Day 1:
Four Climbers sat atop a mountainside, eating lunch after a successful hunt out in the wilds of the 10th Floor. They had a large amount of Relics and preserved Sacrificed bundled up beside them, spoils of their hunt.
There was something strange about it, something that would stick in the mind of an observer, lingering in their subconscious only to be realized when it was too late.
Not a single greedy gaze landed on the pile of treasure. They simply did not care about the large amount of money they had risked their life to acquire.
To them, it was merely cover to allow them to talk in private, because there were simply too many ears inside The Burned Stronghold for this conversation.
“So how are we going to do this?” A Warrior with whipcord muscle asked, leaning his elbow on his knee in studied nonchalance.
Pax glanced over at Marv and spoke.
“Our first idea was to starve them out, but that wouldn’t cause the kind of friction with the Burned Stronghold that we need. At worst, they would send people to help and possibly fail. There might be some resentment, but we need it to be white hot.
“There needs to be evidence that the Burned Stronghold is sabotaging them.” Karmen added. “With the rail system connecting the two locations, it’d be easy enough to send several Parties over there to wreak havoc, but the problem is the outpost. There’s two of the Lord’s vassals there at any given time, and they’re not exactly pushovers.”
Karmen didn’t have much to contribute until things needed to be blown up, but she had a sharp mind.
“They might have decent destructive Abilities, but their ability to resist Charm and their sensory Abilities aren’t particularly potent. We can slip a team past them, easily.” Pax spoke.
“How do we pin the blame on the Burned Stronghold?” Marv asked.
“Uniforms. The guards have two spares.” Haig suggested. Karmen and Pax glanced over at the Rogue with a flat stare.
“Even if they’re wearing the right uniform, the guards all have similar Abilities. We don’t have anyone who can duplicate them, save the Illusionist. It would not be wise to involve her and tip our hand so early.” Karmen explained.
“Oh.” Haig said.
“Do you carefully study any stinging insect that lands on you, or do you swat them? I have confidence that these giants will look no further than the uniforms.” Marv said. “As long as the only ones who see them are the giants, we should be fine.”
“Too soon, and too brazen by far. It’s not just the giants in this equation. If the intention is to inflame animosity, then stealing guard uniforms is tantamount to admitting that there is a third party sowing discord. If William Oh were to order his men to attack these giants, he would lead the charge, and there would be no half-measures. Attacking and failing to kill all the giants while wearing the lord’s heraldry would also tip our hand.” Pax said, shaking his head.
“What we need to do is give the giants a sense that the guards are careless and blasé about their safety, and that this attitude is largely shared by William Oh and the Burned Stronghold as a whole.” Pax continued.
“This is a much harder thing to disprove, and will turn up the heat gradually, so that when we do use the guard uniforms, the giants are already primed to believe that William Oh would betray them. When we can confirm things they already believe…that is when they will not doubt.
Haig. Set up traps while the giants sleep. Something to maim their legs.
“Roger.” Haig said, giving a mocking salute.
Pax tolerated the disrespect because it enhanced their cover as a typical team of Climbers, but if they hadn’t been on an espionage mission he would’ve scrambled the Rogue’s brain.
“I’ll slip one of our disposable Parties past the outpost and prompt them to attack the giants directly. We don’t need to directly implicate The Burned Stronghold in anything more than negligence, for now.” Pax spoke.
They had to slowly turn up the heat in order to boil this frog.
Day 2:
Badur reviewed the logs from the security gate. Every day the logs were collected and sent to the desk, and Badur idly scanned through them to make sure no unsavory types had snuck in.
This is borderline, though. He thought, reviewing the group that had brought his attention.
It was a part of Climbers who had been semi-retired in Akul before suddenly deciding to come up to the 10th Floor after nearly a decade of inactivity, having stalled out against the 8th Floor.
That alone wasn’t cause for suspicion, the thing that bothered Badur was their paperwork…or lack therof. Most Parties coming out of retirement to try their hand at the 10th Floor now that the 8th was survivable, had sought some kind of sponsorship from a Lord or trading company.
Most semi-retired Climbers got by selling their kit piece by piece and doing low-level grunt work well within their un-boosted capabilities. They would need new gear.
These were old hats who knew the value of preparation, and wouldn’t just slap an expedition together. They would get the right Relics for the journey, the right food, water, support staff.
