Steam filled the bathroom of the Meek Moat Inn, Logan the Spellthief was soaking for longer than usual, or at all. Melting away stress as he found comfort in the hot soapy waters that surrounded him.

Servoir, Logan’s water elemental, was doing work massaging his creator’s arms and shoulders with wavy liquid hands. Celsius was heating and kneading Logan’s temples. It was nice to have such “natural” ways of relaxation at Logan’s fingertips. There weren't any qualms over privacy or safety, as his elementals were fragments of his psyche.

With the introduction of the Orichalcum into Logan’s life, the Spellthief could sit at ease a bit more than usual. His background was now taken care of, with plenty of answers at the ready for any questions thrown his way from wary adventures or members of the MT. It was at the very least an avenue for power, not in a way he had expected. But with the bad, comes the good, and Logan was due heaps of the latter.

The sound of nightly owls and dark walkers outside painted the last portion of the day to be peaceful and devoid of ambushes or PCs. To add to this scene of serenity and upward emotional trip, Logan accepted his latest quest’s rewards.

“Quest - Hunt the Sunsilt, has been completed. You achieved 4 additional objectives during the mission and as such your rewards will be increased. Distributing rewards…”

“The reward for your quest completion is as follows:

Demonhood Progression +1 Demon-Clan Spells: Telekinesis*5, Body Eruption*4, Warping Censure*3. Epi-Ptah Heart*5 Additional title: Dark Day’s Ruler”

Logan had an open palm to receive his new trinket. A fist-sized ruby-heart that sparkled against the light that Celsius provided the room. A blue and gold chain slinked down Logan’s wrist and into the water of the bath.

“This must be related to the whole crafting of the bolts. I suppose it’s apt”, Logan thought to himself as he stored it in his inventory.

Another window appeared as he accepted his reward.

“You have reached Demon Stage 2. Your attributes have all increased by 1. You have unlocked the skill Otherworldly Stamina.”

“That sorts one of my issues out a bit”, Logan chuckled as his mind wandered. “Seems the title was granted prematurely, something that can’t be resisted I suppose. Now, those new spells.”

Checking the new Demon-Clan spells, Telekinesis did what it said on the tin. It was second-level and stage 1 when it came to demonhood proficiency. Logan could target any non-held object in sight and compel it to move with his mind and motions. He couldn’t affect people, but it could work on summoned creatures. That would explain why it worked on Fahrenheit so long ago. Another spell must have been used on Marcus, hence his offender dying under its cast.

Body Eruption was again self-explanatory. It exploded corpses within a certain area and sent their remains around as an attack. Creatures that exploded in such a manner were complicated and expensive to revive, something Logan could make use of if he faced an opponent with regeneration or reviving powers. Though it ruined components. It was third-level and required stage 2 of demonhood.

Lastly, and his bane, Warping Censure. As long as he could see his target, he could interrupt any teleportation spells and skills considered fourth-level and lower. Due to his mastery, he could possibly affect fifth-level and affect fourth and lower easier than normal.

Logan’s Spellthief abilities allowed him to quickcast these new spells too, needing only to speak their name. However, they all needed “Demon-Clan Spell:” to be spoken as a prefix, making them a bit wonky to use in combat.

He at least didn’t need to ready these spells in slots, as his demonhood counted him as always having them readied for the case of skills and items.

The Spellthief was a bit disappointed he only gained one stage into demonhood for having all objectives complete, but at least it improved all other rewards. The trinket in particular would alter his plans. Making some more legendary gear would improve him beyond belief.

Logan would need all the power he could get if his opponents were using new tricks against him. While he may not need to worry about more sessions in court, he’d be in a bad spot if he left Gauntlet alone too many times.

Wanting not to spend all of his rewards too quickly, Logan saved his two new skill points for now. Making his stock three again. He needed to sort through all the stuff he had for selling anyway.

A long night of rest led to a morning of discussion with Amalia and Marcus in Logan’s room. Little was hidden, Logan even divulged the Orichalcum to the pair as they were more than likely going to interact with them, whether they knew it or not.

“They don’t know about me, do they?” Amalia asked, a bit worried.

“As far as I can tell, no. It seems like the below PCs even don’t”, Logan replied.

“That is what I surmised”, Marcus added.

“But, didn’t you think their quests were aimed at you?” Amalia asked.

Logan thought for a second, “That might be because Darius found me out? Hard to say. At least I have his commwatch now. That should dilute their information or evidence against me.”

“Would I be fine to go back to just being a smith then?”

“I would say so. That should serve to protect you regardless if you’re well armed.”

“What about us?” Marcus prodded.

“We’ll return to a duo setup. We’re too exposed on our own.”

“Suits me just fine”, Marcus replied with a faint punch to Logan’s arm.

“Are you fine to sort your gear out?”

“Yeah. Got some finder’s fees for getting Jirango out of boiled tar.”

“I have a lot of stuff to sell but after that, if my contacts haven’t found any harpies, I think we’ve all earned some rest”, Logan sighed in relief.

“Would be nice to face something easy for a change”, Marcus smiled.

“That is one idea, actually.”

The group talked for a bit longer before they said their farewells.

“I’m glad you’re back”, Amalia repeated as she hugged Logan, outside of her battle armour.

“Thanks for all the help”, Logan replied.

“When you’re free, let’s catch up better.”

“I should have some time tonight. If you’d be up for it?”

“That’d be nice. See you then”, Amalia ended as she left.

Marcus hugged Amalia before she left, as he turned and gave a sly smile at his friend.

