18 - Letting the Sun Down

"What do you mean you jumped off the tower?"

"It was the only way I could think of to build up enough damage to take out Sougath. I really only had one shot at him."

Kendall's hand held her drink halfway to her mouth. "This was off the TOP of a tower?"

Joe shrugged and held his hand, palm down, a foot or so over the table. "A short one. Only three stories. Probably thirty, forty feet high. Keep in mind I am pretty fast at healing, so it's not quite as dumb as it sounds."

They were sitting on the porch of a local tavern known as the Parrot's Pearl. Each of them had a tall, cool drink of some liberally spiked punch. The glass pitcher was about two-thirds empty as he and Kendell were both on their third glasses. Joe was grateful to find that ice was not a luxury of the rich but, thanks to magic, it was just as common here as it was on Earth.

He periodically swiped the condensation from his glass and rubbed it onto the back of his neck. While he genuinely liked Fort Coral, especially the people, Joe was finding the semi-tropical environment hotter than he was used to. Unlike most folks who were all too happy to bake themselves in the summer and hide indoors in the winter, Joe actually preferred to be cold rather than hot. Cold you could ignore or bundle up against. Hot beat down on you, making everything sticky and sweaty.

Thankfully, the heat was not much of a problem at the Parrot. The covered patio on which he and Kendell were seated had a fantastic view of the harbor. A cooling breeze constantly flowed off the ocean, making what could have been sweltering into nicely balmy instead.

"Wait. You said that you had already lost [Punching Bag] when the Night Skinner bit you. So, healing wouldn't help if you took lethal damage from that fall. "

"Yeah, but I was pretty sure I would not be instantly killed on impact. And I had damage wards up."

"The ward only reduces damage," Kendell pointed out. She had an amazing mind for skills and details. When Joe nodded, she continued. "So you had injuries that prevented you from even getting to half health. How was a damage reduction going to be much help from a forty-foot fall?" asked the flabbergasted young woman. "Those are terrible odds of survival."

"Ok, to be honest, when I jumped, I wasn't really doing the math. It was the only idea I had that had any chance of working, so …," he admitted sheepishly, letting his voice trail off into his glass as he sipped another mouthful of the boozy punch.

"So what happened next?" Kendell breathed, leaning forward with bright eyes.

Joe decided that he would tell her about the spiritual battle and the lingering savageness it had left behind. He knew sooner or later she would pick up on it. She was too astute for Joe to think he could hide it from her. Besides, he liked talking to her, and she was integral to the Adventurers Guild. If they were going to hang out and talk about progression and skills, he might as well come clean about the lingering primal instincts he had developed.

For the next ten minutes, she did not interrupt him as he detailed the fight for his soul. When he explained how he destroyed the curse by converting it into primal skills, he could see her practically jumping out of her seat. Finally, she couldn't contain herself any longer.

"I knew it!" She exclaimed, rocking forward so hard in her chair that she knocked over Joe's drink. He reached to grab it only for his force hand to beat him to it. Since the upgrade, it was as if he just had to think about something, and he had a third hand there to help him with it.

"I knew something was weird with your build. I mean, I've never even heard of Baleful Warder before, so I couldn't be sure," she blurted, excitedly talking a mile a minute. "Even so, I have seen a lot of healer and warder style classes, and your skills just don't match up. The way you shift your muscles around is something I've never seen before. It's not shapechange or a classic body-augmentation, but kind of a mix of both."

"Do you think Baleful Warder is something new? Ha … The One Above did seem to come up with it out of the blue while I was fighting off the lycanthropy."

"It could be. We should catalog it. You are going to have to read it off to me since you can't share your scrolls."

"Sounds good. I'm all yours. At this point, I've got all the time in the world, for once," he remarked, which won him a bright smile from the woman across the table from him.

"Oh no," she cried. "I'm so late. I'm sorry, Joe, I have to go. Hey, that rhymes." Bounding to her feet, she dropped a small handful of silver coins on the table. "I'm busy tomorrow. Sorry. Keep training tomorrow before you try to tackle the quest again. Alright. I'm so sorry. It's so late. Come find me afterward. Bye."

And she was gone.

