Chapter 33

Trolls

Antic and Graul returned from the elves with eighteen billik leg arrows, and two silver and eighteen copper coins. The arrows were notched at the end, ready to take an arrowhead.

Guntrink was converting the second batch of iron ore into steel. He said he can produce about three pounds of steel per day, but it takes seven pounds of iron ore to make the three pounds of steel. Torger had traded with Strong Arm for twenty pounds of iron ore, half of the first shipment from Kirsk. Torger had to give up twenty bear skins, all fifteen cottol skins, and thirty silver coins for it. On top of that, he had no money to pay Guntrink for his labor, but Guntrink didn’t know that.

Torger watched his village grow for a week. The blacksmith had nine pounds of steel, enough to make one chest plate or shield, and Torger chose a shield for Graul. Guntrink was just putting on the final touches when another twenty pounds of iron ore arrived. Torger gave the porters a two ounce gold nugget to give to Strong Arm, the only gold he had.

The miners were rolling in the dough, keeping ninety percent of what they mined. All sixteen of them were bringing out a total of six pounds of nuggets per day, after the first three days of removing dirt and shoring up the ceiling. But ninety percent of what was left went to the other villagers who were running independent businesses or working for the village directly.

Torger had four cooks, three dishwashers, three farmers, two water carriers, and four road makers employed by the village, who got the majority of the gold. In private business there were two ale makers who were making a good living, a tavern owner with three barmaids, two weavers, a leather maker, and Guntrink and his assistant. Three old women had a business washing clothes.

There were three houses: the mayor’s house and two large common houses. The forty-six dwarves slept in the two common houses and Torger wanted to improve that, so he and his friends built a third stone house. It didn’t look as good as the other’s built by Stone Fist, but it was just as solid. Every single dwarf had a job, from the youngest to the oldest, and all but the miners got paid out of one budget depending on what Torger thought each one was worth. He was collecting a copper coin tax from every mug of ale sold, and a ten percent tax from the profit of each business, but he still didn’t have a single gold coin, and wouldn’t for a while.

The village ran smoothly for a month, until Torger completed a third common house and Guntrink had produced four steel chest plates. Torger grew impatient, and could wait no longer. Against his better judgment, he led the Regulators around the Sequoia elves and towards Yosemite.

Before they made it, they saw a California Grizzly. Jex took aim at the lone adult male, and shot her first billik leg arrow. Just as Torger had hoped, the steel arrowhead easily pierced the thick hide and the strong shaft didn’t splinter. The added Ice 1 spell did little additional damage, but the arrow pierced a lung. It ran towards them, and Graul held up his steel shield. But that turned out to not be necessary as Arden shot it with the shotgun. It stumbled, and another arrow from Jex pierced its brain.

They retrieved both arrows intact, and Arden still had forty-nine shots left. They would be okay against the trolls. They skinned the bear and set up camp. That night Graul took the first watch. Shortly after the sun went down he heard the familiar low moan. They had forgotten the lesser liches reformed after dark in the ashes each night!

He had no weapon at all, and quickly woke everyone up. As he was yelling, the apparition pointed at the ground and a hell hound rose out of the ashes. He cast Slow 1 at it and Shield 1 in front of himself, then he was out of mana. Thinking he was going to die, he spent his two unused ability points on more mana.

The otherworld dog ran at him and slammed into the magic shield, cracking it, suffered a mild electric shock that took off ten health, then ran into the magic shield again, shattering it. Graul could only keep his steel shield between himself and its fangs.

An arrow hit the dog in the side, and pellets ripped open the same side. The dog had a huge hole in its right side, but kept attacking. At the same time the lich hit Brun with a fear spell. That was bad since he was their strongest spell caster, and they could only hurt the lich with magic. Everyone else but Torger used their two unused ability points buying more mana. They all cast Lightning 1 at it twice, except Graul who was occupied with the dog and Brun who was curled up into a fetal position. It wasn’t enough to kill it, but it was hurt badly. It pointed to the ground and raised another hellhound, then disappeared.