My Lord being the exception, Badur thought, massaging the ache out of his eye sockets.
So the strange thing was, this Party seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, composed of semi-retired Climbers of modest ability who by all reports had lax standards about what kinds of jobs they accepted.
It was incredibly suspicious.
Badur leaned under his desk and itched his foot.
In fact, it seems kind of…amateurish. If the goal was to send people in undercover, they would give these people a squeaky-clean backer instead of a gaping hole where their financials are.
Perhaps this Party is merely the attractive distractor. I should check the squeaky clean ones as well.
“Miles, could you bring up all the new Parties that have entered The Burned Stronghold in the last six months and give me a summary of their financial backers?
Badur’s apprentice gave the Logistician a hollow gaze.
“…Sure.” The Clerk said without enthusiasm, summoning a massive stack of documents with a wave of his hand and poring through them with a soft hum as the papers vanished with blinding speed.
“Mandy, could you ask the sheriff to keep an eye on this Party and see if they do anything suspicious?” Badur asked, handing another Clerk the roster.
“Of course!”
Heath wasn’t…the most discrete fellow, but he had a calculated air of brutish ignorance which made people underestimate his intelligence. He wasn’t smart, of course, but he wasn’t quite as dumb as people thought, either.
Badur wasn’t counting on much, though.
‘Not as dumb as I thought’ wasn’t a exactly a scintillating review.
He did fine with drunks, though, which was the reason they hired him originally.
Hopefully that will give the impression that we’re being led around by the nose.
“Miles, your shift isn’t over until I get that report!”
A long groan echoed from down the hall, where Miles’s office was.
About six hours into Badur’s second shift of the day, there was a knock on his door.
“Yes?” Badur asked, looking up.
The brutish swordsman, Heath, stood in his doorway, with a sheepish look on his face.
“You know those guys you asked me to keep an eye on?”
“Yes.”
“Well…” Heath rubbed the back of his neck before shrugging. “They kind of slipped through the checkpoint between us and the bigguns and tried hunting some.”
Badur shot to his feet, his chair toppling backwards as his heartbeat rang in his chest.
“It’s fine, it’s fine, nobody got hurt, actually.” Heath said, holding his hands up. “Hubert or whatever dropped the party back inside the Stronghold, and I cussed ‘em out real good. Just wanted to let you know.”
The thuggish sheriff gave Badur a meaty thumbs-up and left the room.
“Wait!” Badur called.
“Eh?” Heath grunted, sticking his head back in.
“How.”
“How what?”
“How did they get past the checkpoint?” Badur asked.
“Didn’t ask.”
“ASK!” Badur shouted.
Heath jerked and hustled for the door.
“Gods,” Badur groaned rubbing his eyes again. “Is this what Will has to contend with on a daily basis?”
That day, several hundred citizens of the Burned Stronghold experienced faint itching on their feet and ankles.
The sensations were faint and vanished quickly. Not thinking much of it, none of them bothered to do more than itch and glance down at their feet, noticing nothing wrong in particular.
Thus no one spoke of it.
Day 3:
“Okay, what just happened?” Haig asked as they settled down behind a rock sheltering them from the hot desert wind.
“Well, first of all, it seems like none of the giants took any damage from Haig’s traps.” Marv said, ticking off a single finger before running out of things to list. “Gonna have to step up you game, man.”
“Screw you, my traps are fine.” Haig shot back.
Meanwhile, Pax was deep in thought, ignoring the typical bickering between the two.
I personally witnessed Haig’s Ability-enhanced blades unleashed on that monster’s feet. Why is it still walking around like nothing happened while the blades are warped and bent like they were crushed by solid Blessed Steel? I don’t think it even noticed! Pax thought, ignoring the two as he sorted through what he had seen.
And that one giant. Harold, I think they call him. He intercepted the Climbers I guided towards the giants, scooped them up and deposited them back in the Burned Stronghold.
Like harmless gerbils that had escaped their cage!
Not only did they fail to do any damage to the moderate giants, I didn’t even see a drop of blood welling up where the Climbers he was carrying stabbed him in the thumb.
“There has to be something else at play here.” Pax spoke aloud. “The giants were previously wounded by weaker attacks from Climbers who hadn’t even gotten their Advanced Classes yet, so this doesn’t make sense unless William Oh assigned some kind of buffer to the giants while he was away.”
