Richard woke, with a blurry memory of strange dreams.

A woman, the left side of her face young and pretty, the right side blackened and decaying…

A window popped up in front of his eyes, distracting him just as his mind was trying to remember what he had dreamed.

Through gaining a better understanding of your own mind, you have gained +1 WIS

Through extensive training with a light throwing weapon you have gained +1 DEX

He completely forgot about the dream, wondering how the stats worked.

I did spend a lot of time yesterday practicing throwing knives, and I gained that rational introspection skill, so I guess it makes sense. Both times I gained stats like this it happened first thing in the morning after exercising the previous day, so maybe that’s the pattern?

Richard sat up and looked around the basement. With no windows down here and the light globes unchanged, he had no idea what time it was, and he really missed having a clock or cell phone around. But everyone else was awake and moving around already, so he got up as well. They had already been quietly talking, discussing what to do today.

“Oh, good, you’re awake Richard,” Jehan said. “I was just saying that if we want to let the guard know about what’s going on, I could visit my friend, Sergeant Bennett. He’s not on duty in the mornings, so I should be able to catch him at home and have a little chat before he goes back to the guard house and let him know what we know. I’ll just head out there by myself, and we can...”

“No,” Richard interrupted. “No one goes anywhere alone right now. Last two times we did that, I got brainwashed and you got kidnapped.”

The room went quiet, but Jehan nodded slowly. “I don’t think we should all go together, but you’re right.”

“Connecting with your Sergeant friend is a good idea, though. You didn’t notice any sign of him being under mental influence?”

“Not that I noticed. Although the more obviously charmed soldiers did know I was there,” Jehan hesitated. “He still might be our best bet, though.”

“Ok. Who else can we warn, who might have the power to help control a few hundred warped men?” Richard asked.

“You know, that’s been bothering me,” Harry was leaning against the wall, holding onto his staff. “These warped men; I know they’re dangerous, but you said they’re slow moving and stupid, and not terribly strong, right?” Jehan and Richard nodded. “There’s no way a few hundred of those could take or destroy this town. The town guard, or even just a few dozen mid-level adventurers could probably take them down, right? So, what are they planning? Especially if this is something the Duke is planning; it can’t just be a matter of causing some random destruction.”

“If that woman has some of the guard charmed, or suborned…then…hmm. No, still probably not.” Kateryn shook her head.

“That’s a good point, though. Adventurers could also help control this. They’re another group we could warn about there being warped men in town,” Bertrand said, looking up towards the ceiling as he thought.

“Anyone else have any ideas?”

Evelyn spoke up. “If we had some way to let the mayor or anyone on the town council know…but I’m not sure how we could do that today. Or there’s always the merchant guards, although they’re not likely to do more than protect the people paying them.”

Richard thought about it. “Ok. How about this. Jehan, Harry, and Kateryn, the three of you go visit this Sergeant that Jehan knows. It wouldn’t be that strange, the three of you showing up together, right?”

Jehan shook his head. “No, it wouldn’t surprise anyone to see the three of us talking or walking together. Not like having the whole band of us together anyway.”

“Ok. Me and Bertrand can go to the adventurer’s guild. They know you there, right?”

Bertrand nodded.

“And Evelyn, you’d better stay here, for now. It’s too risky to have you walking around in broad daylight, especially anywhere near the guards or adventurers; both are probably looking for you right now.”

Evelyn sighed, but nodded.

Skill earned. Leadership (small group) (1)

Quest received – recruit adventurers to help protect the town from Warped Men

Jehan walked down the street, talking about minor details with Harry and Kateryn and smiling, looking as if he didn’t have a care in the world. When no one was around, he leaned closed to the other two and said in a low voice “have either of you checked your status books lately?”

They both looked up and whispered “status”, and a minute later, both of them looked quite surprised.

“I have…a quest? To alert the town guard about the warped men?” Kateryn sounded extremely surprised but tried to keep her voice low.

