It took sometime before Jonathan felt okay with moving. There was, of course, nothing wrong with him physically. It was just that the echo of the pain was taking its toll on the last tier three of the team. It had not felt like nearly an hour of nearly unimaginable pain. It had felt like an eternity, without time.
“Does it feel like it’s worse every time?” he finally asked.
“I’m not going to compare everyone’s time. But yes, it feels like you got it bad this time,” Alton replied.
The man composed himself, seated on the Plaza’s cold flooring. He stared in the distance, before commenting.
“That’s what you need to endure before you get stronger. And I’m the first in the team this time.”
“We’ll be there. And who knows, maybe you got something with the new Milestone,” Jonas replied.
Jonathan mused those words for a while.
“Is that what Babbage expected? A new ability?”
“He didn’t tell me,” Jonas answered. “I don’t think he thought you’d do it back in Grailburg. The idea of trying voluntarily to trigger Adjustment if you do not really need it – for yourself, I mean – is something he finds hard. So, maybe he’s not going to suggest anything.”
“Why? He’s not the one paying the price.”
“Not everyone outside is a disinterested asshole,” Laura said unexpectedly.
Jonathan stayed silent, slowly breathing in and out. Savouring moments where you could do nothing, and still not be in the realm of pain.
He stayed like that for a couple of hours, and the team waited, as the afternoon arrived slowly.
“I think it is time to see that Outapis of yours,” Jonathan said trying to stretch. He tried to make articulations pop or something, but that did not seem possible. Not anymore, given the 73 in Constitution, he now had, with the last two new Milestones, the Defender and Adjustment.
“I think you’re… slightly taller than Ira now? Is he?” Laura said, looking at the Calculating Barrier.
The other man moved closer, trying to establish a comparison.
“You always seemed about the same size…”
“But now, I got two new Adjustments in two weeks.”
“So… we are definitively growing with each Milestone,” Jonas said.
“Almost certainly,” Laura said. “Maybe we should have a measuring stick to check, back at the Boar?”
“Mother always wanted me tall,” he said. Then he shut down.
None of them replied.
“So, boss, where to?”
“Those mountains,” Jonas replied, pointing out vaguely southward. From the clearing surrounding the Plaza, you could barely see a few tops in the distance.
“Most of the mountains end up being at the zone border. There’s a few paths here and there, and even a lair apparently somewhere there, but there are also a couple valleys and gorges going in until you hit the zone border wall. The Gate to Outapis is in one.”
“Then lead on. I need to kill a few bearlings, I think.”
As promised in the booklet, the Gate was nestled in a small, narrow valley. The valley apparently went on further, but they were mostly interested in the Gate.
Transit: Vuneras – Outapis
Integrity: 100%
Active
Stability: 100%
“Simple now. We all clear out the tier three Gate we all have, save Jonathan who hasn’t got one yet, go in, go back, accept… and then go in again.”
Ira laughed.
“That’s what you get with a Gate. You get two zones for the price of one. You just have to pick the right tier to spend your option on,” Jonas felt like explaining.
“Got it,” he replied, hurrying into the Gate.
Jonas started and nearly collided as Ira shot back out of the Gate, saying, “Whoops. Sorry,” before heading back in.
He sighed.
“Now that’s a weird one,” Ira commented once they’d all made their back-and-forth.
“Outapis. Dry desertic zone, as the book says,” Jonas explained, pulling the aforementioned tome to make sure he didn’t make a mistake.
“It’s like this everywhere, or nearly so. A dry plain of dust and rock,” he added, kneeling and sifting some fine ochre dust.
“At least we can see the critters from afar,” Ira replied, making the rest of the team snort in derision.
“There’s that. Speaking of which… the main fauna here is apparently, I quote… Jackals, which are dog-like things. And 6-legged snakes.”
“What?”
“That’s what the booklet says. 10-feet long snakes, but with three pairs of feet. There's apparently their own half of the zone, and the dog-like things are in the other half, although we may encounter the other kind from time to time.”
“Anything else?”