Jex hit it twice with arrows, and Arden finished it with the shotgun, then turned and waited for Graul to try to disengage so he could get a clear shot. But Arden never got the chance. Jex finished it with a perfectly placed arrow to the eye.

As they began to settle down, the original lich returned, and it brought three friends. Torger yelled “Retreat!”

They all ran west to the elf border of Sequoia. When they came close they saw Lagwil and border guards fighting two other liches and two hellhounds. Jex and Arden shot the hellhounds while on the run, a difficult thing to do, but their high bow and gun skills allowed them to hit their marks. The elves abandoned the injured dogs and quickly killed the two liches with magic, while Jex and Arden shot again and again before the hellhounds died.

They all looked at each other, and knew they worked good as a team, but it wasn’t supposed to be that way. But no one had time to comment. The other four liches kept disappearing and rematerializing closer and closer to them. Antic had carried Brun for the run, and he was tired, but Brun was beginning to come out of his stupor. An elf muttered a few words, waved his hand and a light shone around Brun, then he stood up perfectly fine.

The four liches each summoned another hellhound, and Jex and Arden shot at them while Graul used his shield to keep one away. Brun and the elves cast rapid spells at the four liches, and they died before the hellhounds did. Brun heard a final shotgun blast, and the last hellhound died.

Lagwil looked at the group. “Come to our border where it is a little safer.”

They followed her and when they arrived she dismissed the other three elves. “It is foolish to travel near death without magical weapons. Yet it is partly our fault for not returning your belongings. But I cannot overrule the council. I could sell you a bow or two that has elemental magic, but you already have a bow like that. I cannot help you in that regard, but rest on the ground, and hope your tents are still there in the morning. We will watch over you.”

They didn’t sleep well, and found their tents and gear undisturbed at sunrise. They packed up camp and headed far to the north, well away from the ashes before setting up camp for another night. Nothing took place that night, and they made it to the Yosemite village late the next day. They were welcomed by Edina, and allowed to set up camp on the border, but she warned that liches attacked every night. Arden explained how he and Jex could handle the hellhounds if the elves took care of the liches. Edina was intrigued by the concept of elves and humans fighting side by side.

That night, just as discussed, Arden and Jex shot hellhounds while Graul blocked one with his steel round shield, and the others, along with the elves cast spells at the ghosts. When it was done Edina said she had no idea handling the attacks could be so easy, but was looking forward to the sprouts that were growing through the ashes to fully bloom and stop the liches from rising. She said they rise at night from dead things. Either a pile of bodies or a dead field of plants. The bigger the pile, the stronger the liches.

Torger told her about the dwarves attacking and killing goblins in their tunnels, and she said as long as they burned the bodies they would be OK. Torger hoped they had, but if not the tunnels by the Salton Sea could be filled with ghosts.

The next day they walked into the mountains to the east, and tracked down a cave with four trolls. Jex couldn’t see without her Bow of the Owl, and she and Antic were the only two without Analyze 1. She handed I.B. to Torger. He looked into the tunnel, and had a little trouble pulling back the bow since it had a ninety pound draw, but his aim was good enough to hit the troll closest to the cave mouth in the forearm. Arden had a much better shot, hitting the same troll in the chest.

Torger quickly handed the bow back to Jex and cast Lightning 1 at it. But the troll barely flinched. Rome had been checking, using Analyze 2, to see which spells were most effective. Antic cast Ice 1, and Graul cast Fire 1, but all three spells only took off seven damage points total. Rome thought trolls seemed to have a very high resistance to magic, so that must have been why elves didn’t want to hunt them. But when Brun cast Poison 1, Rome saw it had the full effect of cutting the troll’s max health in half. A shotgun blast to the face finished it off, but by then the other three of the family were running at them, two of them experiencing stomach problems from being infected with the flu, thanks to Brun casting Poison 1 at them.