Harry nodded. “I do too. Strange. I suppose that means this is going to be dangerous, huh?”

Jehan nodded back. “I fear that is true. Something else, though. One of us could have gotten a quest spontaneously, just by trying to do something dangerous and important, but for all three of us to have the quest at the same time…” he trailed off.

Harry finished his thought for him. “Richard asked us to do this. Is he giving out quests, like a guild master? Is that something a champion can do?”

“Or…you all said,” Kateryn corrected herself, “we all said, that we considered him the leader of our group. It could be a leadership skill.”

“Sure, could be. I don’t remember him saying he had a leadership skill, though, and he went through all his skills for us. Was he hiding it?” Harry speculated.

“Or maybe he didn’t have the skill yesterday, and has it now,” Jehan said quietly. “I have never seen someone learn skills as quickly as he does.”

Kateryn looked doubtful. “Wait. I know he’s smart, but you can’t just get skills like that, right? Especially uncommon ones like leadership. Someone has to train you. Right?”

“Usually, but not always,” Harry mused. “Men in battle sometimes learn skills they were never trained in.”

“Anyway, we are here,” Jehan said, as they stopped in the street in front of a medium sized house several blocks away from Jehan’s temple. “I thought this would be simple, but since we have a quest, that almost certainly means it will not be. Be prepared for anything.”

Jehan knocked on the door, and a few moments later Sergeant Bennett opened it and smiled. “Jehan! It’s wonderful to see you!” Bennett was wearing his uniform pants but hadn’t put his uniform coat on yet and was wearing a white button-down shirt. He did have his sword on at his side.

I would guess that he grabbed it and put it on before answering the door, he probably did not have it while sitting at home in the morning. Jehan thought. He must be jumpy today not wanting to answer his own door without a sword.

Jehan smiled back, “Great to see you as well, Sergeant! You remember Harry and Kateryn?”

The Sergeant smiled and nodded, “Of course, of course! It’s great to see both of you.” He shook Harry’s hand and then gave Kateryn a quick hug. “Anyway, come in! Nice of you to drop by.”

They came into the house, and Bennett shut the door behind them. “Actually, this isn’t totally a social visit. You remember how I was reading those records from the investigation yesterday?”

Bennett nodded, his face turning serious. “Yes. Terrible thing, monsters inside of the town like that, makes everyone jumpy. Did you find anything?”

Jehan nodded slowly, “I’m afraid so. First, I have to warn you; I am worried that some of the other guards might be compromised by someone using forbidden mind-magic, and…”

With a flash, before Jehan had finished the sentence, Bennett had drawn his sword with his right hand and slashed it down toward Jehan from above. Bennett’s face had gone totally blank and emotionless.

Harry thrust his staff sideways and managed to partly block the sword just before it struck Jehan in the shoulder. The sword glanced off his staff and slashed the skin on Jehan’s upper arm slightly, but it mostly missed him thanks to the deflection.

Harry swung his staff up at Bennett’s head, and Bennett blocked with his sword. Right after that was a rapid flurry of blows, with Harry mostly blocking one attack after another with his staff, keeping his staff horizontal across his body and raising one end or the other of the staff to block attacks coming from either side. Kateryn tried to circle around behind Bennett, but he spun to his left as he fought Harry, and she couldn’t get behind him.

Bennett saw an opening, low and to the left, and tried to stab towards Harry’s hip. Harry managed to sidestep and bring his staff down hard across Bennett’s hand. Bennett dropped the sword, but instead of stopping the fight, he rushed Harry head on. Harry managed to strike him on the side of the head and in the stomach, but neither hit seemed to slow Bennett down, and he grabbed Harry’s staff with both hands and managed to pull it away from him.

Just as he did, Kateryn and Jehan both managed to get a grip on Bennett from behind and pulled him away from Harry. Bennett tried to swing the staff, but Kateryn managed to restrain both of his arms, and Jehan pulled an arm across his neck. Together, the two of them managed to pull him down into a wooden chair and hold him there.

