Arn woke with a plan and was out the door in a flash, rushing to Mister Kerris’ farm just outside the village proper. Kerris did a little of everything, but specialized in chickens, raising over a third of the chickens consumed in the village. As usual, Arn found him working by the coop; he didn’t trust his sons to take proper care of “his special girls.”

“Good morning Mister Kerris! I’m hoping to buy four chickens and rent one of your wire cages to carry them in.”

Kerris beamed. “Excellent! I have four extra plump sweetlings that will just melt in your mouth! Heaven!”

Arn feared paying extra for “extra plump sweetlings,” and tried negotiating. “Oh, I don’t need your best today. Any will do. Sturdy would be good. Maybe feisty.” Kerris’ face twisted in puzzlement. “What the heck Arn?” Enthusiastic about his plan, Arn explained, “I’m hunting slarns today. Doing the village a service. Bagged a bunch yesterday, but they are smart you know? They are onto me. I figured, let something else serve as bait for a change, no need to be Mister Bait all day and night, right?”

Kerris scowled and sputtered, “you … want … to … feed … my … girls … to … slarns? No, no, you can’t rope a chicken. Sorry.” Alarm bells started ringing in Arn’s mind, but it was too late to back out. “Uh, well I figured I would buy some sturdy fishhooks and…” Kerris interrupted with a scream, “WHAT????” Panting heavily and making crazy eyes at Arn, Kerris continued in a suddenly piteous voice, “what kind of sick monster would torture my sweet girls like that? Surely you couldn’t really do such a horrible, terrible thing?”

Hells, how could I forget what a nutter he is about his cursed chickens. “I know Mister Kerris, and I would never consider it if the slarns were just killing the occasional cow or dog. But there are so many slarns that the children are at real risk Mister Kerris – there have been several close calls. I’m afraid if we don’t act, a child will die. I tried on my own, I really did, but I need help. I thought about going to Blackwood or Snell for chickens, but I was afraid that their chickens wouldn’t be healthy or sturdy enough.”

Kerris began muttering to himself. “Yes, children, have to save the children. Heroes sacrifice! I . . . I might have some little warriors...” Kerris disappeared into his house, emerging with a wire cage. He wandered around his coop, grabbing the occasional chicken while looking heartbroken.

“Arn . . . Arn. Are you sure you can do this … you must not waste this sacrifice!” Arn smiled, “of course. Every one of these heroes will give their liv … um the Slarn will ALL die Mister Kerris. The children will be safe. And I will make sure they know how they were saved! Your girls will be sung of!”

Kerris scowled. Arn sighed. A bit too much. Hells, wargs and slarn are easier to deal with.

“I expect to see dead slarn Arn! Don’t let me down! 8 silver for the chickens and 10 silver for the cage. I’ll buy it back for 9 if it is undamaged.” Arn sighed and explained, “I brought 12 silver. Will you accept my word so that I can go take care of this menace?”

Kerris paused, a calculating look in his eye. “Bring me back a slarn corpse and we have a deal Arn. The meat will go a long way.” Arn wanted to be done with this, but wasn’t willing to be ripped off quite so badly. “We can call the slarn corpse payment for the cage rental if you throw in a chicken for eating.” Kerris smiled, “deal!”

Arn made far less eventful stops for rope and hooks, grabbed a sack from his house, placed everything in the wheelbarrow and headed to the lake. On arrival, he set up shop a full hundred feet from the lake to avoid surprises, and carefully took out a chicken and a hook. This…Kerris wasn’t full wrong, this is just nasty. But … the children! Arn secured the rope to his wrist to prevent mishaps, and plunged the hook deep into the breast under the wing.

Trying to ignore the panicked thrashing and pitiful squawks, Arn slowly walked to within 10 feet of the lake across from a slarn eyeing him warily from the water. Arn soft tossed the chicken towards the water. It landed awkwardly with a fresh chorus of squawks, and bolted away from the water. Arn tightened the slack on the rope and snagged the chicken as it approach. This better work! Eating chicken morning noon and night doesn’t sound too appealing. Arn tossed the chicken again, a little harder this time.

