The constant creak and groan of the swaying trees was less dreadful than normal, having an escort did help. The pack leader of the hyena people stayed close to me making small talk while once in a while letting out a huff, a growl, or clicking her teeth. Her fellows would head out to search for any weird sounds, and come back from their scouting, sometimes with game for later.

The pack leader held out a paw and shook my hand, my wrist vanishing into her big mitt. “We never formally swapped info, did we?” After a moment she smiled. “Oh, I think we might get along just fine, I like allies that can make a fight exciting.”

Zula, Level 9 Pack Leader Shaman, ‘Yipper’ Ringed Hyaenarian

The pack leader wiggled a finger in the air as she ducked under another branch ladened with moisture. “So yeah, if you look at my talent called Dream Speaker, you can see some of the things it does. Not really worth the seven skill points if you ask me…”

I hummed in acknowledgement only half reading the entry as we tried to navigate back onto a trail to make it home. We made quite the ruckus as a group between us and the dwarves. Bits of metal jingled as Bent had loosened his armour to cool off after the fight and sounded like a rattling rack of tin cans. The dwarves were jovial, swapping tales with Sten in their native tongue, their voices becoming louder by the minute.

Rare Talent

Pack Leader - Dream Speaker

-At a place of power you can enter a trance, communing in a dream-like state with benefactors tied to the place of power. This can be at an altar and with a god's followers, or a spot of wild magic and mages who draw power from it.

-Can be used for up to seven days after visiting such a location.

-You can use your own memories, or that of another with you.

…

There was a little more to it, and I logged it away for later, electing to keep my head up less I get freezing pine needles down my hood again. The thin hyena girl who was their spell caster came up behind him, so silent on her feet I jumped at her sudden appearance. Clutched in her paw was her talisman, and one of the runes the forest stalker had used on their arrows.

“I hate to be a bother Mavester Josh, but I noticed your sword had some damage to its aura around the blade. You might be able to salvage a few of these to help you repair it,” she said. She lifted up a loose burlap sack, a few of the stones clinking together inside.

The yippers had an odd way of saying ‘mister’ as well as a few other terms I had noticed. A neat cultural quirk. As the magical rune stone was placed in my hand I turned it over, seeing cold blue light spill between my fingers. The rune stones the forest stalkers had were made of a mineral called mica forming layers of rock sheets. My knowledge trait kicked in, identifying it for me.

Frost rune - Burst

When this rune is exposed to a magical formula it adds an additional effect, adding 1 to 4 cold damage to the triggering ability.

“This looks familiar,” I said, turning it around. I pulled on the crossguard of my sword, and sure enough on the fuller with the original enchantments, I could see a similar, but more fancier version of the writing. I held the rune close using the light from it, and in turn the writing on the sword reacted.

“Give it a try! I bet it’s just the little kick it needs,” the hyena girl said.

Ahead of us the pack had found the road, and we exited the deep woods to open air, with twinkling stars above. Several lanterns attached to the wooden frame of the bulky backpacks the dwarves wore gave us plenty of light, and I drew my sword. The handle felt cool in my palm, colder than it should have been and I passed the rune along the blade. Nothing happened at first, and I frowned, disappointed. Then as if the magic had a life of its own I was surrounded by cold mist. When I could see again the end of the blade was wrapped in ice extending its reach, the crossguard had ice to make it wider, and the pommel had an extension to hold. Now I held a true longsword.

The hyena girl waved her talisman around the edge of my sword, her eyes bright with awe. “Oh wow, it’s like the ice fang augments our warlords' back home use. Here, take a few more runes, use them to patch it back up. A weapon like this deserves to be at it’s full glory.”

The additional ice extensions had an info box beside them.

Ice Bite - Attacks with this weapon deal an additional 1-6 points of cold damage. If a target is struck by the portion of the blade made of ice all damage is converted to cold.

The blade made a pool of light blue around me, and I twisted the weapon around in my hands, feeling no real change in weight. Not all of the enchantment writing was lit up, the runes after ‘Ice Bite’ sparked with magic, but nothing else happened. A little menu in the corner of my eye told me how much charge was left in the sword, which was critically low, and it was ticking down. With a little push I cut off the magical flow into the weapon, and it reverted to normal, the ice falling away into vapour.

