The Bard’s College of the Eastern Tundras was a fairly pathetic affair, considering it was owned by a guild. Out here, in this region of Alterra, there was never much investment—the lack of a true central government will do that—so perhaps it shouldn’t have surprised me, but… Well, I guess I just thought that bards thought themselves too fancy to live in places like this.

The college was more of a campus, really, with several small buildings dotted around a makeshift square, all surrounded by a wall that was… not low, by any means, but easily scalable. Especially with a more than seven foot tall orc at our side.

‘What do you see?’ Val asked me, while the blacksmith held me up to peek over the wall.

‘You see Crystal?’

‘Just people milling about, really,’ I replied. ‘Lots of lyres. Why do bards like lyres so much?’

‘Pretty sounds,’ Val said, and the blacksmith grunted his agreement.

‘Do you have any idea where she might be?’ I asked. ‘Or who might have her?’

‘Borosz sell her to guildmaster. Small man, no hair, wear long robes. You see?’

I scoured the people in the courtyard. ‘Only person I can see wearing robes is over six feet tall. He’s bald, though.’

‘Yes. Is him. Small man.’

‘That’s taller than me!’ I cried.

‘And I help you look over wall, yes?’

I opened my mouth to argue some more, but a cry of laughter from Val put me off. ‘I’m still taller than you,’ I grumbled to her, then turned my attention back to the guild master. ‘He’s moving… He’s going towards one of the smaller huts. Near to us, in fact. I think… I think that might be where he lives?’

‘Yes,’ the blacksmith said, dropping me without a word of warning and causing me to crash to the floor. ‘This is where she is. I know.’

I raised my eyebrows. ‘Alright, then. What’s the—’

Val hopped the wall.

I made eye contact with the blacksmith.

‘She not like plans?’ he asked.

I shook my head. ‘No she does not.’ With that, I took a few steps back, then charged at the wall, springing up it and grabbing the top. As I began to heave myself over, the blacksmith gave me a push—one that I wished I hadn’t needed—and soon I tumbled into the bushes below. ‘Ow,’ I muttered.

‘Yeah,’ Val agreed as the blacksmith plonked down on the other side of her. ‘Surprisingly spiky bushes, huh?’

‘You could’ve warned me.’

‘And where’d be the fun in that?’ she retorted, a twinkle in her eye.

‘Come on,’ the blacksmith said. ‘Crystal is waiting. We save.’

I nodded, pressing forward at a crouch, and keeping to the shadows of the building so that none of the musicians in the courtyard would see us. The great hulking orc blacksmith was not helping matters on that regard, so I chose to move quickly. ‘OK,’ I said. ‘We need to break into the guildmaster’s quarters quickly. In my experience, there’s likely to be a lock on the door, and now that I don’t have my Lockpicking abilities any more…’

‘It’s OK,’ Val said. ‘If there’s a lock, I got a plan for it.’

‘Care to share?’

‘Not really.’

I sighed, shaking my head, but pressed onward nonetheless; it wouldn’t do for us to hang around much longer than we had to, and from what I’d learned of Val already, she wasn’t going to change her mind any time soon.

Stealth — +40xp

We turned the corner in full view of the courtyard, standing at this point so as to hide in plain sight, and I tried the door. It didn’t budge. ‘Locked. What’s the plan?’

Val turned to the blacksmith. ‘Think you can smash it open?’

‘Oh, good plan, Val. Not like that’s gonna—’

The blacksmith stepped forward, raised one foot, and then kicked the door in. In front of us, a horrified guildmaster whipped his head around, and behind us, a dozen or more bards abruptly stopped playing their instruments.

‘I think we better…’ Val started.

‘Yes,’ I agreed.

Val, the blacksmith and I hurried inside the guildmaster’s personal quarters, slamming the door closed behind us. While Val and I spilled further into the room, the blacksmith pressed his body against the door, reinforcing it.

A gentle pink glow appeared in the room, silhouetting the horrified guildmaster and his instrument, which was, surprise surprise, a lyre. I scanned him with my basic identification ability.

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Level 22 Lyreboaster

Race: Tiefling

Level 22? I wasn’t going to be much help, here, then—not without another inspired plan, like with the Worldbender.

‘Yes, I am here, my love,’ the straining blacksmith said. ‘Yes, you look pretty today too.’

Val and I moved towards the source of the glow—Crystal—but were interrupted by our new friend.

‘Don’t let him play lyre!’ the blacksmith cried as he struggled to hold the doors closed against the other bards, who were rapping on the wood and shouting out for their leader.

I whipped my head back towards the guildmaster just as he strummed his instrument for the first time. With these initial notes, the lyre began to glow a soft yellow that overlapped with Crystal’s pink. I didn’t know quite what type of music was coming, but I sure as hells didn’t want to find out.

I charged at the guildmaster, slicing forward with my blade. The man instinctively recoiled, shielding his body from the attack. But, of course, I wasn’t aiming for his body—I already knew that I wasn’t going to do much damage to him. Instead, my blade ripped through the lyre strings, eliciting flat twangs, and ruining both instrument and spell.