Rome shouted out for Brun to cast poison one again, but everyone else should save their mana because it didn’t do much damage. The next time the spell hit, one of the three remaining trolls had been hit twice with Poison 1, but Rome saw there was no cumulative effect.

Graul blocked a big club swing with his steel shield. The wood club broke in the troll’s hand, and she looked at it with a stupid expression on her face, not comprehending what happened, until Arden removed her face with a shot. But the big swing still did damage. The shield slightly bent, and it broke Graul’s arm.

Jex and Arden took on the adolescents, while Antic volunteered to be their punching bag, and everyone else cast Cure 1 on Graul. The four spells mostly healed his arm, and once the two teenage trolls were dead, they cast Cure 1 on Antic, who was bruised head to toe.

The troll cave contained a red containment stone, most likely a Fire 1 spell. At this point no one had a whole lot of interest in it, but it could come in handy later. They returned to camp, and again that night killed four hellhounds while the elves killed four liches.

When the battle was over, Arden spoke to the group. “I’m out of ammo again. I need to go back to Strong Arm for more.”

Graul swore. “That stuff is expensive! Two ounces of gold nuggets for those fifty shots. I don’t know if the village has mined enough gold yet to buy more, and I doubt Strong Arm has made fifty more. He has his hands full.”

Torger considered their options. Without the shotgun, they wouldn’t beat more trolls. “We need our weapons and steel armor back. I guess we’ll have to buy them from Lagwil. But we don’t have enough money yet.”

As he was speaking, Edina and her elves returned. “I overheard you lack weapons. I’m sorry, we have none to provide you. At the same time, we need you to help us with the trolls. My elves are exhausted from fighting liches and hellhounds every night, and the trolls are coming closer to our borders. I’m afraid in another week, they may overrun us.” She looked at each person in the eyes before continuing. “Please. You must help us. Yiloding is offering a great reward for what we owe you, once you kill the trolls.”

Torger answered, “The council in Sequoia has decided the weapons were forfeit when we died attacking the leprechauns. We owe them too much gold for them to return our weapons on credit, and the two dwarf blacksmiths are already working as hard as they can.”

“How much money do you have? Perhaps we can loan you some items to trade with them.”

“I have silver and copper worth about three silver coins. I just spent some money on Jex’s arrows, and the mine is just starting to get into the big production. We have nothing of value to trade.”

After several seconds of awkward silence Rome said “Oh hell. I guess I should contribute to the cause.” He pulled out a leather pouch with nearly a pound and a half of silver ore.

Arden exclaimed “Where did you get that from?”

“Strong Arm and I had a deal. I was getting two percent of all the silver he made in Calico. Once he became mayor, that amount grew a lot. A messenger from him delivered this to me a couple weeks ago.”

Everyone had forgotten about his payment for completing a quest from Strong Arm. But Edina said “I’m sorry. Ore has no value to elves. We need finished metal, preferably in the form of arrowheads and staffs.”

Antic spoke up. “I guess if we’re all contributing towards the weapons, I should throw these into the mix.” As the supply chief, he was responsible for inventorying and protecting most of their collective valuables. He withdrew nine low level health and nine low level mana potions.

Torger asked “Where did you get those? And how come I didn’t know about it?”

“Our dwarf farmers, they started a side business. They’re employed by the village, you, to grow crops for food. And they do a great job of that. But they also grow plants used to make these potions, and sell them to one of the cooks who turns the plants into potions with her spare time. She gave me these on credit, in case things went bad and we had an emergency.”

Edina sniffed the potions with disdain. “They are inferior to what we elves make, but our supplies are out. They sell for one silver coin each, so eighteen silver coins. Thanks Antic, but you’re still well short of what you need. Elves and dwarves only drink each other’s potions in an extreme emergency. Rome, if you turn the silver ore into silver arrowheads, we could arrange something.”

