They were halfway to town when Harry got Jehan's message. He could just barely hear it, a whisper in the wind. It was as quiet a sound as if someone was whispering directly in his ear, but it sounded like it was coming from far away.
“Richard may be under a mind affecting spell. Don't let Richard know...Some of the city guards might be compromised as well...”
Harry repeated the message to the rest of the group, including Richard, since he had already broken the spell.
“At least we know he's still alive.” Evelyn said. She had borrowed a long brown cloak from Harry, and even though Evelyn was taller than most women she knew, Harry was a full head taller than she was, and the cloak was obviously too large for her. She had to hold it up at her waist with her left hand to stop it from dragging on the ground, and the wooden staff in her right hand kept getting tangled in the long sleeves which went down almost to her fingertips. It would be quite a hindrance if she had to wear it in a fight, to be sure. But for now, the important part was the too-large hood covered up her face quite well, the front of the hood hanging down low in front of her face and hiding everything above her mouth, making it less likely anyone would recognize her from the bounty posters.
“He was going to the guardhouse to look for clues. Now, we get a message from him he found something that helped him realize that I was under a charm spell, and a message that the guards may be compromised.” Richard said grimly. “He clearly found something, and it sounds like he knows he's in danger now.”
“So, what's the plan?” asked Henry.
“We can either go to the guardhouse and try to find out what happened there, or we can try to track down Lillian using that spell Evelyn knows.”
“So, either we walk into the guardhouse knowing that the town guards are probably compromised, or we try to track down a powerful enchantress who may or may not know where Jehan is,” Bertrand said skeptically. “You realize we don't even know if Jehan is actually in danger, he might have walked right out of that guardhouse as soon as he realized something was wrong.”
Richard nodded, thinking. “If he did, then based on what he knows, he should be coming straight to the farmhouse, so he can try to break the spell on me, right?”
Bertrand nodded.
“Ok. Let's stop by the side of the road here, wait about half an hour. If he's coming up to the farmhouse he'll walk right past us. Probably smarter to wait until it's dark out before trying to sneak into the city anyway.”
This stretch of road was quiet, with woods on one side of the road and an open meadow on the other side. They walked off a short distance into the woods, close enough to easily see the road, and sat down. Richard was too restless to sit still for long, and quickly stood up and started practicing his knife throwing some more.
As Richard practiced throwing his knives into a tree, he asked out loud, “What can you guys tell me about this Duke?”
Bertrand, leaning against a tree nearby and watching the road, answered. “Duke Walter De Rudhale is one of the most powerful nobles in the kingdom. He always has been, but lately, he's been involved in fighting and winning a number of small battles with some of the other nobles in the kingdom and has been expanding his fiefdom.”
Richards eyebrows go up. He throws his fifth knife, and then walks over to the tree to retrieve them. “So, different nobles in the same kingdom fight little wars over territory? Does the King do anything to stop this?”
Harry shook his head, “Maybe it's different in your country, but here, the King doesn't really have the ability to order the nobles around. He has his own royal lands and his own knights and royal guards, but when there's a big war most of the kingdom's army comes from the nobles.”
Richard nodded, “So, sort of a feudal political system. That makes sense. So, any guesses about what the Duke might be doing sending his people here? It can't be just to recruit Evelyn.” He paused and threw the knife back into the tree again, “Is he trying to take this town, Bromwich, from whatever noble controls it now?”
“No nobles control Bromwich right now,” said Evelyn, reading from one of her books as she sat on the ground with her back to a tree. “The town has a royal charter; so long as we pay our taxes to the King every year, and obey royal decrees, no noble can tell us what to do. We have our own town council and Mayor.”
“The King gets a lot of taxes from our town, too,” Harry added. “Every ship that's coming up the river for trading stops at our harbor.”
“Hmm.” Richard thought about this. “So, if the Duke attacks the town, he could end up at war with the King?”
