So that's what we did. Maria and I rode out two days later, planning to meet up with Dalmar, and Bob if he accepted, in Telinor before riding south. Maria got a sour expression when Bob followed Dalmar into the inn a day after Maria and I arrived. Dalmar looked tough as he walked in, his heavy chain mail making him look even bulkier, while the war hammer on his back just looked badass.

Bob still looked big and with the two handed sword on his back he looked like some kind of apprentice to Dalmar. Bob sort of flinched when he saw me and Maria, but I shook hands with Dalmar before saying "Bob, Dalmar has set the ground rules, so after this we won't talk about what went before, but that doesn't mean we won't remember it. You treat us the way you want us to treat you" He nodded, but didn't say anything back. I studied him for another moment, then said to Dalmar and Maria "So who wants to go see some dragons?"

The ride south was a little strained with Maria making a point of avoiding Bob, and Bob following along in a sullen silence. Bob had dropped to level two, so he had a lot to be mad about, but he was at least smart enough to keep it to himself. I added a rune to Dalmar's hammer, letting him pick the arming phrase. I didn't try to hide it from Bob, but didn't explain it either. I made potions twice a day to build up our stock, and he did get interested enough to say "Holy shit, is that true, 210 points of healing?"

Maria giggled, the first one in days, something I had missed, and she said "Wait until he starts throwing healing spells around. Jake is the man!"

There was nothing to indicate the change when we reached the Orc lands until we passed what looked like an old west fort. Timbers forming a wall around a small town, with orcs standing guard at the gates and at the top of the wall. The orcs looked exactly like you would think. Tusks coming up from the lower jaw, a snout for a nose, and 6-7 feet tall with a lot of muscle. They appeared to mostly wear chain mail, though a few had plate or leather. We didn't stop, Dalmar telling us it would just mean having to fight a lot for little gain.

"They hate dwarves, but as long as you don't try to enter their cities they generally leave you alone. They do raid each other, so if we run into a raiding party we'll end up fighting" Dalmar said

Bob added a rare comment with "They can go berserk, and they do double damage when they do. Doesn't last more than a minute or two, but you get into a group of them they'll hurt you bad"

"What he said" Dalmar agreed

The land started shifting from heavy forest into rolling hills, then into a more broken layout, with gullies and streams cutting through. It meant a slower pace as we had to ride down, up, and around various areas. The mountain chain to the south that marked the dragon lands was still a distance off when we setup camp one night and Dalmar said "We're close now, so we need to leave the horses here. We haven't been attacked so far because of the party mix, but that's going to end real soon. Tomorrow we need to have weapons in hand, and expect to be attacked a couple of times a day. Nights are rough, so we post guards and expect at least one attack every night"

Pointing at Maria he said "Maria will sense them first and she knows how to do this, so she calls the direction, and if she says to do something you do it. Bob and I tank, but I go first. Bob holds back to be sure we're not going to be hit from two sides, then does as Maria says" he looked at me and said "Keep Bob and I alive, but you're also our second line of defense. If Maria pulls aggro with her bow, you need to stop them" he looked around the group to say "Jake is the only reason this will work, so don't let him get killed" he gave a sudden grin before adding "and for goddesses sake, have fun"

Maria laughed at the last part and said "With Jake here, it will be fun, trust me"

Our first attack happened the next day after we had been walking a few hours. Maria looked up suddenly and said "Two big ones incoming!"

We all stopped and Dalmar took a dozen steps forward, while Maria stood with an arrow across her bow. Bob had his big sword out

Sword of Beheading

23-35 damage

+1 Strength

+10% to hit chance

15% chance enemy is decapitated if health is below 75%

Nice. When he was level 18 he probably did a shit load of extra damage from high strength, though now it was probably just sword damage numbers.

Two 12 foot tall ogres came striding up from the ravine they had been in, both carrying wooden clubs like my first clu, but eight feet long.

"Tweedle Dee and tweedle dum" Dalmar said with a shake of the head "wouldn't you know they're the first ones we run into"

"Bob, your up" Maria said "Jake'll keep healing you, but use a potion if you get below half" Bob was grinning as he took a couple of quick steps forward and thrust his sword into the one on the left. Bob was still carrying as much health as Dalmar, so I wasn't worried about a one shot kill at this point. Dalmar was mostly stuck trying to kneecap them, and the ogres, while slow, hit hard enough to do 50 or 60 points each time. I could see where a solo player would die quick facing two of them, but I was healing the damage as fast as they dished it out, so Maria just laughed and cheered Dalmar on.

"Put your back into it Dalmar" she yelled, laughing like a nut "You hit like a girl" I was really shocked when Bob laughed, though he didn't say anything. "Follow through on that swing, what are you trying to do, bunt?" She eventually had Dalmar grinning, but the fight didn't last too long as neither man missed very often. Bob's took longer, but he just said "I got this gomer" when Dalmar offered to help.

"Having fun?" Dalmar asked with a grin as he sorted the treasure drop "cause I am. I forgot how fun it is with Jake along"

"No shit" Bob muttered, looking at me with a half smile "we just took down two ogres and no damage left"

"Already in the gold" Dalmar said, holding up a few pieces "got a decent helmet and a bow" no one had a need for them, so I transferred the items to Susan while Bob leveled up to 3.

Dalmar was still a 21, but said he was close, while I had probably another fight like this to go up to 9. Maria didn't say, so no one asked.

