Isabelle stood, frozen in fear as she heard the harsh footsteps of the Ozian Sect warriors stomping up the staircase. Sir Jingles’ whiskers twitched. Tahsi equipped a loaf of his stale bread and took a bite.
“Tahsi!” Isabelle whispered in fury. “What are you doing? That’s so noisy!”
“Sorry,” Tahsi said through a mouthful of gluten, “I like to eat when I get nervous.”
The first warrior had stepped into the hallway, and walked up to this first door.
“Does anybody know how many warriors are in the tavern?” Isabelle whispered. “And is there any chance we can take them all?”
“I would say not,” Tahsi said, not whispering at all. “Even one of those guys has at least twice the strength Kolti did. To, um, put it in system terms for you, Isabelle.”
[Current visibility: 28/200]
Isabelle wondered why her current visibility referred to a total of 200 instead of 150. Her sneak hadn’t leveled up, had it?
“Hey, what are they talking about in there?” asked a warrior behind the door.
Isabelle felt her heart beat fast. “Everyone stay quiet,” she whispered, looking directly at Tahsi.
[Current visibility: 11/200]
Isabelle was surprised that their visibility had already gone down so quickly.
“Is anyone even in that room?” another warrior asked behind the door.
[Current visibility: 0/200]
“No, doesn’t look like it,” said the first warrior. “It must’ve been my imagination.”
Isabelle almost laughed out loud. How had their visibility gone down so quickly, and how had that lead to the warriors almost completely disregarding Tahsi’s voice?
[Clarification: When your entire party attempts to use a specific ability, each party members’ level is averaged together. Your current party’s average level of sneak is 3, so you are getting the benefit of a level 3 of sneak as long as you act together. Additionally, the party member ‘Sir Jingles’ has a boon called ‘Sneaky And Subtle’ that allows his current visibility to drop at an accelerated rate. A third of this boon has been applied to the sneak ability of your party.]
“Does that mean that when it’s just you sneaking it’s even easier to hide from people, Sir Jingles?” Isabelle asked.
“Yes. But at least from my perspective, the ease of sneak comes from knowledge and experience, not a number,” Sir Jingles said. “I’ve never seen a ‘current visibility’ counter before, I just know how to sneak around. I could probably teach you a thing or two about it sometime, if you’d like.”
Sir Jingles almost seemed suspended in motion for a second, like he was waiting for Isabelle to respond in a certain way to his statement.
“Or not, I guess,” Sir Jingles said.
“What do you mean, Sir Jingles?” asked Isabelle.
“Did you not get a quest request from me, Isabelle, when I offered to teach you how to sneak? And did you then not completely ignore it?” said Sir Jingles.
“Quest request?” Isabelle asked, unsure what Sir Jingles was talking about.
“Oh, don’t even try with her, Sir Jingles,” said Tahsi, once again speaking far louder than everyone else, “I’ve sent Isabelle at least three quest requests and she hasn’t paid them any mind.”
[Current visibility: 25/200]
“I really wish you’d control your volume, Tahsi,” said Isabelle. “Even if the current visibility counter resets rather quickly.”
[Current visibility: 5/200]
Isabelle felt irritated that nobody seemed ready to explain to her what exactly was going on.
[Current visibility: 0/200]
Then, she looked down and saw that her nipples were hard and slightly showing through her peasant robes, and she felt embarassed. Isabelle crossed her arms in response to this. Still, she wondered. What exactly was a quest request?
[Clarification: A quest request is an invitation to fulfill a quest. To act on a quest request, you must enable and configure your questing menu.]
Was that really all the system had to tell her? Isabelle rolled her eyes. Usually the system was all too eager to go on and on about the intricasies of how it worked. Why was it being so vague about quests? What was the questing menu?
[Clarification: Usually, quest mechanics are handled during the tutorial.]
Isabelle huffed in frustration. Then, she figured she’d try something a little different. ‘Tell me how to configure my questing menu.’
[Clarification: To begin configuring your questing menu, think ‘configure questing menu.’]
Of course. How obvious.
“Hey, Isabelle,” interrupted Tahsi, “I can see you’re really going through something right now, but the warriors are getting ready to break down our door.”
“What?!” Isabelle said.
“Yea, they’re going through the first room down the hall right now,” said Sir Jingles, “So we’ve got, what, a minute or so before they get to us?”
“Shit, shit, shit!” Isabelle buried her face in her hands. Then, she had an idea. “Alright. You know what? I know what to do.”
