As Chance looked down at the creature, he was visited by another of the annoying messages in his head.
Knowledge Check
Affinity: Nature
Species: Kobold
A kobold? What even was one of those? He had never heard tell of one before. Whatever it was, it looked funny, with an almost childlike patheticness about it. “Er, yes, I have returned,” Chance replied. “Sorry, have we met before?”
The kobold raised its head to look up at Chance, big eyes agleam with wonder. “Yrip has not had the pleasure of meeting your Greatness before, but I have heard all about you.”
“What have you heard about me?” Chance asked.
Yrip lowered his head again. “Many things, Great Master.”
“Look, Yrip is it?” Chance asked, “Stand up would you? It is hard to talk with you when you are down there like that.”
Yrip leapt back up to his feet, bouncing around on them, wringing his hands together. He was grinning broadly, ecstatically, the whole time. “Master does Yrip a great honour.”
The kobold seemed to have mistaken Chance for someone else, that much was certain. Chance wanted to find out just who, before it went much further. Just in case. “Sorry, Yrip, who is you think that I am?”
“Why, Nergezur the Ravenous Maw.”
Chance stared at the kobold. He felt a laugh build up in him, one that he couldn't contain. It burst out and went on for some time. Yrip looked greatly puzzled by the response but Chance couldn’t help himself, couldn't stop. Out of all the chaos and confusion that had descended upon him since arriving, the absurdity of this kobold thinking he was a dragon of all things had set him off, a release that he needed. After some time, he wiped away tears. “You think I am a dragon?” he asked. “Do I look like one?”
“Master can disguise himself,” Yrip stated confidently. “It is strange though that you would choose the lesser form of a kirika. Better would have been the superior form of a iyari.”
For once the strange words didn’t trigger the mental message, which came as a welcome relief, even if in this case it would have been useful knowing just what Yrip meant. “Er, iyari?”
Yrip nodded rapidly. “Iyari, like Yrip.”
“Ah, I see.” So the kobolds were iyari in their language, which meant that the kirika was likely to mean dwarf. “Well, Yrip, had you not hear that Nergezur had been killed by heroes?”
A strange half barking, halk yipping laughter came from Yrip. “That is a clever jest, master. Who could kill one as mighty as you?”
Practically anyone, Chance felt, but he didn’t mention it to Yrip. The little creature was mad, but seemed harmless. If he wanted to continue thinking that Chance was his master, to think so highly of him, then Chance wasn’t going to stop him. He was at least someone he could talk to and to try and make some sense of what was going on around the place. “Well, Yrip, I could really use your help. I am a little confused as to what is going on, where I am or even who I am. Things have been a touch strange of late.”
“Yes, master.” If the kobold was worried or even surprised by the revelation then he gave no indication of it.
“Well, what can you do Yrip?”
“Sorry, master?”
Chance tried again. “What is your class?”
“What is this class you speak of?”
Chance sighed. It was like speaking to The Counsellor again, though this time Yrip wasn't trying to be obtuse. He just didn’t understand. “Never mind, Yrip. Come with me. I am meant to be restoring this place and I could really do with assistance in the process.”
“Of course master,” Yrip replied eagerly. “Where do we start?”
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“Good question, Yrip. Good question.” Chane considered it, though he had no answers to hand. “First thing, I think, is that we need to arrange for some food. There is a pool just inside the cave that is stocked with fish. Can you catch fish?”
Yrip nodded, licking his lips. “Yes, master. Yrip is good at catching delicious fish. And not so delicious ones as well.”
“Good, you see to that while I figure out what comes after that.”
“Of course, master,” Yrip replied, all too eagre to please. He darted off, into the cave, leaving Chance alone again.
“Strange creature,” Chance said to himself before shrugging. Strange as he was, Yrip was not the strangest thing going on, not by a long way. He was practically normal compare to the rest of what Chance was experiencing.
