Earth

Gatineau Park Dungeon, Quebec

August 12, 2019

11:41 EDT

While the first level was fairly well lit, the second was in complete darkness. Luckily, we came prepared and each of us carried a few light globes. Light globes are clear crystalline spheres that light up when you channel mana into them. They’re quite durable, so you can channel mana into them and then throw them to light up an area. Or drop them at your feet if you’re under attack. A fully charged light globe can stay active for around ten minutes before needing to be recharged.

We lit up our light globes and didn’t make it more than ten feet before seeing signs of what we would be facing on this level. The walls were covered in spider webs. We continued on and a couple of minutes later came across a massive chamber. I wanted to see what we were getting into.

“Charge up your light globes and throw them around the chamber.”

Each of us threw a light globe around the chamber, and as they flew we could see the room take shape. It was oval shaped and was even more covered in webs than the tunnel leading here was. All around the room I could see holes in the webbing that reminded me of funnel webs I had seen when growing up. They were usually found in grass and were wide at one end, and narrower in the other, similar to a funnel. After making the web, the spider would wait at the narrow end waiting for prey to wander into the opposite end. When they felt prey walking on their web, they would strike.

Thankfully the ceiling was bare, so we wouldn’t have to worry about spiders dropping on top of us. The funnels stopped about halfway up the wall, but there were a lot of them. In the center of the room, there was a funnel web that dwarfed the ones around the room. I didn’t see any other large openings around the room, so the tunnel to the third level is probably through there.

“Looks like we’re dealing with funnel web spiders. If I were a betting man, I’d bet that we’ll find the third level under that huge funnel in the middle,” I said, pointing at it. “Everyone ready?”

“Let’s go. The sooner we get through this level, the better. I hate spiders,” Anja complained. Everyone else was ready so we got started.

“Alright, let's see if we can’t bait a bunch of spiders out into the open. I’ll take this side, and you take the other side, Mace. Anja, Sonja, keep an eye out. Make sure nothing comes up behind us. Anja, use Stealth if you need to, I doubt we’ll need Precognition in this room.”

Stealth is the other skill Anja learned during her evaluation. It allows her to blend into the shadows, making it harder for things to perceive her. She used the ability a few times in the first level of the dungeon, and unless you were looking for her, you couldn’t see her. It drains mana while active, but she can maintain it for a good 60 seconds or so at a time. As she gets stronger, she’ll be able to maintain it even longer.

Mason and I slowly inched forward. We were walking on a floor of solid rock, but there were webs attached to it at various points When I was directly in front of one of the funnels, I turned my shield towards it, ready to block an attack from a spider. I used the blunt end of my spear and ran it along the strands of silk and a large dog-sized spider shot out of the funnel. I managed to spin my spear around in time, causing it to impale itself on it, the spear going right through it’s cephalothorax.

It screeched as it died, and that seemed to signal the rest of the spiders to come out of their funnels and attack. Mason saw an opportunity to leap in to a bunch of grouped up spiders, so he took it. When he landed, blood and spider parts went flying around him.

I put my booted foot on the spider I killed and yanked my spear free. Just before it came free, I saw a spider leaping towards me out of the corner of my eye. Before I could react, I felt the fletching of an arrow brush the back of my head and pierce the spider between the eyes, killing it instantly. It was still flying through the air, so I had to raise my shield to block it. It hit the shield and fell to the ground.

I gave Sonja a quick nod and looked for the closest spider. I saw one and used Barbed Spear. My spear doubled in length and impaled the spider. My aim was off, so I hit its abdomen rather than its thorax. I pulled on the spear and it shortened to its regular length, pulling the spider along with it. When it got close, I stepped forward and used Shield Bash, stunning it and doing a small amount of damage. Taking advantage of the stun, I yanked my spear free and pierced it through its head.

