Vultressant sat with Taloc as they ate near a small fire. “What was the haul?” he asked around a mouthful of stew.
The Ranger had been sorting and counting the loot, and he had enlisted Vanya to help appraise the jewelry.
“We got 885 silver pieces and another 100 silver worth of jewelry. There’s also a pair of earrings that are magical. Vanya doesn’t know what they do, though.”
“Give them to me, and I’ll try to identify them,” Vultressant said, holding out a hand expectantly. Taloc obliged, and he began to focus his will on the earrings. He spent a few minutes attempting to unlock the secrets of the pair, but he could only discern that they were linked in some way and that they needed to be touched to activate their properties. He received only a partial description of the item. In the past, identifying an item had provided much more information. His best guesses were that either he lacked the skill to fully identify them, or that they were made of multiple spell types, and he lacked one or more of them. He handed them back to Taloc. “All I can tell is that they’re linked, so you probably need them both to work. Also, they’re activated by touch.”
Ewtain pulled back the hood of his cloak. “I say we just try them on. I’ll do it if you don’t want to.”
Taloc looked at Ewtain. “You aren’t even pierced. How do you plan on putting them on?”
Ewtain cocked his head. “Um, it’s a magic world, so they probably have a way to attach.” Taloc looked at one of the earrings as if considering putting it on himself, but instead he gave them over to the Night Stalker. Ewtain held one next to his right ear; it glowed briefly, and when he brought his hand back down, the earring remained attached to his ear. He gave a smile and made a ‘ta-da’ gesture before attaching the left one. This time his hand came back down with the earring still in hand. “I thought that you said that they both needed to be worn,” he said accusingly to Vultressant.
Vultressant held up his hands defensively. “Maybe. I’m not sure how they work; just that touch activates them.” Ewtain touched the earring that he wore and shook his head. “Nothing? No notifications?”
“Not a one,” Ewtain confirmed.
Vultressant thought for a moment. He remembered that their guide, Jallik, had touched his ear a few times, and the Dwarf had been wearing several earrings. He had also caught him talking to the ox a few times. He had an idea. “Give me the other one.” Ewtain handed it over, and the Wizard held it to his ear, and it attached easily. There was a sensation of cold, and then nothing. He then touched the earring, and it vibrated for a second and stopped. “Do you sense anything?” Ewtain looked to his right, appearing confused. “What is it?”
“Hmm. I have an echo in my right ear. No, that’s not right.” Ewtain paused for a moment, trying to find the right words. “I’m hearing you twice, but only in my right ear.”
Vultressant touched his earring again, and after the brief vibration, he asked, “How about now?” Ewtain shook his head no. “I have an idea,” Vultressant said, and he stood up and walked away from the fire until he could no longer hear the sounds of the camp. He touched the earring to activate it and said in a low voice that was not quite a whisper, “Can you hear me now?”
A few seconds later, he heard Ewtain’s voice in just his right ear, where the earring was fastened. He didn’t know if the earring was making noise in his ear canal or if it was a form of telepathy that just seemed to manifest in the ear, but either way, this was pretty cool. “These will come in handy,” he said when he returned to the group.
Ewtain narrowed his eyes at the Wizard and asked, “How did you know?”
Vultressant handed the earring back to Ewtain. “I saw Jallik using one when we were traveling to the Dwarven hold,” he replied. “At first, I thought that he was talking to the ox, but I think that he was talking to someone else, probably someone from Ildul or the hold. He was frequently touching his ear, and he always talked as if he had direct knowledge of the opinions of the councilmembers of Ildul. I thought that he just knew them well enough to determine what they likely thought, but if he was able to converse with them, then his actions make more sense.”
“Hmm,” Ewtain said while rubbing his chin in thought. “I recall some of that behavior, but I just attributed it to a Dwarf quirk.”
“You mean like programming for the Dwarves?” Maroftis asked.
Ewtain shook his head. “No, I don’t think that anyone here is programmed.”
The Korak looked like he was scowling, but Vultressant recognized the expression as one of confusion. He decided to ask the question that Maroftis was likely thinking to ask. “You don’t think that Jallik is an NPC?”
“What? No, I think that he’s an NPC, but I don’t think that he’s programmed. I think that everyone is real, and while the races seem to have some alterations, like Maroftis’s appetite, unless he ate like that before coming to this world?”
“He’s always been a carnivore, but the raw stuff is new,” Taloc said with a smile. “Why do you think that everything is real?”
“Well, we’ve been here for a few weeks now, but I have yet to see any glitches in the system.”
“What kind of glitches do you mean?” Vanya asked.