“Thanks for this,” I said, holding the rune. “I’ll play around with it in the coming days, see what I can figure out.”

I had salvaged a few from the stalkers, but if she was offering to hand out more I wasn’t going to say no. I saw some stray stares from the others around, a look of intrigue with my weapon and the runes. The hyena people looked to their own weapons, and Bent flexed his gauntlets.

With travel being far easier on the road we were making great time, and at once I was hit by the minion work order queue. I had to fight myself from stopping and looking at it. Mike our miner minion was on a mission to follow an ore vein that might contain silver, and as we kept going it vanished, then came back in. I focused hard and the ground blinked in and out, with a single long tendril reaching all the way to the horizon. I could see smoke in the night sky in the distance, we were still a bit from home.

A little dot appeared just beyond the dungeon’s reach, and the tendril from the keeper crystal was straining itself. The generic drone down there moved back, and once the crystal attached to the dungeon light it held, the reach of the dungeon extended by a few feet.

“Lavandasha, by the way. I’m a Runic Arcanist, a type of mage specializing in object augmentation and defensive magic. If you ever need a paw, erm hand, feel free to hire me for some consultation,” the hyena girl said, clutching her talisman. A globe of blue and red energy surrounded her, making a small barrier.

Her nervous smile was followed by her giving Zula a thumbs up. I smirked and ran a thumb along the crossguard of my sword. She was right, the missing magic in the weapon didn’t feel right. “How much is your fee?”

Lavandasha took out a tiny, colourful yet worn abacus from her pack. “I can help you recover your sword’s ability to hold its full charge for…one sec…carry the four. Fifty gold! One hundred and fifty if you want all rune replacements”

I heard an ‘ouch’ come from one of the dwarves and waited on the scholars, seeing a black and gold box appear.

Scholar Bo

Fairly average price. If you are interested, I’d suggest the first offer. You can have the additional reach and cold damage, and it will probably last for hundreds of strikes a day as long as you don’t add more effects. Then your sword can naturally recover its charge each day too.

That sounded good to me. If I watched her at work I might even be able to fix the rest of it myself or tinker with the powers. “Let me check the books when I get home. I think I might be able to squeeze in a magic session.”

The rest of the dungeon’s menus became accessible and to my delight, all seemed well. The minions were keeping themselves busy behind the scenes and an interesting entry with Rolada and Lin came up. Before I could dig into it, coming into view was the safety of our walls, the smell of cooking, and some hearty conversation.

Our little travel group had split into the respective teams, with my allies joining me. We were all dotted with needles, sap, and muck, but overall in good health. Tennu seemed deadbeat tired in his face, but his wolf tail was a flurry of motion.

Sten rubbed his hands together and gestured over his shoulder. “See the new wood frame place they just put up? That’s an alehouse, and I can smell it from here.” The dwarf patted his belly, bouncing around his mail armour. “I don’t know about you lads, I want to down some liquid bread.”

Bent hefted the bundle of weapons from the stalkers and sniffed the air. “Hey boss, is it okay if I just toss these to storage and go for a few drinks?” The ogre leaned to the side, and either his armour’s straps or his back let out a crack as loud as a gunshot. “This strongman needs more cardio before he's ready for more armoured combat. I think it's break time too.”

The beige ogre looked tired, but pleased with himself. I held up my fist and he gave a light punch. “Sure thing big guy. If I’m up early I’ll join you for a morning jog. Tennu, are you going for a drink too?”

Tennu’s cheeks started to burn red, and he cleared his throat. “I was thinking of taking a bath and heading home. I might have someone looking for me.”

An ally has passed an Insight check!

Sten’s dark brows went up and down, and his white teeth appeared in his beard. “Ah, didn’t tell the missus you were heading out with the lads eh? Well, get going, better to strike a hot anvil than a cold one.”

Tennu excused himself and hurried towards the gates. One of the villagers was up there with the automatons and they shouted a greeting to their fellow before opening the doors up.

Agante and Zula headed over to us, with a very lovely sight in hand. Coin bags, and ones stuffed to the brim.

