THE TOWER, THE BREWER, AND THE HERDSMAN
The city of Edge shared one walled side with a cliff face overlooking the West Sea. And so it was out of the easternmost gate that Conrad set out to the first point he had marked on his map and, hopefully, the first clue to closing out The Tower, The Brewer, and The Herdsman.
He began at a slow jog but, realizing he hadn’t ever put his improved endurance stat to the test and really feeling the extra energy of the +3 points he got from the Guild Pin, he picked up the pace into a full run. You couldn’t see Nodes of Order, not without magical intervention, but it was only minutes later he felt the palpable shift of his emotions, that tiny tug away from comfort and into uncertainty that characterized entering the Chaos Lands.
He ran like that for over an hour, advancing his Second Wind skill to level two and eating away the miles in front of him. He found himself enjoying the relative emptiness of the Chaos Lands as compared to the Warren Dungeon. Not that there was nothing to see. Though flat the landscape near Edge had numerous small forests and clusters of trees, rock formations and chasms leftover from cataclysms of times past, and the packed earth of the path he ran on wound among all of it like a river. But in the dungeon every room had something that required your attention - traps, puzzles, groups of monsters, thorn bushes that could poison you into a deadly delirium… out here it was down right peaceful in comparison.
He rounded a copse of trees just as a notification informed him of an increase to his endurance, bringing him to 27. Another notification popped up informing him of a new skill he had discovered for his Officer class, Marching Aura, which would reduce stamina expenditure when active.
A quarter mile in front of him he saw what he was out here looking for. A large rock, the same reddish stone that made up the bricks of Edge but raw and jagged, towered over a small cluster of homes.
And at its base a swarm of creatures was circling a besieged group of people.
“So much for peaceful…” Conrad said to himself, meanwhile cursing his lack of forethought in running the entire way here.
Taking from his inventory one of the stamina potions he had bought in town, he downed the lemony tasting liquid as he picked up his pace to a sprint. He took a chagrined mental note of the 50 silver he just burned by forgetting that out here fights could come at any moment if he wasn’t prepared.
All the same he rushed into casting range and invoked Assess on the nearest of the growling, snapping beasts.
Rock Dog
Age: Youth
Level: 5
HP: 40/42
Description: Rock Dogs take their name from both their appearance and their preferred environment. Found wherever rocks are, these common monsters also tend to grow rocky protrusions which grow more and more abundant as they age, making the Elder variants truly formidable.
There were a dozen of the creatures, ranging in age from Youth to Young Adult, and though Conrad was confident he could take at least a few of them on his own, this would be a tough fight if they turned on him at once.
In the middle of the circling monsters was a group of people, the first three, two women and a man, all had clusters of some kind of herb in their hands they were holding out as a ward against any of the monsters who strayed close. The fourth man wore an empty scabbard and torn up studded leather armor. He writhed on the ground between the three standing people standing around him, weapon forgotten on the ground as he clutched at his throat, blood oozing between his fingers.
Conrad charged forward, mental finger poised and ready to activate every buff and skill he had available to him. Psych Up increased his strength, forcing him to bellow as he swung his mace at the nearest of the rock dogs, wounding it and causing it to skitter away yelping.
He slammed another aside with his shield as it leapt at him and imbued his next attack, splattering rocky skull fragments of a creature too focused on the helpless people to notice the danger behind it. One of the larger ones came on then, snapping with lightning reflexes at Conrad’s mace as he swung, evidently trying to catch the hand wielding it.
Danger Sense lit up, and Conrad spun, managing to pull his leg back just before another bite a chunk out of his calf. He swung and cracked open the rocky plates forming over its leg, sending the beast crashing to the ground where it struggled to stand on a now twisted paw curled up in pain.
Time slowed as Adrenaline Rush boosted Conrad’s speed to levels even the quick beasts couldn’t keep up with, and he was again turned around shield up, and fending off the nipping, probing attacks of the largest among his foes.
“Kill it!” One of the women shrieked, “It’s the alpha!”
Conrad didn’t know what she was talking about but given her plan was exactly the same as his, it must have been good sense. He danced around, swinging his weapon and shield in patterns and arcs he would not have known to try only just that morning, but the Skill Book and practice with Troy was paying off handsomely. Troy and Mara had teased him saying he was “dangerous”. And he was. Just not always just to monsters. Anybody going near his frenzied, unskilled flailing in the confusion and tension of a fight was liable to get hurt.
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Now though? Conrad felt truly dangerous, like a weapon honed for a specific, targeted purpose. And as the fight carried on his foes began to treat him with greater and greater respect as those among them who were left unwounded grew fewer and fewer.
It was the big one, the alpha, that still dared to try and take him down. It lunged forward, grasping hold of his shield with powerful jaws and shook its head violently. The twisting pain on his wrist forced Conrad to let go, but the animal instincts of the rock dog alpha, so helpful in removing the defense of its foe, now became its undoing. Continuing to shake the shield as if it had pulled the very life from its enemy, it never noticed the Imbued Strike enhanced steel mace coming to smash down on its back.
