“Hey.” Something jostled my shoulder. “Get up, it’s morning.” The voice came from above me. I cracked open one crusted eye.

My entire body hurt. Muscles were cold and cramped painfully. I slowly unfolded, careful to not jostle the arrow, and rolled over, facing the sky. The sky was a brilliant blue, but clouds to the southwest hinted that the fair weather wouldn’t last.

“Hey, not dead are you?” The voice asked, accompanied by another light jab. Above me, the halberdier leaned down from the wall. He held his weapon just under the axehead and was using the shaft to prod me.

“Hurt too much to be dead,” I managed to croak out.

“I’ll bet,” the halberdier said, a broad grin splitting his face. The smile made him look younger, friendlier; so at odds with the stoic coldness from last night. It was definitely the same man though, bigger than the other soldiers by a head.

I staggered to my feet and almost fell when my leg cramped. I leaned heavily on the smooth wall as I worked feeling back into the muscle. “Come on up. The alchemist and priest are ready to inspect you,” The big man said. A knotted rope fell next to me.

I stared at the rope and contemplated how to drag my aching body up. “Tie it to your belt,” the halbadier called down. “We’ll pull you up.”

I gathered my things and tied myself off and clutched the rope in blistered hands. The soldiers pulled me up with just a few rapid tugs. The arrow in my chest sent shocks of pain though me with each twinge. At the top, the big halbadier steadied me with one hand and held out the other to shake.

“Lieutenant Adam Woods at your service.”

I shook the hand. “Inquisitor George Silver, a pleasure,” I replied, bewildered by the pleasantry. I couldn’t rationalize this friendly man with the one that had threatened me with polearm last night. If I wasn’t so tired I might have made sense of it.

Adam guided me into the squat barracks. While the priest and alchemist did their checks I explained, at Adam’s prompting, how we got trapped in the dead city. He asked pointed questions, specifically focusing on the numbers of monsters we encountered in each area, and took notes in a small leatherbound book.

Eventually, the priest and alchemist declared that neither I, nor the items I had with me, were haunted, possessed, infected, or monsters in disguise. Adam paid each of the men a few coins to ‘patch me up.’ The alchemist cut out the arrow and bound my wounds while the priest said a litany of prayers.

I wasn’t back to one hundred percent, but between the drugs and magical healing, most of my pain was gone. I was dog tired though, without the pain to keep me sharp, I was almost ready to fall asleep in my chair. I forced myself to pay attention when the fourth man, a bureaucrat taking notes, spoke up.

“And how would you like to pay your processing fee?” he asked, sickly sweet. Even in my dazed state, I caught the greedy stare he shot at Sarah’s tome and the relic I recovered from the church basement.

“Already taken care of,” Adam interjected.

“But-” the man started, before the lieutenant cut him off.

“Already taken care of,” he repeated; his tone quiet and expression cold. There was the man I remembered from last night.

“And what should I write for the payment type?” The bureaucrat asked sulkily.

“Services rendered,” Adam answered cheerfully, affable once again. He helped me gather my things and escorted me out of the building.

“I hope we meet again, Inquisitor. Preferably under better circumstances,” Adam said as I left the building. I nodded, still unsure what to make of the lieutenant, and headed for Sarah’s apartment.

Sarah answered her door after the third knock. She looked haggard. Her eyes were red and puffy. I wondered if she had slept at all.

“You look beat to hell,” she said, offering me a wan smile.

“I just got back to this side of the river. It was a long night.”

Her smile dissolved. “You were over there all night? You didn’t…” She trailed off.

“Didn’t die. It was a near thing, but I made it back to the bridge,” I said. “I brought back your book.” I dug the tomb out of my pack and handed it to her.

“Thank you,” she said. Her smile this time was brighter, more genuine. “I was worried when I woke up without it.”

The smile faded as she hugged the book to herself. She looked down, avoiding my eyes. “I think… I don’t want to go back to the Old City.” She looked guilty, as if expecting to be yelled at. “At least for a few days,” she added in a rush.

“I think we could all use a break,” I said, doing my best to be reassuring. “I’ll let Ajax know. Meet for dinner at the Bitter Flagon?”

She nodded and we parted ways. I waved over a messenger boy and sent a note to Ajax. I doubted he would have a problem with skipping the Old City today.

When I got back to St. Paul’s, a curate helped me peel off my soiled clothes and armor. I would need to get them repaired, again. I almost fell asleep in the bath, the hot water heaven on my sore muscles. I scoured off the caked on gore, the stinging of soap in open cuts helping keep me awake. Finally clean, I stumbled back to my room.

