The Renegades Read online

  I discarded warrior abilities for melee combat right away. Biota didn’t distinguish themselves either with physical strength or constitution so outright melee combat was out of the question for me. Neither did I feel drawn to fencing. Back when I was a kid, I spent a month going to lessons simulated in a VR capsule. I tried foil, epee, sabre and even some unarmored longsword—and exhausted my childish desire to wield a sword. Plus there was the professional phobia of injuring my fingers. The mere notion of steel whistling past them forced me to cringe nervously. No. I would never be a Boudica or a Joan of Arc.

  A long and exhaustive study of the other classes didn’t yield any clear result. Everything seemed interesting at once, but reaching the skills and spells that drew my attention required a huge amount of training points, so I doubt I’ll end up as a necro-mage-spy-priest. The most attractive approach seemed merging with the druid, priest and necromancer classes, but here I needed to speak to former players instead of choosing haphazardly. I’ll ask Straus about it. He might tell me something useful. And anyway, it’s stupid to make plans until I know what skills and spells are available to the standard bard builds.

  Per lamentable tradition, a search of the fora uncovered nothing useful. Instead of simply listing the basic bardic powers and their descriptions, the rabble affected secrecy and sought money. Bunch of kobolds. Wish some paladins would teach them some manners. A few posts weren’t worth trusting whatsoever. I guess I simply don’t trust OP when his post is full of grammatical mistakes and poor orthography. Several times I came across posts about NPC bards; however, they were mercenaries, quest companions or something like pets—no one knew. At least this record reminded me that the Tenth had summoned an army of phantoms to fight the ancient invaders. And something told me that an analogous summons would be somewhere in my skill tree. I’ll need to ask Coleus about it, but I doubt he’ll want to tell me before I complete my quest. May the FSM curse him with a case of colitis! But fine—there’s also the library that simply must contain some mention of bards. We’ll deal with the jewelry business, and then I’ll dig around the library before completing my class quest and dumping all my questions onto my colic instructor.

  I closed all the fora and returned to the game where Chip, as it turned out, was already waiting for me. It looks like I’d spent more than a half hour reading the fora.

  “I’m afraid I’ve been pollinated by your biota brethren—I think I’ve sprouted a root waiting for you,” the pirc grinned happily. “So what’s up? Are you ready to fight the gemstone monopoly?”

  “You bet!”

  Chapter Eleven

  The façade of the jewelry workshop did not look any different from the Tree’s other buildings. And yet inside…The eyes wandered from glinting heap to glinting heap of gems and jewels, while the various items encrusted, bordered, and embossed with the precious stones and metals stunned the imagination. The heck with the jewelry store and its cheap ornamental jewelry when this workshop had it all! There was a bit of everything here—from diamond cuff links to emerald pendants to little statuettes and even a luxurious replica of the Tree as tall as the pirc. A bright red biota named Hibiscus was fretting around it, polishing his reflection in the future masterpiece. One didn’t need a crystal ball to know that this was one of the future gifts for the Kartossian embassy. I’d wager my tooth that if I asked Hibiscus the right questions, I’d come up with a quest for jeweler players, but neither Chip nor I were interested in delving that deeply into the jewelcrafting business. It’s simply too costly a profession for our immense (in newb terms) capital. Nor was there any desire to mess around with accessories. Whereas mapmaking encouraged adventures and travels, which was the reason I was playing to begin with, sitting at a polishing wheel like the other biota—an apprentice named Anturium—was doing, didn’t spur my fantasy to compose so much as a limerick. The sour expression on the young apprentice’s face only confirmed this further.

  “What wondrous work,” I remarked loudly, turning to the pirc, but ensuring that everyone else heard my words too. “The work of a great master, worthy of adorning any palace or even the chambers of some divinity.”

  Hearing these words, Hibiscus couldn’t help but glow with pride and redouble his efforts, while Anturium glanced at his instructor, sighed sadly and turned back to the task of framing some ordinary-looking stone. It looked like a bit of malachite, but I wasn’t sure, since my knowledge of geology wasn’t exceptional.

