The Plan.
I had learnt much from Kraas’vub about the Lizardmen tribes dotted through the dimension of Potestas. I had made my own observations as well.
Lizardmen were brutal, I had hoped to never deal with them again after my time the Eligere. Tobias and Paula had met them before too it seemed.
They were mostly tribal, with a strict caste based hierarchy. The tribe would always be led by a pair of elders, a reality warping mage or shaman for spiritual matters. And a powerful and cunning war chief would lead the tribe in more mundane affairs, most often they would be a mated pair.
Interestingly, the morphology of a Lizardman could diverge wildly. Warrior’s would be tall and broad, scales rippling with muscle almost dinosaur like… Sharp claws and ripping teeth. Hunter’s would be lithe and stealthy, chameleon’s that stalked the jungle with bows and darts.
The mage caste were well fed and cared for, almost uniformly corpulent... A sign of their high status, they looked like fat colourful geckos, with wide rounded tails.
But they were all Lizardmen, they would mingle and breed freely. Hatching clutches of eggs.‘I hope it isn’t a big mob of them…’
The entire clutch would be of a similar morphology, one an entire batch of warriors for example… Two tiny workers could hatch massive crocodilian sentinels, guards of the village. If they incubated the clutch of eggs in the correct conditions.
The mage’s of the tribe dictated such matters of eggs and hatching, raising the young and bolstering their population with the perfect amount of workers of the correct body morphology.
Contrary to their reptilian physiology they cared deeply for their fellow brethren, even the lowliest Lizardmen labourer skinks were treated with respect. They were the artisans and crafts lizards, never to be mistreated. Outsiders to the tribe however… They were meat.
Lizardmen were xenophobic to an extreme level. Whether it was their natural state or had been twisted by the dimension of Potestas’ overlords to be ultra hostile, neither I nor Kraas’vub could determine. All I knew is that if you encroached on their stone pyramids and jungles you would be hunted for your flesh.
“Stay or run?” I looked up from Backpack’s chest.
I was helping Abu push the arrow out of Backpack’s ribs [Lizards Retreat] and [Knotted Wounds] were working double time, but I was helping the process along with a few targeted [Cure Wounds] as we made it to the back ribs.
Abu also had a healing spell going, his left hand glowed gold as he gently pushed it to Backpack’s bare chest while his right hand firmly pushed on the arrow. The wounds on Backpack’s head were slowly closing, gold motes drifting off into the space above.
It was some sort of channelled spell, powerful if it could heal internal organs but better to use it after action. Looked like Abu needed to focus on it.
“We wont make it far in this jungle, this is their turf we would be running blind.” pointed out Paula the strong woman had been working on a wide panel of thick bark with a stone, Delia had given her some cloth weaved into thick ropes to made arm wraps.
A primitive shield. She was a protector, very good.
“I could fortify the area with some material, stones and branches, try to camouflage?” Tobias mused almost talking to himself. “We could hide out here and scout around the area.”
“Better to have some knowledge of the terrain, knowledge of our hunters.” said Keisuke “But they know we are here, the survivors will come with more dogs. And warriors.” he sounded like he had run into Lizardmen before too.
“Here.” I channelled another totem loading [Survival] and [Spiritualism]. I turned it into a charm on my neck, it looked like a tusked mask hanging from a branch. I would place it near dusk and it would last us through the night hopefully.
Rainforest’s were crawling with animals and I had no idea what there was in the so called Mah’raxian Jungle. We had seen a type of pack hunter, the giant lizards domesticated though they were.
It implied that there were large enough prey animals for them to feed on, and with large and abundant prey animals came predators of all shapes. There would be more than just the monitor lizards. [Survival] once again showing that it was worth the Cassa, my instincts for terrain even alien jungles like this were usually right.
“We hide here.” I stated, moving blind would be unwise, the Lizardmen would return home and stir up a war band. That might take a few hours and hopefully it would be dark by then. ‘Lizardmen like to move in daylight so we could bunker down here overnight and I could use my totem.’
It would keep us hidden from nocturnal beasts.
We needed time to get the lay of the land and prepare ourselves, most of us had no weapons still, and we couldn't move Backpack yet. his lung would take a while to heal, we were too low levelled I no longer had my high tier regenerating spells.
“Who put you in charge, Eh Crass?” Heads turned to look at Jack.
“Those fuckin’ archers almost got one ae us already, we shouldnae hang round ‘ere waiting for more o’ ‘em. Eh Crassie?” She was leaning against the tree arms crossed.
‘I had a nickname already! How exiting!’
“Lizardmen don’t usually hunt after dark, they like the heat of day…” Paula responded for me! Like she read my mind.