Agante proudly puffed out his chest. “My boys and I require some shelter to get our bearings and lick our wounds. If you would have us I would like to rent some space from you. Once you have a route to Swordhaven we can get out of your hair.”

“Same with us.” Zula let out a low laugh, the chilling sound of a hyena’s laughter made the hair on the back of my neck rise. “Although we can offer our monster hunting services. Once the spring melt is fully here we may pass on for greener pastures.”

They opened their bags, and I heard Sten suck in his beard hairs as a prompt appeared between the two bags, tallying them up.

200 Gold pieces in value.

I looked to my two allies who both enthusiastically nodded. “Well, my personal poet and trainer advised me to take the offer. Let's find you some lodging shall we?”

The weight of the bags felt heavy and very reassuring. We entered the town and Sten shot ahead with the dwarves heading for a new one-story wood house by the river. Steam came out of the roof, the smell of bread and ale came from the doors, and the side of it opened.

Inside were a dozen barrels, a few of the clay heaters blasting metal pots, and busy people pouring in what looked like porridge. Whatever they were making, it was selling like hotcakes.

That sight of joy in the middle of the hostile forest felt right to me. A smile crept up on my face and I had a sense of accomplishment. I had done it, out of some ruins I had made my own little space.

Then a gang of dwarves rushed out the door to grapple the people making the ale, and they dragged two more barrels inside. Sten waved from the door and shouted. “Don’t worry Josh, Bent and I have it under control!”

I left before the peace was shattered. Out of the rest of the buildings most had been claimed except for a few houses by the wall, the stone blocks the only separation from the forest. The simple bungalows had a dining space, two bedrooms, and a closet to hide the stairwell going down underground.

“With help from my automatons and the carpenters we can get you something nicer soon,” I said.

Zula stood tall, the dining table barely up to her thigh. “It’s dry, there’s enough space for our mats and we are inside the walls as friends instead of being out in the cold.” She clapped her hands together. “It's lovely.”

The whole pack bowed and they became very excited when they learned about the underground, with the free-for-all all in regards to furniture. Zula said goodnight and started splitting the pack up into twos and dividing the living space.

For my part, I looked at the crowded alehouse and elected to head down to the dungeon. I took it slow, keeping an ear out for followers, and headed into the shack, cleaning off my boots and heading down the ramp. I tried to follow what Rolada and Lin had been up to. They had something with moving furniture, a new custom room, and a whole lot of orders for Carter for training dummies. On top of it, all the minions had been mashing up or dragging stuff out for Burn.

I snuck into my dungeon as the hidden passage opened, careful to make sure I wasn’t being followed one more time. After the gatehouse I found George sitting on a stool nearby, spear against the wall and a small book in hand. He looked up to give me a little wave and kicked his feet. He tilted his head to the side and I followed his gaze seeing I was a mess from the fight and trek back. Road grime, needles, and splatter from battle coated the lower part of my cloak and my boots.

I used my arcane trick spell to clean myself off and rubbed the furry head of the big, friendly guard minion. “Keep an eye on the fort for me buddy,” I said.

“O-kay!” George excitedly saluted me and immediately went back to reading.

I didn’t spot anyone in the kitchen, yet I could smell someone had been cooking recently. I checked my bedroom and found it was missing two ladies who had gotten hair and fur all over my stuff. I followed the trail of orders and headed down below, seeing a line about digging near the library.

Coming up the hall of the lower level of the dungeon I heard someone I didn’t know talk. Yet the way they spoke was the thing that tipped me off something was wrong. It was too flowery, with a commanding undertone projecting itself outwards.

I followed it leading me past the library, and found the minions had carved two new rooms beyond the library. The first one bled into the caves beyond the chamber with the keeper pool, and inside of it were more training dummies. Two of the mock opponents were charred and blasted to bits with signs of magic being the cause. The room had pillars for support, and it was a little more spacious, with etchings into the floor at regular spacing.

The talking came from the other closed door. I opened it up to find a dark room with two handmade attempts of couches and a clump of dark shapes resembling people. Yara, Lin, Rolada, and a handful of minions sat on the couches and some cushions facing the wall that was lit up with a projection. In vibrant colours was a stage with two slender beings a male fox, and a female demoness dancing. The male did a low bow, his face towards us, and clutched in his hand was a pink flower. “To you my love, my whole.”

