Our march from Riverbend was generally southeast, and if we didn't have a ranger along we probably would have just ended up wandering around for months until we found the place, but Maria could pathfind. It was some kind of ability that allowed her to know what direction to go when she had been somewhere before. She had such a versatile class that we really did need to convince some of her women to do what she had done. It was going to be fun heading back to Riverbend without her, I'd probably end up going the wrong way and ending up in the Desolation.

We could see the dragon mountains to the south, way south, and stayed northerly to avoid any draconian encounters, but it didn't stop everything else from attacking us.

The day after my dream we got attacked about an hour after we started walking

Minotaur

Level 20

Health 285

Let me tell you, this thing put the bad in badass. It had the classic look from all the literature or comics I had read, but was ten feet tall, humongously muscled, and carried a double bladed axe that was so big I probably couldn't have even lifted it. Bad...ass.

And it could talk

We were walking through a lightly forested area with a lot of open space between trees, and this thing stood up from where it was sitting, about fifty feet ahead of where Dalmar and Bob were leading the way. It's big horned head kind of surveyed us before it said

"Breakfast has arrived. Leave two of the females, fully fleshed ones, and you may continue on your way"

Dalmar and Bob both pulled their weapons at the same time, and Dalmar looked back at us and said "Steaks tonight!"

I was still laughing as Maria started nudging two of the three women teams forward, saying "Get up there and kick some cow ass!"

The minotaur strode forward to be met by Dalmar, who raised his hammer and met the descending axe blade, holding it for a second and staying squarely in front of the thing as Bob began moving lightly around it, his big sword looking light and fast in his hands as he stabbed or sliced at less than full force, keeping the thing occupied.

I moved forward as the girl's teams did, stopping by Maria to say "Keep an eye out behind us" before trotting forward and stopping a little way away from the combat. The minotaur was tough, and must have been immensely strong, because he was doing 70 or 80 points of damage when he hit. That was on Bob and Dalmar, who had great armor ratings, so I kept a real close eye on the two women warriors as they stepped up to surround the thing and began attacking.

The dexterity numbers really showed because Bob looked light on his feet, and the bull didn't block any of his swings. The two girls kind of looked like me in my early days, managing to miss the giant cow from a couple feet away, and doing fairly low damage when they did hit.

One of the girls was dark haired, and she went straight to the ground when the bull hit her shield, knocking off most of her health. Bob stepped over her and held the minotaur off as I healed the girl, two spells, at the same time the four mages finally began peppering the thing with missiles.

I took a second to appreciate the sight of a ten foot tall bull swinging a giant axe at a pack of six foot people as they surrounded him, at the same time four mages were sending two missiles apiece and every one of the missiles hitting him in the face. Frustration seemed to be the minotaur's primary emotion.

It was a noisy fight, with Bob and Dalmar yelling out instructions, people screaming in pain when hit, and the bull bellowing out what I was sure were curses if I had understood them. I stayed busy, tossing heal spells almost constantly as even the blocked swings from the axe did damage. I think the missiles made the biggest difference, since after the first, one of the mages organized the group so they kept a constant stream going, rather than hitting all at once. They managed four swarms each, which meant the bull had missiles hitting his face pretty much continuously, a real distraction in a fight. Dalmar kept the thing from charging forward, and the fifteen or twenty points the missiles chipped away added up, with one of the women warriors getting in the last stab before the thing turned into a pile of gear.

Sadly, there were no steaks.

We held an impromptu review after the fight, and when asked my opinion, I pointed at the blonde haired, human mage named Kristal and said "Kristal fought smart and stayed calm. It seems simple now that the fighting is over, but her suggestion to stagger your attacks had a huge impact on this fight. A lot of time the warriors aren't going to have a good view of the fight, so mages and archers need to be willing to step up and call out commands. Keeping calm in a fight is damn hard, and some people just can't, so start identifying those who can and plan on listening to them when the swords are swinging. After you've been in a few dozen fights you'll get better at keeping your head, but for now, put the ego away and rely on those who can"

"Good point" Dalmar said, nodding toward me "Maria usually calls the shots when we do a crawl, and I kind of count on her keeping an eye on things"

"Why not have all the magic users do that when we fight?" an elven warrior woman asked. Maria fielded that.

"Because this isn't a fight for survival, this is training and enjoyment" she said "Warriors need to build weapons and armor skills, and the mages need to do the same for their skills. We want it to last more than a minute, so we only have a few attack at a time. Once we get your spawn points secure, this will all seem a lot different. Being killed in battle should only be aggravating because of the lost levels, not something you really fear" she gave the group a serious look before saying "and I will make that happen"

Maria always spent the days circulating through the group, talking and joking with the women, but now I could hear her sounding them out about staying together, or working as a group. I stayed to the back, but from what little I heard, it sounded like everyone was pretty enthusiastic about the idea. I couldn't see a downside for the women, since having 23 other people willing to back you up was a damned good thing in Tarinath.