Anyway it would be just as risky for a large war band to move through a forest like this at night, they would draw too much attention.
I tapped the mask charm and pointed to our crevice.
“This one will...hide us...” My words were slow and halted, raspy with disuse.
I was nervous. ‘Don't want a confrontation this early on.’
“It looks like late afternoon now. They will go back and form up a war band… Then come for us with the dawn, we got lucky.” Paula read my mind again. ‘She had definitely fought a lot of Lizardmen.’
Tobias stood and started smoothing out the floor, the leaves and fallen sticks under our feet being churned into a muddy slurry of dirt, he drew his arm over his head and a low earth canopy crawled overhead.
“Grab me some large branches for supports and this will last a while.” He ordered the group, he spoke tersely as if he expected his words to be followed.
I thought for a moment, and then darted out into the undergrowth. I grabbed a sturdy looking branch and started dragging it back to the roots, it was slightly longer than I was tall and ended in a fork with a long branch on one side. Quickly dropping it, then darting out again.
I saw Elina joining me and I took her with me, we ranged further away from the camp and I started tearing green leafy plants out of the ground whole, dirt and all. Elina watched and started copying me.
Tobias and Paula were right, it was a hastily made but altogether solid plan. If we had a decent overhead cover we could use the buttress roots as walls and block off the entrance. ‘It will do for now.’
“Look at these doughnuts, jumping at orders like wee dogs.” Jack needled at us, she was starting to look distinctly unwell, and her words were getting harsh.
I ignored her and threw my and Elina’s armfuls of leafy plants on top of the roof, roots and all. I had done something similar before when I used to have [Earth Manipulation].
Tobias looked at me and I held up my hands up and interlaced my fingers.
“Strong… Hidden… The roots hold it…” He looked thoughtful for a moment and the leafy plants started rooting themselves to the muddy roof, he had mixed in the loam from the floor to add strength to the dirt and the still living leafy plants would add structure, and camouflage.
While he integrated the leaves I propped up the heavy branch with Paula’s help and we braced the roof from underneath, I kicked the base of it and gave Tobias a grunt, he looked back and a few beats later the bottom of the brace sank into the ground, like a fence post. ‘Good that would work, Tobias is skilled.’
The others stood by watching this, I trusted them to keep an eye out for danger.
“Food... Water…” I said to Delia and Keisuke they had weapons ready, if you could call woven strands of cloth a weapon. ‘She looked like she knew what she is about.’
“I will see if the lizards are still there, Jack-san has already cooked one for us.” Said Keisuke a small smile on his calm face, his hand shot out and I saw his blade manifest.
The ghostly hands of the Geisha ‘Tsubame to Hasu’ appearing in the air offering him the sheathed blade, with the chiming of small bells on the wind. He carefully roamed past the safety of the buttresses.
“Pairs…” I reminded him. And Delia followed him, cloth fluttering around her defensively.
“I will watch his back.” She was resolute.
“Hah! We work well together!” Indaya laughed, always watching for danger as he made careful scores with the arrowhead.
“Paula and Jack will find water, while those two get meat. Elina and Crass get more plants.” Tobias ordered again. His eyes not straying from the roof, I almost laughed.
‘We do work well together!’
The roof was growing thicker and thicker, streams of thick clay like dirt running against gravity from the floor in constant streams.
“Will we indeed? Fuck off.” Jack weakly protested already moving, her face was pale and drawn her hands shook.
“Sick?” I held up my hand, and everyone stopped. It was obvious she was unwell, from her pale face and high temperature. ‘She didn’t even call Tobias a doughnut…’
She looked the group over, evaluating us cautiously and sighed.
“Nah I’m nae sick, its a trait I bought.” I nodded, taking her at face value.
Some traits could have strange effects [Ethereal Heart] did a lot of weird things after all, most of it was not in the description.
Elina and me headed out, we moved slower this time. Uprooting small bushes and leafy palms till we had two large armfuls.
As we approached the camp we saw Tobias sitting next to the [Searching Spirit Totem], the roof was sturdy just above head height and almost a foot thick. Someone had added another brace and as Tobias sat clay crawled up the wood reinforcing it, we dumped our plants and they started planting themselves making the canopy blend in nicely.
“That looks like enough.” Elina say cheerfully as she dusted off her hands.
“Water.” I pointed at Paula and Jack in the distance and Elina nodded. She moved to help them, javelin in hand. I sat across from Tobias and started channelling a totem it would be short duration maybe an hour or so but it would be a copy of the one I made earlier [Spiritualism] and [Survival] after a delay the tusked mask totem popped up at my feet.
[Spirits Masked Totem]
Mask your heart, leave no trace.
