TQG 65

65. Bathwater

The silent black whirlwind of the nexus appeared in the center of the village as I approached it, and when I finally reached it I received the notification that I had gained a new Recall Point, and that the Fast Travel network was once again available.  I sighed in relief, but I was in no hurry to leave the small village I’d arrived in moments ago.  I had already passed its name on to the guild, and it was here where I would meet up with my protectors once more.

However, they had a significant amount of ground to cover, as the northern reaches of Yuikon are not commonly visited by Travelers.  There simply were not enough dungeons, lairs, or quests to draw the visitors from Earth, and so the region was largely ignored by them.  I had been very surprised to see the travelers in the bandit blockade, and it troubled me greatly.  If the Travelers were turning to banditry and lawlessness, then it would be much harder to turn them back.

The original plan had been for us all to travel to my lands together and attune ourselves to the Recall Points along the way.  Some of the members of <Nethersong Mavericks> had managed to find a [Mage] who could portal them Ebbyvale, but were having trouble coordinating the migration.  Once they arrived, they planned to wait for me there.  My protectors from <Peasant’s Revenge>, on the other hand, had all immediately Fast Traveled to the nearest Recall Point that they had to my location and were swiftly flying to my side.

Which meant that all I had to do was wait for them.  I dismounted Shadow and patted his sweaty flanks.  “Looks like the inn is over there.  I’ll see you settled first, and then see about a bath for myself,” I told the horse, and he nickered in appreciation.

The stableboy offered to take the horse from me, but I insisted on brushing the stallion down myself.  I did accept his help in unsaddling the horse, and I appreciated his murmurs of adoration as he helped me brush the beast down.  Shadow seemed to understand that the boy appreciated his majesty almost as much as I did, and he seemed a little deliberate in his regal stance as he allowed us mere humans to see to his needs.

I was about to flip the stableboy a coin to rent the stall of the night when Shadow made the gesture unnecessary.  The massive stallion abruptly shifted, becoming darknessmanifest, and he vanished into my own shadow.  I jerked in surprise, as I had not known that he could do that.  I could sense him, there in my shadow, and I felt his unwillingness to be separated from me.  That suited me just fine, and I tried to send back a sense of affection and gratitude.  Shadow sent a sense of satisfaction with the arrangement, and I flipped the stableboy the coin anyway for his help.

It seems that Auroras’s claims that Shadow’s dame was a Nightmare wasn’t bluster after all.  While it was always possible to call a [Bonded Mount] even from vast distances, being able to keep him in my shadow was a great advantage which would serve me well.  While I was still upset with my great-uncle for the curse he had inflicted on me, and the week of captivity,I certainly could not complain about his other gift.  Shadow was twice the mount I would have been able to find on my own.

I left the stableboy gaping at the display of Shadow’s bloodline, giving him instructions to clean and polish the saddle for me to earn the coin I had given him, then I entered the inn.  The common room was mostly empty at this time of day, but the innkeeper had noticed my arrival and judged by my visit to his stable that I would be staying a while, so he was ready to meet me.

“How my I serve you, noble sir?  It is perhaps a little early to retire, but I have a fine roast in the kitchen, and ale or wine, if you’d like something to drink aside from water,” he offered.

“All of that, and a bath,” I said immediately.  “It’s been weeks since I’ve eaten anything that wasn’t poisoned.  I’ll take juice to drink.  I’d like something with a sweet flavor, but not something that will get me [intoxicated].”

“Of course,” the fat man agreed.  “And your clothes?  I do not mean insult, but, well, you are covered in mud.  I could arrange to have your clothes laundered and pressed for you while you, if you do not mind wandering around in a dressing robe until I can return them to you.”

“That sounds excellent,” I agreed.  “But the food first, I think.  I am famished.”

I tossed the innkeeper a golden coin, which he caught eagerly.  He motioned for me to sit wherever I pleased and vanished into the backroom.  I heard him shouting orders at someone to draw water for my bath, and he returned a moment later with my food.