Kateryn spoke up, after having been quiet since they'd left the house. She was leaning against a tree, her spear held lightly in her left hand, “If the Duke wanted to start a rebellion against the King, he'd be trying to rally the other nobles against him, not attacking a town. Right?”
“Does it matter?” Bertrand said. “Look kid, whatever the Duke and his pet monsters are trying to do here, we're not the ones who are going to be able to stop it. Not today, at least. I'm coming along because I like Jehan, but the minute we get him safe, we need to get out of this town.”
“Do we...” Kateryn paused. “What are we going to do if that enchantress mind controls us again? Do we have a way to resist that? Or am I in the middle of one of those Ikarian plans where the basic idea is 'let's do something really stupid and just hope nothing goes wrong?'”
There was a silence.
“I...do have a way to disrupt a spell another magic user is casting or has cast,” Evelyn said nervously.
Bertrand looked at her with a flat stare, “Wild magic?”
“It's...it's not a full wild surge. Just...I read in one of the forbidden texts that a wild mage can put a little bit of wild energy into a different spell as someone else is casting, and, uh, it might blow up in their face. It's called a 'wild disruption'.”
“Might blow up in their face. Or might do anything else, right?” Bertrand asked. Evelyn nodded. “And I'm guessing from the way you worded that that you've never tried this before, right?”
“Oh, no, it's not something I could just test out in normal conditions, it's much too dangerous for that...” Evelyn paused, realizing she may not be helping her case.
Bertrand sighed again, “Or maybe even if you do manage to do that, there's still a chance that if we're not so lucky it might make the spell do something completely unexpected, maybe many times stronger than it would have been, and make the effects of their spell random. Stop me if I'm wrong about this.”
She shook her head and sighed.
“If you have to do it, then do it,” Richard said. Evelyn looked up at him, surprised. “I'm not letting that woman control me again. If it comes down to it and the only way to stop that is to try something that might blow us all up, then I guess that's what we have to do.”
“Ok, I was wrong before. NOW this sounds like an Ikarian plan.” Kateryn said.
Harry sighed. “Honey...”
“You know, you don't have to be here,” Richard said to her quietly. She spun and looked at him angrily, but he just calmly continued, “I mean it. Maybe you should go find your parents instead, get them out of town for a few days. Don't tell us where you're going, in case she gets a chance to ask us questions.”
Kateryn calmed down, and slowly shook her head, “I appreciate it, but I said I wanted to come along, and I meant it. The best way to keep my parents safe is to save Jehan and get him out of here before they get a chance to ask him questions, right?” Richard gave a small nod. “And I want to help. Look, I know I'm only a level 2 Spearman, but I'm also level 15 Farmer, so I've got a good number of hp, and Farmer levels usually gives you strength.”
Bertrand raises an eyebrow. “Level 15?”
“Yes. I'm not going to go down easily, and if I do manage to hit someone with this” she said, waving her spear, “they're going to stay down.”
Henry smiled, “We've made some money at taverns over the years, getting big strong guys to place bets on if they could beat her in an arm-wrestling contest. Turns out 22 Strength beats bulk almost every time.”
“So, thanks for trying to keep me safe, Richard, but don't worry about me. I've been married to this guy,” she said, gesturing at Harry, “for 20 years now, and this is hardly the first Ikarian plan I've been in the middle of. Besides...I like Jehan.” She smiled, “Even if he's a bad influence.”
They waited for a while longer, hoping to see Jehan come walking up the road, but he didn't. With the sun starting to set on their left side, they quietly walked the rest of the way to town.
When they got close to town, they left the main road, and headed down a narrow dirt path off to the right that went in the direction of the river. Evelyn led the way, and the rest of the group followed.
The path wove its way around several small farms, eventually reaching the river, where it met with a sandy path that ran along the side of the river. They could see the town walls from here but didn't see anyone. Everything was quiet, except for the sound of crickets chirping and the sound of the river water lapping up over smooth rocks.
“We're not likely to run into anyone back here,” said Evelyn. “Almost nobody comes down by the river here if they can avoid it, because sometimes merrow-men come up out of the river and grab people walking past it.”