Joe sat stunned for a while longer, wondering if he had somehow messed up. Or was it all Kendell? He had never had a date turn on its head so quickly or inexplicably before. The drinks had been going so well. One minute, they seemed to be having a great time together, and then the next minute, she bolted on him.

Did his comment about having plenty of free time put her off? She was clearly a very driven individual. Maybe his current vagabond state was a trigger for her.

Or was it the other way around? Did she take Joe's words as if he wanted to latch on to her? All of his open time would be attached to her side, smothering her?

On the other hand, she had stressed how late she was more than once, suggesting she was supposed to be somewhere else, and they had hung out for too long. They had been talking for hours, yet the time seemed to fly for Joe. If she had been having as good a time as he had, then he could easily see her missing some deadline.

As thoughts spun around in his head like a swarm of gnats, Joe drank until the pitcher was empty. For once, he didn't [Purge] the excess alcohol. He wanted to be blurry for a bit to stop driving himself insane with self-doubts. Logic said she was simply what she had declared to be, late for something. Yet, an evil lurking insecurity continued to conjure all sorts of awful alternatives.

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Paying off the tab and buying another bottle of the punch, he wandered down toward the beach, feeling a bit glum. He found himself wishing things had not ended so oddly after such a good day.

He passed through a series of low walls that seemed more likely to prevent storm surges than hostile creatures. When he reached the shore, he had to admit that Fort Coral had one beautiful beach. The sand was fine and so pale it was almost white. The palm trees leaning out over the strand would likely provide some nice shade during midday.

Joe reached down and pulled out a partially buried seashell. As he brushed the grains from the bright orange scallop, he scanned the few remaining beach-goers. None were Hah'roo. He had kind of hoped to find her still there, though he was not at all surprised she had left. Even as dedicated as she had been to her beach time, two days straight was a long time to spend lying on the sands.

As Joe walked the beachfront, he could see where the fort had gotten its name. Through the clear blue water, he could see bundles and branches of brightly colored coral growing across the sandy ocean floor. He also noted dozens of rune obelisks had been dug into the silt. He surmised they must be part of the reason the Fort felt safe from aquatic raiders.

In an effort to divert his downward spiralling thoughts, Joe opened up Baleful Warder and looked at some of the options he had available to him. He had a smattering of utility and defensive spells. One of the primary spells was the equivalent of his [Assess Wounds] called [Know Curse]. He contemplated taking it, considering how useful his other detection spells had been, but he only had two open points, and one of them was tied into Vigor, not Perception. Taking [Know Curse] meant he could only take a common Vigor skill.

The largest group of spells he had were curses, which seemed to come in three flavors: curses, hexes, and marks. Joe was a bit irked that the word 'Curse' was both the overall category title as well as the name for one of the sub-groups, but he chalked up the irritation to his current ill-tempered mood.

Marks seem to be long-ranged, persistent effects that were quick to cast and allowed the caster to more easily hit the target with future spells. Hexes and curses seemed to be similar, except hexes dealt damage as well as other effects. Curses did not affect Health.

Joe looked through the list, trying to decide what he wanted. He wanted something to pair with his ring, [Hex-Wrecker].

[Hex-Wrecker] (Item: Ring - Epic) If your target is afflicted by one of your curses, you can detonate the instance of the curse, inflicting scaling damage based on the severity of the hex and its remaining duration. This action removes the curse's effect. Range: Close. {Curse}

If Joe could get a long-range curse, that could debilitate one or more apes, that would stop them from throwing until he got close enough to detonate the spell with [Hex-Wreaker]. He sorted the list by attribute and rarity, looking for an Uncommon Vigor-skill with a good range. This left him with six choices: two curses, a hex, and three marks.