Torger thought about it all. “Edina, our two mage’s first staffs were wood. Is that just a carved tree branch with a gem in the top? Could Graul and I carve staffs and they become magic amplifiers?”

“No. But it is a simple gem stone that is placed into a wood staff. We elves don’t need any wood staffs. You see I have a diamond staff, and most of the elves you have seen here carry silver ones, and we have a few gold staffs.”

“Yes, but that wasn’t what I was thinking. Would it be valuable to you if we helped kill the liches at night?”

After a few seconds she said “Normally, no. But I see the fatigue in our guard’s eyes from fighting every night. But you struggle to kill the hellhounds. How would you take on the liches?”

“I think Graul and I could manage to give you a night off, in four nights from now. Hopefully two nights off. What would that be worth to your village?”

“Not much, but we also don’t have much right now. I guess a night off would be worth a recurve bow.”

“How about a Bow of the Owl?”

“That would be a bit lopsided, you would have to do better than killing the liches and hellhounds for two nights.”

“OK we’ll see what we can do. Just one more question. Why do you keep killing the liches? Why not just move away from them?”

“You see how dangerous these lesser liches can be. They come from a big pile of death. If twenty Lesser Liches ever meet up, they will combine to form a Grand Lich. Even if we were to move, they would still rise every night, four at a time. So in five days they could form a Grand Lich.”

“Oh, that sounds bad. I’ll see what we can do to help you until the plants grow big enough to prevent them from rising.”

Torger sent Antic to run as fast as he could to Sonora and come back. His mission was to get Rome’s silver ore turned into silver arrowheads, collect any village gold nuggets and exchange them for anything of value to elves, and get all the weak gems from Baybil that he could.

For the next three days, the others tried to fight the hellhounds at night, but what ended up happening was the five men would cast a few spells then get mauled while Jex shot the beasts with arrows. Then they would cast Cure 1 on themselves for a couple of hours. During the day Torger and Graul each carved a club and a mage staff. They would break the clubs on the hellhounds that night before getting mauled.

When Antic returned on the fourth day, they had eight wood staffs. He brought no gems back with him, and beamed with pride when they started yelling at him. He reached into the duffle bag and pulled out Power Cord and Inferno.

Graul was nearly giddy with excitement. “How did you manage that?”

“Sorry Graul, and Torger, and everyone, I had to take a chance. On my way back I stopped to talk to Lagwil. I figured we didn’t need all of our old gear at once. I traded her three pearls, eight silver arrowheads, one topaz, and twelve low health and low mana potions. I got these two weapons back from them.”

Torger had mixed emotions. It was good two of them were better off, but it wasn’t what he was hoping for.

Antic saw his displeasure. “Don’t be disappointed. Guntrink has been busy.” Antic pulled out three sets of steel bracers and greaves. That cheered everyone up.

Torger, Graul, and Antic put on the extra armor. Graul picked up his shield and sword, attacking an imaginary hellhound. He shouted “Tonight’s gonna be different, bitches!”

Torger still had no sword. He picked up his club, and the one Graul was carving. He thought “At least tonight I’ll break two clubs on them instead of one, and the bracers should keep me from almost losing my arm again.”

Chapter 34

Morale

That night all seven Regulators walked into the ashes, with Lagwil and her team. As usual, an hour after dark they heard a low moan. But this night was different. They waited for the ghost to materialize near them, and cast a fear spell.

It took only a couple minutes for it to appear. Jex and the elves shot it with arrows, as they had so many times before, and it shrank before disappearing. They knew it was off healing somewhere, when as predicted, three more appeared. They got pummeled with magic arrows and spells, but raised three hellhounds before disappearing to go heal somewhere. The elves ran to track them down, and Antic and Graul ran at the dogs better equipped.

Antic thrust Power Cord down the throat of one, and he was running so fast he knocked the big dog backwards when he crashed into it. Graul blocked the first pounce with his shield, but instead of having a crude club to counter with, he was able to stab it in the side with Inferno. The Fire 1 spell did nothing against the creature from hell, but the lighting spell shocked its internal organs. After that, it became a big wrestling match, and none of the spell casters could get in a clean shot.

