Traveling down the tunnel it was ever changing. It didn’t seem to go in any one particular direction, it had parts that sloped up, and down, where it shrunk to where they had to crawl and grew to where they both could stand with their arms outstretched and touch neither wall. They remained on alert for any signs of any enemies. They walked along through the first duration of the simple light spell, and then a second. By the third one they were starting to relax. As they traveled Bjorn started to read through his notifications.
You have advanced your skill level in herb-lore, reaching skill level 13. The efficacy of plants and herbs you collect will increase by 39%
Congratulations by reaching the novice threshold in Herb-lore you gain a perk! You get an idea of two uses of a herb when you ingest it.
You have advanced your skill level in light magic. reaching skill level 3. You have unlocked the ability to learn higher level spells.
You have advanced your skill level in earth magic. reaching skill level 2. You have unlocked the ability to learn higher level spells.
You have advanced your skill level in archery, reaching skill level 5. Damage from arrows you shoot is increased by 15% over base damage.
You have advanced your skill level in stealth, reaching skill level 4. You will now be 16% harder to spot while stealthing.
You have advanced your skill level in swordsmanship, reaching skill level 3. Your attacks with swords now deal 9% more damage over base value.
Level up! You are now level 8, you have 6 attribute points to distribute.
Next he pulled up his character sheet and decided where to put his 6 attribute points he had to distribute.
Name:Bjorn Ward
Race:Human
age:18
Hp:120
Stamina:120
Mana:140
Level: 8
Stats from items (*)
Strength:15(2)
Constitution:12
Dexterity:13(1)
Agility:12
Endurance:12
Intelligence:14
Wisdom:12
Charisma:12
Abilities
Increased growth
Skilling Prodigy
Disadvantage
Weak
Synergy
Latent potential
Skills
Alchemy: 11: 11%
Archery: 5: 11%
Bowyering: 1: 55%
Carpentry: 1: 98%
Cooking: 7: 12%
Construction: 2: 0%
Road building: 2: 33%
Hand to hand combat: 1: 99%
Healing: 1: 27%
Herb-Lore: 13: 10%
Leatherworking 1: 1:27%
Small blades: 1: 48%
Stealth: 4: 50%
Survival: 4: 83%
Swordsmanship: 3: 40%
Trade 3: 81%
Perks:
Alchemy 10: 50% less chance to fail potion creation
Herb-lore 10:Can see 2 potential uses upon consuming any herb.
Taking a look at all of his stats, there wasn't really any one place that lacked. So Bjorn decided to put 2 points into strength, 1 into constitution, 1 into agility, 1 into wisdom and finally 1 into dexterity.
After all of that was done Bjorn and Medera just started to walk on in silence. Right before the end of the third duration of the simple light spell Medera put her hand in front of him and barked. “Stop, there is a trap right there.” As she pointed to a patch of ground.
Getting down on his knees Bjorn got closer to take a look at what she was pointing at. Not seeing anything he replied. “Are you sure?”
“Pretty sure, it is right there.” Also joining him on her knees she pointed at a small round stone, 4 inches across. “I think it is a pressure plate.”
Looking even closer to the rock that Medera had pointed out he finally saw a small groove cut into the side of the rock, putting his eye level with the groove he could see a small metal rod pushed up from the ground into the rock.
“How did you see that?”
“I have a trap finding skill. Which, if you just saw what I saw you should have gained the skill yourself.
Checking his notifications again she was right.
You have gained the skill: trap finding. There are many evil and nefarious people in this world, and people have devised a way to set traps to hurt the unsuspecting who stumble upon them. You have started to learn how to get around these asshole’s plans. Good luck.
Telling Medera that he gained the skill and what it said. “You know I find it disconcerting that the prompt that gave me the skill wished me luck. Doesn’t really engender a sense of security.”
“You know based on the notifications you have shared what it had said with me. It makes me wonder why they are so sarcastic, and sometimes rude. I haven’t ever gotten a notification anything like what you’ve been getting.”