“Every game that I have ever played had graphics glitches.” He pointed to a tree. “Do you see the shadow of that tree?” Vanya turned and then nodded. “The shadow is perfect. It may be a little different than we are used to due to the two suns, but it looks a lot like what we’d expect. Shadows are what the graphic designers get wrong more than anything else, and inevitably the shadows start to jump from side to side or disappear entirely as you play. Regular terrain and creatures glitch in games as well, just with less frequency, but here… nothing.”
“You think that the NPCs are sentient?” Vanya pressed.
Ewtain shrugged. “Sure?” he said.
“What about your little test where you killed those members of your guild? You got us to harvest their essences!” There was some judgment in her voice, but mostly it was curiosity.
The Spiritualist’s outburst did not seem to faze Ewtain. “I’m just playing by the rules of this world, and it seemed wasteful to not get the essences. Also, they were all bad.” Vanya looked like she was about to retort, but Ewtain held up a hand. “Look, I think that the monsters are sentient as well. Look at the Crystal Devourers: they might exist naturally on this or another planet, or they might be animals that were transformed into those creatures. It’s also possible that they’re humans like us,” he shrugged, “or what passes for humans on other planets. Look at what Maroftis looks like.”
“And you’re fine with killing humans?” Vanya asked in an incredulous tone.
“We don’t know that they die for good. Maybe they get to go home once they die.”
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“We were told that death is real here,” Isla said.
Ewtain pointed at her. “For the player characters. There was no mention of what happens to NPCs and monsters after they die. Also, can we trust that?”
“We don’t know that we’ll be dead after our third death,” Vultressant said, “but Oeister has confirmed that respawn does happen.”
“Provided that we can trust him,” Ewtain countered.
There was nothing that Vultressant could say that would remove all doubt concerning the Sage, so he said nothing more. He had spent more time with Oeister than any of the others, and he believed his tale about being killed by giants and reviving afterwards. This talk of potentially killing other people was troubling, and just the thought of it made his stomach turn, but he had to acknowledge that the theory might be correct. Vultressant had avoided PVP play in the games that offered it, so doing it here where the stakes were this high did not suit him.
He looked to change the subject. “Enough of that line of thinking. Who should get the earrings?” After some debate, they decided to give one earring to Isla while the other remained with Ewtain.
They waited until the next day and entered the cave just after the geyser erupted. There was no sign of respawn, so they explored the passage behind where Taloc had found the coins and jewelry. This turned out to be a much larger area than what they had explored prior to fighting the elite Crystal Devourer. Vultressant mapped out the cave system, and they defeated six more of the smaller Devourers. They received eight crystals that qualified for the quest, along with five emerald essences. Vultressant had held back on the spellcasting during the fights until they had met their quota of crystals for the quest, but after that, he went back to casting, prioritizing skill progression over the loot, and he had only pulled agro one time in all of those encounters.
The group came across a cave containing two of the elite versions of the Devourers, but they moved on, deeming it too risky to fight them. Only Maroftis and Ewtain argued in favor of attacking them; they believed that a boss mob might be just beyond the cave. But that only further deterred the rest of the party, who didn’t want a boss entering what would already be a difficult fight. They spent two more days clearing all but the elites and whatever was behind the elites in that section of the caves, and their trip back to Ildul was uneventful.
The first order of business was to see how Blassie was doing with the plate mail for Maroftis and the shield for Isla. Maroftis was anxious to go, and Vultressant went with him to the foundry. They didn’t even stop at the Silver Penny to clean up. Blassie saw them enter and waved them over to him. He shouted two quick orders to his crew.
“The shield be done, but the armor will take at least another two days,” the Dwarf said before the questions had even been asked. One of the smiths carried a shield to them, and another went to go get Rena.
“This is wonderful!” Vultressant said, inspecting the shield.
Blassie puffed up his chest and said, “I made it me self.” They admired his handiwork, but the shield was too large for Vultressant to wield, and it looked very small when held by Maroftis. It was almost the exact size of Isla’s current shield, but this one shined green and looked far more formidable than the shield she had been using.
Rena arrived, and they gave her the new essences to examine. “These appear to be all from the same type of monster,” she said after a few minutes with the essences. “This one is obviously stronger,” she said while holding up the sapphire essence from the elite Crystal Devourer, “but all of the traits are the same. Each has Strength, Vitality, and energy magic, so chances are good that one or more of those traits will manifest in the armor. I will need at least eight of the emerald level, probably nine, so you are short by one or two.”
Vultressant brought out two more essences. One was the emerald that they had gotten from one of the rogues that Ewtain had killed, and the other was the sapphire from the Rock Troll.
“This one has no traits,” she said, holding up the emerald essences, “and this one I have examined before. It possesses the traits for Strength, Vitality, and regeneration.” She held up the other one.