We kept moving south, eventually setting camp on a small hill that had enough trees to mask our fire, but would allow us to see a fair distance. Telina visited me in a dream that night, walking into the inn again, though Mary wasn't dancing this time. "Hello Loser" was her first words, and I had gotten used to it from her enough not to grind my teeth. She grinned at my expression, but just took her seat and said "I have spoken with some of my sisters and we are in agreement that eternals will eventually be able to have children once they can accept this world is real. The archer still thinks of herself as a projection from the real world, so does not believe a child would be any more real than she is"

Mary gave her an ale, then gave me quick kiss before disappearing. Telina took a drink, nodding her appreciation of the flavor, then said "but I am here to tell you that there is a small fortress one day away to the south east that is held by a Lich. He has a scroll that holds a rune that you should acquire. I commend you for allowing the one called BigBob to prove his worth, and see potential in him." She took another sip before saying "My sister Tylara is goddess of thieves and assassins, and she has found a paladin in one of the newer rogues who were sent to us at the end. The paladin, an assassin named "Mack the Knife", is intelligent and could potentially be a threat to us. He is traveling northern Romar, but you should warn our paladin to be wary if he visits our lands"

"You can't tell her like this?"

Telina shook her head no and said "There are limits placed on us by our father when he created this world, and one such is that we must interact with the intelligent creatures only through our priests. Until your arrival, this meant none of us could do so, and my sisters envy me greatly for my good fortune" she gave me a sultry smile before giggling and returning to her regular grin "but there are ways for the knowledgeable to speak to us. A paladin can seek guidance and can be given signs that can be interpreted. This is cumbersome, but as the paladin learns his goddesses will, they will be easier to understand"

"Ok, I'll let Susan know, and ask her to keep an ear out for any information about him" I held up a hand and said "passively. I'll let her know not to ask about him specifically"

"Good" Telina said as she rose and headed toward the door, pausing to say over her shoulder "you should wake now, as a manticore is about to attack you"

I woke just before Maria started yelling for us to get ready. "Something flying above us" she said. I raised Bruce, scanning the pitch black sky and not seeing anything "Telina says it's a manticore"

"No shit?" Bob asked, standing back to back with Dalmar, his eyes on the sky "manticores are supposed to be tough mofos"

"Incoming" Maria yelled, pointing the way Dalmar was facing. I stood next to Maria as we all braced ourselves. The creature diving at us had large bat like wings, the body of a lion, and a scorpions tail. I had to shake my head at whatever weirdo came up with this thing. It piled into Dalmar, knocking Bob on his ass at the same time. It let out a roaring scream as arrows started sticking in its wings, then turned toward me and Maria.

"I'll keep it on the ground" Maria yelled "But you guys'll need to kill it"

She was quick and smart was our Maria, so I took a couple quick steps forward to engage the thing, getting a solid hit to its face just before it hit me with the stinger.

Manticore poison

5 points/sec for 15 seconds

Endurance reduced

The stinger did 30 points on top of the poison, but I ignored that as it took a stab from Bob, then a hammer blow from Dalmar. When it spun and lunged at Bob I took the opportunity to heal he and Dalmar, before calling up Fist and doing another 60 points of damage myself. Maria's arrows kept hitting the things wings, doing enough to keep it from taking flight, while the three of us took turns getting stabbed and mauled. The thing was a level 20 and had 300 health, so it took some killing. I healed whoever needed it in between taking my own swings. It took longer because the thing was pretty mobile, and tended to leap around the clearing, landing on one of us to chew on for a second, then leaping away again. Bob got the final stroke and we all pretty much plopped down to rest and recover

"How can these things take so much damage?" I asked "I had to do close to enough myself to have killed him"

"Armor ratings" Bob said, still breathing hard as he stared at the pile of skin and treasure "you may be able to do, say 30 points, but that number gets knocked down based on the armor rating. Only way to bypass that is magic, and even that can be reduced depending on magic resistance" he shrugged and gave me a rueful grin before saying "High strength numbers are the most important for damage percentages. You and Dalmar swing the same weapon at the same creature, he'll do twice the damage you do. I just figure I'm doing 50% and count myself lucky"

Maria nodded agreement as Dalmar levered himself up and went to loot the corpse. I sighed and said "Well crap, and here I've been thinking I might actually be able fight something other than three legged, one eyed, toothless kittens"

Bob looked confused as Maria giggled and added "that has seizures" She and I shared a laugh for a while, then decided we might as well do breakfast and get moving. I told everyone about the Lich's fortress and that Telina wanted me to get something from there. No one really cared one way or the other, with Dalmar saying "as good as anything else we might find"

I took a moment while we were walking to drop back by Maria to say "Telina said that eternals are capable of having children, but it requires that they feel they are part of this world"

Maria didn't say any thing for a long time, just thinking deeply about something. She eventually nodded and said "Tell her thank you. I'll have to think about it for a while"

Afternoon brought a pack of what Maria called direwolves. They were pretty much overgrown wolves, though by overgrown I mean five feet at the shoulders. There were five of them, with four being level 10, and one that carried the alpha moniker being 17.

There were too many for Dalmar and Bob to pull aggro on all of them, so two of the level 10s came after Me and Maria. I had been smart enough to do a blessing and an armor spell, so everyone was in better shape for this battle. I stood in front of Maria, hitting any of the wolves trying to pass me, keeping them focused on chewing on me rather than her. The 10% reflected damage helped keep them mad at me, and she did mucho damage to the wolves, though I'm not sure if it was something new, or some aspect of being a ranger. I tossed a quick healing spell at Bob during a pause, then did the same to myself as I had gotten chewed up pretty good. Dalmar and Bob had teamed up to take out the alpha, which helped more than expected when the other wolves lost a buff the alpha gave them. Maria and I finished ours a minute before the guys killed the last two. I got the level up message, and I could see Bob must have also.

It didn't even offer me a weak ass healing spell, irritating the hell out of me because even though I hadn't been expecting anything useful, I had been expecting something.

I allocated the stupid wisdom point and set about healing every one up and doing another armor spell since this one was about due. About the best thing going for me right now was the health boost and armor spell. By level twenty I'd be a real health monster, and the armor bonus, plus the armor spell on top of some decent leather armor would really make me hard to beat down.

