 damage. Excess lost.
A wave of energy flowed through Mark. The headache lessened from a pulse into a dull ache.
"Thank you, I didn't," Mark carefully reached a hand up and touched his head. His hand was wet and coated with fresh blood. "No clue when that happened."
"You doing alright? I'm not sure how headwounds work." Reggie pulled out a piece of cloth and a waterskin. He handed the cloth to Mark and splashed water on to it. Taking the fabric back, Reggie wrapped it around Mark's head.
"I'll be ok, just trying to solve how to get the cart moving, and I think I have a solution," Mark said.
Reggie stood there for a few seconds before shrugging, "and?"
"Sorry, need a wheel, maybe we can find a circular shield," Mark said. He glanced toward Jax, then looked back at the random stuff in the wagon. "Go check with Jax; I'll see if any are here or near here."
Reggie nodded and turned around. Mark stopped him with a hand on the shoulder. "Thank you again. I hadn't even…" Mark said.
"You're welcome, and unless you want a song and dance routine, I want to get back to the caravan before night." Reggie smiled and jogged off to Jax and Todd.
Humming a song to himself, Mark dug through the pile of loot they'd gathered from the bandit camp so far. Several crates packed with fruits and spices. Remembering the battle, Mark hadn't encountered any bandit who'd used a shield. Some farming implements lay on the pile, a hoe, rake, a small shovel. Picking up the last one, Mark decided he should just call a spade a spade.
"Ha," Mark couldn't stop himself from laughing at his stupid joke. He stabbed the cart with the spade.
Failure! Physical Roll 2d10, 3, 1. Zero Successes; Skill Melee - Shovel has failed.
Setting the spade down, Mark pulled up his combat log, to review which skill the item used.
Failure! Physical Roll 2d10, 3, 1. Zero Successes; Skill Melee - Shovel has failed.
Laughing more as he returned to reality, he jumped when he spotted Todd standing nearby.
"Reggie said you got hit in the head. Maybe you should take it easy?" Todd said.
"Sorry, just…" Mark held the spade up. "What is this?"
"Spade," Todd furrowed his brow, "is it magical?"
"No, the game considers it a small shovel," Mark said.
"Who'd use a shovel as a weapon?" Todd said, giving a glance at the other farming implements in the cart. "Grettan didn't say anything about farm tools in the list of stolen goods."
"Yeah, I don't think these were normal bandits," Mark said.
"They never are, all bandits are desperate people just trying to get by." Todd paused then added, "ok, most, there are some dicks out there who just want to rob and steal."
Mark looked around for Jax. Once he spotted his friend standing out of hearing distance, Mark spoke. "I have a suspicion, do we tell Jax or do we just ignore this?"
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"Tell Jax what?" Charisse said in a voice that started low, then got louder.
"Holy fucking shit!" Mark jumped and swung the spade around toward Charisse. "Don't fucking," Mark took several deep breaths and lowered the shovel.
"I think these bandits were just desperate people trying to survive," Todd said. He pointed toward the farming tools.
"All thieves are," Charisse said. "The better question is, can you guys keep it from Jax without him guessing or figuring out something is being hidden?"
"Fuckity fuck fuck," Mark sighed, "No, also there's a chance he'd put the pieces together once he saw the tools."
"There's your answer." Charisse turned and patted Todd on the shoulder, "can you help me drag some logs over? If we can't find a wheel, we'll have to make a travois or sled."
"I just want you to know, good luck; we're all counting on you," Todd said to Mark before turning and following Charisse.
"Wait, why…" Mark turned and walked to Jax, wondering how many more days this side quest will cost them. With a sigh, he walked up to Jax. "Jax."
"Hey Mark, you have some blood on your head," Jax said, taking several quick steps to his friend, removing his gauntlet. Once he was near Mark, he reached a hand and touched Mark on the shoulder.
Spell Effect: Healing Touch, heals 5 damage. Excess lost.
The healing energy flowed through Mark, even with no injuries to heal, it left him feeling a bit refreshed. The idea of constant healing would allow for faster muscle growth caused him to stare off for a moment. Jax reached out and rested his hand on Mark's shoulder.
"You ok?" Jax said with a little squeeze.