It took us a few minutes to clean up all the spiders and allowed us to test our skills some more. Sonja was especially good at killing them, either with her bow or her katana. One of the skills she got is a toggled ability called Windblade. While toggled, it allows her to project her melee attacks forward as sharp blades of wind. The blades dissipate after about 30 feet, but they easily cut through swathes of spiders. As long as one of us wasn’t in the way, she was even better than Mason at killing them.

It seemed like we weren’t going to be attacked by the floor boss of this level right away, so we walked around the room picking up all the mana crystal shards. We got about 43 total, which means we killed 43 in spiders. Every creature killed in a dungeon is guaranteed to drop a Mana Crystal Shard, Mana Gem or Mana Crystal. Regular dungeon creatures, like the bats, wolves and spiders that are killed drop Mana Crystal Shards, floor bosses drop Mana Gems, and dungeon bosses drop Mana Crystals. The shards that we’ve collected are only used in enchantments when they’re ground up into a powder. 20 of these ones sell for about 1 credit, which isn’t a whole lot, though there are higher quality ones that sell for a whole lot more. The mana gem on the other hand, will probably sell for 10 credits, depending on how much mana it can store. Mana Gems are usually used in jewelry or in other equipment to allow people to store a greater amount of mana. Whenever they’re full on mana, they can transfer it to a Mana Gem for use later on.

Mana Crystals are larger than Mana Gems, and are much more expensive. They’re usually used in machines that are built to draw in ambient mana, or allow the user to channel mana into them to power said machinery. You’ll often find them in cars and generators, acting like rechargeable batteries. They can also be cut up into smaller pieces, though they tend to lose some of their efficiency.

Mana gemmed equipment would be particularly good for Ben and Anja, since they both use a lot of mana. Ben with his Auras, and Anja with Precognition and Stealth. If they ran out of mana in combat, they could siphon power from a mana gem to replenish a bit of mana and continue using their skills.

We took a few minutes so everyone could regenerate all their mana. When everyone was ready, I channeled mana into two more light globes. I threw one about 20 feet in front of the large funnel in the ground in front of us. The spider didn’t come out of its hole, so I threw the other globe into the funnel. That got its attention and it barreled out.

tI started running at it with Mason and Anja following close by. When I got within about 20 feet, I used Barbed Spear to get greater reach and impaled the spider’s thorax. I pulled on it which launched me at the spider. It had some pretty nasty fangs and looked like it wanted to bite me. I wasn’t going to give it the chance. When I got in range, I used Shield Bash to stun it.

Rather than take the time to pull my spear free, I let it go and took my xiphos out of its scabbard. I hacked at the spider’s front left leg but was surprised when I didn’t go right through it. The spider didn’t like that one bit and tried biting me again. I blocked its attempt with my shield and gave its front left leg another hack. This time it cut right through and the spider screeched in pain.

The spider reared up on its back four legs and used its three remaining front legs to try to knock me over. I fell to one knee while staying under my shield and was amazed to see that the leg I had severed was slowly regenerating. Everyone else wasn’t idle at this point. Sonja was peppering it with arrows and Mason and Anja were attacking its body. Compared to the other spiders which were quite weak, this one had a very durable carapace.

“Ben, activate Aura of Flame. Mace, Anja, go for it’s legs!” I shouted.

I doubted it would be able to regenerate a leg if the end was cauterized, and this was our opportunity to find out. The ends of our weapons caught fire. Mace must have hurt it which cause it to turn towards him. I got up and hacked at another of its legs. I was also amazed to see that the blade of my spear that was still stuck in the spider’s carapace had caught on fire too. We had each managed to cut off one of its legs while we were affected by Aura of Flame. It now only had four healthy legs left and was struggling to stay standing.

Anja decided to try to finish the fight. She put away her katana and drew her stilettos. She jumped up on the spider causing it to collapse on the floor, unable to lift its own weight and that of Anja on, only four legs. Anja proceeded to stab the spider anywhere she could, which wasn’t easy with the thrashing it was doing trying to force her off it. Mason and I continued to hack at its body while Sonja peppered it with arrows whenever she had an opening. Eventually it stopped thrashing, laboring to move. Anja moved up its thorax and thrust her stilettos through its eyes and into its brain, finally killing it.