Applause erupted from the projection, as it did from the room. The dungeon lights brought up the light level and the two people on stage bowed together to drink in the applause.

Rolada’s ears perked up and she twisted around bright-eyed with a tissue dotting her eyes. “Josh I’m so sorry you missed it, but look! We can watch plays from back home.”

The chef minion blew his nose into his hat and wiped away his tears. After he realized what he had done he hissed and dragged his feet towards the baths to wash it up. I had to navigate my way past the clump of black and red of my minions to find a seat beside Yara and Rolada, curious about what was happening.

Rolada held out a plate of cheese, crackers, and cooked meats. “Hungry?”

I made myself a tiny cracker sandwich and popped it into my mouth. I followed the projection towards the ground where I saw a low stool and a cracked glass orb set inside a shaped clay pot. Beside it was a hammered set of a pitcher and bowl with an aura of magic around it that was faintly gold. I focused on it and followed the threads towards the shrine of Ishaka.

Rolada picked a sticky pine needle off my cloak I had missed. “We have some time before the next show. What were you up to?”

“First of all, what’s with…all this?” I asked, waving my hand around to point at the orb. “Is that the one from the goblin tower I used?”

Rolada picked herself up into a sitting position and Lin held her drink. “Well, you see Sen and the others were curious about the goblin tower. So we quickly grabbed all the really spicy fun things to hide, and I found the room with the orbs. Since they were enchanted for divination, and I figured we could use them to communicate.”

Yara leaned in and pointed ahead. “I remembered seeing in the list of things the altar could be used for was contacting another shrine. Sliva caught wind of it and set it up to target the grand temple square in Avonna, and their weekly plays that go on.”

The projection had been pulled back to show the stage, and they had opened the windows showing the sunny beaches of the island nation under the control of Ishaka’s people.

I sat back, feeling the weight of my armour get taken by the couch. “Holy shit, we got television.”

Rolada opened her mouth in awe. “Wait, this is the tee-vee thing you were talking about?” Her ears went flat and her expression soured. “It took hours to get it working, mom was so annoyed she went off to bed. You made it sound so easy to set it up back on dirt.”

Lin craned her neck up and I followed seeing bracing beams in the ceiling with copper wire strewed about like a web. “It took forever to get all that up there.”

I started to strip off my armour and soon I was surrounded by minions taking all my gear away to my bedroom. I filled them in on the attack and our temporary guests, with them being very excited about the payment. I tossed the coin sack between my hands and settled back into the couch, enjoying the comfort.

“I had a hint of you being in danger, but it vanished so quickly I thought I was dreaming it,” Yara said, flexing her hand to summon the ring. “Maybe you broke it.” She looked at it closely, then me. “Or maybe you're getting to be the dangerous one now? Are these people a problem, or are you going to make it a habit?”

I shook the coin bag and held it away from Lin who was getting a little too curious. “You know, it’s not a bad plan. If people are wanting to move around the area we can build up the alehouse. Make a nice tavern to house some guests, and do some trade.”

The others thought it over, and before we could get into it the projection fizzed for a second before zooming in again. It wasn’t high definition, but it was a commodity I didn’t even know I missed. Rolada crawled ahead low to the ground, her tail swishing side to side as she was on the hunt. She stuck out her tongue and adjusted runes around the orb clarifying the image.

Lin lightly tossed a piece of bread at her. “Hey get your cute butt out of the way, you're blocking the view!”

Rolada sat back down and stuck out her tongue at Lin, now electing to lean on me and claim some of my space, squishing me against Yara. I weaselled my arm around Roalda bringing her into some kind of hug just to get enough space to relax again. The fox guy was up again, this time taking up centre stage. In hand, he had a scroll and he hummed a tune while shaking his tail. A little bell was at the end of it, and I realized he was casting a spell, filling the air around him with smoke.

I could just barely make out shapes behind him and I figured he was making space for the crew to bring out props and let the actors get into place. His buttery smooth voice came out much clearer now.

“Let us now learn about the young witch Elara and her Song of Runes.”