It took as many as five days to reach Fort Tanil, on the southwestern coast of the Tundras. It was two or three days’ journey, under normal circumstances, but we’d had to avoid Goldmarch platoons marching north, and we’d had to double back some to cover our tracks.
That wasn’t to say we’d entirely avoided fighting, however. Sometimes, it had been quicker to deal with the smaller handfuls of soldiers than it had been to go around them—which had the added benefit of turning the war effort in our favour, in some small, small amount.
There’d been another benefit too, in fact. The few skirmishes we’d had on our way here had helped me level up both Worldbending—now up to level 38—as well as Knifework—up to level 31. Because the latter skill had passed another milestone level, I’d been given the opportunity to choose from a couple of abilities. There had been no execution ability upgrades this time around, but I had been able to upgrade Stab to level III, which offered a 50% increase to damage. Because this particular ability had proven to useful lately, this was what I had gone for—though I was yet to have a chance to use it.
We’d come across areas of unpatched woodland on our journey west, but any hope of finding more landscape untouched was quickly dashed as we grew nearer to the lands governed by Garnokk. Once more, the story was the same: trees that were decades—if not centuries—old, felled down to a stump. Wherever the wood had gone wasn’t clear, though I did on occasion see impressions in the dirt suggesting that laden carts had headed northeast. This sparse landscape had left little cover to hide behind, and so Corminar and Arzak had been on careful watch of the horizon; if they could see any enemies, then it was likely that they could see us, too.
But the last day of travel—our fastest day by far—was devoid of any enemies, who seemed to be concentrating in the east rather than the west. As such, we arrived at Fort Tanil at around dusk, and we arrived there to discover trouble brewing.
Lore and Corminar raced ahead the moment we first heard the shouting of battle, while Arzak, Val and I remained with our defenceless party of exiled leaders and their families. Soon enough, Corminar returned, darting back and waving for us to hurry. Val, Arzak and I charged ahead, deciding that any danger posed to Yua, Cambelny and company was probably based in the tower ahead of us.
At the base of the tower was an orc woman, who managed to look glamorous despite wearing very heavy armour and carrying a great sword in a sheath over her shoulder. She and Lore were looking up at the tower, where the shouting was coming from.
‘Chancellor Orjkan, I assume?’ I asked the woman as we arrived at her side.
She nodded, her expression serious. ‘And personal guard. All that left, at least.’ Her way of speaking was less noticeable than some orcs I’d met—Arzak included—which suggested to me that she’d spent a good amount of time among humans, elves and other races.
‘Your guard are inside?’ Val asked. ‘Who are they fighting?’
‘Is not who. Is what. Forest spirits are inside. Dryads.’ As she said this, a worrying cry echoed out from the tower. ‘We try to clear out, but are outnumbered. If you get inside, maybe some of them survive. You can help?’
‘We’re pledged to,’ I replied, though the pledge in this case was a monetary transaction rather than the usual hero deal; I would work on that with the Slayers at a later date.
I reached a hand up at the tower, and opened a portal inside, just through a small arrow slit in the round stone building. Lore was through in an instant, having grown used to portal travel by now, and Arzak followed soon after, as she was the other part of the team that could take a few hits. After a few seconds passed, and we were sure it was safe enough, Corminar, Val and I followed them inside.
We stepped into chaos.
In the centre of this floor of the tower, we joined three of Orjkan’s soldiers, each of whom were battered with wounds. Down the adjoining corridor, I got my first look at the forest spirits—tree-like beings that floated gently through the air. From their skin, petals dropped, these too gliding slowly around and towards us.
‘Don’t let petal touch you!’ one of the soldiers roared at Lore and Arzak as they hurried to the door to protect the rest of our party.
‘Why?’ Lore asked, and then quickly had has question answered. One of the petals—travelling slowly and gently through the air though it might have been—brushed against Lore’s arm. The edge of the petal sliced through his bracer as through it was butter, and moments later blood began to pour from the wound.
‘Val?’ I asked, turning to the witch.
But she was in a bit of a daze. ‘Yeah? What?’
‘Lore! He needs Healing.’
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‘Right.’ She nodded and ran to his side, taking care to hide around the corner, where the dryads wouldn’t be able to attack her.
While Lore clutched his bleeding arm, Arzak sliced at the floating petals with her dual blades. These petals moved slowly enough that hitting them was no trouble, and once she sliced them in two, they dropped limply to the ground, where they began to rot at an accelerated pace. But there was enough of them that Arzak had to keep moving, with no opportunity to pause, otherwise she and Lore would be hit.
I opened a portal between us and the dryads to slow the advance of the petals, and though I was able to send the flowery attack back at our enemies, all of the petals turned around in midair to begin soaring back at us once more. ‘Ah,’ I said.
