29 - Another Elven Gift

"Huh?" Earcellwen breathed, staring into Joe's eyes. "I wasn't sure if it was the trait or a characteristic of my family, but now I know."

"Know what?" he asked, confused.

The slight archer held up a finger, pausing him, before she reached up to touch her spatial necklace. Out popped a small case about the size of a cell phone. Earcellwen clicked open the box and handed Joe the contents, which turned out to be a small silver mirror. The feel of silver on his skin was strange, as if the smooth surface was somehow both icy cold and prickly at the same time. It didn't inflict any actual damage, but he realized that silver jewelry was now something he would never comfortably wear.

"Your eyes are now like my family's eyes, just blue instead of the customary colors. You already had nice eyes, but now they shine."

Joe turned the reflective plane to see his face, and, sure enough, his blue eyes now looked like living sapphires. Much like gemstones, there was a glittery illumination to them that had not been present this morning when he had brushed his teeth. The hue of his eyes had not changed. They were still the same blue, but enriched by the same sparkling accent that had stunned Joe the first time he had noticed RC's amazing green eyes.

Mojo snagged the mirror out of Joe's hand and stared at itself while Joe ruminated over another change to his physical form. "At this rate, if I ever did meet someone from home, they might not recognize me. Between my nails, hairy arms, the rest of my hair that seems to grow twice as fast, and now my eyes, I'm getting a makeover, bit by bit."

"I like it. You look like my holt-mates. Granted, I have never seen Rhuivalian eyes in royal blue before. Green, brown, amber, aqua, purple, but never deep blue. It's not a color common to elves," she explained, before breaking into giggles at the shug monkey who was making faces at himself in the mirror. Joe also couldn't help but chuckle at the creature's antics. It clearly understood what the mirror was and was just having fun donning goofy expressions.

"So, about the skill?" she asked when her laughter passed. "Do you want the [Keen Eye] for an even bigger accuracy buff? Or for the Dex point, maybe something like my [Sidestep]?"

"Again, I'm tempted to wait and ask the experts," Joe began before wonderingly asking, "What does [Sidestep] do?"

"You take a lot of hits, so it could really help you out. Most tanks, well, those who don't try to tough it out through healing, usually specialize in heavy defenses or high evasion. [Sidestep] is the base skill of that second category. Even non-frontliners take it because sooner or later something will charge up to you and try to take a bite. Being able to slide out of the way is key to staying alive. I've heard Kendell recommend [Sidestep] almost as often as she reminds people to save a slot for [Identify]."

"But I already have [Heavy Hand] to block hits."

"I saw that, but it has a delay before it recharges. If you combine the two, you will be even harder to hit. I know Kerrig, another guilder around our level, combines [Sidestep] and [Parry] very effectively. Still, if you want to wait, you can just buy it later from the guild for a few gold. It's a very popular spell, so they keep plenty on hand."

"If it's that commonly used, I don't see why I'd wait. It would be nice to have a way to avoid hits while [Heavy Hand] is cooling off," Joe stated, heavily stressing the word 'would.' "You know what. I'll keep the rest open for a session with the trainers, but if you don't mind sharing, I'll grab [Sidestep]."

Earcellwen waved her hand at the floating, inscribed leaf. As she let him have access to [Sidestep], Joe saw the skill's name begin to pulse. Joe focused on the throbbing words and felt a very average affinity coming off the name. Recalling that the affinity scale was from zero to ten, he guessed [Sidestep] for him lay right in the middle ay five. If it were a negative connection, he would have passed, but middle-of-the-road for a skill that was a very popular choice seemed safe enough to pick on his own.

[Sidestep] - Common - Dexterity: The skill improves your chance to evade an attack by 6% plus 1% for each skill rank you have with this skill. You must be able to move to invoke this skill. Cost: Moderate Stamina. {Evasion}

"Thanks. I can't want to train that up. Being able to heal wounds is great, but not getting hit in the first place will be very nice."

"You are very welcome," she replied, dismissing the leafy screen.

"So, what ya wanna do now?" he inquired. "I'm leaning towards looking into what displaced the badboons."

"I think we should check out the trow caves first. Naenaeon told me the caves are steeped in death magic. We should make sure they pose no danger to travelers on the Mount Serebuck trail before we move on. That is an adventurer's guild standard. If you encounter a hazard, investigate it. "

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"That makes sense. Sure. What's a trow, by the way?"

"The trow are malevolent cousins of dwarves. They are typically cruel and capricious creatures. They are smaller than mountain dwarves, and though they can see in the dark, they do not delve deep below the ground as true dwarves do. They are mostly nocturnal hill-miners."

"Good to know." Joe returned to the cave he had first hidden in. He knew he wasn't going to get any further into it due to the cave-in, but he had some undead trow bodies to loot first. Each one offered up a metal nugget of either silver or gold. After which, he moved to the next cave openings. This was another one he had spotted that the apes had been avoiding. He entered and listened. Sure enough, his improved hearing picked up sounds from somewhere deeper into the hillside. It sounded like the hissing growls of ghouls.