Both Marcus and Logan then went to the shops. Having to go to several different merchants to sell off the sheer volume of his acquired items, Logan had to take a few trips to the guardhouse to pick up more of his stored gear.

At the end of it all, plus additional items ferried from Orichalcum, Logan earned another 87 gold.

Replacing his old daggers, Logan also bought up new tomes for skills and spells, as well as components for crafting purposes. Restocking his potion supply, Logan wasn’t going to run low any time soon.

Logan also purchased components to make use of the petrified heart of Quayvan, gifted to him at the court when the monster-vampire-morpher thing had accosted him. On its own, it was powerful, as it was hard enough to get a vampire’s heart that didn’t dissolve on exit, but it was of a fully-powered one, possibly stage 4. However, if Logan worked on it a bit with crafting, he could intensify its properties into an edible object.

With plenty of supplies bought, Logan went to the alleyways where his homeless workers were held.

Thankfully the coin he had left went to good use, pretty much all of the faces were still there. Speaking with them for a while, he got the location of some harpies he could track and kill. Word on the grapevine between other settlements hadn’t ended up in a quest at the G-Hall, so Logan would have first pickings.

The next stop was Ahren’s apothecary. The final price for the potions of harpy acuity came to 43 gold, Logan paid it happily and started the process for his return trip to heal his father.

With the push to get the final components, Logan put his crafting on hold. The harpies won’t going to be around forever, and he wanted to make sure he’d be the one to get them all.

Making sure Marcus hadn’t had any new additions to him since their parting, Logan looked over all he could of his ally. Marcus had reached level 15 in Logan’s absence. Combining his training routines with the defeat of so many bandits and AV Club members, it seemed the Devout had tried to keep pace with his ally.

Along with the levels, Marcus had also attained three skill points all his own. His Partnered Growth had additionally unlocked the ability to upgrade to tier 2. Conversing with Logan, the Devout agreed it’d be the best use of his spare points.

Keeping level with Logan was going to be better in the long run than most other skills he could attain. A five-level gap meant a lot of missing spell power and tier, let alone access to higher-level skills down the line.

With those three skill points, the skill improved, granting Marcus 30% experience over the usual 10% that NPCs normally get. Triple the speed of most people, but around a third of Logan’s if he was facing on-level enemies without any aid. With how they fought, however, Marcus was going to get almost the same experience as Logan, if not more depending on who they faced.

After the skill improvement, Logan spent Marcus’s two bonus attribute points into his Strength Attribute at the Devout’s request. Whilst doing so, Logan saw a few parts of Marcus’s status hidden from view.

When asked, Marcus replied, “It is a secret. I want it to be a surprise.”

Logan didn’t pry further. He already knew so much and dabbled even more in Marcus’s progression and life, it was fine for him to hold a few secrets.

Checking over all of their gear, Logan and Marcus warped away from the capital.

A new set of mountains graced Logan’s eyes. Not snowy like Marcus’s, but high up regardless. The wind didn’t bother Logan at all due to his Ice King traits, while Marcus cracked some heat gravel in his teeth.

While there was no snow, the skies were dark. A storm was approaching, but Logan’s instincts told him they would lack any bolts of lightning to interrupt their plans.

Logan clicked his fingers, “No enemies nearby”, he announced as he looked at a jagged mini-map.

“No visible ones at least. These harpies are intelligent. To an amazing degree comparatively, right?” Marcus asked as he lunged up an incline.

“Yeah, I got a good amount of information from my workers”, Logan admitted with a smile.

“I heard horror stories when I was younger. Be a good kid, or when you grow up a harpy will take you away from home and eat you.”

“Trying to fight back promiscuity?”

“And a few other delinquent antics. The stories didn’t stop me exploring though”, Marcus continued as he jumped to a ledge and pulled himself up.

“Leave many broken hearts in your younger years?”

“Hah. I’m still young. What are you talking about? Those men got over it anyway.”

Logan chuckled as he jumped up two ledges to get ahead of his ally, the uneven terrain proving to be difficult to walk across naturally. Clicking his fingers, Logan found the sound reverberating somewhat, his mini-map taking on some static display.

“Echo Radar is having issues with the weather. Too much noise and force”, Logan explained as he heard a roar of wind from the clouds, “That just messed it up entirely. Maybe I was wrong about lightning?”

Marcus looked up, “No. Look”, he pointed.

Several parts of the clouds swirled, expanded, and changed hues. A monochromatic display of shifting atmosphere. Rain pattered the pair’s faces, though no lightning was spotted.

“A magical phenomenon then. Something other than lightning is making that noise”, Logan surmised.

“Could be storm giants”, Marcus joked.

“If it is, we’re getting the fuck outta here.”

“We should be good. It would be highly unlikely to find that kind of monster in Gauntlet territory.”

“Not their climate I take it?”

“Not really. More a place for harpies”, Marcus laughed as he climbed another ridge.

Logan clicked his fingers but it continued to prove useless, “Keeps your eyes peeled. I won’t be able to scan ahead of time for these foes.”

“I guess they won’t be the flirtatious type. The harpies to ferry men to their climactic death.”

“Would be nice.”

“Though I suppose you got some other interest in mind”, Marcus said as he turned a smiling face to Logan.

Logan jokingly punched Marcus’s arm, “Shut up. You’re just happy these monsters can’t tempt you.”

“Never know, could be male harpies.”

“Now that’d be a sight”, Logan replied as he looked at a higher cliff face that held an almost camouflaged creature, “But sadly, no.”

--- *** ---