“Or…worst case scenario, found a way to grant the crystal Giants Classes.” Marv suggested
“Could that happen?” Haig asked.
“It was assumed that the nature of their bones precluded gaining Classes, but if they are somehow acknowledged by The System, then they may be one of the strongest Class-bearing races.” Karmen spoke.
…I don’t think they have Classes.” Pax finally spoke. “I haven’t seen any Abilities. If they had Classes they’d be making their houses faster, summoning things, hunting more, eating less, or cooking more efficiently. There was none of that.
They’re still struggling to make ends meet.”
“Are they? I kept an eye on them the entire day yesterday and they ate roughly ten percent less than they did any given day the week before. It’s slim, but they’re beginning to have a surplus of that smoked fish they seem to love.” Haig said, spinning a dagger around his finger.
“You’re sure about that?” Pax asked.
“My memory is perfect, but if you’d like, you can check my journal.” Haig said.
“I’ve seen what you put in those journals. Pass.” Pax said. “So from what we’ve gathered, they didn’t take damage when they should’ve, and according to Haig, they’re eating less, too. But they’re not demonstrating any active Abilities.”
“That’s right.” Karmen said.
“So it’s more likely to be a buff. But where’s the buffer?” Pax mused aloud.
“The only one in contact with them had been Badur. Even the guards they sent to keep an eye on them don’t actually interact with them that much.” Karmen spoke.
“Could they be hiding amongst the giants? The new castle that they’re building is so huge, they could easily hide another Burned Stronghold inside it, let alone a single Advanced Buffer.” Haig said.
“Hold on.” Pax said raising a hand. “Let’s not chase a hypothetical buffer into the very heart of their territory and risk exposing ourselves.
Let’s focus on something that we know. If we can’t stir up trouble amongst the giants, let’s do it among the citizens of the Burned Stronghold.
Who have we already mentioned?” Pax asked, scanning the group. Karmen was following along, but Haig was giving him a blank stare.
“Which Vassal has the most power while his Lord is gone? Who is a weak pencil-pusher with terrible stats, yet is somehow strangely well-regarded amongst the populous? Someone who might elicit a violent response if he were to be brutally killed by the monsters he extended his trust towards?”
“…Badur?” Haig guessed.
“Indeed. We’ve already wasted three days, and we have no idea how long William Oh will be gone. Let’s get a bit more aggressive. Let’s have Emilie create an llusionary crystal giant and have it flatten the little man.”
“We need a good reason for Badur to visit the giants, though. How are we going to do that?” Marv asked.
“The same way you get a bureaucrat to do anything: Paperwork.”
Day 4:
There was a mix-up with some farmers stubbornly attempting to claim plots that encroached on the crystal giant’s territory and Badur personally went to unravel the situation.
Strangely enough, the farmer in question seemed unaware of the dispute, and his steakbug ranch was clearly outlined by fence…on the proper side of the mountain.
“So…what the Abyss am I all the way out here for?” Badur demanded, glaring at the farmer.
‘farmer’ felt like a bit of a misnomer when he could snap Badur like a twig and outside the Tower the man was akin to a god, but he raised steakbugs and shoveled bug shit over to the orchards.
He was a farmer.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” The man said with a shrug. “I didn’t even know you folks were coming today,” He said, glancing past Badur at his two bodyguards.
BOooOom!
A sudden explosion of light from above the Burned Stronghold caught Badur’s attention.
Fireworks? And…singing? What the -
Everything went dark in an instant.
When Badur came to, he was crushed into the soft soil of the farm, along with his bodyguards.
He peeled himself out of the ground, rubbing his aching back as he studied the giant footprints leading towards the giant’s territory.
“What…the Abyss just happened?” Badur muttered.
How am I even still alive?”
“We were attacked by the giants!” One of the young men assigned to escort him said, peeling himself out of the ground alongside Badur and the farmer.
How are we all still alive?
“Shut up. It wasn’t an attack by the giants.” Badur said, cutting that shit off immediately.
“But-“ the boy began to speak, but Badur ruthlessly interrupted him again with a ‘Shush’.
“You didn’t try to push into giant territory, yeah?” Badur asked the farmer, brushing manure off his clothes.
“Nosir, why would they-“
“GENTLEMEN!” Badur raised his voice to make sure everyone was looking at him and paying attention. He only wanted to explain this once.