Isabelle opened her inventory.
Inventory: Isabelle
Carrying capacity: 21/36
Item
Traits
Steel Morningstar
+3 damage, +5 carry weight
Potion of Lesser Health x2
+5 hp, +0.5 carry weight
Steel Domination Chain
+11 damage, +10 carry weight
Staff of the Crustacean
+5 mana, +2 carry weight
Emerald Amulet of Lesser Stamina
+2 stm, +0.5/sec s-regen
Peasant Robes (human)
+1 carry weight
Stale Bread Loaf x8
+10 hp (cumulative), +0.5 carry weight
Crab Ambergris
+5 carry weight
Crab Flesh
+2 hp, +1 carry weight
Gate Key
n/a
Had she really lost two loaves of bread? Then, Isabelle looked over to Sir Jingles. She saw bits of bread crumbs in his fur. Then again, Tahsi was a pretty messy eater. It could’ve been bread crumbs from when he was stuffing his face in nervousness earlier.
“Isabelle? Hello?” Sir Jingles said. “Do you know what to do or don’t you? I doubt standing there staring into space is going to be any help! Not that the warriors are looking for me necessarily as much as they’re looking for you and Tahsi, of course, but still.”
Isabelle sighed. Then, she focused on the Staff of the Crustacean.
[Staff of the Crustacean equipped]
[+5 mana]
“That thing again?” Tahsi asked with a frown.
“Yes,” Isabelle said confidently. “And don’t look at me like that, Tahsi. This ‘thing’ is going to totally save our asses.” She pointed the staff at Tahsi and thought, ‘Cast Crabby Costume.’
[Spell ‘Crabby Costume’ successfully cast]
[Mana 9/15]
[Spell Duration Remaining ‘Crabby Costume’: 00:30:00]
Once again, Tahsi wore a small crab hat.
“Shit,” said Isabelle. “Can I even cast this on myself?”
[Clarification: Yes. To cast a spell from the ‘Staff of the Crustacean’ on yourself, think ‘Self Cast’ and then the name of the spell.]
Isabelle thought ‘Self Cast Crabby Costume.’
[Spell ‘Crabby Costume’ successfully cast]
[Mana 2/15]
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
[Spell Duration Remaining ‘Crabby Costume’ (Isabelle): 00:30:00]
[Spell Duration Remaining ‘Crabby Costume’ (Tahsi): 00:29:53]
Isabelle too now donned a small crab hat on her head.
“Uh oh,” Isabelle said, looking at Sir Jingles. “I’m out of mana. I can’t disguise you!”
“Don’t worry about it,” Sir Jingles said. “The warriors are looking for you two, not a little kitty cat like me. Nice hats, by the way.”
“Thanks,” Tahsi said to Sir Jingles with a false smile.
[Spell Duration Remaining ‘Crabby Costume’ (Isabelle): 00:29:39]
[Spell Duration Remaining ‘Crabby Costume’ (Tahsi): 00:29:32]
With three strong thuds, the door flew open. Two burly kobold warriors in the purple armor of the Ozian Sect stood in the doorway.
“Um,” a warrior said, “Dreadfully sorry about this, you three. We was just looking to see if any dangerous fugitives was in this room.”
“Cool staff, by the way, lady,” the other warrior said to Isabelle, nodding at the Staff of the Crustacean.
“Dangerous fugitives?” Sir Jingles said with an unconvincing smile, stepping forward to talk to the warrior.
[Spell Duration Remaining ‘Crabby Costume’ (Isabelle): 00:29:18]
[Spell Duration Remaining ‘Crabby Costume’ (Tahsi): 00:29:11]
Isabelle remembered that Sir Jingles only had 2 cha, and along with that a speechcraft level of 2. Growing nervous despite their disguises, she wondered if there was an easy way to quickly see who in their party had the highest speechcraft score.
[Clarification: To see the party member with the highest score in any given ability, skill or attribute, think ‘Get Party Member Highest (ability/skill/attribute).]
Isabelle thought, ‘Get Party Member Highest Charisma.’
[Party Member with highest cha score: Tahsi, 8]
Tahsi had 8 cha? Isabelle was surprised. Sure, it had been a while since she’d seen his character sheet, but she hadn’t realized that about him.
