World of darkness hunt.., p.22
The Adventurer's Glyph: A LitRPG Adventure (Twilight Company Book 1), page 22
Daeklor Hurdler, Tier 2 - Level 4
The hurdlers were Snikki’s height, had thin bodies, and trembled with barely contained energy. They ran straight at Tempest, wailing horrid cries that sounded like swine drowning in sand.
“Well, hello to you too,” he said, then swept his Soul Staff in an arc before him.
Casting Spell: Ice Shard I
15 freezing DMG
-16 Mana
Pumping the spell to triple strength showered the hurdlers with a fierce, icy hail that emanated from his staff. The frigid spikes tore through the oily forms.
Daeklor Hurdler Defeated x6
+600 XP
Tier 2 - Level 4 Reached
+1 Stat Point
“What, no gold?” he asked.
Though he was overjoyed to get another level, Tempest also knew they were in trouble. The other subjugators charged at Tudda, while the other ebon orbs exploded and generated more hurdlers. Snikki ducked and weaved among the small figures, her daggers lashing out in streaks of oily ichor. Spinning about like an acrobat, she kicked and elbowed away any daeklor that drew near, even the taller subjugators.
Tudda, now wearing a horned helm that sprouted a flame atop it, charged into the other subjugators, laying about with her warhammer. The exposed parts of her body—which were most of it, given her skimpy outfit—likewise burned with a shimmering, orange flame. He remembered what that orc mage had said about spellcasters practically burning off their clothes, since they held so much magical power.
“Ha, take that, you oily shits!” Tudda cried, the whooped as her warhammer splattered a subjugator’s leg out from under it. Yet a moment later, two others struck her from behind with their tentacles. The strikes bashed her to the road, where she lay in a daze, her fiery countenance stuttering like a torch in a storm.
“Tudda!” Snikki called, then cartwheeled past hurdlers and stabbed a subjugator in the back. Though her attack dispatched the enemy, the other subjugator slapped her aside, where she struck a nearby dune in a puff of sand.
Despite their coordinated onslaught, Tempest knew the battle was going against them. Desperate, he felt arcs pop off his hands.
“Stay down, the both of you!” he yelled.
“No…problem…” Tudda groaned.
“I hate sand!” Snikki called, but she stayed down.
Casting Spell: Storm’s Fury I
18 lightning DMG
-20 Mana
The bolt melted three hurdlers that drew too close, and sizzled through two subjugators. Though the first subjugator slid apart in chunks, the other raked its tentacles in Tempest’s direction before it died.
Tentacle Attack, -20 Health
In addition to the punishing damage, the strike tossed Tempest right back into the hillock where he’d crouched moment earlier.
Impact Damage, -7 Health
No wonder Snikki and Tudda had been stunned by the attack. It was like getting hit by a truck driven by Asshole Cthulhu and his Merry Shoggoths.
“Let’s not…do that…again,” he gasped.
Four hurdlers loped over to Tempest. One vomited at him.
Tempest managed to roll aside; the pool of vomit ate down into the sandy hillside. Another hurdler wailed, then its body ripped itself to ribbons and fell over him. The moist, foul strands spread like a plant and bound him tighter than steel chains.
Hurdler Cosset
Immobilized
-8 Mana Drain
“Okay, this isn’t good!” Tempest yelled.
The strands around him started popping out smaller hurdlers of their own; it was using his Mana to grow more versions of itself. He would’ve found it imaginative if the damned things weren’t going to kill him and his friends.
Snikki sped over, flipped over a hurdler while slicing off its head, then landed on her feet like a cat of death and drove her blade through another hurdler’s chest.
“Tuuu-daaa, if you’re done flirting with these things, we could use you over here!” Snikki called in a teasing singsong that belied the worry in her eyes.
“Damn, and this one was about to take me out for dinner and a fine snog!” Tudda cried, then bashed aside a hurdler as she ran toward Tempest.
“Are you okay?” Snikki asked him.
“No,” he said.
“Okay,” Snikki said, then vaulted over another hurdler and cast Web Trap on the last subjugators. It caught all but one, who shambled after Tudda.