“Do you think the giants have the ability to file false paperwork in my town hall? Hmm? The papers are so small they can barely see them. Do you think one of them snuck into the lobby and took some papers from the office and filed a false complain to drag me out into the outskirts?”
“Maybe they hired someo-“
“Shut up.” Badur said. “It wasn’t a giant. It was someone trying to make us attack the giants. Let’s get out of here before whoever is watching tries to finish the job. The only reason they took such an obvious tactic was because I wasn’t supposed to survive to notice it.”
“Bu-“
“Take me back to the Stronghold.” Badur said, grabbing the collar of his bodyguard. “NOW.”
When they got back to the Stronghold, it was actually in a rather festive mood.
What had happened:
Out of seemingly nowhere, something that looked an awful lot like Harold had leapt out from behind the mountain, roared and crushed Badur, his bodyguards and the farmer under its heel before sprinting away, cackling.
Alas, very few people actually saw this happen, because the Illusion that got away from Emilie and Travis –named Tristan by its parents– decided to become a nearly-naked marching band on parade through the center of the Burning Stronghold, complete with fireworks, streamers and wacky-waving-arms-flailing inflatable sheercloth men.
The running theory was that Tristan does not like an illusion, especially a non-living one, getting more attention than itself.
Even the farmer who was standing nearby Badur, missed part of the attack, as he was distracted by the mystifying shapes appearing above the Stronghold in colored bursts of light.
At the moment Badur was crushed underfoot, several hundred Citizens of the Burned Stronghold felt a slightly painful twinge in their back followed by a dull ache across their body that passed quickly.
Most of them didn’t even notice it, thanks to the parade drawing their attention.
Day five:
“I think you need to stop fucking around.” Marv spoke.
“I could’ve killed Badur and his men on the spot.” Karmen said. “Why didn’t you let me…”
Both of them were pressuring Pax to act more aggressively, pestering him with what-ifs and maybes. Both of them were chomping at the bit to take the lead.
Haig was picking his nose.
“It’s not that simple.” Pax said, digging through his baggage. I knew I had something that would work for this…
“How so? It’s just damage reduction. That can be cut through. I’ve got an Ability specifically for that.”
“It’s not damage reduction,” Pax said as he found what he was looking for. He pulled out a stiletto dagger with a rose-motif handguard.
Rose’s Thorn
+2 Kinesthetics
+8 Acuity
+7 Focus
+15% Charm Ability Potency
Upon dealing damage with Rose’s Thorn, user may apply 1 of the User’s Charm Abilities. Charm Abilities applied this way have an additional 5% potency per damage instance from Rose’s Thorn.
“…It’s a damage chain.” Pax said with a grin.
“Eh?” Marv grunted.
Pax turned his attention to Marv and Haig. “Bring me someone stabbable.”
That night in the Burned Stronghold, Badur was close to identifying the enemy. There were only three groups of Climbers who had come to the Burned Stronghold with squeaky-clean sponsors, and Badur was currently pressing his apprentices to dig through their financials.
“Where’s that report, Miles?” Badur asked, looming over Mile’s desk. The kid was the last of the three to finish his investigation, so Badur wound up waiting for him to finish while the other two got to go home early.
“Here, sir!” Miles said, his hands blurring as he sorted and bound the papers in an instant before holding them up.
“Go home, Miles.” Badur said, taking the report.
“WHOO!” the ever-unenthusiastic Logistician sprinted for the door.
“I’ll see you back here first thing tomorrow!” Badur called after him.
If he heard his boss, Miles didn’t show it.
Badur turned back to his office, grumbling. Those kids didn’t know what suffering was. While they slept through the night, he would pull eight shifts in a row to identify the spies lurking inside the Stronghold.
Let’s see here, the first Party with a suspiciously perfect record. Pax, Haig, Karmen and Marv.
Badur’s eyes scanned the report, picking out details and comparing them to his knowledge, looking for inconsistencies.
He itched his back as he was scanning through.
Badur glanced up, frowning.
What was I doing? Oh. He refocused on the paper, starting at the beginning again.
Badur itched his back again.
My back’s really itchy, Badur thought, setting the reports down and itching the several dozen itchy spots that had bloomed over the last few seconds.
Do we have bugs in here or something?
What was I doing?
Badur glanced around, then down at his empty hands. He scanned the offices, dark and empty after his apprentices had gone home ahead of him.
Must’ve been going home. Badur shrugged and grabbed his coat, heading for the door.