“Remember to activate it when you need it, just having it does nothing!” Father Richard professed. “By the way, I’ll be letting people know that I’ll pay fifty silver for each of those, so pass it on.”
“Aren’t Runed items worth gold usually?” Dale looked at the cheap priest.
“Only if they are able to be activated!” Father Richard responded with a cheeky wink.
“Sneaky old man.” Dale very quietly muttered.
“What was that?” Father Richard growled.
“Nothing!”
As Father Richard watched Dale walk away, he thought about the now enchanted quartz and the Runed pendants.
“Maybe this post... wasn’t a punishment?” He dared to hope.
~Nineteen~
Dale moved away to meet up with his comrades. Following his nose, he quickly found them eating breakfast. Trying to tell his story, he was shouted down by the group, banished until he was fully armored, since he was under strict orders to wear his gear at all times. They would hear no argument, yelling over his voice every time he tried to explain himself. Exceedingly frustrated, Dale went back to his tent to get geared up, and found a masked man rummaging through his things!
“Hey!” Dale shouted in surprise. “What the hell are you doing?”
The startled man looked up, eyes narrowing. His information had specifically said that Dale would be in the dungeon by now. Ah, well. He was probably going to have to kill him later anyway. The masked man pulled out a long knife and lunged at Dale.
His reactions trained from months of battle, Dale jumped to the side, barely avoiding a slash at his throat. His mind whirled with options, but he was without weapons or armor so he froze up, earning a brutal kick to his knee. Knocking Dale to the ground, the masked man raised his dagger to deliver a coup de grâce, ending his existence. Panicking, Dale screamed the first thing that came to mind.
“Get off my mountain!” Dale ordered with a frantic squeal. Mid-swing, the man turned and started jerkily walking away, his dagger flying from his hand at the unexpected and unwanted movement.
Dale, relieved, shouted after the angry and confused man, “To anyone who sent you, anyone who was sent by the same person, and anyone who knows what you were doing, leave! And never come back!” Dale had no idea if that would work, but he figured it was a good idea to at least try to get rid of other potential problems. There was now nothing he could do than just to watch the would-be assassin make his escape, so he stood up, shaking with reaction. Dale glared as he watched the man go. He was sprinting away now, obviously trying to outrun anyone Dale might send to find him.
Dale rushed to put on his armor, not feeling safe until he had every piece properly equipped. He then moved to find his group and tell them the events of his morning. At his rushed words about the assassin, they pulled him along to the Guild Master, making him repeat his story.
Frank tried to be sympathetic, but it was obvious he was preoccupied and not actually worried. “Dale, he was probably a thief that panicked when you showed up. It sounds like he didn’t try too hard to kill you if he just... ran off.”
“No, I ordered him off the mountain right before he could kill me!” Dale stated passionately. “He had me dead to rights, it was the only thing I could think of! I was about to die, Frank!”
“That was smart, good work thinking on your toes, kid.” Hans soothingly stated, slapping Dale comfortingly on the back.
Frank shook his head and sighed in exasperation as he looked over another requisition form. “Still, while I am sorry it happened, there really isn’t much to be done! He obviously wasn’t in the Guild if he tried to attack you, so I have no legal right to hunt him down. Actually,” Frank paused and mused a moment, “banishing him was a solid punishment. After all, he is now several hundred miles from any real civilization with no food, water, or equipment.”
Dale was taken aback. He hadn’t really thought making people leave would have such deadly consequences for them. Living off the land was easy around here, wasn’t it? His family had done so for generations… Calming down a bit, Dale recited the rest of his story. “Some other things happened this morning as well.” He relayed his conversation with Father Richard, telling them of the cursed earth gazebo, and the massive Runescript that had appeared on the quartz. Runescript being the proper term for many Runes that interlocked together to form a larger Rune, of course.
“Amazing!” Frank actually seemed interested in this story, Dale thought cynically. “That one chunk of quartz would be worth the yearly economic output of a city! That was before it was inscribed! To think, all of these amazing events happened up here, in the middle of nowhere! And, well, the cursed earth is concerning of course, but we will have to study it before making any decisions.” He shooed the group off when they had nothing else to report, telling them he would be busy for a few days, looking into these matters.
“Well, that was certainly interesting.” Craig looked at Dale, whose face still drawn from the stress and sudden events. Taking pity on him Craig continued, ““Let’s go kill some Mobs, shall we? That’ll calm your nerves a bit.” He punched Dale on the arm, getting a weak smile back for his camaraderie.
“Anything you say, Craig. It has been one heck of a morning, you know?” Dale sounded exhausted already.
A cheerful Hans came to the rescue, “These things happen, and the longer you live, the worse you’ll see. That’s why we’re training you up, so you can take care of yourself when we all move on. Ya can’t stay here forever, right?”
Dale’s face clouded. “I hadn’t really thought about it. I’ve never been off these mountains and I… You know what? Yeah, let’s go kill something.”
“That’s the spirit!” Hans shouted, “To battle!” Taking off at a run for the dungeon, the others had to hurry to catch up. They couldn’t let him have all the kills after all.
~Cal~
<They are later than normal.> I conversed with Dani optimistically. <Think they’re getting complacent?>
“More likely they were looking at the new building and the giant window you made into here.” Dani muttered reproachfully, making me look up at the growing crowd of people above us. They sure did seem excited to see my room. Hard to blame them for looking at my beautiful work after all. I was preening under all of the attention I was getting.
“Voyeurs.” Dani muttered, hostility coming off her in waves. “I gotta stay invisible all the time now.”
<Well that is the price we pay for this glorious sunshine.> I teased her, projecting the image of a lazy person stretching.
She huffed at me. “Fine. You’ll miss my pretty colors soon enough. How is Dale’s group doing? I assume… I mean, it is them again, right?”
<It is. Apparently I didn’t do a lick of permanent damage to them yesterday. Dale must have healed really fast for him to be dancing around like that.> I was watching the energetic lad bouncing around with his stick.
<At least they seem to be having trouble finding the right path today, looks like that system worked out.> Indeed, they were even now moving toward a dead end. On the first floor though, so they quickly were able to bypass the trap and move back to the correct path. I decided to listen in on their conversation.
“Did I just pick the wrong path?” Dale was asking, “I thought I could just watch the Essence. Were you guys just testing me?” He looked around at the stony faces, “I swear I am using the technique!” He finished desperately when no one talked.