She climbed off the corpse of the dead spider as it started to disappear, being absorbed back into the dungeon. Anja picked up the mana gem and we all spread out to pick up all the light globes. It took us a few minutes to find all of them, since by now some had lost power, and some got kicked around during all the fighting. Once we retrieved them all, we walked into the funnel the floor boss came out of, which was conveniently lit up by the light globe I threw in there to get the spider’s attention. I picked it up and we walked through a short tunnel leading to some stairs. When we arrived at the bottom of the stairs, another waygate lit up, saving our progress.

None of us had leveled on that floor since there weren’t nearly as many monsters as the first one. We did do a lot of fighting, so we did take a short break to take another drink and grab a snack. It is important to stay hydrated, after all.

We continued on after our break and could easily detect a change in humidity on this level. It was also noticeably warmer, though still just as dark as the previous level, which meant the light globes were staying out. We walked through the winding tunnel for quite a while before it finally opened into a small chamber. Curled up on the ground were a small number of massively overgrown snakes. Judging by the color and pattern, and my limited knowledge of snakes, I thought they were Black Rat Snakes. With them being curled up, I couldn’t guess at how long they were, but they were definitely big enough to swallow a human whole, after constricting them to death.

Unfortunately the light caused them to stir, not giving us any time to plan. I dropped my light globe over to the side and slowly moved in with my shield out in front, and my spear at the ready. As if I passed some sort of invisible line, the closest snake suddenly shot forward. I raised my shield to block it, but the force threw me back a couple of feet. It did allow both Mason and Anja to sever its head with their combined efforts, leaving two snakes.

Sonja was firing arrows at the one in the back, which kept it focused on her, allowing the rest of us to deal with the other one. I led the way to see if this snake would do the same thing. Apparently it wasn’t going to take the bait and it tried circling us instead. I kept my shield facing its head and the others stayed behind me, waiting for it to strike. It seemed content to just circle us and then I realized what it was doing. I used Barbed Spear followed by Shield Bash to stun it.

Seeing me move in, Ben activated Aura of Flame, and Mason and Anja took advantage of it being stunned. I pulled out my xiphos and hacked at it. It tried to constrict Ben and myself, but we managed to sever it in a number of places before it could do any damage. I looked over to see how Sonja was doing and was surprised to see a gory mass of flesh and bones rather than a large snake. She had her katana in her hand, so it appears that Windblade made short work of it.

We picked up the mana crystal shards and continued on. There were seven more rooms to go through before we reached the floor boss. The amount of snakes in each room varied, but we didn’t have any trouble. All they could really do is strike and try to constrict. The first I could easily block with my shield, even if it did tend to send me flying more often than not. The second was just situational awareness.

It took us ten minutes or so of walking before we finally arrived at the chamber with the floor boss in it. It was very dark, so we all threw our light globes to see if we could get an idea of its layout. Unfortunately, the room was a lot bigger than the spider chamber on the previous floor as the furthest light globe didn’t go more than halfway across the room. What we could see, however, is a ten foot wide bridge made out of stone, that crosses over a pretty big body of water. If this level continued on with the pattern of the other levels, where the floor boss was a bigger version of regular creatures, then we were facing a snake. With the amount of water in this room, and only one way to cross, I’m guessing a water snake.

I lit up two more light globes and handed them to Mace, one at a time. “Hey Mace, throw these as far as you can on either side of the bridge.”

“Got it.”

His throws went a lot further than I was expecting them to, but I guess that is a result of his perks. He threw them hard enough for them to bounce off the back wall of the chamber and land in the water. Still, they did the job and allowed us to see the room a lot better. I didn’t see anything move when he threw the globes, so I figured the snake was submerged under water.