Allies within range are harder to spot and leave no tracks, they have a chance to move around enemies unseen, shadows seem to aid them. Purposeful camouflage is more effective.
Bonus to stealth
Duration: 1 hour
Radius: 20 m
Durability: Extremely low
Now that our shelter was hidden it would stack with the totem doubling down on whatever eldritch maths were working in the background of Potestas.
I would refresh it if I needed to but hopefully it would last till dark then I would drop the charm version that I had readied.
Backpack was recovering his wounds closed, Abu was resting his mana no doubt low.
Tobias was finishing the roof and starting a half wall that would shrink the entry point to our new little house. I stood and poked my head out, I asked Indaya to watch me and he nodded as I ventured off alone. My head on a swivel and quickly gathered another armful of plants, not straying out of vision of the huge jack fruit tree.
I gestured to Tobias and he quickly made the half wall sloped and I planted my bundle of palm leaves into the dark clay. If you walked passed the roots you wouldn't even see the doorway as it was hidden by the curve of the buttress roots. It is a good hideout.
I was waiting for Keisuke and Delia to come back before covering our tracks. Indaya was finished carving his bow but he needed a fire and water to bend it into shape and he needed a bowstring, maybe Delia could help make one.
I waved at him to follow me and we stalked through the bush. Back at the clearing, Keisuke was chopping a dead lizard apart at the edge of the circle of trees. I squatted down and looked at the carnage our fight had left behind… ‘What a mess.’
As I squatted there inspecting one of the lizards Paula, Elina and Jack turned up on the other side of the clearing to us, they were all laden down with what looked like lengths of bamboo. If the bamboo was as wide around as a bucket.
They had found water. Paula apparently had spent time in the Eligere in a place not dissimilar to the Mah’raxian Jungle, and she recognised the bamboo like plant as a good water source.
The hollow plant filled with water, it sucked it up through its roots. Then it stored the water in sections as it grew making convenient containers. I called out to Jack and gestured at Keisuke to cut the head and tail off my lizard. As Jack walked over I eloquently asked for a favour.
“Need the skull…will make totem…”
“Well ya have thae skull Crassie, what ya need me for?” She asked angrily, pointing at the head in my hands.
“Clean skull…steam.” I stated bluntly, it was a perfectly natural thing to ask of a belligerent near stranger. ‘Boil the flesh off a monstrous lizard skull for me would you mate?’
“Fucking disgusting, no thanks.” She said.
“If he can make more of those Totems, it might be worth it.” interjected Delia she was hanging the bodies in a tree with ropes of cloth. As Keisuke opened their bellies to spill out the entrails.
“Not more…Lizard...Permanent.” I managed to rasp out as I produced my Codex and turned it to face Jack, with a tweak of thought it flipped open to a page that was filled by my totem skill. I pointed to the line at the bottom.
[Spirit Totem: tier 0 (Level 104)]
Place a spiritual totem at your feet with a radius of 10m
Assign other spells at casting to create a new totem.
Cast time 5s
Mana cost: variable.
Duration: variable.
Durability: variable.
Spell Effect: variable.
10: Growing Stream: every skill level add 0.1m to radius
20: Iron Bark: +1% duration increase +1% durability increase per skill level
30: Gathering Clouds: +1% to effect of totem per skill level.
40:Ancestors Gaze: allies excluded from damaging effects.
50: Sub spell:
[Ancestor Spirits Embrace.]
Cast sub spell to create a Soul-bound Spiritual Necklace,
Cast time 1hr.
Cannot wear other neck accessories.
Duration: until dismissed.
Maximum charms: 5
Mana cost: Entire mana pool at casting. 1 litre of casters blood
Spirit Totems can now be pre-cast. Pre-cast spirit totems will appear as small charms around the necklace. pre-cast charms can be placed instantly. Unused charms reset on rest.
60: Links in the Chain: An allied unit can add +1 spell link to the Spirit totem at casting creating an extra modifier effect.
Only 1 link modifier may be active per totem.
70: Deepened Wells: The effects durability, duration and spell effect become pools. remove percentage from one pool and add to another.
pools can be adjusted at will on casting once cast pools are locked for that totem.
Minimum of a pool allowed is 1%. Eg. 298% effect 1% duration 1% durability.
80: Radiant Gift: Radius becomes a pool, radius cannot be lower than 1m
90: High Tide: Increase mana cost totem for a 10% boost to pool of your choice. Mana cost dependant on spell effect.
100: Sub spell
[Ancestors Spirit Manifest].
at creation of spirit totem double mana cost and add a carved totem to create a permanent totem.