Level 9

Healer Priest

Level 9 (0%)

STR 10

DEX 10

STA 20

INT 10

WIS 14

Health: 290

Mana: 160

Endurance: 200

Armor (+30%): 28

Defender of the Faith

Priest focuses on aiding those in need and protecting the oppressed. Spells will focus on group and individual protection and aid, while the priest's personal aura will become a healing channel for your goddess's will.

Blessing spells now apply to all allied creatures within ten feet of priest

Healing spells cost half mana

+10 points health/level

Armor 30% stronger

Priest's aura does following for allies within 10 feet of player::

+5% stat boost to party members (+5%/level after level 8)

10% damage reflected back on attacker

+25% mana restore rate

Spells:

Telina's Gaze (100%)

Applies 60 points (+20%) of healing to the user or any creature selected

10 Mana/use

Telina's Fist(+75% activate)

Applies 60(-15%) points of damage when activated and a successful hit is made

20 Mana/use (effective hit)

Cure Disease

Cures disease (Level+10) of any creature touched

40 Mana/use

Telina's Holy Blessing

On creature: 60% increase in base stats

65% increase in healing rate

Duration: 6 hours

(+5%/level to level 10)

On flora: 70% increase in growth rate

75% crop amount

(+5%/level to level 10)

40 Mana/Use

(Does not stack)

Create Potions

Healing potion:

Vial of water with Telina's Blessing + Telina's Gaze

Healing= Telina's Gaze + Telina's Blessing + 2(Faith)

Cure Disease potion:

Vial of water with Telina's Blessing + Cure Disease

Cures any disease Level 75 and below

(Cool down 12 hours)

Telina's Flame

Holy fire strikes to cause 120 points damage to creature chosen

Splash damage: 25% damage to enemy creatures within 10 ft

Double damage to undead

(+5/level to 120 damage)

75 Mana/use

Dispel Magic

Dispel Level+5 magic on creature or area chosen

-Does not dispel enchanted objects or potions

-Does not dispel own castings

(Cool down 4 hours)

75 Mana/use

Create Rune

Ability to learn and place runes of power

Player determines activation requirements

(Cool down 3 days)

Rune of Flame:

When activated by user will do 100 points +5/level of fire damage

100 Mana when placed

Telina's Protective Aura

Player receives 10+level armor bonus for 2 hours (+30%)

(Does not stack with itself)

40 Mana/use

Resurrection

Cast on self or other player

Allows player to return with no loss of level after next death at the location the player died

Or

Allows player to choose new spawn point

(Cool down 7 days)

Group Heal

Heals completely all allies within 100 feet

Once a day

140 mana

+20% Healing Spell

-15% Spell Damage

+ 1.2% hand to hand

+ 71% light armor

+ 62% Blunt Weapon

+ 75% Concentration

+ 60% Faith

+ 82% Cooking

+ 77% Repair

The wolves only carried cash (which still seemed weird to me. What did they use it for?), and no one wanted to mess with the skins. Dalmar said if anyone ever unlocked a smithing skill the furs would be good for making versions of leather armor, but until that happened they were just something you sold for cash.

We could actually see the fortress that night as we made camp on the side of a hill. A series a small, granite mountains ran north to south starting with the one that had a fortress actually carved into the side. The fortress seemed to hang one hundred feet up, off the side of a sheer rock cliff, though you could see how the rock had been carved away to form the building. The rock was a dark grey, making the fortress just as dark. With the sun setting, and looking across a scrub filled flatlands at it, the whole thing reeked of evil. Though that could just be good scene setting. If I made a fortress, I would want it to be forbidding and scary looking too.

"Probably not the home of the smurfs" Maria said, flopping down beside me as I leaned against a boulder and studied the place. I shrugged and said "Probably not, but I bet he isn't bothered by those Latter Day Saints knocking all the time"

"Think we could keep it after we kill this Lich?"

I glanced over to see if she was joking, and when she just gave a half shrug, I said "You would know more than me, but it would probably be tough getting people here in one piece"

"Yeah" she said, sounding kind of wistful "but it sure would be cool to have your own castle"

"Who knows, maybe one day"

I did another arrow for Maria, and another potion. That gave her four runes, me two, and Dalmar one, enough to do some serious damage if needed. Bob was talking a little more, and he had managed to not antagonize Maria even once, which I counted as a miracle. So overall I considered things to be sort of positive.

In the morning, after I did a blessing and an armor spell, and we started walking toward the fortress, Dalmar said "Lich's are the big Kahoonas of the undead. That means we'll be facing various versions of undead, which all of us have dealt with" we were walking in a group, all listening as he said "Arrows do minimal damage, but Maria is still our alarm system. Undead dungeons tend to have surprise attacks, and traps that involve ambushes. Jake's holy fire does serious damage here, but let's save it for large groups. Maria leads, sussing out traps and ambushes, but Bob and and I take the front line during attacks. Maria moves back and coordinates our response, and Jake plays clean up and handles healing" he looked over at me to say "Use your best judgement on your spells. Do what Maria says, but you see an opportunity, take it" speaking generally he said "Lich's are undead mages, so he'll be throwing around a lot AoE spells that will affect all of us. Jake needs to stay back and not draw aggro so he can counter whatever we get hit with. Use your potions if you start taking high damage because they use a lot of paralyzation and freeze spells that work with the DoT stuff"

"Area of effect" Maria whispered to me "flame walls, gas attacks and shit like that. Does damage over time, which you'll hear Dalmar call DoT. He loves his geek speak" I whispered a quick "Thanks" back.

I nodded my understanding to Dalmar and said "No worries. I'll probably play this conservatively until we see how things lie"

The entrance to the fort was a man sized door in the wall of the cliff face. Maria had to do her magic to get it to open, and as soon as she did, a group of four skeletons rushed out. They had swords and shields, and moved like they thought they were still alive, though with a lot of bone clacking sounds. They were level 7, so Dalmar went through them with a few swings of his hammer. Bob didn't even get a chance to put his big sword into play before there was just a pile of bones left.