“Alright. So far, on the previous two levels, the boss has always been a tougher version of the monsters we killed to get to it. If it stays the same on this level, then we’re facing a snake. I’m thinking it’s a different species though, with all that water. Maybe a water snake that will strike from the water and try to grab one of us.”

“Here’s how I want to play this. I’m going to be out in front. Ben, I want you about ten feet directly behind me. Anja, you’ll be right behind Ben, and Sonja will be right behind you. Mace, you’ll be covering the rear. Anja, I want you to try pulsing Precognition every two seconds as we cross. If it works how I hope it does, you’ll be able to double the amount of time it will be active. Hopefully it will target me first allowing you guys to kill it.”

“Are you all ready?” I asked, looking at each of them.

“Ready,” the twins answered.

“Let’s do this.”

“Yup.”

“Alright, let’s go.”

I put my spear in my dimensional storage and drew my xiphos. I figured the spear would be more of a detriment than a help for this fight. I started walking slowly across the bridge, listening for any sign of the snake. I was hoping it would attack early on, since Anja would probably see it coming with Precognition. As we moved across, she would be limited to one second pulses after six seconds of regenerating enough mana. As I reached the halfway point, I hadn’t heard anything and Anja hadn’t called anything out.

Suddenly, I heard, “Above us!” I turned around as Ben collided with me. I managed to keep us both standing, and saw a massive snake hanging from the ceiling. It looked like Anja had seen it coming with one of her pulses of Precognition and pushed Ben out of the way.

“Activate Aura of Flame, Ben!” I yelled, as I moved around him. Sonja was already shooting arrows at it as quickly as she could, and Mace was closing the distance. The snake had impacted the stone bridge with the force of its strike, causing it to be dazed for a few seconds. It quickly recovered and chose a new target, me. I tried bracing myself against the strike but it was futile. The strike hit me with enough force to launch me off the bridge and into the water. Thankfully the bridge was only a foot or so above the water line, so I would be able to climb back up.

As I swam, I saw that Anja now had its attention, and she was doing a fairly good job dodging its strikes. It had a large amount of arrows sticking out of its body, and I could also see a couple of large gashes from wherever Mace was able to hit it. I climbed up onto the bridge and sheathed my xiphos, deciding to go back to my spear. I ran forward and used Barbed Spear, followed by Shield Bash to close the distance and reduce any natural regeneration it might have. I was able to get its attention again. It tried striking me again, but I was able to dodge it completely. The injuries it had sustained were slowing it down.

“Sonja, try Windblade!”

I saw her nod and her bow disappeared. She drew her katana and went through some elaborate strikes, each one sending a blade of wind flying towards the snake. The snake hissed out in pain and tried to strike me one last time. I crouched down, wedging my spear against the stone surface of the bridge and held my shield up in front of me. When it struck, it caused the blade of my spear to penetrate the roof of its mouth. I got knocked over, but didn’t go flying this time. I looked up and quickly scrambled out of the way as I saw a mass of snake falling from the ceiling. The bridge shook slightly and we all got splashed when its tail hit the water. Luckily none of us got hit when it fell. After a minute, the corpse started disintegrating and I picked up the mana gem it left behind. Since I was already wet from being knocked in earlier, I swam around the room picking up the light globes that had fallen in the water as well.

I leveled earlier on this floor, but everyone else managed to level when the floor boss died. We took another short break so everyone could spend their attribute points and get a drink, and then we continued.

“I guess we should’ve looked up, huh?”

Nedovis

Nedovis Space Station

05:25 Scyftan Empire Time (13:25 Eastern Daylight Time)

August 13, 12610 (August 12, 2019)

The man was sitting in a dark corner of the tavern, taking the occasional drink of his Scyftan ale. Periodically, a waitress would bring him a new one and take the empty mug back with her. He always came to this tavern when he was between jobs, which happened a lot lately. It seemed like the Emperor called on him less and less these days, which greatly angered the man. He had no other way to vent his anger, so he drank.