Daylight still streamed from my window when I woke. I had a moment of disorientation, unsure if I had slept for only a few hours, or an entire night. I got dressed in clean clothes, gathered my things, and stepped out.

A passing priest assured me it was still Tuesday, a bit past noon. My muscles ached, but I felt better from the nap. I made my way to the Archbishop’s office.

He was overjoyed when I showed him the relic I recovered from the Old City. “This is fantastic, Inquisitor. So few church relics have been recovered over the years,” the Archbishop said. He held a jeweler's loupe against the glass medallion, studying it carefully. “Bone of Saint Piran,” he muttered to himself. “Did you manage to recover anything else from the church? Relics, art, maybe the communion chalice?”

I shook my head. “We were chased off by an undead monstrosity before we could recover anything else.”

“A pity,” he replied. “Still, this is an excellent find. The church would be very thankful if you recovered similar relics in the future.” He studied me carefully, taking in the cuts and bruises. “In fact, to that end, I am going to reissue this relic to you.

“With the proper inscriptions it can be a powerful tool against evil,” he continued. “This particular relic has domain over perception. Thus, there are two options available to you. An inscription that focuses the power internally will heighten your senses. Sight, scent, taste, touch, and hearing will all be intensified to superhuman levels.

“Alternatively, an inscription that focuses power externally will disrupt your enemies perception of you. You will be hidden from the senses of any foul creature within a large range. With either option, the effect will last about ten minutes. After which, the relic’s power will need to be recharged by taking it to mass.”

A boost to perception or a stealth ability. Either could be very beneficial if used correctly. What would a boost do to Ajax’s already heightened perception?

“Will the relic affect my companions?” I asked the bishop.

“Unfortunately, no. As the inscription will be attuned to you specifically, even if someone else was to wear the relic, they could not benefit from its power. That said, the external power wouldn’t affect your companions either, as it only blinds God-forsaken monstrosities.”

So no super senses for Ajax. “And the ten minute limit, does it have to be used all at once.”

“Not at all,” the Archbishop said happily. “You could ration the power out over hours or even days, just using a minute at a time. The relic can be activated by placing your thumb against a sigil inscribed on the back. Simply releasing it will cause the power to stop.”

I considered the options. The perception boost sounded interesting, but I couldn’t see it being very useful in combat; especially if it takes a hand to wield. The stealth ability was useful, but limited only to monsters. That said, being able to hide from monsters would have come in very handy last night.

“I think I would prefer the external power,” I told the Archbishop.

“Very good,” he said, making a note on a piece of parchment. “If you change your mind at a later date, the Church goldsmith will be able to alter the inscription to change its effect. You would have to pay for his services, of course.

“For now,” he continued. “I will pay to have the relic prepared for you. Consider it a reward for your hard work. You can pick up the finished piece from the goldsmith in a few hours.” I thanked the Archbishop and took my leave.

I went to the armorer next. He had no trouble fixing my ragged mail and putting a new edge on my shamshir, but shot me an odd look as he examined the damage. I would guess it wasn't often that he saw the same customer multiple times in a single week.

After the armorer finished, I headed to the Bitter Flagon. It was still a few hours before my companions would be there, but I had nothing better to do and wouldn’t mind a late lunch. The pub was fairly empty and I found a table without issue.

After ordering, I finally opened my journal. I had been close to level seven even before we entered the Old City, so it didn’t come as a shock to see that I had leveled. I was surprised to see that I had leveled twice. Apparently my harrowing night had made for good experience.

Level seven gave me a primary attribute point and a proficiency to assign. The attribute was an easy choice. I consistently found myself wishing my constitution was higher. Assigning the point raised the stat to a respectable eight.

Figuring out what to do with the proficiency was less easy. There didn’t seem to be anything I really needed. Lockpicking would be interesting, but Ajax already had that covered. I couldn't think of any other tools that would come in handy. If there was another level of shamshir, I would take that, but it looked like Advanced was as high as it went.

Another weapon proficiency? I was pretty happy with my shamshir. Glancing at the weapon chart the Archbishop had sketched for me ages ago, I remembered another option he had brought up. Grappling.

I wasn’t sure how well it would work with a sword and shield, but if it could help me perform throws and takedowns, it would be worth taking. I wrote in grappling and moved on.

Level eight gave me another point to spend in each of my skill trees. There was one new skill available in the martial tree, unlocked by Multi-Weapon Chain.

Multi-Weapon Chain Acceleration. Your strikes accelerate as you land blow after blow. Your attacks that gain increased force from Multi-Weapon Fighting also increase the speed and precision of the next attacks you make. This effect stacks up to five times and lasts until you fail to make an attack within three seconds or attack with the same weapon twice.