"7?" Maria muttered "I was sort of expecting something higher than that"

"That did it" Bob said with a chuckle "Always has to be someone throwing the jinx out there for someone to hear"

Dalmar gave half laugh, half snort of disgust before saying "Really. You've probably doomed us to another Bone Dragon"

That got one of Maria's infectious giggles as she cast me a sly smile and "Well if we do meet one, we have their favorite chew toy" Bob looked confused as Dalmar and Maria burst into laughter and I just raised my nose and said in a haughty tone "You're both just jealous that he liked me best"

I could hear Dalmar whispering the story to Bob as Maria did her fade thing and moved up the stairs that led upwards into the cliff. Bob, being the token human, couldn't see in the dark, so he did something that made his sword glow with a soft white light. It looked kind of cool, but sort of gave away the element of surprise.

We single filed up the narrow tunnel for what I estimated was about two million steps, until we met up with Maria doing her thing to a door blocking the way. She unlocked it, then slid by our two tanks to stand in front of me. Dalmar looked back, and at our nods, pulled the door open and stepped into the fortress. There was an immediate clashing of steel, and Bob moved forward to attack whatever was inside. There was a lot of cursing and yelling as Maria finally moved forward enough for me to join the fray. Dalmar and Bob were exchanging blows with something that stood about eight feet tall, that is if he stood. The thing was actually floating a few inches above the floor, wearing a ragged cloak, steel gauntlets, a full face helmet that had glowing red eyes, and was swinging a huge two handed sword.

Reaver

Level 16

160 health

"It's draining us to restore its own health" Bob yelled as he ducked a swing. Now that he'd pointed it out, I could see the things health bar flickering up and down like a broken thermometer. Both guys were losing a few points every second in addition to the sword damage. I looked it over and decided Bob and Dalmar weren't in immediate danger, so I took the few seconds to call down Telina's flame.

It's my one really big stick, and it's only really good against the undead, but when I use it then, it is hugely gratifying. The flame formed above the reaver, then shot down in a blinding white column to engulf it. The thing screamed piercingly as it writhed inside the column, then burned to ash in the blink of an eye.

That's right, Jake kicks ass.

"How you like them kittens?" I said with a grin for Maria as I restored the guys health, then my mana. She giggled as Dalmar sorted through the ash and Bob muttered "You guys are weird"

Bob had been making progress from the higher level monsters, but he was also sharing it with four other people. The reaver had only added a couple percent toward my level 10, so it would be a while on that. Dalmar held up the helmet the reaver had dropped and said "Pretty good helmet Bob, you want it?" Bob turned it down, getting me to ask "Why don't you guys wear helmets? Seems like it would give some nice benefits"

"Can't see a damn thing" Bob said in disgust "I tried them for a while, but the only ones I could see for shit with were the cap style and..." "They fall off" Dalmar said in disgust, getting a nod of agreement from Bob, who added "isn't worth the aggravation"

"Oh" I said intelligently before transferring the helmet to Susan to see if anyone in Mudtown wanted it. Maria deactivated a trap on the door, then picked the lock before waving Dalmar and Bob forward.

The hallway we entered had six skeletons with swords, and three with bows waiting. Dalmar and Bob waded in while Maria and I walked behind them, with me periodically casting a heal if one of the guys picked up some damage. The skeletons really weren't a challenge, so I did like two spells by the time the first six were down. After they killed the sword swinging skeletons, Dalmar charged the three archers, but triggered something because a burst of lightning shot the length of the hall, hitting everyone, and doing 30 points of damage, then bounced back and hit us again, killing the skeletons. I had just enough time to heal Maria before it came back for another double hit. It quit after that, but I was already healing Maria again, scared she would be killed if I waited. We all lay on the floor, groaning and moaning in pain as smoke rose off everyone except Maria.

"Wow, that really sucked" Bob mumbled. I did a quick heal on myself to get myself moving, then cast a couple on the two guys before finishing my own. I flopped back down, noticing the lightning had sapped my endurance, and said "That hurt"

"That was close" Maria said "If Jake hadn't got his spell off after the first round, I'd be sitting in the courtyard waiting to respawn a weeks ride away"

"No more running ahead" Dalmar said as he slowly sat up "that was one bad ass trap, so Maria clears the way from here. Those archers were bait, and I fell for it"

"Hard not to "Bob said "Heat of the battle you kind of don't see the distance, just the next thing that wants to kill you. Arrows hurt, and it's almost instinct by now to rush them"

"Yeah, I'm the same, but still, I almost got Maria killed"

"Can't be losing the brains of this operation" Maria said with a grin

We took a break, eating something and relaxing for a while, all of us agreeing that being hit by lightning was one of the most painful things we had encountered "Except for being bitten by a dragon. That shit really hurts" I added

Maria started giggling, drawing grins from everyone as she pointed at me and tried to say something, but couldn't through the laughter. I finally sighed and said "What? You might as well tell everyone now"

"Jake..." A few more giggles "he charged that dragon fearlessly" giggle giggle "that forty foot long, thirty foot tall dragon, his mace raised for a mighty blow as he stood two feet away" I could see where this was going, so just sighed and lay back down as she said "he swung wth all his might and...missed" she started giggling uncontrollably again as Bob and Dalmar broke into laughter. "Whatever" I said with a dismissive wave of the hand "at least I distracted it"

"That you did Jake" Dalmar said sympathetically "if it hadn't been busy chewing on you, or slapping you across the room with its tail, we would never have managed to kill it"

I was tempted to poke Maria to get her to stop laughing, but it was to cheerful a sound to really stop it. We eventually levered ourselves up and Maria moved down the hallway, soon finding a pair of facing doors, which drew a sour "Perfect for getting attacked from two sides" from Bob.

"Jake opens it" Maria suggested "Bob and Dalmar stand here" pointing a line across the floor just prior to the doors "Jake joins me behind you two and we let them come to us" which is what we did.