  “A reverie fit for a maharaja,” Chip agreed, “a sultan even or a pasha! It would look right at home in the Taj Mahal.”

  “Taj Mahal?” The master jeweler looked simultaneously flattered and puzzled. “What is that?”

  “One of the prettiest palaces of the world, far beyond the Arras,” Chip explained. “Thousands upon thousands of creatures travel from all around the world to see it. It was built by one of the rulers of the past for his beloved wife.”

  The cheeky devil omitted the fact that it was really a mausoleum, preferring to pour flattery on the jeweler.

  “Your creation, esteemed master,” I intervened, “would do justice to its ensemble perfectly. Gold, gemstones, a stunning attention to detail—all of this would have eclipsed the other details of the interior.”

  Briefly put, our plan was as simple as a cow’s moo. Unwilling to study jewelcrafting on our own or buy costume jewelry at threefold the price from that Pierre, the merchant who had refused our advertising offer, we decided to bluff our way into the industry. Everyone knows it’s cheaper to source the goods from the manufacturer and so Chip and I decided to butter up the jeweler and get a nice discount later on.

  “This piece isn’t finished yet but I’ll agree that it is a promising one,” Hibiscus humblebragged.

  “I shall be unable to drink or sleep if I don’t purchase one of your creations for posterity,” I announced mournfully, transparently hinting at a business relationship to come.

  “Generally, I don’t busy myself with the retail aspect—I’d need permission from the merchants’ guild to do so. I’d have to register as a merchant, you see. It is a lot of work and I am more interested in the creative aspect of the business. But if you like, you may acquire my creations from the jewelry store of the esteemed Pierre.”

  This bit of news was, let’s just say, dour. I suppose the corporation had closed off this simple workaround, safeguarding the supply chains of the NPC merchants. It’s too bad, after all that damn Pierre had not only refused to advertise through our map but had also jacked his prices for Chip and I through the ceiling, the damn bush.

  “I’m afraid that Pierre’s prices are a bit too steep. He raises them so high that your masterpieces are consigned to gathering dust in his stall instead of adorning biota and the Tree’s guests with their magnificence. Have you not considered dabbling in retail at all? We would be happy to help you receive the necessary permits.”

  “It’s an interesting idea, naturally, but I haven’t a merchant’s bone in my body. In fact I have no bones whatsoever, hah! Nor do I have the time. I am an artisan. It is more important to me to create something lovely than to barter and haggle over prices.”

  “There you have it! A master through and through!” Chip exclaimed with feeling. “Unlike that Pierre. As one religion has it, may he burn in a fire after death, for he is afflicted with a mortal sin: greed. And greed without reason to boot! For he merely proffers that which is created by a master’s loving hands, and then behaves himself as if he had created it himself! Were he a pirc, I swear, I would dunk his head into the Bog of Eternal Stench and no one would say a word, for he would get what was coming to him!” His eyes smoldering with wrath, the pirc raised his chin and thumped the floor with his halberd.

  This terrible sight made the apprentice hiccup nervously and drop an unfinished piece of malachite. The piece fell on the table and then on the floor and began rolling toward Chip, at which point the pirc stopped it deftly with the toe of his boot.

  “I am not familiar with
the customs of the Lair, but in the Tree it is not customary to treat merchants this way,” Hibiscus warned just in case, yet the words of the furry guest had clearly flattered him.

  “Perhaps we will be able to find some talented biota with a merchant’s bone and the understanding to do the job. And you, in your turn, will conduct your affairs through him instead of the greedy hands of Pierre?”

  “It is not a bad idea, but my time is committed to working on the replica of the Tree, and I will be unable to supply stock for the new merchant.”

  “But you already have an apprentice who, even a dilettante like I, can see is excellent!” I reminded the jeweler of the bored Anturium.

