‘I said I would keep watching out for Elinor, and that I would make notes,’ the old woman of Lonely Hearth replied.

‘No, after that.’ The rest of the team circled around to join me at my side. ‘What did you say after that bit?’

‘What’s going on?’ Lore asked.

‘After that?’ the woman repeated. ‘Oh, I don’t know. Memory is a fickle thing at my age.’

‘You mentioned someone else? Another Player?’

The woman’s face lit up. ‘Oh, yes! Tana.’

Corminar perked up, straightening his back. ‘Tana? You mean to say the head of the Council has been in these parts?’

‘The head of the council? No, my dear, the head of the council is Marge. Lovely woman, but perhaps a little too keen on potted plants.’

‘Not the…’ I started, but trailed off, shaking my head. ‘This other Player, Tana, how long ago was she here?’

‘Oh, not three weeks past.’

I turned to the rest of the team. ‘What do you think?’

‘I think it her. That Tana. I not hear of many Tanas, especially not Player-Tanas.’ Arzak was also standing straight now, as though ready for battle once more.

‘Sure, but, do we go after her?’ I asked. ‘Or do we go after this… Elinor?’

‘You have plan,’ the orc commented.

I nodded. Plans were my speciality. Following through on plans? Not so much. ‘We know where Tana is gonna be. Chances are, she’s in the palace in Auricia. Untouchable, I reckon. But maybe we can draw her out. If this Elinor is important enough to warrant a personal visit from the head of the Council, then…’

‘Then we take her hostage,’ Val finished for me. We were on the same page more often than not, these days. ‘We lure Tana out. There’s no guarantee she won’t come with a team—or an army—at her side, but…’

‘At least we’d be able to bring the fight to neutral ground. Maybe even set a trap.’ I could see Val smiling at this. Not that normal-person tender smile, that someone like Lore would have smiled, but instead one full of both excitement and malice. I turned back to Arzak’s informant. ‘Alright, we’ll do it. We’ll sort out this Player for you.’

The woman’s eyes lit up. ‘Oh, you will? That’s excellent news.’ She turned away, apparently meaning to disappear back inside her house. ‘I’ll wrap up another slice of pie each for you, so you’re working on full stomachs.’

‘That’s OK,’ I replied, immediately feeling Lore casting daggers at the back of my head, ‘if you could just tell us where to find Elinor, we’ll get out of your hair.’

‘After your pie, my dear!’ She disappeared back into the rear of her home.

Lore breathed an audible sigh of relief, and shifted from foot to foot with anticipation until the woman appeared with half a pie wrapped in paper. As she handed the pie over to the barbarian—who had stepped forward to take it off her hands—she continued, ‘Elinor? Last I heard, she was at the old Gutrai farmhouse—a couple of miles to the west.’

I nodded, then found myself give the woman a strange sort of half-bow thing in gratitude. ‘Thanks. Just one last thing: you got a river around here?’

The woman looked thoughtful for a moment, before replying, ‘We have a well?’

‘That works.’

* * *

We’d taken a few hours to gorge ourselves on the local food before battle. The woman had been right about one thing: it didn’t help to fight on an empty stomach. We each ate far too much stew before then adding to it by eating the berry pie we’d been given. Afterwards, we were actually too full to fight, and so we had to wait a while for our bloating to go down. All in all, it was a waste of about three hours.

Just as the informant had promised, we found the Gutrai farmhouse two miles down the road to the west. What she’d failed to mention was that the wooden walls were black with soot, the roof was caved in, and the barn—at least that’s what I assumed it had been—was a smouldering pile of debris. The maize crops were now little more than ash, and the smoke billowing out of one of the farmhouse’s windows said that the fire wasn’t quite out.

It was clear that Elinor had been through here, being a fire sorcerer and all, but the sight in front of us suggested to me that she might have moved on to a more comfortable environment.

‘It look cosy,’ Arzak commented.

‘Black was certainly a bold colour choice for a farmhouse,’ Corminar added.

Lore, too kind-hearted for jokes about the destruction of someone’s home and livelihood, changed the subject. ‘Do we think she’s still here?’

‘Only one way to find out,’ Val replied, and she led the way down the dirt path towards what had once been the Gutrai farmhouse. I kept my ears open as we approached, listening for signs of life inside. I heard nothing, but that was no guarantee; the enemy could be intentionally quiet, knowing that we were coming. Or she could just be sitting down, or having a nap. I held my dagger drawn, either way.

‘Stop,’ Corminar said, his eyes on a tree at the edge of the nearest plot. We all came to an abrupt halt, then followed his line of sight. I trusted Corminar’s vision—elven eyes often saw more than others—but this time… there was very clearly nothing there.

‘What do you see?’ I asked.

‘Movement.’

‘Where?’

