Heather the Necromancer

The creature stood nine feet tall with a single jet black horn on it's head. It had two angry eyes that were nearly all black and a mouth full of spiked teeth. Its body was covered with short gray hair that looked oily and matted. It's hands ended in razor-tipped fingers that made Franks look small by comparison.

“Please tell me that’s a player,” Heather groaned.

“Players can’t be rock trolls,” Frank said.

“They can’t be dragons or giants either!” she shouted as the beast turned to glare at them.

“Stand or run?” Quinny asked.

“We won’t be able to outrun it,” Frank said.

“My skeletons can slow it down,” Heather stuttered.

“For five seconds,” Frank replied.

let out a deafening roar and reached down, tearing a rock the size of her head from the earth. Before she knew what was happening, it hurled the rock their way. They scattered out of the way as the rock sailed wide of them.

“Put those down and kill that thing!” Heather yelled to her skeletons. They quickly dropped everything they were carrying and ran in arms out.

She pulled the bone she kept in her pocket out and pointed it at the troll. A rotting bolt passed over the skeletons scoring the first hit as the beast ran in using its hands to run. It smashed the first skeleton with hardly a pause and swept the next one aside like it was nothing. The last one managed to grab hold of an arm with bony claws, but the troll ripped it away and threw it aside.

“I wish I had my bone knight!” she shouted as the beast thundered in.

Frank met the charge with Quinny, and the monster sent him flying with a single blow. Quinny managed a cut with her sword that drew blood, but it also drew the beast's attention. She stumbled back, slashing wildly as the thing raked the air with its claws roaring.

Heather hit it with another rotting bolt opening up a sickly sore on its body, but it hardly seemed to notice. She was grateful to see Frank get to his feet, but Quinny was in trouble. The creature landed a firm blow that threw her down after cutting rows of open wounds across her chest.

“What do we do?” Grettah asked, terrified.

“We kill it,” Heather replied as she picked up her scythe.

She tried to seem calm, but inside she was terrified. Her spells had little effect, and to use her scythe meant getting in close.

The troll lifted its hands as if to crush the wounded Quinny when Frank landed on its back. It twisted around to grab him off, but Frank struggled to stay behind it. Heather used the opportunity to run to Quinny and cast her healing spell, causing the wounds to mend.

“Thanks,” Quinny said as she struggled to get up. Heather turned to see Grettah stab a leg with her spear, but he beast batted her away, breaking the spear in the process.

“Can we beat this thing?” Heather asked.

“I don’t know,” Quinny said. “It’s got to be double our level.”

Heather nodded and fell into another spell ordering her skeletons back from the grave. They reformed with ghostly cackles and raced back in as the troll got a hold of one of Frank's legs. It tore him off its back and used his body to smash the first skeleton that ran in.

Grettah crawled to her feet and looked weak as she tried to get up.

“I can’t take another hit from that,” she said.

Heather nodded as the beast used Frank to batter down another skeleton. She was responsible for them being out here, and she was not about to let them die for it. With trembling determination, she gripped her scythe and ran in.

“For pizza!” she yelled as she swung the weapon burying the blade in a towering leg.

The beast turned on her and roared. A powerful swipe dislodged her and threw her back almost to where Grettah was. She landed and slid across the ground, the scythe still in hand. The pain in her chest was a dull ace, but she was still alive. She looked up to see the monster throw Frank at Quinny toppling them both.

“I guess we can get pizza some other time,” Grettah groaned as the troll turned on Heather and came running in.

Heather was too weak to stop it as the monster snatched her from the ground and held her up with a massive hand.

“Sorry, I don't date hairy men!” she groaned as the beast squeezed her. She slashed at its face with her scythe, but the monster grabbed the swinging blade with its other hand stopping it inches from its face. She realized she was about to learn what a respawn was like. Then the creature wrenched the scythe down and stared down the shaft at her. In a moment of inspiration, she triggered its magical effect and sprayed the troll in the face with a red cloud.