As she finished saying that another notification popped up in front of Bjorn’s vision, this one with a booming voice saying it in his head.
Congratulations, you have learned you are a bitch. Only those who are true wimps go and snitch. You know what they say, snitches get stitches.
The notification stayed in the middle of his vision and he couldn’t do anything about it. He tried to close it, to minimize it, there was even a little mute button in the bottom corner of the notification that he tried to mentally click on it. Which did nothing. Once it finished with its sentence it made the sound of blowing a raspberry and then closed.
Frowning, Bjorn was about to ask Medera about this new notification that he just got, and wasn’t able to remove, but he thought better of it. Who knows what would have happened next. Moving on back to the pressure plate.
“What do we do to disarm it?”
“There are many different things you can do to disarm the traps, and depending on how good or shoddily the trap was made, all could work, or none that I know of could work. Luckily for us I think this trap wasn’t built with all too much care and all we have to do is this.” Medera said as she grabbed ahold of the top of the trap and lifted it up with a smooth motion.
The rock came free exposing a hole. Looking into the hole it was around 3 and a half inches around. There were 3 small metal rods that extended into the ground. The bottom of the rock had 3 different groves, one for each rod. The 3 rods converged down into a point and attached to another small rod that shot off under the wall. Examining the wall there were 4 different small holes.
Looking at each other they both took a step back as Bjorn picked up a small rock and tried to throw it into the hole. It took a few tries but eventually he was successful. There was a small audible click as 4 arrows covered in a sickly green ooze came shooting out of the holes in the wall. When the arrows hit the opposite wall of the tunnel one of the shafts snapped, another one the head got bent so badly the tip was bent at a right angle. The last two bounces around a few times before coming to a stop.
“It was a good thing that we spotted that, if we didn’t it would have been trouble for us.”
“Thank you captain obvious.” Said Bjorn.
Giving Bjorn an annoyed look, Medera took off down the tunnel again. Quickly collecting the two remaining arrows he took off after Medera. It wasn’t long before Medera stopped again and pointed out another trap. Once again Bjorn couldn’t see what she was pointing at. Taking a few minutes looking at it, he eventually saw what she was talking about. This time the trap was a small tripwire that was strung inbetween a small stone in the middle of the tunnel and the wall. As soon as he spotted the wire the entire wire lit up in blue.
“What is your trap finding level Medera? I wasn’t able to see it until you pointed it out. I probably would have just blundered into it.”
“Not overly high, just 19.”
As they moved onwards they had to stop more and more frequently because of traps. “Kobolds are notorious for their traps.” Said Medera as she was skirting around a pitfall trap. As they progressed forward there weren't any other signs of life other than the traps they had to get around. “I sure hope we don’t have to leave in a hurry, these traps will be quite a nuisance if so.”
Not long after the pitfall trap there was a light up ahead of them. Asking Bjorn to extinguish his light they started to creep forward. The light was in a medium sized cavern, this cavern had stones all over in the walls and ground. The stones ranged from the size of a pinky nail. To one that was over a foot and a half in diameter. The stones emitted a soft pleasant blue light.
The light illuminated the entire cave. Inside the cave was a small town. There were 8 different buildings, all were pretty small. Their roofs were no larger than 5 or 6 feet tall. They looked small enough that they would be single room homes. All except for 1, the last one was around 8 feet tall and large enough that it could have boasted multiple rooms. Off to one side of the cave there was a small stream that came out of the rocks and then sunk back into the rocks on the opposite wall.
Slowly moving into the cave it looked to be deserted. “I don’t like the looks of this.” Said Medera. “We should head back.”
Nodding in agreement they turned to leave. Only to find that the cave was blocked by miniature skeletons. The skeletons looked to be human skeletons but only they were smaller, around 3 and a half feet tall at the tallest. Their proportions were just that of humans. The skeletons all had various different weapons, all from spears, swords, knives, clubs, a few bows, and even 1 had a sling that it was lazily swinging around. There were 9 of them in total.
