Chapter 17: Ta’Lahr

 

“Pleasse, don’t leave sso ssoon.” The same voice speaks to us. Where is it coming from? I look left and right until my eyes land onto a disgusting chair made of the skulls of other kobolds. “I have invited you here today to let you be my messsengerss.” It is a kobold. A kobold speaking English? Are you kidding me?

Not any kobold, though, by the looks of it. Setting apart the obvious, namely that it talks and that it’s sitting on a freaking trone, there is nothing ordinary about it. It is bigger than its kin, and unlike them, it stands straight and proud, with its hunchback almost gone. It even has a blue cape hanging from its back and a crown on its head. Everything about it says ‘I’m the ruler here’.

“You invited us!?” Mike’s rage, or fear, or excitement, takes the best out of him. Unable to hold it, he bursts into a shout.

“But of coursse. Did you enjoy the pressentss on your way?”

“The presents? What are you talking about?” Presents? Does it mean, by any chance, all the kobolds we killed on our way? It would make sense. Why they weren’t trying to kill us by numbers. Why their formations made no sense. Why-

“My ssoldierss. They were guiding you towardss here.” Of course they were… They were bait. A cruel and barbaric way to lead us here. “My name iss Ta’Lahr, King of Kobolds.” As expected, we are in their throne room.

“Why are we here?” I take the word and ask it. It said we were its messengers. What does that mean?

“You musst take thiss message to your King.” King? The Governor? “Today sshall mark the expanssion of our kin. In three dayss from now, we sshall take all your petty town. And in 5 dayss, Irissgarth will fall.”

Immediately, the map comes back to my mind, with Draka explicitly drawn and marked. “Then, we will go and make yourself heard,” I say swallowing up my pent-up anger and refraining from calling it names.

“Go? I believe I can make you all get there fasster. Your welcome.” With a flicker of his finger, a volley of arrows like I have never seen rains upon us. The motherfucker wants to kill us! How can a monster know that we will resurrect at the city?

“BEHIND MEE!” Rand’s guttural shout resounds everywhere while his body bulks up and covers the three of us.

[Your party member Rand has died]
[Your spirit has vanished]

His action, albeit valiant, does nothing for us. A myriad of arrows pierces through his body, killing him there and then, even before I can cast a Heal.

“You can not let them see you, Mark!” Isha’s voice enters my mind, taking me out of my trance and clarifying what I should do next. I can’t expose my Specter form. I can’t die in front of them.

“Run for your lives!” I voice my last command today.

We all turn around and sprint with all our might. We don’t bother to look back. Whatever is coming after us, be it arrows, magic, or the kobolds themselves, we will die. “Run straight to the wall before the turn.” Isha’s voice reaches me once again. “Go through it and keep running. You will reach the city.”

[Your party member Mike has died]

Almost there!

[You have died]
[You have entered Stasis]

Come on! Come on! Inside! Run! Run!

[Your party member Lillia has died]

I died before getting there. Have they seen me? The thought lingers for less than a second as my mind goes back to the only thing that matters now. Run! For ten minutes straight, all my mind can think of is running. I don’t think they can follow me like this. There is no way they see inside the mountain, between the rocks, but still… maybe they have a mage that can? Run!

*Ring* *Ring* A call takes me out of my trance and panic. “Yes? Who is it?”

“It’s Rand! Where are you? We have all resurrected at the cathedral.”

“I can’t explain now, rendezvous with me at the city outskirts. West exit.”

“Are you alive?” His voice shows hesitation. “I saw the message of your death.”

“Long story! I’ll tell you once I’m there.” I know Lillia told me to keep quiet, but they already know the half of it. Plus, they are my friends, and I already promised I would reveal it to them.

“Okay, okay. How long?”

“Ten minutes from now!”

“See you!”

I keep on running as fast as I can. If I could, I would levitate and push myself out of here at lightspeed, but during Stasis I am useless.

Soon enough, light returns to me as I exit the mountain. I am indeed headed for the city. It is a wonder how Isha was capable of orienting herself inside there. Even more so given the commotion. Huh. Isha? Is she alive? She can’t have died there, right? And even if she did, she would respawn at the cathedral with the others, I guess.

