[Current visibility: 205/300]
[Notice: You’re ready to level up]
The guard walked closer and closer to the shady holding cell that Isabelle was crouched inside. At least nobody seemed to have noticed stupid Tahsi crouched over in the far corner. Even though his sneak level was zero.
[Party member Tahsi’s sneak increased to level 1]
Isabelle rolled her eyes. Of course.
[Current visibility: 236/300]
[Notice: You’re ready to level up]
“I think I see someone over here!” said the guard, running closer to the cell.
Shit. Isabelle opened her inventory.
Inventory: Isabelle
Carrying capacity: 78/79
Item
Traits
Cloud Reach Guard Shield
+3 str, +3 const, +10 carry weight
Cloud Reach Guard Helmet (human)
+2 hp, +1 str, +4.5 carry weight
Cloud Reach Guard Armor (human)
+3 hp, +4 str, +8 carry weight
Steel Gloves
+1 str, +3 damage, +1 carry weight
Longbow
+3 damage, +1 carry weight
Abbreviated list based on prior use. Focus to see more items…
[Cloud Reach Guard Shield equipped]
[+3 str]
[+3 const]
[Cloud Reach Guard Helmet (human) equipped]
[+2 hp]
[+1 str]
[Cloud Reach Guard Armor (human) equipped]
[+3 hp]
[+1 str]
[Steel Gloves equipped]
[+1 str]
[+1 damage]
[Longbow equipped]
[+3 damage]
[Notice: You’re ready to level up]
Immediately under disguise, Isabelle then dropped from a crouch to laying on her back, and started groaning lightly.
[Current visibility: 300/300]
“Hey! There’s a guard laying over here!” said the guard. He scratched the back of his head. “But it looks like they’re alive! And… human?”
The other guard ran over to greet the two of them, drawing her longsword reflexively.
[Speechcraft attempt: deceive]
Isabelle stood up to address the guards. “Hello, fellow guards,” she said.
[Speechcraft succeeded]
[Recognized: 0/100]
[Notice: You’re ready to level up]
“Hello,” said a guard. “So, um, mind telling us what the fuck is going on here?”
“Yea,” said the other guard. “Where’s the prisoner?”
[Speechcraft attempt: mislead]
“So, um—” Isabelle cleared her throat, “—Essentially, Higla had me take the prisoner out so that I could beat him a little. But then, uh, then he got out of his ropes and Higla ended up dying, and then I was lying in the cell where you found me.”
[Speechcraft succeeded]
[Recognized: 0/100]
[Notice: You’re ready to level up]
“That makes sense,” said the first guard.
“Yea,” said the second guard. “Higla always loved beating prisoners. It was kind of her thing.”
The first guard sniffled a little.
“Are you crying?” the second guard asked him.
“No. I’m fine. It’s fine,” said the first guard to her, sniffling even more.
“Okay then,” said the second guard. She turned to Isabelle. “Do you have any idea where the prisoner is now?”
Isabelle tried not to jump, as she’d noticed that Tahsi had crawled over to Higla’s dead body and was apparently looting her armor at that moment.
[Speechcraft attempt: deceive]
“No, I really have no idea,” said Isabelle.
[Speechcraft had mixed results]
[Recognized: 5/100]
[Notice: You’re ready to level up]
“Come on,” said the first guard. He’d gotten his sniveling under control. “You have to have some idea. I know you’re a human, but you can’t be so stupid that you wouldn’t have paid attention to what was happening.”
Isabelle looked again to Tahsi. He’d apparently looted Higla’s guard outfit and accessories off and it looked like he was about halfway through equipping them.
[Speechcraft attempt: deceive]
“I, um, I think he ran out of here. All three of us should probably get out of here, split up and look for him,” said Isabelle.
[Speechcraft failed]
[Recognized: 35/100]
[Notice: You’re ready to level up]
Fuck. Isabelle wasn’t surprised, but she was disappointed.
“That doesn’t make any sense,” said the first guard. “There’s no way he could’ve gotten out of here, even with Higla dead and you incapacitated, he wouldn’t be able to hiss the incantation the opens the exit. Even you know that. If you’re even a real guard, that is.”
[Recognized: 47/100]
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“Well, shit, folks,” said Tahsi. He walked up to the two other guards and nodded, wearing Higla’s armor.