I pulled the door open, pausing to get a look inside. Draugr's, four of them, all level 16. I raised my mace and yelled "You want some of this?" Before I skipped back behind my tanks. The Draugrs followed me out to be met by Dalmar's hammer and Bob's sword. Maria joined in and began chipping away at the Draugrs health, while I...watched. Bob took a couple good hits that I healed a second later, but fighter type monsters really didn't pose a risk at this point. It took a while, and I probably could have killed them with Telina's flame, but I was wary of the other door. The four Draugr eventually went down, and I did a top off on Bob and Dalmar's health before doing a mana restore.

We reset to the previous configuration, and I pulled the door and glanced inside. I'm pretty sure I mouthed WTF as I stared at the weird layout in the room. The rest of the team came over at my wave, and we studied our options.

"Ok" Maria said "Classic bait and eat situation" as we looked at the large chest in the middle of the room that had four sarcophagus surrounding it. "You touch the chest and out pops the monsters. Only real question is how tough the monsters are"

"Is it worth risking?" I asked, getting three looks of amazement before Bob said "Dude, that'll be some choice shit in that box. This is a lucky find"

Ok. Not sure about the mental stability of my partners, but they had adapted better to the whole respawn thing, so to them they were probably saying "hey, what's the worst that can happen?"

"We can expect the door to close, so leading them out is probably not an option" Dalmar said "but it will be tight quarters for your bow Maria"

She shrugged and said "I've got a good sword, and I'll stealth on the opposite side of the room from you. They attack and I get one really good stab. It might kill one outright, then I slip behind you with Jake"

"Jake, you need to hit them quick with your flame" Dalmar continued "then decide if you can do it again, or if you need to concentrate on healing" he looked around the group as he added "any of us die it's a week of waiting, so if you need the big stick, use it"

"I end up back in the pit if I die" Bob said, giving me his first really angry look. Everyone sort of waited for me to answer. "Ive enjoyed working with you, so if that happens I'll send someone to free you. But you should know, i have a spell that allows eternals to change their spawn point. I'd like you to think about the benefits of having friends in this reality, and joining us on Telina's side"

"Holy shit, no one can change their spawn point! How the hell is that even possible?" He looked at Dalmar and Maria, both of whom just nodded "God, that...that changes...everything" he stopped and sort of stared off into space for a while, then said "anyone with a bad spot will join you" he stood silently for anther minute, the turned to face all three of us. He was frowning slightly as he asked "What do you mean by Telina's side?"

"What it sounds like. You support her goals, the primary one being the fair and honorable treatment of what you call the locals. They are as real as you and I, and they develop free will if you treat them as people, rather than objects. I have a growing town filled with locals who can think for themselves, and I intend for that to spread. I intend to enforce the golden rule as Telina's law for the eternals. You do evil to others and Telina will do evil to you. You want to be left alone and ignore it all, and she will ignore you. You support her and her people, she will support you"

I kind of surprised myself with the flood of words, not having summarized things like that before. Bob gave Dalmar and Maria questioning looks, causing Dalmar to say "I'm not signing up to be a disciple of Telina, but I know Jake well enough to know he means all that. I'm not into hurting people for fun, so I've stopped asshole eternals when I could, though until I visited his town I hadn't been aware of what the locals could become"

Maria gave Bob a grin that came close to being an angry snarl and said "I suffered at the hands of a couple old timer assholes like you when I arrived, and if Dalmar hadn't freed me I'd still be there chained up as their toy" the grin got even harder as she said "I have a lot of hate I plan on sharing with eternals who like to abuse people, so Susan and I are going to be hunting them down and making them suffer in Telina's name"

Ok, that got a little real. Maria didn't let her rage out for the world to see very often, but I supported her intentions 100%

"What she said" I added

"You're planning to rule this world?" Bob asked, the question more doubtful than accusatory,

"Nope. I have zero interest in being in charge of anything. You want to rule a kingdom, that's your decision, but you rule it contrary to Telina's law, I'll have to come around put a stop to it"

"How can that even work?" Bob asked, sounding honestly confused "You can't rule a kingdom by being nice to everyone. Hell, what about if a Orc horde decides to come around?"

"Bob, Telina's a goddess, so she isn't stupid about when a decision is made out of greed or self interest, or when it is done for the good of others. This is a world of monsters and treasure, and fighting is what we do. There's nothing wrong with doing a dungeon crawl, but there is if you find a bunch of locals in a cage while doing it and stop for a little bout of rape"

He looked embarrassed at the last part, casting a sideways look at Maria, but didn't say anything while he considered my words.

"Bob, it's a simple choice" Dalmar said "you're smart enough to know good from evil, so you're sitting here thinking about what? Whether you want to be able to rape people when the mood strikes? Cause I have to tell you, when Maria and Susan go hunting, I'll probably join them and that pit of Jakes has really stoked my imagination about ways to turn spawn points into really painful traps"

The words seemed to push Bob to finally say "Nah, I got what your saying, and I agree with the idea, it's just a change from feeling like you were free to do what you wanted because nothing was real and no one got hurt. It was all just a game" he sighed and looked at me to say "I'm on board with your goddess. I was pretty much an invisible nobody in the other world, and all of this..." He paused, then shrugged and said "made me a god"

"Well, I have to tell you, I like having you around because my name doesn't seem so bad with yours right there with it"

Bob actually laughed and said "I know, right. Tennant buffed my stamina with his admin access after I forwarded my real world savings to him, but the asshole stuck me with this name after I laughed when he started giggling. It was weird as shit to hear it, and I couldn't help myself it was so funny coming out of that big body of his"

"Well, that's the asshole I know, but I guess he could have picked something worse" I said

"Not really" Bob said "he could do a lot to hurt you, but the game had system rules that he couldn't alter, so it wouldn't allow him to use a curse word for a name, or any of the variants either"

Good to know. I imagine Loser was the worst he could do then.