It fit extraordinarily well with my existing build. I already alternated attacks between my sword and shield, and making those attacks faster was just icing on the cake. The only sad thing was that it didn’t unlock any further skills. After this level I would have to go back to the base skills and figure out what would work best. I selected Multi-Weapon Chain Acceleration, and moved on to the next skill tree.

Choosing Precision Push at level six unlocked Remote Push.

Remote Push. Having the push spell originate from the caster isn’t always desirable. Remote Push will allow for more tactical applications. When activating the spell, Remote Push will allow you to choose a point you can see within 5 (Willpower) yards to be the starting point of the push. You will also be able to choose the direction the push moves. For example, you could have the spell originate from behind an enemy and move towards you to drive your opponent closer.

The number of options this would open up was astounding. Five yards wasn’t a huge range, but it was far enough to be useful. Pushing weapons out of the way, messing up archer’s aim, distracting people with something happening behind them; I could think of plenty of useful ways to use the ability.

I would probably go with Remote Push, but just in case, I checked the skills I had skipped over in my drunken leveling.

Mental Blueprints. Creating simple objects is easy to do quickly, but more precise works take more effort to craft, especially if you want them to turn out exactly the same way every time. Mental Blueprints will allow you to save up to 9 (Intelligence * 3) blueprints based on created items. These blueprints can be referenced at any time and used to recreate any saved item instantly.

Useful, but not really necessary for my build. I really only used the create spell for my shield. Creating a disk only took a moment and I didn’t really care if it was slightly different each time.

Large Creation 1. Sometimes the situation calls for something big. Double the size of the object you can create. Unlocks Large Creation 2.

Large Creation was more tempting than Mental Blueprints. Being able to create something like a tower shield could definitely come in handy. The buckler size was fine for melee, but not so great for blocking arrows. Considering the apparent invincibility of the magical constructs, I could probably use it to block bullets too.

Precise Creation 1. Sometimes the situation calls for something detailed. Double the fidelity you can achieve with created objects. Unlocks Precise Creation 2.

If I wanted to make magical weapons with the spell, this would be mandatory. Getting an edge thin enough to cut with would take far more precision than I could currently muster. The idea of adding a sharp edge to my shield appealed to me, but it probably wouldn't be worth the investment. I would need to spend multiple skills and a few points in intelligence to get a cutting edge.

Lasting Creation 1. Sometimes the situation calls for something to stick around longer. Double the duration of any object you create. Unlocks Lasting Creation 2.

This was also tempting. Currently I could have my force shield up about one fourth of the time. With this, I could get that up to fifty percent. With another skill point, provided it doubled again, I could have the shield up almost all the time.

I considered my options. Mental Blueprints and Precise Creation were out right away, the other choices were far better. Of the remaining three, I liked Remote Push the best. The tactical options it opened up really appealed to me. Decision made, I moved on to the last skill tree.

I hadn’t unlocked anything new for the Utility Skill Tree, so I looked over the options I had passed up previously. Persuasion by Ethos 2 looked interesting. I might have been able to convince the third alchemical supplier to give up his client list with the additional leverage it provided.

In the end though, I decided to go with:

Holy Armory Contact 1: The church looks after its own, and not all threats can be dealt with by fire and blade. This contact supplies you with holy water and blessed scripture verses. Unlocks Holy Armory Contact 2.

One thing my build currently lacked, as last night showed, was utility. I had no answer to enemies that couldn’t be hacked apart by my shamshir. Having the stealth relic would help with that, but I wanted more options.

I was usually the kind of gamer that saved consumables forever, but I would have gladly used one last night. Something to distract the bone golem or protect my allies would have been perfect. Hopefully the holy water and scriptures would give me more options for dealing with encounters in the future.

I put my journal away and finished my lunch. Eventually my friends trickled into the common room. Sarah seemed better than she had this morning, but still a bit off. She was quieter, more reserved. Not that I blamed her, it was hard to be cheerful after getting torn apart.

Ajax was quieter than usual too, but in a different way. He had a frustrated air about him. He spoke in controlled, subdued tones, as if he was struggling not to vent on those around him. It reminded me of one of my friends I used to game with. They would get like that when someone made a mistake or we failed an objective.

Overall, it made for an awkward atmosphere. It got significantly better when Jim joined us. The big guy’s affable personality cut the tension and got our minds off our horrible night. We talked of lighter things and even played some chess when Scott brought out a board. The plague doctor crushed us all, apparently he was a chess fanatic, but it was still fun.

It was late by the time I made it back to my bed. There was plenty to do tomorrow, but for now I was happy to get a real night’s sleep.