Corminar poked up behind Arzak to fire an arrow at the dryads, landing the attack perfectly. It caused the enemy to stagger, the arrow wedged into its body—or trunk?—but not seeming to do enough damage to slow the attack. The elf turned to one of the soldiers. ‘Please, a small cloth and a lit torch.’
The soldier replied with a nod, and then set about striking iron on flint next to an unlit wall torch.
‘I don’t…’ Val started, but a heavy wave of petals forced everyone else’s attention away from her.
‘Fire!’ the soldier said, hurrying back to Corminar’s side with a torch, handing a piece of torn cloth—from his own tunic—to the elf, who began wrapping it around the head of an arrow. I could see where he was going with this: wood and fire made a deadly combination. Corminar nocked the flaming arrow, aimed it, and—
‘No!’ Val suddenly roared, snapping her hand out towards Corminar.
It was too late. He fired.
Instinctively, some deep-rooted part of me recognised the fear in Val’s voice and realised that she’d have very good reason for not wanting Corminar to launched the attack. So I stopped it. I reached out and opened a portal in the arrow’s path, catching it and sending it slamming into the wall above our heads. Fortunately, there was no wall decoration or anything around it to catch fire, or then we might have been in trouble—we’d have spent a week travelling here only for me to burn the would-be revolution headquarters down at the earliest opportunity.
The elf turned on me, then Val, then looked back to me again, not quite sure who he blamed more for his failed attack. ‘Would one of you care to explain why—’
‘How many of you are there?’ Val asked, turning to the soldier at Corminar’s side.
‘Eight. Or was. Not sure how many now.’
‘Three of you here, so potentially five of your colleagues out there? Killing the dryads?’
Lore hesitated a moment at this, almost missing one of the petal attacks he was trying to take down. ‘Why’d you say it like that?’
Val gulped. ‘They’re beings of witchcraft. I didn’t know what I was sensing before, but it… It was their feelings. Their thoughts. They’re one and the same I think, and…’ She trailed off, then shook her head to get herself back to the heart of the matter. ‘Point is: the dryads, they’re not evil. They’re just… like us. Refugees. Trying to survive. Their homes torn down by the Golden Kingdom.’
‘...The trees,’ I said.
Val nodded glumly. ‘We don’t have to kill them,’ she said. ‘We have to save them.’
"Styk"
Level 14 Bladespinner
Base Stats:
Vitality — 32
Intelligence — 140
Dexterity — 77
Strength — 67
Wisdom — 48
Charisma — 31
Skills:
Worldbending — Level 38
Knifework — Level 31
Stealth — Level 15
Needlework — Level 12
Identification — Level 10
Abilities:
Slice — Slice the enemy for physical damage worth weapon’s base damage and additional damage scaling on [STR].
Stab III — Put your weight behind your wielded blade and force the tip through tougher hides and armour. Damage scales on [STR], increased by an additional 50%.
Execution II — Attack a target while undetected for +200% damage.
Closed Reach — Bend reality to narrow the gap between blade and target by up to 8 inches. Uses mana.
Mana-Fuelled — Passive. Optionally, use mana in place of stamina to activate Knifework abilities.
Local Portal II — Create a portal to another location within current range of sight or within a ten yard radius. Uses mana/second.
Portal Slice — Passive. Portals can now be spawned within non-sentient objects. Doing so slices through all objects that are not reinforced by magic.
Tamed Portals — Passive. Increased efficiency of portal magicks means that your portal glow is reduced by 50%, making them less likely to be detected by enemies.
Ash Husk — Convert your flesh to ash, strengthening it against flame for ten minutes. Gain 50% resistance to fire attacks.
Shrill Perimeter — Create a perimeter wall of 20 foot radius, invisible to all but those adept in magicks. If an enemy crosses this perimeter, this spell releases the shriek of a banshee.
Warped Shield — Passive. If an enemy strikes you with a low-level melee weapon, Warp Shield automatically activates to open a portal that deflects this attack. You must not have any portals currently active. Uses mana on activation.
Cloth Storage III — Open a portal to an inventory space, wherein you can store up to 30 distinct Needlework supplies.
Stealth Attack II — Passive. 80% boost to damage when unnoticed by enemy.
In Plain Sight — When activated, you have a heightened abilitiy to hide in plain sight, and are able to spot opportunities to break from combat at a higher rate. Scales on [WIS].
Stitch — Create a basic stitch in common fabrics. Ability scales on [CHA].
Cloth Armour — Craft a cloth armour of higher quality, dependent on materials, time and skill level.
Active Effects:
Legacy of Sisyphus:
XP gain increased by +900%