The Party Whole?
1844 Words
Samuel gasped as they finally stopped running. They’d sprinted from the small village like bats out of Hell, down the beaten dirt path then across some wheat fields in dire need of harvest. They’d slowed as they ran into the shade of a large forest, having sprinted for nearly twenty minutes to get here. The chilled air of the late afternoon was a godsend as Samuel felt like he was boiling inside his heavy woolen robes.
He glowered at them as he slowed down, panting. They were thick, an ugly shade of white that was rapidly turning yellow from his sweat, and felt as if they were sewn with metal plates.
Hands on his knees as he struggled to catch his breath, he spared a glance at the others and noted they seemed fine. "How... are you... guys... not... exhausted?"
“Damn man,” the Half-Elf whistled behind their rags. “You need to run more if that got you exhausted.”
“Shut... up...” He groaned, leaning against a tree.
The tall swordsman hacked and coughed, reaching into a side pouch. Getting a better look at the two, Samuel took in what he’d missed in all the chaos earlier.
The two men were jacked, solid walls of muscle. One was far taller, and broader than the other, who had a ragged scar over the right side of his face partially covered by an eye patch. Both were covered in scars and sheathed blades, the smaller seeming to favor daggers and short swords while the larger had heavier blades. A simple buckler hung off the scarred one, though he seemed to not even notice it was on him by the way he was standing.
The tall one pulled a wrapped cloth holding... were those cigarettes? “So,” he said as he put a slim hand-rolled cigarette between his lips. “Wha’ are yer names?”
“Pardon?” The Half-Elf asked, tensing.
He sparked up the smoke with a small device that gleamed - a lighter, perhaps? “Wha’ ya mean ‘Pardon’? Yeh jus’ fought an’ helped us run from tha guard, tha’ makes us friends.”
“Wheeze,” the smaller man groaned, “don’t just force us onto them.”
“Needles, we need some friends righ’ now.” Wheeze said, pointing at Samuel in a surprise gesture. “Tha’ one’s a spell-chucker, never hurts to make friends wit’ dem!”
The shorter man, Needles, shook his head. “I get that, but maybe they don’t want to be around us any longer, eh?”
“Why not?” Wheeze asked, blowing a lungful of foul smog out from his nose. “They be wanted jus’ like us now, I ‘magine.”
“Wait, what?” Samuel asked, now paying attention. “What do you mean wanted?”
“Me an’ Needles ‘ere were slippin’ tha guard during a tense situation, is all.” Wheeze said with a leery grin. “Thanks fer tha assist, by the by.”
“What do you mean by ‘tense situation’?” Samuel demanded.
Needles rubbed the back of his head. “We, uh, we may have killed someone.”
“What!” Samuel cried, noting that the Half-Elf had taken a few steps further from the two.
“‘Ey now, no need ta fret!” Wheeze said, holding his hands up in a placating fashion. “Tha’ fool we iced was a smuggler, real sleazy kinda man. Tried ta rip us off, so we carved ‘im good. Bastard shouted as we killed ‘im though, brought tha guard down on us.”
“They saw us standing over him, blood everywhere, and they didn’t really give us a lot of options.” Needles explained with a careless shrug. “Thanks for the help, however unintentional. Now, let’s see how much XP we got, right?”
Samuel blinked as he watched the three kind of go slack, their eyes unfocused. “Are they checking screens as well? Huh, so that’s what I look like when I do that...” he mumbled to himself as he pulled up his own skill screen.
Sure enough, he had two-hundred and fifty XP more than he did when allotted his skills earlier. “Huh, guards are worth a bit, huh?” He asked aloud.
“Yeah,” Needles answered. “Iron Hills outfits their town guards with decent weapons, and they’re all given a few months training. Shame we couldn’t loot them, sometimes they have potions.”
“Ah...” Samuel said, scanning over his skills. He started investing into the next rank of Scrapper and Chargebolt, and began considering Assemble Golem I from his class skills.
SKILL: ASSEMBLE GOLEM I
PASSIVE: NONE
ACTIVE: ASSEMBLE COMPONENT SCRAP PARTS INTO A GOLEM. THE GOLEM’S ABILITIES ARE DERIVED FROM YOUR ENGINEERING SKILL.
COST: 50 XP
He purchased the skill, and the first two ranks Engineering for good measure. From what he could tell looking over the class, he was supposed to make golems out of scrap and use them like a pet or something to fight for him. Most of his active skills worked with the constructs.
“Ya'll get anything good?” Needles asked.
“Just bought Stealth III, saving for Slip into Shadows,” the Half-Elf said. “Names Elena, just so you know.”
“Surname?” Needles asked.
“You haven’t given yours, I don’t have to give mine.” She replied with a sniff.
Wheeze snorted. “Girl, yer wrapped like a bandit outta Arianth. My gold’s on ya bein’ a mutt.”
She tensed, her hand slipping to her glove where Samuel knew she hid her knife. “That a problem?”
“Not really,” Needles said, speaking for both of the warriors. “We work with mutts occasionally, fine folk. Bit depressing as they all have a sob story, but what can you expect?”
She relaxed ever so slightly. “Oh.” She said, clearly surprised. “Thanks then.”
“No problem,” Needles nodded, before looking at Samuel. “Well?”
“What?” He asked.
“Your name?”
“Oh!” He jumped, slightly embarassed. “Samuel, Samuel Graves.
“Well, thank tou Samuel and Elena, you really helped us out there.” Needles said. “And as for skills, I picked up Finesse IV. Not much else I need.”