The roasted mutton was delicious and savory.  The vegetables that went with it were somewhat less appetizing, being both burnt and soggy, but at least they were not poisoned.  I checked.  The meal came with a massive mug of cider, which I drank greedily.  It was not as good as the fare at Niles Inn in Eastmill, but it was satisfying and filling, and a vast improvement over the food Auroras had been giving me during my captivity.

Once I’d eaten my fill (and then some), I informed the innkeeper that I was ready for that bath now.  He brought me to an outbuilding, inside which five copper tubs were lined up and separated by curtains.  He explained to me that he had purchased the setup when he’d learned that Travelers often travel in groups of five, and yet to his disappointment the investment had never paid off.  One of the tubs was already filled with water.  When he informed me that the kitchen was boiling water to heat it for me, I simply waved my hand and told him not to bother with the effort.  Dipping my hand into the cool water, I used a bit of magic, and soon the bath was steaming.

“Magic is so convenient,” I commented.

“Indeed,” the innkeeper agreed, impressed by the display.  Either that, or he was simply grateful that I hadn’t blown up the bathhouse by mistake.

I pulled the curtain behind me and swiftly gave him my muddy clothes, including my dirty laundry from my inventory, before settling into the blissful embrace of the hot bath.  He vowed to return my property in a few hours and motioned towards a robe that I could use once I had finished my bath.  I settled in for a long soak.

~~~~~~~

I must have drifted off in the bath, because the water had cooled when I heard the voices outside of the bathhouse.  I frowned, recognizing the tone as those of a group of travelers, but they did not sound like my guardians from <Peasant’s Revenge>.

“Alright, so I’ll go in first, then you, Pete.  Make sure that you [Counterspell] him constantly so that he can’t get by us with his magic again.  Then everyone else, and Nickles will block the entrance,” someone said.

“You sure we should be doing this, Kent?” a nervous female voice asked.  “I mean, why not wait for him to come out on his own?”

“He’s been in there two hours according to the innkeeper,” Kent replied.  “Look, its fine.  It’s better this way, because he’ll be caught off balance and trapped.  We’ll ambush him, rob him, steal that mount of his, and then be gone, back with the others.”

“With a horse that has one-fifty percent movement,” a third voice said.  “Seriously, Banditry is the best gig ever.”

“Alright, here we go,” Kent said, and the door was kicked open.  The party of Travelers burst into the bathhouse.  The curtain was torn down, and they surrounded me, blocking off my exit.  I recognized them as some of the Travelers who had been in the bandit troupe from earlier, and I once more seethed in rage.  But I suppressed it as I considered my options.

“Would someone kindly hand me my robe?” I asked.  “Or are you perhaps here to help me wash my back?”

“Look, kid, we don’t want to kill you,” the leader said.  “We just want that horse of yours.”

“And all the gold in your inventory,” another one added.

I [Analyzed] them all quickly, and was a little surprised.  One of them was level fifteen!  The highest leveled Traveler was level thirty-three.  There was a level thirty-one, and the other two were in their mid-twenties.  I had been caught by surprise and was outnumbered, but perhaps I could win if I --

I frowned, remembering my curse.  If I challenged them and lost, I would go back to level one.  If I capitulated, I would lose Shadow and however much gold it took to convince them that I had sincerely given them everything I had.  Either outcome would be a significant blow to my goals and my pride.  Which simply meant that I had to win.

I equipped the only clothing I had in my inventory, the [Bloody and Torn Rags], and I got out of the tub, feigning surrender.

“Wait, why were you wearing pants in the bath?” one of the thugs asked.

“Would you prefer that he wasn’t?” the female of the group asked.

“That’s not what I meant,” the man objected.  Before the conversation could proceed further, I pulled my [Gemos Longsword] from my inventory and imbued it with flames.  With [Piercing Lunge] and a followup [Slash], I slew the lowest level member of the party almost instantly.  I followed it up with a [Dazzling Lights], but the mage’s [Counterspell] got me before I managed to follow it up with a [Concussive Sound].

