The Kartoss Gambit (The Way of the Shaman: Book #2) (37 page)

Three hours of walking around the woods brought me little joy. There were no wolves or goblins. The region seemed to lack any creatures altogether. It's like they all died out. I spent the rest of the day working a Marble vein, bringing my Mining up to level 33 and increasing Strength and Stamina by one. A little more, just a little, and I could offer Slate to mine his Iron Vein for him. I thought the smith would agree — what difference is it to him who gathers his materials?

Towards the end of the day I paid Tisha a visit and made arrangements for the evening. We had a rambling excursion after the mist monster planned. I decided not to tell them about Beth. First I'll catch her and have a chat with her, and only then decide what to do next.

I decided not to put the trap up near the house. If I caught my landlady right by the front door, she could say that she was just going for a walk, and I, that good-for-nothing, was hindering her in that. Instead, I went straight to the cemetery and set everything up right in front of the entrance. Now any creature of level 150 inclusive is as good as caught.

When darkness descended on Beatwick there came the sound of steps. Lighting her way with a candle, Beth carefully made her way to the cemetery. So then... why her? Why does she need to summon this horror on the village? Is it revenge against the Headman? That's simply daft. Perhaps it's....

"Oh," like a fly caught in the web, Beth was being encased in the bone trap. Suddenly the night was shaken by her scream: "Mahan, don't! Stop! You don't know what you're doing! Relea..." the bone trap had reached her head and Beth's shout was cut off. I waited for a couple of minutes, making sure that the prison was holding my landlady securely and went back to Beatwick. The time had come to tell Tisha that there won't be any beast tonight.

After a dozen steps I stopped. Or, rather, I was stopped. By two red eyes and mist covering the monster from every side. What the... ? Didn't I catch Beth before she summoned you? Where did you come from? The hot breath of the beast could be felt even a meter away. After standing for a few seconds next to me, a moment later it shifted to the cocoon containing Beth. Having circled it, the monster lifted its misty head and the hairs on my back stood up. The beast was laughing. An evil, satisfied laugh. It was sentient! It was no demon! It was something else.

"YEESSS!" a triumphant, squeaky voice with metallic notes in it shook the night. It can speak too! What the heck is this? "TWO YEARS! TWO YEARS I COULD NOT DESTROY HER. THE MASTER WAS GROWING VERY DISPLEASED. THANK YOU SHAMAN! YOU HELPED! FOR THAT I WILL SEND YOU TO THE GREY LANDS WITHOUT PAIN. MASTER WILL REJOICE!" I had no time to respond, when the beast jumped to me, there came the flash of its claws and a moment later the world was gone. There was one small comfort — the beast told no lie: there really was no pain this time, at least of the physical kind.

In connection with your death, your level of Experience has been reduced by 30%...

I'll start losing levels at this rate! Bright sunshine lit the bone trap that blocked the entrance to the cemetery. And what will I say to Beth now?

"Quick, there may still be time to stop them!" strange shouts came from the direction of Beatwick.

"Did you see? They turned into goblins! Dark ones!"

"We have to send a messenger to Farstead! How will we survive without the herd?"

"What's with the guards? Still alive?"

"Alive, thank the gods. Where have they taken the herd?"

"What happened with the neighbors? Did you see how they changed? What if they turn into goblins too?"

Right, something happened in the village, by the looks of it something unpleasant. Did goblins attack and chase away the herd? I have to find Tisha and find out. But first, Beth.

"..se me!" the woman finished her shout as soon as the trap fell apart. "Is it day already!?" Beth looked around, rather lost, and then started to scream at me again: "What have you done?!"

"Beth, let me explain...."

"I'm no 'Beth' to you. Forget that name! Happy now, 'demon fighter'?! Thanks to you darkness has come to our village!"

"What are you on about?"

Shouts kept coming from the direction of Beatwick. Beth was silent for a few moments, listening to them, then her eyes narrowed and she looked at me angrily.

"Last night three families from our village turned into dark goblins. Six adults and seven children. Is this what you wanted when you hunted me? Well, you can be happy now! You got what you wanted!"

"What are you on about? Beth, I don't get you!"

"Don't you dare use that informal tone with me, boy! For two years I protected our village from a dark curse. Only thanks to me are the residents of the village still human. But you went and with a wave of the hand brought it all to naught. Who are you?! Did the Dark One send you?"

"I don't understand what you're talking about."

