Richard's mind snapped into the cold, rational, calculating mindset he always did when things really went to hell, and in a moment, he analyzed the situation in front of him in crystal clear detail.
The inn's main room had a large rectangular shape, basically a hall, and was about 40 feet long. It had twelve long tables, with three rows of four tables each lined up, and benches next to each table. The door to the small, fancy dining room they were in was on the side of the larger room, roughly in the middle of the main room. The door to enter the inn from the street was ajar, around the middle of the wall to their right, about 20 feet away. Partly eaten meals and half-full mugs of ale were on many of the tables, some of them still steaming hot. People had clearly left in a rush.
Eight of the warped men were scattered around the room, slowly shambling towards them on deformed, blackened legs, most of them having one or more arms or legs replaced with those horrific hardened blackened appendages he had seen on the other warped men. Some of them had arms that came to points like sharpened, blackened spears, while others had bulging deformed clubs for arms. Richard rapidly ran through options in his mind, trying to see the path that would take him through this.
“Quick, let's close and barricade the door shut before they get here.” Jehan quietly said.
Richard shook his head. He'd already thought of that, but it wasn't going to work. The thin wooden door to the side room wouldn't hold for long, and once they were in that room they'd be cornered. At best it might buy them a few minutes before the things broke in and killed them both. Maybe help would come by then, but maybe not. These things are slow moving and stupid. Better to use their disadvantages against them than to get into an arm-wrestling match with eight of them.
“If you have a spell that would speed me up or make me more agile, cast it on me now” Richard said.
Jehan didn't ask any questions, and quietly said a few words, and the notification popped up in front of Richard's eyes.
You have been blessed with Cat's Grace. +4 Dex for the next 10 minutes.
“Perfect. Ok, do you think you could handle yourself in a one-on-one fight with one of them at a time?” Richard asked.
Jehan nodded. “Maybe. Are you planning on taking care of the other seven?”
“I'll keep them busy. When I make my move, I want you to start moving right, towards the exit. If you can fight them one on one, great, but don't let them surround you. If you can get out, do it, I'll catch up.”
“You'll catch up?” Jehan asked. “Where will you be?”
“Don't worry, I have a plan.” Sort of.
Richard drew out his sword and charged right into the center of the room yelling, running passed the first row of tables. He slashed his sword towards the face of a warped man, and while the warped man pulled back, he managed to slice him along the side of the face. The warped man didn't flinch, or show any sign of pain, but a thin line of black blood started to slowly ooze out of his left cheek.
All over the room, the warped men turned and started moving slowly towards Richard from all directions.
Good, that got their attention. The warped man he had just cut tried to stab him with the hard, pointed black thing he had instead of a left arm. Richard danced out of the way, and then ran to the left, directly away from the exit. “I’m over here, come get me” he yelled.
All eight of them continued to slowly move towards Richard, on the most direct routes between the tables. Just like Richard had predicted, this left only one of them on the far side of the room taking the path along the wall, to the right of Jehan.
As soon as Richard started moving, Jehan had cast a second divine spell, and was now surrounded by a brightly glowing white light. He moved to the right and attacked the single warped man. The warped man swung the blackened clublike limb at Jehan, but Jehan ducked under it and slammed the palm of his hand into the warped man's face. There was a crunching sound that sounded like a broken nose, but perhaps even more important was the way the white glow coming from Jehan's skin seemed to burn the face of the warped man.
A warped man was now in front of Richard, and three more were slowly closing on him from behind, including the one he had slightly wounded. Richard spun to his left, moving at a slow jog that he could tell was just a little faster than the warped men could move, and ran through the gap between tables back towards the wall where he had started. A warped man was coming at him from the left, and Richard drew out his dagger from under his shirt and hurled it at him, then turned and ran along the wall to the right without waiting to see if the dagger had hit or not.
That's 5 of them chasing me, and Jehan is fighting one, but where are the other two? Richard glanced around the room and cursed when he realized that the other two had broken off from the group chasing him and were moving towards Jehan's back, while Jehan was still fighting the other one hand to hand.
Can't let three of them surround Jehan. Richard put one foot on the wooden bench next to him and jumped up onto the wooden table. “Hey, ugly fuckers! Ignore him, come chase me!” Richard grabbed a glass mug of ale that had been sitting on the table and tossed it at the head of the one warped man, and then grabbed a bowl of beef stew and tossed it at the other warped man. Both throws connected, and the two warped men turned away from Jehan's back and started moving back towards Richard, one now soaked in ale and the other with beef stew running down his blackened face and down his shoulder.