“Wingless birds, whatever that means. There’s some ring of badlands surrounding the centre of the zone where you have the Plaza, and that’s where you might see some.”
Jonas snapped the booklet closed and put it back in his satchel before pointing out a sample of the local fauna:
Purple Jackal
Level 68
Health: 538
Mind: 200
Endurance: 478
Aether: 0
“And here’s one of those dog-things. We’re on the jackal side here.”
“That’s… the most hideous thing I’ve seen,” Laura said.
“Don’t know. We’ve seen pretty horrible. I think those worm-things back in Ovildian were pretty bad,” Ira commented.
“Maybe. But that colour… I don’t know what God was thinking when he made these, but…”
“Enjoy these, since we’re going to get that experience while going from lair to lair,” Jonas replied.
“Until we get to the legged snakes,” Alton replied.
“There were stories of snakes with legs crawling from the Thames when I was a little kid. Watch out for the snakes, that kind. It will be funny to see the real ones.”
“So, where to?”
“Closest lair is east… which means…” Jonas said, trying to check the sun. Unlike Vuneras, where they had reached the Gate early afternoon, this looked like close to sunset, rather than sunrise. He wished the descriptor for the location included something like time.
“Looks like that way. If the sun sets in the west. We’re in tier two, so it should.”
“Wouldn’t be east and west defined by the sun, rather than the reverse?” Guss enquired.
“Hmmm, good point. I assume the Archives wrote the map in a consistent manner,” Jonas conceded.
“So what are we starting with?” Ira asked.
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“Probably early camp. The evening’s coming, and it’s supposed to be brutal in flat places like this. It’s daylight, then 15 minutes later, you can’t see anything anymore.”
“I don’t feel tired. And yes, I know, it’s not really tired unless you get the status, but it feels the same.”
“We haven’t been around, so I agree with Jonas. Walking in the dark would be bad,” Jonathan interjected.
“And if the moon is the same, it should be last quarter or near so. So, it won’t rise until very late in the night,” Jonas added.
“An hour, then?” Ira asked.
“Until the sun touches the horizon. Thankfully, there are a few dry bushes around, so we have enough to make a campfire,” Jonas replied.
Their first Outapis lair was a sprawling set of ruins. Of course. The Labyrinth was littered with ruins. Sometimes recognizable, sometimes strange. And more exotic lairs, but ruins were a staple. Professionals expected at least one set of ruins in any zone.
This one was stone buildings, matching the rocky nature of the zone. Large stones cut and assembled into walls, sculpted in what looked crumbled column bases.
“Nice. What’s the catch?” Ira asked.
“No catch, according to book. It’s more like… the frog lake or the hyena lake, rather than the boar ruins. The only thing you have to watch out is to make sure no pack of things jump you while you are trying to fight a guardian. There’s four at each compass point, then the central one. Lair’s level 70, so expect anything between 66 to maybe 73.”
“Lots of treasure, easy lair? What did we wait for?” Ira replied.
“Being able to make it across without problems, and being high level so that we can do more than a pair of lairs, but all of them. Well, probably not the last few yet, but probably soon.”
“Good for me. So what’s the locals? Jackals or something else?”
“Scorpions. Ugly insects with tails which they use to attack.”
“You did not tell me that these critters basically have a mace attached to their tails,” Ira complained after their first pack.
“I’m going by the description in the reference book. You know, like ‘funny dancing bear’?” Jonas replied.
They had started from what seemed the south, under the assumption that the mention on compass points was accurate and not just a way of saying they were spread at equal distances. Well, Jonas thought they’d know soon enough. The lair was large, but not that large. And after doing it once, they would know where to go next time.
Like a many of the outdoor lairs, the problem was that you visibly had multiple packs of scorpions roaming over the place. They were not the problems they’d been in the past, as this time they overleveled the lair by 20 levels, but while dealing with a pack and a guardian would be easy, too many packs would cause a retreat.
So, for the first run-in, Jonas wanted it to be done cleanly. Even if the critters were not that hard.