Elizabeth took several deep breaths, calming down, and then continued in a distracted tone:

"Two years ago, straight after the death of my husband, someone began to put a Curse on the village. At first its weakest residents had succumbed to it. You saw them: they resemble apes, but are still human. When they became incapable of work that required any thinking, they were sent to cut the grass. They aren't capable of doing anything more demanding than that. I thought it strange that three families started to deteriorate at once, so I decided to put a blessing on the village every week. It helped. The villagers and their animals stopped changing, but gradually the land itself began to change. It became cursed. I wrote to everyone I could think of, but no-one replied to my letters. I warned the Headman, but he only promised to look into it and no more. I wanted to go to the town myself, but the ban... But it's not about me now. For two years I stood in the path of darkness, despite the attacks of the mist beast. And today in one go you destroyed everything I worked so carefully to preserve. Three households have vanished from the face of Beatwick and the residents of the others have begun to turn into goblins — only because of you! Do you understand now what you have done?"

"Why didn't you tell me anything? I would've helped you!"

"And, who are you? A sleek favorite of the Herald? How can you help me in protecting the village? Besides, how did I know who it was that the Headman, only good for empty promises of help, sent to my house? There is no-one I can trust! Even my workers I had to hire in Anhurs and bring them all the way here! Without an amulet I cannot discover who it is, but I know that a Dark One resides in Beatwick. It could be anyone! Even you!"

"But, I only..."

"Enough! I forbid you to enter my house! I forbid you to speak to my children! I forbid you to even to as much as look in my direction! I curse the moment I agreed to take you into my house!"

Elizabeth turned around and went to the village and a very interesting message hung before my eyes:

Your reputation with the priestesses of goddess Eluna has fallen by 1000 points. Current level: Mistrust. You are 1000 points away from the status of Neutral.

Goddess Eluna... The head of Barliona's pantheon, who are staunch enemies of Kartoss. And now I have Mistrust with her priestesses. I don't think I feel so good...

"T
isha, can you tell me what happened here?" after pulling myself together, I returned to the village, where I immediately came across Tisha. She and other villagers were busy trying to fix the gate: at the moment it was completely ripped out and lying in a ditch.

"Mahan, I'm sorry, I really have no time now," she quickly said as she rushed around. "Hold the pole! Begin attaching it now! One-two!"

Seeing that I wasn't going to get anywhere with the Headman's daughter right now, I went over and helped to fix the fallen gate. Judging by the damage, it had been brought down from the inside. When the gate was returned to its place and a couple of carpenters started to get it back into shape, I tried to speak to Tisha gain.

"What happened here?"

"Oof, that wore me out," after wiping her brow and fixing her hair the girl continued: "no-one knows what happened. This morning members of four households suddenly turned into goblins. They let the entire herd out of the enclosure and drove it towards the exit. The stupid animals went in a straight line and took out the gates in their path. But the gates we can fix. The main problem is that we have no cows now. The entire hundred-strong herd, which we so carefully protected from predators, was spirited away by six adult goblins in five minutes. It's enough to make you lose heart. How?! How could they transform like that? It's impossible!"

"Nothing is impossible in this world," the Headman joined us before we saw him. "Mahan, I cannot send anyone after it — we are peaceful villagers, not warriors. Help us to get the herd back. The village will not survive without it!"

Quest available: "Returning the Herd"

Description: Beatwick villagers that turned into goblins have driven away a herd of cows. Catch up with them and bring back the cows. Quest type: Scenario. Reward: Variable, depending on the degree of success. Penalty for failing/refusing the quest: Variable, depending on degree of failure.

"I will help you. I will run after and return the stolen herd right away," my jaw nearly hit the floor when I saw the conditions of the quest. Now you could be sure that the Corporation has launched some sort of a scenario in Beatwick. But why here, right in the middle of nowhere? There are practically no players here! And it even came with a variable reward or penalty. It looks like a special Imitator will be tracking the progress of this quest and will make a decision depending on my actions. What a 'lively' neighbourhood I ended up in.

"Can I have a horse? I would catch up with them faster this way."

"Unfortunately, no. My sons have galloped out of the village when it was still night, when we realised that the mist monster disappeared. So you will have to go on foot, there are no other horses in the village," the Headman shrugged, looking somewhat dismayed.

