Dark omega emergence, p.15
Dark Omega: Emergence, page 15
Carn saw Sevelle returning in stealth mode. She made her way over to them slowly, mostly letting them catch up to her, and then she slid up behind Carn, but he just turned his head and looked straight at her.
“Stealth is way more fun when not at a party,” she said sulkily. ‘There’s a big rock monster hot tub party up ahead. Are you ready to crash it?”
“How many are there?”
“I counted thirteen little ones and one big guy.”
That didn’t sound so bad to Carn, especially now that there were four in their party.
The group looked at him expectantly, and he remembered that he was the leader.
“Sevelle, you attack the leader with your sneak attack and backstabs. Gilvester, you take point. Lina and I’ll hit them with magic from the back. Lina, if they like it hot, you bring the cold. If you can manage to group them together, I can hit them with my AOEs.”
You want to take this one? Carn asked Sparky.
Do you mean it? You don’t mind taking a back seat?
Carn could feel Sparky’s excitement flow through him.
Of course. You’ve seen me fight plenty of times. I was really impressed the last time I observed you battle, and I think I could learn from you. I’ll still give directions to the other party members, but I release everything else to you.
Carn felt the switch as a force seemed to hover in front of his thoughts, pushing him back. He could still feel everything, but his control was gone. He didn’t panic, though, because he thought he could seize control at any time. If he had to compare it to driving a car, it would be like an invisible spirit had pushed his seat back and had now taken the wheel, but he was still there in the driver’s seat.
He relaxed back and tried to take everything in. Gilvester stalked forward into the room, taking the lead. Carn and Lina followed closely behind. Upon entering, he realized again that perspective is everything. A giant rock creature sat on a throne immersed in a pool of lava. It was surrounded by the others, who were lounging in or around the lava. The big one was round like a boulder and easily as wide as two elephants, and the smaller ones were as tall as Gilvester but much rounder. When Sevelle said small, she must’ve meant small in relation to the large golem lord. I guess I should’ve asked more questions, he thought. Carn analyzed them.
Basalt Golem Lord
Level 19
HP: 5,000/5,000
Basalt Golem
Level 10
HP: 600/600
Gilvester stared down the golems and issued a taunt, one of his class abilities that drew agro. All eyes were suddenly on him, and the golems charged. He had swapped out his sword and shield for the large maul. It was better for smashing rock. Gilvester swung his maul around in a wide arc as the first golem approached, landing a vicious hit across its face. Chunks of rocks flew off, and the golem crashed to the ground with a sound like falling boulders. Gilvester continued his spin to sweep a leg from another golem. He followed it up with a downward blow that caved its head in.
More golems had climbed from the lava and were racing to intercept, but Lina laid down a sheet of ice. Seeing the first few fall to the ground, the others approached more cautiously with deliberate steps that cracked through the ice. This gave Lina the time to prepare her next spell.
Sevelle appeared behind the golem lord in a whirl of blades that struck sparks on the rugged rock but did little to his hard exterior. Switching tactics, she circled around to throw something in the golem lord’s eyes, blinding it. However, one of the golems grabbed her in a bear hug as she tried to dart away. It effortlessly lifted her off the ground and her legs kicked uselessly in the air as she struggled.
Carn phased Sevelle a few feet away from him, then used a gravity bubble to toss the golems onto the lord. The spell also sent up a shower of lava, which was more like a splash of warm water to the golems. The lord appeared untouched, but some of the golems had cracks running along them.
“See if you can cool that lava,” Carn shouted to Lina, who nodded and began repeatedly casting ice lance into the pool. The spell was cheap and had a quick cast time with a decent chance to freeze.
The golem lord tossed a huge lava glob in his direction. Carn phased away, and Lina dodged as lava splashed harmlessly in their former location. Using destabilize, Carn ravaged the golem lord with cracks. Soon chunks of rock broke off of him as he thrashed in the maelstrom.
Lina’s ice lances continued hitting the lava. Carn could already see that it moved a bit slower and had taken on a darker color. It was definitely cooling.
Gilvester was working his way around the pool to get a shot at the golem lord while he engaged the smaller golems, but his taunt had worn off, and the majority of them were heading towards Carn and Lina. Carn waited until they had approached just far enough to catch most of them in his spell, and then he tossed them back with a gravity wave. They splashed back in the lava or smashed against the far wall. One of them did not get back up.
The golem lord flailed around, still unable to see. Carn’s destabilize rocked it again, but he couldn’t follow up with a third as he was running low on mana. The golem lord had lost almost half its health, and one of its arms had been crushed into a useless lump.
Gilvester was fighting three golems now and was having trouble with his relatively slow weapon. A portal intercepted a fist just before it reached Gilvester’s head. It opened up in front of another golem and the first golem’s fist smashed it in the face. Carn snapped the portal shut, slicing off its arm in the process. He then sliced off the heads of the other two with the same trick while Gilvester finished off the one with the missing hand.
The golem lord’s eyes finally cleared, and he reached down to toss more lava, but his hand bounced off the hard surface. The pool was now dark and solid. It roared in rage, pounding its fist on the hard rock to break itself free. The golems Carn had tossed into the lava in his last attack were also stuck in the rock.