That evening, just before we stopped for the night, we came across a cave on the far side of a small river we all waded across. Waded with a very wary eye on my part for weird water monsters. Drowning seemed like a pretty crappy way to go and you'd be surprised how hard it is to swim in armor.

The cave turned out to have four trolls in it, and they came shambling out as we gathered at the edge of the river. It was still light out, so I asked in general "I thought trolls turned to stone in the sun?"

That got a round of laughs as Bob chuckled and said "Not this time Bilbo"

"Ok, Sharrie, your team get a fire going, we're going to have to burn them after we chop them up" Maria said "Bob, Dalmar and Jake, get up there and keep them busy. Kill them if you can. Jane and Zara, take your teams and pitch in. Jake'll be busy, so use a potion if you get hurt"

I pulled Bruce and grinned as I ran at where the four trolls had seemed to have reached a decision and were moving our way.

"Hey, don't hog all the fun!" Bob yelled with a laugh as he and Dalmar followed me. The Trolls were level 14 and all had around 200 health, so I called Fist as I ran, then leaped to bring Bruce down on the lead troll's head. I kind of staggered past where the troll fell, getting a claw to the back as I did so. My turn and side swing hit the one on my right just as Bob and Dalmar arrived.

I didn't hold back, swinging hard and pushing in aggressively, but staying behind the trolls to split their attention. The two women's teams were the four person groups, so we had four women warriors in addition to the three of us. It got kind of crowded for a while, but I was having fun. I understood what Bob and Dalmar had meant that time they danced with the undead things, since I was laughing as I brought Bruce up to hit one of the trolls from behind, right in the very evident ball sack. I got my share of claws and fists, but I ignored them as they hadn't even gotten half my health off yet. The one I hit in the nads kind of curled forward, clutching itself, so I called Fist again, then leaped upward to do a two handed blow on the things back. It collapsed with zero health showing, though it would regenerate if we didn't burn it within a minute or two. I took a moment to check on the others, and threw a couple of healing spells at two of the women as they were down to half. With this large a group it didn't take long for the rest of the trolls to be lying on the ground trying to regenerate. We periodically hit them until Maria brought a bunch of torches over, handing two of them to the women warriors, and one of them to me, saying "Go ahead an do one of them Jake"

You only had to drop the torch on the corpse if it had no health, and when mine turned to a small pile of coins, I got

Level 11

.5 attribute points earned

New Spell added

Telina's Restoring Touch

Restores mages mana when touched by transferring priests mana. Amount of mana restored chosen by priest

Each point restored removes one point of priest's mana. Cannot transfer more than presently held by the priest

Well that was a big load of minotaur crap. I had absolutely no intention of becoming the mana gas station for a bunch of mages, so no one was ever going to hear about this one. Holy lightning bolt, a...damn...holy...lightning...bolt. How hard could it be?

Healer Priest (Dragonsbane)

Level 11 (0%)

STR 10 (11)

DEX 10 (11)

STA 20

INT 10

WIS 16 (17)

Health: 310

Mana: 190

Endurance: 200

Armor (+30%): 43

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

10 Mana/use

Telina's Fist(+75% activate)

Applies 65(-15%) points of damage when activated and a successful hit is made

20 Mana/use (effective hit)

Telina's Restoring Touch

Restores mages mana when touched by transferring priests mana. Amount of mana restored chosen by priest

Each point restored removes one point of priest's mana. Cannot transfer more than presently held by the priest

Cure Disease

Cures disease (Level+10) of any creature touched

40 Mana/use

Telina's Holy Blessing

On creature: 65% increase in base stats

70% increase in healing rate

Duration: 6 hours

(+5%/level to level 10)

On flora: 75% increase in growth rate

80% 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

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

Telina's Protective Aura

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

(Does not stack)

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

Create Portal

Connect two points via an archway

Requirements:

One end of a portal must be within the aura of a shrine to Telina

The end situated close to the shrine must be defined by a carved, circular archway of 12 feet diameter.

The other end must be defined by an entryway. A cave entrance, room doorway, or something similiar.

To prepare the portal. After placing the circular stone archway, it must first receive Telina's blessing. Within 21 days, the other end must be chosen, and a blessing placed on the entryway. The blessing must be repeated once a day for four days. Within 21 days, the circular archway must receive another blessing to bind the portal.

When completed, the portal may be used by anyone who has received Telina's blessing.