Richard was now standing on the table, and one of the warped men reached out with his more human-looking hand to grab at Richard's leg. Richard swung his sword down and slammed it into the warped man's wrist, driving it back. Richard noticed that the warped man he had thrown the dagger at had collapsed and was down with the dagger right in the center of its chest, but the other 4 near him were now standing around the table and grabbing and swinging at him. Richard had a quick flashback to being pinned down by the orcs. Can't let myself get cornered either. He leaped sideways, jumping onto the table to his left, and then ran down to the end of that table and jumped to the next table, putting some more distance between himself and the warped men.
By this point, the warped man Jehan had been fighting was down, and Jehan was heading towards the exit. There were only two warped men left in front of Richard, the two he had thrown food towards earlier, and they were both on the right side of the room. If I can just get around them, we'll be in the clear.
Richard leaped to the left of the table he was on, landing on the table on the left side of the room. When he landed, he heard a loud CRACK as one of the table legs snapped. He pinwheeled his arms and moved his feet to try to remain balanced as the table rapidly tilted under him, but completely lost balance as he stepped on a half-eaten potato. His foot slipped out from under him, and he fell hard on his back next to the table. At least it didn't hurt as much as he expected, although it knocked the wind out of him.
Pratfall successful! +5 humor points, falling damage reduced.
Richard blinked the notification away and saw one of the warped men come lumbering across into the gap in front of him, beef stew still dripping off its shoulders. It brought down its heavy, black, club-like limb towards where Richard was lying on the tavern floor. Richard rolled to the side just in time to avoid it, and it slammed down on the floor with a heavy crunching sound right where his head had been a second earlier. The other four warped men were now catching up, coming up between the tables from behind him. Richard rolled to his right, avoiding another blow, and rolled under the bench and under the table, between the wooden legs. One of the warped men tried to stab at him with his spear-like limb, but Richard rolled quickly enough to avoid it, and rolled out under the other side of the table.
Rather than go around the table, the five warped men simply grabbed the side of the table and lifted it up, almost flipping the heavy table onto Richard. Richard avoided that by continuing to roll, going under another table, and when he got under that table he bounded to his feet. He was now back on the right side of the room, close to where he had started. The sixth warped man was now fighting Jehan by the door, while the other 5 were across the room. Richard sprinted along the side of the room towards the fight, drawing out his sword while he ran, and stabbed the warped man fighting Jehan in the back.
His sword didn't penetrate very far into the warped man's back, hitting a rib, but it distracted the warped man for long enough for Jehan to slam both of his glowing fists together into both sided of the warped man's head at the same time. The warped man went limp and collapsed to the ground with the impact, and Richard and Jehan jumped over the body and ran out the door of the inn, well ahead of the 5 warped men still slowly shuffling towards them.
Once they were outside, Richard grabbed the door and pushed it shut.
Richard spoke quickly, while trying to catch his breath. “Let's try to keep them inside if we can, at least for a few minutes, so they don't kill anyone else. If they start to break through this door before help gets here, we can run.”
Jehan nodded, and together he and Richard leaned onto the heavy wooden door of the inn. A minute later they could feel one of the abominations trying to push it open from the inside, but it only moved an inch or so before slamming shut again. With both of their weights leaning up against it, and especially Jehan's muscles, they were able to hold it in place.
When pushing failed, the warped men started trying to break the door, and Richard could hear them slamming into it in the same spot near the top over and over again. They eventually would have broken through, but before they did about twenty members the town's militia showed up, carrying spears, led by someone in a uniform.
“We killed three of them, but there are five still in there.” Richard explained.
The man nodded, and the militia quickly gathered around the door with spears ready. “Good work. When I say now, I want the two of you to step away from the door and get out of the way, we can handle it from here. Ready....now!”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
At his word, Richard and Jehan let go of the door, and the door swung open, pushed by the abominations. The militia quickly fell into position with spears ready, and as the first abomination came shambling through the doorway it was met with a wall of spears stabbing at every part of it and was brought down quickly; it never had the chance to attack any of the militia members. The abominations didn't hesitate or learn from that, and each one came shambling out through the doorway one by one and was killed just as easily.
Once the last warped man fell, Richard got a bunch of after-combat notifications.
3 warped men defeated (partial experience). +234 experience.
For throwing food at an enemy during combat, you have earned +20 Humor points. For tactically outmaneuvering a superior enemy force you have earned +15 Cunning points.