The beast wailed and tossed her aside as it used it's two hands to try and wipe the substance from its eyes and mouth.

“What was that?” Grettah asked as she staggered up.

“Perfume,” Heather groaned.

Frank limped to her side as the monster continued to flail at its face cutting itself in the process.

“Can you walk?” he asked.

“I think so,” Heather replied as he pulled her up.

Quinny arrived a moment later and joined them. They grabbed the basket and the sunbonnet and limped away as the monster continued to howl and claw at its face.

“Ha, Heather maced it,” Quinny laughed as she looked back.

“Keep walking. So long as it's trying to wipe that off, we can get away,” Frank said.

“What kind of perfume did you spray it with?” Grettah panted.

Heather wasn't sure. The option just said perfume and offered no other description. She could pick a flower for it to smell like, but she had no idea what any of them were. She picked one at random because it looked pretty and went with that.

“The pink one,” she finally replied.

“You have no idea what it is, do you?” Frank asked.

“Do you want me to remind you what it smells like?” Heather asked, waving her scythe in his face.

They staggered over a hill and Heather decided to stop them.

“Are we safe here?” she asked.

“No,” Frank said. “we're not safe anywhere outside our homes.”

Heather glared at him and fell into her spells, healing him and giving him back his strength. She then healed Quinny again before turning to Grettah.

“Your heal is for the undead,” Frank said as Heather went to help the badly limping woman.

“I will be fine,” Greattah groaned as Heather pulled up her panel.

“I know I saw something in here for this,” she said as she pulled up the flower singer. She tapped through the spell list and saw Regenerative growth.

“By natures, touch be restored,” she said aloud.

A golden light formed under her fingers and spread across Grettah in a spiral, healing the woman's wounds. She cast the spell again on herself and was grateful the pain in her chest began to fade away slowly.

“How did you do that?” Quinny asked.

“The flower singer,” Heather replied. “It has some weird heal spell. It says it heals over thirty seconds.”

“That's called a heal over time, or a regeneration spell,” Frank pointed out.

“So, you can heal the living and the dead now?” Quinny asked.

Heather nodded as she felt better and better.

“Ha, heather managed to blend nature and the dead,” Quinny laughed.

There was a sudden roar, and they turned to look back at the hill.

“I think your perfume wore off,” Grettah said.

“So douse him again,” Quinny replied.

“I only got him because he practically held my scythe in his face,” Heather argued.

A second roar sounded louder, and they all ran as fast as they could heading across the hills.

“Please don't be chasing us! Please don't be chasing us!” Heather repeated as she looked back to see the hulking form come over the hill behind them.

“It’s chasing us!” she yelled.

“It's still struggling to see,” Frank said. “But, it will catch us eventually.”

“We need a plan!”

“I have one,” Quinny said. “We split up. It will follow one of us, and the others can get away.”

“What?” Heather yelled. “That’s a horrible plan.”

“Most of us will live,” Quinny replied.

“Is there any way we can kill it?” Heather asked.

Frank shook his head. “A normal troll maybe, but rock trolls or black trolls are giant class. They heal wounds quickly too. We would need to do massive damage to it all at once, or set it on fire.”

“I don’t have any fire spells!” Heather remarked.

“That's why we're running,” he said.

“It’s gaining on us,” Grettah added as they ran over another hill.

“Can we hide from it like the nillacs?” Heather asked.

“No, this is more intelligent,” Frank replied. “Too bad, we don't have nillacs to lure it into like before.”

“What is something that dangerous doing out near the spawn area?” Quinny asked.

“I don't know,” Frank replied. “But, it's our problem now.”

Another roar made Heather jump as they ran down the slope of a hill into a thick tangle of brush.

“Oh perfect,” Quinny said as they came to a dead stop. “Can any of you fly?”

Heather felt her heart racing as she looked across a narrow ravine. It was only about fifteen feet across and maybe twice as deep, but the walls were terribly steep, and a swift stream of water flowed a the bottom.