There was no point in dropping by Elizabeth's place to pick up my things. After that incident in Pryke, when I was robbed by other prisoners, I carried everything with me. But when I'm back I will certainly have a talk with Beth. I don't care if she forbade me to visit her — attractiveness didn't go anywhere, only the reputation was reduced. It's time we had an honest heart-to-heart. I didn't get a message telling me I was barred from the house — that meant there was no risk of penalty. Moreover, I couldn't shake off the feeling that the strange behaviour of the priestess was scripted into the scenario. I took a deep breath and ran after the herd. The goblins were about five hours ahead of me, but they moved slowly, so catching up with them wasn't too hard. The main problem would be how to deal with the six newly-hatched minions of Kartoss. Nor should I forget about the eight children. It's just in the real world children can't do anything, in Barliona even a toddler with 100 levels would thump me into the earth all the way up to my ears.

I found running a surprisingly easy task. Ever since I had replaced Stamina rings with Intellect rings, I had little cause to notice the Energy decrease very much. It was always at the maximum, so at first I could maintain the speed of a good horse. However, after twenty minutes of running I acquired a 23-hour buff 'Run-down Horse', which slowed Energy regeneration by 20%, while every twenty minutes this percentage consistently grew — by the same 20%. This meant that by the end of the first hour of the run I decided to stop and catch my breath. Minus 60% to Energy regeneration did not permit the rings to restore this stat in sufficient amounts. The upside was that I have already ran quite a long distance and even gained an achievement:

Achievement earned! Runner Level 1. The running time without acquiring the 'Run-down Horse' buff is increased by 25 minutes. The next level gained: after the buff is incurred 9 times.

While I was running, I tried not to fill my head with too many thoughts, but now, as I dropped into a walk, questions began to arise in my mind. First — why didn't the goblins run for the Free Lands, where hiding the herd would have been much easier and there was plenty of space for Kartoss forces to hide. Instead, they took the road that headed straight to Farstead. They turned off it from time to time, but always came back to it. Strange behaviour from the freshly-minted green minions. Have they started a migration to Kartoss or something? They won't be able to just stroll through the Empire like that: they'll be caught at the nearest settlement with any players in it.

I summoned Draco to keep me company. The last session with Clouter only raised my Totem to level 36. Looks like the idea of levelling up the Dragon with the help of the kid had played itself out. Draco was no longer a child, but a normal adolescent, who would get bored with just running around the yard. What do teens do? Who knows…

I entered the Spirit summoning mode and continued to go down the road constantly hitting my Tambourine. While my Energy regenerated, I could level up in Spirituality — no sense in wasting time. And I haven't even looked properly into Draco's settings, although my hands were itching to do just that.

Three hours spent with the Dragon flew by in an instant. I increased my Spirituality to level 14; if I understood the description correctly, from level 20 I would be able to summon one Spirit of a different Element without a penalty. Great. Draco flicked his tail and returned to his world and I, my Energy restored, sped after the goblins.

"Hold it there!" a rough voice brought me back to reality. I became so lost in thought that I even stopped looking around as I walked.

"Are you deaf or wot?" I finally turned around, when I realised the voice was coming from behind. The bright red glow of the names above the heads of the three players obligingly informed me who it was I ran across: PKers. From level 120 to 205. What did these goons want?

"That's him, right?" the highest level player turned to one of the others.

"He's got the right nick. But where's the red headband? The Merchant mentioned it several times!"

"Yo! You from Beatwick?" that was addressed to me now.

"No. From Farstead. Finished a quest and coming back now," yeah, like I'll tell them all the truth this very minute. Being rude to PKers, especially of this level, is not a good idea: they'd send you for respawn at the drop of a hat and I had a herd to return. But being honest with them when they seem to have found out about my red headband somehow... My intuition told me it wasn't such a good idea. By the way, where the heck was the damned thing when I was catching Beth? Went completely shtum on me.

"Tiger, get him, don't let him slip off," said the head of this threesome, and then turned back to me. "We'll just quickly check, whether it's you or not, and then let you go," Dartoonian's face sported an evil grin. He could have at least written his name correctly, stupid bastard. "On the ready check."

"Ready," the player who was called 'Tiger' replied, though his full name came up as Tigerrat.

"Then let's roll," the boss got off his horse and headed towards me. I don't get it — what kind of nasty stuff did they have in mind?"

"Dart, leave a bit for me," the third player in this little show put in. Lanus. You didn't even have think of giving him a rude nickname, it was practically suggesting itself.

