We left Tanar that very afternoon, wanting to be seen to make good on our verbal agreement with the Red Thorn. Corminar was convinced they’d be watching, and—based on their knowledge of the Player we’d killed—I was inclined to believe him.

Lore left Seld in charge of the farm, but the young farmhand seemed a bit clueless about what to do when… all the sheep were stuck in some alternative “pocket” world. He seemed almost as distressed as Lore about the “sheepnapping”, as he’d called it, which made me wonder what he’d have called it if Elandor had taken baby goats instead. Finally Lore, fighting through his own torment, calmed the farmhand by telling him he can head into town and start planting those crops they’d spoken about. Seld seemed a bit more focused after this.

The five of us left Lore’s farm in the vicinity of the small town of Tanar, and head south to the seaside town of Birrow, where we were going to board a ferry. For the first time in my life, I was going to leave the Gentle Tundras.

Corminar’s lead on a depth-raider—whatever that was—had us crossing the Iron Sea, making for the midst of the Goldmarch. Here, we’d track down his contact and get the latest information as to its whereabouts, but also—more importantly—a lead on the artifact that could control it.

Val, who’d been uncharacteristically quiet on our journey to the coast, seemed particularly riled up by any talk of this artifact, the name of which Corminar had, almost intentionally, avoided saying.

We reached Birrow in the mid-afternoon a few days later, and set our eyes on the ferry itself, a boat that was almost as large as the—admittedly quite small—buildings of this fishing town. For all that its size made it seem majestic, the patchwork of different colour wood in the hull and fabric in the sails made it… not so majestic. Not that it mattered; the next nearest ferry was all the way in Ironview, and we didn’t want to add any more days onto this trip that were absolutely necessary, for the sake of Lore and his missing sheep.

‘Big guy, ain’t you?’ the captain of the Birrow-Last Soil ferry said, her eyes glistening, mouth agape, as she stared up at the barbarian. ‘And handsome, too.’

Corminar put a hand to his chest. ‘Well, I don’t know about big, but—’

‘She talk about Lore,’ Arzak said, and the elf suddenly hurried aboard the large wooden vessel.

‘I should charge you double, big lad,’ the older captain said. ‘Big, strong lad.’

Lore blushed, and he too hurried on board. As he passed the captain on the ramp to the ship, the woman moved to touch him on the rear, but a dirty look from Val made her stop midway. Instead, the captain held up her hands as though to protest her innocence, then suddenly pulled out her spyglass to take a look at something—in reality, nothing—she’d seen in the distance.

I was the last of our group to board the ship, and I was surprised by the sensation of the floor moving beneath me. I felt unsteadily, and something about the vessel gently bobbing up and down in the water made me feel a little queasy. How did sailors cope with it?

Our group amassed towards the rear of the ship, Corminar sitting atop a barrel and pushing dried leaves into a pipe. From the looks of Lore, standing next to him with another empty pipe in his hand, he was hoping the elf would share.

‘So,’ I ventured, gulping down the acid that was rising up my throat. ‘Depth-raiders. You still haven’t told me what they… are.’

Corminar looked up at me, and then caught sight of the smiling Lore standing next to him. With a sigh, he handed his bag of pipeweed over to him. ‘They are dangerous creatures indeed. Not mighty of frame or stature, but able to harness a power unlike anything else.’

I raised an eyebrow. ‘And… should we feel comfortable handing one over to the Thorn? I know we said no Mala, but I don’t exactly wanna hand over something just as bad.’

Corminar shook his head. ‘It is no Mala, that is for sure. From what you have told me, there is no power in this world as strong as those creatures. The depth-raider, however, might be a member of the same league. These beasts—not much larger than a Mala, in fact—can sense great power, and seize it for their own. Most would find them not dangerous in the least—they’ve been known to be kept as pets, even—but once a man with power appears nearby… Let us say only that I have seen communal bathrooms less disgusting.’

‘OK,’ I said. ‘New question, then: if they’re as dangerous as this, why did we just volunteer to go catch one? We’ve just escaped one life-threatening situation, do we really need to go throw ourselves into another?’

‘It what we do,’ Arzak said. Lore nodded his agreement, his eyes on the captain who’d taken a fondness to him, who was at this moment undocking the ship.