Physically carve natural materials into a totem, Materials that are closer aligned to the totems spell effect will increase totems efficiency slightly.
Permanent totems spell effect will last the duration as based on the pools given at casting and can be recharged with input of mana.
Permanent totems must be placed immediately, if moved the totem is disabled until it is replaced and not moved for a period of 1 hour its mana cost must be repaid. Moving totem damages durability pool. Can be mitigated with added material cost.
Durability pool will effect the material used either increasing or decreasing durability.
Lasts until destroyed.
Jack read the skill, and read the skill, and read the skill. The others had also crammed around to look.
My finger tapped the part about aligned materials and hopefully they understood why I needed the Lizard skull.
“This trash skill can become something like this… level 104…” Jack whispered, and I felt a flash of indignation...
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Until I remembered I also called it a trash skill at the start as well, but Kraas’vub still managed to convince me somehow. I mean a 5 second channel is basically a deal breaker in a combat situation.
However a permanent [Lizards Retreat Totem] would be an amazing boon to have early on, as long as we could bed down somewhere we would have passive healing regeneration for as long as we stayed, not to mention I didn’t need to be the one to place it.
As long as someone could pay the mana cost they could take the totem with them anywhere. As always, I silently thanked the snake oil salesman Kraas’vub, it was with his guidance I got the totem skill so high. He called it a heritage of the once proud Goblin tribe.
“OK, fine ill boil yer head. the wee lizard will heal us right?” I nodded and left the dripping head with her. I would need some other materials; some spiritual wood, the left hand of the lizard and a knife, but it would be doable. Especially since the wood in the jungle looked high quality, this place was full of life. I asked Elina for her knife.
“It came with my javelin case.” She supplied it to me happily. It was a sturdy looking utility knife, in the shape of a leaf like a spearhead. Its sheathe attached to the strap of her dark leather cylindrical case.
I started looking around in the Ethereal Sea my eyes ghostly green. Looking for a bit of wood with some spirit, in a jungle this full of life it would be easy for a tree to awaken a spiritual essence.
As I searched the edge of the clearing I saw a shadow dart through my peripheral vision, I turned quickly and saw the flash of a ghostly tail vanish into the canopy.
Were we being watched already?
I opened my senses to the Sea and felt the currents around us, there was spiritual force all around. It was the jungle, so much life struggling to survive, so much death. I tried to pinpoint the animal spirit I had caught a glimpse of.
Nothing, it had escaped. ‘Bugger it.’ I would let the others know, we would have to prepare some harder defences.
I closed my glowing ghostly green eyes and opened my plain blue ones.
“There was movement… an animal spirit…” I managed to choke out a full sentence.
“The fuck does that mean Crassie?” Kindly asked Jack. I summoned my Codex again and it flipped to a new page. Everyone who wasn't working crowded around again.
[Spiritualism tier 0 (Level 129)]
Concentrate your senses to feel nearby spiritual presences
10: Boosts proficiency
20: Animal spirits are now clearer to your sense
30: Inanimate objects that have developed spirituality are clearer to your sense
40: Plants that have developed spirituality are clearer to your senses
50: Sub skill: allows user to see into the Ethereal Sea for a brief period.
60: Boosts proficiency
70: Spirit tongue, you now are fluent in a language that spirits can hear and understand in the Ethereal Sea
80: You can see spiritual currents in the Ethereal Sea more clearly
90: Benevolent spirits will recognise your echo in the Ethereal Sea as non hostile
100: Skill is now passive
110: You can mask your own spiritual presence to a degree
120: Spirits of still living creatures are now clearer to your senses
I flashed my eyes again, and everyone now understood I was gazing into the Ethereal Sea.
“Be wary…Lizardmen have shamans too…” I said pointing to the spot I saw the tail disappear, hoped it wasn’t a spiritual familiar or something.
Paula gave a firm nod. “Thank you for warning us, we should probably retreat to the shelter with what we have.”
I nodded and grabbed Elina’s attention and we split off from the others making a longer looping trail towards the Cyclopean jack fruit tree that we had made our shelter under. Now that I had time to appreciate it, the trees making up the canopy of the Mah’raxian Jungle really were massive. Our jack fruit tree alone was easily three times the width of a Californian redwood, with its titanic above ground root system spreading even wider still, it was like a living skyscraper.
My trail took me to the smallish purple barked tree I had spotted, I took Elina’s knife and sawed off a section that would build the base of my totem, the blade parting the wood too easily. Soul-bound item… part of the javelin case… ’
I appreciated my work, it glowed with spiritual light and I felt the tree wasn't too harmed by the loss of the smallish section of wood, I gave the tree a thankful pat and we scampered back to base.
