Chapter 14

In the morning, Roden exited his room to find Errrkkkk in the main sitting room picking at a spread of fruit and other breakfast foods laid out on a wide tray on his coffee table.

Roden eyed a kettle and immediately poured himself a mug of hot fresh coffee as the two exchanged half grunted good mornings. Roden sipped at his coffee, he liked his coffee black without anything added.

Once in a blue moon, he would throw in some nutmeg or cinnamon if he was subjected to subpar coffee while out and about. The coffee in his mug needed no such additives, it was hot and delicious. It warmed him down to his soul.

He had not had a cup of coffee for over a month, which went against his nearly pot a day habit back home. As he was contemplating whether it was the best coffee he had ever had; he remembered he still had a level up waiting for him.

He snatched a couple pieces of bacon and a few soft boiled eggs, the latter of which drew a sidelong glance from Errrkkkk, and headed off towards the shower. The water warmed as he finished his breakfast and was hot by the time he got in.

It felt tremendous to finally be able to take a real shower. While on the road hygiene was something that was brought down to the basics and never involved hot water. Under the torrent of water from overhead, Roden sat in the middle of the shower floor and closed his eyes.

When he opened his eyes he found himself in that familiar dark space, except this time there were various stations cast in their own light surrounding him in a circle. There was no path as there was when he would select his spells. He shrugged and walked to the closest illuminated option.

On their own each of his available options were confusing. One contained a series of books on history, lore, and scholarly research, another held his instrument case and the crystal ball microphone stand from the night before.

The one he found most interesting held his holy symbol and a collection of wisps that usually represented his spells.

Some time passed while he considered his situation and then it dawned on him. He was at the level for an attribute increase! That realization made the station that consisted of a series of small pillars with white crystals at their peaks finally make sense to him. Those were his Augmentation options.

He considered his current skill set and immediately narrowed his selection down to either increasing his spell casting by increasing his Wisdom or he was going to take an Augmentation.

By his estimation, both were great options especially if he could select an Augmentation that gave his spells another effect or boost. With his intent set the undesired options vanished and were replaced by more detailed versions of his Augmentation options.

The one that immediately drew his eye held a crystal that projected an intense white orange flame reminiscent of the sun in its color and intensity. He considered all of the Augmentations he could think of and only one made any sense to him. It had to be the Elemental Specialization.

If he took this Augmentation he could cut through fire resistance and his fire spells would burn a bit hotter dealing more damage. After that, none of the other options had the same flare. Sure, the Skill Augmentations were appealing, particularly the ones that would’ve made him a better musician.

Unfortunately, this was not that kind of campaign. As fun as it was for him to live out his crooner fantasy, he needed to make sure he survived this ordeal so he could get back to his wife and the beautiful life they had built together.

His decision made, the spotlights disappeared and he was left in the dark briefly as his usual path was laid out before him. This time through he had a difficult time selecting a new spell. Much of his needs were met by the spells he already prepared.

It took him a long time to narrow down his selection to two spells. Both were Initiate tier healing spells that served different purposes. The first in its base form granted those around him a boost in their vitality and a bit of healing. A truly phenomenal spell, but his two companions' whole shtick was they avoided damage so it felt a little unnecessary.

The second spell was a bit more niche and let him remove a debilitating condition from the target. Another great spell when it was needed, but was otherwise essentially useless. After some more contemplation, he selected the first of the two figuring more healing was better for everyone including himself. He absorbed the spell and was surprised to find it was pulled toward his Fire domain.

The result was a spell called Basking Embrace. The command of the spell granted him told him the spell was nearly identical to its original form except its duration was a fraction of the original and it produced a fiery aura over the targets. That aura acted as a shield against damage, but also granted a slight boost to damage. If they took enough damage, the magic would be used up and the effects would end.

Roden was incredibly satisfied by his selection and the resulting spell. Now he could boost up his own fire spells with more fire and give Errrkkkk and Riakon a little boost as well. With his selections made and nothing left to be done here, he closed his eyes until he once again felt the hot water of the shower dancing across his body.

Roden finished his shower and donned the cotton robe on the back of his bathroom door. When he entered the sitting room he saw Riakon and Errrkkkk seated on the couch with an empty breakfast tray in front of them and a small stone glowing dimly.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“What’s going on guys?”

“It looks like Bo has a message for us. We waited for you to listen and respond, cacaw.”

“Right on, spark it up.”

Riakon tapped the stone and Bo’s voice was projected from the stone,

“Aye shitheads, I have word from a buddy there is a werewolf in the Wilds by yall. Check it out, bring silver weapons, and go during the day, you shitheads.”

“Alright! We got ourselves a mission cacaw!”

“We need silver weapons.”

“You need a silver weapon, Roden and I don’t have that problem, cacaw.”

“You have a point, in Bo’s bestiaries it said werewolves are highly resistant to non-silvered weapons.”

“Why did he say to go during the day? There isn’t any full moon for at least a week.”

Riakon took on a quizzical look., and said “I remember there being something about some werewolves get stronger in any moonlight.”

“Hmmmm, so what’s the plan? We take the day to procure Riakon something silver and grab some potions before setting out tomorrow?”

“How long does it take yall to walk to the Wilds from here, cacaw?"

“If I remember right it was about two-ish days from the trees to the city.”

“So we should plan to do our hunting on the third day.”

“Good plan”

“Great plan”

“Shopping day it is, cacaw.”