“That’s it?” Tempest cried as a tiny hurdler face popped off a strand right before his mouth. “Gee, thanks a bunch, Snikki dearest!”
“You’re welcome,” Snikki called as she ducked the subjugator’s tentacles.
Tudda reached Tempest’s side, made a face at the hurdler cosset, and laid a fiery hand on his chest. Her Cleansing Fires spell obliterated the cosset to tiny ebon shreds, but it didn’t heal him.
“Goddess’s tits!” Tudda yelled. “I’ve never seen that before.”
“That’s odd,” Tempest said, feeling a chill at the sight of the cosset’s remnants melting into the sand.
“Will you two stop playing bestiary bros and help me over here?” Snikki asked as she barely dodged another tentacle swipe.
“Should I do it, or you?” Tempest asked.
Tudda pushed a braid from her face. “You, since she’s your goblin now. I only massaged those little green tootsies, remember?”
“Hmm…any pointers on that?” he asked.
“Don’t use orcish oils,” Tudda said.
“Hurry it up, damn you!” Snikki said as the creature’s tentacles grasped her by the ankle and lifted her above the road.
Tempest aimed the Soul Staff at the subjugator’s head and acted.
Casting Spell: Ice Shard I
10 freezing DMG
-12 Mana
The head of the staff beamed a concentrated volley of rime into the subjugator’s cranium. Its head crackled over in frozen repose, then shattered. The tentacle holding Snikki slackened, but didn’t release her. She still dangled a few inches off the road, her topknot swishing in the dirt.
“That’s not quite what I needed, but I’ll take it,” Snikki said. “Widow’s bitching bite, please tell me that’s all of them?”
“Yes, thank the Smith,” Tudda said. “I got a level.”
“I think we all did, after that insanity,” Tempest said.
As Tudda helped Tempest to his feet, he caught sight of figures farther down the road. Some wore black robes while others wore alabaster trousers and light-green tunics.
They were flinging spells at each other. Lightning bolts, blasts of flame, gouts of acid, and whips of chilling cold.
Worried about the fresh danger, Tempest ran to Snikki despite his aches and pains. He used her dagger to cut the tentacle off her ankle while buttressing her over his shoulder. The cries of battle echoed from the opposing groups.
“You can cut this damsel in distress nonsense right now,” Snikki said.
“Not now, Sniks,” he whispered, and pointed up the road.
Tudda hurried to their side, warhammer ready to mete out death again if need be. “Who is that?”
“Looks like a LARP convention gone wrong,” Tempest said. “Very wrong.”
Snikki slid off his shoulder and accepted her dagger back as her yellow gaze widened to the size of gold pieces.
“Those are Darksbane and Shatha, dueling,” Snikki said. “We need to leave this place. Now.”
24
ROLL THE BONES!
“But the merchant that brought us here in his wagon is gone,” Tudda said. “We can’t outrun anyone out here, either. Not two short women and a human who refuses to carry them.”
“We really need to invest in mounts,” Snikki said. “Or harnesses for Tempy.”
“Yeah right,” Tempest said. “Fast Travel, anyone?”
“Are you crazy?” Tudda asked. “You might give us more shit to fight.”
“No, he’s correct, because we cannot deal with those wizards,” Snikki said. “And they’re getting closer. I’ll bet my last dirk that one of them summoned these daeklor.”
“Why should we fear them, anyway?” he asked. “These factions hire venturers like us, after all.”
“Because if one of them summoned the daeklor, they won’t appreciate us killing their pets,” Snikki said.
“Oh,” Tempest said. “Okay, then. Fast Travel it is.”
“But you cast a lot of spells just now,” Snikki said. “Your Mana…”
“If something goes awry, you two are the better fighters anyway,” he said. “Besides, as a Tier 2 badass, I have two Mana potions. How bad can it be?”
Down the road, more people died. It appeared the black robes were winning.
“Okay, that kind of bad,” he said, then swiped his ken mark and pulled up the world map. “We want to return to Uquara. In the Vensarel compound.”
“No, factions get really angry when you Fast Travel into their buildings,” Tudda said. “Since we might bring something along with us.”
“Outside the city, then,” he said before he focused on the city’s map icon. “Welp, ladies, here goes.”