“You don't say,” Richard muttered.
When they got to the town, the town wall came down almost to the edge of the river. The wall was about 10 feet high and made of stone, built into a raised earthen ramp that rose from the town up to the inside of the wall, and it was topped by a wooden fence. It probably could have been climbed by someone determined to do so almost anywhere; the surface of the wall wasn't completely smooth, and there were small gaps between the rocks where a person could get a fingerhold. But it looked especially easy to climb in the spot Evelyn had brought them to.
The wall had a corner here as it turned close to the river, and the side facing the river sloped outward more and had a gentler slope than the rest of the wall. That probably made it less vulnerable to river floods, but it also meant it was easier to climb.
“Come on,” Evelyn said quietly, leading the way. “There are almost never any guards down here, this spot isn't visible from the gates, and there's probably not anyone back in this part of the town late at night.”
“Maybe I shouldn't ask this, but do I even want to know what you might have been doing, when you were a teenager and living under our roof, that made you figure out where you could quietly sneak in and out of town without any guards seeing you?” Kateryn gave Evelyn a stern look, and Evelyn started to blush, before Harry chuckled, breaking the brief tension. Kateryn laughed as well.
“If we're going to do this, then let's go now. Quietly,” Bertrand said. Evelyn led the way, climbing up the wall quickly and then climbing over the fence at the top. Harry followed, and then Richard.
Richard didn't have much trouble getting up the wall; he wasn't sure if it was the Climbing skill or if it was just an easy climb, but either way he had no trouble finding footholds and handholds as he climbed the wall. He had a little more difficult with the wooden fence on top but was eventually able to pull himself up and over it.
Once they were over the fence, there was a gently sloping earthen ramp down to the ground, making it easy to walk down the other side of the ramp. From the top of the wall Richard could see down into significant areas of the town and could see some lights. Above the streets in different parts of town were glass spheres that either contained a flickering flame that reminded Richard of that candlelight spell he had seen Evelyn cast, or a flickering ball of white light. They weren't as bright as THE modern streetlights Richard was used to, but at least they were something.
By this point, the sun had set, and the sky was quickly getting darker. They climbed down off the wall into a very quiet part of town.
“Almost nobody is going to be out here in the evening,” said Evelyn. “Everything around here is warehouses close to the docks and some workshops.”
The roads back here were dark, and most of them were fairly narrow. They were cobblestone like most of the roads in the city, but most of these had clearly not been maintained in some time and the cobblestones were broken and damaged. The wider roads were crossed with narrow alleys going between larger buildings.
“So, should we head for the guard headquarters, or should we try to track down the sorceress?” Evelyn asked.
Richard thought for a second. “I don't think walking into the guard headquarters would be a good idea. Let's see if we can figure out where the sorceress is.”
Evelyn nodded, and pulled out the three necklaces with the leather charms on them, casting her spell. “Power return to your master, power return to your master...” The charms floated up and all pointed in the same direction, in front of them and to the right a little bit.
“Hmm.” Richard thought for a second. “Can do you that spell while reaching your arms out to the left and right?” Evelyn stretched her arms out, keeping two of the charms in her right hand and one in her left. Richard leaned close to her and nodded. “She's pretty close to us here.”
“How can you tell?” Evelyn asked.
Richard put his hands on her shoulder and turned her slightly to the right, facing her body in the direction her charms were pulling. “Look, the two in your right hand and the one in your left hand aren't going the exact same direction, see? They're pointing at slightly different angles. That means that they're pointing at something relatively close to you here, or we wouldn't be able to notice the difference with just a few feet between your hands.”
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
“Hmm. Why would they be back here? Is the warehouse you ran into her before back in this part of town, Richard?” Harry asked.
“No, that was close to the Inn near the center of town.”
