The Companions of Tartiël (41 page)

We bid him a good night, and for about an hour, the three of us sat largely in silence, poring over the many volumes of D&D books, seeking useful magic items. I was much enamored of my newest addition to my small collection, the
Magic Item Compendium
, which contains—surprise—an enormous assortment of magic items, from the humble
blessed bandage
at 10 gp to the majestic
vest of the archmagi
at 200,000 gp, the thought of which makes every player of a wizard salivate.

Matt settled on his new gear relatively quickly. He was planning on having Wild take a prestige class
^[37]
called the Master Thrower, a class devoted to throwing small weapons with deadly results. As such, he stocked up on magical daggers for throwing. We had also run into a lot of poison and other ability damage-dealing enemies (Luna’s poison darts, poisoned traps, Sayel’s rending blow to Caineye’s heart), and we often found ourselves at a loss to be able to heal such damage. Caineye, being a druid, only had access to the least powerful of spells useful in curing such damage—and he couldn’t be counted on to memorize
^[38]
enough such spells every day. So, after consulting me about this problem, I found two useful items in my
Magic Item Compendium
: a
rod of bodily restoration
, which would allow us to cure a certain amount of ability damage to our Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution scores each day, as well as a small pendant called a
lesser armor crystal of stamina
. This handy device we later upgraded to the “greater” version, but this one, when attached to our magical armor, granted us a +3 bonus on saving throws against disease and poison. Wild and Kaiyr both bought these items; Caineye, who would gain immunity to poison in three levels, decided the investment wasn’t worth the return.

Xavier did, however, discover that he was finally able to purchase some quality armor. A character’s Dexterity score affects a character’s armor class, and Caineye’s score was not high at all. He had been wearing light armor, with a low armor bonus but which had lots of headroom for a high Dexterity score (heavier armor restricts the bonus one receives from his Dexterity). He had found the armor he wanted much earlier but had not had the funds to purchase it, and even when he did, we were busy dealing with the drama kings and queens aboard the
Flaring Nebula
.

Druids are unable to wear metal armor because they worship nature. This restriction obviously excludes most heavy armor, such as plate mail. Further, druids are not proficient in the use of heavy armor, having access only to light and medium. While Xavier could have had Caineye take a feat (and he would only get eight of these over the course of twenty levels) to become proficient in its use, it just wasn’t worth it.

So, he found something that fit the bill. Called
dragoncraft full plate
, it was full plate armor crafted not from metal, but from the scales and hide of (in this case) a bronze dragon. The trick to it was that
dragoncraft
armor is considered one weight category lighter than normal, thus allowing the heavy-type full plate to be considered medium armor, and thus less restrictive. It is this armor which would carry Caineye through the rest of this campaign and for a long time afterward.

However, the armor alone cost 11,000 gp, leaving him with little to spend on other trinkets. But, after selling some unused gear, he found that he had several thousand more and bought a magic rod that would let him double the duration of low-level spells, as well as a
periapt of wisdom +2
, which, as long as it was worn around his neck, increased his Wisdom score by 2—and thus his druid spellcasting ability.

As for myself, I had already found several items that piqued my curiosity, most of them smaller trinkets. In addition to the two items Kaiyr and Wild both purchased, I had my character equip himself with
gloves of dexterity +2
, which increased my attack bonus, my Reflex saves, and a few key skill modifiers I often used (praise the gods for Tumble checks). I also later worked out a magical enhancement to Kaiyr’s robes with Dingo. In order to reduce clutter and encumbrance weight, many characters invest in
bags of holding
or
Heward’s Handy Haversacks
, which are sacks and backpacks that are magically enchanted to be larger on the inside than the outside and which weigh a set amount, no matter how much their contents might weigh. Kaiyr, however, was not the type of character to carry a backpack, and in the tradition of blademaster subtlety, I kept things in his sleeves or tucked into the torso of his robes. So, in keeping with that trend, I had Kaiyr’s sleeves enchanted in a similar manner, though the carrying capacity of these would be much smaller than most other, similar items.