Another hellhound bounded at them from the tree line, summoned by the first lich to get injured and disappear. Torger saw Jex was shooting the other one, with Arden laying on his back trying to keep his face from getting eaten. Torger ran at the beast and swung a branch, breaking it over the dog’s head. But that night, he had a second branch, and was able to get it into the dog’s mouth before it bit him.

What Torger didn’t count on was that its bite was so strong it was able to regrip its bite then snap the branch. Like the other nights, Torger instinctively raised his arm to protect his face, but this time the beast bit metal instead of flesh. This time Torger didn’t have to see his arm get shredded then his bones crack. Before the dog bent the steel too much, Antic ran over and speared it through the side and into the heart.

The dog died instantly. Torger stood up and saw all four dogs were dead, and Jex had some arrows left in her quiver, and there was only need of a few Cure 1 spells. They had enough energy left to collect the spent arrows and go find the elves to help them. They arrived in time to see an elf cast a Lighting 2 spell at a small lich, about two feet tall, and the spell struck it and it disappeared.

Lagwil looked at them. “It looks like you still can’t give us a couple nights off, but you’re not all ground meat when we returned. I hope you can get enough rest tonight to go hunt trolls again tomorrow.”

They did get to bed a couple hours earlier, since they didn’t have to wait for their mana to recharge to stop the bleeding.

The next day they found a troll cave to the north again, and attacked. Everyone but Arden and Torger were in prime form. Arden felt useless without the shotgun, and Torger felt useless without Red Fury. They stayed in the back, casting spells, and hated watching Graul and Antic struggling to not get bashed in the head.

But Antic was able to drive his spear through papa troll’s thigh, and Graul left a deep cut in mama troll’s arm. Both men got punched in the face for their efforts, but it bought Jex the time she needed to hit the two teens in the eyes. She was getting good- four shots, four eyes pushed to the back of the brains. Brun’s Poison 1 spell made the battle much easier before it ever began, and with that cast he had finally dealt 1000 damage points with Poison 1, and learned Poison 2.

Poison 2 cost 24 mana, and he couldn’t wait to see what it did. But first they had to find their reward in the cave. They found a red containment stone, just like the other, probably holding Fire 1.

They returned to the elf village, and Torger found Lagwil. “I have eight wood staffs, and two of these containment stones. Could you put them into two of the staffs? I want to try something tonight.”

“Normally I would charge you for that, but if it damages the liches, it will help us.” She took two of the wood staffs, and the two containment stones away.

When Lagwil and her three helpers returned just before dark, she handed the magic staffs to Torger. “These will amplify a spell by ten percent, just like any wood staff, and will add fire damage to the spell.”

“Thanks, but that’s not exactly what I have in mind.”

An hour after dark the first lich appeared. As it was materializing, Torger ran at it as fast as he could and swung both staffs across his body in a scissors motion. Both staffs shattered, and the lich shrank to three feet. He ran away but was hit with a fear spell in the back. Before the lich could disappear, Lightning 1 spells from all ten remaining allies finished it off.

Lagwil said “That worked great, you humans really are crafty. Fighting three liches instead of four will be easier for us tonight, and you’ll only have to fight three hellhounds instead of four. But it’s an expensive way to do battle.” She waved her hand and a spell surrounded Torger, relieving him of the terrors of the fear spell.

Lagwil’s prediction was right: the fight that night was easier. They only had to fight three hellhounds. The next day, they again killed four trolls, and Brun was able to test Poison 2. It cast Chicken Pox instead of the flu, and added a small dose of snake venom. Like their fight with the queen goblin, the mild venom removed one health point every four seconds. Being on the giving end rather than the receiving end of the spell gave them a huge advantage in battle. Not only that, the spell struck three trolls instead of one troll. The trolls broke out in sores all over their bodies, and like the flu, their max health was cut in half. But Rome used Analyze 2 and saw their max stamina was also cut in half. But the humans were too busy trying to not die to be able to leave one troll alive. Rome was curious to see how much damage the venom would ultimately take off. If left alone, would the trolls die in a few hours? He hated not being able to find out the answer, when Antic’s spear pierced the heart of the last troll.