  Hearing this, the apprentice perked up visibly but Hibiscus clearly didn’t share his enthusiasm.

  “Forgive me, this is a very talented young man it is true, yet he is only beginning to discover the secrets of jewelcrafting and is barely beginning to work with silver. Currently, he is training his skills with simple copper and bronze creations. He does a decent job, but without the precious metals, the jewelry remains but a cheap imitation.”

  “But that’s exactly what the free citizens want! Why they’ll tear the cheap imitations, as you put it, straight out of your hands!” I assured the jewelers. “Simple and inexpensive items that raise their stats are exactly what they need. Even my companion and I wouldn’t refuse them. It’s foolish to risk expensive and beautiful accessories every time one goes into battle.”

  “Precisely,” Chip nodded his head. “You can kill three birds with one stone: The master won’t be distracted by trifles; that’s one. The young Anturium will acquire invaluable experience; that’s two. And the free citizens won’t have to overpay and fill the coffers of a scoundrel merchant who has forgotten his place; that’s three!”

  Hibiscus looked over at Chip and then at me and finally at his apprentice pensively. The apprentice was looking at him so hopefully that I even felt sorry for him. No surprise there. He was clearly tired of working on the basics. Costume jewelry clearly wasn’t in high demand here until players began appearing, and given Pierre’s prices, there wouldn’t be anyone willing to go bankrupt over some random ring.

  “All right,” Hibiscus decided at last. “If you manage to find a suitable candidate with permission to conduct commerce, I will send him all the creations of my apprentice. We’ll see how things go then. And you will receive a lifelong discount on our goods as well.”

  New quest available: Find a Vendor. Description: Find an NPC with permission to sell goods and convince him to sell the jewelry of Master Hibiscus and his apprentice. Quest type: Unique. Restrictions: May not be shared with other players. Reward for completion: 30% discount on the jewelry of Master Hibiscus and his apprentice. Penalty for failure: None.

  Attention! A new stat has become available to your character: Charisma. Charisma determines the strength of the character’s personality, her appeal, her ability to convince and to lead, and also her physical attractiveness. Charisma also increases the chance of being issued unique quests.

  Do you accept? Attention! You will not be able to remove an accepted stat later!

  Ah! Here’s a classic bard stat! I’ll be taking this without a second thought, thank you.

  A new stat has been unlocked for the character: Charisma. Current value: 1.

  Attention! With every point of Charisma, the bard will receive an extra training point.

  Attention! The Charisma stat allows the bard to persuade members of another class to teach her their standard class skills.

  Attention! The Charisma stat affects a series of bardic skills and spells. Please speak to the bard instructor for further information.

  Attention! Charisma increases the chance of an NPC enjoying your performance.

  Extra training points? Borrowing skills from beyond the standard skill set? I’ll take two please! This changes my build strategy entirely! I need to wrap up these chores and grab Coleus by his gills. And if he resists, I’ll ask Chip to apply his knowledge of interrogations to him. Even if he doesn’t know anything about that, he’ll be quick to improvise.

  The NPC’s expectant gaze, forced me to go on to my current quest.

  “We will do our utmost to find a perfect candidate for this role!” I promised.

  “We will select someone who conducts himself honorably and would never tarnish the good name of a great master!” Chip echoed majestically, fluttering his whiskers and bowing to Hibiscus.

  Even though we left the workshop empty-handed, at least we’d received a discount on future jewelry. All we had to do was make good on the opportunity.

  “Let’s not reinvent the wheel. We’ll simply talk one of the merchants into scratching our back,” I suggested. “They already have the paperwork and the floorspace, all we have to do is get them to agree to cooperate.”

  Something told me that the long way around—finding some NPC dreaming of opening a store of his own and then petitioning the authorities on his behalf as well as all the other stuff that would follow—would ultimately reward us with some commercial quest chain and a much better final payoff. And yet I really didn’t feel like delving too deeply into this problem. I’m not trying to become a local banker. I just need some Constitution so I can head into the forest and do the quest and check out that Arras. Even now my mind kept returning to class abilities and possible build orders for my bard.

