Part XVI: The Councilman

The city of Westbara: a glamorous locale, built on the riches of Goldmarch merchants, a joining of the traditional human architecture and the tiled arches of tiefling design from the west. To this day, the very same trade flows through this hub—silks, spices, jewels—and more than ever before. Fort West was the epitome of this amalgamation of culture, both in terms of the architecture and the rulers of this large province. Queen—now Empress—Amira so often pointed to this city as evidence of the Goldmarch being made stronger by their acceptance of other peoples, and rightly so; few cities the world over were as beautiful as this one.

It was just a shame I was here to kill someone.

‘Hit him again,’ I told Lore.

The barbarian looked down at their prisoner, tied to a chair in the basement of their own home. A member of the Cult of Ascendency—a group of devout Player-worshippers who believed that if they served the Players enough, they would be taken with them to their home. Of course, me and the team knew that the Ascended World was broken, that the Players were fleeing it—but try telling a cultist that.

Lore punched the man again. ‘Tell us. Tell us where the Player is.’

The cultist said nothing, spitting a globule of blood onto the dusty floor.

Corminar—the only other person in the room—watched on. ‘Perhaps an arrow might loosen his tongue.’

‘I told you,’ I said. ‘He’s weak enough. An arrow could kill him!’

‘Well, this certainly isn’t working, is it?’ Corminar asked. ‘We have been here for, I am estimating, an hour? At this point, we would be fools not to alter our strategy.’

Lore groaned. Again. Then turned to the prisoner. ‘They’ve been like this ever since Val and Arzak left. Bickering. If Arzak was here, she’d have put a stop to it by now, but… Well, they don’t listen to me, do they?’

‘I don’t know,’ said the prisoner.

‘They don’t,’ Lore insisted, then hit him again.

It was true; Corminar had been getting right on my nerves. I’d tried to hold my tongue at first, because he’d just watch his home fall to invaders. We’d been there to try to stop it, killing a Player in the process, but we’d been too late—the new Golden Empire had made the Dawnwoods their latest acquisition. But this excuse only went so far, and I was getting pretty sick of his attitude—something that he said about me, too.

‘Reveal the location of the Player now,’ Corminar growled, drawing the bow gifted to him by Elandor in his dying breath.

‘Woah!’ I said, jumping between Corminar and the prisoner. ‘What did I just say?’

‘You are not the leader of this team.’

‘Lore, back me up here,’ I tried.

I didn’t hear anything from the barbarian standing behind me for a moment. ‘I… dunno.’

‘You’re on his side?’

‘I’m not on any side!’ Lore protested. I heard him turn back to the prisoner and begin mumbling under his breath again. ‘See what I mean? This is about as bad as it has been, since Arzak and Val left, admittedly, but… Oh!’

I whipped my head around to look at Lore, thinking he was in trouble. ‘What? What’s going on?’

‘I got an idea!’ Lore said. ‘Can I try my idea?’

‘He is not your leader,’ Corminar reminded him. ‘You may do as you wish. As long as it is sensible.’

Excitedly, Lore turned back to the cultist. ‘Arzak and Val, they were our friends, see. We didn’t know why they’d disappeared at first, but then like a week later, Styk here—he’s the dishevelled one—’

‘Thanks?’ I cut in, but Lore ignored me.

‘—he decided to tell us. Was a big to-do, asked us to promise not to run away or attack him, and all that. And you know why they left? Because they found out who his mum was.’ He looked to the cultist. ‘I think you’ll like this part. Styk’s mum, she’s a Player.’

The cultist’s eyes widened.

‘Yeah, look, see?’ Lore said to Corminar and me, pointing at our prisoner. ‘He likes that!’

The elf and I both sighed, which was about as close as we’d come to agreeing with each other over the past couple of weeks of travel. We’d abandoned our “borrowed” ship at the Great Golden Canal, and we’d headed west, chasing Lore’s visions of a Player. His active effect—Man of Prophesy—had been gifted to him by the last Player we’d killed, the one who’d lead the invasion of the Dawnwoods. She was determined that Lore make it to the completion of the Council’s plan, foretelling that he was important somehow in ensuring it actually happened. This meant that Lore could now see the path that got him there. We weren’t interested in much of it, but the parts that involved killing Players? That, we could get on board with.

And one such vision had brought us to Westbara.

That didn’t mean we’d hadn’t got into some trouble along the way—the Goldmarch was quickly becoming a more violent place—and I’d made plenty of use of my experience gain boost to level up some more. This included upgrading my Stealth Attack ability to level 3, which granted me a massive +200% to damage when I attacked unnoticed, as well as an improved Cloth Armour ability on the Needlework front.