After a few other odds and ends, as well as another enhancement to my robes that granted Kaiyr a +1 bonus on all saving throws, I found a ring that caught my attention. Weighing in at 4,500 pieces of imaginary gold (which is about equivalent to 90 pounds of imaginary gold), it is known as a
ring of vengeance
. Being our party’s front-line fighter and general tank, I found myself the victim of many critical hits. For the most part, none of them had brought my hit points to dangerously low levels, but it would have been nice to avoid such mishaps. While this ring did not prevent these devastating blows, it did retaliate with damage of its own, and anyone critting Kaiyr in melee would take 5d6 damage in return.

Kaiyr never again suffered a critical hit. It was more bang for my buck than I would have ever expected.

*

“So,” I said as Dingo entered our dorm room the next week. “We ready to play? We’re just waiting on Matt now.”

Dingo nodded and set up his folding table, laptop, books, and dice. “Yeah, I’m ready to push this campaign forward with you guys.”

“I know,” I said, glancing over at Xavier, who, as was his wont, remained silent as he paged through his copy of
Complete Warrior
. “We haven’t played in, like, a week. What’s with this?” The three of us laughed; D&D groups tend to meet on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, though some only meet once a month or even less frequently. Our group was perhaps a bit unusual because all our players lived less than one round—I mean, two move actions—I mean, six seconds away from the others. We had the privilege of meeting two or even three nights a week, our schedules permitting.

“So,” I said after a few minutes of waiting, “Where’s Matt? He’s usually right on time.”

Dingo shrugged. “Not really sure. Maybe he’s making a CUB run. He wasn’t in his room when I went to the bathroom.”

At this, Xavier looked up. “You went to the bathroom in his room?”

Astonished, we both stared at him. “Dude,” I said, “That was
so
my line.”

“Ah, right,” he said, brushing his long hair out of his face. “My apologies,
Master Kaiyr
, for speaking out of turn.”

I snorted and played along. “Indeed, Master Caineye. When we want your input, we will remove your ball gag. Until then, shut up and bend over.”

Our room bounced and rattled with laughter, but we eventually calmed down and struck up a new conversation.

“You know,” I said to Dingo, “I still have to say, I’m impressed with the way this game’s going. It feels like we’re actually telling a story.” I glanced away in a purposefully sheepish manner. “I mean, I know we’ve had our rules disputes, and we’ve already torn a lot of holes in some of your house rules, but those haven’t been bad enough to sour the experience.”

Dingo nodded and accepted the praise graciously. “Thanks, man. To tell you the truth, a lot of this is just off-the-cuff roleplaying. You guys throw so many monkey wrenches in my plans that it’s hard to say exactly how something’s going to turn out. Heck, I didn’t expect the three of you to actually
kill
Sayel, even.”

“Hehehe,” I laughed, grabbing an imaginary sword in two hands and making a slicing motion. This was coupled with a sword-hitting-flesh sound whose onomatopoeia would likely take up most of a page.

“But really,” I said, releasing my invisible soulblade, “it does feel like a story. I dunno, if this campaign ends well—that is, we don’t die or abandon the game—I might have to turn this into a novel or something.”

His expression brightening, Dingo replied, “Yeah! Dude, that would be amazing!”

We shot the shit about writing, talking about books we had read and would like to read; and at least for me and Dingo, the books we’d like to write

“Anyway, if I do write something like that, it probably won’t be for a while. I’m in the middle of some other projects. This one will just have to go on the pile.” I glanced at the clock. A new thought struck me, and I furrowed my eyebrows. “And where in the nine blazing pits of hell is Matt? He should have been here well over a half-hour ago.”

Shaking his head, Dingo sighed. “I don’t know. It was hard just finding a time when he could meet us. Apparently, he’s doing some rush event this week. Maybe that’s what’s got him tied up.”

I slapped a palm to my face. “Oh, no. He’s in a frat now?”

“Joining one,” Dingo confirmed. “I think he said it’s Kap-Sig.”

