Part VIII: The Witchfinder Experiments
The further east we travelled down the main merchant road, the more aged the population seemed to get. By the time we were only a day out from our destination—a village that the witchfinders used as an informal base of operations—everyone in the inn with us looking like they could drop dead at any moment.
Apparently this was normal, at least to a degree. For towns on the Goldmarch’s famous trade routes, the young population so often went off to find fame and fortune, either as working merchants or through gainful employment in the prosperous Goldmarch cities.
Recently though, there was another factor at play. Apparently no longer satisfied by dominating land trade, the government of the Goldmarch were now expanding into sea trade as well. But the geography of this part of the world didn’t exactly make this easy, with all the major ports being on seas that were entirely separate from one another.
This, the Goldmarch were looking to change. A decade or so ago, the town of Lenktra, on the Tundran border, had created a small canal system that connected the Coldwater in the northwest to the Iron Sea in the northeast. Building on this, there was a new canal project, not two days’ ride from where we were—a so-called “Great Golden Canal Project”, which the locals thought was made fancy-sounding to convince all the young-uns to offer their services. This canal was a far more ambitious project, stretching over a good amount of land, but would—upon completion—connect the Iron Sea with the Sea Of Roots.
Sea trade would stretch from the Beached Armada to the Dawnwood, and the Goldmarch would be able to collect taxes on all of this.
Now, I know what you’re thinking, reader. You’re thinking “why in the hells are you telling me this?” My reasoning is two-fold. Firstly: as we all know, all great stories have substantial and detailed descriptions of trade deals between various factions. Secondly: I tell you this because Arzak was completely enchanted by the concept.
‘Make money for go through land? Why?’ the orc demanded of an old local.
The local man seemed stunned by this response; clearly he’d just been mouthing off about it all, rather than expecting any follow-up questions. ‘Amira’s in charge of this land, so she gets to say what goes on in it, right?’
‘I don’t think this right, no.’
The rest of our team, tired from many days’ travel, watched this conversation at the bar from a corner booth, where we’d all finished our beers but none of us could be bothered to buy any more. I considered trying to portal some beer from within the kegs into my glass, but I didn’t really want to get kicked out, either.
‘I ain’t saying it’s right,’ the increasingly perplexed local said. ‘Only that she can do it. And besides, walking down a toll road is one thing, sure, but using a canal that the queen’s spent thousands, tens of thousands, whatever amount of gold on… well maybe she deserves to get paid back for it?’
‘So you for this canal now?’ Arzak asked.
‘No, of course not. But what I think is moral isn’t the same as what is legal.’
‘Why not? In Reaches, no law. We just do right things.’
The old man opened his mouth to reply, and then thought better of it. He turned to the bar maid. ‘Better call it a night, I think.’ He tossed a bronze coin onto the bar. ‘A drink for my friend here,’ he said.
‘What about my friends?’ Arzak asked, nodding to us in the booth.
The man left without saying another word.
* * *
The witchfinder base was a few hours’ away from the main merchant road, taking us on a well-worn track through the beech forest, which we were forced to trudge down single-file. It had been quite a long few days of travel—we really needed to buy some horses at some point—and conversation had grown quiet. In fact, I’d spent some of the evenings barely participating in conversation, instead focusing on levelling up my new Needlework skill. This effort had got the skill up to level 7, which had the added benefit of putting me up to level 12 overall—more and more, my profile wasn’t incredibly embarrassing.
As I’d passed level 5 in Needlework, I’d had the choice of new abilities, and my decision was an easy one; I chose the ability most useful for myself.
Ability unlocked — Basic Cloth Armour
Basic Cloth Armour (Needlework) — Craft a basic cloth armour, quality dependent on materials, time and skill level.
I’d not been able to you know, use this ability yet, considering that all I was working with was a large piece of increasingly busy fabric, and a spool of thread that Arzak had loaned me. Next time we passed through a town with a suitable shop, however, I was going to stock up.
We came suddenly upon our destination, a secluded village formed of wooden buildings, some newer than others, based on the amount of moss present on their walls. It was a surprise that we’d stumble upon a place like this without knowing well in advance that it was ahead of us—and it took me a moment to realise that this stemmed from the village being eerily quiet.
‘Huh,’ I mumbled to myself, then turned to the rest of the team at my side, everyone peeking through the bushes at the town like I had been. Everyone except Val and Arzak, at least.
This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
I turned back to see Val and Arzak a few dozen paces back, down the path, muttering something inaudible to one another. Val shifted from foot to foot, glancing nervously at the rest of us.