We turned back to the room and I said "So Dalmar on the chest, which puts him in the middle of them. Maria in that far corner" I said pointing across the room "She waits until she can get in a backstab, then tries to join me and Bob" pointing just inside the door I said "Bob and I stop inside the door, and if it doesn't close we can use that, otherwise Bob holds them off while I call down flame. After that it's either fighting, healing, or more flame. I can do two flame spells with my mana, so I start doing healings one of them is taken off the board"

"Plan to use a potion" Maria said "Jake can make more later, but his spell will speed this up a lot"

That's what we decided to go with. We all stepped in to keep from being separated, then waited until Maria went to her spot and faded from view. "That's damn cool" I mumbled, getting a grin from Dalmar as he stepped between the sarcophagi, then held a hand over it as Bob raised his sword and I raised my mace while readying my spell.

As soon as Dalmar touched the chests, four figures appeared above the coffins, taking me by surprise since I was expecting the whole lid sliding open scene. Bob's quick "Shit, more reavers"

came at the the same time we felt the health drain start. It was mildly painful, especially multiplied by four, but not enough to keep me from casting my spell.

The reavers had all turned on Dalmar, who must have done the stat boost thing since he was glowing slightly, so my spell was a surprise. It formed over the one to my right, my thought being it would leave the one for Maria, one for Bob, and the last for Dalmar. The white column of flame shot down to engulf my target, a level 18, with 180 health, causing him to throw his arms out and scream loud enough to stagger everyone. As he disintegrated, the flame splashed out to cover everyone else, drawing matching screams from the other three reavers. Maria struck as soon as the flames disappeared, not becoming visible until her sword shoved through the back of her target, the attack not giving the reaver a chance to even scream before it collapsed into a pile. I decided not to do another spell, and yelled "Kill them, I'll heal"

With four on two, even the health drain and wicked damage they did with their big swords couldn't keep them alive as we all attacked. I did a few heal spells, but wanted to get some mace time in against a strong opponent to keep building that skill.

When the last one dropped, Maria let out a laugh and said "We are some serious badasses!"

"Damn right!" Bob said, just as pumped as Maria "four level 18 undead in a closed room? We kick ass"

Dalmar just chuckled as he went around on treasure pick up, while Maria moved over to unlock the chest. I turned to find the door had closed, but opened for me, so let it stay shut for now, turning back to join the others as they contemplated our haul.

The major items being:

Hunter's Bow

16-30 damage

30/30 Durability

+10 Ice damage

+3 to hit

+3 Dexterity

+2 Strength

45% chance target is slowed for 5 seconds

Not usable by:Mage, Priest

Maria leapt on that one

Bracers of Giant strength

+5 Strength

18 Armor

24/24 durability

Usable by: Warriors

Bob took this after a discussion with Dalmar

Leather Armor of Holy (Telina's) Light

25 Armor

15% Magic resistance

+4 to dodge

Once a day player may send out a blast of holy light that blinds opponents within 50 feet for 10 seconds

The holy light thing changed to Telina's light when I picked it up, so it must have been set to lock on the deity of which ever priest claimed it. I didn't waste any time claiming it, swapping out as soon as I read it was usable by priests.

Worn Leather Boots

2 armor rating

24/24 durability

Not usable: Mage

Leather Bracer

3 armor

+2 armor

22/22 durability

So my new armor gave me a base rating of 32, and my priest thing added 30% to that, which was close to 10 more. Call it 42 for simplicity, then I can cast my armor spell, adding 19 points, giving me a 61 freaking armor number. That's what I'm talking about.

There was an assortment of other items, including another one of the reaver helms, a shield, two swords, and an axe. Dalmar said the axes were decent weapons, but they kind of fell between the sword and mace in damage unless used by a high strength character. Supposedly they were popular with orcs since the berserker thing made them really effective, but most people decided against them.

The guards in Mudtown were making out well from all of this, and Dalmar was picking up enough gold and silver that none of them were worried about the sale price of the magic.

"Rings and necklaces" Bob said as we gathered and started down the hall again "those are the most versatile buff items. The two magical ring limit seems kind of arbitrary, but you can usually come up with a couple of decent ones. I've got a couple that boost strength and dexterity, as well as some resistances"

"How much extra strength are you getting from your items?" I asked, beginning to think I had been underestimating the extras everyone used. "+8" Bob said, followed by Dalmar's "+11"

Well shit, I was really behind in the game of buff your stats. I put that aside for now and followed everyone until we caught up to Maria disabling a trap on the floor

"Don't come any closer" she said as she worked "There's three more of these things on the walls" She did her fiddly tricks on a few places spaced down the hall before giving us the all clear to join her at a door at the end of the hallway. No one commented as Dalmar and Bob stepped up and opened the door, finding more stairs and three Draugr, all level 18. I would have liked to step up and do some mace work, but contented myself with just tossing in a healing spell a couple of times.

"Onward and upward" Maria said after Dalmar gathered the coins. She blurred ahead, but came trotting back with two more Draugr following after going up only fifty feet or so. She slipped past Bob and said "All yours boys" the words preceding a quick beat down of two more Draugr. Dalmar and Bob only took twenty or so damage, but I healed them, then did a restore for the hell of it. Since my aura thing did reflected damage, you could say I was doing damage during every fight.

"These high level guys have already bumped me up to level five" Bob said as we cleaned up the junk and moved on. A quick check showed me at 45% on my own trip to level 10. Slow but sure.

We didn't come to a door this time, the stairs just leading into a room that had three more sets of stairs leading up in the other three walls. Maria said "Eenie meanie minie moe, for the treasure, this is the way to go". Her finger pointing at the center one.

"Ooh, doing the center first?" Bob said doubtfully, getting a chuckle from me as I looked at Maria and we said simultaneously "What's the worst that could happen?"

