Valerie was crouched behind the cover of a boulder gazing up the slope toward the dark keep with its tattered banners. The warrior woman was tense and silent, scanning the swirling mist for any sign of attackers. She remained completely unaware of my return, even as I skirted around her through the mist, but I chose to approach openly from the direction of the slope to avoid annoying my temporary ally.
She still started, gripping the hilt of her blade tighter as she eyed me with suspicion. She spoke softly as I neared her, “What did you find?”
Relaying my findings in short order, she growled what I assumed was a curse, “Pyres,” she studied the distant keep and continued, “I have no idea what kind of creature could do that. The shades you mentioned aren’t uncommon after the disaster, but if there were no signs of bodies. What could consume an entire camp full of refugees and leave no sign of their remains?”
“I was kind of hoping you would know.”
She eyed me a moment before returning to her surveillance of the keep, “As I said earlier, a large number of dangerous creatures ascended the Spiral during the chaos of the fall. Many unknown monsters started to hunt the wilds and few wish to venture out to deal with them in these dark days.”
Studying the woman I asked, “Do you still want to try and get to Braithe?”
She turned her head and looked back down into the valley. In the distance I noted that we could still make out the distant vineyard from here. After a long moment she turned back to me and said, “Yes, hopefully whatever attacked the fort hasn’t reached Braithe. Turning back now will solve nothing.”
When I gave her a smirk and a thumbs up she regarded the gesture with narrowed eyes, “What does this mean?”
Wincing I looked at my thumb helplessly as I said, “On my world it means, ‘Sounds good’.”
She considered it for a long moment her lilac features stony before finally offering an awkward thumbs up of her own.
“You got it,” I winked at her and gestured up the slope, “you make your own way. I’ll be nearby ready to ambush anything that attacks.”
Without any more discussion she turned and made her way up the slope, her blade drawn and ready as I followed after using the mist to cover my progress.
Valerie regarded the fussing shade with stoic disinterest as we passed. I got the sense that she had seen many of her kind and although she did raise her sword, she seemed unconcerned. The shade however, did not even look up from her eternal worry over the empty ground.
My ally marched up the slope without slowing her step. Even if she was just an NPC, her bravery was admirable.
When I joined her at the open gate she only shot a single glance my way through the darkened hollow of her helmet that housed her blazing eyes before advancing through them. Following at a safe distance I kept an eye out for dangers coming from behind.
The chamber was a long debris strewn corridor of black brick. Mist that came up to my knee filled its length. There were narrow slits near the ceiling, likely for firing arrows or other projectiles down onto invaders all along its length.
Halfway along the empty hall’s length another faceless shade stood silent leveling a spear at the gate.
Compared to the last this one was shorter and more slight of build, and likely male. Confirming my suspicions the shade spoke in an unnerved voice, “Why are you doing this Sir! Get away from the gate!”
Unlike the lengthy conversation that the female shade had managed on the grounds outside, this creature halted for a few moments, stuttered like a glitching image and repeated the phrase with the same note of terror. It did not seem to note our presence or react to us.
Valerie stalked over to the shade. I frowned and started to speak, but was too late, as she drew her blade and in two quick strokes drove it into the terrified creature’s chest and then decapitated it. The shadow stuff that made up its form stuttered at the first strike and then burst apart at the second.
Watching her for a long moment it seemed she did not seem to feel an explanation needed as she continued down the darkened hall with her sword at the ready. Following after I noted strewn equipment and pieces of armor amidst the debris in the mist. When it appeared worth taking I scavenged the equipment and tossed it into my inventory. Most was mundane and none was an upgrade for me. There was something that might benefit my temporary ally.
“Gloves of the Everyday Observer
You’ve seen it all before, but this armor helps you avoid becoming disillusioned.
Type: Heavy
Slots: Hands
Total Armor Value: 90
Requirement: Level 15
Rarity: Uncommon
Tier: E
Strength +6, Spirit +10
If a spirit check to notice hidden objects, traps, or disguises fails, your spirit is tested a second time.”