“What?” asked a guard. “And where’d you come from?”
[Speechcraft attempt: deceive]
“It’s a funny story,” said Tahsi. “You see, I heard you sound the alarm, so I ran here as fast as I could. When I hissed the incantation to open up the hidden doorway, somebody ran out the entrance. He was wearing a suit of guard armor, so I figured he was with you three. But, now that I’ve gotten here and I hear you three arguing about where the prisoner went, and I see Higla’s naked body, I think I know what happened.”
[Speechcraft succeeded]
[Notice: You’re ready to level up]
“Wait a second,” said a guard, “Higla wasn’t naked when we came in here!”
[Speechcraft attempt: deceive]
“Exactly,” said Tahsi. “I think what happened was this: our prisoner, after having murdered Higla and knocked out this inexperienced, human guard, stole Higla’s armor and took his first opportunity to escape without any of us being the wiser!”
[Speechcraft succeeded]
“Shit,” said the other guard. “It all makes sense now. What do you think we should do?”
[Speechcraft attempt: persuade]
Tahsi cleared his throat. “I think that what we all ought to do is stop wasting our time standing around in here. We need to get out of this holding cell, split up, and look for him.”
[Speechcraft succeeded]
[Notice: You’re ready to level up]
“That’s a great idea,” said a guard.
“I agree,” said the other guard. “Let’s get to work!”
The guards ran down the hall, swords raised in the air. Isabelle’s jaw hung open.
“Christ’s sake, Tahsi,” said Isabelle. “How in the hell did you convince them of all that?”
“Oh, come on, Isabelle. You’ve seen my character sheet. You know how I did it,” said Tahsi. There was not even an ounce of pride or smugness in his tone of voice, and it made Isabelle even more jealous.
“Whatever,” said Isabelle. “Let’s get the fuck out of here before anybody else gets suspicious.”
Isabelle and Tahsi ran down the hall and stared at the wall.
[Notice: You’re ready to level up]
“Do you know the incantation?” Isabelle asked Tahsi, holding back a smirk.
“Uh, no,” said Tahsi. “Back when they threw me in here, I was more focused on how hungry I was than anything else. You know they took all my loaves of bread from me, Isabelle. The last loaves of bread from my bakery and they took them all. You would not believe the amount of times I failed speechcraft attempts trying to get them to give me some of my bread. Funny, it’s actually how I leveled up my speechcraft so much. But no matter what I did, the guards would never give me any bread. They were convinced I’d use it to break out of my cell somehow, like that makes any sense.”
“Oh. Well. Actually, I know the incantation,” said Isabelle. She’d been hoping to one-up Tahsi by telling him that she knew the incantation, but instead she just felt like a bit of a jerk. Though, she could picture Tahsi beating the bars of his cell open with his stone-hard bread. After all, she’d blown a kobold’s head open with it.
Quest: Save Tahsi
Description: Tahsi has been sentenced to public execution by Cloud Reach! They plan to have him hanged tonight ‘when the moon is high’ in the city center between Whitebridge and Nightbridge. Stop the execution to save his life.
Reward: Saving the life of one of your party members
Completed
“Great,” said Tahsi. “I’ll be happy to get out of here.”
Isabelle walked up to the wall and focused on it.
[Prison Holding Cell Door - Closed]
Isabelle thought ‘Open.’ Isabelle’s mouth shot open and hisses writhed out of it, her every breath quickly rushing out.
[Prison Holding Cell Door - Open]
[Notice: You’re ready to level up]
The stones of the wall slid out of the way, opening up into a doorway. Isabelle and Tahsi walked through it and out into the nighttime in the dark alleyway of Cloud Reach’s South Ward.
Isabelle smiled at the system’s message. Finally, she could feel a little less like a terrible person for what had happened to Tahsi. Now they just had to make sure they stayed in their guard outfits and laid low until they could get out of Cloud Reach forever.
“Nice job, Isabelle,” said Tahsi. “By the way, do you have any idea where Sir Jingles is?”
“Do I?” Isabelle frowned. She’d honestly almost forgotten about Sir Jingles. She felt a little guilty. Then, she remembered that she’d asked the guard about Sir Jingles back when she was imprisoned. “Actually, I think I do, Tahsi. One of the guards told me he was in maximum security.”
“Holy shit,” said Tahsi. “He must’ve been trying to pickpocket the guards while they were dragging him to his cell or something. Poor cat guy.”