A high pitched voice called out behind them in common. “You come into my home, kill my skeletons and my friend, and now you want to leave? I don’t think so.”
Turning back around there were another 5 skeletons all the same size as the others blocking the door. In the middle there was one living creature. It was the same size and dimensions as the other skeletons around them. It was male, had pale skin, black eyes, and there was a glow of black surrounding its hands. The skin around its eyes had turned black and there there were black streaks leaching into other parts of its body.
Speaking in a low voice in mountain dwarvish, Medera said. “It is a rock gnome, and based on its appearance we have found our necromancer.”
“Stop that.” Snapped the rock gnome. “If you speak again in any language I don't understand, I will have my skeletons kill you without mercy.“ The gnome made a hand gesture and two of the skeletons walked into the big house and came back a moment later with a chair. Setting it behind the gnome he took a seat.
“Now where were we?” he said. “Ah yes, you coming into my home, killing my guards, and my friend. And now have circumnavigated my traps to come here so heavily armed in hopes to kill me. I am here to dissuade you from that notion. You have been quite a thorn in my side. Do you know how long it took me to collect all those skeletons that you have killed and destroyed over the last few months. I think I know where you live. I was going to send my skeletons to go kill you but you saved me the effort by coming to me.”
“Who are you? And why are you here and doing this?” Asked Medera.
“Ah that is a fascinating question you see.” Replied the rock gnome. “Who I am, well I am no one of consequence, just a rock gnome boy who wants to be left alone with my family. As to why I'm doing this, what are you referring to? I just want to be left alone and you have to come in here to disturb my peace.”
Bjorn looked around at the small gnome skeletons that are the same size as the rock gnome in front of him. “Your family? Are you talking about these skeletons? What happened to them?”
“Quite astute of you. Yes, these skeletons are my family. All of them are my family. We were a kind peaceful family living down here in this cave eeking a living, it wasn’t anything glorious, but it was good. Better than living on the surface or in one of the larger towns down here. We toiled every day and never seemed to get anywhere. One day I stumbled upon the remains of a fight. There were all sorts of creatures, Mostly gnolls. Some goblins, and a hobgoblin. They were fighting a nagpa, which is a large humanoid bird creature. They had the limbs of a human, a large hunched stature, and a crows head. You know they are actually quite fascinating beasts. But anyways, I can't get too distracted.” As the gnome trailed off. “Anyways on the nagpa’s side there were skeletons scattered all over the ground. Both parties looked to have finished each other off because the corpses didn’t seem to have been looted at all.”
“You see, living in the underground is rough, if either group had stumbled upon our little village here they would have wiped us out. Most likely they would kill any who fought back, and those who didn’t fight back they would capture and take back to their camp and slowly eat us one by one. Gnolls are vicious creatures, they like their meat fresh, so they wouldn’t actually kill us before feasting, they would actually eat us while we were still alive. The nagpa would probably also eat us alive, but it was a necromancer so we wouldn’t rest in peace. It would have bound our souls to our bodies and enslave our free will, we would be trapped and have to do its bidding, all while being fully aware of what was happening.”
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
The gnome shifted in its seat. “Luckily for us, both parties were dead. So I set about trying to find anything useful to bring home. As I was searching I found this book.” As he said it a large leather bound black book came floating out of the house. Upon closer inspection the book's surface looked to be roiling. A mix of black, red, and dark gray. As each color vied for control over the dominant position on the book different images would form and then fade away. An image of a young girl laying on an altar with a knife through her chest as blood dripped off of the altar. Then an image of a skeleton bursting forth from a corpse. They just kept coming.