[Spell Duration Remaining ‘Crabby Costume’ (Isabelle): 00:29:02]
[Spell Duration Remaining ‘Crabby Costume’ (Tahsi): 00:28:55]
Isabelle looked to Sir Jingles, who did not seem to be doing well talking to the two warriors. She noticed that he kept failing attempts at speechcraft, as well as int checks. How embarassing. She had to hurry up and figure out what to do before he ruined everything for all three of them.
Isabelle though ‘Get Party Member Highest Speechcraft.’
[Party Member with highest speechcraft level: Tahsi, 5]
Tahsi again? Isabelle was only a little annoyed. She’d been secretly hoping that at least one of the party members with the highest speechcraft or charisma would have been her, and it’d been long enough since she’d seen Tahsi’s character sheet that she’d felt eager to hope so. Here she was, still far behind.
[Spell Duration Remaining ‘Crabby Costume’ (Isabelle): 00:28:48]
[Spell Duration Remaining ‘Crabby Costume’ (Tahsi): 00:28:41]
“Tahsi, quick,” said Isabelle, swallowing her disappointment. “Go talk to those warriors before Sir Jingles fucks this up and gets us killed.”
“Sir Jingles looks like he’s doing a fine enough job of it,” Tahsi said peacefully.
“He’s not!”
“Hey,” said a warrior, “What are you two arguing about?”
Isabelle’s eyes went wide.
[Speechcraft Attempt: Deceive]
“Oh, we were just, um, talking about all the crabs we have,” Isabelle said, crossing her arms and looking at the ceiling.
[Speechcraft Attempt: Failed]
“What in the hell are you talking about?” the warrior said, putting his hand on the hilt of his sword.
[Speechcraft Attempt: Deceive]
“Hey, don’t you see our hats?” said Tahsi. “We’re crabmongers, don’t you understand?”
[Speechcraft Attempt: Succeeded]
“Oh,” the warrior took his hand off the sword’s hilt. “Of course, that makes sense. For a second there, I thought you was trying to trick me or something.”
[Speechcraft Attempt: Deceive]
“Not at all, not at all, just trying to get some shut eye before the big crab meet tomorrow,” said Tahsi.
[Speechcraft Attempt: Succeeded]
“Oh. I didn’t know there was a crab meet tomorrow,” said the warrior. “Maybe I ought to take my wife. She’s always complaining we don’t go out enough.”
[Speechcraft Attempt: Deceive]
“Not a bad idea. I hear it’s a great place for bonding,” said Tahsi.
[Speechcraft Attempt: Failed]
“Bondage? What do you think I am, some sort of a crab creep?” said the warrior, putting his hand back on his sword’s hilt.
[Speechcraft Attempt: Deceive]
“No, sorry, I only meant it might be fun for you and your wife,” Tahsi said.
[Speechcraft Attempt: Succeeded]
“Oh, okay,” the warrior took his hand of the sword’s hilt again. “Yes, I think so. I hope to see you there.” The warrior turned to the other warrior. “Let’s get out of here, clearly they’re not here.”
“I’d say okay, but this cat keeps trying to pickpocket me!” said the other warrior.
“Hey!” said the first warrior, turning back to Tahsi. “Are you three criminals or something?”
[Speechcraft Attempt: Deceive]
“No, no, and I’m sorry about that cat,” said Tahsi. “He’s just got low impulse control. Really.”
[Speechcraft Attempt: Succeeded]
[Party member Tahsi’s Speechcraft increased to level 6]
[Notice: Party member Tahsi ready to level up]
“Sounds just like a cat,” said the warrior. The other warrior nodded.
[Spell Duration Remaining ‘Crabby Costume’ (Isabelle): 00:25:40]
[Spell Duration Remaining ‘Crabby Costume’ (Tahsi): 00:25:33]
As the warriors turned in preparation to leave, Isabelle heard a terrible scratching and scurrying noise.
[‘Rage of the Endangered’ debuff activated]
The scratching and scurrying grew louder and more frantic. Isabelle was getting nervous. She figured now was about the time to find out what exactly ‘Rage of the Endangered’ did.
[Clarification: To learn more about a specific debuff, think ‘Learn More About (name of debuff).’]
Isabelle thought ‘Learn More About Rage of the Endangered.’
Debuff: Rage of the Endangered
Cause: Wielding Staff of Crustacean <50 feet of a Large Ozian Hermit Crab
Description: The crabs have become aware of your treatment of their brethren. By activating their sacred staff and using it for your own will as opposed to for the good of crab-kind, they will now wage unending war against you until you either: unequip the staff and wait fifteen minutes, give them their staff on one knee while begging for forgiveness (requires cha >10), kill them all, or yourself perish under their mighty claws.
