It rains sometime in the night with just enough to dampen everything. It took me until to noon to kill the rest of the rabbits and then by mid-afternoon to kill two more Grey wolves. After filling up my waterskin I turn in the quest for the rabbit, earning a bit more experience and ten more silver. Waving bye to the Mesa-la and heading back to my hovel to begin to add a second floor by adding a wall to the west and north with a four foot high by a two-foot wide window in the middle of both walls. Dropping down below when I got done and cooked up the rest of the meats.

Fried rabbit + 2 DEFTNESS

It has been two weeks since I arrived here and I still not explore much, but I need a safe base before I can look around. My level is still at Level one; I need to level up. So instead of leveling, I climb up to finish the south wall of the hovel. Adding a window opening and put a doorway in the east wall. Afterward putting a stone roof with a trapdoor on the northwest side. Grabbing more water at the stream. I climbed back up and waited for sunset. A half hour after sunset the large moon rose as I watched as a draugrs rise out of their destroyed homes.

Draugrs Guard

Level Four

Health 40/40

Bronze Shortsword

Bronze Buckler

With my dwarven night vision and the moon's light, I didn't see anything nearby. I at least hope it was far away from the others draugr as I cast the spell Flare both times hitting it. Dropping its health in half. The creatures screamed and started attacking the building below the west window. Still, no other draugrs came. Meditating in the corner for twelve minutes. I stood up and looked down out of the window at the draugr as it hammering at the wall. I calmly cast the spell Flare for two more times as the draugr collapse to the ground. “Twenty-nine more!” Tired from casting I climb down below and saw a hole the size of my fist in the wall. Casting stone at the hole in the wall it patches itself. “Great need to fix the wall outside tomorrow.” Throwing up my hands in frustration. The next morning was foggy, the mist swirl in the light sea breeze. Looking below I see the dead undead or undead dead. Shaking my head, “wow I been alone too long.” speaking aloud. Climbing down and checking the pile of bones and finding.

Bronze short sword

Durability 2/20

Slash 5 Damage. Bronze buckler

Durability 6/20

Bash skill +1 Three silver coins

Burial urn, ashes x 1

Looking over the Burial Urn, I see inscribed on the side of the urn.

Hashar York, warrior second level, Travel to Fangor to start a new life and to court the Mayor's daughter. Died during the third assault on Fangor... Quest: Bury the dead

Find or build a cemetery to bury the dead to keep them from rising.

You have 30 days to bury the urn in holy ground.

Experience per urn buried.

“Wow, okay that interesting now I need to build a cemetery. Great!” shaking my head. After looting everything, the bones fade away. Looking up at the wall seeing the damage the draugr did to the building. I end up spending an hour of chipping away some stone and recasting the spell Stone on the wall repairing it. Hearing moaning I shot back up the ladder. A few minutes later I see another Draugr moving in the fog. An hour after that the fog disperses to the morning sun.

I thought about adding the third floor with four feet high battlement. But decided I need to build the tower later. From my position on top of the second floor, I can see to the north a dirt road. It runs east and west crossing both streams where the water can be forded. The road goes on into the forest to the west and disappear. To the east, the road disappears in the high grass of the steppe. Looking northward at the snow-capped mountains and shivering at the thought of the cold spring mountain air. I turn to look at the sea noticing far off to the southeast a smug of smoke, that wasn’t there the last few days.

“Guess maybe a tower might be on the list of things to build.” grimacing at the smoke, dropping down to the bottom of the hovel. Still knowing I need to complete the roof of the hovel.

“Time to build a tower, "I said as I walk over to the foundation of the tower that I found when I showed up. I walked around staring at the twenty by twenty-foot room with a five-foot thick wall. Using my dig spell I spent rest of the morning clearing out the dirt. One thing I did find out about my Dig spell was it would not dig out rock or metal those I had to carry out myself manually. I finally hit the bottom of the tower twenty feet down. The floor was all stone, but at the ten-foot mark, I found a one-foot ledge around the wall. I figure it was where the wood beams would sit. While I was down there, I went ahead and built a three by three by four-foot high cistern in one corner to hold water. Took the rest of the day hauling water in the copper pot and water skin to fill it up. That night it took an hour using Flare to kill a draugr archer, getting shot by two arrows was not fun. Meditating and then turning in for the night.

The next morning the smoke moved more east than it was yesterday, hoping whoever it was would leave the area. Someone would think I was anti-social, but that smoke could be hostile creatures. The fact they are making smoke to let others see how confident they are of not being attacked or stupid. So I went back to killing wolves using Flare to hit them and missing the wolves about a third of the time only to fall back on using the hammer. In one case I was forced to use the dagger when the hammer got knock out of my hands. It was while I was finishing looting the sixth wolves for a total of six average wolf skin, twelve meat, and five silver, that was when two wolves jumped me and died.