"Yeah, sorry, your healing gave me an idea, but it can wait. I wanted to show you this," Mark pulled out the little shovel and handed it to Jax.
"If this is a joke about calling a spade," Jax said as he examined the tool.
"No, but we found some farming implements. Nothing the merchant said indicated that he had been hauling farming supplies, just fruits, and spices." Mark said with a gesture toward the cart.
"Were there any survivors?" Jax said, his gauntleted hand clenching the spade.
"One runner, but Charisse chased him down, and you know." Mark shook his head.
"A river of blood follows us anywhere we go in this world. We shore up the banks with bodies of the dead, and still, it threatens to drown us." Jax closed his eyes and mumbled something silently.
"Yeah, so while we are sure these guys were bandits. We were wondering if they were only doing it out of necessity and not…" Mark paused and tried to come up with a better word. "Being dicks."
Jax opened an eye and looked at Mark.
"You know what I mean," Mark said, keeping himself from shivering.
"Yeah," Jax looked over to Todd and Charisse dragging logs over to the cart. "Do you guys want to finish the mission or go try and find the bandits? I'm guessing you didn't think you could hide the information from me, or you had a plan."
"Little bit of both, unless we can find a round shield or wheel, dragging the cart will be tough. I'm hoping we could locate the other bandits and maybe negotiate a wagon or cart from them." Mark said.
"Don't suppose they'll be too friendly knowing we killed their friends." Jax slowly put his gauntlet back on. He stared at his hands for a moment.
"Yeah, I'm hoping we can explain it as a misunderstanding. We thought they were common thieves, we didn't realize they were desperate folk trying not to starve." Mark said.
Jax nodded his head. "Not enough of a lie and plenty of truth. You've been hanging around Charisse too much." With a deep breath, Jax paused, then shook his head. "No, we cannot deceive. Otherwise, once the deceit is discovered, they'll never trust us."
"So walk in, say we killed their friends, but we are hoping to make it right. Fuck." Mark said.
With a sigh and clenched hands, Jax's gaze went to each corpse. "They did attack first. I'm feeling no divine urging to meet the bandits. They knew the price of their crimes when they stole. If the group wants to ignore this," Jax held up the spade, "little shovel, I'll abide by the decision."
Mark walked back to the cart; two ten-foot tree trunks leaned against several crates of food. A glance along the path into the woods, the bandits used to pull the wagon here. Taking a moment, he pulled up the map in his mind.
A poorly drawn top-down view of the area appeared in his vision. The winding road from Thorpville to Worthington, as it followed the foothills. Mark sighed at the memory of sleeping in an actual bed a few days ago in Worthington. Blank space on the map surrounded a scrawled name; Tremain and Kamel.
Something shook Mark out of the map, as he came back to reality, Reggie stood next to him, arm raised to slap Mark.
"Here." Mark spat out before his friend resorted to a slap.
"Oh, good." Reggie lowered his hand and, with a smile, brought up a circular metal shield. "Found this."
Mark grabbed the shield and placed it next to the remaining cartwheel. The shield was a bit smaller, but only a couple of inches. With a nod, Mark walked away from the cart and the pile of goods. Setting the shield down, he pulled out some rope. Measured across the width, then folded that length in half. Using the line to locate the exact center of the shield, he marked the space with an X.
"Jax, your axe." Mark called out.
Jax walked up with his axe and looked down at Mark.
"Can you hit this point with the backside of your axe. The spike part?" Mark said. He pulled his hands and rope away from the center but held down on the edge of the shield.
Jax nodded his head, lifted the weapon, and with two hands, slammed it down on the shield. Clang! As the metal spike hit the shield, the whole thing vibrated, the axe bounced and moved to the side—the sharp head coming inches from Mark's face.
Mark fell back on his ass. Withholding his curses, he looked at the shield. A small dent a little off-center the only evidence of the impact.
"Crap, is the spike dull?" Mark said as he looked at his friend's weapon. The tip didn't look very pointy.
"Maybe, remember the lizard people who wore giant turtle shells when they attacked," Jax said.
Mark laughed, remembering the fight where Todd kept calling one Raphael and Donatello.