Following Evelyn's lead, they walked in the direction the charm necklaces pointed at. Down a block, then a left turn and down a block, and then a right turn and down a dark, narrow alley between two buildings. Trash and waste had been left in this alley for who knows how long, and Richard saw a rat run away from them as they walked.
“She's in there, I think,” Evelyn said quietly.
The charms were pointing up at an angle now, towards the second floor of the warehouse in front of them. They could see two guards standing by the front door of the warehouse. Richard quickly pulled one of his throwing knives out and was holding it carefully behind his hand, where it was covered up by the sleeve of his cloak and hopefully wouldn't be noticed.
“Something isn't right,” Bertrand said. “Look at those guards.”
Richard looked. They were wearing chain mail, had swords on their hips, and were standing by the sides of door at attention, with their backs straight.
“It's not unusual to have a few merchant guards protecting a warehouse, but those guys don't look like merchant guards, they look like soldiers, following military discipline. No merchant guard would be standing at attention while guarding some warehouse in the middle of nowhere, and nobody would expect them to. I bet those guys are soldiers trying to look like merchant guards. Probably the Duke's soldiers.”
The one guard turned and looked in their direction.
“Standing still here in the alley is just going to make us look more suspicious. Let's just calmly walk past them. Try to act normal,” Bertrand said, and started walking out of the alley. The rest of the group joined him.
They strolled down the street, trying to look as nonchalant as they could, which wasn't very. The first guard called out to them, “What are you people doing out here tonight?”
“Nothing, we were just going for a walk and got ourselves turned around,” Richard said. “I'm new to town, and these streets don't make any sense to me. Tell me, do you know where the Inn is?”
The first guard started to answer, but the second guard reached out and stopped the first guard, putting a hand on his chest, “Hey, do I know you from somewhere?”
Richard looked at the second guard, and the man's face did look familiar, like he'd seen him somewhere before. Which was strange, where could he have...
Richard realized who the man was at the same minute the man realized who Richard was.
“Hey! You're the asshole that stole my pants!” the guard yelled and reached for his sword.
Richard flicked his arm forward in an uppercut motion and threw the throwing knife at the guard using the underhand throw Bertrand had shown him. The knife flew true and struck the man directly in the throat. The man's yell became a gurgle, and he dropped his sword, and reached up with both hands, touching the knife in his throat as if he couldn't believe it was there. He sank to his knees.
Within a second, Henry had drawn his bow and fired an arrow at the uninjured guard in one smooth movement. The arrow struck the center of the man's chest, and it looked like it just barely penetrated the man's chain mail, hurting him only slightly. The man drew his sword and started to run forward, but a moment later a bolt of fire from Evelyn's hand struck him in the center of his chest, and this time he went down.
2 human soldiers killed (partial exp): 250 Skirmisher EXP granted
Skilled earned: Surprise attack
Achievement earned: One shot-Kill an enemy with a single critical hit. Bonus earned: +5% chance of all critical hits
You have earned +10 High Stakes points
The fight was over in less than five seconds. The men hadn't even had a chance to cry out, and nobody in the warehouse had heard them. Richard suddenly felt nauseous in his stomach, looking at the two dead men in front of him, one with his knife in his throat.
Bertrand walked up to the one soldier, now lying on his side on the ground with blood, and casually pulled Richard's knife out of the man's throat and wiped it clean with a rag. As soon as he did, blood spurted out, and Bertrand had clearly expected that and had stood off to one side so that the blood wouldn't get on him. “Quick, let's drag these bodies down into the alley, then maybe if we're lucky nobody will see them until morning.” Harry and Kateryn walked over and help Bertrand drag the bodies into the alley; part of Richard's brain was telling him he should help as well, but he felt like he couldn't move, like he was rooted to the ground, and he just stood and watched.
After they'd moved the bodies, Bertrand walked back over to Richard and handed him his knife back. Richard mechanically put the knife back into its place on the leather baldric he was wearing on his chest.
Bertrand clapped him on the shoulder. “You did good, kid. Was that your first time killing someone?”
Richard nodded slowly.
