Jace led his group around to the front door of the stronghold and entered his home the right way. One empty bedroom was left next to Jace’s, and he offered it to Psycho. A mountain wasn’t the proper home for an elf, but the room hardly felt like a cave, and it had the same window that Jace had, looking over the western horizon filled with mountain peaks and forested valleys. So far, the fourth room had none of the gnome-built amenities the others had, but they could add anything Psycho desired. He said he would give it a shot. Drescher had given him a tiny room directly below a rowdy brothel in a city surrounded by a deserted wasteland. This was already much better.
Jace walked past Esther’s room and told Snowy to go inside and ensure the boys were gone in fifteen minutes, or she should start biting them. Esther chuckled but worried the wolf might not understand sarcasm. She also wasn’t sure Jace intended it as sarcasm.
“Thank you for how you handled that out there,” she said as they moved past her room and toward Gromphy’s lab.
He stopped and looked at her. “I shouldn’t have had to ‘handle’ it,” he replied. “You should have told me. You know better.”
{No, she doesn’t,} Gracie said. {You still don’t understand her alignment.}
“Know what?” Esther replied, genuinely perplexed and proving Gracie’s point. “I knew Trixna needed someone, and I knew you wouldn’t approve. So, I didn’t tell you.”
“What other secrets aren’t you telling me?”
Esther grinned at him with a face so charming that Jace worried mana was involved. “But if I told you, then they wouldn’t be secrets, would they?”
“I bet it’s the lover in Crestfall,” Psycho said.
Jace turned on the elf. “You aren’t helping. If this is you Friendly, I’d hate to see Hostile.”
“You’ve seen Hostile,” Psycho said evenly. “I kill people.”
Jace threw his hands up, wondering – not for the last time – what kind of party he was assembling, and continued through the dining room and into the lab. He didn’t see the goblin, but several new items sat on the main table. Jace’s eyes were drawn to the bow first. “Is that . . .” Psycho started to ask, but his voice disappeared as his new leader hoisted the massive weapon off the table. Jace knew it was constructed from a dragon's wing, but even if he didn’t, the weapon's origin was obvious from the clawed appendages at either end and the flame-red scale etchings in the white bone handle. It looked more like a work of art than a tool of death, but Jace was pretty sure it excelled at the latter.
“Talk to me about it,” Jace said. Both Esther and Psycho knew he was speaking with his operator.
{I wouldn’t have guessed such a weapon was possible,} Gracie said. {Stephen is reading over my shoulder and wants you to know he regrets doubting you. Its base distance is 250 feet. It is a level 15 +5 item, and Gromphy designed all fifteen levels to increase its distance, bringing its base to 400. It has two spells crafted into it. One is True Strike Range, and the other is Flight. The first gives you +10 to hit, but the second is fully charged at 100 mana and adds another 100 feet to the bow. Both need to be recharged after every use, but you can store the mana ahead of time if you want. Oh, and the wielder is immune to fire damage while using it.”
“How did he pack that much juice into one weapon? I thought longbows had a base distance of 100.”
{It looks like he used a negative crafting method. He put banes into the bow, allowing him to raise the boons.}
“So, there are negative aspects to it?”
{Yes,} Gracie confirmed. {There are massive penalties if you shoot at anything under 200 feet away. Also, you can’t use Point Blank Shot or fire more than once per round. None of those affect how Psycho will use it, but his old bow will be much better in normal combat.}
Jace saw arrows on the table and handed the bow to the speechless elf. He took it gingerly, worried his hands might catch fire if he held it too tightly. Jace let him examine his new toy as he picked up one of the ten arrows on the table. It was made from the wing bone of a much smaller animal, and the shafts were tinted blue with silver threads wrapped through them.
{Those are also level 15 +5; each level was used for distance again, adding 150 feet to the base of the bow. That increases the standard shot length to 550. If you use both spells in the bow and spend the +10 from the True Strike on an additional 50 feet, the bow is accurate to 700 feet.}
“Meaning he only needs two more criticals to reach the 800 we need,” Jace said.
{It gets better; the arrows have a permanent Heavy Weapon spell. Light weapons only use half your damage bonus. Arrows are considered ultralight, and they use none of your damage bonus. This spell elevates them to light weapons, so in addition to the +10 they get from enchantments and the + 3 they get for spending three criticals to add distance, they get another 17 from Psycho’s damage bonus for a total of 35. Allison and Stephen had calculated that you would need three criticals to get the damage to 100. Now, two criticals triple the damage and bring you to 105.}
“So before, we thought we would need 17 criticals, and now we only need 9,” Jace calculated. “We have to beat the shamans’ AC by 90.”
