Bloodstone was allowed into the trial room, it was held in the adventures room. Xyre, Rana and Kuya told their side of the story. There was shock when the entire scene was played back for them. The small gray puffball showed them what it had seen. Zail’s testimony of being attacked also was given. The other Blight wolves listened to his testimony and how he thought he was dead. The gold adventures denied any such thing happening, this also was under truth spells and they were proven to be lying. The commander decided that they would pay a fine to the Blight wolves as well as turn over the two children since they were under such a harmful influence.
—
Brigette waited until almost everyone had left, there were other rooms where the adventures could sleep on the adventurer’s side. The four Gold team members left willingly, as not to cause any further friction.
The silver wolves were at a corner table deep in discussion.
“The commander let them off light, word will get around. The commander confiscated the slave kids they had. They knew something was wrong, and are terrified, if your daughter is that powerful, how powerful are the parents. Will you tell me how you brought Zail back to life?” She said pleading towards the end.
“Why?” he said watching the Blight wolves staring at him from the other side of the room.
“You are not denying it?”
“I’m not confirming it either.”
“You answer my question first,” then I will decide if I want to tell you.
“It’s just that, you know what happened to my friends is there a chance they could be brought back?”
Bloodstone looked her in the eye, “I don’t see how as you made sure that no one would ever try and recover the bodies or destroy what killed them.”
Brigette froze and then looked away, “Fine don’t tell me.” She was somewhat choked up.
Zail came over and asked, “Lord Bloodstone would you be able to look at the items we acquired? The ones I mentioned earlier.”
“Sure, Brigette would you like to help?”
Brigette looked at Zail and then across the room, “I supposed, I usually am to one to identify things for adventurers.”
They walked back over to the group.
“This is our captain Gyrmoth Redbeard, our two trap specialists Gwillunlu shortward and Kenton Thorp” He gestured to the two dwarves and the male human. “Our swordswoman Vala Webb”, who was the female human with the group. “Any my sister, Nyteria, whom you met earlier.”
The Red bearded dwarf held out his hand and Bloodstone shook it. The armor Grymoth was wearing was plates of steel over leather, it has been painted a deep red color. There were scratches and dings on the armor.
“I hear your some kind of powerful spell caster, ” Grymoth said.
Brigette answered, “He’s a different kind of caster, and after seeing him in combat, I wouldn’t want to face him in battle.”
“That’s high praise, we would like to know if you can identify these magic items we found.” He nodded, and the human began unpacking items from a backpack. He laid out a leather tunic, a black suit of plate mail.
“Interesting backpack, “Bloodstone said noticing that they were coming out of a smaller backpack than the hard armor should have fit in.
The human grinned, “We spent a large amount of gold to get this. They are very rare.”
“I haven’t come across any of them, in the few months I have been here.” Bloodstone replied.
Kenton continued to remove items from the backpack. There was a jet-black wand, a belt, three rings, and a robe that appeared oily black and shimmered as it was piled on the table. The last item was a pair of boots, that looked very worn.
He then unhooked a small bag from the side or the backpack and tossed it to the table as well. The bag had a ceramic block around the two draw strings, and a red rune glowed softly on its two faces.
Brigette looked over the items, “They look like standard demon items, that bag and the ceramic lock on it looks like the other one you found.”
Bloodstone looked at the lock, being careful not to move the strings. “This seems more complex, and there seems to be more magic stored in the lock.” He looked over at Brigette, “Any thoughts on how to get through it?”
Brigette gave him a look, “How did you get through the other one?”
“Um, well I broke it. This one seems a little different, than the one I destroyed, it appears to be more well made. ” He looked over at the adventurers, “It’s your item, I can break into it, or look for the password?”
The dwarf thought for a moment, “How much would it go for if you had the password?” He asked
Bloodstone looked over at Brigette, “I have no idea of the cost of things like these.”
Brigette looked at it slowly, “Maybe ten gold.”
The dwarf nodded, “Salvage it if you are able to.”
Bloodstone concentrated on the lock, for ten minutes, as Brigette examined the other items.
“The leather is pretty standard, looks like a low-level protection. The plate appears to be a bit higher of protection, nothing out of the ordinary just reinforcement of the armor as some slight protections against fire and electricity. The belt, looks like it gives some protection for various elements. She looked over the three rings, “This one is a leaping and jumping ring, gives you a boost when you leap or jump. This one here, looks like it makes a barrier that can be used to deflect things. This last ring, hummm.” She looked at it closely. “Im not sure what it does. “, she then moved to the robes, “Wow, I haven’t seen anything like that since I was in the family vault. Heavy caster protections, against magic and physical attacks.” She looked over at Bloodstone who was still staring at the lock, “Easily ten to twenty thousand gold.” She then looked at the boots, “I have no idea what these do.” She then looked at the wand. “Some kind of crystal wand, it looks like its earth or fire based.”
She looked over at bloodstone who was still staring at the lock. “You figure it out yet?” She asked.
“Maybe “, he then untied the ends of the bags strings and pulled the ceramic lock off the strings, onto a looped silk rope and set it on the lock on the table, with a loop of fine silk rope through it.
“I would say that’s a yes” Zail said watching him.