Gilvester now had a clear path to the golem lord. He approached quickly, and Carn saw the maul head glow with some unique ability. There was a terrible crash as it hit the lord’s shoulder and rock fragments burst back on Gilvester. The Golem lord’s remaining arm crashed to the ground. It was now generally defenseless.
At least, that was what Carn thought until a huge magical stone hand burst out of the ground, capturing Lina in its grasp. Carn phased her away, but a fist came out of the wall, punching him right in the chest. His small form was launched across the room. He could feel himself almost lose consciousness, but he shook himself alert. Another hand reached for Lina, but Sevelle shoved her out of the way. Sevelle dodged several more strikes.
Gilvester yelled out words of encouragement to the group. “It looks like he gained a new attack when we brought his health low enough. That means we’re almost there. Keep it up, and we’ll bring him down.”
Carn’s leg was a mess from that last punch and he knew he had some broken ribs. He tossed back a healing potion and let his health and mana recover for a second, watching the stone hands figure out a pattern. Before he could say anything, Sparky read his mind and began capturing the fists in portals to redirect back at the golem lord. Carn’s mana was almost out when the fist stopped coming. The golem lord slowed and let out a final moan before collapsing into rubble.
Gilvester finished off the few golems still struggling in the hardened lava, and Carn went to check on Lina. Sevelle was already searching the room for loot.
Nice fighting, Sparky. I like how you used singularity to amputate, and good job figuring out the pattern of his attacks.
Thank you, Carn. That was fun. I’ll give you back control now. You also have some notifications. Destabilize has increased to level 4, giving you more significant shatter and crushing percentages. Singularity has increased to level 2. You can now create 3-foot portals. Also, you are now level 15.
I love this wand. It makes leveling my spells so much easier.
Carn allocated six points to intellect because that was the best way to increase his damage potential and ability to cast more spells and one point to luck, bringing his intellect to 100 and his luck to 25.
“I found the loot,” Sevelle exclaimed. She pointed behind the throne, where she had discovered a hidden hatch on the back side of the throne. Inside were several items and a pile of gold. They distributed the gold evenly and gave Lina and Sevelle the first choice of the items. Sevelle picked up boots with a nice movement bonus and a couple rings that improved her grace and fortitude. Lina received a new set of blue robes that doubled her mana regeneration and a bracelet of water breathing. Gilvester received a shield that produced light and did minor damage to the undead. He still preferred his tortoiseshell shield for damage mitigation, but the shining shield provided better light than his lantern. Night vision was a blessing, but they each could still see better in the light. There was even an item for Carn.
Ring of the Fairy Lord
Adds +2 to charisma per player level. Improves relationships with forest creatures and fey by two levels. Relationships with these creatures cannot drop below neutral.
Restriction: Only usable by fairies.
SOULBOUND
That’s a scalable magic item, Sparky said. Those are the best types because their power grows with you.
Nice. I haven’t really had much use for charisma so far, but it will be helpful if the forest creatures do not attack me.
You might be surprised how often charisma is required. You are making charisma checks every time you interact with someone. It is actually a very valuable stat.
I’m not complaining. I was just more impressed by the secondary characteristic. What does the soulbound property do?
That means that it will not be lost, even if you die.
Nice bonus. Is there a way to make other items soulbound?
I’m not sure. That’s just something We’ll need to figure out.
A loud yell from Sevelle brought Carn out of his discussion with Sparky. “That’s one for me!”
“Give me a break. Not this again,’ Lina said under her breath with a sigh.
Sevelle did a few back handsprings and tested out her new movement speed.
“Nice. I always love a few upgrades. I leveled up three times from that fight. It feels like you and Gilvester are power leveling us. Well, this is a good time for me to log off. I have a date.”
Sevelle has logged out.
Seville twitched and stared at each of them. This was the first time Carn had seen another spark entirely in control of a character.
“Finally. My turn to show you how a real rogue does it. She plays this character all wrong. Who taught her to find traps? I’m surprised I still have all my fingers with the way she just shoves them into traps without any grace or technique whatsoever. A blind gal working in a sawmill has a better chance. I cringe every time she goes skulking around, but she won’t take a bit of advice from me.”
By now, everyone was staring at her. Carn had that look you’d give a crazy person on the street. He just turned around and smiled at Lina.
I think I understand the issue between Sevelle and her spark.
I can definitely see that they disagree. What have you noticed, Sparky?
Sevelle and her spark are both very competitive. Rather than working together, they see each other as rivals, which is why they do not get along.
That doesn’t sound very productive. Why would Insurgency allow for that kind of behavior?
We sparks are companions to players such as yourself, but we aren’t just a talking help screen or wiki.
You can say that again. No offense, but you don’t know half the information I ask you about.
Yes, well, as I was saying, we are also AI and each of us has a bit of a personality that is shaped by the player and what the Overlord thinks you need. You get a friendly spark, but Sevelle may need someone to push her to overcome her own limitations through competition.
So, the sparks are matched to players like some sort of virtual friend finder program?