There was a line of smoke curling up from the shelter as I got back. Indaya had a long rectangular fire going, he was soaking his bow body in the water Paula and Jack had found, once it was soaked he wrapped it in a wide leaf and buried it carefully in the hot coals. I asked for the knife again and cut a length of scales from the lizards tail I was carrying then tossed the rest at Indaya’s feet.
“Bowstring.” I said simply, the tendons running the length of the long tail would be good material for a primitive bowstring and I would need the scales to cast a decent [Find Familiar].
Indaya gave a laugh and a wide smile. “My brother, you have read my mind!”
I stumbled back in shock, not expecting our friendship to have grown so much from such a simple thing. Tears nearly sprung to my eyes as I repeated his words solemnly
“My brother…” ‘I haven’t had a brother in a long time… I can barely remember.’
His eyes widened his wide smile almost faltering, before he laughed heartily.
“Yes my brother, we will fight side by side. We are Kikundi after all!” He summoned his Codex, it looked like an old scratched dark leather pocket journal. Something you might take out on a hunt to write thought about prey movements.
It was wrapped with a leather thong, clasped shut by the tooth of a large beast.
He opened it and flashed me an almost identical copy of the message I received when I arrived in the circle.
Goals
Survive with your Kikundi in the Mah’raxian Jungle
Join up with other human groups and find the path upwards.
So his buzzwords were in Swahili instead of Latin, I wonder what he called the Eligere or Potestas.
I smiled and showed my Codex to him flipping to the same message. Keisuke moved his hand and a scroll manifested in his palm, it was unadorned pale white rice-paper with a forest green border it unrolled by itself and showed the same message, his buzzwords in Japanese.
“We are as one, we fight together now.” he said simply. I felt a surge of emotions rise into my belly, we would climb together.
Jack turned her eyes were developing dark circles now, her brow was furrowed in anger.
“Shut the fuck up, we aren't no brothers, a happy little gang in a fairy tale. This is the Potestas for fucks sakes!” She seemed distraught, the seriousness of the situation wasn't lost on her.
“Good…you understand...alone we die…” It was a bleak fact, but they must know the stakes. We weren’t in a fairy tale this was a horror story.
“Yes, quite right. We are a team now. We have been alone but the Bok says we must band together to survive. So we will.” Tobias spoke, his voice was calm like a man who had made his choice and would bear any consequences to see it met.
“Fuck…” Jack slumped, her anger not reciprocated but met with agreement. She grabbed a bamboo pod and curled up in the back of the shelter.
Indaya pulled out his bow from the coals and bent it into shape, the moisture trapped in the leaves made it pliable, he carefully measured the bend and made a small adjustment then put it above the coals to dry. ‘That was quick work, he must have a skill helping him…’
“Come children, lets get food in bellies.” Delia had been making lizard steaks by the looks of things. She pulled over a large flat rock and put it on one side of the fire, the steaks sizzled as they touched the hot stone. Weird being called children… we all look no older than twenty five...’
I looked up past the canopy and saw that dusk was upon us, it had been a challenging first day. I pulled the charm of [Spirits Masked] I had made earlier, replacing the active one, the only difference was the duration, I had pumped a good portion of mana into this one it should last 12 hours.
The others looked confused, I sighed and said. “Hides us… Twelve hours.”
Abu looked at it with interest so did Indaya, I scuffed my foot through the dirt and it didn’t leave a mark. Indaya showed his teeth his smile more feral now.
“Eat… Then… We need…” I just couldn’t vocalise what I needed to say. I looked at Tobias for help he seemed like a natural speaker and clearly wanted leadership.
“To make defences? To scout the local area?” I nodded. We definitely needed to do both those things, but I knew Lizardmen. There was a good method of dealing with hunting parties, it wouldn’t work again but we could get the jump on them once.
I opened my Codex and closed my eyes, visualising the text I needed to appear. It was embarrassing how long it took me to realise you could make notes in your Codex, because of course you could it was a book…
[Our scouts need to find a secondary base further from here, it needs a water source and a good place to shelter.
We need to choose a direction to get out of the Mah’raxian Jungle.
Tobias should make pitfall traps in concentric circles around a tree on the opposite side of the clearing, this one is hidden with
[Spirits Masked Totem]
Mask your heart, leave no trace.
Allies within range are harder to spot and leave no tracks, they have a chance to move around enemies unseen, shadows seem to aid them.
Bonus to stealth
Duration: 12 hours
Radius: 20 meters
Durability: extremely low
We set up a false trail leading away and set up a decoy shelter away from the jack fruit tree we can maybe pick a couple off. Indaya’s bow and Elina’s javelins can do real damage with an ambush. We can bait them in and set up Tobias’ earth manipulation as a trap. Exposing them in an enfilade.