Skill earned: Taunt (1)
Skill earned: Acrobatics (1)
Skill earned: Melee weapon (sword) (general) (1)
Skill earned: Parting shot (2)
The captain of the militia asked them what happened. He clearly already knew Jehan, and Richard mostly stayed quiet and let Jehan do the talking. Jehan mentioned that they had been in the side room of the inn when the attack came but avoided mentioning that the room had been warded against sound, or the failed Insight spell Richard had miscast. He described the battle in some detail, in such a way that made Richard sound quite heroic while minimizing his own role.
“...so then, after leading them away from me and leading them on a merry chase around the room while slowly whittling them down, I was able to get to the door, and Richard helped me escape. This young man risked his life, putting himself in danger to make sure I could get out of the room and away from those monsters first.”
Your heroism to protect an ally in the face of danger, as recounted in a tale that will spread, has increased your Glory. +7 Glory points.
It's going to take a lot more than that in order to get rid of my negative glory score. At least it's good to know that it's possible though.
“Padre”, the militia captain continued, “do you have any idea where these monsters could have come from?”
Jehan sighed. “These aren't just monsters, they're abominations, corruptions. I suspect someone is summoning them from another world. Richard here just reported to the adventurer's guild that he fought some of these in the forest to the south yesterday, so I suspect this isn't the first time they've summoned them either. My belief is we're dealing with a corrupted summoner, and whoever they are, they're probably in town today.” He paused again. “You're going to need to get some priests down here to purify the area and these bodies, and until that happens all of you should try to avoid touching them too much. The corruption could spread and sicken people or curse the ground here if we don't take precautions. I could help, but I've already used most of my divine magic for the day...”
The captain shook his head. “We'll get someone down to take care of it, Padre, you just take care of yourself.” He hesitated. “You know that if this really is someone practicing forbidden magic doing this, it's probably Evelyn, right? I know that you were friendly with her before she went off to train as a mage...”
Jehan shook his head. “I don't believe she would do this, captain. I know what the Academy said, but...”
“We don't know that it was her, of course, but what are the odds of two magic users using forbidden magic in the same area at the same time, Padre?” The captain paused. “You have to be careful, Padre. If it was Evelyn who did this, she probably was trying to kill you.”
Jehan shook his head again. “I don't think you're right about any of this, but I'll be careful.”
“Thank you, Padre. We'll redouble our efforts to find...erm...whoever did this.” The captain said, diplomatically.
The militia let Richard know that once they had had the inn and everything in it purified, that he could stop by and reclaim his dagger and backpack he had left in the Inn. After some polite goodbyes, Jehan started walking away, and Richard walked next to him. Once they were out of earshot, Richard turned to Jehan. “Why didn't you tell him it couldn't have been Evelyn? You know it wasn't her.”
“I do,” Jehan said quietly “But the only reason I know for sure is that I cast a Detect Untruth spell on Evelyn yesterday and asked her, so I know for a fact she's not a corrupted summoner. But I have no way of convincing him that she wasn't the one who did this without revealing that I know where she is. Even if I just defend her a little too hard, they might come to suspect that I'm protecting her.”
Richard didn't have anything to say to that, and they kept walking.
“Do you think the summoner who did this might still be nearby?” Jehan asked.
Richard shook his head. “I was worried during that fight that he would show up and start throwing fireballs at us or something, but he didn't. My guess is that he summoned those warped men and sent them after us to keep busy whoever had detected him, and to give him time to escape. If he's smart, he's probably already left town.” They walked in silence for another minute. “By the way, thanks for telling that story in a way that made me sound heroic. That might help people take me a little more seriously, which could be helpful."
Jehan turned to him. “I didn't lie, you know. What you did actually was heroic.”
Richard snorted. “I jumped on tables, threw food at monsters, and then I slipped on a potato and fell on my ass.”
Jehan smiled and shook his head. “I'm the one with a combat class; Brawler isn't the best combat class, certainly, but it's still better than nothing. I also have a lot more hit points than you do, between my different classes; I could take a lot more damage before going down. And you're the Champion, the important one, the one who had to get out of there alive for everyone's sake.” He paused. “When you asked me to cast an agility spell on you, I thought you were going to ask me to slow the monsters down while you escaped. And I was willing to do that, it made total rational sense, it was what I would have suggested. Instead, you ran away from the door and made sure that all of them were chasing after you instead of me. You put your own neck on the line to protect me. You managed to orchestrate the whole battle, so I was never fighting more than one of them at once. And somehow you never lost control of the battle even for a second, not even when you were lying flat on your back.”