“It's not easy, and you're going to have to take some time and process this, but later. We have to act now, we can't stand around here. Do we keep going, or should we just flee town?”
“We keep going.” Richard said, quietly. He closed his eyes for a second
I have to get a grip, I have to be calm, I have to be rational, what do we do next?
“Ok. Ok. I don't think we want to walk in the front door of the warehouse, is there another way we can get inside?” Richard asked.
Harry looked at the warehouse. “Evelyn said the enchantress was on the second floor. Over on that side of the building, there's another warehouse next to it is very close, there's only about a three-foot gap between the buildings. If we can get in there, should be able to get up to the second floor and climb across into that window. I have rope with me.”
“Ok. Let's move quickly, before someone comes out to check on those two guards.”
The other warehouse was locked with a chain and a lock on the front door, but Evelyn was able to create a low flame and burn a hole through the wooden door large enough for them to climb through. The warehouse was dark inside, and Evelyn created a flickering candlelight flame in the air above them, so they could see.
The warehouse was a large open area, with rows of boxes stacked in the middle. Around the outside of the warehouse there was a narrow catwalk with wooden stairs going up to it, and a series of doors on the outside of the catwalk. Harry lead the way up the wooden stairs, and they could hear the thud of their boots echoing in the empty space as they walked up and around the catwalk. “I think it's this room,” said Harry, and they opened the door. Next to the catwalk over here was what looked like a small office, with cabinets and a desk. They walked over to the window, and it was indeed only a few feet over to a window on the next building, over a long drop into an alley. Fortunately, the room in the other building was also dark, and presumably empty, although it looked like there was some light inside the warehouse. Harry opened the window and looked out.
“Yeah, this should work.” Harry said. “I just wish there was a way to open the window in the other building without breaking it, that might make too much noise.”
Evelyn walked over to the window. “I might be able to do something.” She started quietly chanting a spell. Unlike her fire spells this one took her a full minute to cast, but once she did the window in the other building slid up, opening.
“Perfect. Now let's see...” Harry leaned out the window. “Hold my feet, guys, just don't let me fall.” Richard, Kateryn, Bertrand, and Evelyn got a good grip on Harry's ankles, and Harry climbed up and put his knees up on the windowsill. He leaned forward, with his head and arms out of the window, and then threw himself forwards. He managed to grab the open window on the other side of the alley. “Ok, I got a good grip, you guys can let go now.” Once they did, he pulled himself forward. His feet pulled out of the window, and Richard felt a moment of terror as Harry's legs swung down over the 15-foot drop, but with just his upper body strength Harry was able to hold on to the window and then pull himself up and through the window.
“Ok, that wasn't so bad.” Harry threw a rope across the window, and Bertrand caught it. “Tie the rope over there somewhere, make sure it's to something strong, and then the rest of you can use it to cross.”
Bertrand tied the rope around the heavy cabinets, and then he smiled. “Ok, Richard, you should go next.”
Richard nodded, and walked over to the window, looking down at the fall. He climbed up onto the windowsill just like Harry had, but at least when he reached out he was able to grab onto the rope. With his friends holding on to his ankles, Richard wrapped his arms around the rope and carefully inched himself out towards the next building, trying not to look down. Fortunately, Richard was tall enough that his friends were still holding onto his ankles when Harry was able to grab his arm and pull him the rest of the way across the gap.
You have earned +5 High Stakes points
One by one, the rest of them climbed across the alley into the room the same way. Bertrand was the last across.
“Should we cut the rope? It's kind of obvious what happened if we leave it up here,” Harry whispered.
“No, we might need to leave the same way. And odds are someone will notice the missing guards before they notice this rope,” Bertrand said.
The room they were in now was dark, but they could hear people moving around in other parts of the warehouse. While the rest of them stayed back, Harry got down on his hands and knees, and carefully opened the door a few inches and peeked outside, staying low so hopefully he would be less visible. His face paled, and he crawled back away from the door.
“I think you guys need to see this.”