‘You coming?’ I called back to them, and the cry made Val flinch.
She turned to glare at me.
‘What?’ I asked, accompanying the question with a shrug.
‘Well there goes the element of surprise,’ Val mumbled as she and Arzak cautiously approached.
‘Element of surprise?’ I repeated, then pointed to Aiwin. ‘They know Aiwin. We’re just here to talk, right?’
Val raised her eyebrows, but made no further comment.
‘Shall we?’ Aiwin asked the group, their gaze flicking to Val. Without waiting for an answer, they stepped through the growth and out into the open of the secluded village, the rest of the group following close behind.
Nobody in the village stirred, and nobody came to meet us.
‘Hello?’ Lore called out cheerily. ‘Witchfinders? We’ve come to buy something from you!’
We waited. Still, there was nothing. No signs of life.
‘I don’t like this,’ Val said, already itching away from the village.
‘This certainly isn’t right,’ Aiwin added. ‘There should always be someone here. There was a woman in charge—a monster hunter of sorts; witches, demons and the like—who should be here, or an assistant in her place. That neither of them are present is…’
‘Unsettling,’ I said.
Aiwin nodded their agreement.
‘Blood,’ Arzak said suddenly, staring around the village.
‘What?’ I asked, doing the same. ‘Where?’
‘Nowhere. No blood.’
‘Well, you could have said—’
‘No blood, and no discarded weapons. No sign of a fight at all,’ Corminar said. ‘It is as though they have moved on.’
Aiwin shook their head. ‘Impossible. I am told they had work here.’
‘Could be that they finished it?’ Lore asked.
‘It was impossible work, never to be completed.’
‘Our job feel like that sometimes,’ Arzak mused.
We all fell silent, the only sound being the rustling of leaves in the wind and the cries of distance birds.
‘So… what do we do?’ Val finally asked, shattering the silence.
‘I suppose we look for information as to where they have gone,’ Aiwin said. ‘I am sure there will be a clue or two inside.’
Val nodded. ‘Great. Go ahead. I’ll keep a lookout.’
Arzak glanced at Val, and Val returned the look. Even though I couldn’t translate it, I knew there was a whole conversation happening in the way they stared at one another.
I turned to Lore, glancing at him, trying to do the same silent method of communication.
‘What?’ he asked.
I sighed. ‘Shall we go inside?’
‘Oh! Yes.’
While Arzak ambled inside a small building to our right, and Corminar and Aiwin took a new, freshly constructed building to our left, Lore and I made for the largest structure. This looked to be the largest of the buildings here—three floors, and a wider floorplan than most taverns, almost as if this had been here first and then built around.
The village was no less creepy when you were inside the old abandoned structures, though maybe I should have seen that one coming. Ancient floorboards squeaked below Lore’s heavy feet, and the sound of the wind billowing through cracks in the walls made an eerie whistling noise. I tried to ignore it as we searched the building, looking for anything that might give us a clue to our next move.
I finally found it in a grand study at the rear of the building—a room with an impressively ornate old desk with stacks of disorganised paperwork sitting on top of it. Most of these documents were meaningless to me, or at least not at all useful—records of witchfinding reports, and the like. But one piece of paper caught me eye because of a familiar coat of arms printed at the head of the thick, posh paper—that of the kingdom of the Goldmarch.
A lot of it, still, was meaningless to me, but a few parts stood out. For one, the woman who had been in charge of this operation—apparently installed by someone in the capital—had been reassigned, and would not be returning. This, I could only assume, was the monster hunter that Aiwin had mentioned earlier. The other key piece of information, however, was more crucial.
The instruction given to the witchfinders was to remain put, and to, under no circumstances, continued with their experiments.
Just as I looked up to ask Lore what he made of all of this, I heard a distant scream.
"Styk"
Level 12 Bladespinner
Base Stats:
Vitality — 26
Intelligence — 115
Dexterity — 47
Strength — 50
Wisdom — 32
Charisma — 14
Skills:
Worldbending — Level 27
Knifework — Level 23
Identification — Level 10
Stealth — Level 9
Needlework — Level 7
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.
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.
Stealth Attack — Passive. 50% boost to damage when unnoticed by enemy.
Stitch — Create a basic stitch in common fabrics. Ability scales on [CHA].
Basic Cloth Armour — Craft basic cloth armour, quality dependent on materials, time and skill level.
Active Effects:
Legacy of Sisyphus:
XP gain increased by +900%