Isabelle and Tahsi walked down the alleyway and emerged into the now-bustling main courtyard of the South Ward. There were juggling kobolds, unicycling kobolds and firedancer kobolds. It was truly a spectacle.
“Wow, the South Ward is kind of amazing,” said Isabelle.
“Eh,” said Tahsi. “It’s really gross and noisy over here, and there’s always all this garbage strewn about the place. Personally, I loved living in the Port District, because I could just walk over here whenever I wanted the overstimulation and go home when I was over it. Of course I don’t have a home there any more, though.”
Isabelle rolled her eyes.
A skinny kobold ran from into the center of the South Ward courtyard from a bridge to the left. He held a large shell shaped into the form. an open pyramid, which he bellowed into. “Announcement! We have an announcement from the Cloud Reach guard!”
Everyone in the courtyard stopped performing and talking and looked his way.
“The Cloud Reach guard has lost track of the prisoner to be hanged! Be advised, he is highly dangerous, and may be dressed as a member of the Cloud Reach guard! Be suspicious of male kobolds dressed as members of the Cloud Reach guard this evening, folks!” said the skinny kobold.
There was little response to this announcement other than from a couple people in the crowd who muttered that they never trusted members of the Cloud Reach guard anyway and that this announcement made no difference to them.
“There is another announcement!” said the skinny kobold. “The Cloud Reach guard would like you all to know that, in lieu of hanging this escaped prisoner, they will instead be hanging a nasty repeat offender from maximum security, an untrustworthy vagrant by the name of Sir Jingles!”
“Oh, gods damn it,” said Tahsi. He buried his face in his palm.
“That is all the announcements!” said the skinny kobold. A couple people clapped, a few others walked up to him and handed him a few pieces of copper and silver. The skinny kobold smiled, nodded, tipped his feathered cap, and ran off into the night.
Isabelle could hardly process this chain of events before she had a quest request staring her in the face.
Quest: Save Sir Jingles
Description: Sir Jingles has been sentenced to public execution by Cloud Reach! They plan to have him hanged tonight ‘when the moon is high’ in the city center between Whitebridge and Nightbridge. Stop the execution to save his life.
Reward: Saving the life of one of your party members
Activate? Y/N
[Notice: You’re ready to level up]
“Tahsi, do you see this quest request?” asked Isabelle.
“Yes,” said Tahsi. “I’m just thankful you’re such a thoughtful player that you came to save me, Isabelle. I’m sure you would, and will, do the same for Sir Jingles.”
Great. Now Isabelle had no choice but to accept the quest. If Tahsi had a guilting ability on his character sheet, Isabelle was certain it’d be the highest level possible. Isabelle thought yes.
[Quest ‘Save Sir Jingles’ activated]
[Loading quest]
[…]
[…]
[Quest prepared]
[Head to the city center between Whitebridge and Nightbridge]
[Notice: You’re ready to level up]
“You know, Tahsi, I thought I’d gotten out of having to actually visit the hanging site once I broke you out,” said Isabelle. She did a double take, realizing that Tahsi was not standing beside her any more.
Isabelle looked around, eventually finding Tahsi standing in line at a nearby bakery stand. Classic. Isabelle walked up to him.
“You’re saying these loaves of bread were made by the one and only Tahsi Rokdi, of the Port District?” Tahsi asked the bakery stand’s owner, a kobold who looked like she, like Tahsi himself, ate nothing but bread.
“Yes,” she replied. “However, since he’s a bit of an infamous criminal now, I haven’t been able to make much money off his branded bread. It used to be a top seller, though I will say we didn’t get too many repeat customers.”
“Well, how much would it be for me to take it all off your hands?” asked Tahsi.
“All of it? Are you sure? I know you guards like to eat, but wanting to buy thirty loaves of bread is a little unusual,” the stand owner asked with a furrowed brow.
[Speechcraft attempt: deceive + intimidate]
Wait, Tahsi was doing two things with his speechcraft at once? Isabelle hadn’t even realized that was possible.
[Clarification: Yes, the higher your speechcraft gets, the easier and more possible it gets for you to succeed in ‘chain attempts’ of different types of speechcraft. Being at speechcraft level 12 allows party member Tahsi to potentially chain three attempts at speechcraft into one.]