Richard crawled over and looked out the door. From what he could see, the warehouse they were in looked a lot like the one they had been in next door; wooden walkways around the outside of the walls, with doors on them going to second floor rooms. The warehouse was lit with several glass balls with white glowing lights in them, placed at different spots on the first floor and along the wooden catwalk. They weren't that bright, but in the shadows, there was enough light for Richard to see what was in the warehouse.
Warped men. Dozens of them, just in the part of the warehouse he could see through the crack in the door; if the whole warehouse was like this there were probably hundreds. Hard, blackened tubes where arms or legs should be, some coming to a point, some bulging out. They were standing in rows in the warehouse, unmoving, silent. It looked like their eyes were closed; Richard could see them breathing, otherwise he might have assumed they were dead.
Flashes of memory hit Richard, things he had seen in the other warehouse and been told to forget about.
Chalk circles on the ground
Rows after rows of warped men, silent, waiting
He carefully crawled back away from the door and turned to the others. Each member of the party took a turn crawling down and peeking through the cracked door to view the same scene before returning to the furthest point in the room from the door as possible.
“Ok. Things may be worse than I thought,” Richard said quietly.
Kateryn quietly snorted. “You don't say.”
Spoiler: Character sheet
Name: Richard
Race: Human (5)
Class: Skirmisher(1)
Age: 26
Strength: 3 (2.4)
Dexterity: 6
Constitution: 11
Endurance: 8
Intelligence: 24 (28.8)
Wisdom: 4 (3.6)
Perception: 7
Charisma: 11 (13.2)
HP: 80 (Max: 80)
SP: 38 (Max 38)
MP: 144 (144)
MP regeneration: 3.4%/hour
Divine Class: Champion of Ikar (1)
Humor: 41
Cunning: 42
High Stakes: 35
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.
Curious (Human racial trait): Some humans have a high degree of curiosity, and a desire to learn many new things and try many different possible paths. Many consider this curiosity to be one of the great assets of the species, even if it frequently gets them into trouble. Learns skills and spells 10% more quickly (scales with human level). Experience bonus for more than 3 classes (currently 0% bonus). Can earn human experience for making discoveries.
Accuracy (Skirmisher class trait): +1 to hit with any thrown or ranged weapons. Scales with skirmisher level.
Running throw (Skirmisher class trait): +50% to damage and +25% to range when a weapon is thrown while charging at full speed. Scales with skirmisher level.
Rapid retreat (Skirmisher class trait): +25% speed when running away from an enemy or hazard, but at a cost of +10% SP consumption. Scales with skirmisher level.
Skills (General):
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) (3): You have an intermediate 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. +30% to movement speed through a forest. -30% to SP cost for moving through forest. Increased chance to see and avoid natural hazards.
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.
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) (1): You have a basic level of skill at sword fighting. +1 to-hit bonus with any sword, +1 damage with any sword.
Rational Introspection (1): You have begun to develop the rare skill of being able to rationally inspect your own thoughts for errors and inconsistencies. Can be used to notice and break free of some types of mental magic and illusion spells. Allows you to use your intelligence to slightly increase your resistance to some types of spells.
Surprise attack (1): When attacking someone by surprise or from stealth, +1 to damage and +5% to Critical hit chance
Skills (Skirmisher):
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.
Thrown weapon (rocks) (2): You have a basic level of skill at throwing rocks. +2 to-hit bonus with thrown rocks, +2 damage. 5% chance for a thrown rock to stun an opponent.
Thrown weapon (daggers and knives) (3): You have a basic level of skill at throwing daggers and knives. +3 to-hit bonus with thrown daggers and knives, +3 damage. 5% increased chance for a thrown dagger or knife to inflict the bleed status on an opponent.
Parting shot (3): You have a moderate level of skill at using thrown or ranged weapons while moving. -45% to ranged penalty for using ranged weapons while running or riding.
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?
Achievements: Bounty Hunter(intermediate):+2 DEX One Shot: +5% CRIT