24

They poked fun at each other like that for the best part of an hour–an attempt to blow off steam and make light of the brush with death they had just narrowly escaped. To his surprise, Hunter found their banter and budding camaraderie very enjoyable and refreshing. He’d never been short on raiding buddies and casual acquaintances, but he’d learned the hard way that true friends were few and far between. And Fawkes? Despite the fact he only knew her a few days, that crazy old bat started to feel very much like she could one day become a true friend.

Interestingly, the dire wolf was still tagging after Hunter, albeit at a distance. He’d been very friendly earlier, but now he was back to just being cautious. Fawkes paid him no heed.

“Don’t feed him again. Don’t even look at him. Sooner or later, he’ll get bored and leave,” she said.

Hunter kind of hoped he didn’t. How cool would it be if he could get a dire wolf as an animal companion of sorts? Pretty damn cool, if he said so himself.

Speaking of animal companions, Biggs and Wedge were back on scouting duty, but they were being unusually quiet. Hunter was a bit pissed at the feathery windbags, and that probably bled through their mental link. Not that they were really in need of a lookout. Arjen had granted them safe passage, and Mir was watching their steps. Whatever that meant, it was more than idle talk. A sense of reverence followed Fawkes and Hunter wherever they went, an aura that made the Weald around them quieter, less intimidating.

Still, despite all the quiet and all the friendly atmosphere, Hunter felt a tightness in the pit of his stomach. The feeling that something was very wrong, and he was being blind to it. There were so many questions he had, so much that he wanted answers about. What did it mean to be embered? Who was this Herne spirit, and why the hell did he have its mark on him? Brennai, missing people, ritual killings, Ghostbarrows…

And the worst part? These things were beginning to feel important. Hunter spent most of his time on Elderpyre. The more he was sucked into this world, the more like reality it felt, and the less like a game.

And therein lay the problem; it had to be one or another–it couldn’t be both.

To make things worse, Hunter felt like he had no say in what was happening to him, no agency at all. Grimm had offered him the world’s geekiest Faustian bargain, and was now ignoring him. Fawkes was stringing him along almost on a whim. The Brennai folken would probably turn him away or worse, were they to find out about his transient nature. Arjen had attacked him on sight for reasons he didn’t even understand, and had almost killed him in a single blow. Even if he’d later healed his wounds while he was unconscious, Hunter could still feel the crunch of his ribs shattering under the massive force of the bear’s attack. Even the low-dwellers back in that bloody clearing would probably had torn him to pieces, weren’t it for Fawkes.

He didn’t like feeling like that, powerless.

He didn’t like it one bit.

It was about time he started pulling his own weight, make his own decisions–which would be much easier if he was stronger. He opened the Character Sheet window on his HUD and took another look at his stats. The encounter with Arjen had increased his Insight quality by 1 to a grand total of 2, he remembered. Both his Mystic’s Eye and Conjure Familiar abilities were tied to that quality. They probably even scaled off it. Just as importantly, that point in Insight had granted him a handful of new Abilities to consider investing in.

Augmented Familiar allows you to further tap into your Insight quality and empower your conjured familiar and allow it to acquire additional abilities. Higher ranks strengthen the bond and allow the use of more advanced familiar abilities.

Craft Spirit Charm allows you to create charms and trinkets out of natural resources, as well as infuse them with mystical effects and qualities. Higher ranks reduce the chance of your Spirit Charms being infused with negative effects and allow the use of more advanced effects and recipes, according to your Insight quality.

Rite of the Hunt allows you to put a mark on your prey and declare a Hunt, gaining potential advantages in tracking and hunting down that prey. Higher ranks increase the variety and intensity of these advantages.

Mystical Phenomena allows you to utilize your Insight quality to subtly manipulate the laws of the cosmos, ever so slightly affecting the outcome of events as you see fit. Higher ranks allow you more substantial manipulations, and reduce the risk these manipulations have to draw unwanted attention.

“Tiffany’s tits!” Hunter exclaimed. “Now we’re talking!”

“Who is this Tiffany,” asked Fawkes with a raised eyebrow, “and what’s so special about her tits?”

“You wouldn’t understand. It’s a transient thing.”

Barely containing his excitement, Hunter ignored the dirty look Fawkes threw at him and pulled up a list of all the new abilities he could currently learn.

Abilities Available:

Augmented Familiar

Craft Spirit Charm

Eldritch Power

Make Contact

Mystical Phenomena

Pathfinder

Rite of the Hunt

Wildcrafting

Inspiration: 1

That single point of Inspiration meant he could learn one of those abilities–just one. Useful as it had proven to be, he almost wished he hadn’t rushed to spend Inspiration for something as lackluster as Low-Light Vision. What was done was done, though. It wasn’t like Hunter to cry over spilt milk. Eager to spend that point and gain a new ability to toy with, he considered his options.