“It shouldn’t normally be taken off, it was set to trigger if it was pulled off the cord.” He shrugged and opened the bag.
He pulled out three books and a leather bundle. There were also six ceramic jars that he removed from the bag. He then started removing handfuls of gold coins, there were hundreds when he finished, and he then pulled out of the bag, a staff. It was ornate, and had a blue glowing crystal, and looked to be made of a white wood, etched with small runes, that made swirl patterns in the wood itself.
There was a collective gasp as it was drawn from the bag.
The half elf adventurer Nyteria, and Zail’s sister gasped, “Its beautiful.”
He set the staff gently on the table.
Brigette was staring not at the staff but a green covered book on the table. It had a picture of a stag in green leather. She picked up the book and looked at it, and then turned and started to walk away.
“Brigette, the book.” Bloodstone said.
She kept walking, towards the door.
“Brigette!” Bloodstone said more forcefully. She paused and turned towards him and began casting.
The bolt of lightning she threw echoed off the room, as it impacted a globe of energy that surrounded him.
The electricity seemed to burn into the energy field and then shattered as the stroke of lightning dissipated.
The other adventurers, stood up and were in shock.
“Brigette, what is going on?” Bloodstone asked again somewhat confused.
She cast a second time, a ball of fire exploded, the other adventurers dived under tables as it exploded. The explosion cleared, Bloodstone was on his back, charred and bloody. He sat up, there was a look in his eyes, and even his eyes looked different. While most of his clothes were burned and hung off him in tatters, wisps of smoke and small fires burned on the clothes themselves. Brigette opened the door to leave and backed away as Violet, Lady Amethyst, Kuya, Rana and Xyrediane were rushing to the room.
Violet saw Bloodstone first and said to Lady Amethyst, “You need to stop him he is furious.”
Lady Amethyst cast spells in quick succession, as Violet ran over to him, blocking his view of Brigette.
“What is going on here?” Xyrdiane asked.
As the spells landed, Bloodstone slumped and was caught by Violet. He was too heavy for her to hold up, two drakes rushed over to support him. His clothes were burned, however there wasn’t a mark on him.
Lady Amethyst said forcefully, “What did you do to my husband?” There was a menace in her voice.
“It was her.” The dwarf said pointing at Brigette.
All eyes shifted to Brigette. Kuya glared at her, and her staff was in her hand. “Explain yourself, before I get mad.”
The two drakes carried Bloodstone out of the room. Violet followed them glaring at Brigette.
Brigette looked at the book in her hand and began to cast.
“I don’t think so, get her” Kuya said. A flickering ball of fluff flew from her staff and brushed Brigette on the head and she dropped like a marionette whose strings had been cut.
Kuya walked over and picked up the book, and started flipping the pages, “Humm, interesting.” The small ball of fluff floated around her head making soft peeping noises.
“Well she hurt my dad” Kuya said to the ball of fluff.
“That book came out of the bag,” Zail said, walking over to Kuya and checking on Brigette.
“What did you do to her?” Zail asked.
“I didn’t do anything just had Esprit drain her mana. Well not all her mana that would kill her.”
The small ball of fluff made more insistent peeping noises at Kuya.
“If it bothers you so much go check on him.” Kuya said waving at Esprit. The ball of fluff avoided her hand made an angry peep noise and passed through the closed door.
Kuya sighed, “I didn’t know he talked to my dad.”
Kuya handed the book back to Zail, “It looks like it’s an elvish diary.”
Brigette groaned, and rolled over, “What the hell did you do to me.” She asked.
“I took away your mana, you are lucky my mom stopped my dad, he would have” She pause as if in thought, “ well I don’t know what he would have done, but I know it would have been bad. Are you brain damaged?”
“What?” She asked confused.
“Picking a fight with my dad. You are either stupid or have brain damaged.”
Brigette saw Zail with the book and tried to stand up. Zail moved the book behind him, “I think you better start talking, you are in no condition to fight right now.”
Brigitte groaned, and she got to her feet, she stumbled.
“Now what the fuck is this all about,” Lady Amethyst said standing next to Kuya, glaring at Brigette.
Brigette took a step back, “I didn’t want anyone else to die, that book is complete.”
“That’s not explaining anything, start talking.” Lady Amethyst replied.
“That book, is a diary, of an elven woman who lived a long time ago, I found pieces of it and we found a place that was supposedly a storage place of artifacts. It turned out it wasn’t, and all my teammates died there. I can’t let anyone else die there.”
Lady Amethyst glared at her, “You can’t tell us what to do.”
Zail held out the book to Lady Amethyst, “I don’t think I want to know about a place where gold adventurers died.”
She took the book and handed it to Kuya, “Translate this for your father, and if Brigette starts trouble again let me know. I’m going to check on your father.” She turned and walked out of the room.
“Brain damage” Kuya said under her breath and followed her out.
Brigette sat down and one of the tables and sobbed softly. No one wanted to talk to her after her stunt.
A bit later Bloodstone returned, book in hand and slammed in on the table in front of her. “You’re a coward, you let your friend die and even if there’s a small chance you can retrieve them you are too afraid to do that. Keep the book, your friends can stay dead for all I care.” He said it loudly Everyone was watching him and Brigette.
