Chapter 44: Welcome Home

Chapter 44: Welcome Home

"/HELPQuery"

Skill.Crafting.Tinkering Available as a crafting skill.

Subskills: 3

ERROR: CRAFT = 0.

You may not take this skill

"/HELPQuery"

Skill.CraftUtility.Lockpicking Available to Rogue class and sub-classes

Subskills: 3

ERROR: CRAFT = 0.

You may not take this skill

"/HELPQuery"The origin of this chapter's debut can be traced to N0v3l--B1n.

Skill.Crafting.Locksmithing Available as a crafting skill.

Subskills: 3

ERROR: CRAFT = 0.

You may not take this skill

"/HELPQuery"

Skill.Crafting.Clockmaking Subskill to Tinkering, Mechanician, and Lockpicking

Subskills: 3

ERROR: CRAFT = 0.

You may not take this skill

Ben sighed, he'd gone through dozens of skills, anything that he could think of from other games, but all seem accounted for. Maybe try some odd combinations?

"/HELPQuery"

Skill.Crafting.Manasmithing Available to Tier 3 crafters. Smiths and Tinkerers.

Subskills: 3

ERROR: CRAFT = 0. ERROR Tier = 1.

You may not take this skill

"/HELPQuery"

Skill.Crafting.Magical Technician Available to Tier 3 crafters. Smiths and Tinkerers.

Available to those with the Inventor Heritage.

That was nine points of his eighteen spent. Looking at the list of special abilities he could buy, he selected Magic Eyes 1 and Identification 1. Both would come in very handy. That left five points to spend. Bosses weren't something you ran into a lot; or wanted to run into a lot. He needed to save some points for new skills.

That much done, he sat back and finished his wine - and became aware of a conversation taking place at a nearby table. "...which is why Brandon wants to get all of us in town..." "Yeah, and what about their hit squad?" "...can handle them, what else is the brat good for?" "...so, we just march up and take the place over? What about the lightning?"

As much as he wanted to hear more, the Inn Keeper yelled, "Last call, and out with you all. Have a good night." Ben let the gentlemen move towards the door before he moved from his own table. He got a look at them. Enough to recognize later.

"Stand and state your name or by all the gods of Light I'll burn you where you stand." High Paladin Reeves was scowling at the shadow approaching him. His eyesight was getting very bad at night, so lighting up his hands with holy power helped him see into the gloom.

The shadow paused and then spoke. "Paladin-in-Training Sundiver, coming to relieve you, sir."

The light in Reeves hands died down. "That's a good lad. Thank you, son. Once upon a time, when I was younger, staying up all night was easy - not so much anymore. Stay vigilant until dawn. There is some evil afoot, mark my words." And with that the old paladin wandered off to his bedroll under the wagon a few feet away.

The junior paladin was not much impressed with his senior. The guy was blind as a bat, and when he rolled out from under the wagon they were guarding, he freaked out. Probably half asleep, which is what Sundiver planned to be. This glorious campaign to the north was sheer bullshit. He and the guys were logging in constantly to do this quest, and mostly just getting wagons unstuck from mud. If he didn't need to finish the quest to get to Tier two, he'd say to hell with it. Plus, they were headed to some ancient evil city from hell. He wanted to see that and maybe finally hit a dungeon.

There was a small bit of noise near the front of the caravan, and a fire flared up. A voice nearby whispered at him. "We have wine and sausages grilling up at the front. Tell the next two wagons. The old farts are asleep."

That was much better! Something to warm them up and a bit of conversation made the night go faster. The seven of them sat around the fire chatting, totally ignoring their training that being so near the fire made it impossible to see out into the dark.

Chartok was appalled at how easy this was. They weren't even paying attention to him! He was only ten feet away in a bush and they hadn't even said anything like "Hark, what’s that sound?" or "By my stars! I can smell evil out in the dark." Nope, the only thing these guys were smelling was sausage. They did smell good. He was tempted to just go in and steal one, but he needed to do this right. Every day he delayed their march was more EP!

