The inside of the cottage was well lit with a low fire crackling away in the hearth. Stepping into main room I looked around for a moment, there was a small kitchen alcove with a door on the opposite wall from me. Across the main room was a small window and second door that looked to lead out back. Everything in the place looked to be carved expertly from wood, even the interior logs had intricate scroll work carved into each surface, stretching in winding patterns across each wall and beam.

“Wow this place is amazing, did you build it yourselves?” I said as Tai got Ardoar down into a chair.

“Ard did all of it, he’s a carpenter by trade. Actually we’re both craftsmen, our shop is out back.” Tai grumbled as he fretted over his husband, before standing and moving into the kitchen to fetch what I assumed was an aid kit.

As he moved around the house I got my first good look at him, at nearly six feet he looked like he could Ardoar could have carved him from great mahogany tree himself. With massive shoulders, biceps and a lean waist he looked like an Olympic swimmer. A short curly beard curved around his jaw and his head was shaved all except a wiry short mane like mohawk down the center. As he came back with a small satchel I was left shuffling my feet unwilling to touch anything and accidently deposit a layer of blood and grime.

“Tai you’re being rude to our guest, stop worrying about me. I’ll be just fine.” Ardoar playfully bemeaned him as he snatched the satchel from his hands, digging inside and pulling out a smoky glass bottle.

“Well if you’d listened to me instead of stubbornly going up the mountain I wouldn’t have to be worrying about you.” He responded kneel down and gently straightening the broken ankle as Ardoar unstopped the bottle and drank the content, letting out a sigh of relief.

“There I’ll be all better in a minute, now why don’t you go out and get some water heating so we can clean ourselves up. I’ll get some food together.” Hopping to his feet he limped gingerly towards the kitchen alcove as Tai stepped out through the back door. “Don’t worry about him; he’s not great with people. And I’m sure being worried isn’t helping him make the best first impression.”

I followed Ardoar into the kitchen as he gathered some cold smoked meats from a cooler in the floor, and a half loaf of crusty bread. Chatting quietly as he cut the bread and slathered it in honey we were soon both stuffing our faces together leaning against the counter.

“So where did you come from, I thought all the Ulcragg lived across the island. Not that I’m not happy you were where you were this evening.” He asked between large bites.

“Well you see, I woke up in a cave in the mountains a few days ago.” I hesitated unsure how he’d react to me breaking character. “I don’t remember much but I’d just dug myself out this morning, I was resting when I heard your hollering. I’d been fighting these big rat chicken things I’ve been calling chitterers,”

Ardoar sputtered around a piece of bread talking and chewing in tandem as he worked to clear his mouth “You ran into muroduses? That’s odd; usually they only frequent old grave sites and sewers feeding off decay and waste. Wonder what they were doing up in the mountains. Either way thank you again for saving me, you could have just walked away and saved yourself a lot of risk and pain. You can stay with me and Tai for a while. Are you planning on heading back to the Ulcragg village or somewhere else?”

“Well, I actually don’t know what I’m doing. You see, it’s a bit more complicated than that.” I started to explain my situation to him as best I could, working my way around certain elements. How I was part of a guild looking to establish ourselves on the island, take contracts, maybe trade and adventure, and that I was just a scout sent to prepare things for the others. Explaining it to someone else seemed to help me lay it all out in front of me. I’d need to establish some sort of base of operations for everyone, track down and make contact with various trainers and teachers so everyone could learn and practice what they wanted when they arrived. Then there were hopefully contracts or quests for adventuring, maybe find a few dungeons. It was a lot, especially for only one year. At the end of which people would begin flooding in stirring things up even more, and even worse Boomer and his goons would know where I was, so I needed to make sure we could defend ourselves.

“Well that sounds like quite a lot for one man, we’re just crafters but we’ll help you how we can. It’s the least I can do, you can sleep on the floor by the fire and when you find a place to build your hall I’ll help you, just get me the materials. I’ll make Tai help you too, he’s actually quite the accomplished leatherworker and hunter, he may know some good places for you to explore. And I can introduce you to some of our trading partners, they may have some work for you” He responded with a bright grin

“That’s too much, I couldn’t possibly impose on you both to do all that for me.” I said rubbing the back of my neck in embarrassment.

“Nonsense, you saved my life and besides once you and your band get going I’m sure you can repay us in kind. Tai will agree with whatever I decide, so it’s settled.” He scolded me just as Tai came back inside.

“Waters ready.” The big man grumbled as he joined us, stealing a piece of meat from in front of Ardoar

“Well great, Gideon and I were just done talking, and I’ll be honest…he doesn’t smell the best.” Ard prodded at me, pinching his nose. “No offense friend, but if you head out back you’ll see a small shed next to our work shop where the bath is, you can get yourself cleaned up. I’ll have Tai get you some clothes, they’ll be a bit small but I’m sure we can manage.”