Also its macabre but...
Lizardmen are superstitious, we can hang the entrails of our kills in the trees around the clearing, and if we make some stakes we stake the heads of the Lizards in a circle in the middle of the clearing. Better if we find the body of the Lizardman that Backpack killed too, desecrate the corpse and leave it for them to find.
It will rile them up and impair their judgement.]
“This…” I trailed off weakly.
The page was filled with my own chicken scratch handwriting in ink, even though I didn’t use a pen. I showed Tobias, his face didn’t give anything away as he took his time reading.
“I’m not sure its worth setting up a decoy base just for an ambush. If we are only going to have to make real base as well.” He said finally, I moved the Codex over to Indaya and spoke to Tobias.
“More work...but safer...false trail…”
He was unreadable, I hope I hadn’t upset him by stepping up with an idea first. When Indaya finished, I moved to the next person. I wanted Indaya to give his opinion first.
His actions during the attack were clear, he made himself bait by showing his back to the pack of lizards, he set up Keisuke for a clean kill by exposing his neck and getting one airborne and then positioned one for Paula to tackle even taking a wound in the process.
He had high level situational awareness, in skill form or just naturally. It would have been a different fight if he had turned around.
“They are superstitious are they? I know some tricks. We can do this thing. But Tobias is right it is to much time digging holes we can do something more simple.” His smile had never dropped from his face.
“We make a trail to another tree. Tobias can make a decoy shelter but this is thin and quick to make, there will be snares with counterweights Dee can make rope yes? We snare some and I and Eli will pick off one each as their friends dangle then we will kill the danglers.”
I was going to point out that if they ran they would be leading them right at us when a new voice chimed in.
“I can make real traps, is my speciality in army… And in the test.” Backpack was up! His chest was healed, although he would have some gnarly scars on his head. He patted his bag.
“My name is Oleksiy, I am a trapper.” so Backpack’s backpack was a [Trappers Component Pouch.]
“Soul bound?…how much?” I asked, wondering if the Cassa for a Soul-bound ritual was worth it for a bag.
“Yes, it was expensive.” He flipped open what looked like a military field journal, it was unadorned except for a small circular metal pin tacked to the corner one half yellow one half blue. Ukrainian military. As he slowly flipped it open I caught a glimpse of a young woman cradling a small girl in her arms, in a picture stuck to the inside cover.
[The Farmers Pack]
Put sunflower seeds in your pocket, so they grow where you die.
Dimensional space, filled with materials useful for traps. Each material removed from the bag expends a charge, regain charges once a day.
You may store other items in the bag up to 1 meter by 1 meter.
Charges 8/8
Soul-bound.
Growth Item.
Soul-binding was a way to make your magical items go further, I didn’t play around with it too much in the Eligere all I really had was my necklace. It was Soul bound on creation when I cast the spell all those years ago. It was a strange Soul bound item, it was technically generated by my spell [Spirit Totem]’s sub spell [Ancestor Spirits Embrace]. A spell inside a spell inside an item… Other people could wield someone’s Soul-bound equipment but any magical properties wouldn't work. If someone else wore my necklace it wouldn't do anything, only I could add or deploy totems from it, it was tied to me.
I had used Elina’s knife that was part of whatever Soul-bound item the spear case was but any added effects never came into effect.
The bag on the other hand wasn’t a spell, it was bought from the auction page of the Codex… Or found in the wild, and turned into a Soul-bound item with a purchasable Ritual. It was a fairly small dimensional bag only one meter squared, with an additional charge system for generating trap parts. It had a strange name for a fairly normal looking [Trappers Component Pouch], at first you would think it was a waste of Cassa. Soul-binding Ritual’s weren’t cheap after all, it could add up to 100% of the cost of the item itself or more.
Yes it would become nearly unbreakable and add potentially powerful magic effects. You could call it too you once a day... But generally a dimensional storage didn’t need the extra oomph of Soul binding, he could have saved the money and bought a spell to store things in. ‘Assuming the added storage was the extra effect added by the Ritual.’
Until you read the last two words, Growth Item.
How had he found it? They were the holy grail, the sword in the stone. You could base your entire build on a growth item. An item that would grow with your level!
“What can you make?” Asked Elina her hand stroking the strap of her javelin case.
“Magical traps of all kinds, from rope snares to bear traps. All sorts of things. It works well with my skills.” Oleksiy replied.
Jack piped up from the back of the cave, her head was between her knees with her arms wrapped around herself.
“Can you make flammable oil?” she whispered out, clearly she was still paying attention.