[Notice: You’re ready to level up]
“Unusual, yes, but with good reason,” said Tahsi. “You see, since this Tahsi character has flown the proverbial coop, the Cloud Reach guard has decided we need to confiscate all of his bread so that we can study it and determine his next moves. So, really, I’ll be taking all that bread whether you want me to or not. I was just being polite, honestly, when I asked for the price.”
[Speechcraft succeeded]
“Okay, I’m so sorry for my insolence, I don’t know what hit me,” said the stand owner. “Here, have all the bread.”
Tahsi focused on his bread loaves. They disappeared into his inventory. The shop owner gasped.
“What the hell, how’d you do that?” she asked.
[Speechcraft attempt: deceive]
“Don’t worry about it,” said Tahsi. “Secret Cloud Reach guard magic technology.”
[Speechcraft succeeded]
“Oh, okay. That makes sense,” said the stand owner.
“Um, excuse me,” said Isabelle. She looked at Tahsi. “But, um, fellow guard, we ought to get heading over to that scheduled hanging, wouldn’t you say?”
[Speechcraft attempt: deceive]
“Oh, hello there, fellow guard,” said Tahsi, patting Isabelle on the back. He looked to the stand owner and smiled. “Isn’t it funny seeing a human guard?”
[Speechcraft succeeded]
“Yes, it is pretty funny,” said the stand owner. “Honestly, I was wondering what she was doing wearing Cloud Reach guard armor. I didn’t even know Cloud Reach had any human guards.”
Isabelle opened her mouth to respond, but Tahsi didn’t give her the opportunity.
[Speechcraft attempt: deceive]
“She’s a new hire. She’s from a rich family out of town, they sent her here to grow her character or whatever,” said Tahsi to the stand owner. Isabelle could see he was smirking. “Speaking of which, she’s probably got a lot of money right now. How much would all that bread I confiscated from you have costed to buy?”
[Speechcraft succeeded]
[Party member Tahsi’s speechcraft increased to level 13]
[Notice: You’re ready to level up]
“About, say, five gold?” askled the stand owner hopefully.
Tahsi elbowed Isabelle and whispered to her, “Go ahead, give this kind bread peddler some money. Make it, like, ten gold.”
Isabelle rolled her eyes, equipped ten gold, and handed it to the shop owner, who thanked Tahsi graciously.
Isabelle walked with Tahsi over to the bridge where the skinny kobold had run in from, complaining to him about how unecessary his entire interaction with the bread stand owner had been. This conversation didn’t last too long, though, because soon an actual Cloud Reach guard ran up to the two of them.
“What in the hell are you two doing?!” asked the guard, raising his furry arms in frustration.
[Speechcraft attempt: mislead]
“We’re just on our way to the hanging, fellow guard,” said Isabelle.
[Speechcraft had mixed results]
[Notice: You’re ready to level up]
Tahsi shook his head with a sigh.
“Well you should’ve been with us to help transport the prisoner from maximum security! We’re at least two guards down at this point and it’s been very inconvenient for everyone!” said the guard.
[Speechcraft attempt: mislead]
“I’m sorry for her,” said Tahsi. “You have to understand, she’s new to the guard, and she’s a human.”
[Speechcraft had mixed results]
“That may very well be, but excuses can only go so far. You’ve been a member of the guard for a while, I assume,” the guard said to Tahsi. “You ought to understand that if you’re the senior guard, then she’s your responsibility.”
“I’m sorry. You’re right,” said Tahsi. He hung his head.
“Speaking of which,” said the guard, cocking his head and walking a little closer to Tahsi. “I don’t know if I recognize you. Normally I’d chalk it up to my bad memory, but with a escaped prisoner disguised as a guard running around, you can never be too careful. What’d you say your name was?”
Tahsi looked at Isabelle. Isabelle, flabbergasted, looked back to Tahsi. Why was he looking at her? He was the one with the higher char and speechcraft! The nerve.
[Notice: You’re ready to level up]
Shit. Why hadn’t Isabelle remembered to level up? Now it was too late. Would she ever get a chance to level up again? And if she did, would Isabelle ever surpass Tahsi and his unreasonably high stats?
“Well? Hello?” asked the guard. “Tell me your name, please. This is getting pretty suspicious.”
Isabelle took a deep breath as Tahsi prepared to answer. Things were about to get messy.