The elf remained quiet for a few moments more, then sighed. ‘It has departed.’

‘...Right. If we’re done with that intermission, shall we get on?’

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

As we reached the edge of the farmhouse’s front porch, I turned back to the rest of the team, and nodded when I saw they all had their weapons drawn. I took one step on the porch, and felt it creak beneath my foot, the fire having weakened it. ‘Lore, Arzak, why don’t you guard the perimeter?’ I asked them.

‘OK!’ Lore said, jumping to it.

Arzak, on the other hand, was not so eager. ‘Is cos we heaviest, isn’t it?’

I didn’t really want to reply to that—nearly rhetorical—question, so I didn’t, instead turning and pressing on slowly towards the house. Corminar and Val followed at my side, creeping towards the door, looking around for signs of movement.

Val’s eyes lingered on the small plume of smoke coming from one of the windows, and then narrowed. ‘You know the funny thing about Sorcery?’ she asked.

‘No, but I suspect you are going to tell us,’ Corminar replied.

‘We think of Sorcery as just being destruction magicks, but it ain’t that, not really. It’s elemental magicks. Water, dirt, air… fire. You could do all kinds of stuff with those magicks. You could water crops during a drought. You could billow gusts of winds into sails. You could use clay to rebuild crumbling homes. And people do do that stuff, yeah, but it’s not what Sorcery magicks are known for, is it?’

The porch creaked beneath our combined weights, and we paused for a moment, ready for it to crumble. When it didn’t, we continued on towards the front door, our paced slowed further still, our footsteps lighter than ever.

Val continued, ‘No, it’s the destruction that sorcerers are so famous for. It’s pelting enemies with rocks and burning enemies with fire.’

‘When do we get to the funny part?’ I asked.

‘The funny part—and I mean “weird” funny rather than “ha ha” funny—is that when Sorcery is used for destruction over and over and over again, all in the same place, that destruction tends to take on a life of its own. The magicks manifest, and can take on a life of their own.’ Val put her fingertips on the front door.

‘I suppose that’s funny, sure,’ I said. ‘But why are you telling us this?’

In answer, my wife pushed against the front door. It swung open slowly, hinges creaking, and revealed the source of the light and the smoke. Around an old dining room table, untouched by fire, sat five shapes, each of them formed of flames themselves. They sat in chairs, also unburnt, each holding a few playing cards. As Corminar, Val and I stood in the doorway, they slowly turned their fiery heads towards us.

‘Cos I think that’s what’s happened here,’ the witch answered. ‘Fire spirits.’

‘We’re gonna have to fight them, aren’t we?’ I said.

At the very same moment, Corminar asked the beings formed of flames, ‘What is the ante?’

Neither of us got our answer, because instead, the fire spirits each tossed their inferno heads back, and they roared—the sound somewhere between a wolf’s howl and the hiss of water upon fire. Jets of flames shot forth from their mouths, pelting against the ceiling, and this time, the fire did spread.

‘Why is it always fire magics?’ I said again, as I activated Titan Husk, and my skin began to ripple with warping resistance magick.

One of the fire spirits tossed a playing card—a two of cups, if I wasn’t mistaken—like a throwing knife, and it bounced off my temporarily ashen-coloured arm.

‘Ow?’ I said. Then I charged.

"Styk"

Level 24 Bladespinner

Base Stats:

Vitality — 68

Intelligence — 285

Dexterity — 188

Strength — 102

Wisdom — 92

Charisma — 76

Skills:

Worldbending — Level 77

Knifework — Level 59

Stealth — Level 33

Needlework — Level 31

Abilities:

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 III — Passive. Portals can now be spawned within non-sentient objects. Doing so slices through all objects except those specifically imbued with Worldbending protections.

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.

Titan Husk — Warp your flesh to withstand all physical damage effects, including fire, frost, lightning, poison, and corruption.

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.

Portal Relay II — Up to ten small-scale portals can now be positioned stationary to an entity, and used to communicate sound. In addition, your standard portals may be used to communicate sound.

Needle Dart II — Launch needles through minimised portals. Can be targeted to any location excluding living beings. Uses mana per use.

Stab IV — Put your weight behind your wielded blade and force the tip through all but the toughest hides and armour. Damage scales on [STR]. Damage increased by an additional [+100%].

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].

Throw III — Throw blades at great speed towards your enemy. Deal considerable damage to armourless area, with addition damage scaling with [DEX] and [STR].

Etched Blades — Etch spells into the sides of your blades, giving you the ability to activate said spell on a successful hit.

Stealth Attack IV — Passive. 300% 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].

Quality Cloth Armour — Craft a cloth armour of higher quality than materials and time should allow.

Enchantment-Ready — Passive. Light armour you craft can be enchanted.

Active Effects:

Legacy of Sisyphus:

XP gain increased by +1,900%