“I don’t know what it was but I was transfixed by the book. It was by the dead nagpa’s hand. I took the book, it looked like it would be useful. Afterwards I returned to my village and stowed the book away and hid it away. For months I would go back to the book whenever I had free time and read from it. It wasn’t long after that that I started to hear whispering. It was oh so helpful. The voice started to teach me death magic, small stuff at first. It taught me how to raise skeletons, how to leverage my mana, and eventually how to raise zombies. That was when my wife found out about what I was doing. She didn’t like my new abilities, she was afraid of me. She started to push me away, and said she had to tell the village what I had become.”
His voice started to get quiet as he was talking. “She called me a monster, she tried to run and I tried to stop her. I tried to get her to listen to me, but she wouldn’t. She hit me, I don’t remember it but she pushed me off of her, I was never a strong person. She pushed me off and hit me. My skeleton’s defended me. They killed her, my grimoire had taught me how to preserve her soul at this point. So I did what I had to do, I bound her soul to her skeleton. Now I never have to be alone. She will never leave me. The process makes a bit of noise, and pretty soon the rest of my family came to see what was happening.”
His body started to become rigid as he sat on the chair, his voice grew more steely, and he started talking with confidence. “My own family, those who I have been with my entire life, looked at me with their cold judgemental eyes. They all said that I had become a monster, that no normal gnome would do what I just did. But how could I be the monster, I didn’t want to lose my Gretta. They were the monsters, they tried to run me from my own home, they threw stones at me, kicked me, they even started to talk about killing me. All I did was defend myself. They forced my hand. Once it was all done I did the same to them as I did to my Gretta. Now they won’t do those things to me anymore. They will never try to leave me.”
The rock gnome then got up from his chair. “Enough about me, what knowledge do you have in your brains? Never mind that, I will know soon enough.” As soon as he said that the skeleton gnomes all rushed forward and piled onto Bjorn and Medera. They tried to fight back but there were just too many. The gnomes tackled them to the ground and swarmed, using rope to restrain their limbs. Bjorn and Medera didn’t go easy though, they fought back, Bjorn was able to snap off two different limbs on two of the skeletons before they restrained them. Medera on the other hand crushed one of their skulls stopping its movements.
As she crushed its skull the Rock gnome yelled with anger and a wave of black energy shot forth from his body and slammed into Medera, and she went limp. Once they both were restrained the skeletons pulled all of their gear from them, all except for a knife that Bjorn kept in his boot.
After they were fully restrained and disarmed, the skeletons drug both of them to a ritual circle that had been laid out while Bjorn and Medera fought back and subsequently were restrained. There were runic symbols built into the sides of the circle, with 3 lines running through the middle crossing in the center.
“This little beauty was taught to me recently by the Grimoire, it will pull your skeleton from your body and then again bind your soul to your skeleton. The difference this time is you should still maintain a greater part of your intelligence and you will be able to speak. The caveat is that you won’t be able to choose what you speak. You only say what I ask of you. You won’t be able to lie, or withhold any information that I seek. You’ll have to repay me for all that you have taken from me so far.”
The skeletons first drug Bjorn to the center of the circle and threw him roughly on the convergence of the lines. When he came in contact with the center point the lines of the circle lit up and Bjorn found he couldn’t move from that point. Some sort of magical force held him in place. Bjorn didn’t want to give up, his hands were tied behind his back. And so he struggled. With some effort from his struggling he was able to get the knife from his boot. Still struggling he turned the knife around in his hand and started to saw at the ropes around his wrists. As he was doing that the rock gnome started to chant, as he was chanting the light of the lines grew brighter, while the rest of the light from the glowing rocks dimmed. The grimoire floated just behind the rock gnome with a black mist drifting out of its open pages. Black tendrils snaked out of the book and latched onto the back of the rock gnomes head.
Sawing furiously at the ropes the air started to grow colder. Bjorn’s strength started to be sapped away into the lines. As he grew weaker the lines on the ground which were originally white started to turn black. The 6 lines that converged on Bjorn started to slowly turn black starting with him. Soon the entirety of the lines were black, the room felt like it was ice cold, and Bjorn didn’t have much strength left in his limbs, his vision began to blur.
