Chapter 12: Chapter 12: Divine Boons

At least, Jace was pretty sure he was a demon.

He stood several inches over six feet, with rippling muscles covering his arms and torso, clearly visible under his sleeveless black leather vest.  He was level 15 with 405 Hit Points.  A large, two-handed scimitar was belted to a red kilt with the same black and white splotches as Caitlin’s gown.  He was barefoot.  None of this pointed to the possibility that he was a demon, but his skin was also an unnatural shade of red.  And there were the horns.

“Caitlin, my dear.  What is going on here?”  His voice was deep and sultry, and Jace could feel the mana dripping from it as he undoubtedly used it to magically charm just about everyone he talked to.

Caitlin had turned a corner in her relationship with this creature, and his spells now had little effect on her.  “I told you the town would send people to bring me back, Yellrick.  I just didn’t think they would try to kill me.”

Only now that she stepped away from Jace did her host see her bloodied and torn gown.  The wound on her chest was also visible.  Two tall half-orcs had entered with the demon, and they sprung to attention when Yellrick motioned to Jace.  “Kill him!”

“No!” Caitlin yelled, moving to step in front of Jace.

Yellrick opened his hand and motioned the guards to stop.

“He didn’t try to kill me.  He saved me.  That priest over there came here under the guise of rescue, but he only wanted to end my life.  This man saved me.  He killed the priest.”

The demon looked over at the slumped body of Xavier.  “He isn’t dead yet.”  That changed quickly as Yellrick extended his palm toward the man and consumed him with a gout of flame.  “He is now.”

He turned back to Jace.  “Is what she said true?” he looked Jace in the face.

“It is,” Jace replied honestly.

“And what now?  Do you intend to take her back to town?”

Caitlin laughed.  “Of course not.  You know I wouldn’t go.  He is an old family friend and cares only for my safety.  Your men, uh, . . .” she motioned to the half-orcs behind him, “your things obviously can’t protect me.  He is to stay with me until the ceremony.”

“Is that so,” Yellrick said, not enjoying being told what would happen.  He turned to the shaman.  “You have a name?”

“Jace.”

“And you are here to protect my Caitlin?”

“I am.”

“You wouldn’t happen to know anything about a bunch of dead ogres outside.”

“They attacked us.  We defended ourselves.  You should hire better guards.  If that is your best, Caitlin is in serious danger.  More will likely come.”

Yellrick stared at Jace for a long minute.  “I don’t like you.  And I don’t trust you with my beautiful Caitlin.”

“Yelly,” she said.  “What is he going to do?  I’m nine months pregnant.  Due any day now.”

He waved a hand toward the girl, and she shut up.  “I don’t trust you,” the demon repeated, still looking at Jace.  “I don’t trust humans in general,” now he did cast a glance at Caitlin.  “But I trust my servants.  You obviously care for the girl and are willing to kill a holy man to protect her.  But how do I know you won’t try to steal her away at night?  It’s not like I have guards that can stop you.”

“You can trust me,” Jace replied.

The demon laughed in his face.  “Oh, I’m sure I can.  But you haven’t promised me anything yet.  Get on your knees.”

Jace hesitated, but the half-orcs grunted and started to move around their master to force him.  Jace waved them off, sheathed his sword, and got down on one knee.  “Now,” Yellrick said, “swear on your life that you will serve me and see that no one other than me will ever remove Caitlin from this room.”

Jace stared at the floor.  Was it this easy?  Could he lie to this demon and then sneak Caitlin out of here once he left?  Or was this another test?  But what choice did he have?

“I swear,” Jace started.  He heard Caitlin inhale sharply.  “I swear on my life that I will serve you . . . the heads of your guards while you lie flat on your back, never to leave this room again.”

The dim-witted guards hesitated momentarily, wondering if they had been threatened.  Yellrick only laughed.  “Excellent.  I love an honest-”

He didn’t get to finish as Jace was off the floor in a flash, his sword out and slashing at the demon.  Yellrick merely sidestepped the rush and caught Jace by the collar.  His orc form wasn’t wearing a shirt or a collar, but he imagined the human representation that Yellrick saw did.  The demon hoisted the shaman into the air, took two quick steps to the back of the room, and simultaneously slammed Jace into the wall and ceiling.

[Secure Grapple.  Pinned.]

Jace was sure that the blow should have killed him, but as his head touched the ceiling, he felt his mana connect with his distant totem, and the crushing force of the blow was transferred to the damage sink.  Even so, Jace tried to reach out to his ring to summon more mana, but he couldn’t.  Something was restraining him.