The bard’s eyes widened with fury. ‘You… This was a gift! From a princess of the Goldmarch, no less! You would dare—’

‘Oh yes,’ Val said, ‘we’d dare.’ She strode closer to their opponent with an arm held high, magicking plant roots that burst forth from amongst the floorboards, wrapping themselves around the guildmaster.

The man with the broken lyre kicked at the roots, wrestling with them as the tendrils twisted and turned, doing their best to avoid his blows—almost as if they were sentient.

I seized the opportunity; I might not be able to defeat a man of his level under normal circumstances, but right now, he was distracted. Maybe even a level 5 could overcome a level 22, in situations like this. Pressing forward once more, I held my cooking knife to the man’s throat.

The guildmaster was distracted long enough for Val’s summoned tendrils to get purchase, binding him to his current position.

At my rear, the blacksmith grunted; the pushing on the door was becoming too great for even him to bear. As the geode on the guildmaster’s desk glowed brighter, the blacksmith turned his attention to it. ‘I am busy, my love,’ he said. ‘Please don’t distract with talk of my bottom.’

Val opened her mouth to speak, then apparently thought better about asking the obvious question there. ‘Any thoughts on…’ She gestured to the doorway.

‘Surrender,’ I replied.

‘Surrender? I’m not bloody—’

‘Not us! Him!’ I locked eyes with the guildmaster. ‘You call your people off and I won’t slice you.’ I could only hope he hadn’t had a moment to identify me—that would affect how intimidating I came across…

‘With that thing?’ the guildmaster responded, his bright red eyes looking sceptically at the cooking knife. ‘I’m not sure a blade as blunt as that would even be able to slice through—’

‘I assure you,’ I replied. ‘It’ll kill you. It just might take longer in doing so.’

The guildmaster looked back at me, gulped, and then slowly raised his hands in surrender.

Lyreboaster defeated!

Knifework — +1,600xp

Knifework increased to level 9!

Knifework increased to level 10!

Base Points gained — +2 DEX, +2 STR, +4 Free Points (VIT/DEX/STR)

Not bad—1,600xp for just holding a knife to a man’s throat. I supposed that the high level differential had a lot to do with that, minus that Val had done most of the real work. I was about to quickly chuck the free points into Strength—no time like the present, right?—when I noticed there were more notifications.

Ability selection unlocked

...

Of course, I’d reached level 10—I had a new ability choice. That would need some deliberation time, however, so I minimised the notifications until later.

‘Tell them,’ the blacksmith said, straining, ‘tell them: leave us alone.’

The guildmaster pursed his lips, but ultimately relented. ‘Bards… if you will please step away. I have this situation fully under control.’

The bashing at the door stopped abruptly, and I heard murmuring from those outside as they discussed what to do. In the end, it seemed, they decided to follow orders.

‘So… what can I do for you lovely ladies and gentleman?’ the guildmaster asked. ‘I assume it is money you are after? I’m afraid I must inform you—the bard’s college revenue fund is unfortunately in a safe that requires two senior spellcasting members to open. You would need—’

‘We here for her,’ the blacksmith said, pointing to the geode sitting atop the guildmaster’s desk. She glowed more brightly when the orc’s attention was fixed on her.

‘Is that… all?’ the guildmaster asked. ‘You mounted a rescue for… a rock?’

‘Geode,’ the blacksmith grunted.

‘My apologies, good sir—for a geode. If it was stolen from you, then of course you may regain possession of it, but—’

‘Her,’ the blacksmith grumbled, ‘not “it”.’ Val gestured for him to keep quiet.

‘But how do you intend to deal with the crowd amassed outside the door? And how might you explain this to the local guards? I know who you are, at least, Pieter.’

The blacksmith—Pieter, apparently, considering we’d never bothered to ask his name; not that he had ours, either—shrugged. ‘One thing at one time,’ he said.

The guildmaster smiled, then gestured to the roots at his feet. ‘Perhaps, then, you will allow me to retain a semblance of respectability. And, in return, I ensure you leave these premises unharmed?’

Val narrowed her eyes. ‘...Sure? What did you have in mind?’

"Styk"

Level 5 Peasant

Base Stats:

Vitality — 2

Intelligence — 5

Dexterity — 12

Strength — 23

Wisdom — 8

Charisma — 0

Skills:

Knifework — Level 10

Identification — Level 4

Stealth — Level 1

Abilities:

Slice (Knifework) — Slice the enemy for physical damage worth weapon’s base damage and additional damage scaling on [STR].

Stab (Knifework) — Put your weight behind your wielded blade and force the tip through tougher hinds and armour. Damage scales on [STR].

Basic Stealth Attack (Stealth) — Passive. 10% boost to damage when unnoticed by enemy.

Basic Identification (Identification) — Discover basic attributes for a particular object or person. Ability scales with [WIS] + [INT].

Active Effects:

Legacy of Sisyphus:

XP gain increased by +400%