When I reached her she had stopped at a small flight of stairs leading up to a closed door with black metal fittings halfway down the chamber. With a nod to get her attention I tossed her the gloves. She inspected them briefly and with a small nod to acknowledge the offer and donned them to replace her mundane cultist’s armor. She nodded up the stairs and spoke in a hushed tone, “If I know the layout of these keeps the guard’s chambers and the captain of the guard’s office is up these stairs and through a series of defensive points. If he kept a log we should be able to get some sense of what they were trying to fight here.”
She gave me a hard look as if challenging me to suggest another avenue and I only smiled and gestured to the stairs, “Ladies first.”
She turned and stomped up the stairs with her sword drawn toward the closed door as she muttered, “What a strange custom.”
She wrenched the door open and a wave of mist swirled down over us nearly breaching over my avatar’s head. The warrior woman stepped forward with her blade raised in preparation for a strike from above. We ascended into another hall that ended in another flight of stairs upward with two doors on either side of its base. A pair of intimidating looking metal barricades blocked the hall at the base of the stairs. There was no sign of damage to them or anything else.
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The barricades were abandoned, with no sign of armor or weapons. Exploring the doors to either side I decided to enter a bunk room through the left door filled with disheveled beds and open footlockers. Valerie made no complaint when I searched them. Finding some items for the crafting system that I had not had a chance to interact with, I pocketed the shards of material and strange vials for future perusal.
The right hand chamber appeared to be a guard station for men on duty with a single table and cards made of slate strewn around its top. The symbols displayed on them included images of Haithans in the regalia of rulers, warriors, and mages. They disappeared into my inventory as Valerie made a clicking noise with her tongue to garner my attention.
Approaching the stone faced young woman I found her looking down at a series of symbols scrawled on the wall in what looked like soot.
She knelt and ran her fingers along what appeared hastily scrawled letters and said, “The creature comes. Trust no face you meet.”
Sneering at that I muttered a question, “Shapechanger?”
She asked, “Are such things common in your world?”
Considering my words, I said, “In the worlds I visit, yes. Their way of attack isn’t usually a direct attack. The aim is almost always to kill a target, assume their identity, and infiltrate the enemy to bring them down from within.”
The pools of gold that were her eyes bore into me from within her dark helmet, “How many worlds have you traveled?”
That was a good question. From her perspective I suppose my long career of video game play amounted to the adventures of some vastly experienced planeswalker, while my own experience was just the whimsy of a bored entertainer.
Offering a grim smile I said, “A few hundred at least.”
She blinked at that and whispered a response lacking sarcasm, “I had no idea I found myself in the presence of such a veteran.”
Shaking my head, I gestured toward the door without answering, “We should keep going. If we get separated, ask me for this word,” I leaned close to her having to strain to reach her height as I whispered in her ear, “Sydney.”
She leaned away for a moment, eyeing me with questions in her glowing eyes before leaning in and whispering, “Thea,” in my own ear.
It was not the same name as the young man I’d met in the Necropolis and assumed it might be a friend or some other person she had been close to. Not my concern.
Sharing a nod the two of us departed the chamber and ascended the fortress through darkened halls and eerily abandoned rooms.
On the third floor, after finding little evidence we came upon a third shade. It appeared to be the trembling form of a female guard who had hidden herself in a closet. The door had been locked and I had to use my nascent ability to pick locks to get it open.
Here, for the first time in the entire complex, we found remains of one of the defenders. The shade sat on top of the huddled form of her former body, her wispy form embracing it as she rocked back and forth in silence.
Valerie started to raise her blade and I put a hand to her arm to pause her motion, raising my other hand to forestall her, I knelt and whispered a question, “Can you hear me?”
After a brief pause the shade’s head rose to reveal its flat features and whispered, “I’m so hungry… How long have I been here?”
Sighing, I continued with as hopeful a voice as I could muster, “Not long. We are here to save you. We’ll give you some food and water once you tell us about the creature.”
The shade paused a moment and with a pained whimper it spoke words that shot terror into my heart, “It’s in the mist. It consumes and becomes… anyone…”
The two of us shared a worried look and Valerie looked down at the still present mist that somehow still filled the third floor of the fortress. A realization dawned on me.