Brigette looked at the book and then at him. “What?”
He ignored her and walked over to Zail and his team.
She got up and walked over to him, “What do you mean?” She asked.
Again, he ignored her, “Zail, I wanted to make a formal invitation to your team, I am going to be going into the blight to find something. We have a good idea where it might be, So I wanted to see if you were interested.”
“I told you that the place was hard to find” Brigette said
He turned and looked at her, “I have no intention of looking for your friends resting spot, you have made it absolutely clear that your too much of a coward to try. I am looking for this tooth, that the goblins know about.”
“You can’t get into that tower, we tried.” She said softly.
“Oh, so you knew about this and didn’t tell anyone. What are you not telling me?”
“There are metal constructs guarding the tower, at least a dozen. We couldn’t even scratch them.” She said looking down. “It’s like the goblins say death is there.”
“You could have told me this before were came out here. Given me more information, you can’t trust me why would I even trust you with anything?”
She started to reply and stopped, turned and started walking out, “Your right, it’s hard to know whom to trust.”
“Zail, go ahead tell them.” He said to Brigette as she walked way, “If you leave now you are going to miss some very important information.”
The rest of the silver team looked at Zail, His sister asked, “What is he talking about?”
Zail look at his friends and said, “He has an artifact, that can bring people back from death.”
Gyrmoth scoffed, “Not bloody likely, something like that would make him one of the most powerful people on Rhir.”
Brigette stopped, “Is it something you got from Sutter?” She asked.
“He knows Sutter?” Kenton asked.
Brigette nodded, “He married Sutters daughter, and from what I heard and left him in charge on Rhir, when he when back Isril.”
All eyes turned to look at Bloodstone.
“How rich are you then, “Kenton asked softly.
“Who is Sutter?” Grymoth asked.
Kenton looked over at him, “Seriously, he’s the guy that lends money to most of the nobility.”
“I let my wife take care of that part of the money issues.” Bloodstone said softly.
“No, It’s not something I got from anyone you know. It was a gift from someone I know very well. It would be too complicated to explain.”
“Try me” Zail said.
“It’s a gift from a deity I know, one that will not come to this world.”
“I think hes pulling our leg,” Gyrmoth said, “The gods are dead.”
“And yet you don’t know a single deities name, or what they were about or what gods are capable of doing. In this world of levels, and power everyone wants to rush to be the best. I think I have a lot more information about this world than you might be aware of.”
“Hold on a sec, are you tell us you know a God?” Kenton asked.
“I understand a lot more then you might, about gods, and how they work, or don’t work. The fact that your gods are all dead and yet you can’t name one, speaks volumes as to what most likely happened on this world. I wouldn’t want to or even aspire to be a god here, it’s also against everything I believe in. Worshiping some entity, you don’t know, just seems wrong, when the people could be bettering themselves. What I believe happened, is that at some point a group of adventurers rose up and wanted immortality, and fought the gods for that privilege, and were either stomped down or won and became gods. Whoever the winner was came up with the leveling system and implemented it onto the population, so that they would know who to keep an eye on. As a society the best rise to the top, the genius’s and prodigies, managed to get back to that point, and either they attacked the gods, and put them down, or they fought with them and eradicated them to the point where they didn’t matter. From what I have seen and heard, the phrase dead gods are used as a curse. But I am getting off track, go ahead ask your questions.” Bloodstone sat down.
“So back to this artifact,” Brigette asked. ‘How does it work?”
“There are some limitations, I haven’t really tested them, I know what it was designed to do. Resurrect someone who has died, it can be activated at noon or midnight. There are some other stipulations, however I don’t think they are relevant now” Bloodstone said softly.
Kenton looked at the female dwarf, “What’s your assessment, you have been awful quiet?”
“He is telling the truth as far as I can tell.” Gwillunlu replied.
Lady Amethyst walked in along with Rana and Xyrediane. She walked over, “Well it looks like we don’t have to hurt anyone. Have you told them what you want to do?”
“No not yet,” He said looking at everyone. “I want to take a team with me out into the blight and see if we can find an elven vault.”
Brigette shook her head, “There is no way into that tower, we looked for days. We had to return before our supplies ran out.”
Bloodstone nodded, “I expected that, I have enough food and water for a team of about thirty for two months. I brought the supplies with me.”
Brigette looked skeptical, “I thought all the supplies you brought were for the fortress.”
“They were and are. I have other resources you are not aware of.”
The two drakes Illapressa and Hijala carried in a large chest. Other members of the group that came with behind them into the room, Kuya, Zach and Violet.
They brought the chest over to Bloodstone and set it down. There were two locks on the chest, and Illapressa unlocked one of them with a small ornate key. Kuya stepped forward and unlocked the second lock.
Bloodstone lifted the lid, inside were bags, in neat rows. “Bags of holding filled with food and water, and other supplies. The other resources are,” He closed the chest and then removed a key from his pocket and held in in the air near the chest and turned in there was a click and a door materialized. He pushed it open, “Bring that chest in here please.”
The drakes moved the chest into the small room. Others looked through the door in awe, and wonder.