Everything that happened after this only took about a couple of seconds. At first I was given a buff 'Pain suppression', which reduced the sustained damage by 50% for 30 seconds and prevented me from being sent off for respawn while it was active. A useful ability to support the tank when the raid is bringing down a boss. Then Dartoonian dropped on me with his entire 205-level weight and started to shred my character, hitting me with the dagger, his feet, head and armour spikes. I held out until the last, having realised what this PKer was trying to do. He wanted to check if I could feel pain or not. What a scumbag! I broke after only twenty seconds, though they seemed an eternity to me, and screamed.

"Theeeere! Now we know!" said the leader slowly, getting up. I remained lying on the ground, fitfully gulping air. Damn! "You can tell us later how you got rid of the headband, or, rather, where you found that much cash. But now, listen here. I have come by information that you have a certain very interesting object. The Eye of the Dark Widow. I need it. Or do you want to find out what real pain feels like?"

There was a clap of the teleportation portal and a Herald appeared next to us.

"Good day, gentlemen. How do you like the weather around here? Don't you find that the sun in this region has such a special glow to it?"

"My salutations, Herald," Dartoonian bowed his head. "How can we be of service?"

"Oh, just a sheer trifle. Someone here mentioned pain in relation to a former resident of a mine. Regrettably for you, I cannot allow this. This is against the rules."

"Hold on, Herald. You are confusing something. This is an ordinary free citizen here. Is it no longer allowed to hunt free citizens in Barliona? Is this your official answer?" That leader's no fool. He didn't lose his nerve in front of such a high-ranking guest, is sticking to his guns and even trying to gain some advantage from it all.

"No, not a tall. Hunting is not forbidden. But torture is not allowed in Barliona. With the exception of those who descend the torture dungeons of their own accord: they know what they're getting into. Remember this. If I find out that someone was torturing a free citizen, measures would have to be taken. Thank you for your time. Good luck with your adventures in Barliona," the Herald went back into the portal, which then vanished with a loud bang.

"Dart, what are we gonna do now?" asked Lanus, stunned. "Did we trudge all the way out here for nothing?"

"Chill it. My bad. I forgot that those that leave the mines are being closely watched. Yeah, we can't torture him, but no-one said we can't play with him a little," Dart gave me a very unpleasant look. "Tiger, don't attack him — your turn to play nurse now. And restore him to full health or he'll drop at the first sneeze. If we can't get our way directly, we'll find a workaround."

At first I didn't get what he was on about, but once I heard Dart's shout, I understood:

"Attention all players! We are planning to carry out training exercises with AoE spells within a three-kilometre radius. I politely ask everyone to leave this zone. Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience. Lan — you can start now. Show us your proficiency with Ice Rain. You can summon it over there, if you like," Dart pointed in my direction.

"All right. Just a moment," Lanus replied in the same tone. "I've had a feeling that something wasn't quite right with my rain for a while now. Take a look and tell me what I'm doing wrong."

At that moment an apocalypse began next to me. Icicles started to fall from the sky, my movement speed was reduced by 70% and my hit points crashed.

"Careful," shouted Tiger, in the same showy manner. "I think we accidentally hit a player! Let me heal him now!"

"Guys, have you totally lost it?" when the rain stopped I got back on my feet. This was really a bit much. I couldn't jump away, since the rain froze me to the ground, I couldn't run, because it felt like someone was holding you and it hurt like hell too. The bastards. The rain left me with only one Hit Point, but the damned buff slapped on me by the 'friendly' Tiger, prevented me from being sent for respawn. Well, they can kiss my ass. I started looking around for a tree or a stone. I'll crash into it and that's the last you gits will see of me.

"Tiger, patch him up. It's not good leaving a player in such a state when it's all our fault," the scumbags were having fun while they were at it, relishing their little victory. And why not? They did, after all, declare this place a test zone, asking everyone to leave it. So if you weren't quick enough, you had only yourself to blame. And when they did accidentally hit a player, they healed him up right away. That's some imaginative thinking. I'll kill these sickos.

One spell uttered by Tiger restored everything: Hit Points and Energy and removed the 'Run-down Horse' debuff too. I should experiment with the Spirits later, removing this debuff would be very useful. Right, if I could still think, not all was lost.

"Mahan. You don't happen to have the Eye on you? It would be so nice if you gave it to me as a present. My birthday is in half a year and it would make just the perfect gift."

"What on earth makes you think I have it? Have you tried using your head? I'm only level twenty one! I live in the middle of nowhere!"