The Newt and Demon

Theo enjoyed his soak in the pool for as long as he could. He wasn’t as eager to get into the Dreamwalk as he was in the past, owing to his ever-growing cores. [Drogramath Herbalism Core] was at level 15, [Drogramath Alchemy Core] at level 16, with his [Tara’hek Core] at 17. His [Governance Core] hit 12 during the day, but it wasn’t enough to tip his personal level over to 15. It was on the edge, but not there yet. During his soak, he took time to inspect his cores, making a mental note of his progression.

[Drogramath Alchemy Core]

Legendary

Alchemy Core

Bound

3 Slots

Level 16 (10%)

[Alchemy Core] given to the descendants of Drogramath.

Effect:

+5 Wisdom

[Unstable Material Handling]

[Drogramath Herbalist Core]

Rare

Herbalist Core

Bound

3 Slots

Level 15 (12%)

[Herbalist Core] given to the descendants of Drogramath.

Effects:

+5 Vigor

[Tara’hek Core]

Legendary

Tara’hek Core

Bound

3 Slots

Level 17 (45%)

[Tara’hek] cores are given to those who accept a Marshling life-partner. You cannot change the skills inside the core, or remove it at any time.

Effect:

+6 Strength

+2 Vigor

[Governance Core]

Legendary

Administration Core

Unbound

3 Slots

Level 12 (2%)

Advanced [Administrator] core, reserved for leaders.

Innate Skills:

[Command Structure]

[Titles]

[Automatic Books]

Effects:

+3 Intelligence

The first thing to note was the importance of attributes that came from cores. The [Governance Core] grew at a slower rate, adding less to his [Intelligence], but that was a tradeoff. It came with several skills from the start, giving him a massive advantage of not having to dump precious skill points into the core. When a core hit a multiple of 10, it got a free skill in that domain. That was easy enough to understand, and without that quirk of the system, it would be impossible to fill each core. He also got a free skill every multiple of 5 with his personal level. A new skill slot opened on every 10th level, adding to the problem.

The issue was, he didn’t have enough skills to fill his core slots. That was a problem for another day, but his mind was locked on exploring constructs. His personal level was so close to the edge of 15, granting him both a free attribute point and a free skill, that he couldn’t wait any longer. Theo made a plan for the Tara’hek’s Dreamwalk, a plan to grind herbalism until his hands bled. Otherwise, it was important to slow down on the alchemy in the Dreamwalk. What they really needed was another threat to elevate the [Tara’hek Core], giving it a safe lead on his Drogramath-aligned cores.

Zarali had opinions about this, but she was more cautious than normal.

“I see the wisdom in your thoughts,” she said, placing a wet washcloth on her head and letting out a sigh. Theo couldn’t even remember how long they’d be in the bath. The sun was down, that much he knew.

“I thought you’d be all about embracing the Demon,” Tresk said, emerging from under the water.

Zarali seemed lost in thought, cradling her chin in her hand. She splashed the water at the Marshling as she thought. Tresk took this as a declaration of war, splashing back as though it were a personal slight. She only stopped when the priestess went to talk again.

“You’re a unique case,” Zarali said, gesturing to the webwork of marks on Theo’s chest. The mark that alerted the fanatics of the Burning Eye of any demonic activity.

Theo had noticed that she never pressed the issue. She allowed him to wear both their pendant and the mark without concern. His intuition was enough to say that was odd, seeing as she was aligned deeply with the Demonic Lord. That struck an odd chord from the start, resonating in his mind since his adoptive sister arrived in town. She was nothing like what he expected, even for someone grieving her lost brother. But there was the key to it all. This wasn’t really his body. It was repurposed.

“If this is all part of Drogramath’s plan,” Theo said, letting out a heavy breath, “why does another god need to interfere to make it work.”

“He hasn’t told me,” Zarali said. She seemed frustrated by that fact. “Understand the way the heavens work. Time works differently there. Slower. Imagine the attributes the gods have. Tens of thousands of points into [Intelligence]. They can press their fingers into the world, and cause a million events to occur.”

Theo was done with thinking of heavy thoughts for the night. He never saw his path as a razor’s edge, but as guided. Things worked out so far, so he wouldn’t change them. Even with the power of the Tara’hek, he couldn’t be confident that it could hold back Drogramath’s influence. Not yet.

“Which brings us to other matters,” Zarali said, pointing at Theo’s chest. “Your herbalism core sucks.”

“Did you teach her that?” Theo asked, looking at Tresk. He’d never heard the priestess say anything as crude as sucks.

“I did,” Tresk said, grinning.

“You’re a bad influence.”

“For the aligned cores, it’s harder to upgrade,” Zarali said. “You need a priest or priestess from the god, a good amount of their raw power, and some ingredients.”

“Hey, look!” Tresk shouted, pointing at Zarali. “A priestess!”

“Exactly,” Zarali said.

“What are the chances that this makes my condition worse?” Theo asked.

“Should be fine,” Zarali said.