There they are. “Hey! Coming!” I shout to let them know it’s me. It’s likely Dorian has already seen me, but just in case.

“Mark? Why are you in Specter form still? Are you… brighter?” Lillia asks while examining me from head to toes.

“Perks, or complications, of my class…”

“So?” Dorian inquisitively stares at me.

“Okay…” I let out a long sigh. “But you must promise me this will be kept between us. Nobody must know. Otherwise, I might as well quit the game.”

“You have my word. And mine. Mine too!” They all confirm at once.

“It’s like this,” I make time while trying to arrange my thoughts, “when I die, instead of resurrecting at the cathedral, my body gets into Statis. Basically, I’m locked down in Specter form for 12 hours, during which I can’t interact with anything physical nor cast spells.”

“How can you not revive at the cathedral? I don’t remember that being an option.”

“Yeah, well, Dorian… I am no longer connected, by any means, with Jonas. It is because of Jonas that you can resurrect. I am a heretic; the whole church would hunt me down.”

“That is… disconcerting. Jonas revives us?”

“Well, it was him who gave you your powers. You are more tied to him than you might realize.”

“Then your powers…”

“According to the class description, they emerge from me. They truly are my own.”

“Can you break my bounds to him?”

“I… I’m not sure, to be honest. In my case, all I had to do was healing my soul while dead.” I pause, thinking if I could do that. “But that might not work... I think I was lucky, my connection with him wasn’t strong yet. Maybe Isha has an answer, I’ll try asking her.”

“Did she survive?”

“I’m not sure, and I can’t go inside the city like this. You three should go, find her, and tell the Governor what we saw and heard.”

“Okay, yes. We meet here tomorrow at 9!”

I exchange a few goodbyes with them and see them part. It seems like Dorian managed to save the cart and our merchandise. Not everything ended badly, at least.

So, let’s see how I am. Status!

[Status]
Name: Mark
Health: 100
Mana: 111

Inquisitor [13]
Materialize [5] +50% mp cost, +1(+2 L)%dmg/eff
Heal [6] -25mp, +20(+0.4 I)hp, 10(-4 L)s cd
Mana Drain [4] -5hp/s, target -5(+0.05 I)mp/s, +50(+3 L)% mp/abs
Levitate [2] -1mp/s
Invoke Spirit [1] -25%mp, spirit -20% phy, +20% mag

My mana is rising faster, but my health seems to be stuck at 100. I’m too fragile… I wonder if I will ever get more of it. I’m a caster class, after all, typically glass cannons in most games.

Well, I’d better log off now. There’s nothing to do here, and I’m risking accidentally exposing myself. Can this device be used to browse the boards? I don’t want to wake up just yet. I touch a few menus here and there and quickly confirm it is possible. I can either do it in-game or after logging off.

I choose the latter. My screen fades into black to quickly give way to the game’s forums. Let’s see what people are talking about. Any new hidden classes? I scroll until I find the post and check that everything’s still the same. Good for me.

Wild Beasts is recruiting at La’are

Already? I thought it would take longer for people to meet the requirements and establish guilds. I should check what Irisgarth demands to create a guild.

Best training zones to POWERLEVEL near Kvabar
Want to reach level 20 fast? Then read here!

We are not that far from level 20. Some people might be even beyond it, but I doubt their foundations are as good. If you level up too fast by exploiting your class’s advantages, like being ranged and farming slow-moving enemies, your skills will lack behind. Instead, we have been continuously facing stronger enemies.

Sightings of Kobolds
Lately, we have received several reports from townspeople near Irisgarth of rat-like monsters wandering their vicinities. They alone don’t pose a threat but be sure to [...]

Ah… they are already moving? I suppose we will have to let the word spread soon. Unless everyone is together in this, we won’t be able to stop them. And, even then, I don’t know what our chances are.

Huh? What is this?

War at Dominion
A group of sentient warthogs has recently launched an attack at the city of Dominion. Right now, it seems as if they are testing our defenses.
They launched several attacks with small groups, none of them managed to breach our fortifications.
We are afraid, however, that their main force is yet to come. We must unite against them!

We are not the only city being attacked? It can’t be a coincidence. I must warn Isha about it.