We entered the chamber running at full tilt.
Although, technically, it was not a chamber. More correctly, it was an arena, a small one, but an arena, nonetheless.
The passage we’d been running down spilled out on its outer rim, at the top of a series of oversized steps. Seating, I supposed.
It was not hard to imagine what the audience had sat watching here either. 2024-01-27 09:06:01 +0000 UTC View Post
“How many?” I asked at the same time as Odenna snapped, “Which sworn are with them?”
“What?” Soren asked, his face a picture of confusion. “No! Sorry, I meant the spies. Only the three spies have been spotted.”
I sagged in relief and beside me I felt Odenna do the same. For a moment, I’d feared the worst had fallen and Arinna had come.
Still, Soren’s messag...
2024-01-27 09:03:34 +0000 UTC View PostAll eyes turned to Eoman. The plan was clearly to be his. “If we are to save the poor quarter,” he began, “we must do two things: kill the players, and make sure they don’t escape.”
For a moment, his words confused me. Weren’t both things he mentioned one and the same? Then I realized what he was driving at. “You mean we can’t let them escape after death,...
2024-01-27 09:03:13 +0000 UTC View PostOdenna’s words were like a punch in the gut, knocking the life out of me and I sagged back in my chair.
“Elana! Elana, I don’t care what that old elf says,” Adalinda said angrily. “We are one. Things are the way they are, and I would not want them any other way.”
I didn’t raise my head. I heard Adalinda and knew her words were heartfelt. She probably ...
2024-01-27 09:02:24 +0000 UTC View PostIt didn’t take one hour, it took four.
After the meeting had finished, my brother escorted me to his tiny quarters to rest—even though I’d insisted I didn’t need any. Too many unhappy thoughts and crowded my thoughts, and I had been too alert to sleep.
Or so I’d thought.
The moment my head touched the pillow, I fell fast asleep. The night’s activities had taken a t...
2024-01-27 09:01:50 +0000 UTC View PostAbout who you are.
Those words haunted me all the way back to Eoman’s hideout. They certainly sounded ominous, but I couldn’t say I was surprised. They’d been plenty of hints that Soren had been keeping secrets, and even Odenna seemed to know things about me that I didn’t.
“Are you nervous?” Adalinda asked. The celestial had unmanifested as was travelin...
2024-01-27 09:01:22 +0000 UTC View PostThe instant I crossed the threshold into Cantos’ room, I rocked to a halt.
The sight of the Butcher’s corpse transfixed me.
For that singular moment, nothing else impinged on my awareness but his body—and what it meant—and all the emotions I’d been suppressing came surging back. Rocking back and forth, I wrapped my arms about myself.
Vengeance was not all it was made...
2024-01-27 09:00:56 +0000 UTC View Post“Ada, it’s over,” I murmured.
“You got him?” came the instantaneous response.
“Yes,” I replied tiredly. “You can retreat.”
“That’s no longer an option, I think,” she said with an uneasy laugh. “We’re about to be overwhelmed.”
I raised my head, concern spiking. “Can you unmanifest?...
2024-01-27 09:00:32 +0000 UTC View PostThe dark-clad figure staggered back, then righting herself clapped sarcastically as she looked me up and down.
“Well, well,” she sneered. “If it isn’t the poor quarter’s girl wonder herself. How nice of you to show up. Saves me the trouble of hunting you down.”
I stared at the woman across me blankly, trying to place her. Her hair was long, black, and wavy, with a silken...
2024-01-27 09:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post“Cantos has a house in the center of his gang’s territory,” Eoman said. “Ordinarily, he doesn’t have much use for the place, but since you wreaked the Devils’ main base—the Black Sewers—I have it on good authority that he spends his nights at the house. It will be significantly easier to get to him there than the Black Sewers themselves.”
I bit my lip. A house. ...
2024-01-27 08:59:42 +0000 UTC View PostI didn’t return to the safe house until hours later.
With no meaningful amount of money remaining in my pockets, I whiled away the time browsing the many shops in the district. Everything was expensive—at least by poor quarter standards.
Eventually, though, I tired of my explorations and headed back to the safe house. Thankfully, I’d remembered the knock pattern correctly and ...
2024-01-27 08:59:10 +0000 UTC View PostDespite my earlier nap, I slept like the dead.
Too much had happened yesterday, and I’d been both emotionally wrung out and physically exhausted when I’d gone to bed.
In spite of this, I still awoke in the morning with a searing pain behind my eyes. It’ll pass, I told myself. Sitting up, I looked around the room I hadn’t cared enough to inspect the previous night. I...
2024-01-27 08:58:45 +0000 UTC View PostWe walked in silence for another ten minutes before Odenna came to a sudden halt before a decrepit manor house that had obviously seen better days.
Roots had pushed up from the surrounding brickwork to wrap around the rusty fence enclosing the property. The windows were boarded up, the walls were crumbling, and silence lay like a thick blanket over everything.
“This is a safe hous...
2024-01-27 08:56:08 +0000 UTC View PostDespite my confident tone with Adalinda, I knew returning to Odenna’s shop was a long shot, but it was not a plan without merit. The elf and my family went back a long way, and she would help if I was desperate.
Which I was.
Then, too, there were the questions Groff and Glenda had asked. They strongly suggested Odenna was more than the simple old woman she made out to be. I’d gu...
2024-01-27 08:55:40 +0000 UTC View PostMy arrow flew unerringly towards its mark, burning as brightly as my fury. The elf tried to dodge, but hampered by his earlier injury, he moved too slow to avoid the projectile entirely.
You have grazed your target, dealing fire damage!
“Get him Ada,” I snarled.
No less wrathful, the fire lizard surged in from the elf’s left flank, her jaws open...
2024-01-27 08:55:03 +0000 UTC View PostI smacked the axeman’s chest—hard.