Valerie was not far behind my thinking. She yawned and cursed in pure exhaustion, “Pyres and blasted coals, it let us get this far to keep us from escaping.”
The shade continued as if the noblewoman had never spoken, “It makes you sleep and then it just… consumes you…”
Even as she spoke I saw Valerie stagger against the frame of the door and groan.
I, however, felt nothing. Thinking quickly as I glanced at the remains of the long dead shade I grabbed my ally and threw her back against the wall of the closet. She glared at me with surprise even as she started to lose consciousness. Shrugging in response, I slammed the door shut. Using my tools still sticking from the door’s lock, I wrenched it locked again with a deft movement.
Sensing an incoming attack from behind I dodged aside as a misty spear flew past and crunched into the wooden door. A guardsman, not like the shades we had encountered thus far but entirely made of the mist, glowered at me as his features started to resolve color into those of a burgundy skinned haithan with stunted knife-like ears.
Summoning my blades I charged past him and dug a deep furrow in the mistguard’s side, activating Slice with the hope that the mist counted as its ‘blood’. The creature staggered and actually cursed as it turned to attack again, crying out an alarm, “It’s here. The beast is here!”
To my shock more figures started to emerge from the mist down the stairs to the lower level. Their features resolved into defined visages and their armor materialized as much as the subjects original uniform-like equipment allowed.
Seeing that I would soon be surrounded I turned and sprinted up the nearby stairs. Valerie had suggested that they might lead to the ramparts, and she was not wrong.
Bursting free from the stairwell into the eternal night I found a battlement filled with menacing mistborn guards leveling weapons my way.
Several raised bows or crossbow-like weapons in my direction but when they tried to fire they looked in surprise as no projectile was loosed.
I Analyzed the nearest target and Lydia described it:
“Mistchild
Level 6
Weakness: Fire
HP: 99
MP: Unknown
Special Ability: None”
Rushing to the nearest very surprised target I dodged his spear and hooked an arm around his neck. Throwing caution to the wind I surged up behind the creature and before he could react drove my fangs into his neck. The other strange beasts called out warnings.
“Brigand!”
“Monster!”
The Mistman’s body surged under my bite and was relieved that the mist that made up their forms replenished me.
“You have gained the Blooded buff!”
Pounding my dagger into the staggering creature’s back I kicked him away just in time to dodge the first guardsman to reach me. When I slid to a stop I was disheartened to find myself surrounded by Mistchild guardsmen with weapons leveled. The looks of intense discipline and in some cases fear surprised me.
It was looking like I might be headed for my first respawn and Valerie, whatever her current condition, might have been lost.
With a ready smile I shook out my avatar’s muscles and prepared to charge and saw the guards do the same. Our inevitable battle was cut off when a familiar voice called out from the stairs I’d ascended.
“Hold!”
While the tension did not leave the many enemies surrounding me they did not charge. I watched as this new figure ascended out of the mist as if rising from the stairs. A stout female figure in chain armor that I had looted from the bodies of cultists. She was carrying her sword at the ready with the same poise that I had seen my traveling companion utilize on our journey up the mountain. Lydia announced a change to my quest:
“Quest Evolving
The Resistance!
XP Gained: 1200
XP Reward: 800
You discovered that the Braithe Border Fort has been attacked by an unknown entity. End the entity’s threat, by whatever means.”
The Mistchild Valerie regarded me with swirling eyes of mist that quickly resolved to their golden glow as she fully formed. She nodded to the guards to step aside and advanced on me.
One of the guards spoke up as they all stood at attention, “M’lady this infiltrator dispatched one of our guards here,” gesturing to the empty stone where the dead guard had already dissipated back into the mist, “before trying to escape from the battlements.”
Her eyes and expression showed no signs that she recognized me. Seeing no chance to escape I let my weapons drop to the stones and held up my hands. Mist Valerie regarded me for a long moment before nodding to the nearest guard and growling, “Bind him, and if he does anything out of line the amount of force you choose to correct it, is up to your discretion. I wish to speak with this prisoner in the guard captain’s office.”