"Fuck," Mark said. "We forgot to sharpen it after you used it to break their armor.
"Everyone ok? We thought we heard a fight." Todd said as he ran up to Mark and Jax.
Mark glanced around,
Success! Physical roll 5d10; 9, 5, 3, 4, 3. One Success; Skill Physical - Awareness gained 1 Experience.
Skill points to next level, 9,978
no Charisse, he imagined she had an arrow ready if someone was attacking. Mark turned back to the shield.
"Do we have another pike or something we can use to punch a hole through this?" Mark looked around at his friends. Slowly they all shook their heads. "So we either sharpen the axe, or we find another way."
Standing up, Mark walked over to the pile of weapons and stuff they'd gotten off the bandits. Grabbing a dagger, he headed back to the shield.
"Jax, you try to sharpen, I'll see if I can work out something." Sitting down next to the shield, Mark grabbed the dagger with both hands and stabbed down in the middle. The point hit the shield, jarring Mark's arms and rattling the shield. The indent didn't look any different. His dagger, though the tip was noticeably bent.
Pressing the blade into the small dent, Mark tried twisting the dagger back and forth with one hand and pressing down with the other. A minute later, he looked at the shield, the indent was unchanged, but there were more scratches on it.
"I'm going to try heating a blade and see if that helps," Mark said, slowly rising to his feet, feeling the joints pop.
"Mark, how do you propose heating the dagger would help?" Reggie said.
Mark glanced at the dagger and considered, then reached down and picked up the shield. "Good point."
Walking to a nearby large tree, Mark propped up the shield, then used the dagger to secure it against the tree. Backing up ten feet, he gathered mana,
Success! Energy Roll 7d10; 9, 1, 8, 4, 5, 4, 6. Two Successes; Skill Gather Mana gained 2 Experience.
20 Mana Gathered, Max mana is 39. Excess is lost.
Skill Points to the next level, 4,820
Success! Mental Roll 6d10; 1, 8, 2, 1, 5, 4; One Success; Skill Elemental Magic - Fire gained 1 Experience.
Skill Points to the next level, 9,896
Attack! Elemental Magic - Fire, Damage 4
Throwing a small ball of fire at the center of the shield, it exploded, the flames washed over the metal shield, charring the leather straps, leaving a slight discoloration in the center. Mark gathered more mana;
Success! Energy Roll 7d10; 3, 6, 10, 2, 5, 10, 10. Three Successes; Skill Gather Mana gained 3 Experience.
30 Mana Gathered, Max mana is 39. Excess is lost.
Skill Points to the next level, 4,817
Success! Mental Roll 6d10; 2, 6, 6, 7, 7, 5; Two Successes; Skill Elemental Magic - Fire gained 2 Experience.
Skill Points to the next level, 9,894
Attack! Elemental Magic - Fire, Damage 6
The second little ball of fire scorched more of the shield; the discoloration spread further out. Mark pulled out one of his daggers, walked up and stabbed in the center of the shield.
Clank! As the dagger hit the shield the tip slipped to the side, Mark stopped himself from touching the metal but dropped his knife to the ground. The point now bent slightly.
"Jax, can you try hitting this again?" Mark stood up straight, then looked for his friend.
Jax walked over and, with two hands on the weapon, swung with the spike part of his battle axe. The point clanged against the shield, knocking the dagger holding it to the tree out. Jax released with his right hand and shook it momentarily.
Mark looked at the shield. The dimple was a little large, he thought.
"Bah, out of all the fucking shields, why did we get the one well made one?" Mark said.
Jax shrugged, "Doesn't the game cover professions and crafting?"
"Oh no, we are not going down the time sink of crafting in this game. If you thought skills were a pain, crafting, ug." Mark stepped back, both hands up and shaking his head.
"That bad?" Jax examined the spike on the back of his axe.
"Yeah, not only do you need to skill up like the skills, but you spend exp to craft items and are limited in how much per day. We don't have years to waste." Mark said.
"Many campaigns have been derailed by players delving into crafting." Jax nodded his head before spitting on the axe tip and rubbing a whetstone against it. "What's the plan?"
"I don't know, so far I'm striking out, maybe time to see what stupid ideas everyone else has," Mark said.