The watching slarn exploded into motion as the chicken landed. Arn managed a small jerk of the rope bringing the chicken back a few feet before the slarn bit deeply. As Arn rushed forward, the slarn attempted to retreat with its prize. Arn was able to reel in the rope enough that the chicken halted the slarn. Rather than let go, the slarn tried a little tug-of-war, which proved a fatal mistake. Arn kneeled and stabbed the slarn on both sides with his twin daggers. Trying to be smart about it, Arn used the daggers buried in the slarn to twist its head away from him, straddled it with his leg, and sat on it before pulling out a dagger and stabbing the slarn in the head repeatedly.

Slarn Slain! Congratulations! You are now level 5! +4 Constitution, +4 attribute points and +1 skill point. Would you like to distribute your attributes or select a skill?

Arn whooped with joy. Hells yes, I’d like to select a skill!

SKILLS (1 Skill Point Unallocated)

Drain Life (Death): The Revenant’s touch can drain some of an enemy’s life force and take it for his own. Unlocks Drain Life skill path.

Kicking And Screaming (Death): Having tasted death, the Revenant is able to sense death’s approach and is highly motivated to avoid its embrace. When health falls below 30%, the Revenant’s Strength doubles and Toughness increases by 50%.

Drag Me Back (Life): The Revenant is able to resurrect an ally. This is a channeled skill, and the cast time and amount of health restored varies with skill level. Resurrection in this manner is said to be horrifying, and all but the strongest willed will have difficulty focusing for a time.

Living Aura (Life): The Revenant exudes an aura that provides a portion of his regenerative ability to nearby allies and fixes their souls in place for a short time after otherwise fatal damage. Percentage of regeneration, size of aura and duration of soul hold vary with skill level.

Arn’s gaped after reading Kicking and Screaming. Crazy amazing and a perfect fit for the class! If I have to fight low on health, I may as well be an ass-kicker when I do! I don’t know exactly how it compares to a Berserker’s rage buff, but I know they don’t get a Toughness buff. Combined with the regeneration, I’ll be seriously hard to kill. Arn focused on the skill, pulling up the “yes/no” option to select the skill – and hesitated. The description doesn’t say how long the skill lasts. If my regeneration instantly ends the skill once I’m back above 30%, it might last just a second or two at times. It could be a problem, cutting out in the middle of an attack or movement, throwing off my balance.

Sighing, Arn resolved to wait for Elder Dannis’ guidance. I owe him that apology anyway. Suck it up and do it.

The rest of the morning did not go quite as well; slarn are smart. Arn had to walk down to the small bridge and cross to the other side before he found more takers, and the first slarn he targeted picked the chicken clean off the line. His second attempt went smoothly resulting in another kill, but after that the slarn avoided him like the plague. As if to mock him, Arn spied the grey-scaled slarn watching from the safety of the deep part of the lake. After almost an hour of throwing the same long-dead chicken progressively deeper into the water, a slarn finally bit. Having learned that tug of war was too risky, Arn waited as the slarn devoured the chicken, hoping it would swallow the hook. As the slarn disappeared beneath the water, Arn slowly reeled the line. The slarn fought and thrashed, but eventually surfaced with the chicken nowhere in sight. Success! Arn quickly reeled it the rest of the way, stepped on its mid-section and stabbed it until the death notification popped up.

Out of chickens, Arn manhandled the slarn into the sack one at a time. Ha, I do learn! While he couldn’t quite think of more verses for his song, Arn smiled the entire way back to town.

Arn: Level Five Revenant

Attributes:

Constitution: 24 (+4)

Dexterity 12

Strength: 16

Intelligence: 10

Will: 10

Charisma: 8

Unallocated: 4

Skills:

Block (5)

Death’s Scream (1)

Dodge (5)

Head Butt (1)

Focus (1)

Mana Manipulation (1)

Mana Sight (2)

Pain Resistance (6)

Poison Resistance (2)

Shield Bash (1)

Sword Mastery (3)

Achievements:

Fearless

Hapless Zoologist

Survivor

Tasty!

Masochist