“Oow. What did you do that for?” he protested.
“Idiot! What were you thinking? We’re in the middle of a battle. I could’ve killed you!”
“I was thinking you needed help,” he retorted. “And we’re not in the middle of a battle, that’s an exaggeration. The fight is all the way over there,” he said, gesturing b...
2024-01-27 08:54:37 +0000 UTC View PostThe half-orc had obviously been reborn and, from the looks of it, was out for blood. “You,” he sneered as he drew closer. “How fortuitous that we meet again.”
“For me, perhaps,” I said bravely. “Not for you.”
He laughed, not bothering to retort. Resisting the urge to flee, I stiffened my limbs and renewed my buffs.
You have cast witch armor, in...
2024-01-27 08:54:10 +0000 UTC View PostThe old council hall was only a short distance from the Raccoon base. Everyone called it the ‘old council hall,’ though no one knew if it had ever been used for such a purpose. The ruins were certainly old, but no government had ever graced the poor quarter—and the thought of the likes of us ever having anything so grand as a council was laughable.
Still, it was a name, and an easy ...
2024-01-27 08:53:43 +0000 UTC View PostAs Adalinda and I stepped outside, the sun caught my eye and blinded me. I had been in the dark too long, and it would take some time to get used to the brightness again. Shading my eyes, I looked around.
Now that it was morning, the streets were bustling with people again. Mothers pulled children along, laborers headed to work, and guards patrolled the streets. It felt… normal. Surreal...
2024-01-27 08:53:19 +0000 UTC View PostI opened my eyes to find myself on a battlefield. The haunted figures of Devils I had killed were all around me. A haze of purple covered their bodies, and they paid no attention to me.
Looking down, I found a sword in my hands. Strange, considering I didn’t have one, and I couldn’t use one—not well at any rate. I searched my mind for any Game alerts but found none.
How di...
2024-01-27 08:52:43 +0000 UTC View PostI awoke in a dark room.
My vision was blurry, but I could make out three figures standing in front of a wooden door. Above me was a single, dim light—and it was doing no favors for my throbbing head.
I’d been beaten—savagely, I realized.
I looked around, turning my head slowly so as to not worsen the throbbing, and saw that the room I was in was empty, filled only with d...
2024-01-27 08:52:21 +0000 UTC View Post“Wait, Elana!” Odenna called suddenly.
I didn’t stop.
“Please,” she said, her voice choked with emotion.
I hesitated, then turned around. Had she had a change of heart? Would she tell me what I wanted to know?
But all she asked was, “What are your plans now?”
I stared at her stonily, unable to keep my disappointment from showing. “I intend to join t...
2024-01-27 08:51:53 +0000 UTC View PostNot long after leaving the broodmother behind, my darkvision buff faded, which forced me to use light’s fury to navigate.
Doing so was both more tedious and dangerous, but fortunately, I ran across no other strange creatures, and shortly the tunnel I was following spilled out into a corridor that was brightly lit.
Letting my light fury spell lapse, I studied the magelights lining ...
2024-01-27 08:50:56 +0000 UTC View PostAdalinda took point again as we moved into the intersection.
“Elana…” Adalinda began, stopping suddenly.
“What is it?” I asked. The celestial was at the entrance of the intersection, and I couldn’t see into it as fully as she could.
She took so long responding that, for a moment, I thought she wouldn’t. “Maybe we should retreat.” 2024-01-27 08:50:30 +0000 UTC View Post
It did not take me long to reach the closest sewer entrance marked on Vigil’s map.
The entrance in question was set inside the locked basement of an abandoned building. Locking the basement door behind me, I approached the access hole.
The solid steel plate set in the floor was heavy, but the hinges were well-oiled and, after the initial struggle, easy to lift.
“Looks ...
2024-01-27 08:50:06 +0000 UTC View Post“I told you,” Celeste exclaimed triumphantly. “She’s a player!”
“As always, my dear,” Eoman murmured, “you’re right.” He turned to Soren, his gaze solemn. “What do you expect me to do with this information?”
There was nothing for it but to forge ahead now, I thought.
“Like Alon said, we wish to fight for the Raccoons,” I said, speaking up. “We’v...
2024-01-27 08:49:38 +0000 UTC View PostWarning! Your health is at 40%.
I scowled as the Game message opened in my mind. I was still leaning over the half-orc and not much time had passed since I had been taken the blow from the player, but already, my health had dropped five percent from the bleeding debuff.
It also confirmed what I’d been feeling. The pain in my shoulder was growing steadily worse. 2024-01-27 08:49:00 +0000 UTC View Post
We made for an uneasy trio as we strode through the streets of the poor quarter.
Soren had not left the bolt holt empty-handed. He came carrying a threadbare but clean hooded cloak, which he insisted on draping over me himself. Standing stiffly, I let him do so.
Once more things between the two of us were awry, and I couldn’t help but wonder if this was how things would always be ...
2024-01-27 08:48:33 +0000 UTC View PostIt was noon when Alon and Soren returned.
They came silently, but both were breathing hard as if they’d been running; there was tension in their shoulders and worry in their eyes, too.
I rose swiftly. “What’s wrong?”
“Everything,” Alon growled.
Soren shot him a quelling look. “A lot,” he clarified. “War is brewing.”
I blinked. “War? Between wh...
2024-01-27 08:48:06 +0000 UTC View PostI knew the first thing I needed to do was to attend to my skills and abilities. Thus far, I’d been operating with only a single ability: light’s fury. Now, it was time to expand my repertoire.
And thankfully, I had a cache of skillbooks and ability tomes to turn to for help.
Scratching around in my backpack, I extracted the items I’d looted from the Devils’ lair. All in all,...
2024-01-27 08:47:40 +0000 UTC View Post