Shortly after that declaration, they were kicked out of the bathhouse. An attendant arrived, informing them that the path was closing for the night. The trio left reluctantly, making their way to their respective homes. Zarali went back to Xol’sa’s tower. The only shocking thing about that being the wizard still had his portal open. Tresk and Theo returned to the Newt and Demon, settling in for the night and the Dreamwalk.

Tresk wanted to pick the bathhouse again, but Theo refused. She answered by summoning a few monsters to attack him, a mix of Trolls and Goblins, but his current strategy worked for them as well as it did assassins. The pair split off for half the night, the alchemist tending to imagined plants in the Canadian wilderness, and Tresk battling an endless horde of skeletons. Halfway through the night, he joined back with her to help her fight. She was shocked, at first, but then realized he was just trying to get more experience in their shared core.

“Is that all I am to you?” Tresk asked, folding her arms and shaking her head. “A walking core?”

“Would it offend you if I said yes?” Theo asked.

“Nothing offends me,” she said, looking grumpy.

Tresk fought in a hit-and-run style. She’d jump from the shadows, apply poison to a monster, then flee. Her current training exercise exposed the weakness in that plan. If she couldn’t apply poison to something, she had a hard time dealing with more than one. This was the first time Theo realized how important poisons were to her strategy. Without them, a few skeletons were enough to overrun her. They went back and forth for a while, trying to bridge the gap with skill or tactics, but nothing worked.

“I need better poisons,” Tresk said, throwing her imagined daggers to the ground.

“You need different poisons,” Theo said. “The Dreamwalk is too limited for me to take two steps to make a new thing.”

“What?”

“I’ve never brewed the truffles into a modifier,” Theo said. “But I’m guessing I can modify your standard poison to stop undead.”

“Yeah, we should just make me a bunch of situational poisons,” Tresk said, nodding. “A poison for every occasion.”

Tresk blustered often, but that was a good plan. A poison for mages, for undead, perhaps even specialized poisons that affected families of monsters specifically. If his first line of defense was his companion, then she needed to carry as many poisons as she could. They switched topics, Theo coaching her on the use of the two specialized poisons they had.

“[Accelerated Decay] [Poison] is your current standard poison,” Theo said, producing a bottle of the poison for her to inspect. This poison just made the poison stronger. “But [Desiccate] could be useful.”

“I can dry people up,” Tresk said with a shrug. “How can that be useful?”

“If your enemy is too high of a level,” Theo said. “You can’t bridge the gap in skill or power, but you can dry them up. Large enemies might be a problem, but this could work for smaller ones.”

“I’m not seeing it as useful,” Tresk said.

“Maybe not,” Theo said. “But the alignment effect on the new poisons can apply 2 instances of the poison. Double the desiccation. Besides, this is an example of what we can expect. I think [Anti-Mage] and [Hallow Ground] are going to be the most useful for now.”

“Yeah, plus Fenian is acting all weird with the mushrooms,” Tresk said, rubbing her wet head. “We should expect an undead invasion tomorrow.”

That was ‌good advice when dealing with Fenian’s plans. They came together like a hurricane, appearing just off the horizon before Theo could prepare. But there was nothing he could have done about it then. His truffles were cultivating, and they’d soon have enough to start large-scale production. Until then, the alchemist wanted Tresk to run other combat drills.

“What happens when you lose your daggers,” Theo said, snatching them away from her. She looked offended, grabbing them back.

“I get ‘em back!” she shouted.

Theo withdrew a potion from his inventory, gaining a sudden boost of [Dexterity]. He grabbed the daggers away again and threw them far into the distance. Tresk looked even more offended by that, but without warning he struck her in the face. The Marshling stumbled backward, a look of sheer horror on her face.

“You hit me!” she shouted.

“No daggers,” Theo said, dropping into a combat stance and raising his hands. It had been a long time since he’d done this. “What do you do?”

“I’m gonna smack you is what I’ll do,” Tresk said, coming at him with no sense for what suitable form was. He planted a kick straight in her chest, sending her tumbling back.

Tresk wouldn’t learn a lesson if Theo told it to her. She was too hard-headed. The only way he’d get through to her was for her to channel her anger into something useful. His lesson here was that she couldn’t always rely on her daggers, not when she could be disarmed. She needed to learn how to fight with her fists and her feet when the time came. Only when the little Marshling came in, biting him on the leg, did he realize teeth were an option.

“Good,” Theo said, shoving her away. The damage they inflicted to each other here wasn’t like actual pain, more like an echo. “Again.”

Theo was almost as quick as Tresk by now. Her cores gave her a massive boost to her stats, but her gear was centered on enhancing poison effects. When she suggested she would just load their shared inventory with extra daggers, he denied her the escape and they fought. Old memories of hand-to-hand combat drills came back to the alchemist in those hours. Wonderful memories and terrible memories mingling together to create a tapestry to his old life. It was a catharsis he couldn’t have known he’d needed.