I turned on him next, [Dashing] through the group to get at him and unleashing a flurry of blows.  The bandits had apparently been confident of my capitulation and were completely caught off guard by the sudden violence.  Unfortunately, the element of surprise did not last long enough for me to kill the mage, although I judged I did get him down to a quarter of his health before the big brute of a leader swung his mace at me and I was forced to [Dodge] out of the way.

Unfortunately for the mage, their party lacked a healer.  He grabbed a Health potion from his inventory and dashed out of the bathhouse, which was a mistake.  He should have remained to keep my spell casting locked down.  Seeing the opportunity, I swiftly cast [Concussive Sound], and then during the duration of the stun [Polymorphed] the level thirty three warrior and [Slowed] the other two.  Those three were all melee warriors of some sort, and I judged that the mage was my greatest threat, so I charged out of the bathhouse in pursuit of him.

He tried to surprise me with a [Fireball], but I had switched from [Imbue Sword: Fire] to [Arcane Weapon], and a slash of my long sword dispelled the magic of his attack.  He would have been better off using a crowd control spell to get me back under control while the rest of his party recovered, but I took advantage of his mistake and closed the distance between us with [Piercing Lunge].  He blinked away and began casting again, but his [Fireball] was once again expended uselessly against my [Arcane Weapon].  I [Dashed] to close the distance and [Slashed] and [Thrust] and [Slashed] once more, and he burst into motes of red light.

The others burst out of the bathhouse, staring at me in shock.  They must have attacked the level thirty-three traveler to break him out of [Polymorph], but the duration of [Slow] was still ticking on the other two.

“I thought you said he was a mage,” the female player said.

“He is, he’s using magic,” the leader said.

“Yes, a magic sword, idiot.  Goddammit, this is that special En Pee See kid!” she said.  “I’m out.  Good luck, losers, I’m not about to fuck up my rep by killing a member of the royal family.”

She abruptly faded out of existence, returning to the space between worlds with a hard log out.  The other two Travelers looked at each other, then at me, and together they charged.

I hit them again with [Dazzling Lights] and [Slow], then went to work with my fire imbued sword.  To my surprise, it was not a difficult fight, despite being matched two against one.  Between their magical impairments, lack of cooperation, and subpar skill set, I could basically dance circles around them as I whittled their health down with my magical swordplay.  In fact, if I had been fully equipped, I’m confident that I would have ended the fight in half the time.  Wearing only a pair of ruined trousers that gave me no stats, I was lacking about twenty points to both my Dexterity and Intellect, which were my primary stats for increasing my damage dealt.

Compared to my spars with Corinth, or the elite Travelers of <Peasant’s Revenge>, defeating these two Travelers was easy.  I focused on the lower level opponent first for the simple fact that he would be naturally easier to kill, and when he burst into motes of red light, the leader turned and ran for his life.  Not content to let him off so easily, I mercilessly hit his fleeing form with [Empowered Fireballs] and [Lightning Bolts].  He too burst into red motes of light just before he got out of range.

Stowing my [Gemos Longsword] back in my inventory, I sighed in frustration.  Twice now I had been attacked.  In my own lands! The bandits may not have known it, but their reign of terror over North Shire was destined to come to a screeching end in the very near future.

Opening my status screen, I noticed at least one positive outcome from the encounter.  Killing the four Travelers had givenme twelve thousand Experience, and I was now 15421/16800 towards regaining level twenty-nine.  I hadn’t realized that killing Travelers would be lucrative in terms of Experience.  Much of those gains could be attributed to [Through the Valley of the Shadow], but even so, at a thousand experience or so per traveler, that was a hefty sum.  It would take killing a dozen or more Shadowspawn to gain that much.

That did not make killing Travelers an ideal way to level up, however.  Were I to go on a murder spree for such a purpose, there is little doubt that they would band together and put me down before I got very far.  Killing a few who had gone to banditry, however, would be perfectly within my right as the lord of this land.  Perhaps this infestation was not entirely to my detriment.