{Doable,} Gracie said. {Psycho’s base Range skill with a long bow is 78. He gets +10 from the weapons, ten from Aim, and ten from True Strike for 108 total. He will be hiding in the shadows, and with the new cloak you just gave him, his stealth is 43. That is 151. Then he gets to roll the die. Since he won’t be in combat mode for the first shot, he can Concentrate and take a 20. That is 171 with a critical. No shaman will have an AC of 91; at most, they will have 40, which means he can roll a two and still kill them. They might have access to some Death Save protections, but I doubt anyone is expecting an arrow shot and most of their bonuses will be to detect things moving in the shadows, but Psycho will be too far away to see. This will work.}
Jace handed the arrow to Psycho, who was still drooling over the bow. Once he had the shaft in his hand, he had to lean against another table to stay standing. “I could kill a dragon with these,” he said breathlessly.
“Just a level 15 storm shaman,” Jace said. “Well, two of them.”
“That will not be a problem. How many arrows are there?” the elf asked greedily.
“Ten,” Jace said. “You can go hunting for eight dragons once we complete our primary mission.”
“Yes, sir,” the awestruck elf said. Jace was pretty sure it was the only time the elf would ever call him sir.
Esther was patient, but now that they were done with Psycho, she moved up to the table and looked at the other four items. Two were her swords, and Jace let her pick them up. Gracie could read the stats regardless of who held them. They looked roughly identical, but a large gem had been added to each hilt. One was a fire-red ruby, while the other was an ice-blue sapphire.
{Level 12, +5} Gracie reported. {The damage was increased from 12 per strike to 17, plus they do an additional +5 fire damage and cold damage. They have names now: Char and Chill. I’ll let you guess which is which. They are permanently Heavy Weapons. Well, they have the spell built into them, and the gems act as mana stones and keep the weapons filled, so they shouldn’t run out in a fight unless she makes four attacks per round for five rounds. This means they will always do her full damage bonus, which is currently at 26, so she is doing 43 damage per hit, with five magical thrown in for fun. So basically, almost as much as you, but she usually gets three attacks per round and has a much higher melee skill than you. Also, the blades used to give her +2 to Dodge; now, they give her +5 each.}
Jace watched his upgraded killing machine sheaths her weapons and accessorize them with her Quick-Change ability. There were two items left, a bracer and a white staff. Ester grabbed the bracer.
{That is the shield you asked for,} Gracie said as Esther clipped the four-inch piece of metal to her left arm. It was covered in glistening red scales. She put some mana into it, and it unfurled like a dragon folding its wings until it formed the classic teardrop shape.
{It is a +5 medium shield, which shouldn’t be possible, but oh well. It adds +8 to her AC, and she can Dodge while wielding it. She can’t attack with that hand while it is in shield form, but she can open and close it with the mana. And, when she raises it, she becomes immune to fire. Just wearing the bracer gives her 100% fire protection, which isn’t the same thing, if you remember.}
While Esther practiced opening and closing the guard, Jace picked up the last item. {That is a wizard’s staff,} Gracie told him. {Carved out of the leg bone of a dragon.} The shaman was naturally proficient in two-handed blunt weapons, and he turned it over several times, appreciating the weight and balance. Psycho’s bow had fire etching that looked like scales; this staff had red engravings coiled in a double helix up and down the shaft. Other than that, it was featureless.
{It is also a level 15 +5 weapon. Level fifteen weapons can process 450 mana, but it has a dragon fire spell that does two damage for every five mana, instead of the normal one, so Draya will get the same benefit as if casting with 900 mana, which is about where she is when she casts dragon spirit, only now she doesn’t have to waste the spell. It has two options: a single bolt of fire that will travel up to 300 feet and hit one target, or a fireball that will travel 250 feet and explode in a 20-foot circle. All the mana for the spells is built into the staff already, so she only needs to provide the dragon fire. She can choose to add her own mana to make the attacks go further, but she doesn’t have to. She can also decide to use her own difficulty and damage bonuses if she wants, which is better than a level 15 item.}
“So, unlimited firepower at no cost,” Jace said, shuddering at the thought. He put the weapon back on the table.
