Fragments of a Lost Future

The Shackled Weight

The prisoner was sitting in his cell. He was a big man, so they anchored him with a huge ball and chain. The chain was thick steel, and the ball was a two-foot-wide sphere of metal. In most circumstances, the man wouldn’t be going anywhere fast. But this man was a player, and he had free points to distribute. He had been saving them for an emergency or considering dropping them in Dex, but the fighting he could hear outside had made him reconsider. Along with his points, he had an evolution option for his monk class.

Shackled Weight

The massive weight you carry is both your biggest burden, and your greatest strength. Wielding your burden as a meteor hammer you smash your foes. Your immense strength lets you reel back your burden, and redirect it at any moment. Your movement is both hampered and aided by your burden.

+18 Str, +6 Dex, +6 Con per Level

It was a great class if you wanted to always have a ball and chain attached to you. Something the prisoner was not thrilled by.

His choice was made when a massive explosion tossed him off of his stone bench, it also brought half the wall down on him. He dumped all his points into strength and accepted the class, he was going to have to fight his way out of there.

Heaving the rubble off and looking around showed him the town on fire. Dead guards and Orc raiders lay strewn on the ground, a quarter of the buildings were collapsed, and the din of battle could be heard among the screams.

Pulling out his ball and chain and lifting them, the prisoner found them much lighter. Taking off at a light jog he found a pair of guards trying to defend a family from four orc raiders. Spinning up his weapon he launched himself at the nearest orc and brought the steel ball down on its head, the ball had so much force it crushed the entire upper body of the orc into paste. With a flick of his wrist and a twitch of his ankle the prisoner yanked the ball back into flight, spinning it around himself and hammering it into the back of a second orc, he didn’t get up either. One of the remaining orcs stopped fighting the guards and tried to chop the prisoner into pieces with its axes. As a long-time monk, the prisoner was adept at dodging such strikes and lashed out with his fists as he weaved through the blades. He shattered both elbows while jerking his chain with his leg, swinging the ball around behind him. With a mighty kick he jerked the ball straight towards his own back, he transformed his kick into a backflip and neatly avoided the speeding metal ball as it took the head off the raider.

Without the pressure of the other orcs, the guards had just finished off their foe. They looked at the prisoner “Hey thanks for the help, you’re the guy from the caravan right?”

“Yes, and you're welcome, I couldn’t abandon a noble cause.” The prisoner indicated the family behind the guards.

“Well, I didn’t think you should have been locked up anyway, with your help here I’m freeing you.” The guard takes out a key and tosses it to the prisoner. “We need to get these folks to safety but if you could help out the others, I would appreciate it.” The other guard said.

The prisoner nodded and pocketed the key, walking off towards the nearest sounds of battle. With a twitch of his leg, the ball was in the air and he caught it.

The next encounter he had with the raiders went much faster, 5 orcs in 8 seconds. He had started to get the hang of the momentum shifts and combined it with his monstrous acrobatics skill. Letting the ball pull him and then a twitch at the right moment to redirect it was all that was needed, it sort of reminded him of a cross between a hula hoop and a yoyo. The fact he had done a bit of training with a rope dart helped immensely.

The third group of orcs was harder, 8 raiders in half-plate armor, and only 4 guards remained of the squad of 12. Swinging his leg and letting the ball pull him through the air the prisoner sent the ball into the face of one orc and then flew past him as he collapsed to give the one beside him a flying knee strike. With his new strength that was nearly as effective as the ball. Sending himself into a handstand the prisoner jerked the ball up and over to descend on another raider. The raider sidestepped but with an upside-down twirl, the ball whipped around and caved his chest in. With another kick, the ball brained another, and the chain wrapped around the neck of a fourth, as the chain continued to wrap the ball was sped up and forced to impact his chest, at the speed it was going, it just removed his chest from his legs while popping his head clean off. Another kick and then a brief grab of the airborne chain redirected the ball into the hip of a raider that was trying to sneak up on him. It crushed the orc’s armor and sent him flying towards a guard who skewered him mid-flight.

The raiders were so distracted by the sudden blitz that three of the remaining five turned toward their attacker, and two guards each got a decapitating strike from behind. The third was dispatched by a flurry of punches since he was watching the massive ball and not the man attached to it.

The last two fell in seconds.

One of the blood-covered guards took off his helmet and ran a bloody hand through his sweat-soaked hair. “Thanks for the help there, I know you haven’t been treated that well these last few days, but you’re alright in my book, and as the captain mine is the only one that counts.” He chuckled and continued, “I think that was the last of them, but we will have to do a sweep to make sure. What are you going to do friend?”

The prisoner looked around at the burning town, at the corpses of the townspeople that had imprisoned him, and the trail of trampled earth leading west out of the village gates.

“I’m going orc hunting.”

With that, he flicked his ball and chain into his hand and walked westward.