In one final act of defiance Bjorn cut free of his bindings on his hands. He drew his arm back that was holding the knife, took aim at what he thought was the rock gnome and threw with all his might, and he missed. The knife flew through the air traveling end over end and sailed past the gnome, and struck the grimoire, embedding itself blade first in the front cover of the book.
The effects of the blade toss were immediate. Bjorn regained a portion of his strength, his vision cleared, the lines of the circle started to retreat, and the force holding Bjorn in place faded. Pushing himself onto his feet he sprinted at the gnome. Running into the creature with his hip the gnome drifted backwards away from Bjorn, the tendrils of the grimoire held it suspended in the air. The gnome itself didn’t react, he had a glazed look in his eyes. All 13 of the remaining skeletons also remained in place, the light in their eyes faded, but the skeleton of the skeletons remained standing. Running at the gnome again Bjorn grabbed ahold of the gnome this time, and went for the head, grabbing ahold of the head he tried to twist the head sideways snapping the neck, but try as he might the head stayed in place, an evil laugh came out of the book.
The gnome started to stir, coming back to its senses it started to cast a spell. Not wanting the gnome to finish casting the spell Bjorn let go of its head, and had an idea. He instead grabbed ahold of the body of the much smaller creature and twisted the body. There was resistance. Giving another swift turn on the body there was a snap as the body gave way, and started to turn. Bjorn turned the gnome's body one full revolution before he stopped.
As for the gnome, as soon as its neck broke the chanting stopped. The dark tendrils started to retract back into the book, and the gnome's lifeless corpse fell to the ground, its head lolling to the side at an awkward angle. The grimoire fell to the ground left open. The skeleton’s that stood around the circle had all crumpled to piles of bones. Retrieving his dagger Bjorn ran over to where Medera laid, he hadn’t seen her move since she got hit by that spell. Getting down on one knee he checked her neck, and there was a pulse. Looking around the room there didn’t appear to be any apparent danger. Finally relaxing Bjorn looked at his status.
His health and stamina were dangerously low. Both down in the teens, her mana was mostly full. Feeling drained, Bjorn left the circle in search of their supplies. Stumbling back to where they drug him and Medera away from. With nothing there he started to look inside the huts, he finally found their supplies in the large house in the middle. Grabbing three potions, one stamina, and two health potions, he immediately took both the healthing and stamina potion. Heading back to Medera he put her head on his lap, opened her mouth, poured the liquid into her mouth, and then closed it. He then started massaging the muscles in her throat in an attempt to get her to swallow. Once she swallowed Bjorn relaxed even more.
Taking a look around the room he studied the circle even more, getting closer to the lines on the ground he found that they were made out of chalk. With elaborate designs placed into the chalk. A prompt appeared in front of his face, making Bjorn jump back, and go back on high alert. After a few seconds with nothing jumping out at him he took a deep breath and read the prompt.
You have become aware of a new area of magic: Ritual magic. You have unlocked a new area of study.
Not knowing what to do with that knowledge Bjorn started to sift through the piles of bones and the necromancer pulling anything that looked interesting or useful out and setting them aside. After that was done, not wanting to continue to explore the camp without Medera’s expertise, Bjorn sat with his back against the wall and stared at the open book, and resigned himself to wait until Medera woke up. The entire time he was waiting the book didn’t do anything really creepy, no mist, no voices.
A little after an hour later Medera finally stirred. With a groan she sat up into a sitting position. “Finally you wake up from your little cat nap. Was it nice to sleep while I saved both of our lives?” Bjorn jeered at Medera.
“That was unpleasant.” Medera said as she got up and walked over to where Bjorn was sitting, and took a seat next to him.
“You know, I tried to move you over here to better protect you, but you’ve been eating too much of our dinner and put on some weight.”
Medera smacked him. “That was just uncalled for. Thank you for saving me, I have no idea how you freed yourself, killed the necromancer and saved us.”
Bjorn quickly gave a recap of what happened after Medera was knocked unconscious.