“Where’s Gromphy?” Esther asked after she was done experimenting. “I need to thank him for these?”
“Yes,” Psycho agreed, having stored his new items in his inventory. “Whomever this master crafter is, I must also praise his skills. Is he a dwarf?”
“Not exactly,” Jace said, wondering how that revelation would go over with the elf.
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“Did you send him on a mission?” Esther asked.
“No,” a voice came from behind. Everyone turned to see Trixna standing in the doorway. “He is in bed. I put him there.”
Jace and the orc stared at each other for an uncomfortable moment, but it passed. “Was he not feeling well?” Jace guessed that with as many revitalize and mana potions the goblin could craft, he probably never had to sleep if he didn’t want to.
“I heard a crash and came to investigate. He was passed out on the floor.”
“Probably from casting a spell with too much mana,” Jace said. “It seems to be going around. He must have been crafting the bow.”
Trixna shook her head. “No. The bow was on the big table when I walked in. He was lying on the floor over there.” She pointed to the corner of the room where his crafting table was, set up around several beakers, a sink, and three fire burners.
Jace thought that made sense. He didn’t actually craft anything on this main table. He moved quickly to the much shorter workstation and saw his level 50 crystal lying on the floor where the goblin must have dropped it. He found something else, too, and picked it up for the rest of the room to see.
{Holy #$%@,} Gracie said. She had promised Jace she would tone down her language since he confessed that sometimes he couldn’t understand anything she said. But she couldn’t help herself here. It was Esther’s armor.
{It is #$%^@# level 20 +5,} she reported. {That is +20 to her Damage Reduction. It gives her permanent slashing immunity from anything level 25 or lower. That is $%#&@%! insane! It used to give her +5 to stealth; now, it is +12. And you won’t need to cast Critical Protection on her anymore. There is a permanent one inside the armor. Plus, it raises her magic defense by 10.}
Jace could feel the power of the salamander they had killed permeating the vest, and whisps of shadow emanated from the scales like steam from a warm lake on a crisp fall morning. It also still looked like the elegantly contoured corset into which Esther had designed it. Jace would have expected the goblin to make it more modest, but he hadn’t. Speaking of modesty, Esther instantly Quick-Changed out of her dress and into her armor outfit, though, without the vest that Jace still held, she wore only a short skirt and a tiny crop top.
Psycho blushed and looked away, but the woman didn’t care and only wanted to be wearing the armor as quickly as possible as she navigated between the tables to where Jace was standing. She touched the vest, which snapped to her body, fitting like a glove and looking more impressive than before. A shudder went through the woman as the item’s impressive enchantments worked through her. Once acclimated to the armor, she turned to Trixna, still standing in the doorway. “He made this for me?” there was a tear in her eye.
“It looks like it almost killed him,” the orc said. “I imagine he will be asleep for a while.”
“Can you revive him?” Esther asked.
“Jace said he wouldn’t ask me to do anything else today,” Trixna said, arms crossed. She could play hardball too.
Esther didn’t care. “He’s not asking. I am.”
The orc would have done it even if Jace had asked, but she softened her resolve in the face of her friend’s passionate plea. “Follow me,” she said, leading the group through the small door in the back of the lab. It was a doorway built by gnomes for a goblin, so everyone had to duck. The inside of the bedroom wasn’t much bigger, and Psycho burst out laughing when he saw the smartly dressed goblin lying in his bed.
“Yes,” Jace replied to the unspoken comment. “Your bow is goblin-made. I can find another archer if that’s a problem for you.”
“No, no,” Psycho said, clearing his throat. “I just wasn’t prepared for that. I should have known better.” He quieted as Trixna knelt by the bed and laid her hands on the goblin’s chest.
After one round and an impressive amount of mana, Gromphy stirred and opened his eyes. “I didn’t intendeth to drop . . .” he started, sitting up in bed and suddenly noticing he had an audience. After Trixna backed away, Esther was in the front of the group, the only one who didn’t have to duck from the low ceiling. “Aye, but ye has’t it on already,” he said. “I might has’t madeth it a bit tight. Thou art spilling out liketh loaves with too much yeast. I can loosen it . . .” but he didn’t get to finish as Esther knelt beside him and hugged him.
“I love it. You’re the best.” Her voice cracked. “I don’t know how to thank you.”