You have died! You will re-spawn at your bind point with no penalty until you reach the fifth level.

I found myself staring up at the Hearth Tree canopy. “Damn! That hurt!” groaning as I sat up checking myself to see if everything is still there and feel relieved. Getting bit in the crotch was something I don't want to repeat. Checking the time I see I lost twenty-four hours due to the numbers of deaths over the last year.

Grey Wolves kill 7/10

Checking the sun seeing I have two hours left I decide to work on my weapons. I was able to sharpen and polish the dagger bring it from 5/10 on durability to 9/10. The hammer I was able to repair the handle but need a smithy skill and a blacksmith shop. “Mesa-la was there a blacksmith shop here?” Looking around.

“It is the third building foundation to the east of my tree near the stream,” she said.

Heading over that way I see a pile of stone and gravel with some brush, “okay need to clear that pile, one the of things on the list to do.” Walking back to the hovel to get the ax and cut some several trees down by the creeks. After cutting up some of the branches for firewood, I headed back to the hovel to add to my growing hill of firewood. While I was standing at the woodpile looking over the almost done two story hovel. “I need a door, some steps and a roof then the hovel will be done. Guess I will have to kill the rest of wolves tomorrow and cut some more logs to start on the tower floors and the one below. Splitting a few logs to make boards for the door and a mini drawbridge. Hoping the drawbridge, I could lower over to a raised platform with steps. To get into and out of the hovel without climbing a latter.

“Let’s see about another draugr tonight.”

After cooking up the wolf meat, I did inventory and seeing that I have about a week worth of food. As long as the cooked food stays in my bag, it doesn’t spoil on me. Leave it out then it does. Well, you got to love game mechanics. Surprise that they don’t make your skin and gut everything. Then if it did, I would have enough meat to last a month just on the wolf if it didn’t spoil first. Laughing while shaking my head thinking that half the people playing would starve if they had to butcher their meat.

After sunset, I climbed back up to the second floor and spotted another draugr. It was about twenty feet to the north casting a flare hitting it in the chest, knocking it on its butt. It staggers as it stood up and ran toward the tower having no weapons in its hands. I wasn't too worried about fixing the walls again. Casting another flare and missed. I sat back down in frustration as the draugr maniacal laughter from below. Couple minutes of meditating I had enough mana to cast another flare. Not seeing any other draugr nearby I look through the west, and south windows saw nothing. After hearing scrapping to the south, I can see the draugr trying to climb the tower. Doing a inspect and seeing a draugr citizen with five points of health. Casting the flare straight down the hitting it's head and explodes it into several pieces.

Critical hit!

A draugr Citizen has died.

3/30 draugrs killed

Nice! A critical hit! Doing a fist pump. Alright, time to sleep.

The over the next week I squared up the logs and dragged them up to the tower. Lowering the logs into their groves and creating a floor and then building another floor leaving a place to build stairs down to both levels. After nearly getting killed by a draugr coming down the stairs I made after not noticing the had set. I was berating myself over being a fool after dodging arrows back to my hovel. I started on the first-floor walls the following morning. By the eighth day, I had the tower first floor done and the second floor put in by noon. While getting water, I looked at both the tower and the two-story hovel to the south of the square. Frowning at seeing both places incomplete knowing I would never have done that in real life. I ended up spending the rest of the day on building a door and shutters to the hovel and using from the planks from the days of splitting lumber. Still not sure on how to make hinges without a forge. Checking my food I realize I was going to need more meat tomorrow when I put the last of my meat in my frying pan.

Waking up next morning seeing the smoke was gone. After a week of watching the campfires move north toward the mountains, hoping they stay away. I headed to the north toward the road to kill the last three wolves needed for my quest.

The first wolf was easy to kill as its back was to me and didn’t smell me. Got a nice back-stab on it and did double damage. I then looted it and got the two meat and the average wolf fur. I ran back to the tree to meditate. The second wolf I miss only to hit on the second cast. Three swings with the last two hitting the wolf and killed it. I sat down to mend after being bit twice once on the right leg and once on my left arm to keep its jaws from reaching my throat.

After meditating back my health and mana. The third wolf found me near the dirt road biting my right arm forcing me to drop my hammer. Using flare twice before I ended up killing it with the dagger through its eye. Sitting down shaking like a leaf with only one health left.

10/10 Grey wolves killed

Looting a quality wolf skin. Two wolf meat.

I was meditating for about twenty minutes when I head the sound of some hooves and a creak of a wagon from the east. Carefully standing up I saw a large human male leading a mule pulling a two-wheel covered cart. The lifting the hat off his bald tan head with a big grin on his hairy face and waved.

“Ahoy, Jeremiah Jones tinker, and trader. I buy, sell or trade. You wish to buy, sell or trade?”