Beating a hasty retreat I headed outside the back door into the cool night air, finding myself facing a large barn like workshop sealed up and dark for the night, with a small shed like building raised a foot or so off the ground next to it and light spilling out through the crack of the door and the space underneath. Heading in I found myself in a washroom with a wooden tub and a small potbelly stove. The floor was formed of loose slats allowing water to flow out, and I could see the tub had already been filled with steaming water. Stripping off my tattered pants I shoved my dagger into the harvest sack before dumping them both on a chair in the corner. Finding two buckets of water near the stove I dumped them over my head, scrubbing away the worst of the blood and dirt before crawling into the tub.

Slipping into the warm water was one of the greatest experiences I think I’ll ever have, melting away the last two days of panic and struggle for a moment. Finding a rough cloth and bar of soap I started the process of scouring myself clean, taking a moment to pull up my character sheet while I did.

Gideon / Ulcragg Brawler

Level 3 (1120/2000) Status: Healthy

Strength: 14

Health 420/420

Agility: 6

Mana 450/450

Endurance: 18

Stamina: 32%

Willpower: 15

-Indomitable Will

Lowlight Vision: lvl 50 - 100%

Intelligence: 10

Climbing: lvl 1 – 28%

Charisma: 8

Improvised Weapons lvl 3– 98%

Unarmed lvl 3 – 12%

- Iron Body +3 Natural Armor

Perception lvl 2 – 14%

Small Blades lvl 2 – 34%

Well things had changed a bit since I left the cave, slowly turning red like a lobster I pulled up the logs from earlier, flipping through them. It seems that while watching the chitterers I’d gained the perception trait, which explained why I could see their levels and health now. The small blades skill also made sense, but all I could find on the indomitable will thing was a short entry about the time I escaped the cave, if I went by the damage log from the rocks.

Congratulations you have unlocked an attribute trait; you are an adventurer of great determination and unflappable dedication. 50% chance to resist demoralization, fear, and physic based talents and spells.

I didn’t remember picking this, checking over I found I could still select my skills which meant I had my specialization point to spend. Either way it was pretty fucking cool, though if I wondered how easy it was to pick up new traits, it’d make fighting someone a real mine field if you didn’t know what they had. Flipping through my skills I looked at the specializations available to me, it seemed improvised weapons had stayed the same, and all the other unarmed traits I hadn’t picked were still there, but with one new addition.

Mettle – You can do more than take a hit, your body is built to withstand even magical punishment. Negates +1% spell damage each level.

I don’t know how much I’d be running into fireballs, but this would be a great one no matter how I built. Flipping through the new skills I picked out a few choices that seemed reasonable to me.

Honed Edge – A sharp edge can be crucial in a knife fight, any small blades in your hand receive the Honed Edge trait to overcome damage resistance and armor

Hunters Eye – knowing your prey is crucial to bringing it down. Allows you to inspect a target on a successful perception attempt to gain more in-depth information.

Dark Vision – Allows you to see in pitch black, sight distance is limited and the world appears in grayscale.

Rage Blade – A primitive form of primal magic, allows you to imbue a blade with your rage to increase damage by coating it in your blood.

They all had their uses, I just didn’t have enough information yet about the world to make great decisions and the damn timer on them meant I couldn’t hold onto specializations till I knew more. I already had one defensive one, so I figured either a utility ability or combat would be best. Though the thought of cutting myself before each fight didn’t seem all the appealing, I couldn’t deny nearly tripling my daggers damage wouldn’t hurt.

In the end I went with the Mettle trait, I wanted the extra damage but couldn’t stand the thought of cutting myself each time I went into a fight, what if I started using a broad sword? And it limited me to blades. I was shaping up to be a real tank despite my urges to avoid more pain. As the water started to cool I heard a knock on the door.

“Gideon, do you mind if we come in? I figured you could use some help with all that hair if you’re going to be adventuring, and Tai is great with a razor.” Ardoar said from the other side of the door.

“Uuh, yeah sure come on it.” I replied after a moment’s hesitation, I figured they’d seen it all before.

The two men entered, Ardoar immediately moving my dirty things and claiming the chair near the foot of the tub as Tai came in after with a towel, razor and a pair of loose trousers in his arms. Tossing the pants at Ardoar he moved over next to me dropping into an easy crouch.

“Do you care to keep it long?” He asked as he picked at my long black hair spilling over the back of the tub.

“Uh, just whatever you think is best. I don’t really care how it looks.” I couldn’t help but hesitate awkwardly.

In the end I finally relaxed thanks to Ardoar who immediately kicked his feet up on the edge of the tub and launched into a recounting of our meeting and encounter with the luprum on the mountain. As Ardoar and I bantered back and forth Tai went to work, shaving the sides of my head clean before braiding the center strip in a long pleated tail that came down past my shoulders. In the warm cramped room I felt a wave of exhaustion roll over me as we all chatted aimlessly. It was just so peaceful and the two felt like old friends already. Finally finished Tai handed me the towel and dragged Ard from the room to let me dress.

I slept in front of the fire that night, a deep and dreamless affair.