Somewhat. I like to think of it more as an executive assistant recruitment program.
Well, five stars for you, Sparky.
Thanks.
Carn’s leg was still healing as the group set out, so Gilvester hefted him up on his shoulder like a toddler. Carn tried to get over his embarrassment and hoped no one would say anything.
“My dad used to hold me like that when I was a little kid,” Sevelle commented, gaining laughs from the rest of the party. Everyone soon got their jabs in and Carn felt their comradery growing. The group ventured further into the cave over the next few hours, encountering quite a few enemies, but nothing that quite compared to the golems. Lina and Sevelle had steadily leveled up and were now both at level 13. Gilvester reached level 15 to be on par with Carn.
Carn’s leveling may have slowed now that he was sharing experience with two others, but his spells were leveling up nicely due to the mentor’s wand. His lowest level spells, singularity, and destabilize leveled up the most. He brought singularity up to level 6 and destabilize to level 7. He noticed that each even level of singularity increased the portal size by 1 foot and the mana cost by 5. Every odd level increased the portal distance by 5 feet, but there was no increase in mana cost. Matter phase and gravity wave reached level 8.
As they walked, Carn taught Lina the precision casting skill, and she taught him a skill called battle casting that increased the chances of maintaining spell concentration when taking damage. Unfortunately, leveling the skill was hard. He had to take damage while maintaining a concentration spell to improve it.
They probably would have kept going, but Sevelle came running back through the cave. She had been scouting ahead, and from her excited face, Carn could clearly tell she found something.
“I found the motherload up ahead. You won’t believe it. Come and see. It is only a little further ahead.”
“That’s music to my ears. Let me at that loot!” Gilvester said, hurrying to catch up to Sevelle, who had dashed back into the tunnel as soon as she delivered her news.
Carn and Lina followed along behind at a brisk pace. A short distance later, they saw fortifications built around the tunnel. There was a wide-open space, and the far wall was filled with arrow slits. A portcullis secured further entry to the tunnel, but it was currently raised. On further inspection, it appeared to be stuck in the rock. Rust and sediment had made it another feature in the cavern landscape.
Upon passing the portcullis, Carn noticed writing on some walls, but he couldn’t determine what it said. “What language is this?”
Lina came up beside him and stared at it. “That’s Elven. It says, ‘Southern checkpoint D3.’ I didn’t expect to see elven writing here. Have you run into any elves beside us?”
“No. Just goblins, gnolls, and fairies.”
“Come on people,” Sevelle urged. “It’s just around this corner.”
She pulled Lina’s arm, leading her towards a door that opened in the wall. It looked just like the stone around it, except for some dust that had fallen off it when it was opened. They gasped as they walked in. The room was an armory. Suits of armor, pikes, swords, arrows, and so much more were stacked all around them.
Carn analyzed the gear and didn’t find anything magical, but they could make a fortune selling it all. The only problem would be transporting it. They each equipped a belt that contained a medium pouch and a flask, which both functioned as dimensional bags – one for water or some other beverage and the other for smaller items like potions, coins, or small weapons. The system called them “Deep Pockets Utility Belt.” They left the rest of the equipment in the armory. However, Carn marked it on his map so they could return there later.
Near the back was another chamber. Sevelle worked at the lock for a bit until they finally heard a click. With anticipation, Carn watched as Gilvester shouldered the door open. Inside was an ornate set of armor that must have been for the leader of this group. Elven script and pictograms of leaves, forest creatures, and sunshine decorated its bronze surface, and several emeralds were set within the breastplate. The bronze gave it an earthy feel.
Commander’s Plate of Burnished Leaves
Set including Commander’s Helm, Armor, and Gauntlets. Total Armor 170
No movement penalties for moving in heavy armor. +20 Fortitude, +10 Braun
There was an old book on a table, next to several blank pieces of paper. Two rods rested in rungs on the wall next to a hook with a shimmery cloak. One rod was dark black, and the other looked like a long crystal. Sevelle snatched the cloak off the hook and tossed it over her shoulders.
“Even better than I thought. This will really boost my stealth.”
Carn opened the book, but he couldn’t read the writing. “Here is a book of some kind. It might be more elven writing. I can’t read it.”
She pocketed the book and then picked up the crystalline staff.
“Someone here must have good luck. This staff is obviously for me,” Lina said, admiring the weapon.
Carn analyzed it.
Yevin’s Icicle Rod
Increases Intellect by 2 per player level. +5 skill levels to the following spells: Ice Thorns, Icicle Blast, and Ice Elemental. The player learns these spells if they are currently unknown.
SOULBOUND
“Good find. A scalable weapon,” Carn commented while Lina ran her hands along the staff lovingly.
“Kudos to you, Sevelle. The items here are amazing. Given the quality of what I’ve seen, your cloak must be really amazing.”
“Thanks. Yes, this cloak allows me to go invisible for up to an hour daily. It also adds 20 points to perception and boosts my stealth skill by 50%.”
Carn inspected the other rod. It pulsed with purple energy when he touched it, and he felt a shock run up his arm. The pulse and the shock did not continue, though.