“Do you think we can jump into the water and swim away?” Grettah asked.

“I doubt we would survive the fall,” Frank said.

“We're going to die anyway,” Grettah pointed out as another roar filled the air.

Heather struggled to pull her dress free from some brambles when an idea hit her. She pulled her panel open again and tapped the option for growing plants. She quickly read the spell description and stepped back.

“Everyone get away from the edge,” she said as she put her hands out. She fell into a musical series of words as a green mist pooled around her hands. The plants at the edge began to twist and grow, stretching out across the expanse until they reached the other side. She continued to sing the words causing the rope to grow thicker, forming a narrow bridge across.

Frank understood and what Heather was doing and quickly urged the others over the bridge.

“I can't walk over that,” Quinny argued, but Frank practically shoved her out as the bridge continued to grow under her feet. He pushed Grettah after her and stood on the edge, waiting for them to clear the bridge. When they did, he started across the vines stretching under his weight.

Heather finally ended the spell feeling drained as looked up to see Frank arriving on the other side.

“Heather, hurry!” Frank yelled as he urged her across.

She stepped onto the vine bridge as another roar made her stumble. Heather glanced over her shoulder to see the troll was cresting the hill directly behind them. She trembled as she staggered across the bridge, the ground shaking as the troll rushed in behind her.

Frank reached out a long arm and snatched her from the bridge as the troll tried to follow. It stepped onto the narrow expanse heedless of its size and weight. To no one's surprise, the bridge stretched beneath it and suddenly broke, dropping the beast into the ravine.

“Way to go, Heather!” Quinny yelled as they heard the monster splash into the water below.

Heather trembled in fear as Frank set her down and steadied her. He gave her a moment to catch her breath before pushing them on.

“Let’s get out of here before it finds a way up,” Frank suggested.

Heather still trembled, but she was focused enough to agree and hurriedly followed as they ran off.

She continued to tremble for the next hour until she finally felt far enough away.

“You did well back there,” Frank said as he walked beside her carrying her basket.

She looked down and shook her head. “I was so scared. You and Quinny can run into fights with no worries, but I was sure I was going to die.”

“I was too,” he said.

“But you’re never afraid,” Heather said.

He laughed and glanced at her with a toothy smile. “I have already died dozens of times. Once you have died a few times, you will stop being so afraid of it.”

Heather wasn't sure that was true. The thought of dying made her skin crawl, and she couldn't imagine ever coming to terms with it.

“I am still a little afraid of it,” Grettah said. “But, it gets much easier after the first one.”

“See,” Frank added.

Heather wrung her hands on the handle of her scythe as she tried to imagine respawning. She was pretty sure they were right but wasn't looking forward to that first time.

“I liked your battle cry,” Quinny laughed. “For pizza!”

“I didn't know what else to do,” Heather said. “My rotting bolt didn't seem to hurt it.”

“It was hurting it, but trolls heal fast,” Frank said. “It’s what makes them so dangerous.”

“Yeah, only fire or acid do any lasting damage,” Quinny said.

Heather hung her head and shook it. “Didn’t Harkinor say that the trolls joined the other players to attack?”

“Those are different trolls,” Quinny said. “There are all sorts of varieties of things, just like wolves.”

Heather thought back to the wolf conversation where they listed off a dozen or more types of wolves. If the same was true of other creatures, there could be dozens of varieties of everything.

“Player trolls are only about seven feet tall with green to brown skin and hair all down their backs,” Frank said. “They resembled ghouls in a lot of ways except that they walk upright and have a lot of hair.”

“So, what type of troll is that?” Heather asked.

“Just a troll,” he replied. “The player type is a troll, and then you have the other varieties that are bigger but can't be players.”

Heather chewed on that thought a moment as they walked. “So, players can't be the larger ones?”

Frank shook his head. “Players can’t play any race of giant size or larger. Even some of the large races are restricted.”

“What constitutes a giant?” she asked.