Xorin Nydror was a very high level bounty hunter now, but fourteen hundred and twenty-one years ago, he had been a member of a prestigious group called Spectres. He was tasked with protecting King Derech Kidravia’s wife, Zandra Kidravia. He got a call one day from a man who put his wife and daughter on the phone. They were crying and told him that men broke into their home and kidnapped them. They pleaded with him to come and get them but he had no idea where they were.

The man came back on the phone and told him that if he did not cooperate, the next time he saw his wife and daughter, they would be in pieces. The man on the phone wanted him to meet with his people to help devise a plan to assassinate the King, Queen, and their young son. They wanted him to help execute a coup. It was impressed upon him that if he did not go along with their plan, his wife and daughter would die.

He did what they asked, meeting with his people and devising plans. He stalled as much as possible while trying to find the location of his family. The man on the end of the phone had given him access to a camera so he could check up on his family, but no matter what he did, he couldn’t follow it back to its source.

Eventually the day came when the man on the phone was tired of waiting, and his people had told him the plan was as good as it was going to get. On March 22, 11189, he killed three of his fellow Spectres, one of them being his best friend, as well as the King and Queen as they were being escorted to their bedroom.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on the person’s perspective, Xorin failed to complete his task of eliminating the entire family. The rest of the Spectres had been able to hold him off and escape the planet, and the system. Even the planetary weapons platform he had acquired control of wasn’t able to prevent their escape, one of the ships having jinked out of the way just in time. Before the weapons platform could fire again, they made the jump to hyperspace, both ships going in different directions.

The man on the phone, who he later learned was Kaldrus Dhir, was Derech Kidravia’s longest rival and competitor. He wanted the King and his family dead so he could assume leadership of the Scyftan people without anyone being able to oppose him. Kaldrus had been furious when he received news that the son had escaped. He didn’t know about the triplets, as those were kept a secret. Xorin certainly wasn’t going to let his enemy know. As a result he cut off Xorin’s access to the camera he used to see his family and would regain it after doing more jobs.

He eventually did regain access to the camera after assassinating various nuisances or making them disappear for the Emperor. The finish line kept getting placed further and further away over the years, and he doubted he would ever see his family in person again.

With Xorin’s help, Kaldrus’ takeover was nearly absolute. At the end of it there were no forces able to oppose him. There was the odd small faction that tried to eliminate him, but none of them came close. Kaldrus changed the structure of government from that of a Monarchy to that of an Empire which was highly oppressive. He had the King and Queen’s home demolished and an opulent mansion built on top of it. There were many different species that looked to Derech Kidravia and his family for leadership. When they found out what Kaldrus did, the vast majority of them left the Kingdom, many of them forming alliances to be able to defend themselves, should Kaldrus attack. They wouldn’t attack Scyftan worlds if left alone, but they would destroy any Scyftan military vessels that tried to enter their borders.

This enraged Kaldrus almost as much as when the son’s caretakers had managed to escape with him. He ordered a large portion of the Scyftan fleet to invade the worlds closest to the Scyftan Empire, only for them to retreat with their tails between their legs. It seems many of the species signed Mutual Defense Treaties, and when the Scyftan fleet attacked, they followed through on it. The Scyftan fleet suffered over 50% casualties, while the allied fleet lost fewer than 10% of their overall force.

Where the Kingdom under Derech Kidravia was strong, the Empire under Kaldrus was impotent. Over time, old enemies that wouldn’t dare attack the Kingdom grew bolder and started invading border worlds. That sparked off a war that has lasted over a thousand years with neither side being able to push the other back.

The Emperor practically begged some of the old Kingdom’s allies only to be laughed at. They had grown powerful in their own right since the coup, and the only way they would step in is if the Emperor was dead or gave up leadership of the Scyftan people. Neither of those was likely to happen anytime soon.