“Wow, seer dumb luck. I don’t entirely know what happened due to the fact that I am not well versed in dark or even death magic. But it seems to be like you hitting that book with the knife is the only thing that saved us. If the knife had hit the gnome you’d already be a skeleton and I wouldn’t be far behind you. Whatever it is, I think the world would be a better place if we destroy it. We should try fire.”
“Alright you nazi, want to do an old fashioned book burning? I’m not sure I'm entirely onboard with that, but I think your plan has merit.”
“What are you talking about? What is a nazi? And most importantly why are you telling me we shouldn't burn the book? Don’t tell me you want to learn it’s dark secrets, you heard that gnome, the book convinced him to kill and raise his own family from the dead.” Her tone grew serious. “If you want to keep the book I’m afraid either we will have to split ways or if I have any inclination of you reading or using that book. I will not hesitate to kill you. I will not have you coming after me with death magic in the future.”
Taken aback by the shift in tone and subject matter of the conversation Bjorn quickly backpedaled. “Hey, that is not what I meant at all. I agree we should try to get rid of the book, I think the world would be a better place if that book was not a part of it. It was a poorly timed joke at the wrong time. In my world there was a group of evil people who killed millions of innocent people, and one of the things that they would do was get together and have a mass book burning.”
Realization dawned on Medera’s face. “I’m sorry I misunderstood where you were coming from, that is a dark subject to joke about.” Medera drifted off for a minute. “You weren’t exaggerating when you said millions were you?”
“No I was not.”
“That number is hard to wrap my brain around, I can’t even think of 100 people I know and care about, that is an order of magnitude I can't even begin to imagine.” Silence fell between the two companions.
“Well.” Said Medera as she slapped her knees and stood up. “This book isn’t going to get rid of itself.” They both set about breaking down one of the smaller houses to get enough wood for a fire. Once they gathered the wood they used a stick to start a fire. Quickly they built the fire to a bonfire and once the flames built to around 4 feet high Bjorn knelt to pick up the book.
Once his hand came in contact with the book, he started to hear an insidious whisper in the back of his mind. Ignoring the voice he stood up and headed over to the fire they built. As he walked the whisper became louder. It started off as a friendly sounding voice. Trying to get to know Bjorn. As he got closer and closer to the fire the voice changed, it became more frantic, and started to shout that he was making a mistake.
Not falling for the book's bullshit, he tossed the book into the fire. There was a short pause before the book caught on fire. The voice that was in the back of Bjorn’s head became audible as a loud scream escaped the book. Covering his ears he stood his ground and watched the book burn. The smoke from the burned book didn’t dissipate. It slowly created a form of a demonic creature, all black. The creature's red and orange eyes moved between Medera and Bjorn, and a thunderous deep voice boomed. “I DON’T KNOW WHO YOU ARE, BUT WHEN I FIND OUT I WILL COME FOR YOU, AND I WILL SLOWLY DEVOUR YOU FROM TOES TO HEAD, AND THEN I WILL EAT YOUR SOUL. YOU WILL NEVER FIND PEACE.” With that proclamation the last bit of the book shriveled up in the fire and the form dissipated and the smoke dispersed.
The silence between Medera and Bjorn was deafening. Finally he broke it. “On that cheery note, let’s see what we can find here in this camp.”
Nodding in agreement They set out to scavenge everything that would be of use in the camp. The smaller buildings didn’t host much in the way for useful items, there were the remnants of small gnome sized beds, and small areas that were used for more personal storage. It was the large building that held anything of note.
The inside of the building looked like something out of a horror movie. There were spots of dry blood and rotting pieces of dead animals scattered all over the interior of the house. Of the 3 rooms of the house 2 of the rooms were like that. The last room was where the necromancer had lived. Tossing the room they found all sorts of nick nacks, tools, and things that would be useful for living in a cave. Inside one of the small boxes next to the bed they found a sack of coins. Inside there was 1 gold 30 silver and 29 copper pieces. Making eye contact, Medera just said. “I’m here because of you, the way I see it, that money belongs to you.” Saying his thanks Bjorn tied the small coin pouch to his belt. Taking all of the items and placing them onto the ground next to the loot from the gnome skeletons there was a small pile.