By the end of an hours-long training session, Tresk had the idea in her head. She combined her class’s skills with basic pugilism to bring the best out of both. Her hit-and-run tactics were on full display, and Theo was begging her to stop by the end. The point was made, and the Marshling learned.

“Now,” Theo said, coughing and hacking. He was out of breath, even in the Dreamwalk. “I like the idea of backup daggers.”

Tresk punched him in the face, bit his leg, and cackled. “Me too,” she said through a mouthful of flesh. “We should fight more.”

Theo wouldn’t deny her excitement about the friendly spar, even if she took it too seriously. He could feel the experience roll into their shared core. Besides that, these were valuable skills. They didn’t need to practice withdrawing daggers from the shared inventory. That was a very simple action. They just needed to get their hands on as many daggers as they could, eliminating two problems. Tresk would hold several daggers in reserve with no poison, and several that had the specialized poisons yet to be brewed. The Marshling could call on whatever she needed at a moment’s notice, never having to stop to coat her weapons.

It took a while to keep Tresk from attacking him. He convinced her to dedicate a few hours every night to her training, which would grow more intense as they went on. Theo was allowed free use of all his potions, while Tresk was limited to her daggers and nothing else. They would alternate between armed and unarmed combat, just to make sure the information stuck. She took to this plan well, as though she only just realized this was a safe place for her to pummel her companion.

Theo spent the rest of their time in the Dreamwalk tending reagents, but brewing no potions. He even spotted Tresk drilling her unarmed combat with Goblins in the distance, hiding among the trees and the snow. She was modest enough to admit it was a good idea, but then the alchemist considered the weight that was placed on her. When he met her, she was trying to get out from under her father’s yoke. Throk didn’t want her to be an adventurer, but it was her dream. Now she was the best adventurer in a growing town, and that gap between her and others was closing. Perfection often came at a cost, but then again, the others didn’t have access to this amazing training tool.

When the night ended, the morning sun was already shining through the window. Tresk ordered Theo to get to work on her new poisons, running off to grab breakfast from Xam. He didn’t have the heart to tell her the poisons wouldn’t be as potent as they could be. Without a stock of cultivated [Widow Lily], or [Anti-Mage] modifier essence, it would be weaker than a perfected version. Still, he humored her.

Theo had a fair amount of un-refined [Anti-Mage] modifier essence lying around and several unmodified [Poisons]. As he laced the poison with the modifier, he watched the reaction. It glowed with a soft, blue light, only bubbling slightly under his expert hand. He inspected the result before Tresk was even back with breakfast.

[Poison]

[Anti-Mage]

[Poison] [Modified Poison]

Epic

Created by: Belgar

Grade: Excellent Quality

Alignment:

Drogramath (Middling Bond)

Coat your weapon to deal additional damage over time to an enemy.

Chance to inflict 2 stacks per hit.

Effect:

Cripples an enemy, reducing their Dexterity by 5.

Applies a stacking DOT effect based on poison quality. Maximum 15 stacks. Poison inflicts DOT damage. Targets inflicted with this poison take 1 point of damage for every mana spent, multiplied by the amount of stacks. This applies to ongoing spells cast before the poison was applied.

Stacks of poison take twice as long to fade.

Removing a stack of poison through any means other than the natural expiration of the effect causes the remaining stacks of poison to explode, dealing their remaining damage to the target.

Now there was a poison built for killing mages. The active casting description was bad enough, but if the [Anti-Mage] effect also inflicted damage for ongoing spells, that was devastating. This was all combined with the nightmarish DOT damage that was already devastating to any target. Tresk arrived shortly after the poison was done, withdrawing food and tea from the shared inventory.

“You’re done? Already?” Tresk asked.

“I had this stuff on hand,” Theo said, sliding the potion across the table for her to see. She let out a low whistle, then stuffed it in her personal dimensional storage sack. “This isn’t even as strong as it can get.”

Tresk was already impressed with what he produced. The promise for more devastation was enough to make her giddy with excitement. They ate breakfast, discussing the progress they had made in the Dreamwalk. The [Tara’hek Core] got more experience than normal while they were asleep, marking the usefulness of spending more time together in there. The Marshling declared she would spend the entire day away from Theo, delving dungeons and killing monsters.

Theo had plans to perform more town-related tasks today, but his gardens needed tending. He made an offering at his shrine, then ran the tasks for the day through his mind. The Elven Guardian out front should have been taken care of by now, but if it wasn’t he’d need to shuffle people around. His new administration staff needed direction, he knew that out of instinct, but it wasn’t anything Alise couldn’t handle. He mostly wanted to check in on that front. Azrug might need encouragement for his new position, and prodding to get a new person to man the store at the Newt and Demon. All of this hung in his mind, even as Tresk pressed her forehead against his.

Theo was eager to spend more time with his people, as the people of Broken Tusk had truly become his. They were building a new culture, something not seen before on the continent. It was a place where anyone with a strong back and determination could make a life for themselves. Away from the horrid guilds with their archaic mindsets. Above all else, it was a place to be free.

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