+20% Healing Spell

-15% Spell Damage

+ 1.2% hand to hand

+ 94% light armor

+ 83% Blunt Weapon

+ 81% Concentration

+ 60% Faith

+ 92% Cooking

+ 85% Repair

Ring of Serizon

+1 Strength

+1 Dexterity

+2 Armor

Ring of Wisdom

+1 to player's Wisdom attribute

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

Maria walked over when she saw me doing the level up zone out, then waited until I refocused to asked "Anything good?"

I shook my head no and said "Nope, not a damn thing other than a half a point" She patted me on the shoulder in sympathy, then joined the crowd checking out the troll cave.

It wasn't much of a cave, being only a few dozen feet deep, but hey, it had treasure. Maria did a trap scan on the two chests in the back, then joined me, Dalmar and Bob to watch as the girls had fun doing the Christmas present thing.

"Really wish we could have found Zac's treasure" I said as we watched. Dalmar nodded and said "Yeah, but we'll have to figure out how to keep everyone alive before that'll ever happen. We need some better weapons against dragons, and something to keep them from wiping us out with that breath attack"

"Fire resistance for one, though that would mean we'd get attacked by a black or white one" Bob said, chuckling at the second part. Maria nodded, her eyes and grin still focused on the women around the chests "Some games had weapons that were good against dragons, but this place doesn't seem to work that way. Never found anything that gave bonuses against certain creatures"

"Is there anything other than a mace or damn knife priests can use?" I asked, looking at each of them in question. They kind of exchanged looks, then shrugs as Dalmar said "Never really paid attention, but I doubt it"

"Not that I've heard of" Bob added "kind of the thing for every game I've ever played, though it seemed like some of them would let you use a war hammer"

"Yeah, well not this one" I muttered, getting a laugh from Maria as she turned toward me and said "Some of them let you use a sling. Maybe you could do the whole David and Goliath bit?"

I gave her a look as the other two laughed and we all headed back out of the cave. Dalmar made a 'Hmmm' noise, then asked "Some games you could throw knives, have you tried that?"

That made me stutter step as I realized I hadn't even tried throwing my mace before. I pulled Bruce as we walked, then cocked it back over my shoulder and heaved it forward. It went about two feet forward, then fell straight down, totally ignoring the laws of reality physics. "Cool, the perfect cockroach killer" Maria said with a giggle. I let out a disgusted growl as I stopped and held out a hand, saying "Knife".

Maria pulled one out of inventory, and they all watched me throw it two feet forward and straight down to stick in the grass. "Don't say it!" I said in disgust, pulling the knife and giving it back to Maria. "Darn world hates me" I muttered as I picked up Bruce and started walking again. I ignored the snickers and giggles of the pack of women who had watched, and even Bob couldn't hold back a snort of laughter. Maybe I should lead with that against dragons, get it laughing at me.

"Make up some runes and get the girls to fill them with their missiles" Dalmar suggested helpfully. I sighed, appreciating that he wanted to help, but said "It's not doing damage so much as using and developing a skill. I want to do something" I said, stressing the do "the stored spells seem like a cheat to me, and I only like using them when we're totally outclassed, like against the dragon or the golems. If I was a warrior it would be great, I'd get to use every darn weapon made, and spend years learning them all" I waved a hand in dismissal and said "Wah, wah, I know. Everyone wishes they had what I have, and I complain about having it"

"Nope" Bob said "actually understand completely. Unless you do smithing like Dalmar wants to, fighting is pretty much our only career choice, and it kind of seems like you've peaked already"

"Who knows, might be something out there. Haven't seen a crossbow, or throwing knives, or spears for sale" Maria said "maybe Dalmar could make one"

Dalmar chuckled at the idea, but we all let the conversation drop when one of the other women, an elf mage (most of the mages went elf for some reason) asked "Everyone talks like we have thousands of years, but there's no way they'll keep this world running that long, right?"

Damn, that was a good point. For some reason I had just went along with the whole eternity idea. A warrior toward the back of the pack answered "System clock. Penal worlds have a set time they allow people entry, then close it and increase the system clock. Supposedly not something people in VR notice, but they usually do a ten thousand to one increase. Every day outside is ten thousand days inside"

I stopped, totally shocked by her words, and turned to ask "Wait, that..." I paused to think, then said "That's like thirty years" I blinked as it really hit me and I said "Holy shit, so a year from now if they visit us it'll be like ten thousand years?"

"Well, yeah" she said with a shrug, getting the same blasé attitude from everyone else when she looked around.

Maria giggled at my expression and said "Just think Jake, your great-great-great-great-great-great grandkids might greet the next batch of visitors" I must have looked pretty silly because most everyone laughed at my expression.