Sorting through the pile Medera kept finding things she thought would be useful. There wasn’t much that really interested Bjorn, except for a ring. Picking the ring up he held it in his hand. It wasn’t much to look at, it was a simple copper band with an engraving of a heart on the middle part.
Showing it to Medera she took one look at it and said. “It’s a ring of health.”
With any doubt’s dispelled he took the ring and put it on his pinky finger, seeing how it looked to have been made to fit a gnome’s finger. it added 24 points of hp to his pool. Other than that, most of the gear and items that were on the ground were much too small for Bjorn to have any use of them. Leaving Medera to her own devices, Bjorn stood and picked up one of the small pickaxes. Walking over to the cave wall he began to slam the too small pickaxe into the wall trying to free one of the glowing stones. Slamming the metal head into the rock was not pleasant by any means. The pickaxe hit the rock doing damage and starting to chip away at the rock of the wall holding the stone in place. But Newton’s third law of motion was a bitch. Every swing also rebounded back from the head into the handle, and in turn into Bjorn’s arms. So each strike hurt his hands and arms.
Even with the pain that came from freeing the stone he soon was able to retrieve the stone, it was the size of a closed fist. Smiling to himself he walked back over and dropped the pickaxe. The stone itself retained its glowing demeanor. Pocketing the stone he looked to Medera. “I’m ready whenever you are.” She said to Bjorn. As she stood up, there was a small sack that they had found while looting and it looked to be half full with item’s Medera wanted to take with her. Taking one final look over the pile of items Bjorn bent down and picked up a small drinking horn that was in the middle.
“Alright I'm ready.” And the two of them started the long walk back to the starting cavern. After leaving the room the glow stone retained its glow. The light that it produced was just a little bit stronger than the light of his simple flame spell. So Bjorn used the stone to light their way. Returning to the second cave where they had killed the Kobold Bjorn stopped long enough to retrieve the bowstring from the skeleton archer. After some testing the string looked to be just the right size to make his bow workable again.
Leaving it all behind they left the caves behind them. When they entered the cave it was early morning. Upon exiting it was dusk. Re-strapping on their snow shoes they began the walk home through the snow, with a few light flakes falling, giving the walk a nice peaceful feeling.
Making it back to camp they stowed their gear, and set about getting ready for bed. Before they laid down Medera looked at Bjorn and said. “Nice work today. I am glad to call you my friend. Without you my home that I have built over the last 8 years would have had to be forfeit. Words cannot describe my gratitude towards you.” After saying her peace they both drifted off to sleep.
The next morning Bjorn and Medera spent it working on sorting through their new haul and storing it where it should belong. After that they fell back into their normal daily routine, working on language, practicing with magic, and taking turns cooking.
One day Bjorn asked Medera if they could work on making him a set of leather armor.
“Sure we can try.” Replied Medera. “I bet you wish you had it when we went down to fight the skeletons. I should have thought about that sooner. After all, we have the spare leather from that tanned deer hide. Sure, let's get to it right away.”
They spent the rest of the day working on the armor. They started by getting measurements of Bjorn’s body, and making a basic stencil of how they will need to cut out the leather, which took most of the day. Over the next week they took the leather and cut the pieces out. Using a skiving knife they put a bevel on the edge of the leather pieces. After all the pieces had rounded edges they then took a grooved stone and wet the edges of the leather, running the grooved stone across the edges they created friction on the pieces basically getting all of the fibers of the leather to lay down, which increased the longevity of the leather according to Medera, she called the process burnishing.