“Yes but probably only once a day.” Came the reply.
Her eyes peeked out over her forearms they were lit from behind by an inner fire, and sweat was dripping from her in buckets.
“Good I will be the spark.” she wasn't looking OK.
Abu went over to her and touched the top of her head, with his shepherd’s crook. A ripple of light passed over her and she pulled back. ‘A diagnosis spell [Identify Wounds] equivalent.’
“What the fuck man!” Sparks started coming from her clenched fists.
“You are in withdrawal, methamphetamines.” He said as an explanation. His eyes held no judgment or reproach.
“I have seen this with someone in my family.” He was giving her space with his arms low and hands out.
“I know you shite stain! I don’t know why though. I kicked the shakes the first time, when I was stuck in the fuckin’ Eligere,” she was shaking not with anger but physically shivering, so it wasn’t an effect from a trait.
“A junkie… Great...” Tobias looked over face set in disapproval, “We have been put in the bodies of our younger selves, the selves that lived on earth.”
“Yeah I guessed that too fuckhead! I had longer hair when I died in that fucking place.” She seemed to shrink in on herself.
“It was weeks of pain the first time.” Her voice was a whisper filled with dread.
“Not this time Jack,” Abu put a hand on her shoulder. He looked at Tobias reproachfully.
“I have a cleansing spell, it will take a lot out of me but you will feel better by morning.”
“Really? You would do that fer me?” She asked her voice small, vulnerable for the first time since we had all met.
“Yes.” Abu’s simple statement of fact broke her, tears ran down her face as she sobbed.
Abu turned to Indaya who was making a bowstring with the tendons of the monitor lizard’s tail woven tightly into a braid with cloth from Delia’s magic.
“I will take her sickness and transfer it to a beast, with an ability called [Accursed One] can you bring me something alive?”
“Yes, I will do this as I scout this place.” He replied, easygoing and confident.
“[Accursed One] doesn’t sound like a healing spell…” Tobias probed, his eyes evaluating.
“Its not. I will cast the curse and put your [Addiction] inside. Moving it out of you and into a target, you are not sick after all. The mind craves the chemical and the body betrays you, there is nothing physically to heal.” Abu explained to Jack his voice smooth and lilting, ignoring Tobias’ probing.
“It was the second most expensive thing I bought, it will take me time to set up, it is a ritual cast. I can move many things into a curse her [Addiction] included.”
I nodded. Ritual cast spells were powerful but took time to get them right. Technically my level one hundred sub-spell that made permanent totems was a ritual spell, [Find Familiar] too.
I had never heard of [Accursed One] it must have been in a skill tree I never unlocked, strange it sounded like something Kraas’vub would have told me about. It sounded like it was tailored for a crazy little Goblin Shaman.
I channelled a totem pumping as much mana as I could and dropped a
[Spirit Searching Totem]
The sweet breeze draws them, the silver fish dance.
Increase regeneration of mana based on the size of your Spirit attribute.
Radius: 2m
Duration: 12 hours
Durability: low
I gave it as much duration as I could, it would cover our shelter and not much more. I wasn't sure how long his ritual would take. But extra mana would help.
I wandered over and grabbed for Elina’s knife, dropping to the ground with my legs crossed. She gave an indignant squeak of disapproval, until she saw me laying out the materials for my [Lizards Retreat Totem]
I carefully manoeuvred the items, and gave grunting instructions to the others. Thankfully Jack had flash boiled the skull while I was picking a suitable bit of spiritual wood.
I manipulated the skull on top of the wood and using the knife to mark my measurements I joined them together using [Carve], slowly whittling the wood and grinding holes in bone. The bone dust would useful later, as would the left claw. I hoped the bamboo bowl Paula had given me would wash out, I had filled it with lizard blood, Tobias had found a handful of wriggling beetles in the loam of our shelter, they were gathered up with ease using his earth magic, poor Paula was grinding them into a paste with a stick.
After we ate dinner Oleksiy, Indaya, Elina and Keisuke peeled off into pairs and started to scout the area around the clearing, the sun had set and the jungle was alive with noise.
I finished my carving quickly, I had levelled the [Carve] skill pretty high. The synergy it had with totems was obvious and Kraas’vub was quick to give me help levelling it, usually by making snide remarks about my artistic taste and general lack of style. ‘Stupid gob like he wouldn’t know art if it bit him in the arse.’
I had made the purple wood into the base, it started as wide as my hand and spiralled gently up to a natural fork about the width of my thumb. I had made it look like it had grown through the lizards skull, the forking branch coming out of an eye socket I had ground a hole through.