Each night the humans and elves worked together to kill four liches and four hellhounds, and each day the humans killed four trolls and recovered a Fire 1 containment stone. Every other night Torger would break two wood staffs on the first lich, and the fighting would be easier that night.

On the eighth day, they killed another four Trolls, and Torger saw his icon Notoriety/Quests begin flashing. After the intense fighting of the four trolls, they sat down for a breather and to cast several Cure 1’s, except Rome who had by then learned Cure 2, once he cured 1000 health points. Cure 2 replenished 20 health instead of ten, but cost 12 mana instead of 4. His silver staff amplified the cures by fifty per cent, and he had to cure 5000 health points to learn Cure 3.

Torger saw the expected message they had been waiting for all week.

Quest: Kill 30 Mountain Trolls within 5 miles of Yosemite Village (Elf)

Status: Complete.

Return to Edina to claim your reward.

Torger was thrilled along with all his friends. All the fighting had earned them each another four ability points, and they all had a strong itch to spend them all. But they agreed to wait until they were back at their home village near Sonora. Torger insisted they assessed their situation at home first, before spending the coveted points. Mainly, they were hoping Guntrink had completed armor and weapons for them all, and the village was rolling in the gold. But much had gone wrong in the year and a half they spent on Nuva, and they knew they couldn’t count on anything to run smoothly for long.

Edina was waiting for them at the border. It seemed odd to the humans that they fought alongside the elves every night, yet Torger was the only one allowed into the village, and that was only on two occasions. Understandably everyone was stunned when Edina made the announcement. She began, “Well done, all of you.”

She looked at Torger. “The original quest promised you a significant increase in love and respect points with this village. As you know, Yiloding changed the terms when we failed to provide you with a Bow of the Hawk and Bow of the Eagle, after you did the majority of the work in saving our village from fire. For that failure, we are embarrassed. Torger, you will need to come with me to receive your new reward. And Jex, please come along, and bring both of your bows.”

Jex didn’t know what to say or do. She wasn’t the mayor of dwarves, or the leader of the human group. She didn’t want either of those responsibilities. After three awkward seconds of her not moving a muscle, Arden playfully nudged her. “Go on babe. See what it’s like.”

Jex followed Torger, who followed Edina. Torger was still awed at seeing all the high catwalks, and all the holes dug under large tree stumps. But it was still eerie not seeing any elves, although he knew guards were watching them and families were working in the underground holes.

Jex didn’t have the same fear of heights as Torger, and finally felt more in place as she walked casually on the bridges twenty feet off the ground, while she watched Torger trying to put on a brave and manly expression while secretly clinging to the tall trees.

When they got to the hole in the trunk that led to the magic conference room, Jex was amazed as she watched Torger shrink from five and a half feet to just one foot as he walked through the opening. She followed, and felt no tingling or sensation at all, but knew she was magically shrunk to fit. All five village elders were there, and also Yiloding. Torger immediately noticed the two elves who had hated him for being a human when he first came there, now looked at him with reluctant acceptance. Not great, but a huge improvement.

When all were situated, Yiloding began speaking. “Torger, Liberator of the Dwarves, Mayor of Sonora, we welcome you. Today you will add a new title. I, Yiloding, tribal chief of the Pomo Elves, bequeath to you the title Protector of the Forests. You Torger, with the help of your friends, saved not one, but two elf villages from what could have turned into a catastrophic fire. You taught us new techniques to use when the next fire threatens our homes.

“Not only did you protect us from fire, of your own volition you have fought and killed four Lesser Liches and thirty-six hellhounds in the past nine nights. Your heroism and bravery has given our battered and weary guards much needed rest.

