Lucia the Bard

Chapter 4

Turning around, Lucia saw one of the non-descript rats enlarging first into a were-rat and then into a human shape.

“Harcourt, the Rat King at your service Lady Bard,” the now fully human looking King said.

By now Rats had started to surge all around her ankles. If she had one of the touch suits or the pods, right now would have been distinctly unpleasant but with just the VR helm it barely registered.

“If you’re the Rat King, who is that on the throne?”

“Harise? He’s a great or great-great grandson of mine. Rat generations, even were-rat generations are much quicker than humans. Like many of my decedents he’s being tempered by the process of facing group after group of new adventurers being resurrected by friendly healers after each battle. Most groups of adventures win but the process gradually makes the ‘Rat King’ much tougher. When they get to that stage, they get a human form and can go out and start a new life on the surface. Many become adventurers. The reality though is that I’m the Rat King in this city, and no fresh group of adventures could come close to besting me. Maybe your current main party could take me, but even that would be tough for you.”

“You evidently know something about me,” said Lucia.

“My dear, the Bards provided me a good synopsis of you and your abilities, but I must say I was impressed in here. I don’t know if beguile is the word I would use yet, but I would say I’m ready to be. The singing was a good touch, and your fluid movements were beautifully executed. You obviously think outside the box and have a playstyle that is your own.”

“I’ve worked hard to have capabilities beyond others of my level,” confirmed Lucia.

“That you have my dear. What I really need to know, however, is how closely we mesh in other ways. First I should tell you that the rats of our fair city are often used in intelligence gathering. Some of this is for the council and I’m behind the scenes a shadow member of that body. We have friendly relations with the Bards and the Thieves Guild, have mixed relations with many of the merchants and generally poor relations with the controlling banking interests.”

“I say this,” continued Harcourt, “Because the things we know about you line up in many ways. While the rats get us good intelligence, we need more actual operatives. You are seen as an up and comer within the circles we move in.”

“So that whole, picking a random quest out of a bag thing was a ruse?” asked Lucia, feeling mildly perturbed.

“A minor manipulation my dear. For the mode of operation you prefer, you need groups like the rats and as many other sources of information you can build. So far you’ve been splitting time with your party enhancing your combat expertise in the wilderness and various dungeons and independently in the city, righting wrongs that you observe or hear about. As you add bard, the city quests will begin to be more multi-layered and difficult.”

“My main aim with bard is to balance my team better.” Lucia looked at the Rat King. He would be considered handsome by some and he wore clothes that, while not maybe fitting in with the city’s bankers was at least up to a reasonably well to do merchant.

“My dear your play style is already unique in many ways. Your capability as a cat burglar outstrips most who dedicate themselves to that path. Your skill with dagger and sword makes you a primary danger in a fight. Now you want to add a class that is notoriously difficult to master. Definitely someone to watch.” The rat king dropped his voice a notch. “I’m just wondering how up the food chain you will draw attention.”

Lucia didn’t know what to say to ‘beguile’ this King of the Rats as the quest required. “My lord of the rodents, what do you require to align your interest with my own.”

“Perhaps a little test. I want to dance with you my dear. Yet not as we would dance in another court, but a dance with our blades. Not anything that is going to hurt too much either. I want to see you dance as you might as a bard on the front lines instead of the back lines playing a pipe. If you can touch me before I get to 5 touches, we can consider ourselves aligned.”

Two of the were-rats brought out a rapier and buckle for the king, both of which looked to be of a good quality. Warming up he looked very proficient with them.

“So just a touch is all I need?” asked Lucia.

“Well, I expect you to be creative as well but technically yes.”

Lucia took out her saber and parrying dagger, both with basket guards to protect her hand. The rats were scurrying away from her in every direction to give them the room for the duel. Looking at Harcourt, she decided that he just looked like the epitome of a swashbuckler from a film a century old. Devilishly handsome, clothes of good quality but sweat stained and somewhat unclean, moving around fluidly as he warmed up. Then he started to do standing front and backflips, and she decided that this might be quite a challenge after all.