Harry came and put an arm down on Bennett’s, and Kateryn had Bennett’s hands firmly pinned together behind his back. Bennett continued to struggle and kick, his face strangely emotionless, until Jehan gently put a hand on the back of his head and whispered a few words. Bennett stopped struggling and his body went limp.

“I hope I didn’t harm him, it’s not safe to dispel mind magic that quickly,” Jehan muttered, keeping a hand on the back of Bennett’s head. Now that Bennett had stopped struggling, Jehan was able to focus better and carefully removed the rest of the mental magic from Bennett.

A few minutes later, Bennett’s head came back up, and he seemed to regain consciousness. “Thank you, Jehan. And I am sorry. I was…not myself.” He glanced at Jehan’s arm, “You’re bleeding.”

“I will be fine, it’s just a small cut,” Jehan said, putting a hand on the wound. “And this is not your fault. Most of us were affected by her too at one point, we know what it’s like. The important question is, what do we do now?”

Bennett thought for a moment. “I’m not sure who is affected, but I bet that at least most of the Sergeants of the guard are, if they bothered to target me. Maybe we can talk to them and the soldiers one on one, and you can remove the charm from anyone else who is affected?”

Jehan hesitated. “We can do some of that, but I am…limited in how many I can help in a day.”

Bennett nodded. “We might be able to take it slowly, slowly clear a handful of people a day. I haven’t seen her in two weeks, it’s not likely she’ll notice right away that I’m free. Maybe within a week we can…”

Jehan shook his head. “I’m afraid we do not have that kind of time.”

“Why is that?”

“Your town…our town…is full of monsters. They are going to attack tonight.”

“Monsters?”

“Yes. The same ones that attacked the inn, but hundreds of them. And they are under the control of the same people that seem to have charmed half the city guard.”

Spoiler: Character sheet

Name: Richard

Race: Human (5)

Class: Skirmisher(2)

Scribe (2)

Age: 26

Strength: 3 (2.4)

Dexterity: 8

Constitution: 11

Endurance: 8

Intelligence: 25 (30)

Wisdom: 5 (4)

Perception: 7

Charisma: 11 (13.2)

HP: 83 (Max: 83)

SP: 42 (Max 42)

MP: 153 (153)

MP regeneration: 4%/hour

Divine Class: Champion of Ikar (1)

Humor: 46

Cunning: 67

High Stakes: 55

Glory: -911

Divine favors:

Gift of Tongues: May speak, understand, read, or write in any mortal language (may only speak languages you have heard and only write in languages you have seen).

Special traits:

Offworld Education (Legendary): +20% to effective intelligence, -10% to effective wisdom. Learns skills 50% more quickly than someone with an equivalent intelligence, gains experience 25% more quickly. More likely to learn unusual skills.

Pampered: Compared to most humans, this person has spent his whole life eating the best food, doing minimal physical labor, and generally living what most would call a life of luxury. -20% to strength, -20% to stamina points, +20% to hit points, +20% to charisma.

Without Glory: This person is extremely lacking in Glory, one of the 3 virtues of Toran, and as such may be instinctively distrusted or even hated by followers of Toran. -10 to reaction from followers of Toran.

Explorer (Human racial trait): Humans are known for wanting to explore the world, and for wanting to discover what's over the next hill. Gains a small amount of experience gained for discovering and exploring new locations.

Curious (Human racial trait): Some humans have a high degree of curiosity, and a desire to learn many new things and try many different possible paths. Many consider this curiosity to be one of the great assets of the species, even if it frequently gets them into trouble. Learns skills and spells 10% more quickly (scales with human level). Experience bonus for more than 3 classes (currently 0% bonus). Can earn human experience for making discoveries.

Accuracy (Skirmisher class trait): +2 to hit with any thrown or ranged weapons. Scales with skirmisher level.

