Triple Strength

22. Specialization: Tabitha

The sun was just breaching the horizon when I came too. The first thing I felt was a great emptiness and loss. Warren was gone forever. The rage I felt yesterday was not gone exactly, but it was quiet. The second thing I felt was Pip curled up on my stomach. I am never going to be a fan of snakes, but Pip has earned his place. I looked around. Kopje was beside me, but seemed to be breathing easier. Rock Boy had been busy, and there was a pile of gear stacked nearby. Then I saw Warren's body. I went over to him and lay my head on his chest and just sobbed. I don’t think I realised how much I depended on him to be there for me. It was quite a while before I pulled myself together again.

When I looked up Rock Boy was there. No. I am going to call him Wiremu. He was there and he followed me into the shadows, without questioning my sanity. Now that I was in the light of the day I was questioning my sanity. He looked uncomfortable, like he didn’t know how to comfort me or what to say.

“I’m OK,” I told him, knowing I wasn’t going to be Ok for a very, very long time.

He nodded. “Branik should be here about lunch time, hopefully with a wagon.”

My turn to nod.

“I am going to go and start going through their camp,” he continued.

“I will watch Kopje” I said. He turned to go. I assume Pip decided to stay with me. “Put aside anything you are not sure about and I can come over later as I have the Appraise Skill,” I added.

He acknowledged that with a wave and a small smile.

It was time to look at my status and figure out what the hell I actually did yesterday. I remember getting to the Camp. Bloody Branik has no concept of stealth. We would have been discovered if I hadn’t engulfed us in shadows and used Distract on the watchman. Then we waited. That Troll was loud and we heard them a long way off. I Distracted the watchman with other sounds for a while, but eventually there was no covering it up. The watchmen roused the senior archer who took one listen and then roused the camp. The Swordsman pushed everyone to gear up ASAP while instructing the archer watchman to go scout. Apparently she wasn’t the regular scout, but the senior archer confirmed it and off she went.

Everybody heard the watchman scream and the Troll roar in victory. They formed up in their “Monster Formation” and marched off quickly. We followed at a distance. It wasn't long before Kopje disappeared off to the left. Then we heard them engage the troll. When we got to where I could work, Branik went off to the right. I stretched my Skill and threw Engulfing Shadows over the battlefield.

Then I heard a thud behind me and I looked back and saw Warren had caught an arrow on his shield. I saw the senior archer striding out from the tall grass drawing another arrow on me. I guess he worked out that I was causing the shadows. He probably had the Skill Sense Spiritual which would have made it obvious. Warren caught this one in his ribs and I know the shadows faltered. I tried to stretch the Shadows to include us. Warren was charging toward the archer, with his shield up, but the archer used Triple Shot and Warren took all three arrows. He barrelled into the archer and I saw Pip sink his teeth into the archer's wrist. Warren wasn’t moving so I went over to help. The archer was trying to throw Pip off his wrist, but Pip had wrapped his body around it now and wasn’t letting go. The archer was hitting him with his bow, I don't know how he didn’t break something. Pip gave me enough time to grab Warren's sword and stab the archer several times until he stayed down.

I remember there being a Class Specialisation option which I accepted without really looking at it because I was going to take whatever was on offer. It came with a new skill, Intimidating Aura, which I immediately activated and pumped everything I could into it, while still holding the Engulfing Shadows. I checked Warren and discovered he was dead and I remember a consuming fury taking over. The Archer I stabbed moved, bloody high constitutions. I went to stab him again and saw Pip injecting Venom into his neck. I remember Engulfing Shadows levelling to 5 and becoming Apprentice level and I could suddenly sense everything that was in my shadows. Then Wiremu came and followed me on a killing spree. I wouldn’t be surprised if I had a Berserker skill after that.

Tabitha Carter

Class

Thief

Merch

SPred

Total

Type

Attribute

Level

10

4

2

Constitution

Physical

Strength (PS)

9

1

1

11

66.0

Agility (PA)

12

2

10

2

26

Perception (PP)

11

4

10

4 29

Mental

Strength (MS)

8

1

2

11

54.0

Agility (MA)

12

1

1

4 18

Perception (MP)

10

1

10

4 25

Spiritual

Strength (SS)

9

0

6

3

2

20

59.0

Agility (SA)

10

0

5

3

2

20

Perception (SP)

10

2

5

2 19

Totals

91

12

50

20

6

179

Free points

0

0

4

Skills:

Novice:

Cooking 1, Sewing 4, Trapping 1, Spiritual Traps 1,

Disarm Spiritual Traps 2, Detect Spiritual Traps 4,

Blunt Weapons 4, Parry 4, Knockout Strike 3, Sword 2,

Confuse Status 3, Shadows Embrace 3, Rampage 4

Apprentice:

Intimidating Aura 5, Appraise 6, Bargain 7, Identify 8,

Lock Pick 7, Detect Traps 6, Distract 7,

Detect Spiritual 5, Unarmed Combat 5,

Disarm Traps 5, Engulfing Shadows 5

Journeyman:

Stealth 12, Dark Sight 10

Affinity: Shadow

Shadow Predator is the Specialisation name. Only available with Shadow Affinity, Journeyman Stealth and using your shadows in combat. That must be personal combat, when I attacked the archer. With Predator in the name it didn’t even sound human. It gave me points in Physical Agility and Mental Agility and the Skill, Intimidating Aura. I had levelled Intimidating Aura to Apprentice already. I realised Shadow Predator is a top tier Specialisation with 5 points available for each level. Most only give 4 and some only 3. I had already levelled it to 2 with my killing spree.

Dark Sight had levelled to Journeyman level giving me an extra point in both Spiritual and Physical Perception. I had picked up the Sword Skill and others like Distract had levelled. I had picked up the Skill Rampage. It had come with a point in Physical and Mental Strength. I used Identify on it and what it did was give a short term boost to all my attributes. There is a bit of a loss of control at the time and a crash at the end. The boost gets better and longer as it levels. The crash at the end does not lessen though. I already have it at level 4.

What the hell am I going to do now without Warren? Put that aside. One thing at a time. First thing is I am going to get someone to teach me the sword. I have Warren's sword and if I am going to be a Shadow Predator I need a killing weapon. I am also sick of being weak and I will need more strength for the sword. I take the four free points from Shadow Predator and put them all into Physical Strength.

OK, let's see if we can be of any help here. I walked over to the pile of gear and started appraising items.