The goblin sputtered as he got a face full of her “loaves,” and tried to push her away. She knew what she was doing, and he had no chance of breaking free of her grapple until she released it. Esther let him go after a few moments and kissed him on the cheek, increasing his frantic reaction.
“Off me, vile mistress! Keepeth thy charms for those that payeth. I am a learned goblin, not a man. I careth not for thy feminine wiles.”
Psycho breathed in sharply at the insult, but Esther let it slide off her back. This was their relationship now. Gromphy would have never made the armor like he did if he didn’t truly care for her. She backed away, letting him rise from his bed to stand before the others and fastidiously straighten his fine clothes. When finished, he looked up and saw Psycho’s tall head over Jace’s shoulder.
“Oy, thou art the archer, I presume. Mine own name is Gromphy. How doth thee fancy thy bow?”
“I have never seen its equal, oh noble craftsman.” Psycho was already stooped by the low ceiling but bowed a little further.
“Finally, a soul with manners. Figures it wouldst taketh an elf.” The goblin rolled his eyes at Esther but returned to Psycho. “Do ye have the bow now?”
The archer nodded but had to roll his eyes into his inventory to get it. The game wouldn’t allow him to simultaneously wear two weapons on his back.
“Tis, tis,” the goblin chided. “Won’t do a’tall. Giveth me thy cloak and follow.”
The small crafter scampered past the group clogging his small room and snagged the trench coat from Psycho’s offered hand. He raced over to his crafting table and got to work. The rest of the team was quick to follow, and Jace saw a beaker of black liquid already bubbling away on a burner. Gromphy dropped two black scales into the potion while he continued to fiddle with the cloak in the other hand. After finding what he wanted, he picked a spell tome from a bookshelf and flipped through the pages.
Everyone watched him cast a spell, dump the boiling liquid onto the cloak, and then lean back as a flash of light burst in front of him. The whole process took less than a minute. Gromphy turned around with the cloak and handed it to Psycho. “Try this.”
The elf put it on, and it looked the same as before. He shrugged his shoulders.
“Put the bow in,” Gromphy said.
Psycho obeyed, and the massive bow, which the archer had already named Dragonwing, disappeared inside the front flap of the cloak. He took his other bow and put it in as well. His katana went next. All three weapons were in the coat, yet it remained thin and flexible. Jace watched as the elf went into his inventory for a couple of rounds before coming back out. He reached over his shoulder to the cloak’s collar and pulled an arrow seemingly out of nowhere. Psycho had needed to equip his quiver before, but it looked like Gromphy had built one into the trench coat. “Truly amazing,” the elf responded, giving the goblin another slight bow.
{And he elevated the Stealth bonus from +5 to +12,} Gracie said. {Those salamander scales are powerful.}
“Perfect,” Jace said, happy for his new friend, but he needed to move things along. He walked to the middle of the room, produced the elemental protection dress from his inventory, and laid it on the stone table.
Gromphy left his workstation and climbed up the ramp to his elevated side to examine the item. “Very nice forsooth, a bit crude, but I can maketh it better. What didst thee has’t in mind?”
“I want you to curse it so that instead of providing 100 points of fire damage protection, it does 100 points of fire damage. Every round.”
Gromphy whistled. “Aye, on thy young dragon maiden yond wouldst be quite useful, but alas, I doth not dealeth in curses and hexes. I don’t has’t the spells, and thy mage in Crestfall won’t has’t them either. Also . . . the kind of magic thy needeth for this curse . . . tis might not but cometh from a dark source. Darker than thee might prefer.”
“Darker than me?” Esther asked playfully. The more she heard him talk, the more she understood. She had at least followed the last sentence.
“Though art shadow and night. His request . . . tis from hades.”
Jace nodded. Despite his desire, he wasn’t a paladin, and working in hellfire didn’t betray any of his alignments. The more he played the game, the more he understood that there was no firm moral line to cross. Everyone operated in shades of gray. “If you worked with someone who had the spell and access to the magic, could you put it in this dress?”
Gromphy nodded, worried about what mission his honest answer might take him on.
“Good. You and Esther go to Therasphue. You should find what you need.” Jace looked over at Esther. “Don’t go in the swamp. You should be able to find a witch or warlock that has the spells in question. I trust you.” He looked back at Gromphy. “We need your expertise, but she is in charge, understand?”