Running throw (Skirmisher class trait): +60% to damage and +30% to range when a weapon is thrown while charging at full speed. Scales with skirmisher level.

Rapid retreat (Skirmisher class trait): +30% speed when running away from an enemy or hazard, but at a cost of +10% SP consumption. Scales with skirmisher level.

Faster writing (Scribe class trait): +50% writing speed. Scales with scribe level

Precise handwriting (Scribe class trait): Increased handwriting neatness and precision. Reduces risk of error in runic magic. Scales with scribe level.

Skills (General):

Pratfall (2): You have the ability to fall in a hilarious fashion. Likely to make people laugh if executed well. All falling damage reduced by 20%.

Mathematics (14): You are extremely skilled at mathematics. +140% to calculation speed and accuracy. +70% to learning speed of other skills with a mathematical component. Small bonus to other math related skills and spells.

Pathfinder (forest) (3): You have an intermediate level of skill at moving through a forest quickly. You have learned the basics of how to travel through a forest, can see where to step and where to avoid, and can identify good paths to take while traveling. +30% to movement speed through a forest. -30% to SP cost for moving through forest. Increased chance to see and avoid natural hazards.

Stealth (2): You have a basic level of skill at moving quietly and in a stealthy manner. Decreased chance of being detected while trying to move quietly and stealthily.

Climbing (1): You have a basic level of skill at climbing.

Taunt (1): You have a basic level of skill at taunting an enemy to cause them to attack you. Most effective on enemies with low wisdom scores.

Acrobatics (1): You have a basic level ability at acrobatics. Improves jumping, tumbling, rolling, and balance.

Melee weapon (sword) (general) (1): You have a basic level of skill at sword fighting. +1 to-hit bonus with any sword, +1 damage with any sword.

Rational Introspection (3): You have begun to develop the rare skill of being able to rationally inspect your own thoughts for errors and inconsistencies. Can be used to notice and break free of some types of mental magic and illusion spells. Allows you to use your intelligence to slightly increase your resistance to some types of spells.

Surprise attack (1): When attacking someone by surprise or from stealth, +1 to damage and +5% to Critical hit chance

Leadership (small group) (1): You have some basic skills at leading small groups of people into battle (10 or smaller). Minor bonus to effective charisma towards people in a small group who consider you their leader, minor morale bonus for people under your command. Small chance that sending people you are leading on a mission will create a quest for them; you can not create a quest more often than once per week.

Skills (Skirmisher):

Jogging (3): An unusual running practice, primarily designed to improve the health and endurance of the human or for recreation rather then for practical gain. -30% SP cost while running slowly on roads or even ground, -15% SP cost for other running. +15% endurance and constitution training gains while running.

Thrown weapon (rocks) (2): You have a basic level of skill at throwing rocks. +2 to-hit bonus with thrown rocks, +2 damage. 5% chance for a thrown rock to stun an opponent.

Thrown weapon (daggers and knives) (3): You have a basic level of skill at throwing daggers and knives. +3 to-hit bonus with thrown daggers and knives, +3 damage. 5% increased chance for a thrown dagger or knife to inflict the bleed status on an opponent.

Parting shot (3): You have a moderate level of skill at using thrown or ranged weapons while moving. -45% to ranged penalty for using ranged weapons while running or riding.

Skills (Scribe):

Writing (5): You know how to write clearly. Higher levels of this skill improve writing speed and accuracy.

Reading (10) (Max): You are highly skilled at reading and reading comprehension. Increased reading speed, -75% reduction to the penalty from learning a skill or spell from a book instead of from a teacher.

Spells:

Insight (1)

Gust of Wind (1)

Quests:

Try Not To Die. To succeed at this quest, merely live through your first two weeks in the world without getting killed. Shouldn't be too hard...right?

Recruit adventurers to help protect the town from Warped Men.

Achievements: Bounty Hunter(intermediate):+2 DEX

One Shot: +5% CRIT

Underdog:+1 Skill lvl when fighting higher level opponents