“As I was saying the other resources are in here.” They looked around the room, there was a cot folded up next to the mirror. There were also several large crates along the walls. A cloth covered something opposite the mirror, and against the inside wall. In addition to a desk and the mirror and now a chest the room was unremarkable, the crates appeared to be new, and gave off that new wood smell.
“I don’t mean to contradict you, there doesn’t seem to be anything in here” Brigette said looking at the mirror.
“Lord Bloodstone how is this possible, Zail’s sister asked from the doorway.
“It works similar to a bag of holding, there are lockers, rooms like this one and I have heard of much larger demi planes, I haven’t tried making one myself.”
The adventures wandered around the room looking over the few items inside.
The two rouges were talking off to one side, “do you realize what you could do with something like this?”
“Many things, what its being used for is portable storage.” He handed the key to his wife Lady Amethyst. “Who is interested in making a trip into the blight?”
“I think the goblins are following us,” Rana said. As she rode next to Bloodstone, it was the second day of the trip into the blight, the black and gray grass was high and there were occasional sighting of demons, goblins or other things that stayed away from a party that meant business. There were thirty of them. The six members of the silver rank team the blight wolves, Zail Morningflight, Nyteria Morningflight, Gyrmoth Redbeard, Gwillunlu Shortward, Kenton Thorp and Vala Webb. The gold team the red blight who had joined them this morning, they had ridden in the night to catch up to them when they had found out that they were heading into the blight. The Red Blight were Nerris Perryworth, Haran Zentis, Solomon Fuentes, Amanda Radcliff, Summer Romero, and Euan Barker. Two drakes, Kijala who rode next to Lady amethyst and another drake, Elmok Felltail who shadowed Bloodstone.
—
Elmok Felltail was a normal drake, not one of the special ones who had been given wings. He followed Bloodstone and was a warrior. He had shown up after the big battle, having heard the exploits and wanted to serve a strong leader. Elmok preferred using a sword and claw, He was soft spoken and kept to his duties. Marcus and Eve had been keeping him company during the trip to the fortress.
The two scouts in training were also with them, William and Stephanie. The two of them were looking around more than the others. William was assigned to Bloodstone and Stephanie was assigned to Lady Amethyst. Lady Amethyst, Violet, Xyrediane were talking and were in the center. Rana was keeping an eye on Kuya and Xach, more on Kuya than Xach. Brigette was with the group and appeared to be in discussions with the silver and gold team leaders Nerris and Gyrmoth.
“Your telling me that he has the ability to adjust classes?” Gyrmoth said.
“What can’t that man do?” Nerris asked.
“What do you mean?” Gyrmoth asked.
“We saw him enchant Haran’s sword. One of the best enchantments I have ever seen. We got it appraisal from Pedella. We were shocked by the price she named.” Nerris said loudly.
“Oh, how much?” Gyrmoth said looking over at Haran and the sword at his belt.
“Get this, she said she would be willing to pay thirty thousand gold, and in addition to trade in for any weapon she had in her inventory.” Nerris said.
Haran yelled over, “Not going to happen, Nerris”
“He flat out told her no, and then she wanted to know where he got it from.”
“What did you tell her,” Brigette asked.
Nerris grinned, “I told her we as a group would sell her the information for a couple thousand gold”
“I can’t imagine that witch paying.” Gyrmoth said.
“She declined, what I want to know is what did he promise you Brigette .” Nerris asked.
“Me? He,” She looked over at him talking to Violet and Xyrediane, “He said he could get my team back.”
“Didn’t they die?” Nerris asked.
Brigette nodded.
“Like help you recover the bodies, I can understand that.” Nerris said looking at them talking.
“No, he’s going to bring them back to life.” Gyrmoth said looking back Zail and Kuya talking.
Nerris laughed, “I do think he can do that,” and with a more serious note, “Can he?”
“Ask Zail,” Gyrmoth said.
Nerris looked over to where Zail was talking, and she dropped back to talk to him.
“So why did you take on three gold rank adventurers?” Zail asked.
“I don’t like people messing with my family.” She said flatly.
“Do you not like half elves?” He asked somewhat concerned.
“Never thought about it,” She replied brushing him off again.
Nerris rode next to him, “Whats this I hear about Bloodstone bringing people back to life.”
Before Kail could answer, Kuya chimed in, “My dad is using Finders Mirror, I don’t know if Shikori would approve.”
“Who?” They both asked at the same time.
Kuya sighed, “Erik is the God of Lost souls, and Shikori is the goddess of death. That mirror is Eriks, and Shikori is his boss.”
“Hold on a second,” Nerris said, “How do you know the names of Gods!?”
“My dad made Erik and I made Shikori.” She said matter of factly.
“Made?” Nerris said confused, “How do you make a god?”
“I dono ask him, I just wrote down what he told me and picked the abilities from the book.”
“Book?You picked a gods abilities?” Nerris said clearly excited.
Kuya nodded, “It’s for the role-playing game we were playing, my dad has all their stats, and gear still”
“What is a role-playing game?” Nerris asked.
Kuya began a discussion of what a role-playing game was and characters and dice.
Nyteria rode over to Xyrediane, “Good morning, I know we haven’t talked, I understand you’re a mage?”