Dalmar laughed as he moved toward the center stairwell, saying "Well, we know who's fault it is if we get our asses beat"

Bob sighed and followed Dalmar, saying "Wish now I'd been putting everything into strength cause we're going to need it"

Maria slipped ahead, as we took the stairs straight up about a hundred feet and found ourselves at another door. "Not locked" Maria muttered as she slipped behind me. Dalmar nodded and opened the door, saying quietly "You all know what to do"

Well, the Eenie meanie thing made finding the Lich quicker, but Bob was right to worry. The Lich was a tall Draugr looking guy wearing a crown, robes, and holding a mace that glowed black. I know, black is the absence of light, so it couldn't glow black, but you feel free to bring your wise ass here and explain to the guy. Anyway, it glowed black, and it gave me the serious wiggins.

The biggest problem was the four reavers standing in a line in front of the Lich. The room was fairly long, about half the size of the gnoll Kings hall, so we had some room to work. "We hold here" Dalmar said as the Lich and I did the same thing, call down holy fire. We both lifted our maces and paused as we cast the spell. His flame was black (I know, shut up), and mine was white. They did about the same damage, with he and I picking up 200 points, with our different homies getting half that or less.

That shit hurt, and pretty much everyone, Lich and I included took a break while we screamed in pain. Dalmar managed to say something first with "Maria, special delivery!!"

My aura must have kicked in, because the Lich received a sudden helping of black flame before he had recovered from mine. The reavers charged forward as Bob and Dalmar set themselves to hold them back, and Maria yelled "Special delivery for Mr. Asshole!" As she fired her arrow. I paused to enjoy the shock on old crownies face as he was blown flat on his ass, then seeing he was still there, called down another burst of fire. The reavers were to far away to be affected, sad to say, but it did for the

Lich Lord

Level 27

500 health

Showing everyone that even high health loses to a couple of big sticks. The reavers were doing serious damage to Bob and Dalmar, though the two guys were taking hunks of health off the dead floaty guys. I used up my mana healing Maria, then stepped back to do a restore, yelling "I'm out! use a potion if you need it!"

Two reavers were down, and both Bob and Dalmar needed a potion before I was back up. I started throwing healing spells fast and furious, causing a sudden relaxation in my team when they realized it.

"Now we're talking" Bob said with a laugh "Come get some!" He and Dalmar started laughing as they danced around, doing trick swings and weird attacks that involved spins and diving rolls. I looked over at Maria, getting her to shrug and say "Men. Always got the boy somewhere inside"

We watched, me doing a heal now and then as the two guys played their games until the reavers did us the favor of dying.

"Did you see that?" Bob yelled, still jittering with adrenalin "a goddamned Lich lord in three hits. The SOB never saw it coming"

"I saw something" Maria muttered, giving Dalmar a sly smile "it kind of looked like a ballet, but I can't be sure" before moving over to work on a couple of chests. Dalmar gave me rueful grin and a shrug before saying "Hey, it's fun against the high level guys if you know you won't die. They can handle a few good hits, so we can try stuff we normally can't"

Dalmar cleared the corpse treasures while Maria worked on the chests. When he got to the Lich he said "This what you came for Jake?"

He was holding up a rolled sheet of parchment, the scroll I was looking for I hoped. While the others sorted the chests as they opened, I looked at the scroll

Rune of Retention

Placed on an item, it will allow the priest to store prepared spells for later use.

Requirements:

Item that has not already been enchanted through standard means

A Mage may imbue the item with the spell by casting it upon the item, but

Blessing by a priest after a spell is placed is required to retain it

Others may activate item if specifically identified by priest when placing the first blessing

Command word spoken when placed, then to release the prepared spell while holding the item

If more than one charge of the same spell is placed, the same command word is used, releasing a single instance of the spell each time

More than one type of spell may be placed, to a maximum of three spells

Spells can not mix Mage and Priest types

Item may receive a replacement spell after use of one, but must be the same spell

Usable once every seven days, though after placement of rune, item may receive spells at any time

Usable by: Priests

Ok. That sounded...interesting. It seemed like a version of enchanting, though this might be even more versatile. Basically once a week I could create an endlessly renewable magic item that could only be used by me, or someone I say. Even more interesting was the fact that to have it recharged the person would have to come to me to bless it again. Off hand I could see where three fireball spells in a sword might be useful in defending Mudtown. Or for that matter, my group heal spell. Three of those would be great for fixing up a large group when being attacked. No matter what else, Telina was definitely taking advantage of her having the only priest. Problem with this was I didn't want to be some super powered player that blasted everything with holy fire. This had been fun, working our way through these fights, risking someone being sent back to their spawn point but not really being killed. I didn't like the idea of changing the whole dynamic of theses dungeon crawls. Everyone had finished and were looking at me, so I put the scroll in my inventory and said "This is what Telina sent me for, but I need to think about it a little while. I promise I'll let you all know what it is"

Maria shrugged and said "Works for me" she held up a ring and said "you need a ring?"

Ring of Serizon

+1 Strength

+1 Dexterity

+2 Armor

Heck yes I could use it. It gave me another boost to my armor, and the strength and dexterity could only improve my mace work.

"Well, that worked out well" Dalmar said "We have a couple more stairwells to clear this place, so I say we finish those and spend the night here, then move on south tomorrow"

"Sounds good" Maria said with a grin "I want to see a dragon, a real one, not some bone version. And if I have to take the 10% death penalty, it would be cool to say it was because a dragon ate me"

"If it does, we can just wait for the indigestion to kill it and grab the treasure" I said as I ducked out of the room and down the stairs, hearing Dalmar and Bob's laughter over Maria's "Hey, I bet I would taste good"

The right hand stairwell was next, but it ended at a large balcony that jutted out the side of the fort and gave us an awesome view of the land below. The sun was close to setting, and we all sort of agreed without discussion that we would camp here tonight.