Tempest’s body shuddered. Then he felt like his blood was drained from him, starting with his head and ending with his feet. Yet a second later, the sensation reversed, and the rush of nearing the stars made him tremble and cough.
Fast Travel: Uquara
-12 Mana
-2 Stamina for 10 minutes
One moment Tempest stood on the road with Snikki and Tudda; the next, he passed through shimmering gulfs that evoked the aurora borealis, but sped up to a roiling maelstrom of color.
An instant later, he knelt on a sandy plain a short distance from the city. A few merchant’s tents were present, and a small, stone well. The twin suns bore down on him mercilessly, and the colored lights were gone.
“Hey…we made it,” he said in a dry voice.
“You idiot!” a voice cried from inside the well.
“Tudda?” he asked.
“You teleported me into the fucking well, you anvil-headed moron!” Tudda yelled, her voice reverberating in the small, cylindrical shaft.
“Oh, sorry,” he said, still feeling dazed. “I…”
A figure ran past him, screaming, trailing a long red ribbon.
It was Snikki. A skull had latched its teeth onto her rump.
“You’ve got to be shitting me right now, Rathos,” he muttered.
“Tempest, get off your ass and help me!” Snikki wailed as she slapped at the skull on her bottom.
“Where’s the rest of it…oh, okay,” he said as he spotted five skeletons a few feet away. One lacked a head. They headed toward him. Some held rusted, broken weapons.
Skeleton (Forgotten Dead), Tier 2 - Level 1
“Hello, guys,” he said. “Could you, like, leave Druid Bro alone for now? It’s been a long day, and I need a bath and a meal—”
“The Web damn your testicles, help me right this instant!” Snikki screamed as she ran past him again, the skull chomping at her butt.
“Lucky bastard,” he mumbled.
“Druid, if I drown down here, I will haunt you!” Tudda called.
Tempest got to his feet and swung the staff.
Casting Spell: Ice Shard I
15 freezing DMG
-16 Mana
Though the shower of ice blasted the skeletons apart, and he received 500 XP, the weakness from using Fast Travel sent him to his knees again.
“No gold…again?” he murmured. “Rathos, you’re getting…greedy…”
“Teeempyyy!” Snikki shouted as she ran past a third time. Now the skull was just playing with her, trying to take her entire left butt cheek into its skinless maw.
“That’s it, I’m beating your ass when I get out of this thing!” Tudda cried.
Tempest coughed again, but had to decide: he didn’t want to lightning or ice-shard the skull off Snikki’s derriere, but he couldn’t run and catch her to pry it off, either. And he lacked missiles or thrown weapons. Besides, its teeth looked pretty dull. Her goblin booty was safe.
So he looked at the well and summoned his magic.
Casting Spell: Binding Tendrils I
-10 Mana
Concentrating, Tempest caused roots to sprout from the ground around the well, climb over its lip, and dangle down—hopefully—to where Tudda was. He also hoped the thing wasn’t very deep.
Ingenious Spellcraft
+150 XP
“Finally!” Tudda yelled, then the well echoed with her angry grunts as she climbed the roots.
“Hurry, it won’t last,” he said.
“It’d better, druid boy!” the dwarf called back.
“I mean, with how little rainfall this region gets…it can’t hold that much water,” he said. “Sniks, will you hold still? Stand beside me, I’ll pull it off.”
Snikki ran past yet again, swatting at her rump madly. “You’re a dead man, Windbag! You helped her instead of me? Oh, you’re so dead!”
Tudda clambered from the well, sopping wet.
“Oh, so there was some water down there,” Tempest said.
“Yeah, you think?” Tudda asked, stomping past him.
Snikki sped toward them. “Ouch, it’s got me, it’s got me!”
Tudda rolled her eyes, then flicked her warhammer at the goblin. The weapon grazed the skull enough to knock it free of Snikki’s rump. Hammer and skull both tumbled away into the sand.
Stopping, Snikki glowered at Tempest.
“You’re welcome,” Tudda said, reclaiming her hammer.
“Oh shit,” he said.
Snikki pounced on him. “Do you know what torture I just endured? What horrors I just experienced?”