“I am also a Geomancer, thanks to,” She glanced at Bloodstone, “Lord Bloodstone.”
“If you don’t mind me asking, I am a level twenty-eight mage, I was wondering what level you were?” Nyteria asked.
Xyrediane looked her over, “I believe your next question is would I be interested in exchanging spells. Normally I wouldn’t even discuss levels, let alone spells.” She again then looked over at Bloodstone, “In this instance, I am in a very good place, to tell you the truth you’re a higher-level mage than I am. I am only a twenty-seventh level mage; my geomancer level is forty-four. As for spells, I am sure if you ask Kuya nicely she would be happy to copy a spell or two when we stop.” She stole a glance at Bloodstone again, who seemed to be quietly riding. She turned back to Nyteria “The one who really has a lot of spells is Lord Bloodstone. Do you know what spells you are interested in learning?”
Nyteria smiled, and nodded as she listened, “I know there are some I would like to at least try and learn, anything tier four or higher, I have some tier three, and have master them, but I can’t seem to find anything higher than that, at least nothing that’s hundreds of gold per spell.”
“You are like me, thirst for magic, and want to make your mark on the world, discover something new, and keep your brother and friends alive before something kills you.” Xyrediane said teasing her slightly.
“I.. yes, that’s a good assessment. You seem to have made out well, working with him?”
“More than well,” she rode closer, “That man saved my life, and never once gave me a snide look, or harsh word. He treats me like an equal, He also the one person I would not want to have as an enemy.”
Nyteria looked over at him, he was a little heavy, and balding. He carried himself with an aura of something, she kept finding herself looking at him as well.
“He doesn’t seem like much,” Xyrediane said softly, “There is a presence about him. He’s a hero, a hero to me.”
“I suppose if you’re into humans, he seems nice enough. I find it hard to believe he saved my brother, I thought all humans hated half-elves because we live longer and are better than humans.” Nyteria said matter of bluntly.
Xyrediane stared at her, “Nyteria, you seem like you have a problem with humans, consider it a friendly warning, don’t ever show that attitude to Lord Bloodstone. as I said he can be your greatest friend or your worst nightmare.”
“How powerful is he?” She asked.
“Powerful enough to take down a gray walker.”
There was silence as Nyteria stared at Lord Bloodstone.
—
It was later in the evening that the rain started. With Xyrediane’s geomancer powers she kept to a path that wasn’t soaked mud.
“We need to find a safe place to get out of this rain” Brigette said loudly.
“I agree, the rains here are usually dangerous, this far out.” Nerris said looking at the sky. There was a rumble of thunder off in the distance.
“This is not good we need to find shelter, from the storm,” Haran said more urgently.
“This seems familiar, everyone break off into teams, those of use with communication magic follow a group. We need a cave or somewhere we can weather the storm, even a hill should help.” Bloodstone said.
They paired off into groups, Xach went with the Gold team, and Kuya went with the silver team. There were six groups in total and they began moving as quickly as possible looking for a safe place to weather the coming storm.
Lighting flashed in the distance and the rumblings got closer. William rode over to him and dismounted, “We shouldn’t be on the horses” He said apprehensively, the chainmail he wore clicked as he moved.
“We need to get out of this weather, my Lord.”
Bloodstone blinked, “Where is this?”
“We are in the blight sire, looking for the tooth the goblin mention.”
“Tooth?”
“The book your daughter had said it was out here, the one we are following.”
“Where is she?” He asked looking around.
“With the sixth group, looking for a shelter.”
There was an explosion as bolt of lightning struck his horse and threw him back into the wet grass.
“My Lord!” William ran over to him.
Elmok assisted William and they lifted him off the ground. The horse had been killed by the strike.
The lighting flashed and off in the distance there was a rising spire, it appeared to be made of ice. A flash of lighting struck it and it illuminated, the area in a strange blue glow.
“There, we head to that spire” Elmok said. They salvaged what they could from the horse, and Elmok carried Bloodstone. They reached the ice spire and the lighting continued and seemed to be drawn to the spire.
Xach stood below it and casting at the massive spire with Ice and cold magic.
“Get inside,” He said pointing to a small cavern in the side of a small rise.
They got the horses through the narrow entrance, and another group showed up.
“What happened?” Someone asked.
“Hold on let me get a light spell then we can grab a lantern” Nerris said.
The glowing orb of light lit up the passage, it looked like it has been hewn from solid rock.
“There is a larger open area just down here, enough to put the horses and setup camp.” Summer said returning.
“Who’s left out there?” Nerris asked.
“Xach is still casting the spire. The blight wolves are still out there, as is Lady Amethysts group. They have said they can see the spire and should be here shortly.” Nerris said.
Bloodstone was carried to the large room they had found. Lanterns had been lit. There was discussion, as how long to wait out the storm. He was out cold due to the lightning that had almost hit him.
—
Bloodstone awoke, he was up to his neck in mud. It was dark, he could see, and he wasn’t sure how.
Something poked him, from behind.
“Quit it” he said his throat raw.
He was poked again. “Knock it off or so help me.”