Note: The crabs that attack you are Large Ozian Warrior Hermit Crabs, which are much stronger than normal Large Ozian Hermit Crabs
“Shit,” said Isabelle. She unequipped the staff immediately, embarassed that she hadn’t remembered to do that earlier.
[Staff of the Crustacean unequipped]
[‘Rage of the Endangered’ Debuff Duration Remaining: 00:15:00]
[Spell Duration Remaining ‘Crabby Costume’ (Isabelle): 00:25:40]
[Spell Duration Remaining ‘Crabby Costume’ (Tahsi): 00:25:33]
The warriors took but one step away before four Large Ozian Hermit Crabs burst through the brittle walls of the tavern room, their claws gnashing towards Isabelle. One of them snipped at her leg.
[-8 hp]
Isabelle almost fell over. That’s what she got for not activating combat mode, she figured.
[Combat mode activated]
“Holy shit! Those are some angry crabs!” said one of the warriors.
“Do not worry, citizens,” said the other warrior as he unsheathed his sword. “We will take care of these crustaceans.”
And like that, Tahsi, Sir Jingles, and the warriors jumped to action. Tahsi swung a steel mace, Sir Jingles threw daggers, and the warriors did their best to stab through the crabs’ exoskeletons.
Another stab from a crab hit Isabelle, this time in the chest.
[-5 hp]
Isabelle was already feeling a little faint now. She needed to hurry up and get fighting. She opened her inventory.
Inventory: Isabelle
Carrying capacity: 21/36
Item
Traits
Steel Morningstar
+3 damage, +5 carry weight
Potion of Lesser Health x2
+5 hp, +0.5 carry weight
Steel Domination Chain
+11 damage, +10 carry weight
Staff of the Crustacean
+5 mana, +2 carry weight
Emerald Amulet of Lesser Stamina
+2 stm, +0.5/sec s-regen
Peasant Robes (human)
+1 carry weight
Stale Bread Loaf x8
+10 hp (cumulative), +0.5 carry weight
Crab Ambergris
+5 carry weight
Crab Flesh
+2 hp, +1 carry weight
Gate Key
n/a
For once, Sir Jingles hadn’t stolen anything from her this time. She knew she couldn’t equip Kolti’s steel domination chain yet, but Isabelle hoped she could use the steel morningstar.
[Steel Morningstar equipped]
[+3 damage]
Isabelle also decided to drink a potion of lesser health.
[Potion of Lesser Health drunken]
[+5 hp]
Feeling a little better, Isabelle raised her morning star and prepared to fight.
[‘Rage of the Endangered’ Debuff Duration Remaining: 00:13:57]
[Spell Duration Remaining ‘Crabby Costume’ (Isabelle): 00:23:32]
[Spell Duration Remaining ‘Crabby Costume’ (Tahsi): 00:23:25]
Isabelle swung at the crab that had been attacking her.
[12 damage dealt]
[Stamina 80%]
The crab shrunk back for a second, and then lashed out at Isabelle.
[-3 hp]
Isabelle smiled. She felt like she was getting some traction now, and this weapon seemingly used up less of her stamina. She took a swing.
[8 damage dealt]
[Stamina 65%]
[Notice: Large Ozian Warrior Hermit Crab is stunned for 5s]
Shit, that felt awesome. Isabelle swung at the crab.
[10 damage dealt]
[Stamina 43%]
The crab was literally on its last leg, the rest of its appendages dragging on the ground. Isabelle swung her morning star one last time.
[11 damage dealt]
[Stamina 31%]
The crab went limp.
[‘Large Ozian Warrior Hermit Crab’ is dead.]
[Combat mode deactivated]
[Armed combat increased to level 2]
Isabelle looked around, taking deep breaths. Five dead crabs laid in heaps, crowding the room around them. She could hear someone crying in the distance, she assumed it was the tavern’s owner based on how they were babbling on about bills.
[‘Rage of the Endangered’ Debuff Duration Remaining: 00:10:10]
[Spell Duration Remaining ‘Crabby Costume’ (Isabelle): 00:19:45]
[Spell Duration Remaining ‘Crabby Costume’ (Tahsi): 00:19:38]
[Notice: Another wave of crabs is on the way. You have 1:00.]
“Shit,” said Isabelle. She looked to every one in the area. “I hope you guys aren’t too low on health.”