“Will you bite my butt and show me?” he asked weakly. “I don’t kink shame.”
“Pah!” Snikki cried. “I’ll do you one better!”
She ran, grabbed the skull, then stalked toward Tempest. Once close, she lowered it to his crotch.
“Wait!” he yelled, raising his hands in defense.
“Yes, I would rather not taste this one,” the skeleton said in raspy, refined voice.
Snikki yelped and dropped the skull.
Tudda rolled her eyes again. “For fuck’s sake. A talking bonehead? Can we turn in this contract already?”
“Please,” Tempest said, lying on his back, staring up at the sky.
After Tudda healed them, and Tempest withstood Snikki’s curses as he placed the skull into a sack, the trio returned to the Vensarel compound. The contract rewards granted him another level, as well as 350 more gold and a lore crystal. Now that he wasn’t in danger—from daeklor, but Snikki still gave him the stink eye—he spent his two new Stat Points, placing both in Willpower. With more spells, he really needed the extra Mana.
The Vensarel were surprised about the Forgotten Dead skull being able to talk, especially after its body had been strewn apart by his Ice Shard spell. They placed it in their library for study, but merely offered the Twilight Company’s members free room and board for two nights as payment for the jabbering thing.
Later that evening, Tempest joined his comrades in the compound’s common room, where other venturers ate, drank, or gossiped.
Snikki, dressed in dark-red silks, scowled at him, but gestured for him to sit on her bench anyway. Attired in a sleeveless tunic and breeks, Tudda quaffed a mug of ale. Tempest himself wore a hooded evergreen tunic and pants: something comfortable while they waited for their food to arrive.
“Let’s get down to business,” Snikki said. “We’re all at least Tier 2, Level 5 now—I’m Level 6—and it’s time to find new members, like we discussed. Tempest the Dispassionate, are you still okay using the orb to achieve this?”
“I’m sorry about the skull thing,” he said.
Snikki’s eyes narrowed to slits and her ears flattened. “Tempest. Are you fine, using the orb?”
“Of course,” he said, then lowered his voice. ‘Sorry about the—”
He sucked in a breath as Snikki pinched his thigh beneath the table.
“So we’re really going to recruit that paladin?” Tudda asked, then drank again. “Give me a moment to get good and drunk, and then I’ll agree with you.”
“Then we’d be here all night,” Snikki said.
“How do we know he’s even alive?” Tudda asked. “A shit heel like that has likely already gotten a blade up his nethers in this business. Heh heh, that puts a nice image in my mind.”
“That’s why Tempest the Callous here,” Snikki said, pinching him again, and in the same spot, too, “is going to use that precious, lovely orb that I gave back to him and find out. Right, Tempest?”
“Only if you stop pinching me,” he said.
“That pain you’re feeling, that terror?” Snikki asked savagely. “That was how I felt earlier, with that talking demon munching on my…anyway. Now that I have your attention, I want you to use that damn orb.”
“Here, in the common room?” Tempest asked.
Tudda burped and nodded. “Yeah, is that really a smart idea, goblin? Someone else might try to nab it off him. I’m too comfortable and buzzed to want to stop them.”
“The Twilight Company needs to build its reputation,” Snikki said. “These other venturers look at us a little differently now. They know we aren’t arrow fodder any longer. If we use the orb openly, it makes us look even stronger.”
“Fine,” he said, and placed the orb on the table. “Oh great wise ones, heed my voice, and, er, show me…”
Snikki leaned forward with excitement, while Tudda caught on to his mischief and shook her head.
“Yes, show us the paladin, go on,” Snikki said.
“Show me, oh wise ones, the marks,” he said, trying not to laugh.
“What marks?” Snikki asked, frowning.
Tudda gulped more ale.
“The marks on Snikki’s rump from the teeth,” Tempest managed to say before Snikki threw her glass of red wine in his face.
“Hmm, nice vintage, is that some Rathos merlot?” he asked, then backed away from Snikki’s vengeful glare. “Okay, no more bullshit, I’ll do it.”
He focused on the sphere, tuning out the background conversations, the clink of mugs, the popping embers in the fireplace.