He was poked a third time. He struggled and sank a little more into the mud. The sun rose, slowly. Not too far away a rock moved. It wasn’t a small rock it was more of a boulder than rock. it moved again.
Something pulled him backwards. There were several goblins with a rope.
“Oh, hey thanks for pulling me out of that mud.” One of them hit him in the head several times , with a rock.
—
He woke up, on a cot, it appeared to be a narrow cavern wide enough for two people to pass, the rest of the group were settling in, William walked over to him. “Your awake again sire.”
“I think so, what happened?”
“You got hit by that lighting, killed your horse, we recovered your gear. You were pretty out of it for a bit. You were talking about the Antinium. Not that I have ever seen one.”
“What was I saying, it could be important.”
William thought about it for a minute, “You said that it was a bad idea to attack them. What is a Psi dampening field, you mentioned that as well?”
“Humm,“ Bloodstone tried to stand up and his stance was wobbly. “Whoa, yeah help me up.”
William helped him into the center of the small room, it was big enough for the group to not touch the walls.
“Everyone here?” He asked William
“Yes sire, your son made a large spire to pull the lightning and used it as a beacon, it was pretty impressive.”
Off to one side of the room Xach was talking with the adventuring teams.
“One thing I noticed was you were dry when you came in while everyone else was soaking wet.” Haran said.
“I don’t like being wet, I put all the water around me into the spire.” He said shrugging.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Bloodstone said loudly, “We will have to wait out the storm here for a bit. I noticed there two passages in the back part of the room, anyone figure out what made this?”
“Antinium, these entrances are all over the blight if you know where to look,” Brigette said
Bloodstone nodded, “Well don’t assume that it’s not a live hive, we need to be on guard, we can hold back an army here, I just don’t want to have to do that.”
There were murmurs of assent.
“How close are we to where your friends fell?” He asked Brigette.
“Couple of days at least, I know what to look for” She said not meeting his gaze.
“Ok I have some down time, I can look at your magic items, and you can look at what I brought with me. I would like you all to get some extra rest, make sure you eat.” He turned and paused, and turned back to them,”One more thing, before I forget, if you don’t have a magic weapon, let me know before we move out.”
“What do you mean?” Nerris asked.
“I mean if you don’t have a melee weapon that is enchanted, I want everyone armed with a magic weapon.” He touched the pommel on the sword at his waist. “This is my most recent work, I have given out weapons to my wives as well as Rana, and my kids. I want the rest of you armed with something you can rely on.”
“I’m good,” Haran said touching the sword Bloodstone had made for him.
“Zail, I have a bow and some arrows I want you to have. I have given it some thought, and I am ok with a bow, but you would be better. We need every edge we can get. Hon can you open the workroom?” He said looking at Lady Amethyst.
She used the key and opened the door, he walked over to the desk and opened the top of the desk and pulled out a bow and a quiver of arrows. The arrows were all fletched with jet black glossy feathers. He walked back over to Zail and held out the bow and the quiver.
Zail looked over the bow, it appeared to be made of a soft white wood, he pulled the drawstring, “Whoa, this is tougher than it looks to pull.”
The storm blew itself across the land for a full day, the next afternoon it had stopped raining and the sun had come out. The ice spire was still there and began melting in the sun. The group was rested and even then, the mud made the going difficult until they could find a path that was more solid. It wasn’t until near evening that they made camp.
“You think the goblins ate the horse?” Bloodstone asked.
“Makes sense, they were still following us, not sure where they disappeared when the storm hit.” William said
The arrow that bounced off William landed in the tall grass, at first the two of them were startled by the arrow. “We are under attack!” William said as he dropped off his horse to retrieve the arrow.
Everyone dropped off the horses into the grass except for Lady Amethyst.
There were twenty or so demons approaching, through the grass a few of them had bows the rest seemed to be melee fighters or casters. They were each different from each other.
“Some of them are fearless,” Violet said.
Marcus, and Elmok were ready for the first ones that moved into range, Haran stood just behind them ready to back them up. He moved to engage one of the demons and began to duel with swords.
The first one to cast was Lady Amethyst, two of the demons were tossed backwards and landed in the tall grass. The didn’t move as they had been mesmerized when the spell landed. Another demon was hit by three arrows, as Zail, Solomon and William all fired arrows at the demon, it gurgled as the arrow Zail had fired came out the back of his neck. The other two arrows had pieced two of its eyes. Two more demons were lit on fire as Nerris and Nyteria let lose with spells. A demon began casting and was hit with several thrown daggers.
The Demons continued to advance and engaged, Marcus and Elmok, they were both proficient fighters and with Haran they held the four demon at bay. Another demon exploded in a fountain of gore, as a shaft of stone impaled it from below.
Three demons approached Xach and Kuya who were off to one side of the fighters. Xach attacked one of the demons. Xach was using a spear and impaled the demon twice, though it didn’t seem to slow it down in the slightest. It was at that moment that the two demon that had attacked Kuya turned to stone.
Rana stood next to Xyrediane and the other mages. The rouges attacked the demons and disappeared leaving them bleeding and confused.
“Don’t kill them all before I can, oh never mind.” Bloodstone said as the gold and silver teams began to systematically wipe them out.