There was the whole business of the quest to deal with for a starter, and what exactly it required. What was it The Counsellor had said before he had vanished? Check the parchment? It was still in his hand from when he had been given it, and so almost reluctantly he took a look at it. It was probably time that he figured it out anyway, if he was to get out of the situation he found himself in one piece. It had returned to displaying the information about him that he had read earlier, though this time around he actually studied it.
Name: Chance Craghand
Race: Dwarf
Class: Druid (Initiate rank)
Age: 47
Body: 2. Mind: 1. Soul: 2. Reaction: 0. Presence: 1. Perception: 0.
Affinities: Craft, Earth, Nature
Power Source: Primal
Powers: Stone Shot, Iron Skin, Nature’s Breeze.
Knowledge Unlocked; Language: 1, Religion: 1, Nature: 3
Skills Unlocked: 0
Milestones: 0
Achievements: 0
Quests: No Place Like Home
Okay, details, but nothing that explained how any of it all worked, or what exactly they were for. The Stone Shot power was obviously an attack of some type, yet he still had no idea how to use it, so until he did it was worse than useless.
“Just dump me here, with no explanation and no help,” he grumbled. There was going to have to be a whole lot of trial and error to figure things out, none of which was going to be exactly conducive to the whole warning about staying alive. He just had to hope there was a whole lot of trial and not a lot of error.
Still, he was in the tutorial area, which wasn’t liable to be all that dangerous. There had been that one shooter in which most people had given up on before even completing the tutorial zone due to the difficult; it had later been patched and toned down, but in general they were relatively safe.
As he studied the parchment further, he found himself focusing on the word dwarf, and then the words upon it changed, bringing up a new message.
Dwarf
Hailing from the land of Arhad Zhur, the Zhurites, the People of Iron, are a tough, determined people, noted for their skill with earth and crafting.
Starting Stats: Body 1, Soul 1.
Starting Affinities: Craft, Earth.
So dwarves were tough, which no doubt was what Body was meant to represent. Determined as well, which seemed linked to the Soul statistic. He unfocused and the entry on dwarf reverted back to the original character sheet. The entry for druid was next on the list to peruse, and once more the information about them was elaborate on as he studied it.
Druid
Members of the Druidic Conclave are protectors and guardians of nature and the wild, with powers and control over plants and animals, storms and the elements. As they grow more powerful, some druids are even able to assume the forms of beasts and animals.
Starting Stats: Body 1, Mind 1, Soul 1, Presence 1.
Starting Affinities: Nature.
Power Source: Primal.
Just as he had expected; a treehugger. Still, if you could get passed that fact, there were other parts of it that didn’t seem half bad, even if he didn’t have access to them yet. Control over storms? And being able to take on the forms of animals? Maybe he could be a dragon after all. He grinned at the thought of Yrip’s reaction to that happening. The little kobold would probably faint from shock and awe.
Searching through everything, studying everything on the parchment could probably take half a day to complete, digging deeper and deeper into it, trying to make sense of it, and no doubt failing as well. He could really do with an instruction manual. It might be important, eventually, but it wasn’t interesting; besides, he’d learn all that he’d need straight away through the tutorial, surely.
He moved on, to one last thing, to where the quest was mentioned, to try and find out what he needed to do. He was getting the hang of the parchment and the way that it worked, navigating through it. The quest description appeared before him.
Quest: No Place Like Home
A recent initiate of the Druidic Conclave, you have been despatched to the ancient druidic site of Azval Stalvaq, to reclaim and restore it. While the dragon may be no more, there are still minions and servants of his infesting the locale.
To make the site secure, you have been tasked to clear three camps of Nergezur’s servants; Camp Grimfang of the Grimfang Gnolls, Camp Brokentooth of the Brokentooth Goblins and Camp Halfscale of the Halfscale Kobolds.
Chance blinked. Kobolds? He was meant to be getting rid of kobolds? He look back towards the cave where Yrip was fishing. Oh biscuits, was that ever going to cause problems.