He started by taking a second look at the abilities he’d gained access to earlier, when his Survival hit 20. Pathfinder and Wildcrafting were simple, straightforward utilitarian options, neither of which looked particularly appealing. Hunter could see how they could both prove valuable–especially in an environment like the Weald–but given how limited his supply of Inspiration was, he wanted to pick something with more bang for his buck.

Eldritch Power had that kind of bang, alright. It was a caster-type ability that would allow him to use magical attacks–a solid option, but still one he wasn’t a fan of. Running around blasting foes with magic had never been his cup of tea, and old habits die hard.

Make Contact, on the other hand, was something he already meant to pick up sooner or later. Supernatural beings and Places of Power seemed to play quite an important role in Elderpyre, and having a way to commune with them–whatever that actually meant–would probably prove to be useful. Hunter made a mental note to consider it further.

Next, he moved on to the Insight abilities he had just gained access to. Those were all intriguing, he thought. He was still limited by his lack of knowledge, though, so he’d have to be extra careful with the proverbial fine print in their descriptions.

Augmented Familiar was a bit of a gamble; depending on what were the advanced abilities his familiars would learn, it could prove to be either a winner or a total waste of Inspiration. The two feathery buffoons were loveable, but didn’t exactly have the best track record where it came to usefulness.

Craft Spirit Charm sounded catchy; in all his gaming career, Hunter had been more of a scrapper than a craftsman, but Elderpyre was different. Crafting gear and items himself could definitely prove to be worth it, and he had to admit the whole infusing charms with mystical effects sounded kickass. According to the ability’s description, however, some of those effects could be negative, so that was something to keep in mind.

Mystical Phenomena sounded both nebulously mysterious and totally awesome. Again, however, Hunter had no idea what “subtly manipulating the laws of the cosmos” exactly meant. It kind of sounded like a Jedi Force thing. He resisted the impulse to pick it right then and there just to see what it was all about, and moved further down to his last remaining option on the list–Rite of the Hunt.

Of all the abilities he could learn, Rite of the Hunt was the one that sounded the most badass. Single someone or something out as ”Prey” and declare a “Hunt”? Hunter could already imagine himself as a monster hunter or bounty hunter type, going on Hunt after Hunt, tracking his foes down with terrifying skill. Of course, that fantasy was just that, a fantasy–at least for the time being. For now, he had to focus more on not getting hunted and preyed upon himself.

In the end, Hunter submitted to what Packman, his old raiding group’s resident tactical thinker, called “the sunk cost fallacy”. He’d already invested in his Conjure Familiar, so doubling down on it seemed the prudent thing to do. Capitalize on the advantages Biggs and Wedge brought to the table–wasn’t that what Fawkes had told him?

Your Augmented Familiar has increased to 1.

Your familiar has learned the Ill Omen ability.

Now that this was done, Hunter thought, maybe it was time he took a closer look at the two feathery windbags and what they could actually do. He willed their Character Sheet in existence–which, as it turned out, had been something he could do all along–and looked at their attributes and abilities.

Familiar Information:

Name: Biggs, Wedge

Type: Twin Ravens

Attributes:

Health 15

Mana 80

Stamina 200

Strength 1

Dexterity 8

Intellect 7

Willpower 7

Presence 7

Abilities:

Dive Bomb 6

Mental Link 6

Ill Omen 1

Summon/Unsummon 6

Now that was interesting. The familiars’ Health and Strength were laughable, as expected, but their other attributes looked pretty decent–for a couple of ravens, that is. Hunter noted that most of their abilities had a rank of 6–which was also the rank of his own Conjure Familiar ability, so there probably was some direct correlation there. Their newly-gained Ill Omen ability, whatever it was, had a rank of 1. Would it be safe to assume it also depended on his own newly-gained Augmented Familiar? Time would tell. Hunter focused on this new ability, and a window with its description popped up.

Ill Omen allows the twin raven familiars to channel negative energy to your foes, inflicting psychic damage and impeding their movement, focus, and concentration. Higher ranks magnify both the psychic damage and the detrimental effects of the ability.

Hunter would probably have to do some field testing to see the extent of Ill Omen’s effectiveness, but it looked like a solid ability. That was good. He’d kick himself six ways to Sunday it turned out he’d spent a point of Inspiration on something mediocre.

There was more to Augmented Familiar than just Ill Omen, too; the familiars’ chatter Hunter could “hear” through their mental link already sounded more coherent, if no less incessant. It was like the two windbags had gotten a sudden IQ boost. Had they really, though?

Hunter wouldn’t exactly bet on that–not without some cold, hard evidence.