Xorin was taking a drink of his ale when his communication chip located behind his left ear let him know he had a call. He put down his drink and tapped behind is ear to answer it. “What?” he demanded.

“Well now, that’s no way to greet an old friend.” the voice said.

“You were never, and will never be my friend. What. Do. You. Want?”

“My, my. Someone sure is testy today. I, myself have recently received the best news I’ve heard in years. It may have some implications for you as well. Would you like to hear it?”

“What is it? Is The Confederation finally giving up this pointless war?”

“As much as I would like that, no. This is something better. You know that I have had ships scouring for Joruth Kidravia for the past fourteen hundred years. Well, one of them finally seems to have found a lead.”

Xorin perked up at hearing this and he listened more intently as Kaldrus Dhir continued.

“It seems that your former associates spirited him away to a primitive planet called Earth. He was detected when he went through some sort of evaluation upon turning eighteen years old. It appears he had been kept in stasis for over fourteen hundred years, and only awakened in the last fifteen.”

“I directed the ship that found him to Earth. They will arrive in six months with orders to kill him by any means necessary. If that means glassing the planet, so be it. If you are able to kill him before that ship arrives in orbit, I will finally release your family to you. I had a gift left on your ship, as a gesture of good will. It will be a long journey with your ship, I suggest you get moving.”

Xorin slammed some credits on the table and ran faster than he had in years. He had to push people out of the way, but he made it to his ship a few minutes later. He input the code to unlock the door of his ship and ran inside. He searched his ship and found someone lying on his bed. He rushed over and found that it was his wife. He rejoiced at finally being able to feel her, both mentally and physically. It was only tempered by the fact that his daughter was not with them. He gently ran his fingers through her hair and hummed a song he knew she loved, sending it to her through Mindspeak.

She soon began to stir before opening her eyes and scrambling back, screaming.

“Shh. Shh, it’s me, Xorin,” he said soothingly. He sent in Mindspeak as well.

“Xorin? Is it really you?”

He nodded, “Yes, my love.”

She jumped forward, hugging him as hard as she could, both of them crying.

“Zindra!” she sobbed. “He still has Zindra!”

“He has given me one more job to do. If I complete it, he will release our daughter to us. We will finally be reunited, after so long.”

They stayed there embraced on his bed. Eventually they both fell asleep, but his phone ringing woke him up again. He checked the time, finding he had slept for nearly two hours. He answered the phone and learned that Kaldrus had sent him some supplies. There was a group of four guys ready to load cargo on to his ship. He went down to the cargo hold and checked the cameras mounted outside the door before opening it. The crew quickly deposited their cargo and departed. He opened the crates and found a huge supply of food and water, to go with the reserves already stocked on his ship. There was also a couple of sets of old Spectre armor that looked like they were brand new, and a wide assortment of weapons to go with them.

He gently woke up his wife, [My love, we need to go. Do you need anything before we leave?]

[Our daughter.]

[I can’t do that just yet. Come with me to the bridge. You’ll be my co-pilot.]

[I don’t want to get up. This is the most comfortable bed I have slept in, in years.]

[Very well. Are you sure you don’t need anything before we go? It’s a six month trip to where we’re going.]

[I’m fine. I want to get some more sleep.]

[Okay. The bathroom is through the door at the end of the bed if you need it. Let me know when you’re up, we’ll have dinner.]

[Mmm..k]

Xorin kissed his wife on the cheek and then made his way to the bridge. He contacted the space station’s flight control so he could depart. Once he had left the space station and cleared the gravity well, he plotted his course and engaged the hyperdrive. He had six months to formulate his plans. One thing was for certain. He wasn’t going to kill Jonuth Kidravia. He doubted he would be able to come close, especially if Zuni was assigned to protect him. No, he wouldn’t kill the young man. He would beg on his hands and knees for him to save his daughter. He would do anything he asked, as long as she was safe.