Yellrick seemed to sense the effort and looked over his prey to see what magical item he had.  He saw the ring and yanked it off with his free hand.  “Anything else you want to try?”  He pulled Jace away from the wall, and the shaman felt his mana options open up again, but the demon slammed him up and back even harder.  This time he ripped the sword from Jace’s limp fingers and tossed it toward the door.

“Any smart words now?”  He slammed him twice more.  Jace worried how many more hits his totem could take but didn’t have time to cast another one.  Each time the demon pulled him away from the wall, he could pull up his magic screen, but he was slammed back before he could do anything.

“As you can see,” Yellrick boasted, “I am more than capable of taking care of my own.  Had you actually sworn allegiance to me, you would know this.”  As Yellrick slammed him one last time, Jace felt the distant totem explode.  The defeated look in his eyes brought a smile to the demon’s face.  From his back, massive black wings sprouted, and unseen muscles flexed in his red shoulders as they spread to fill Jace’s peripheral vision.

Yellrick pulled Jace down one more time, freeing him from the wall and giving him access to his spells again.  Jace pulled up his choices, ready to drop another Damage Sink Totem, even knowing it wouldn’t buy him enough time.  Instead, alongside his three spells, there was a fourth: an icon of an energy bolt.  Jace grabbed it and lifted his eyes back to the demon’s grinning visage only a few inches away.  With both hands, he gripped the iron-clad forearm that held him and tried to talk, but it only came out as a choked mess.

“What do you have to say?”  The demon loosened his grip on the dying shaman.

“Eat lightning,” he croaked and dropped the spell on his enemy with all his mana.

Light and thunder roared in the room, blasting the demon away from Jace, hurling him across the room and into the dresser, reducing the furniture to kindling.  Lightning jumped from the main target into both half-orcs, reducing one to 20 Hit Points and the other to just above half-health.  The energy bolt then jumped to Caitlin but fizzled to nothing.

Jace stumbled from the wall and walked over to pick up his sword.  The guard still standing, regarded Jace in horror, not having drawn his axe.  Jace took his head off in one clean 4x crit.  The shaman then strode over to the other guard, lying on the ground dying slowly, and took his head.

The demon lay stunned on his back, his mouth agape.  Over two-thirds of his health had been zapped away in an instant, and only his massive magical protections had prevented him from slipping into a death spiral.  But it didn’t matter.  Jace strode over to him and regarded his pathetic state.  Massive scorch marks covered his body, and his wings had been reduced to ash and tatters.  One of his horns was still smoking.  Jace chuckled and dropped the heads of his guards on his face before placing his foot on the demon’s neck.

[Stunned. Pinned. Prone.  Helpless.]

“Like I said,” Jace quipped, “you can trust me.”  The shaman took his head off.

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The trip back to town was slow.  It took a while for Jace to generate enough mana to restore his health to a reasonably safe level.  He had recovered the ring from where Yellrick had thrown it, but there was little else in the room worth keeping, even the knife they left behind.  It had been intended to kill her child, and she couldn’t bear to look at it anymore, much less wield it.

They had to fight off a few more goblins and half-orcs before they made it out of the cavern, and Caitlin proved a help in this regard, able to hex the more dangerous enemies before Jace disposed of them.  When they got to Faylon, he was still hidden behind the dead ogre.  The afternoon sun had made the bodies stink enough that even Jace smelled them, though he guessed they hadn’t smelled that great before they died.

Another setback came when Jace tried to use the ring to heal Faylon, and it didn’t work.  He remembered Xavier had told him that before.  Just another question to ask Gracie when he got out of this module.  This meant he had to carry the half-elf down the mountain.  As easy as it had been for him to climb the slope before, it was much harder going down.  Jace also started to get [Fatigue] prompts and knew he needed to sleep soon.  Gracie had told him that with 20 Constitution, he should be able to go a long while without needing to rest, but he wondered if having his health dropped below 20 on multiple occasions reduced that resiliency.

The family reunion at the end of their journey was mixed.  The soon-to-be grandparents had to deal with their daughter being a witch and almost sacrificing her child to a chaos god, but Jace was sure they would get over it.  They also welcomed Faylon as a potential son-in-law, though they had to wait until Jace could get him to a temple to receive effective healing.

