As Gromphy left down the stairs, Rock led his new friends along the balcony and down a back private hallway that did not overlook the gallery below. The dwarf stopped before a non-descript door and pulled a key from his pocket.
“You’re keeping her locked up like an animal?” Esther asked.
“It is for her own safety,” Rock replied unconvincingly.
Esther wanted to argue, but the door opened, and Rock stepped to the side quickly. Esther was eager to enter, so she was the one hit by the Stun hex as she raced through the opening.
Non-PVP zones prevent nearly all hostile Player-to-Player interactions and disallow most weapon use and damaging spells. However, hand-to-hand combat is usually still allowed, and NPCs can generally interact with each other and players as long as they aren’t causing damage.
Esther made eye contact with Leah as the hex hit her and saw the regret in the witch's face when she realized who had come to visit. Leah had likely gotten a notification that she had just been traded and was distraught enough to attack whomever that was. One of the best indications that Rock had neglected her was that she was still level ten, the same as when Jace had first met her. Esther was level 17 and would have saved against the spell, but she failed automatically because they were party members now.
“Oh, Esther, I’m so sorry. I thought you were . . .”
Jace cast Dispel on his female companion, and Esther sprang back to life. She interrupted the woman by racing forward and embracing her. Jace stayed clear of the entry and looked sideways down the hall at the dwarf who had knowingly stepped aside when the door opened. “For her own good?” Jace repeated. “Or for your safety?”
Instead of pushing the matter, Jace went into his inventory to check the relationship status. After a trade, the NPC would have the same initial relationship with their new party leader as their old one. It was at 20. Jace adjusted his settings so he could check that score in his Head-Up-Display. He planned on raising it.
Jace left his inventory and followed Esther into the room, wary of any traps.
“I don’t see anything, boss,” Draya said from behind. She had exceptional Perception skill. “I don’t detect any other magical traps either.”
“Thanks.” Jace moved to the center of the room, taking stock of the minimal furnishing. A bed, dresser, and worktable with art supplies were all he saw. Draya followed him in, but Psycho and Snowy stayed alert in the hallway. Rock made his way into the room and closed the door behind him.
Jace focused on the two women who had ended their hug and were now reacquainting. Esther called her friends “sisters,” and while Jace knew they weren’t related, he couldn’t help seeing a similarity. Leah was supposed to be the ugly older sister, and, as a witch, she did have the classic fairytale look. Her nose was a little too long, her eyes a bit too wide apart, her chin came to a sharper-than-normal point beneath her thin lips, and she had the requisite wart on her cheek. She wore a simple smock above a skirt that hung below her knees. Her only adornment was a necklace made of blue diamonds. But only in comparison to Esther’s perfect beauty could one find her unattractive.
“I knew you would come to rescue me,” Leah said.
“Of course I did. We are here to help you.”
At the sound of the plural pronoun, Leah looked over her friend’s shoulder to the small crowd in her room. Esther turned for introductions. “This is Jace and Draya,” she said. “Jace is the one who rescued me originally from the Gilded Swan. He was an orc back then.”
“Yes,” Leah said, her face scrunched up in memory. Jace had gotten the illusion necklace on the top floor of the Gilded Swan, and Leah would have seen him in his human form for a little while. “Yes,” she repeated. “I think I remember him. . . Wait, did you say Jace? Jace Thorne?”
The shaman smiled and bowed slightly. “At your service.”
She looked back at Esther. “I have heard of Jace Thorne. I had no idea you were with him. I was on my own for a while between the Swan and here.” She turned to Jace. “Thank you for coming for me. Did you kill that miserable . . .” her voice trailed off as she looked past Jace and saw Rock hiding out by the door. She looked back to Esther. “What is HE doing here?”
“I brought them here to help you, my dear,” Rock pleaded. “Soon, the plague on your land will be over, and you can return to doing what you love.” Jace saw the dwarf’s eyes go toward the art station. It didn’t look like any of the paper, pens, or paint had ever been used.
“You lie,” Leah said. “They came here on their own to help me and . . .” she paused in thought, “you didn’t want them to. They had to convince you to let them try.”
“She cast a spell,” Draya whispered to Jace. “Some kind of truth-seeking curse on Rock.”
{She’s right,} Gracie agreed. {If she catches him in a lie, she can read a portion of his mind. A very useful curse.}
“That’s not true,” Rock argued. Jace thought it unwise to continue lying. It would just reveal more of his mishandling of the woman. “I only wanted to ensure they had your best interest at heart.”
Leah paused as her spell gave her more information. “You traded me for a goblin!” The woman raised her arms to attack, but Esther stepped in the way.
