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171. Cash For Cache

Lambkin led us across the city of Coldharbour to the guardhouse nearest where the malae traders had been set up. The plan was simple: he would sweet talk the guards, acting as though we were interested in buying the recently acquired weapons cache, and by doing so he’d learn its location. As soon as we knew where it was, the rest of the team would portal in and steal it.

It was a pretty straightforward plan, but that was what the situation deserved; Lambkin said the guardhouse wasn’t going to be equipped with traps or anything, so this plan would do just fine. After all, them having acquired the cache to sell under the table wasn’t strictly by the book. Or, you know, not at all by the book.

When we arrived outside the guardhouse, Lambkin and Raelas approached the woman in uniform out front, and the rest of us stayed back, in the cover of shadows. We watched in silence as Lambkin and Raelas charmed the guard, Corminar shifting uncomfortably from side to side, apparently still thinking he should have been the one to go over. We awaited the moment that Raelas would make her excuses and come over to us to tell us where the cache was, but…

That didn’t happen.

Instead, the pair of them turned away from the guardhouse looking dejected, and I felt dread hanging heavy in my gut. ‘What is it?’

‘They’ve sold them already,’ Lambkin said.

‘All of them?’

‘All of them.’

‘Yeah,’ Raelas added. ‘Lammy weren’t kidding about there being a lot of mercenaries coming through here; apparently some bought up all the weapons within about an hour. Sounds like the guards underpriced them, though, so maybe that’s something to do with it.’

‘They wouldn’t have experience with high-strength weaponry. Their swords, their bows, they are all simple and unenchanted. I should have realised. I should have suggested we come sooner.’ The man looked genuinely disappointed in himself.

There was another option, though. ‘You know where they went? These mercenaries?’

Lambkin hesitated, then turned away and approached the guard once more. Another minute later, after some coin had changed hands, the ex-captain returned with more of a smile on his face. ‘They’re staying in a camp outside the western gate, she said. If we hurry, we might catch them.’

* * *

And so it was that the seven of us—yes, seven, I counted; everyone but Tokas was here, who had been unable to find someone to watch the kids so last minute—traversed the city and poured out the western gate. Carle was the one who spotted the mercenary camp first, being one of us who knew what to look for. I wasn’t sure what made him so confident that one particular camp was the mercenary camp, but he seemed sure. I put it down to there being some signs that someone was a mercenary that was imperceptible to me but very obvious to someone in the industry.

We took shelter behind a sand dune not too far from the camp, and Corminar and I crawled slowly to the top of it, to peek over.

‘Seventeen,’ he said.

‘What?’

‘There are seventeen of them. There are only seven of us. That means that there are ten more of them than there are of us.’

‘I can do simple maths, Cor.’

‘You have said the opposite in the past.’

‘No I—’ I stopped myself. ‘Forget it. You see the weapons?’

The elf’s eyes were naturally keener than mine, so of course he’d seen them already. ‘The tent to the northwest,’ he said. ‘It is the only one guarded; the others must be sleeping quarters. May I ask if you have any thoughts on how we retrieve the weapons?’

‘Could portal them?’

‘You can’t portal everything, Styk.’

‘I can bloody well try.’

Corminar sighed. ‘And when this plan fails, they will be alerted to our presence. You do not know that the crates would fit through your portal. You do not know if the tent is warded against magicks. There are too many unknowns for “portal it” to be plan B, let alone plan A.’

‘You’re no fun sometimes.’

‘It is more important to be right than to be fun.’

I almost replied with Sunalor changed you, Corminar, before realising that was probably a bit much. I kept it to myself, instead opting for, ‘OK, what’s your plan, then?’

There was no reply.

‘You don’t have one, do you?’

‘I am considering.’

‘Considering what?’

‘Considering our options.’

‘And what are they?’ I asked.

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‘Perhaps if you give me a moment, I will determine the answer to that very question.’