He started out subtle, practicing some of his new curses. Curse of Rain had ruined the roads. If they had bothered with scouts, they'd have noticed the rain was suspiciously only within a half mile of their caravan. Then he'd started using the Curse of Rot, trying to use just a little power. But one of the old ones was canny and smelled it out. So now he needed to up the stakes.

He considered several clever plans, but finally the smell of sausage got to him. One of them was holding his sausage in his hand while sitting on a log. Chartok went for the snack, along with the baby paladin’s hand. The strike was totally unexpected causing a critical hit. Chartok's teeth were sharp, doing the damage of one of the great swords these idiots had leaning against the wagons.

Paladin-in-training William felt a tug on his hand, and looked down at the blood spurting from his wrist. Chartok swallowed the sausage but spit out the hand, you never know where those things had been.

Following his snack he unleashed a Curse of Withering on one of them. It would come in handy, draining the victim’s life while healing him if he got hit. Then it was time to scamper off a bit into the darkness and howl. Hopefully they'd follow.

"Dammit, what the hell was that? It's killing Sundiver and Willie lost a hand."

"Shit! get your sword and follow me. Danny, get a tourniquet on Willie, then catch up. We're going to kill this bastard and show the old farts how it's done."

And, if allowed to surround the wolf and unleash a couple rounds of hits with big swords and holy fire, they certainly could. Which is why Chartok wasn't sticking around. He ran back into the darkness, making sure not to step on his own Glyphs of Hellfire. The glyphs went off a few seconds later, burning the little paladins and making them run faster; but not as fast as a wolf. Chartok kept retreating. He wasn't really trying to kill them, although that was a bonus. He just needed some commotion to draw the old sleepy heads up to the fire. He was partially successful. Gabriel and most of the Paladins raced to the front of the camp. Three kept sleeping, being a bit deaf.

"I don't like this." Gabriel didn't know what was going on, but it wasn't an assault by the dark forces. The young idiots were running around chasing something in the dark, but there was a distinct lack of battle. "Be alert, it's got to be a diversion. Wait, who's guarding the horses?"

The sound of a couple dozen horses screaming answered that question. The horses had been picketed at the back of the wagons. A better move would have been to put the wagons in a circle with the horses inside. But half of the caravan was brand new and the others hadn't really been on a dangerous campaign in decades, if ever.

Chartok’s pack had increased greatly when he advanced to level six and Tier two. It had grown more when he hit level seven. Fifty undead wolves were attacking and driving away the mules and horses the caravan needed to move the wagons. The wolves had their orders. Break the pickets, unleash fearful howls, nip at the lower legs to get them moving.

A few of the old warhorses had fought wolves before, and a half dozen wolves had their skulls crushed by flashing hooves. But the bulk of the herd went thundering into the night. When that happened, all but Gabriel’s horse ran with them. Gabriel found his trusty mount finishing off a wounded wolf, and an empty and muddy field. They'd lose a couple of days finding the horses, and some would never be found.

As he heard the powerful howl from the forest, it all came into focus. This was a monster of the dark sent to delay them. And it was smart. The rain, the rot, and now the attack on the horses. The wolf wasn't here to kill them, just keep them in place. The situation in the North was more serious than expected. From his pouch, he pulled a small wooden box. Inside the box was a fragile charm which he crushed, releasing the spell. Any imperial courier within the area would hear the call and respond. He needed reinforcements, and he needed them fast.

Congratulations! You have successfully delayed the Order of Paladins for over one weeks time. You have earned 5 Core Skill points and EP towards level 8. Complete the following quests for more rewards.

Kill each of the Paladins-In-Training, making them fail their quest: 1/7

Ravage the country side. Peasants ravaged: 0/100

Forcing the Paladins to either delay further, or abandon the peasantry.

Kill a full member of the Order of Paladins: 0/1

Repeatable quest.

Chartok had his work cut out for him. Questing was so much fun.