Ruins Arthropod × 3
Level 71 veteran
Health: 1085
Mind: 401
Endurance: 969
Aether: 156
Ruins Athropod × 3: 3560XP/6 contributors = 562XP.
“Looks like the first guardian is there, I see the treasure chest,” Laura pointed out.
“Let’s make sure of the last packs and we’ll get to it,” Jonas replied.
Jonathan raised his hand to stop them. He looked for a few seconds before saying, “That’s unexpected.”
“What’s unexpected?” Alton asked, curious.
“I have the box’s descriptor.”
“WHAT?”
For a second, Jonas felt a bit like what other Professionals experienced when hearing one of the team talking. The curious sensation of someone telling you there was something wrong with your assumptions.
“There is a descriptor for the treasure box.”
Scorpid Ruins
Elite Treasure
Common equipment
Requires: Level 61
“Well, Scorpid Ruins is the proper name for the lair,” Jonas noted first after Jonathan finished listing the descriptor’s content.
“And there’s an elite guarding it. Or rather, an elite and two normal ones. But… if your descriptor is right, then the content of the box is just a common item? Or is that the box itself?”
“I think it will be easy to check once we have finished it,” Jonathan answered.
“I’m jealous,” said Laura.
The Calculating Barrier turned briefly to reply, “Don’t. You’ll get it. In time.”
“You think that’s the sixth Milestone doing it,” Jonas said.
“That’s the difference between me and you five. So, it’s obvious. You will all get it when you get your next Profession.”
“Do we… get one new ability every Milestone?” Guss asked.
“It sounds like that, yes,” Jonas replied. He thought back about their start.
“I’ll try to find Babbage once we head back,” he added. “I’ve got my own ideas, but he’s the expert thinker about those things.”
“But, first, let’s clear the thing,” Ira added.
Rigid Shoes
Feet
Common equipment
Requires: Level 61
Provides: 12 defence rating, DEX+7
“Okay. So that’s indeed a common level 61 piece of equipment,” Alton said, accepting the pair of shiny black shoes that Laura handed to him.
“So, we can see the content of any chest before we even defeat its guardian.”
“Well, not the exact content. More like the general idea. Not that useful, in practice,” Jonathan commented.
“Yea, it’s not like we don’t try to kill the guardian anyway,” Ira replied.
“Chest is exceptional weapon… and a common piece,” Jonathan announced.
Scorpid Ruins
Elder Treasure
Exceptional weapon
Requires: Level 58
Common equipment
Requires: Level 62
“Oh?”
They had quickly found out on their second chest that the descriptor made a distinction between weapons and normal equipment, as it highlighted a common weapon. Guss had been delighted at seeing what was designated as a hammer, but with aether. He had replaced his staff with an off-hand “censer” from their stock in the bank, one with much better values that the two-handed had, but had been left with nothing to hold. The hammer might not have useful potential or damage, but it was something.
So far, out of four chests total, three had been useful, highlighting the advantages of going over higher lairs once again.
That the only item found useless was a pair of common boots with about the same Intellect as his current higher quality ones did not faze Jonas.
“That lair gets better,” Ira said upon hearing the notice.
“It removes all the surprise,” Guss countered.
“Nope. We still don’t know who gets the weapon. I need a new one,” he replied.
“First, we need to kill the pair,” Jonas added, pointing the two scorpions.
Ruins Ruler
Level 70 elder
Health: 2567
Mind: 1156
Endurance: 1617
Aether: 1851
Ruins Consort
Level 72 elite
Health: 1909
Mind: 704
Endurance: 1708
Aether: 275
“Okay. We can guess that the elder will have lots of special attacks. Aether and less health than expected,” Ira grimaced.
“So? Usual, you tackle the Ruler, I take the Consort,” Jonathan replied. “It’s no worse than those veteran pairs up in Vuneras.”
“With more bite and attacks. But yea. You are right.”
For a few seconds, Jonas feared that the “ruler” would somewhat sound the alarm or something similar. They’d been thorough, making sure to kill every scorpion they could spot at the ruins, but that kind of setup screamed for a general call.