“As if that weren’t enough, you protected this village from trolls who were steadily moving closer to our lands, and that while we were in a weakened state. Torger, you and your friends are heroes to the Pomo Elves, and I name you allies to all Pomo villages.

“Yet in return, it is to my shame that we have been unable to reward you for your valiant efforts.”

All the elves looked at the ground and held back a tear as if their moms just died. Torger and Jex were given fifteen full seconds of silence to become unbearably uncomfortable. But neither one would dare move a muscle in that solemn moment. Finally, Yiloding continued.

“As my shame is great, so must my reward in compensation for such an ally also be great. Jex, please hand me both of your bows.”

She reluctantly complied after getting a nod from Torger. But she knew he had no idea what was going on either, and the nod was a “hoping for the best” reaction.

Yiloding handed both bows to the other female elf elder, who wasn’t Edina. She took them outside, and returned a couple minutes later reverently carrying a black velvet pouch. One of the elves who had at first strongly disliked Torger stood up and shouted “No!”

Yiloding shot him a withering stare and the elf mumbled an apology before sitting down again. Yiloding continued as if the unexpected outburst hadn’t happened. “No common bow must ever be in the presence of a Master Bow. There are very few Master Bows in Nuva, and we Pomo elves have been fortunate enough to have had one. Jex, you are nearing the point of becoming a master archer. You are now at level thirty-eight with bows, and when you hit level fifty, this bow will take on the aspects for you of all three high-bows.

“First, the Bow of the Owl allows you to see twice as clearly in the dark. Second, the Bow of the Hawk allows your shot to leave the string at twice the velocity. The impact on your prey will be very powerful. Third, the Bow of the Eagle will allow you to have twice the steadiness of hands. This will allow your accuracy to be twice as great. Once you reach level fifty in bows, as long as you are using this bow, you will be able to hit an apple at three hundred yards.

“As a Master Bow, this bow has been infused with three sapphires. Each arrow shot from this bow will carry with it the spells of lighting two, fire two, and ice two. Those spells are already effective at your current level.

“However, I have two severe warnings for you. As a Master Bow, this can only be loaned out. It can never be given. It is within my authority to loan this to you for two years. If it is ever lost or damaged, the devastation to our village would be horrible. Second, as a Master Bow, this one can never be in the presence of an inferior bow. It will lose some of its properties of magic each day one of your party carries another bow. Torger and Jex, you must know and understand this. No human, elf, dwarf, or goblin bow can be travelling together with you. This velvet case protects it from the harm of inferior makes, but please do not allow any harm to come to it. Finally, I present to you the only Bow of its kind, The Bow of Artemis the Huntress.”

He removed the velvet sack from the Bow. A highly polished bow of layered woods was a beautiful sight to behold. Torger saw it had overlapping ironwood, ash, walnut, and maple. The hard woods assured it had great strength and rigidity, but also a layered dark-light-dark-light of the woods was beautiful. For her part, Jex was expecting a recurve bow, maybe a long bow, and she was hoping for a compound bow Rambo style. The Bow of Artemis the Huntress looked nothing like 20th century drawings. It was a simple short bow, as depicted in ancient statues. The style of bow was unimpressive, and she didn’t understand the strength of woods and layering them together like Torger did, but she was immediately drawn to the string. It wasn’t string at all, it was braided nitinol. She knew what it what because of her hopes of working for NASA one day. A strong and flexible alloy made of nickel and titanium. It seemed absurd for her to see it on this bow that was allegedly thousands of years old.

She knew it would take the strength of a goddess to draw that bow, so she immediately put all five of her unused ability points into strength, bringing her to twenty-one. A small smile spread to her lips as she knew she was now stronger than Antic. She reverently accepted the Bow from Yiloding, and drew back the alloy string. It took all the strength she had, but nothing had ever felt more balanced or… perfect.