‘You forget the artifact,’ Corminar added. At mention of this, Val turned away, and ambled over to the edge of the ship, looking at the coast. ‘This creature, though strong, has a notable weakness. Its powers are rooted in magicks of nature; an artifact which nullify these magicks can render the beast inert. This is why we must, first, find ourselves a witchfinder’s clasp.’

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

My eyes darted over to Val. ‘A what?’

‘A witchfinders clasp,’ Lore repeated, loudly and slowly.

‘No, yes, I heard it. I just don’t know what that is.’

‘It is a metal binding,’ Corminar explained, ‘reforged from a witchfinder’s blade. At least, a blade that has been stained by the blood of witches. There is a power in witch blood, you see; it is not just tradition that necessitates the slaying of—’

‘Corminar,’ Arzak said.

The ranger’s eyes darted, too, to Val. ‘Yes. Of course,’ he said. ‘The heart of the matter is this: we do not even consider fetching this beast until we have a witchfinder’s clasp in hand. One that we have…’ He shot a nervous glance at Arzak. ‘...tested.’

While Corminar, Arzak and Lore discussed the whereabouts of his informed contact, I slinked off to the side of the ship, and I tried my very best not to throw up.

‘Did they send you to see how I was?’ Val asked.

I said nothing, mostly because a fresh wave of nausea swept over me as I saw just how far away the land had become.

‘Tell them I’m fine.’

‘I…’ I started, then steeled myself to ask the inevitable question. ‘Why would they send me over for that?’

Val sighed. ‘I suppose it’s time for…’ she started, then trailed off, shaking her head, as though she’d lost faith in that sentence. Meeting my gaze with almost pained effort, she continued, ‘There’s something you don’t know about me, Styk. Something that might… push you away, if you were to find out.’

I couldn’t help but think of my own secret—that of my newly discovered ancestry. ‘Yeah, you and I both,’ I said.

Val couldn’t seem to help but smirk. ‘That you sew?’

‘Arzak told you, huh?’

‘It was the first thing she said when you two got back, yeah. She comes across as this mature, put-together woman, doesn’t she, but really she’s a massive gossip.’

‘Don’t tell Arzak stuff,’ I said. ‘Noted. I think you misunderstood me, though, before. I wasn’t asking why they’d send someone over to see how you were. I was asking why they’d send specifically me over for that. Surely any of them have known you longer.’

Val looked at me with a slightly stunned expression on her face. ‘Well, you know, because—’

I was flung across the deck as the ship suddenly collided with something, bashing my nose against the wood hard enough that blood began to pour forth and my health bar drained some. ‘What the hells was that?’ I asked Val. ‘We hit something?’

Val narrowed her eyes. ‘Out here? There’s no land to hit.’

‘Then what…’

An ear-splitting screech erupted as a beast burst forth from the water, several pink appendages—each covered in suckers the size of my face—sprouting around the ship.

‘What in the—’ Val started, and then one of these giant, thirty-foot-or-so appendages slammed towards us.

I dove for my friend, opening a portal below us, and gestured open its partner somewhere behind and above me.

We fell through the portal just as the suckered arm slammed into the deck, splintering it, and found ourselves… in mid-air. Oops.

I reached out for the closest thing I could find, grabbing at the cloth of the main sail while Val did the same thing at my side. From up here, near the top of the main mast, I could see the monstrosity for what it was: a squid, the size of which would rival most inns.

‘Cephalopor!’ the captain roared below. ‘Cephalopor!’

It was the stuff of legends. The sort of beast that featured in horror stories, used to keep naughty children in line. A creature that was so often suggested as the cause of so many missing ships over the years.

And we had no choice but to fight it.

"Styk"

Level 11 Bladespinner

Base Stats:

Vitality — 26

Intelligence — 103

Dexterity — 38

Strength — 50

Wisdom — 26

Charisma — 8

Skills:

Worldbending — Level 24

Knifework — Level 23

Identification — Level 10

Stealth — Level 6

Needlework — Level 4

Abilities:

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

Stab II — Put your weight behind your wielded blade and force the tip through tougher hides and armour. Damage scales on [STR], increased by an additional 20%.

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.

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.

Stealth Attack — Passive. 50% boost to damage when unnoticed by enemy.

Stitch — Create a basic stitch in common fabrics. Ability scales on [CHA].

Active Effects:

Legacy of Sisyphus:

XP gain increased by +900%