Samuel checked on these skills, curious of what they did. He found the one Elena mentioned last and began reading.
SKILL: SLIP INTO SHADOWS
PASSIVE: +5% ON STEALTH CHECKS
ACTIVE: IF THE USER REMAINS STILL FOR TEN SECONDS WHILE IN A SHADED AREA, THEY CAN ATTEMPT TO STEALTH AND BECOME UNOBSERVABLE. THIS EFFECT REMAINS ONLY SO LONG AS THEY REMAIN IN A SHADOWED AREA.
COST: 200 XP
Huh… he thought, impressed. That’s… a nice ability. Especially since she is already so stealthy.
He looked over as Elena unwrapped her face garments, now smiling at the two warriors, chattering about their new skills. Seems being hated hasn’t made her nervous around people… how in the world can she be so happy with all these people hating her like this? She looked ready to piss her pants when the farmers back there got uppity.
“Samuel!” Elena said, catching his attention. He must have been lost in his thoughts, and he gave her a nervous smile to show he was finally listening. “You there?”
“Yeah, sorry. What’s up?” He asked, eyes flicking to Wheeze as the man crushed his cigarette out beneath his massive boot.
Elena rolled her eyes. “They said they’re heading north, into the Norturlends. That the direction you were headed?”
“I’m not really headed anywhere, if I’m being honest.” He replied, earning a snort from Wheeze.
“Ha, bein’ honest… great joke.”
Needles rolled his eyes. “Ignore him, he’s got issues. You okay heading north with us then? The Norturlends is a great place, plenty of valleys with hole-in-the-wall taverns and villages. Easy to get lost, if you catch my meaning.”
“If we’re as wanted as you think we will be… sure, I guess I could follow along.” He said, nodding. “For safety.”
“Safest place ta be is my list o’ friends!” Wheeze cackled. “At tha moment, yer a good’un.”
“… thanks?” Samuel said, unsure of how to respond to that.
"Right," Needles said, pulling a scroll case from his backpack. Emptying it, he pulled a rough map of a continent, the northern half split by a thick ridge of mountains. "We head up through the forest, skip any patrols that may happen, and we'll be hitting Dwarven territory within two days, three if we get held up with something."
"Where we hittin'" Wheeze asked, stalking over.
"Gilded Hall, most likely. Guards are easy to bribe, plus we aren't on any warrants out of there." Needles replied before pausing. "I think."
"Should be fine." Elena said, studying the map. "Gilded Hall is a nice place, I slummed it there for like a decade before I was run out."
"What for?" Wheeze asked.
She pointed to her slim, pointed ears. "Being a longear. Didn't matter I wasn't purebred, just a drop is enough to annoy some. Didn't have enough coin to rent favor either, so I had to book it."
"Why is this world so against Half-Elves?" Samuel asked.
The three gave him a long look. "He serious?" Needles asked, clearly surprised.
Elena shrugged. "He said he was fairly sheltered. Didn't think he was this naive though..."
"You going to tell me, or just keep insulting me?"
"We can do both." Wheeze said with a smile. "But in short, Blackheart be full of pricks. They like their kin to stay pure, no dallyin' with humans or nothin'."
"So... they're just racists?" Samuel asked. "Like, no actual reason?"
Elena shook her head. "Nope. Most of the time people like me would be used for fodder for their armies, or labs. Mom got me out when I was little."
"Nice o' her." Wheeze whistled. "Rare tha' Elves be tha' kind."
"She was a Dormaer," Elena said softly. "Dad... owned her, before she fled."
"Ah, makes more sense then." Needles nodded.
"Wait..." Samuel said, waving his hands. "Owned her? Labs? What the actual Hell, the Elves are... are..."
"Evil?" Elena gave a ghost of a smile. "Yeah, kind of. But they claim they have good reason, and nobody ever messes with them, so they're doing something right I guess."
"Tha' Dormaer don't like 'em, if it's any consolation." Wheeze smiled. "Me grandmudder was Dormaer, freed for some twenty odd years. Had more scars than a veteran of a dozen wars, and mean as a snake."
"Huh..." Samuel said, stunned at the thought. When he thought of Elves, he thought of the Tolkien-kind, living at one with nature and whatnot. "That's good to know, I guess..."
"Anyway, enough politics. We ain't heading to Blackheart, we're heading to the Norturlends." Needles said, rolling the map back up into the scroll case. "Dwarves, Orcs, and Gobbers... maybe a Nyss or two, but they're rare."
"Yeah, good to know..." Samuel said, chuckling nervously. He had no clue what the last two were, but he knew the general stereotype for Dwarves and Orcs. That didn't make him feel any better as he apparently didn't know what this world's races were like just based on previous experience. "So, you said Gilded Hall? What's that?"
"A Thanedom." Elena explained, catching his confused explanation she expounded. "Small kingdom, run by a noble family. In this case, Clan Kaine run the place."
"Clan Kaine?" Samuel asked, sensing that this should be something he should know. "They going to be an issue?"
Needles shrugged. "Not really. Corrupt as the day is long, just be ready to bribe folks should they get too nosy."
"Good to know... so, anywhere specific in Gilded Hall?" Samuel asked.
Wheeze chuckled. "We're hittin' Grimm's, ain't we?"
"We need money." Needles mused with a shrug. "We can make money at Grimm's."
"Why do I feel like this is a mistake?" Samuel asked.
They didn't answer, instead just chuckling as they started stalking off into the woods towards the northern horizon.
- Writer