Ruins Ruler evokes Dread. -2 mind/sec, -4 FOR.
Well, that second effect amounted to cutting 40 of mind first before the ongoing part. Not dangerous, but something to watch for. Alton was now the weakest member of the team for that type of effect, but even with that, they still had over three minutes before the fight was over.
The Ruins Consort proved to be more intractable for the combat start, as the creature simply refused to stay in place. It kept moving, trying to place itself behind Jonathan. That was hard on their two melee members. Laura quickly abandoned the idea to get anywhere and simply stood up next to Jonathan to use her hammers.
As for Alton, he and Jonathan quickly set up a rotation, where Alton would move in place to be optimally placed for later before Jonathan attempted to face the scorpion enough to use his swords.
All that movement made Jonas’ Fire Funnel useless. He kept it to wear down the Ruler, but the constant movement of the Consort made impossible to keep the short radius fire reliably.
Ruins Consort emits poison. -8 health/sec for the next minute.
“On it,” Guss announced immediately. The poison was indeed tractable to his Cleanse Poison. With only three people affected, that was relatively fast – and not too expensive in terms of aether. And the nice part was that the creature barely had aether enough for another, meaning it wasn’t a major threat.
“Consort down, all of the Ruler now”, Jonas announced, relatively needlessly.
“Watch the pincers,” Ira announced. “From the look, that attack reaches to the sides.”
Ruins Ruler emits poison. -12 health/sec for the next minute.
“Shit. Can’t cleanse that one,” Guss announced.
“He didn’t use it before,” Ira replied, in apology.
“Happens. Maybe it inherits the abilities of the other,” Jonas commented.
“Watch the pincer,” Jonathan said as he moved slightly aside.
Ruins Ruler claws wildly for 140 damage. No hits.
“Told you about the pincer move.”
Ruins Ruler sparks for 67 lightning damage (159 defence rating/Laura Harvey) and 64 lightning damage (294 defence rating/Ira Heard)
“Ouch,” Laura just said.
“Should be fine,” Guss replied. “it’s only a 70.”
Ruins Scorpid × 2: 5759XP/6 contributors = 909XP.
You have completed Outapis Scorpid Ruins Lair.
“And that’s one,” Jonas said.
“I wonder which is the male and which the female? Apart from the descriptor mention, they look completely identical,” Ira said.
“You’re welcome to check,” Alton replied.
“Yeech.”
“So, what are our two treasures?” Jonathan called, as Laura tugged at the box. It opened almost reluctantly, releasing a cloud of the omnipresent ochre dust.
Ancient Desert Hammer
One-Hand
Exceptional equipment
Requires: Level 58
Provides: 19 earth damage (+5% FOC), FOC+7, WIS+6, +82 health
“Wow. If it was Strength-based, I’d steal that from you, Guss,” Laura said. The hammer was relatively plain, save for the tie around the head that looked like it was fashioned from scorpion’s tail segments.
“Looks like I did not use that hammer long,” he said, accepting the new weapon from the team’s loot specialist.
“And now, I get the high score,” he added after putting the previous hammer from the ruins in his bag.
“What score?” she asked.
“Why, I am now at 105. In Wisdom,” he replied.
“Doesn’t count,” she said huffily, before heading toward Alton.
“Sorry, but apparently, it’s you who gets the consolation prize,” she said, half in apology.
“Not a problem. It’s an upgrade, after all, and those ruins gave me one already,” he replied lightly.
Rigid Headband
Head
Common equipment
Requires: Level 62
Provides: 9 defence rating, DEX+8
They were filing away from the ruins when Jonathan emitted an unexpected laugh.
“Hey, Ira?”
“What?”
“Guess what? I overlevel you now.”
“So what? I still have better vitals and I’ll get to tier four before you,” he replied.
“No. Guess, who will now have priority on all that gear stored at the bank?”
The rest of the team could not resist and laughed at the startled look on Ira’s face.