“I might, name Jack Stonewright, what do you have?” making sure no one else was around. A screen of goods appear before my eyes, a book on Air Magic for five gold and a Scroll for summoning an Earth elemental for one gold. A cookbook and other recipe scrolls from leather armor to health potion. An herbalism book and a mold for a dagger.

“I take the scroll for earth elemental and two 20 foot rope. A skinning knife, and what is that”, seeing a one square foot metal box, vibrating.

“Oh that, I caught a small slime cube at the Forlorn Swamp to the east of here about a hundred and forty miles away. It was crossing the road, and they eat anything organic. Cities and towns pay fifty to a hundred gold for one. Problem is it cost that much for me feeding it, over the next two months. They tend to shrink to nothing if not fed and grow if overfed. Cleaning out sewer and trash dumps they leaving behind metals, gems, and coins.”

“How big do they get?” I ask.

“Was told about a hundred cubits feet in size. Then they break apart into a hundred slimy little booger if there nothing to eat they will try to eat each other. If they're not a lot to eat they don’t grow. If I was going east, I could have offloaded at Greenhold, a port town. Since I was heading west and saw the smoke fires, I had to hide for a week.

An idea pop in my head, “I’m planning on making a sewer I could raise it until it split for forty percent of the profits.”

“How would I know you be trusted and it is a year before it ready to split, twenty percent.” He counters.

Raising an eyebrow “I will have to do all the work and feeding it, thirty-five percent.”

“Twenty-five percent, I have two wives and ten children to feed.” He cried.

“Thirty-three percent and you would sell your wife if you could make enough profit.” I counter.

Laughing so hard, “your right both my wives offer me only to pay them a quarter of my profit if I only stay out half the year.” Wiping his eyes “thirty percent and nothing more.”

“Agreed,” shaking the merchant's hand. “Give me thirty minutes; I have furs I can trade.” Heading back to the tree and turn in the quest on the wolves.

You have complete kill 10/10 Grey wolves,

Reward 10 silver. A boot of the Hearth

100 Experience A Boot of the Hearth

Scale-able

+3 DEFTNESS (+6)

+2 to Stealth (+4)

+2 feet of running (+4)

2 of 6 in set

+20% Experience

x2 to set item stats

Smiling I put on the boots then ran to my hovel to pick up the pelts first. Then headed back to the merchant. “I have some pelts to sell or trade,” I said breathless, laying out the rabbits pelt and the wolves pelt.

“Hmm, two silver each for the wolves pelt and one silver for the whole lot on the rabbits,” he said stroking his beard and seeing a gleam in his eyes for a second on the rabbit skins.

“Six silver on the wolves and silver each on the rabbits' skin.” I counter back hoping I not being snooker.

“Don’t know I can go one silver on each rabbit they are everywhere? Five silver for the lot, and five silver on the wolves.” shaking his head slowly.

Looking as if I was in deep thought nodding my head I look at the trader and said. “I take the wood ax, wet stone, the mining pick, and the book on the air magic. I will throw in ten fried wolf steaks, for the rabbits' pelts. ” Pulling out a grilled wolf steak, seeing him licking his lips after seeing the steak.

“Deal!” he said.

“What are those?” pointing at some hinges and looking over at him.

“Some large hinges, they weight a lot got stuck with them last year 20 gold for the pair and the bolts for it.”

“Would you take fifty rabbits fur on your next trip?”

“Seventy-five”

“Seventy-five if you add that bag of nails,” I said.

“Make it eighty, and I add the bag of nails and a bag of magic marble that a Haltija trades me for a small keg of highland dwarves brandy. The biggest mistake I ever made, Had them five years, The little Dung eater said they are for a sling. There are red, blue, white, and black.”

“Deal, I have your rabbit fur here when you get back,” shaking his hand. “What is a Haltija?”

Quest: Rabbit skin for debt. You must kill 75 north slope rabbits to pay for hinges by next time he arrives 6 to 8 months.

Do you accept?

“I can do that.” Accepting yes to the quest.

“A Haltija is one of the little people they stand about knee high. They look mostly human except for the elfish ears and the large eyes. They are a bit nervous around us big folk,” he said. “They tend to protect the area and fixing stuff. more a nuisance they tend to break things and get into trouble drinking.”

Dumping the slime cube in the outhouse pit, I threw some rabbit meat into feed it in case it not like shit and inspect it.

Slime Cube

Level one

Health 10/10

“So what makes the rabbit's fur so great?” I ask. As we lead the wagon back to the road.

He grins. “You caught that. Well, I had to try. A coat, a hat, a pair of pants or a pair of boots made from North Slope Rabbits allows a person to be warm in extreme cold. A coat sells for about fifty gold.

“Good thing I don’t make coats,” grinning at him, “yet.”