“No,” she said. “Don’t do that. You’re with us now. I also have a man in my life who only wants to use me for his profit. Jace isn’t like that. You can trust him. He will solve your problem. I promise.”
Leah lowered her arms and looked a bit deflated. “No,” she said. “No, he won’t. No one can help me. I screwed everything up. I’m a horrible person.”
“Worse than me?” Esther asked playfully.
That brought a smile to Leah’s lips. “Well, maybe not that bad.”
Jace checked the relationship status. It was up to 50. She was at least treating him neutrally. He bet it was down to 10% with Rock. When this was over, the dwarf might not want the woman returned to him.
Jace would love to let the two friends catch up with each other, but that would have to wait. “I believe I can help,” he said. “But you are going to have to trust me.”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Leah looked between Esther and Jace and eventually nodded. The score climbed to 55. Jace pulled the chair away from the desk and spun it around as the two women sat on the bed. Draya stood behind her boss, and Rock stayed out of sight.
“I know most of your story,” Jace said, “and I think I have the solution. Your sister and nephew are still alive.”
Leah shook her head. “No. You don’t understand. I cast a curse to kill them. I waited until they came for a visit, and I killed them. All we found left behind were bloody clothes and the tracks of a horrific beast. They are dead.”
Jace kept his voice gentle. “What kind of curse was it? It sounds powerful for someone of your experience.”
Leah paused. “I bought it from a sorcerer in my own kingdom . . . I, I think . . . no, he said . . . I’m not sure. I wanted a spell to kill them quietly in their sleep. He . . . tricked me . . . he, no, he said . . . I don’t know.”
“There’s a spell blocking her memory,” Draya whispered. “It is powerful. I can’t dispel it.”
Jace nodded. If his mage couldn’t counter it, neither could he, at least not with magic.
“What was his name?” Jace asked.
Leah winced. “I . . . I . . . can’t . . .” Her hands went to her head, and she moaned in agony.
“Jace!” Esther cried, putting her arms around her friend to comfort her. “Stop!”
Jace waited for the pain to pass.
“I’m sorry,” Leah said, gasping, finally looking up from her ordeal, “I can’t remember. Please don’t . . .”
“Was his name Ishmael?” Jace asked.
The name hit the witch in the forehead like a cannonball, and she flopped back on the mattress in a daze, staring up at the ceiling.
“Jace!” Esther cried, turning on the bed and tending to the limp woman beside her. “I told you to . . .”
Leah blinked several times and seemed to regain consciousness. “No, Esther, it’s fine. He’s right. The block in my mind is gone. The sorcerer, Ishmael, wiped my memory. It’s coming back to me.”
On the far side of the room, Rock pushed away from the wall and walked a few paces forward. “What did you do?” he asked. “How did you know?”
Jace smiled. “I read my Bible. Joseph was sold to the Ishmaelites. Then they took his clothes and some blood and made it look like a wild beast killed him.” He turned to the women on the bed and waited for Esther and Leah to sit upright again. “Are you okay? What else do you remember?”
“I . . .I don’t think I ever meant to hurt them,” Leah said. “I only wanted to scare them away from my kingdom and never return. Then Josephus wouldn’t be king. My son would be safe. But . . . Ishmael sold me a curse. He said everything would be exactly as I wanted. He tricked me.”
“Do you remember where Ishmael is?” Jace checked his relationship with her, and it was now at 75.
Leah nodded. “And you think he has my sister and her son?”
Jace shook his head. “Unfortunately, no. If I’m right, he sold them to someone else.”
“Who?”
Jace shrugged. “I don’t know. Probably not the Egyptians, but someone similar.”
Leah looked confused. “Who are the . . .”
Esther stopped her. “Don’t worry about him. He always talks nonsense. He’s usually right; just don’t expect to understand until it is all over. And even then, half the time, I have to ask Draya to explain what happened.”
Jace rose from his chair. “You can take us to see Ishmael?”
Leah nodded.
“Good. If you have any supplies or weapons you want to take, now is the time.”
Leah scowled toward Rock. “He took all my wands.”
The dwarf tossed glances between Jace and Leah. “Uh, I still have them. Do you really think . . .”
Jace nodded.
“Fine, I’ll go get them,” Rock opened the door and raced into the hallway.
“This is going to be fun,” Esther said to Leah. “I’m guessing you’ve never been on an adventure like this before.”
“Fun?” Leah replied.
“Oh, yes. Jace is the best leader. We always win. It doesn’t matter how powerful the monster or demon is; Jace always finds a way to kill it.”
“Demon?”
