“When you tried to sense any nearby lives earlier,” I said, “you said the nearest person was hours away, but then we found Cindra nearby. Why is that?”
“I can sweep the land’s surface for life,” Nola said, “but I’m not strong enough to sweep the subterranean levels. I’m sorry if my intel was incomplete.”
“So there are dozens on the way now, maybe more if they’re tunneling?” I asked. Nola nodded.
“How do we defend against that many cretins?” Cindra asked.
“Oh, cretins,” Nola said. “That’s a good name for them. And I’m not sure. It may be a lost cause. If you chose to leave, I’d understand.”
“I was planning to leave for the elf lands,” Vix said.
“Why?” Mamba said. “They were so mean.”
“It’s the humans that are mean,” Vix said. “I thought elves would be nicer to beastkin.”
“Are beastkin nice?” Mamba asked.
“Some of them,” she said.
“Vix,” I said, “we can’t face this threat without you. We’ll need to fortify the temple, build walls, maybe some defensive towers.”
“You’re pinning your whole strategy on me?” she said. “That’s not fair.” She crossed her arms and closed her eyes for a moment. “Towers would help,” she said, “but only because they would provide a vantage point for spotting threats and shooting them.”
“I have a bow and arrow now,” Cindra said.
“A wall is only as good as its material, so we’d need a lot of stone from the quarry.”
“My snakies can carry quite a bit,” Mamba said, “if that would help.”
“All this building might provide me enough experience points to warrant some more leveling.”
“I’ll train you as best I can,” I said.
“And,” Nola said, “I’ll let Arden know if I see any clever improvements you could try.”
“How much time do we have?” Vix asked.
“The cretins have yet to cross the river, so time is on our side. A week at least, more if they have a hard time locating us.”
“That would give us enough time for…” Vix trailed off. Her eyes darted back and forth as her mind crafted plans, undoubtedly farfetched ones, but ones that excited her. Enough to keep her here. “Let’s get to work!” she said.
“That means you’ll stay?” I asked.
“For now,” she said.
“Me too then,” Cindra said. “I’d like to find my creator, but I refuse to leave you all in danger’s path. You’re the only reason I’m free of that hole in the ground.”
We all looked at Mamba. She looked at us back, each in turn.
“Mamba,” I asked, “will you stay and help us fight the cretins?”
“Is that wine?” she asked, pointing to the donkey’s cart.
“Two barrels of it,” I said.
“I like places with wine. They tend to have dancing. How shall we begin?” she asked.
“First thing’s first,” I said. “Mamba, would you allow me to modify your skills?” She nodded. Vix and Cindra started unloading the donkey cart and arranging our food and supplies.
With a quick glance at her skills menu, I could see that Mamba wasn’t starting from scratch. “You’ve been to skillmeisters before,” I said.
“Elves,” she said. “They’re less expensive, unless you count the cost of their words. They use sharp words on half-gypsies like me.”
“Well, you won’t have to worry about them anymore,” I said. I held Mamba’s menu in my mind and got to work.
Δ
Skillmeister View of:
Mamba Oph
Base Attribute / XP to Next / Intended Change / Total XP Cost
-
2 Constitution / 50 XP to Next / none / Total XP Cost: 0
-
2 Vivacity / 50 XP to Next / none / Total XP Cost: 0
-
5 Strength / 125 XP to Next / 5 –> 6 / Total XP Cost: 125
-
3 Hardiness / 75 XP to Next / none / Total XP Cost: 0
-
5 Focus / 125 XP to Next / 5 –> 6 / Total XP Cost: 125
-
5 Resolve / 125 XP to Next / 5 –> 6 / Total XP Cost: 125
-
TOTAL BASE ATTRIBUTE XP COST: 375
Stats Affected by Change
-
[Constitution] Health Points (HP): 200/200
-
[Vivacity] Action Points (AP): 40/40
-
[Strength] Phys. Damage Inflict Range: 50-61 –> 60-73
-
[Hardiness] Phys. Damage Block Range: 16-23
-
[Focus] Mag. Damage Inflict Range: 50-61 –> 60-73
-
[Resolve] Mag. Damage Block Range: 27-38 –> 32-46
-
Skills For Weapon Class: None
-
[Null]
Intended Change: None
Cost Subtotaclass="underline" 0
TOTAL SKILL XP COST: 0
Skills for Special Class: Snake Charmer
-
Full Thrust 5.
Summon 12 snakes to your side.
[24 AP to cast] [Requires: Strength 5, Focus 5].
-
Improve to Full Thrust 6 to summon 14 snakes at once. [28 AP to cast] [Requires: Strength 6, Hardiness 6] [2,250 XP to improve].
…
Intended Change: None
Cost Subtotaclass="underline" 0
-
Slither In 5.
Control up to 10 snakes at once with your mind.
[Passive] [Requires: Focus 5, Resolve 5].
-
Improve to Slither In 6 to increase control limit to 12. [Passive] [Requires: Focus 6, Resolve 6] [2,250 XP to improve].
…
Intended Change: 5 –> 6
Cost Subtotaclass="underline" 2,250
TOTAL SNAKE CHARMER SKILL XP COST: 2,250
Summary
-
Available XP: 2,635
Cost of Intended Changes: 2,625
Precision Training Discount (1%): 26
Total Adjusted Cost: 2,599
Total Projected Remaining: 36
Confirm?: Yes / No
∇
“I’ve improved your skills for free. Your snake summoning limit is now identical to your snake control limit, so you shouldn’t have any more runaways. Er, slide-aways?”
She leaned over and kissed me once and each cheek, then on the mouth. I was stunned. I wondered what her habit was when she was really grateful.
“Thanks,” I said. “Maybe you and Cindra could check out the mine? She knows where it is, and you can have your snakes help drag stones up for Vix.” I pulled her close and whispered, “Take some torches and don’t leave her alone down there.”
She turned to leave, but I remembered something. Something that made me a little self-conscious, but I had to get over that if I was going to serve as a competent head priest. I couldn’t leave Mamba’s loyalty in question.
“One more thing,” I said. “I’ll need you to pledge your fealty.” I said it without a hint of the nervous smile I felt coming on. I meant business, and if I wanted to preside over this place of worship with the respect and dignity it deserved, I’d need to project my confidence that I deserved the same thing.
“Of course,” she said. “Dancing light and tasty cakes, I love Nola like I love snakes!” Then, turning to me, she said, “Arden Hochbright, Nola’s pastor. On these grounds you are my master.”
Somehow, everyone knew the exact wording of the customary pledge for a temple’s head priest. I wondered why it had been new to me when I realized, Cahn never had anyone pledge fealty as far as I saw. Maybe that’s more of a frontier thing, when a temple is new and a goddess is vulnerable to the ill-intentioned, before a city grows around her complete with guards to enforce right behavior.