He narrowed his eyes as he tried to remember the information.

“I think anything eight to ten feet tall is considered a large race. Anything over ten to twelve feet tall is considered a huge race, and over that is giant.”

“Don't forget the titans,” Quinny laughed.

“What is a titan?” Heather asked, not sure if she wanted to know.

“Things that are over thirty feet tall,” Frank said.

“So a giant is over twelve feet tall but under thirty, and they can’t be players?”

“Nothing over large size can be a player,” Frank said.

“But Harkinor said there were giants who were players,” Heather insisted.

“He must have been wrong,” Frank said.

“Or lying,” Quinny added.

“He said he spoke to one of them, and it was from England,” she pointed out.

“Definitely lying,” Quinny replied.

Heather didn't feel Harkinor was lying. He seemed like a nice guy to her, and what reason would he have to lie to her? She didn't know, and she didn't care. She was grateful to be away from the troll and looked up just as the sun disappeared over the horizon.

The sky filled with stars and objects she could only assume were nearby planets. The pretty blue one with the rings like Saturn hung in the east, another greener one with a dark band across its center was far to the north. There were various other objects of different luminosity scattered about, and she found them fascinating to look at.

“I wish I could get a telescope here,” she said

“You want an artificer or a tinkerer,” Frank said.

“I what?” Heather stammered.

“To get a telescope, you want to find an artificer or a tinkerer. I am pretty sure both of them can make telescopes.”

“You mean they have those here?”

He nodded his head, sending a small stream of drool flying. “I don't know how common the class is, but they do have it.”

Well, that was something to look forward to. She imagined setting it up on the roof of her tower to look out at the vastness of the sky above. She wondered why the visitors had chosen this sky in particular, and if it was based on a real sky someplace.

She held the thought only for a moment when Frank held an arm to stop her.

“Look,” he said and pointed out into the grasslands.

Heather squinted in the dim light and saw movement in the grass. It was a dome of some kind shuffling about almost at random.

“What is that?” Heather asked.

“Razor beetles,” Frank said.

“Experience,” Grettah added.

Heather rolled her eyes at the thought of more fighting.

“These are easy to beat,” Frank said. “They are no more dangerous than your skeletons.”

“My skeletons are useless,” Heather said.

“You have to upgrade them.”

“I can upgrade them?” she stammered.

“You never go back to check old spells after you have leveled, do you?”

“I don’t play games!” she snapped. “Why would I think to do that?”

Quinny laughed and drew her sword as Grettah readied her spear.

“Wait a minute. I saw your spear break!”

Grettah looked at the weapon in her hands and shrugged. “It is the starting weapon. If you break or lose it, it comes back.”

“What?” Heather said as her head got dizzy. “So, you can never have another weapon?”

“I told you that starting gear always comes back,” Frank said. “She can get rid of the weapon by intentionally releasing it. Otherwise, it will come back to her. Your scythe is the same because it's a class summoned weapon. You can't get rid of it for good.”

“But I leave it in the tower all the time,” she said.

Frank shook his head. “If you got far enough away from it, it would magically appear at your side.”

“Our experience is getting away,” Quinny said, drawing them back to the beetles.

Heather looked up at Frank and smiled. “I suppose we should kill a few to level Grettah.”

“It would be nice considering you keep resetting her,” he laughed.

“Stop reminding me!” Heather groaned. She turned to the bugs crawling about ahead and smiled. “Let's kill some beetles and level up.”

They spent the next hour slashing through bugs until Grettah finally leveled. Then made camp besides some rocks to sleep for the night while Frank and Quinny stood watch. Heather dreamed of pizza and soda, and french fries topped with garlic salt. Suddenly Frank and Quinny were at her side, gobbling down the food. It was a happy dream, and Heather smiled until Quinny spoke.

“So, this is what makes it dwarven pizza.”

Heather looked down at the pizza she was eating to see little beetles baked into the cheese. Her dream echoed with her scream as Frank and Quinny laughed at her.