Shaking my hand “I need to get to the next wayside I should get there by sunset.”

“Wayside?” I inquire.

“Yeah, there are usually one ever ten miles or so. Most of them been overgrown or destroyed on this route. It is a haven with minor protection spells from nonintelligent monsters. I will be back through here in about seven months, there a wagon or two that pass through here every month. Hanson family will be passing through here during the late summer to pick up potatoes out east to haul back. They carry clothes, cloth, and canvas to the east ports and towns. If you build a wayside here, you might get them to stop.”

Quest: Build a wayside to attract merchants.

500 Experience when the first merchant stops at your wayside.

Thinking wow five hundred experience. “You wouldn’t happen to know what the smoke was to the east yesterday?”

He was nervously looking around. “Yeah, goblins. Lots of them look like a tribe was heading northeast toward Granite Mountain. I saw women and children with them. Something seems to have pushed them out of the Forlorn Swamp.”

“How they get over the Granite mountain?”

They’re not. There is an abandoned Granite quarry about fifty miles that way.” Pointing to the northeast at a mountain in the mountain range. It is about three miles east of Granite Creek along the mountain cliff side.

“So if that’s Granite Creek what is the name of that creek?” Pointing to the west.

“Fall Creek there several falls along that creek that goes back fifty or so miles to a massive fall.” pointing to the northwest. "Never seen them so not sure if it true except for that falls north of the road. Before I forget, this here road is called The Old North Road. Extremely dangerous only a fool or a merchant travel it.” he said grinning. “And if you do head up to that big falls be very careful there suppose to be a small town and a castle nestle near the falls. Full of the undead.”

Saying my goodbye, I loaded my backpack and carried the pick and ax back to the hovel and checking on the cube seeing that it has already started slowly dissolving the rabbit. Taking the wood ax and cut down three more trees by the creek. Looking around seeing that all the big trees to the west side of the Hearth Tree are all cut down. Looks to be about fifty good size trees on the west side near Granite Creek. Cutting the log to the size of the door and window I needed before splitting them into boards. Climbing back into my hovel, and cook some rabbit. After eating a rabbit, I check on the book on air magic.

Do you wish to learn Air Magic? Yes/No?

“Yes!” I said with joy.

The book glows and started flipping the pages as a feeling of power in my belly grew and I started to glow all over. The book faded away.

You have learned Air Magic!

You have learned the spell Gust of Wind! Gust of Wind

A cone of air from caster out to 50 ft x level. All targets in the cone must make a Might check - level in caster or be pushed back 3 ft per level of the caster.

Cost 10 mana per use vs. target

Cast upon a boat, a boat can travel times your level in knots to a max of 12 knots.

Cost 10 mana per hour on boat concentration required.

All Air magic cost double mana due to earth affinity.

Reading an earth elemental scroll, it fades away as I started glowing.

You learn Earth Elemental spell

An earth elemental can be summoned until dead or release. 20 mana required to summon one.

Summoning the elemental with a shit eating grin on my face, “TELLUS ELEMENTUM!”

The spell created a two-foot-high dirt humanoid elemental. I end up spending a few minutes of pointing where to go and telling it to stop, then go, and jump. I felt like a little kid, when I told it to dig a hole ten by ten foot by ten foot deep it took it about fifteen minutes. Then I make it dig its way out to get out, but I had a big pile of dirt that could be used to level out some ground. It is going to make future projects a lot easier to do. It took one trip to bring the hinges back using the elemental. I then spend a couple of hours to make more boards and carry them back to the tower. That night no skeletons came close to the tower, so I went to bed.

Doing an Inspect of the elemental stats

Earth Elemental

Might 10

Health 10

Defense 10

Move one mph

Dig four cubic feet of dirt per minute

Carry 100 lbs.

I grin with delight.

Name: Jack Stonewright

Race: Steppe Dwarf

Class: Builder/ Mage

Level: 1 (200/500) (200/500)

+ 25% experience

17 MIGHT: 11(+6)

21 DEFTNESS: 11(+10)

11 FORTITUDE:

10 MIND:

10 JUDGEMENT:

10 CHARM:

10 PIETY:

40 MANA: (MIND + MIND X LEVEL) 10 +(10 mana item x 2 to item set = 20)

Mana Regen. 10/ hour

+ 2 (4) to running.

22 Health: (MIGHT + FORT + ( level * 10)

1 Blunt weapons

1 Back-stab

1 Builder craft

1 Woodcraft

1 Stone craft

1 Cooking

1 Inspect

1 Light armor

1 Mage craft

1 Earth

1 Fire

1 Air

3 Stealth 1+2

Spells:

Stonewall, Detect Minerals, Dig, Fling Stone and Earth Elemental.

Flare, Burning Shield, Ring of Fire and Detect Heat.

Gust of Wind