I turned my attention back to the camp in front of us. This was a large group of mercenaries, far more than I’d been expecting. What was the need for so many? Ousting rogue leaders? Clearing infested dungeons? I could see why they’d need to buy so many new weapons, at least.

A large handful of the mercenaries were building a fire in the middle of the camp, preparing for the sun to set. Their body language was casual, unworried; they didn’t think anyone would plan to attack them, that anyone who did would be foolish to do so. Maybe we were foolish, but I really really wanted that weapons cache.

‘A distraction,’ Corminar said.

‘That’s what you’ve come up with? A distraction? That’s like textbook stuff.’

‘I didn’t know you read textbooks.’

I ignored him. ‘Any thoughts on what that distraction could be?’

‘Someone could insult them and then run away.’

I hesitated, not sure if he was joking.

‘I am not joking,’ he clarified, anticipating my reaction. ‘Unless you have a better idea, I think drawing as many of the enemies away would be our best approach.’

With a sigh, I nodded. I really didn’t have any better ideas, this time—which is pretty shocking, really, considering I was supposed to be good at this kind of thing. ‘Alright. Who should…’ I started, and then we both said at once, ‘Raelas.’

We shuffled away from the peak of the dune and then hurried, crouching, to the rest of the team’s side.

‘Alright, we have a plan,’ I said. ‘Raelas, you’re going to insult them. Be really creative. Really creative. We want as many of them chasing after you as possible.’

‘Wait, how many are they? How many are gonna be chasing me?’ the tiefling replied.

‘Seventeen, if possible,’ the elven ranger answered.

‘Seventeen?’ Raelas replied, eyebrows raised. ‘I don’t think I can outrun seventeen different—’

‘Portals,’ I whispered to her.

‘Oh, yeah.’

‘Happy?’

‘Kiss on the cheek for luck?’ Raelas replied.

‘No.’

‘Fine.’ The tiefling drew a deep breath, then scurried off around the encampment to the otherside, so that she’d be drawing the attention away from us. Corminar and I returned to our places, poking our heads over the top of the dune, and waited for Raelas to do the honours.

When the tiefling finally stepped out into the open, she cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted the most horrific appalling things I have ever heard in my life. They were so creatively nasty—creative because she completely avoiding any discriminatory language—that I don’t think I can even repeat them here. Suffice to say, I was taken aback by it and Corminar’s mouth hanged open with surprise.

And the insults were good enough to draw away a good handful of the mercenaries, leaving only nine left for us to deal with. In an ideal world, she would have drawn them all away, but these soldiers for hire were sensible enough not to leave their camp completely unprotected; eight going after one woman would surely be enough, from their perspectives.

‘Eight,’ Corminar said.

‘Yes, I can count.’

We watched as Raelas turned and ran, and we waited until the departing mercenaries were far enough away that they wouldn’t hear any fighting back at their camp. At that point, the elf and I rose to our feet, and the rest of the gang charged up the dune behind us.

The team knew the order—incapacitate, don’t kill. These mercenaries hadn’t done anything wrong, as far as we knew. Even stealing from them was a bit unkind, really, but I’d justified that because it was to take down a Player—and their malae-breeding operation.

As we charged into the fight, I hoped everyone had taken this instruction to heart…

"Styk"

Level 19 Bladespinner

Base Stats:

Vitality — 50

Intelligence — 204

Dexterity — 122

Strength — 77

Wisdom — 74

Charisma — 49

Skills:

Worldbending — Level 55

Knifework — Level 40

Stealth — Level 25

Identification — Level 18

Needlework — Level 18

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 III — Attack a target while undetected for +300% 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.

Saved Portals II — Select a location to “save” for future portals. Until your save point is moved, you may always open a portal here, even if it is beyond your current Local Portal range. Mana is used only upon opening the portal.

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].

Gentle Step — Passive. Your footsteps are dampened on even the hardest of surfaces. Reduce noise of movement by 80%.

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%