I looked at Xavier, and both of us rolled our eyes and groaned. “Ugh,” I said, turning back to Dingo and leaning against my desk. “We’ve lost our fair share of friends to Kappa Sigma. It’s like a kraken made up of frat boys.” I gestured with my arms, emulating the sea creature’s tentacles. “It hovers there and then—
schlupp!
—down the hatch, and the kraken grows. Ah, hell, I’ll give him a call.” Flipping open my phone, I scrolled down to his number and hit the call button. It rang four times, and I figured I was about to get bounced to Matt’s voicemail when he picked up. I heard lots of people in the background.

“Hey, buddy,” he said. “What’s up?”

I raised my eyebrow at Xavier, who was close enough to hear Matt’s voice from my loud phone. “Uh, how about D&D is up. You coming tonight?”

I heard him sigh. “Ah, man, sorry. I’m not gonna make it. It’s the middle of rush, and the guys are keeping me busy as hell. Um, if we’re not in the middle of anything involving my character, go ahead and play. Wild’s just going over ledgers in the temple of Alduros Hol for the rest of the week.”

“Well, Dingo said we’re picking up at the end of the week, when Kaiyr hits up Arvanos’s temple again,” I said, “which shouldn’t take long.” I gave Dingo a quizzical look. He knew what I was asking, and he shook his head, pursing his lips. “No,” I told Matt. “We’ll just call it off for the night. Anyway, you have a good one, man.”

“All right,” he said. “See you later. I’ll keep you posted.”

“Sure thing. Bye.” I snapped my phone closed and looked at Dingo and Xavier, head cocked to the side. “So… this round apparently goes to Kappa Sigma.”

“Great,” Xavier muttered, leaning back in his chair and lacing his fingers behind his head in his usual position of both relaxation and vexation. “Another friend’s going to disappear into that void.”

“Tch, this sucks,” Dingo said, and we all deflated in our chairs, slouching and not saying a word for several minutes.

At length, Dingo slowly began packing up his belongings. “Well, I guess I’ll just do that homework I was going to put off for tomorrow.”

“Yeah, I have a few things I need to get done, too,” I said. “Although, I was planning on putting them off indefinitely.”

“Heh. All right. You two have a good one. I’ll catch you later. Jeff, I’ll see you at dinner tomorrow, and Xavier, I’ll see you next time you’re playing
Shadow Hearts
with the door open.”

“Oh,” Xavier said, rolling his chair around to face the TV and taking up his PlayStation 2 controller. “So, in five minutes?”

Dingo chuckled. “Maybe I’ll swing by in a half hour and stare at the awesomeness that is that game. Until then, good night.”

We both gave him our goodbyes, and while Xavier started up his game, I turned my attention to other matters before turning around to watch him play until late into the night.

XXXV.

It was only after another week that we at last pinned Matt down for another session of Dingo’s D&D game. It was just as well, because even I had grown a little tired of roleplaying all the time. Still, because we’re such respectable players, we really gave Matt a hard time about skipping out on us for a fraternity. Oftentimes, after such long breaks in between sessions, we played for a much longer period of time before calling it quits. This particular Friday, we started at four in the afternoon and did not put our dice away until three in the morning except for a pizza break sometime close to midnight. We accomplished quite a bit during those eleven hours.

*

Wild, sitting on the edge of his bed in the temple of Alduros Hol, glanced out his window and noted the position of the moons. It was about time for him to make his move.

He had waited patiently in the temple during his first week there. After discovering the halfling’s knack for dealing with numbers, the clerics kept him in the accounting office. It had been easy work, tallying gold given to the church by petitioners. It had also been exceedingly boring, which was a dangerous state of mind for any halfling. Boredom was the first ingredient for a halfling’s troublemaking.

He couldn’t sate his curiosity anywhere but in the accounting office; every fifteen minutes, one of the brethren would come to bring him something new to work on. So, Wild contented himself with glancing through ledgers in his spare minutes. It hadn’t taken him long to notice that the church had recently had an enormous influx of cash, given by several benefactors. One of them had been the House of Aile, which he recognized from the ring that had caused him trouble at the temple of Arvanos Sinterian. Supposing these sponsors might have something to do with the evil taking over the religion, Wild had managed to scribble down notes on parchment that he later smuggled out of the temple and into his backpack at the inn where Kaiyr and the others were staying.