After they had the pieces burnished they wet down the leather again and used the bottom side of their pestle and mortars to shape the leather, trying to get it to stay in a particular shape. Medera produced a small punch. “It will make it so that it will be easier to sew the pieces together.” With their preparations almost complete Medera pulled out a small pot of a rank smelling liquid. “We will apply this to the surface of the leather, it is a strengthening agent. It should make the leather nice and durable, making it more resistant to cutting. We had to punch our holes before applying this, if we had applied this agent before making our holes it would be almost impossible for us to sew the pieces together.” With the foul smelling paste applied to the leather they had to leave it be for 4 days. After the first day the greasy looking surface of the leather had turned into small splotches of grease. By the 3rd day the small splotches turned into little white dots that were all over the surface. On the last day the leather looked just as it did before they applied the paste.
Admiring their handy work Medera grabbed a knife and handed it to Bjorn. “Go ahead, try and cut it.”
“Are you sure you want me to ruin our last few days of work?”
“We need to make sure that the paste did its work. You wouldn’t want to wear a set of leather armor that was as easy to cut as we did with the raw leather.”
“That is a fair point.” Replied Bjorn as he picked up one of the smaller pieces that went towards the back of his shoulder and pushed the knife into the leather. Only it didn’t actually sink into the leather; the point of the knife stayed in place. “Looks like it worked wonders Medera.” Said Bjorn, sounding like a giddy school boy.
After their preparations were complete then they sewed the pieces of leather together using a thick string. Next they made long thin leather cords out of their remaining leather. Repeating the process that they used on the main leather pieces they then sewed the leather cords into the whole armor as a way to secure the set to Bjorn’s body.
After 3 weeks of hard work they had a set of leather armor that fit Bjorn’s body. With appreciation Bjorn began to wear it as he fell back into doing his daily practices again.
One day Medera said. “The snows are lifting, it will be fully into the swing of spring again. Once the snow begins to melt it will be time for us to travel back into Nontorum. There will be another spring market, and it will be good to see what is there this time.”
They spent a few weeks getting ready for the trip into town again. On the day that they were finally prepared to go they both got ready. Each of them gearing up to get ready for whatever awaited them. Bjorn packed up all of his worldly possessions so far. Medera packed up most of their potions they were going to try to sell in town.
As they were leaving, Medera said. “Wait I forgot something, I’ll be right back.” as she ducked into the cabin. It was a beautiful, clear spring day, Bjorn wandered over to the cliff face and took in the view again, admiring the drop, then the steep slope down to the river bed.
A loud crack came from behind him, turning around Bjorn’s heart sunk. On the edge of the clearing there was something he had seen before. A mauler, only this one was bigger, much bigger. The last one was close to 4 feet tall, this one was well over 9 feet tall.
Medera came out of the cabin upon hearing the sound. She froze as soon as she stepped out of the cabin. Turning towards Bjorn she yelled a single word. “Run.”
Once that single word broke the tense silence that fell over the field the mauler sprung into action, it dove at Medera. In a panic she started to cast a spell, but it never finished. As the mauler got within range of Medera one of its legs turned into a large scythe appendage and struck out at Medera. The weapon came swishing down and bisected Medera. The upper half of her body went flying toward Bjorn, as her lower half stayed in the same place she had just been standing. The mauler turned and charged at Bjorn. Medera didn’t die immediately when she got cut in half, and a scream left her lips as her body slammed onto the ground in between the mauler and Bjorn. Her scream was cut short as the scythe appendage came down on Medusa's head as it ran toward Bjorn. The limb impaled her body and it stuck to the limb as it continued toward Bjorn.
In horror Bjorn did the only thing he could think of to get away. He turned around and jumped off of the cliff. When he hit the ground there was a loud snap as his leg broke. Toppling over he began to roll uncontrollably down the hill. His body began to pick up speed as he rolled, that was until it came in contact with a tree, there was another crunch as pain shot up his side. He continued downwards, his momentum didn’t seem to be slowed all that much by the first obstacle. He continued to hit rocks and trees as he fell. A large boulder came in view as he plowed headlong into it and his world went dark.