It took them a few minutes to check to make sure they were dead, the two Lady Amethyst had thrown were the only two left alive and Bloodstone drained their levels before they were killed.
William called out from just over a rise. “Hey there’s someone here!”
The group found a small encampment the demons had been using, tied up in one of the tents was a woman in blue jeans and a concert shirt. They ended up removing the ropes holding her and the gag.
“Bloody hell, where are you lot from?” She said her english accent, was very pronounced.
Bloodstone laughed, “You a Brit?”
“Yeah, you one of them Americans, where the hell am I? are you responsible for this?” She asked.
“Uh, first off before we get to carried away, you have any tech on you or ID?” He asked.
“I have my cell, and ID in my purse them things took it. What were they? The looked like stuff of nightmares or things you see on horror shows on the telly.”
They looked around and found her purse it was very stylish and girly. William handed it to Bloodstone.
“The good news is your safe. The bad news is you are on another world.”
“Is this some kind of joke?” She said somewhat franticly reaching for her purse.
Bloodstone handed it to her. “No joke, we have been here for a couple of months, what year is it?”
She rolled her eyes,” Its twenty nineteen”
Bloodstone stared at her, “That means, a month here is half a year to our world, roughly.”
Eve who had been listening, “So if we want to get home the longer we are here the more time passes at home?’
“More or less. The ratio is about six to one every day here is six at home. One more piece of the puzzle.”
“What are you all on about?” The woman asked.
“We were summed here about six months ago your time and have been here about two months. How we were summoned isn’t known. The fact seems to be that its still happening. How long have you been here?”
“Two days, I just walked around the corner and was in this weird black grass. My cell didn’t work, I was not even sure what direction to go. The first night was terrifying, I followed that big star in the sky and I thought it was east.”
“It’s roughly east, so you want the good news or the bad news?” He asked her.
“There’s good news?” She asked.
“Well the good news is if you stick with us we can at least keep you alive and get you up to speed as to what is going on.” Bloodstone said.
“I’m almost dreading the bad news.” She said looking around.
“We are about ten or so days from real civilization. We are looking for something out here. We can get your phone working for the most part. Oh, and magic works here. I have another question, who is the president of the USA?” He asked.
“Duh, Candice Waller, she won in a landslide, against that actor fella.”
“Uh oh. I was afraid of that, looks like they are pulling people from parallel worlds as well, that complicates things.”
“Uh huh,” she said nodding. She looked at Eve, “Is he daft?”
Eve nodded, “Sometimes, but he’s not lying.”
“Magic really?” She said incredulously.
“Well it gets even stranger; this world is like a video game where you can level as whatever you want to be.”,Eve said
“Oh really, if I wanted to be a superhero, would that work?” She asked.
“Maybe? What kind of superhero?” Bloodstone said pondering the question.
“Oh, I dono, maybe something with heat vision or super powers like..Sup…” She said working up a steam.
“I don’t know if it works that way, might be interesting to try though?” Bloodstone said cutting her off.
“What do you mean?” She asked.
“Well the Hero you mentioned, is an alien, your human right?” he asked her.
She put her hands on her hips, “Are you making fun of me?”
“Not at all, oh and we will need to call you something. I would suggest not using your real name.”
Her eyes widened, “Like true names, so you need a nickname.”
“I call myself Bloodstone. Eve used her real first name, I don’t recall the rest of her name if she even has one. My wife is Amethyst, and my son uses Xach and my daughter uses Kuya. What should we call you?”
The woman thought about it for a few minutes. Shrugged and said, “Doesn’t matter call me what you want”
“That’s not very helpful” Rana said.
“Ergh, what are you!?” She asked.
“I am a half gazer.” Rana said somewhat offended.
“Oh,” She said to Bloodstone, “Are there any other freaky people here?”
“Rana is not a freak, it’s her species, are you being racist?” He asked her.
“Just caught me off guard, I think I am starting to believe you that this isn’t a dream. Call me Dalila”
“Ok Dalila, there are some half elves and dwarves here as well.”
“Who’s being racist now?” Dalila said giving him a dirty look.
Bloodstone rolled his eyes, “Nevermind, why don’t you sleep on it and see if you get any classes.”
“Oh I got a class a weird voice in my head said hero one. The first night I was here, thought I was hallucinating” She replied
“Ok so you must have been summoned by the king but ended up way out here. That means…”
“What’s it mean” Eve asked.
“That there is more to the summoning business than we are aware of. Hypothetically, it could be because of a broken artifact. Not functioning the way, it was designed or being used in a manner it wasn’t intended for. Who knows, I still don’t know how we were summoned here.”
“Lot of help that is” Dalila said.
“Well let’s see if we can give you a better class.” He said holding out his hand.
She looked at his hand, “What?”
“I can change or give you a class, I have levels I took from some of the demons.”
“Uh huh, right, I think you are going a bit daft.”
“Just take his hand,” Eve chided.
She reached out and took his hand as if a handshake, “I think this is a phenomenal waste of time.”
Bloodstone tried to focus on a specific class to give her.
After a few minutes, “Whats supposed to happen?” Dalila asked.
“Uh, oddly enough I can’t give you a superhero class. I could do mage, or archmagi or something like that.”