“Don’t worry about that. You will be perfectly safe. Jace will take good care of you. He won’t let anyone die. Well, last time I died, but it was mostly my fault.”
“You died?”
“Well, I mean, not really, because I’m here now, right? Hey, I love your necklace. You didn’t have that before.”
Leah took a breath from her friend’s mind-numbing rambling and looked down at the blue diamonds. “Thanks. Someone else gave it to me after he failed to solve my quest.”
“You won’t have to worry about that with Jace. He will definitely solve it. And even then, he might have Gromphy craft you something really nice. Gromphy is the goblin crafter we traded you for. He made all my equipment.”
“Goblin Crafter?”
Jace chuckled and wandered away from the women to check on Psycho and Snowy. “All quiet out here?” he asked.
The elf nodded. “Everything go according to plan in there?”
Jace laughed. “What plan?”
“That’s what I was afraid of.” Psycho scratched Snowy behind the ears. “Is this mission important?”
“It is to Esther.”
Psycho nodded. “And in your world?”
Jace shrugged. “That depends on what Gromphy can find out.”
----------------------------------------
Gromphy followed Rock Bender’s directions through the main floor gallery, into the back storage room, and down to the basement workshop. The door at the top of the stairs was locked, but as a member of Rock’s party, the door opened for Gromphy automatically. The goblin felt compelled to obey his new master but still felt his allegiance to Jace and remembered what the orc shaman had told him to do. If Rock ever asked what the crafter really wanted, he would be obligated to tell him. Hopefully, that wouldn’t happen.
A hallway at the bottom of the stairs led to a vast underground workshop, easily as big as the entire building. Gromphy’s lab back in Jace’s stronghold was much smaller, but so were his ingredients. Silver, gold, and jewels were shared between the two spaces, but while the goblin worked with relatively small ingots of steel, mithril, and adamantium, here, massive blocks of sandstone, marble, and granite stood on shelves lining the walls. Vast blocks of wood and large chunks of ivory were piled in neat rows beside many of the tables.
“Who goes there?” a small voice called out.
Gromphy noticed the worktables were shorter than usual, almost as if they were designed for him. He saw a pointed cap moving between the furniture, and a gnome popped into view. The shorter crafter cried out in shock at seeing a goblin in his workspace, but Gromphy wasn’t dressed like a typical goblin with his tailored shirt and pants, black coat, glasses, and hat. Plus, the gnome must have sensed Gromphy was in his master’s party and tempered his reaction.
“Greetings,” Gromphy said, removing his hat and bowing low. “I am Gromphy, Master Crafter. I hath been assigned to assist thee while my former master is away.”
The gnome nodded. “I am Rooter. I, too, am a crafter. I specialize in stone and wood carvings.”
“I craft magical items,” Gromphy replied. “I can fashion any weapon thou likest and put enchantments in clothing, jewelry, or armor.” He looked around the room and saw several half-finished sculptures. “Thou seemest busy,” the goblin said. “How dost thou keep track of all thy many projects?”
The gnome smiled. “We keep a book. It is a magical tome that tracks all the purchased items from above, orders for me to fashion, and paintings commissioned by the artists. There is one on the main floor and a third upstairs. They all update each other so everyone knows what is happening.”
Gromphy smiled. This was going to be too easy. “Sounds fascinating. An ingenious solution to a confounding problem. Perchance, could I see it?”
“Of course,” the gnome replied. “If you are to assist me, you will need to learn how to use it.”
As Rooter led Gromphy through the maze of tables and half-finished statues, the goblin looked on with interest at the chisels and picks the gnome used. He felt the weak enchantments on them and knew he could make them much stronger.
The goblin stopped cold. “Rooter,” he said. The gnome turned around. “Art thou the crafter for all these items?”
“I am,” he said.
Gromphy ejected his trunk from his inventory and opened the lid. “What dost thou think of this?” He fetched an item from the chest and set it on a table. It was the stone mana core.
Rooter was entranced. “I’ve never seen anything like it. What does it do?”
“It is broken,” Gromphy lied. “Cursed by a demon. I need it fixed. Canst thou shape it?”
The gnome crept up to the object and reached tentatively toward it. The core spit out a stream of lava, causing Rooter to retreat, feeling the stone's heat and magic. “I would like nothing more than to shape it into something beautiful,” the gnome said. “But I don’t think my tools are up to the task.”
“Bah,” Gromphy said dismissively. “That I can rectify. Doth thou have the skill to shapest it into a perfect icosahedron?”
The gnome looked up, confused. “A what?”
“A 20-sided shape,” Gromphy clarified.
Rooter looked back to the stone as it belched out more lava and steam. “Yes,” he said confidently. “Yes, I can.”