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‘Val didn’t take kindly to it, we think,’ Lore continued. ‘And Arzak went with her; they’re good friends. But me and Corminar here, we’re pretty open-minded. Corminar especially. We don’t mind this kind of thing.’

‘You… have the blood of the Architects running through your veins?’ the prisoner asked. It was about the most we’d heard him say in… well, ever.

I pulled the Sisyphus Architect out from my inner jacket pocket. ‘Only way I can use this. Does this mean you’re going to tell us where the Player is?’

‘I assumed that you meant to hurt them, but if they are family… if you mean to aid them…’

‘No, we—’ Lore started, but a pointed cough from Corminar made him slam his mouth shut.

‘Sure,’ I said, very happy to tell any lie if it got me what I wanted. ‘We just wanna help my… cousin.’

The cultist narrowed his eyes. ‘Swear on your mother, the Player.’

‘I… swear?’ I said, unable to resist saying the second word like a question, because it couldn’t be this easy.

It was that easy. ‘The Player you are after, he is known in these parts as the Councilman.’

‘Yes, that sounds like the man we are after,’ Corminar said. Councilman, Council… it was a perfect fit. ‘Where is he?’

‘Right now?’ the cultist said. ‘He should be accepting the key to the city. For services rendered.’

Lore grabbed his sword. ‘Where?’

‘Town square,’ the prisoner replied. ‘Why? Is he in trouble?’

‘He is now,’ I said, and then I opened a portal to the street outside.

The three of us leaped through the portal and began to run, Lore somehow keeping up despite the fact that he had a massive sword to lug with him. We charged through the narrow, winding streets of this ancient city, and whenever there was enough straight road ahead of us, I opened a portal to close the distance.

My portals attracted the attention of the soldiers in gold. The Goldmarch had changed since it moved from kingdom to empire, its soldiers cracking down on anything they even perceived as a threat to the peace. Anyone who got on their bad side would face down the full, heavily funded, force of the law, and those soldiers who did the cracking down could do whatever they wanted with impunity. We’d discovered in our travels that the best thing to do was keep our heads down.

But there was no time for that now.

We ignored the shouts of the soldiers, charging onward, Corminar and Lore trusting me to use my portals to keep us out of trouble—or to lose ourselves among the winding streets. Finally, I saw the crowd ahead of us, thousands standing in the town square, their attention on the steps that lead up to Fort West. With guards still following behind us, I opened a portal for the three of us to step through—spilling us out into the centre of the crowd.

‘Sorry, sorry,’ Lore mumbled apologetically as people had to shift to one side to make room for his large frame. A short woman behind him, her view now blocked, coughed pointedly. Lore apologised again, then seemed to try to make himself as short as possible.

Meanwhile, Corminar and I looked up to the steps to Fort West. On it, the Duke of Westbara shook the hand of a small, weedy man.

Around us, thousands erupted in applause and cheers, sending their love to the man being honoured. Though, looking around, I couldn’t help but wonder just how sincere this applause was—with some many Goldmarch soldiers around, did the locals just want to avoid being called traitors to the empire?

Finally, Lore looked up at the man on the steps. ‘Ah,’ he said.

‘That him?’ I asked. ‘The man with dozens of soldiers at his side, and thousands celebrating him? That’s our Player?’

‘Yep.’ Lore nodded. ‘That’s him. That’s our Councilman.’

‘Oh good,’ I said.

This wasn’t going to be easy.

"Styk"

Level 18 Bladespinner

Base Stats:

Vitality — 50

Intelligence — 192

Dexterity — 109

Strength — 76

Wisdom — 70

Charisma — 41

Skills:

Worldbending — Level 51

Knifework — Level 39

Stealth — Level 22

Identification — Level 18

Needlework — Level 16

Abilities:

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.

Knifestorm — Lash out at all surrounding enemies in a tornado of blades, using either one or two daggers. All enemies with arm’s reach receive physical damage worth weapon’s base damage and additional damage scaling on [STR].

Enhanced Portals — Create a portal to another location within current range of sight or within a thirty yard radius. Support up to two pairs of portals at once. Uses mana to open portals only.

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.

Pocket Worlds — Open and access pocket dimensions. Storage capacity of summoned pocket worlds scales with [INT] of creator.

Silence III — Create a bubble of 20 yard radius in which sound is eradicated. Uses mana to cast, zero mana to maintain. You may only have one bubble active at any one time.

Stealth Attack III — Passive. 200% 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].

Improved Cloth Armour — Craft a cloth armour of significantly higher quality, dependent on materials, time and skill level.

Active Effects:

Legacy of Sisyphus:

XP gain increased by +1,400%