“No, I want to be a super hero” Dalila said frowning.
“Well that’s doesn’t seem to work the way I thought it would. We can talk about what we might be able to do as we head to our objective.”
She shrugged, “I expect to wake up from this at some point”
The group of them on horseback or walking with the extra horses being led through the black grasses were somber and quiet. No one really spoke, as they were on watch for threats.
Brigette was the first to break the silence near midday, “We should be getting close, another day or so.” She said to Bloodstone.
“To what?” He asked.
“The cave, where my friends died. Do you think you can really bring them back?”
“Maybe, I’m curious as to why you thought it might be important to go into that location.”
She rode a little closer, “We found some references to weapons from before Rhir fell, scraps and fragments like the one you found about the elven vault. The King commissions Gold teams to go into the blight and attempt to recover said items and weapons.”
“Why though, or is it more about fame and fortune?”
“No, its about becoming a named adventurer and getting a holding or place you can call home. You and your wife have it easy you came from somewhere else got the hero levels and the king is giving you some leeway. If you can recover artifacts he would be able to trade them for more support from the other continents. It could also inspire more gold teams to come to Rhir.”
They camped again that night with watches every two hours to keep an eye on the grasses. The night passed uneventfully and they again rode is silence, the dreary black grass gave a start contrast to the gray overcast sky. It drizzled for a little bit during the day making things miserable for all involved.
“What about making me unstoppable?” Dalilah said wiping water from her hair.
“I don’t think it works that way.” Bloodstone said, trying to ignore her hundredth question.
“How about a super geek?” She asked.
“Will you give it a rest, I offered you a basic class like Warrior or mage or rouge and you turned me down, Priest and cleric you said was to game like and that you didn’t like those classes, What class will make you happy. I don’t think fashion designer is a class you would want out here.” He said staring at her.
“Well that’s what I was going to school for, I mean I wanted to get into designing costumes for the meta human groups.” She said shrugging.
“What is a meta human,” Rana asked.
“Well technically, they have special abilities that humans don’t, you would be able to get meta human protection if you were on my world, or at least they would be very curious about your DNA”
“Whats DNA?” Rana asked.
“Deoxyribonucleic acid, oh right you are from a magic world. Why would you know what DNA is?”
“What is it?” Rana asked.
“Its what makes you, unique.” She then launched into a long-winded explanation about DNA and how it’s the building blocks of life.
Bloodstone looked over at her, “What about a geneticist?”
“For a class?” , she said making a face, “Why would I want to do that?”
“Well you’re a fassion designer, why not customize people…” he let the comment hang in the air.
“That’s just wrong, That’s like playing…” she stopped and stared at Bloodstone.
“Like playing God? The gods are all dead here, if your ethical about it, then what’s the problem” he said.
She stared at him, “If your saying that, what does that make you?”
“Just a guy wanting to help you. You don’t really need a class. It just makes things easier here, and classes are not really the biggest power per say, skills are.”
“Wait skills, how does that work?” She asked.
“Well from what I can tell there are skills you get at certain levels of a class, some are random, some are based on existing skills and others are set skills. Think of them as super rare, Rare, uncommon, to common. You might never get a rare skill or you might always get rare skills. I have a bunch of levels I could transfer, think about it let me know.”
“Well how about making me a mage, and a geneticist, and druid. Maybe I can change some peoples lives and be fashionable about it.”
“Sure,” He said and touched her and transferred levels to her.
[Mage 25 removed]
[Geneticist 25 removed]
[Druid 10 removed]
[Fashion Designer 10 removed]
[Maldis Snowdrop spirit lost]
The White scales slithered up her arm and made a strange looking patch of white scales that went up her back.
“Uh, that’s not normal” Bloodstone said looking at the scales that went onto her arm.
“Its cold, not uncomfortable, just cold.” Dalilah said staring at her arm. She fell forward and was caught before she fell from her horse.
“Ohhh, skills…” She giggled, “Teehee” she poked Bloodstone in the chest. “You are not very fashionable, you could use a makeover.”
The paused and tied her to her horse as she had passed out.
It was hours later that she awoke, as the large group made camp. Dalilah was quiet and staring at the leaves of the grasses.
“Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea” she said as bloodstone sat nearby.
“What?” He asked.
“I think I understand something about this place. This grass, it’s been corrupted, there is something causing it to be black, its not normal.” She said looking him in the eye.
“Of course, they call this area the blighted lands.” The was a soft chuckle from the locals.
“You don’t understand, it shouldn’t be this way. It’s just that,” She waved her hands around, “It looks wrong to me, no sense of a grand design.”
The was a louder chuckle from the locals.
“Its always been like this. The blighted, lands are ruled by the blighted king. It used to be a great forest here, or so the story goes.” She looked at Bloodstone. “Its not much of a tale, we don’t know how it became blighted, there are rumors that the elves left soon after, no one knows where.”
“You think they could have left this world, or escaped somewhere?” Bloodstone asked.
“No idea, we were hoping there would be more information if we could track down more elvish books. You have the best copies we have seen so far.”
“How close are we to where your friends fell?”, Eve asked.
“Tomorrow or the day after, we should find the entrance.” Brigette replied.