The plan was set, the three prepared themselves for the day and set out. When Roden was preparing his pack for the day, he made sure to pack his leather armor. He remembered how this day went and knew they were going to end up at the arena. Before that could happen, they had to go around asking about some silver. This was a mistake, but a necessary one.

Roden was wary of affecting the story too much and this was one of those moments where it would be easy for him to avoid what was going to come about from their actions today. In the grand scheme of things, it was a pretty minor mistake that didn’t have a campaign changing consequence, but Roden couldn’t shake the fact that his situation felt like time travel, given his knowledge of the future of this campaign and everybody knew about the butterfly effect.

While Roden knew the concept was technically not related to time travel and was instead created as a weather theory involving small seemingly innocuous events such as a butterfly flapping its wings in South America producing a hurricane in Florida. There was always that damn Ray Bradbury story he used to teach about the guy who stepped on a butterfly in the past and changed the future that would bubble up in his mind.

The last thing he wanted was to change this campaign so drastically it deviated from the path he knew. There was also the experience points dilemma. Roden figured any situation that guaranteed experience points was paramount to their survival. Whatever level his friends were when they reached key milestones was the level they needed to be at when they reached them now. The only way he could ensure that was to take a hands off approach.

The first part of their shopping day was going from blacksmith to blacksmith looking for someone who was willing and able to create the modification Riakon wanted. Riakon had decided he wanted a silvered cap to attach to his hammer instead of a separate weapon.

Every shop they went to that morning either wouldn’t do custom work, didn’t work with silver, or had a waitlist that was weeks long. As the party was losing steam Roden suggested they check a small forge shop on the corner of a nearby side street. When they approached, all they could see was a small open air forge. The building lacked anything that could be considered flashing. The sign was plain gray metal embossed with the words "J.B's Forgeworks and Refinery”.

Drawing closer they could hear the distinct ringing of hammer on metal. Each blow rang out with a sharp clang. The man working at the anvil was a burly human man with a bald head and massive braided black beard. When the man saw the three approaching he drove the piece of metal he was working on into a quench and took off his gloves. In a deep gruff voice he addressed the party.

“Welcome to Forgeworks, what can I do for ya?” his accent came with an unmistakable country twang that would’ve pegged him as a hillbilly in Roden’s world.

Riakon detailed exactly what he wanted from the man, it wasn’t until Riakon mentioned he wanted the item by tomorrow that the man’s eyebrows drew together and a frown spread across his face.

“That’s a rush job. I could do it, but it’ll cost ya.”

They haggled on price for a bit, before they shook hands and agreed. While the blacksmith took measurements of Riakon’s hammer, Errrkkkk dug in his pack and produced the small knife he had retrieved from the tree.

“Hey Sir, is there anything you can do with this cacaw.”

“I aint no Sir, the names Jehb. Let me see what you got there.”

Jehb took the knife and inspected it with the curiosity of a true craftsman. He reached into his apron for a cloth and wiped off the blade. When his ministrations revealed a shimmering pattern on the blade his eyebrows shot up his forehead.

“Well I’ll be damned, you got yourself an Opal Steel knife son.”

“Is that a good thing, cacaw.”

“Uhh yeah, Opal Steel is arguably the best you can get for enchanting. It's a real pain in the ass to work with though.”

“Can you work with it, cacaw?”

“I have a few ideas, truth be told I have only seen a few samples and worked with even less. The stuff only comes from the Twin mountains in northern Fallown and it requires a very precise hand to shape it.”

“So you are saying you can’t do it, cacaw.”

A look of irritation crossed the burly man’s face at his words.

“I didn’t say that. I said it's hard, but I can do it. Whatchu want outta this?”

Errrkkkk glanced at his party members and thought for a moment.

“ Can you divide it three ways, cacaw?”

Roden had thought about this moment long and hard. He knew that there wasn’t much metal to work with and they had originally only produced two items from this knife. Roden figured as long as he got something small they might have enough metal to go three ways.

“I could, but it depends on what you want.”

“Could you make me a ring?” Riakon said holding up a hand.

Jehb nodded.

“What about a necklace, cacaw.”

Jehb nodded again, “and you?”

“ Would you have enough to do another ring?”

Jehb shook his head, and Roden’s heart sank.

“What about an earring, cacaw?”

Roden shot Errrkkkk a side eye. He didn’t have pierced ears.

“Yeah, there is probably enough for an enchantable earring.”

“Perfect, we'll take it.”

There was a bit of haggling over the price, but everyone left satisfied with the arrangement. With that part of their shopping out of the way they started looking for potion shops. When the topic came up in conversation Errrkkkk insisted they avoid the common shops and head directly for the smaller privately owned businesses. Roden took the opportunity to bring the party to the place they would have inevitably found anyway.

While they were walking down the street towards the shop Roden had in mind, he noticed Errrkkkk had stopped walking. When Roden turned to see what had caught Errrkkkk’s attention, he nearly lost his composure and broke out into hysterical laughter. Errrkkkk was enthralled by, of all things, a tree.

To be fair Roden had to admit, it was a beautiful tree. It stood in an alcove between two low buildings. Its light brown truck grew tall and wide. Its branches grew up and over the buildings, but some hung down just enough for some of its light pink flowers to be within arms reach. Its fallen petals gathered up around its roots and when standing close enough one could smell a faint bit of vanilla on the air.

“Mir to Errrkkkk?” Roden said in a mocking mimic of Errrkkkk’s gestures in the past towards him.

“Huh, cacaw?”

“You like that tree brother?”

“It’s one sexy ass tree, cacaw”