  “We just need to find some young scamp,” nodded the pirc. “He won’t be as greedy.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “When you’re young, you haven’t yet gotten a proper taste of money and the life that comes with it. You’re cautious enough to understand that the slightest mistake will allow your competitors to eat you alive. When you’re older, you know your business, its ins and outs, its squalls and doldrums. When you’re older, you know when to fold and when to hold your cards.”

  “Makes sense. And as it happens we have a complete list of all the Tree’s merchants. Open the map and let’s try and recall who was younger and more agreeable.”

  After some brief but heated debates, we decided on Orchidea—‘The first entrepreneur in the history of the Tree to be included in the register of entrepreneurs, businessmen and merchants, as compiled, maintained and certified by the Topographical Service of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army (henceforth the Red Army)’ Our profitable venture had begun with her, so she should be lucky for us in other ways too. Only it didn’t make sense to approach her with our proposal until our mapmaking quest was completed. We’ll report on the progress of our work and before handing her the first copy, ask her whether she wants to expand her assortment of goods—since that’ll be the last chance to update the map accordingly. If she declines, we can start going through the other merchants following the same scheme.

  “What’s the next plan?” the pirc asked enthusiastically. “Should we finish the map?”

  It was a reasonable suggestion but I hadn’t the appetite for another course on cartography from Chip. I kept thinking back to Coleus mentioning that the library should contain information about the various bardic abilities, and since I was currently obsessed with the skills I’d have to choose later on, I really wanted to look up that information as soon as possible. Plus there was the quest of the mysterious sigil and who knew what I could dig up on that.

  “I’d like to stop by the library and see what it has about the Tenth and bards in general. Maybe we’ll come across something unexpected.”

  “Good idea,” Chip agreed. “Let’s go see how well they take care of the public’s informational needs around this place.”

  It was like the library had been copied from one of the fairy-tale holoflicks. No doubt these were among the reference materials for the location designers. There were endless rows of wooden shelves, filled with all sorts of paper books. Wandering amid the stacks, I sensed the romanticism of the place and reflected on the thought that all of this sheer, paper tonnage could fit onto a tiny microchip. It ca
me as a shock to discover that the pages were filled with actual handwriting. No. I understood of course that I was looking at a bunch of exotic scripts, imitating handwriting, but still, I couldn’t help feel stunned at the patience it would take to copy out a folio in calligraphy and then illuminate it with various engravings. This was far from your typical ‘Ctrl+c, Ctrl+v’ job.

  I was surprised to find the library full of players, many of them above Level 3 which was rare around the Tree in general. Judging by the party of high-level players I crossed paths with earlier, the elites prefer to spend most of their time leveling up beyond the city-tree’s limits.

  After some asking around, I discovered that the players who had seriously committed to playing as biota spent their time learning the language of the Dark Empire of Kartoss so as to avoid the language barrier when they entered the larger world. To learn the language, you had to get a job in the library and work four hours a day for about a month. And it wasn’t as dusty a job as it sounded: Replace the books in the stacks; retrieve books, folios and scrolls for library patrons; and do the bidding of the head librarian every once in a while. During your breaks, you could read or level up your profession, which is what most of the players were doing. The big fish could simply buy and install the language pack they needed, but those prices were outside my budget.

  “We should learn the language too,” I told Chip grimly. “Otherwise, there’s no point breaching the Arras. We won’t understand the locals on the other side.”

  “Uh-huh,” my companion nodded. “We’ll accidentally call them bad names in their language and cause a diplomatic incident that’ll be followed by some armed conflict.”

  “In the hypothetical kingdom,” I added, reminding the pirc to keep the info I told him confidential.

  “Uh-huh,” the pirc wrinkled his snout. “I hope there’s nothing more complicated than Swahili here.”