[Creeping Chill] - Uncommon - Vigor: Curse a target with the {Slow} condition for 20 seconds plus 5 seconds for each skill rank you have with this skill. For every 10 ranks you have with this skill, you can select an additional target. Cost: Median Stamina. | Range: Long. {Cold}

[Parasitic Bond] - Uncommon - Vigor: For 1 minute, this curse drains Health from your target into your Health. Every second, drain 5 health plus 2 points of Health for each skill rank you have with this skill. Cost: Median Stamina. | Range: Medium. {Drain}

[Rattlebones] - Uncommon - Vigor: This curse inflicts a pain-based {Distracted} condition and moderate damage based on the rank of the spell on corporal, organic creatures while you maintain the effect. Cost: Modest Stamina. | Range: Medium. {Curse}

[Rat's Teeth Mark] - Uncommon - Vigor: For 10 minutes, this curse infects your target with disease-based {Impairment}, causing trembling. This lowers the target's Dexterity and Perception skills by 8% plus 1% for each skill rank you have with this skill. Your awareness of the target is enhanced for the duration of the mark. Cost: Modest Stamina. | Range: Long. {Disease}

[Serpent's Fang Mark] - Uncommon - Vigor: For 10 minutes, this curse infects your target with poison-based {Impairment}, causing exhaustion. This lowers the target's Vigor skills and Stamina by 8% plus 1% for each skill rank you have with this skill. Your awareness of the target is enhanced for the duration of the mark. Cost: Modest Stamina. | Range: Long. {Poison}

[Vulture's Beak Mark] - Uncommon - Vigor: For 10 minutes, this curse infects your target with pain-based {Impairment}, causing weakness. This lowers the target's Strength skills and Health by 4% plus 1% for each skill rank you have with this skill. Your awareness of the target is enhanced for the duration of the mark. Cost: Modest Stamina. | Range: Long. {Curse}

Unfortunately, none of these were multi-target spells right off the bat. [Creeping Chill] would eventually reach multiple targets, but that would not help him now. He would have to pick a common Spirit spell if he wanted an immediate multiple-target skill. As he thought through his options, Joe felt a stronger single spell would be better than two weaker common ones at this point.

Testing his impressions of each, he felt the least connection to [Parasitic Bond]. He ruled it out for that reason, and the fact that he really didn't need more ways to replenish his health.

The rat mark was the next worst, which was too bad because lowering the ape's Dex and Perception would be perfect. This wasn't off the table, but probably wouldn't be his pick. After seeing what leaning into his affinity strengths meant in terms of casting output, he planned to pay attention to affinities from then on.

The snake mark was {Poison}, which Joe felt a pretty average connection to. Even so, he didn't think it would help him with the apes. It seemed like a spell that would be good for a long, drawn-out battle, but not what he wanted right now.

His {Cold} affinity felt solid, but not as good as {Curse}. {Curse} was Joe's fourth-best affinity, according to Myllo. Which made sense, because the vulture mark and the bone hex felt like they wanted to jump out of the window and into his body. The mark had a better range, but Joe was leaning towards the hex. It did damage and would distract the target, meaning it would make the badboons' throws less accurate. His new wand was also a good distractor, but [Rattlebones] had a damage component that his [Rod of Oneirism] didn't.

He knew he probably should wait for Kenda's advice, but she had said she wasn't going to be available for a few days. If Joe was going to spend the time training, he wanted to practice hex and hex-wrecking before he went back after the badboons. With an uncertain sigh, he bit the bullet and grabbed [Rattlebones], using up his free points.

Feeling a tad masochistic at the moment, Joe took off his greaves to remove his Pain-resistance. He then fired the curse into his leg, rationalizing that he should know what the spell's effect was firsthand to be able to use it effectively.

When he let the spell bypass the defence of his Spirit, his whole body began to shake and twitch. It felt like someone had rubbed stinging nettles around the inside of his body. His bones trembled and ached. The actual damage was pretty minor, given he had no ranks yet with the spell, but the {Distraction} effect was incredibly well-named. Joe couldn't focus enough to keep the curse going, meaning the spell essentially extinguished itself. Joe cracked his jaw and gave himself a good shake to rid himself of the lingering sensations.

Happy with this new addition to his repertoire, Joe sat on the beach watching the sunset behind the forests to the west, sipping from his bottle of spiked punch. When it was near dark and the hefty portion of the drink was gone, he headed back to the Captain's Glass Inn and his room. Diving back into the addictively comfortable bed, Joe let his remaining buzz shove him into sleep before he started obsessing over Kenda again.

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