“Should we use two sapphires?” Maroftis asked.
“I may not need the extra essence, but if it is needed, then using a higher-tier essence as a replacement will increase the likelihood of success.” Rena placed the essences on the worktable.
“Will you be able to give the armor the ability of flight?” Maroftis asked hopefully.
The enchanter shook her head. “Not with these essences. If you had an essence or a core from a flying creature, or even one with air magic, I could make the attempt. Apologies. I know that you want that ability.” She did look like she was genuinely sad for him. She turned to Blassie. “When will the armor be finished?”
Blassie went to consulted his smiths. “We will work on it today and tomorrow,” he said when he returned, “and it might be done by tomorrow night. No promises, though.”
Rena looked at him for a moment and turned back to Maroftis. “Come back tomorrow just before first setting, and when it is finished, I will start the enchanting.”
“First setting!” Blassie exclaimed. “It will no be done by then.”
“Then we will wait until it is finished,” she said, smiling sweetly.
Blassie grumbled but said nothing more. Instead, he went back to work.
“I can send a runner to your inn when it is ready, but I think that starting immediately is best. What inn are you staying at?”
“The Silver Penny, but I don’t mind waiting here while it’s being finished,” Maroftis said. “I’ll be here tomorrow night.”
Vultressant retrieved the magical war hammer from his inventory and presented it to Blassie. “What can you give us for this?”
“Do ya ever find normal-sized weapons?” Blassie said, placing it on a work table where Rena examined it.
“It buffs energy magic,” Vultressant said when she had finished, and she nodded. “Any chance that you can make it small enough that I can use it?”
“Not without removing the enchantment, which I presume is what you want it for.” It was his turn to nod in agreement. Rena and Blassie went away and discussed the weapon. “We will look for a buyer,” she said when they returned.
“Can you just put us in touch with a buyer?” Maroftis asked.
“For twenty percent,” Blassie said quickly.
“Can you tell us what it’s worth?” Vultressant asked.
“The metal alone is worth 2000 silver, but it will be worth more to anyone who can use the buff.”
Vultressant looked at Maroftis. “Do you think that we should take 2000?” he asked.
Before Maroftis could reply, Blassie chuckled and said, “I would need to have the enchantment removed before I could melt it down; otherwise, there’s no telling what could happen. I be a buyer at 1200.”
“The value goes down if it’s enchanted?” Vultressant asked. “You have to be kidding me.”
Rena put a hand on Blassie’s shoulder before he could make a retort. “He speaks the truth,” she said and held up her other hand to forestall a reply from Vultressant. “If we were going to scrap it, then I would have to spend a significant amount of time and energy to remove any magic that it contains. If we were to buy it, however, it would be to sell, and the buyer would have to be a giant-sized energy caster, so not a large demand.”
“Can we leave it with you and have you sell it for us, less the 20%?”
“Agreed!” Blassie exclaimed as he patted the weapon.
They left the foundry, and instead of putting the shield into his inventory, Vultressant offered it to Maroftis. “Give this to Isla. I’m going to see Oeister and finish my quest.”
Maroftis took the shield. “I thought that you might want to give it to her. It was your idea.” Vultressant waved his hand in an ‘it’s nothing’ gesture, so Maroftis continued. “What will you get for the quest, anyway?”
“Just experience and some faction points with him. The crystals are payment for the location of creatures who dropped emerald essences.”
Maroftis stopped walking and turned to face his friend. “You’re giving him the loot from the creatures that he gave you the location of? I thought you were supposed to be the smart one. Take Isla with you the next time you want to make a deal. You didn’t even ask for a lesser percentage from Blassie.”
“We got the essences that we needed to enchant your armor at a higher tier, and we have some crystals of our own—not to mention the loot from the elite Devourer.” He made no reply to the latter complaint; he had never really had the knack of haggling and generally refused to do it.
“I suppose that we wouldn’t have found the caves on our own, so I guess that you did all right. I really hope that this armor turns out well.”
“Even if it doesn’t get a great enchantment, or any for that matter, it’s still going to be armor that protects you.”
“True, but I want something on the level of that sword Taloc has. That thing is amazing.”
“From what Rena said to me afterwards, that was as good as it gets on her end, and it was a very unusual result, so don’t get your hopes up for that level of enchantment.”
“I have a pretty high Fate score, so if my luck helps the process, I should be golden.”
“I would think that Rena’s Fate score would be used, but since it’s being made for you, yours could certainly be a factor.”
“I hope so. Are you going to be back at the Silver Penny in time for dinner?”
“I’m planning to. Oeister might be busy, so I could be there shortly after you.”
“Well, then I’ll wait and give Isla the shield at dinner.”
Vultressant thanked his friend and went to fulfill his quest.