Richard shrugged. “It wasn't anything heroic. I just tried to figure out the best way to get us both out of there in one piece. Anyone would have done the same.”
“No. Most people would not have done the same. Even if they had wanted to, most people would not have been able to think that many moves ahead and adapt that quickly. Ikar knew what he was doing when he chose you.” Once they had moved a few blocks away, Jehan stopped. “Whatever you think you need to do next, Champion, I hope you will let me help you.”
Richard paused. What do I need to do next? “Is Evelyn in a safe place?”
Jehan nodded. “She should be, for now. Maybe we'll move her farther away from town after this.”
“Ok, let's go see her first, and discuss what to do next with her.” Richard looked down at himself. “Right after I buy a new shirt and a pair of shoes.”
Jehan laughed.
Spoiler: Character sheet
Name: Richard
Race: Human (4)
Class: None
Age: 26
Strength: 3 (2.4)
Dexterity: 5
Constitution: 10
Endurance: 8
Intelligence: 24 (28.8)
Wisdom: 4 (3.6)
Perception: 7
Charisma: 11 (13.2)
HP: 68 (Max: 71)
SP: 11 (Max 37)
MP: 1 (144)
MP regeneration: 3.4%/hour
Divine Class: Champion of Ikar (1)
Humor: 40
Cunning: 21
High Stakes: 19
Glory: -911
Divine favors:
Gift of Tongues: May speak, understand, read, or write in any mortal language (may only speak languages you have heard and only write in languages you have seen).
Special traits:
Offworld Education (Legendary): +20% to effective intelligence, -10% to effective wisdom. Learns skills 50% more quickly than someone with an equivalent intelligence, gains experience 25% more quickly. More likely to learn unusual skills.
Pampered: Compared to most humans, this person has spent his whole life eating the best food, doing minimal physical labor, and generally living what most would call a life of luxury. -20% to strength, -20% to stamina points, +20% to hit points, +20% to charisma.
Without Glory: This person is extremely lacking in Glory, one of the 3 virtues of Toran, and as such may be instinctively distrusted or even hated by followers of Toran. -10 to reaction from followers of Toran.
Explorer (Human racial trait): Humans are known for wanting to explore the world, and for wanting to discover what's over the next hill. Gains a small amount of experience gained for discovering and exploring new locations.
Skills:
Pratfall (2): You have the ability to fall in a hilarious fashion. Likely to make people laugh if executed well. All falling damage reduced by 20%.
Mathematics (14): You are extremely skilled at mathematics. +140% to calculation speed and accuracy. +70% to learning speed of other skills with a mathematical component. Small bonus to other math related skills and spells.
Pathfinder (forest) (2): You have a basic level of skill at moving through a forest quickly. You have learned the basics of how to travel through a forest, can see where to step and where to avoid, and can identify good paths to take while traveling. +20% to movement speed through a forest. -20% to SP cost for moving through forest. Increased chance to see and avoid natural hazards.
Jogging (3): An unusual running practice, primarily designed to improve the health and endurance of the human or for recreation rather then for practical gain. -30% SP cost while running slowly on roads or even ground, -15% SP cost for other running. +15% endurance and constitution training gains while running.
Stealth (1): You have a basic level of skill at moving quietly and in a stealthy manner. Decreased chance of being detected while trying to move quietly and stealthily.
Climbing (1): You have a basic level of skill at climbing.
Thrown weapon (rocks) (2): You have a basic level of skill at throwing rocks. +10% chance to hit with thrown rocks, +2 damage. 5% chance for a thrown rock to stun an opponent.
Thrown weapon (daggers) (1): You have a basic level of skill at throwing daggers. +1 to-hit bonus with thrown daggers, +1 damage.
Parting shot (2): You have a moderate level of skill at using thrown or ranged weapons while moving. -30% to ranged penalty for using ranged weapons while running or riding.
Writing (5): You know how to write clearly. Higher levels of this skill improve writing speed and accuracy.
Taunt (1): You have a basic level of skill at taunting an enemy to cause them to attack you. Most effective on enemies with low wisdom scores.
Acrobatics (1): You have a basic level ability at acrobatics. Improves jumping, tumbling, rolling, and balance.
Melee weapon (sword)(general): You have a basic level of skill at sword fighting. +1 to-hit bonus with any sword, +1 damage with any sword.
Spells:
Insight (1)
Quest: Try Not To Die. To succeed at this quest, merely live through your first two weeks in the world without getting killed. Shouldn't be too hard...right?
Achievement: Bounty Hunter(novice)