Jace wondered if Gandhi would allow this module to run in the background after he left.  He hadn’t traveled here traditionally, so he assumed he would never be able to come back.  A part of him hoped that she would.  A portion of him even wanted to stay for a few days until Caitlin gave birth.  However, once all of the threads of his adventure were tied off, the world began to swirl into a vortex of light, and within seconds, he was again sitting on the marble table in the immaculate white room.

Gandhi was there to greet him.  “Well done, Jason,” she said.

“Is that what a normal god-seeking quest is like?”

“What do you think?”

“I expected smelling salts and candles.”

“Your Wisdom score should be higher.”

“Do you mind?”

Gandhi laughed at the request and shook her head.  “You are powerful enough.  Even more so in a minute.”

“You criticized me for breaking the game,” Jace said.  “But if I am not wrong, you cheated by giving me that lightning spell just when I needed it.”

She frowned slightly at him.  “Maybe your Wisdom is fine where it is.  Everyone who quests to gain the favor of a god gains one spell, one feat, and one ability.  Gracie should have told you that.”

Jace laughed.  “Sounds more like a problem with my Intelligence, which is right where it belongs.  Still, the timing of that spell was fortuitous.”

“The timing of a god is impeccable.  You should know that from your world.”

“Can you tell me how it works?”

She frowned at him again.  “I am not a tutorial.  Your feat is called Convict.  I am sure you will use it to cause all kinds of havoc in my game.  And what do you need for a skill?  What did you show a propensity for?”

“I get to choose?”

“I am open to requests.”

Jace thought for a moment.  “I can punch above my weight class in combat, but I still feel out of my league when people start throwing magic about.  I need more defense.”

Gandhi gave him a half smile.  “You are going to do everything you can to make us turn you into a paladin, aren’t you?  Fine.  Paladins get +10 to magic defense, and now you do too.  Is there anything else I can help you with?”

The sarcasm sounded off emanating from her serene face, and Jace was not about to push his luck, but at least he knew what this last boon did.  He didn’t understand his spell or feat yet.  But there was one more thing she did owe him.  “And the name of my god?”

“Dexmachi.”

Jace thought about the name for a while.  “That wouldn’t be an abbreviation for Deus ex machina, would it?  You know that is a terrible plot device.”

“Then earn it,” Gandhi said, her face especially grave.  “You now have access to divine spells, and I don’t think you will be disappointed by Dexmachi’s selection.  Because you are so stupid, you will only be able to use two or three of them, but you still have them.  We need to define the skill to use for your divine spell difficulty.  It obviously can’t be based off your Intelligence.”

“Mana Generation,” Jace replied a little too quickly.

She contemplated the quick response.  “Why do I think you are already conniving a way to break my game.”

“Do you hold every player’s hand through this process?” Jace asked, ignoring her comment.

“What makes you think I’m not simultaneously having this conversation with 23 other players?”

Jace just stared at her.

She relented.  “You aren’t ‘every player’ now, are you?  No, I usually let their god introduce themselves directly to the player.  The problem is that I haven’t found the right paladin avatar for yours. He needs to have a certain douchebaggieness that I can’t quite nail down.”

Jace chuckled.  “I’m surprised you made him a male.”

Now Gandhi laughed.  “Oh, I think you have quite enough females controlling you right now.  Though, if I am as good at predicting the future as I think, there will be one more very soon.  And won’t she be fun?”

Jace opened his mouth to ask a question, but Gandhi silenced him with her hand.  She stayed quiet for a long moment, and he respected the silence.  “Jace,” she started and then stopped.  “Jace, you will need to give Gracie some space.  I know what you need and how Gracie will likely solve the problem.  I’ve observed your play style and know what you will do.  You will make a call soon.  It will be the right call, but she won’t like it.”  Gandhi paused for several seconds.  “When she is ready, she will tell you.  But until then, please be patient with her.  Of all the people who need saving from my oppressive game,” she threw him a sly smirk, “she might be the most troubled.  Promise me you will forgive her.”

Jace nodded solemnly.  “Is this like Asimov’s Psychohistory?”

Gandhi looked puzzled for a moment, and Jace saw her roll her eyes back in her head briefly as if she were looking through her inventory.  He guessed the father of science fiction didn’t get much playtime in a fantasy game.  When Gandhi finished her Google search, she smiled at Jace.  “Something like that.”

“Then can you tell me-”

“No more.”  She silenced him with another gesture.  “I believe my 20-Constitution Orc is tired after less than eight hours of gameplay.  Time for some sleep.”  She touched Jace on the forehead, and the room went black.

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