I scored a delicate pattern across the skull that turned into harsh lines carved into the base of wood. I filled the channels in the wood with lizards blood, the wood eagerly soaking it up filling the lines with a rusty red brown.
The skull I painted with the beetle paste it was vibrantly green, the shells giving up their pigment easily. Making an asymmetrical swirling around the skull’s eye socket the wood was poking out of.
It looked good. I sliced my hand dripping the blood into the palm of the severed left hand and placed it gently in the mouth of the skull.
I cast my spell putting my entire reserve of mana into the casting I even asked Abu to use his golden healing channel to add a modifier to the totem, the skills looked like they would synergies well.
As I cast, I heard spirited drums beating in my ears and I could hear low bi-tonal chanting. The last of my mana drained from my fingertips and the totem materials glowed as their shape changed.
All the materials fused together, as if they were one piece from the start. Wood shifted over slightly and the skull bit down on the left hand, my blood still pooled in its palm dripping towards the floor in an endless stream… Fading to dust before it touched the ground. A ghostly figure of the wounded lizard holding its stump appeared, clinging to the skull with three legs glittering with gold motes.
It was done, and I felt the materials bond strongly to the [Spirit Totem] spell, I asked Delia and she gave me a cloth pouch, I filled it with leftover lizard bone dust. And I looked over my creation.
[Infused Lizard’s Retreat Totem]
A shed tail grows back, care you don’t shed something else.
Allies regenerate health while in radius, cannot grow back severed limbs.
Healing ramps up the longer allies remain in radius, effect resets if ally exits radius.
Duration: Permanent
Radius: 5 meters
Durability: Medium
Abu’s spell [Healing Infusion] was a massive increase the ‘Infused’ modifier sounded like the longer you stayed in the aura you healed exponentially faster. I had also added enough mana to give a 5 meter radius, the huge 10 meter wide circle was great!
This totem would be hanging around for a while. Hopefully the bone dust would help offset the durability loss if we moved the totem too much.
“Now that you are done playing, Indaya asked me to ask you. How many of those charms can you make?” Tobias asked me, ignoring my happy smile and Abu’s shining eyes.
“Five.”
“Indaya wants five of these then.” He pointed to the masked totem. “If your little ambush works, you will retreat under cover of these masks. You will not leave tracks correct?” He spoke as if it was a stupid idea, not committing himself to the execution.
I nodded warily, trying to work out how far that would take us in a straight line. If I made the maximum distance with the lowest duration possible, I could make one like this.
[Spirits Masked Totem]
Mask your heart, leave no trace.
Allies within range are hard to spot and leave no tracks, they will have a chance to move around enemies unseen, shadows seem to aid them.
Bonus to stealth
Duration: 30 seconds
Radius: 50 m
Durability: extremely low
With five pre-cast we could run half a kilometre. I could make it larger but instead I gave it more power, it was hard to tell but the description changed, from harder to spot to hard to spot, and to WILL have a chance to move around enemies unseen. It would make it much easier to escape.
I was worried whether we could run the distance in time, 100 meters in 30 seconds was not that hard if you were running on a nice flat field, but we would be slogging through the bush and scrub on the jungle floor.
“500 meters… more or less.” I said, there would be some overlap as I placed the totems.
Tobias’ eyes widened comically. “Shit… at level one?” he looked at me reevaluating my value.
I laughed hard and sharp. It was my entire focus after all. I couldn’t deal much damage, not yet. But I had flexibility.
The utility of my spells was carefully considered, synergies mapped and plotted in tables and charts buried in my Codex.
“I gave up my power… for a chance.” I looked at him, deep into his eyes. I wanted him to understand.
I wanted them to know, I didn’t spend decades in the Eligere popping little totems out of the ground. I could have levelled this entire jungle yesterday, buried it in an an avalanche of stone and earth with a single earthquake.
If I didn’t sell all my high level spells and skills for my traits, I would have started with all sorts of things. But I had to, I was strong, but my build had been scattered. My skill’s focus wasn’t clear, before I could talk to Kraas’vub I took too many things to get me through tight spots.
I wasted hundreds of Cassa on useless magic items I only used once.
Tobias looked me over, beginning to realise. I had survived beyond what was reasonable.
I asked him. ‘how long...for you?’ still staring into his eyes.
‘Twenty years, I fought for twenty years. Then I was given a Goal that I could not complete.’
I nodded the Eligere was brutal, one wrong step and you were dead, floating in the Ethereal Sea wondering if you had done enough to earn a place as Delegati.
‘I...forgot...I died old…Bone Wastes of Gehenna…’ he dropped his cup of water, and the others who were making preparations stilled, I wasn’t sure if I should have told them that...