The left hand stairwell ended at a door that had a trap and was locked, giving our pretty elf maid something to do. While she worked, Bob asked "What we thinking we'll be facing?"

"Something tough" Dalmar said "the Lich was level 25, so this will be something close"

"Oh shit" Dalmar said after he opened the door. He and Bob moved forward allowing Maria and I to see two things that resembled extra large reavers.

Reaver Lord

Level 22

250 health

The one on our right raised his sword and spoke a word that caused an explosion of regular fire to blast toward us, knocking Maria and I down the stairs a short distance, and piling Bob and Dalmar up on against the walls.

As I ran back up I heard Dalmar do his "Special delivery" followed by an explosion. The reaver aura started knocking 10 points a second when I stepped in, so I started throwing healing spells around, trying to bring them back up. I tossed one at Maria when she joined me, then called down Telina's flame. I hit the one in good shape, not killing him, or the other one either since they had been healing 10 points a second. Both were down below fifty though, and Maria joined in to help hold their healing down as Bob and Dalmar pushed in hard to kill them while they were weak. I started a rotation of healing spells, paying attention to Maria's to be sure she didn't drop to far. Both of our tank guys did enough damage per hit that they finished the reavers off in a couple of good hits.

"That was worse than a fireball spell" Dalmar said, leaning on his hammer as he drew in deep breathes. Bob just nodded, sliding down to take seat against the wall. Both of them were at the bottom of their endurance, so Maria did the honors on the treasure.

"Hey awesome bracers" she said, swapping hers out before I could see what they did. I was tempted to frown the way I saw Dalmar frown, but the fact was I trusted her and figured it wasn't something that I needed to worry about. We eventually gathered again on the balcony, cooking a meal and watching the double moon rise.

"You ever noticed these games always have more than one moon?" Bob asked. Dalmar nodded and said "Yeah. Thought the same thing when I saw these the first night. If physics worked the same, I imagine this world would have some wicked tides"

I grinned as I realized he was right, and as I stared at the two large moons, I wondered if it was possible to actually visit them, or were they just digital images on an image of the night sky. Every now and then this life snuck up and made me more than a little uncomfortable. I pulled out the scroll and read through it again and decided I might as well try it out. Having a few flame spells stored for quick call up could be useful against a dragon if we found one.

"340 gold, 410 silver, and 220 copper each" Dalmar said while I was thinking, making me look up at him. "You want yours to send back?" He asked me. At my nod he transferred my share and I forwarded it on to Susan. That was a very nice payment toward everything I needed to do, and boded well for our further adventures.

While the other three swapped stories, I pulled out the emerald in my inventory, and went ahead and inscribed the Retention Rune. They all stopped talking to watch, but didn't comment while I worked. I had the mana to do the flame spell and the blessing at the same time, which was good since I didn't know if the delay would matter. The flame spell caused a small ball of white flame to appear above the emerald, which then got drawn in as if something inside the emerald sucked it in with a big straw. I followed that with the blessing spell which made the emerald glow a bright green, while I got a message

Rune of Retention placed

Choose who, other than you will be allowed to activate it

I wasn't sure, so just said "No one"

Choose the activation word

"Flame On!" I said, wanting to stick with my theme for now

One priest spell placed

And it followed the standard minimal feedback policy of the other rune. While I was doing this, I restored and added a second spell, getting

Second spell placed

Third spell placed

Quickly followed and I looked up at my impatient teammates. I shrugged and said "The scroll had a new rune, one that allows me to store spells in an item and call them back up at need"

"And you put three of your flame spells in it" Maria said, getting a nod from me. She followed it with "Flame on? Really? I'm beginning to worry about you Jake. I think your inner geek is breaking out"

"Who can use it?" Dalmar asked, getting to the important point. "A single person if I specify them when the rune is placed"

"That was the no one" Maria said with a nod "your worried it'll blow up and kill one of us" I shrugged and said "A little. If this one works when I need it, I'll start looking at possibly making more"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Bob asked, astonishment plain on his face "This would allow you to walk over about anything!"

I shook my head and told him "Not really. Those three spells won't kill a high level creature unless it's undead. Altogether they'll do 360 points of damage, so useful, but not a one shot kill. And even if they did do that, that's not the way I want to use this. This stuff is fun, fighting creatures and finding treasure as a group. It shouldn't be easy if we want it to stay that way"

"Man, that is some messed up stuff" Bob said, the confusion in his voice plain

Maria's laugh got a smile from Dalmar and a frown from Bob. She changed to her giggles for a moment before saying "That is some pretty wise shit young padawan. How many times have we said how much fun this was, and you want to change that? The risk makes it interesting. This world is set up so us eternals either play it safe and stagnate at level rising, or risk the high level crawls for experience. Just by using his healing spells Jake has altered everything. The last thing we need is some uber magic stick that can kill anything"

"She's right" Dalmar said, his deep voice calm "I wouldn't want that any more than Maria does. I imagine Jake will start reducing his crawls with high level eternals like me" he gave me a questioning look, so I said "with my friends it will be for fun or to explore this world. For others...I plan to charge a really high rate to make sure they really want it. I'll keep potions on the market to compensate, and they'll be free in Mudtown, but Telina doesn't care if people resell them after that, just not her people"

"Wait, you're giving those super healing potions away for free?" Bob asked, his tone telling everyone he really was doubting my sanity

"Yes" I said with a grin "They'll be available at Telina's shrine in Mudtown" I really loved to hear Maria laugh, the sound increasing as she and Dalmar explained why that might be a problem for some people

"Don't you see" she said with a grin "those who support Telina get free potions, potions they can then take and sell for lots of gold to those who don't. It's genius, really. People come to her shrine for the potions, gaining Telina more support, but at the same time, isolating those who don't. And on top of that, Telina's enemies end up funding her efforts because they can't afford not to have those potions" she leaned over to kiss my cheek and say "That Mary better be careful, she's got a tricky one"