The goblin wasn’t happy about it, but he nodded. Jace had a few other things he wanted and hastily explained them to the crafter. None were that difficult, and the shaman was just wrapping up when Draya entered. “My friends are gone,” she said. “Snowy is taking them back to town. Where did you say we were . . .” her voice trailed off as her eyes fell on the dress lying on the table. “Is that for me? It’s gorgeous.”
She walked up to the stone surface and ran her hands over the intricate designs that incorporated rubies, diamonds, sapphires, and emeralds. The stones held the enchantments that would protect the wearer from fire, lightning, cold, or acid, but they adorned the gown so seamlessly that they just as easily could have been for decoration.
Draya picked up the dress by the shoulders and then caught her breath when she saw how deep the V-neck was. On the elf mage, Psycho had killed, the narrow wedge descended to just a few inches above her navel. Draya dropped the dress and put her hand on her sternum as if covering herself. “My, that is a cut low.”
“And high,” Esther added, pointing to the slit on one side of the skirt that went all the way to the narrow waist. The rogue thought it was a positive feature of the dress but then looked at her young friend’s reaction and realized not everyone shared her fashion sense. “But we can adjust that,” she said. “Gromphy would never dream of sending you adventuring in something so scandalous. Right, buddy.”
“Indeed,” the goblin said.
“Then we should get going,” Esther said, grabbing the dress and storing it in her inventory. “Gromphy, get your treasure chest, and let’s get out of here. It will be night soon.”
It would actually be morning where they were going, but Jace didn’t correct her. Instead, he watched the goblin scramble about the lab, hastily grabbing dozens of things to throw into his trunk. He picked up the level 50 crystal and thought about adding it to the collection, but Jace told him no and beckoned for it. The shaman put it back in its cradle with the blue mana stone so it could start generating more crafting magic.
Eventually, the crafter had gathered everything he thought he might need, closed his trunk lid, and tucked it into his inventory. Even though they knew it was coming, everyone gasped when the giant box seemed to disappear under his suit coat and into his tailored vest. “How in the realms do you fit a chest that big in such a tiny vest?” Esther asked when the goblin was finally standing before her.
Gromphy looked up at the woman, her impressive figure bursting out of the armor he had crafted for her, and bit his tongue. Jace grinned at his self-control while Draya put a hand to her mouth to control her laughter. Esther gave the goblin to the count of three to make the joke and then raced out of the lab, Gromphy chasing after her.
“Are they always like that?” Psycho asked.
“When they aren’t trying to kill each other, yes. But I think we are passed that.” Jace looked between Draya and the elf and realized they hadn’t met. “Draeklynn Ember, this is Nal Saikol Gladekin, but everyone calls him . . .” Jace hesitated, not sure if the elf liked his nickname. The archer nodded. “Everyone calls him Psycho. Hopefully less deserving now, but he has a reputation.”
Draya nodded, not really understanding, but she moved closer to the large elf and offered her hand. “Nice to meet you. Everyone calls me Draya.”
Psycho took her small hand, looking her up and down. “And you are a dragon?”
She laughed. “Hardly. I can’t even fly. But I have a dragon mana core inside me that can spew out fire. I’m still getting used to it.”
Jace reached back to the table and grabbed the dragon staff. “I almost forgot,” he said. “This is for you; Gromphy made it.”
Draya took the weapon and fell into the magic easily. The staff was six feet long, significantly taller than she was. But the power inside her felt connected to the weapon, and she swung it about her body as if it were a part of her.
{Wow,} Gracie said. {She is getting massive bonuses to hit and parry with that weapon that didn’t show up when you held it. Gromphy really knows what he is doing. It looks like she has Weapon Mastery with it and Parrying Mastery too. The weapon also triggers her Dragon Strength ability, so it is permanently on when she uses it. That gives her +16 to all her Strength skills. Without any feats, she is suddenly a formidable fighter.}
Draya finished playing, and with a slight twist of her wrists, the staff shrunk. The spiraling double helix, which had looked like two stretched-out slinkies woven together, now collapsed until the shaft was a glowing scarlet rod ten inches long. Even though it was featureless, the game allowed her to clip the weapon to her belt. “So,” she said as if nothing had happened, leaving the other two men dumbstruck. “Where are we going?”
“I don’t actually know,” Jace admitted. “Gracie, what did our CIA friends find out?”
Gracie told him.