Lucia had a very fluid technique that she often used to get behind mobs with when with a party, striking from the shadows, if at all possible. Unless the mob had major physical damage resistances, she often out damaged their dedicated mage, Tallien. She had tested herself in the local arena, but it wasn’t what she played the game for. Al of which to say, she had no idea if she could meet this challenge.

One thing she had learned in-game training was fighting tactics. For her party, she was often called upon to come up with winning team strategies, sometimes in real time. Tactics were more direct, however. Her eyes looked at placement of columns that might be used in several ways, steps that led to slightly higher ground and depressions and missing bricks that might cause an opponent to stumble.

There were several feats that she had achieved with her levels in rogue and fighter. Mostly these were things that made here more deadly of a fighter. Most of her fighter feats had been picked to up her defense, including her last one with level 7.

Flawless Parry

Parry any one blow without fail

This does not work on special attacks at this level

Cooldown: 2 minutes

Mana: 20

On the other hand, most of her rogue abilities after the first level where she had to take pickpocket and lockpick, had been offensively oriented. Successful stealth allowed for allowed for definite critical strikes. Backstab, when paired with stealth could be so damaging that it shifted hate to her from the tank, so was best saved as a finishing move. Her most recent feat was deep lunge.

Deep Lunge

Extend the reach of a lunge by 3 extra feet

Critical strike 2x if attack is successful

Ignores any armor class added by weapons

Cooldown: 6 minutes

Mana: 60

The reality was that Lucia was standing in the middle of her empty living/dining room in her one-bedroom apartment. Motion capture cameras were arrayed around to capture her shifts in motion that would translate into much bigger motions in the game. She held in her hands the wands that represented a sword and a dagger in weight, also set up to be captured by the cameras. There was no room to employ her acrobatic and athletic moves. She had been tested on them at a specialized testing location in Charlotte, an hour from where she lived, and that had given her character access to the skills and a level, which she could then improve on either in game or by further testing. It was why she had the skill parkour, which normally was inaccessible to characters at her level. Again, though the parkour moves had been mapped into much smaller moves by her in reality. Many people took a while to learn to move fluidly in the game, something she had taken advantage of in the past.

That would not be the case with the Rat King. Fluidity described his movement, dance like and she could also make out his singing as well. His dance started to leave after images and Lucia became even more unsettled by the coming contest.

Lucia knew the skill he was using. It was called blink. It was one that could be used at various levels by a number of classes, but she was beginning to assume that the Rat King was some type of Bard.

“Will I need to get rid of your shadows before a hit is counted?” asked Lucia.

“Harcourt will accept you getting rid of two shadows or touching his real body once,” said the fake Rat King from the dais.

That told her some additional information. Some blinks required each of the fake reproductions to be touched before the real body could be attacked. Others would allow you a chance to pick up the very slight hesitation in the copied bodies to go after the actual one. Either way, blink shadows could be easily defeated by AOE attacks with enough radius. The fact that Harcourt knew she didn’t have any of those was a bit scary.

Looking at him warm up, Lucia began to see her visuals lose focus.

Daze effect Resisted

Lucia’s visuals rapidly came back into focus.

“Beginning a little early aren’t you?” she asked.

“Actually, trying to teach a lesson,” Harcourt answered while still spinning around. “Your low wisdom score makes you susceptible to mental influences. If you pass this test and become a bard, your charisma will then control your maximum mana and strength of magical attack, but your wisdom will still control your mana regeneration and resistances. You’re going to need to raise it if you want the most out of your new class.”

“There are always reasons to put precious ability score increases into categories. I’m hoping that all the work that a third class will bring will allow me better balance in my attributes as well.” Lucia hadn’t suffered much from her low wisdom at this point. Many moves that others would have to depend on special feats for, meaning requiring mana, such as parry and riposte, she could carry out based on her innate skill sets in real life. Her relatively high constitution, coupled with usually working with a skilled healer meant that she could take magical attacks without dying.

“Ready?” asked Harcourt.

“As, I’ll ever be,” replied Lucia.