The flanges of it cut deep into the thing’s flesh as the heavy core thumped audibly, crushing vertebrae and rendering the monster’s back legs useless. It yelped and snapped, rolling on the ground and Conrad, with as much speed as he could muster, ended its suffering.
The remaining rock dogs, the few that could still walk, skittered away, into the surrounding countryside, tails between their legs and yelping the whole way.
“Have you got any potions?” the uninjured man called out, “Hang on, Benny.”
Threat now gone, he took to trying to help the man staunch his own bleeding as Conrad ran over and held out a small vial of red healing potion. But even as he did he wasn’t sure it was going to help. The man had grown pale and his thrashing slowed.
The man uncorked the bottle and emptied it onto the wound itself, some small amount making it into the man’s mouth but with his throat torn open Conrad didn’t think it was going to do much good.
He activated Defensive Aura, if the man had the Toughness attribute it would raise it and maybe it would be enough to save his life.
A few seconds later the wounded man ceased thrashing and the whole group stood around in silence over the corpse. So much for that idea.
“I’m Gunny. Herdsman. This is Cora, my wife, and Trish, the Brewer.”
Conrad was about to introduce himself and realized he had collected quite a list of classes, but since it was customary to only use one in greeting he went with the most impressive, “Conrad. Officer. Who was he?” he gestured to the dead man.
“This was our village ‘Warrior’,” the man, Gunny, said, “Hasn’t had to do much warring since we came out here and so this, Chaos take it, is the result.”
“What’s going on? What brought the rock dogs in so close? I would have expected you to have at least a small node out here,”
“Who’s asking then Officer?” Trish, the Brewer, asked, exaggerating his class title, “Glad you came when you did, Order preserve you and all that, but we don’t survive out because we like Johnny Law coming around to poke his nose into our business.”
Conrad was about to introduce himself again, maybe she misunderstood? When Gunny interrupted, “Ah stow it Trish. She hates the local council out in Edge which is why she does her work all the way out here.”
She started back in, voice taking on the tone of one who has repeated herself over and over and refuses to stop doing so, “Bleed you dry, they will! Can’t turn a profit selling liquor to rich drunks with all the taxes and-”
“Trish! Enough! His name is Conrad and he saved us, and the only one bled dry is Benny,” the whole group of them made a small circling motion with a finger over their hearts in respect to the dead, then Gunny continued, “And I say that warrants a little gratitude, maybe even a warm place to sleep and something to eat. And a pint or two of your ale if you can spare it before the ‘Johnny Law’ taxes it into oblivion.”
Conrad invoked Silver Tongue, eager to keep Trish from feeling too uneasy about him. A Brewer and a Herdsman. Evidently these were the people he came out here to help.
“I’m actually from the Adventurer’s Guild, following up on the quest you posted,” Conrad said, trying a different tactic. He wasn’t actually a stranger, he had been summoned and was here at her request.
“There’s another shock,” the other woman, Gunny’s wife Cora, said, “First time I’ve ever heard of adventurers coming out here to help us folks doing Order’s true work and homesteading the Chaos Lands. You types like to stick to the dungeon.”
“That’s about the shape of it,” Conrad said, “But like you I grew up out here. There’s been a series of attacks, I think all by the same person, and my family was one of those hit hard.”
All three looked at each other and, surprisingly, it was Trish who spoke up, “You’re here about The Tower then?”
Conrad nodded and sent his weapon and shield into his inventory in order to be as unthreatening as possible, “What can you tell me about him?”
“Well for one,” she said, brandishing the bundle of herbs she and the others had all been holding during the rock dog attack, “He’s the reason we’re waving these around.” She sighed deeply, “Gunny, think we can put poor Benny in your barn for the night? While we talk with the Officer about the bastard what’s been messing up all our hard work out here?”
“Good a plan as any,” Gunny said.
They worked together to stow the body in the fortified barn, and when Conrad inquired about the rock dog corpses he had left the man just said, “Wouldn’t worry about it. Carrion out here is the only thing harder working than us.”
He led the group of them inside his home where Cora and Trish served up some simple food and, surprisingly to Conrad, the same ale that was so popular among the adventurers in Edge, a rich malty brown with just a hint of spicy cinnamon flavor.
Gunny barred the door and put into place an impressive array of iron shutters, locks, and chains that would have been absolutely alarming were Conrad not from a family that also made its home in the Chaos lands. Guests now secure from anything that might try to force its way inside, the group sat around the table while Gunny’s wife Cora served the ale Trish had brought over as well as a large plate of dried meats, cheese and thin,crispy, seasoned bread that Conrad found utterly delicious.
Silver Tongue urged Conrad to wait them out so he made good natured small talk - there was no rush now that he was here, and Trish especially was skittish about outsiders. He didn’t have to wait too long, however, as a silent message seemed to pass between the Brewer and the Herdsman, and the latter said, “Tell us what you think you know about our troubles with The Tower.”