"Okay, Mojo. Take these," he stated, handing the little changeling a pair of the [Throwing Nuts]. "You stay back with RC. You protect her. Not me." Joe tossed the archer a telling look to let her know the command was for Mojo's sake and not that he thought she needed protecting. She nodded back. And so did their newest ally; Mojo exaggeratedly bobbed his head, which Joe hoped meant he understood and was not just copying Earcellwen.

He turned back to the cave and heard the archer whisper for him to walk near the left wall, giving her room to shoot around him in the tight tunnel. With an axe in one hand and a stone in the other, Joe stepped into the darkness, his teammates following him a few paces back.

After fifty feet, Joe was forced to stop. In front of him was a tangle of iron rods. The clustered poles were driven into the rough rocky walls at every angle, so densely spaced that the undead, dwarf-like ghouls trapped behind them could only find a few spaces large enough to extend their thick arms through.

"Well, we are not getting through there," Joe exclaimed, looking around the jumble of iron in the soft light Earcellwen was emitting. She had slightly enhanced night vision, suited for life under the dense canopies of the deep forest. It was not as good as Joe's [Night Eyes]. As long as he was not in pitch blackness, Joe could see enough not to be blind.

Earcellwen had been prepared for darkness already. Her [Bangle of the Moonlit Glade] spread a gentle, pearly light around the area. The glow had no specific origin, like a torch or lantern would; nothing that would point her out to an enemy seeking her. The area was just lit as if the moon was shining from above.

Joe guessed Mojo's darksight was between his and the elf's. His eyes grew wide and seemed to have a luminous sheen about them the further into the cave they went, but just before RC cast her light spell, he seemed to be struggling to see ahead, whereas to Joe, everything was still clearly visible. The faint light from outside coming down the twisted tunnel was enough for him.

"How about some free xp?" Joe asked. Before the archer could answer him, he dropped a [Halefire] right up against the tangle of rods. The ghouls hissed and screeched. The ghastly creatures that could back away quickly did so, opening the way for those pressed up against the bars. The ones who had their arms stretched for Joe tore the flesh off their limbs in a hurry to get out of the phoenix light.

On seeing the throng of undead, Mojo screamed and clambered up onto RC's head. At first, Joe thought the reaction was in fear, but it turned out he was taking his command seriously. The fierce little creature puffed himself up and howled at the retreating horde. When they were gone, his face split into a wide, toothy smile, clearly taking credit for driving away the threat to his elf.

Joe shook his head at the changeling and turned back to note that, unfortunately, all of the undead managed to escape Joe's radiant area. [Halefire's] damage output was just not quick enough, but the spell was not really designed for combat. Even so, it forced them back. Joe stepped up close to the bars and, through one of the wider openings, he dual-cast the campfire spell. One, he placed close to bars to keep the dead back, but the other, he dropped at the furthest point he could see. It lit up the chamber beyond. The cavern room was about fifty feet wide and thirty long. Joe could pick out numerous passages leading off the grotto. It suggested that the whole area around the ravine might be honeycombed with tunnels.

He turned around to find a wide-eyed elf cringing behind him. She had removed Mojo from her head but was cradling him in her arms. From the shug monkey's expression and hers, Joe guessed she was the one needing comfort far more than Mojo was.

"Hey, are you ok?"

"Can we get out of here, please?' Earcellwen squeeked. "They can't get out this way, so we can leave it. Let's go," she hissed through clenched teeth.

"Yeah. Go. Right behind you," he affirmed, gesturing for her to head out.

When they reached the sunlight, Earcellwen shuddered and let out a gasp as she put Mojo down. She was so pale it was like all the vibrance had drained from her flesh. "Oh, that was awful. Sorry. Naenaeon warned me, but I just wasn't ready for … that!" she blurted, waggling her hand toward the cave entrance. "Bleah!"

Joe dropped a [Halefire] under her to ease whatever was shaking her. The spell was designed to comfort and repel undead. It was a pretty good assumption that both aspects would ease her.

"Oh, that's much better. Thank you, Joe."

"So the ghouls are giving off some sort of evil aura?" he asked as he watched the color return to her skin.

"I think that's backwards, Joe. There isn't a cloud of evil because there are ghouls. I think there are ghouls in there because of the cloud of evil," Earcellwen corrected.

"I didn't feel anything. I must not have your sensitivity to whatever it is." Joe crossed back into the cave, trying to pick up what Earcellwen was feeling. Nothing.

"One of the primary focuses of my second class is a deep connection to nature. When the natural harmony gets perverted the way it is in that cave, we can feel it. As a Wildbow, I can tell you that there is something very wrong in there."

"Should we check the other caves? Will you be ok?"

"Yeah, but give me a second to shake this off. I know about it now, so I'll be prepared for the next one."

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