Name: Kenric Ordheim

  Class: Prophet

  Level: 9

  Title: 4th Son of the Earl of Ordheim, Squire of Eastcheap Manor

  Divine Domain: Fate

  Attributes

  Strength: 15

  Dexterity: 15

  Constitution: 30

  Intelligence: 18

  Wisdom: 43

  Perception: 21

  Charisma: 16

  Active Spell Slots: 6 of 9

  Minor Heal

  Minor Cube of Confusion

  Lesser Barrier of Light

  Caretaker’s Guidance

  Fade(2)

  Inactive Spells

  Lesser Shadow Leech

  Fate Domain Skills:

  Lore Sight

  Faction:

  Mir: 135

  Wik: 75

  Eui: 60

  Qas: 150

  Sul: 175

  Tek: 180

  Hul: 110

  Gor: -425

  Cel: 35

  Equipped:

  Weapon: Warden’s Staff

  Body: Monk’s Habit (Brown)

  Legs: Linen Pants

  Feet: Blight Warden’s Boots

  Finger 1: Ring of Light’s Promise

  Inventory

  Rune Lockbox

  The Gateway to Heaven and Hell-Book

  Skills of the Purgatorium Mystics-Book

  Strategic Domination-Book

  Dungeon Delver’s-Book

  Eye of Xat

  I looked over my Status to look over my gains and spent a full minute looking over my Faction numbers. With the way they fluctuated back and forth it made me question whether I was too fickle or the Gods were. I was still hated by Gor, but my Tek Faction had slowly crept up to the top.

  Tek was of the Light Pantheon, but was considered to be a bit of an outsider by other Faiths and a bit controversial. It is the opening line of Tek’s Universal Genesis: In the beginning, there was only Tek that often made some of the priests of other factions grumble. I had no opinion on the matter, but Tek was often depicted as an old man holding an Abacus surrounded by stars and the image of him being “first” sort of fit, I felt.

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  Tek’s priesthood was nearly as secretive as Sul’s priesthood. They had only one known place of worship: a great Fortress Monastery located high in the mountains of Yan-Kai. There, Tek’s priests meditated upon the great mysteries of the Universe through their use of Mathematics, Astronomy, Prophecy and Number Riddles. I have met Tek Priests before. They are about as interesting as one would expect a sermon on Math to be. I recall one of their beliefs is how Purgatorium is really an ancient ship created to sail the stars until Tek brought it to Aramyr through something Tek priests call “complex quantum mechanics.” Ord, I think I’d rather run dungeons than listen to a Math sermon.

  Still, Tek’s Tier II offerings were anything but boring.

  Congruency Darts (2 Active)

  Mana Cost: 18 Mana

  Description: Creates a bracelet of mana charged darts that orbit the caster’s wrist. When launched, darts will travel parallel or perpendicular to one another in a dizzying array of misdirection before launching at target.

  Damage: 1-10

  Cool down: none

  Finally, a real attack spell!

  It didn’t bother me that I was excited to be able to inflict real damage against an enemy, because after surviving two dungeons through luck and wits I was ready to rely upon something that came with a God’s blessing. This spell was a must, but Tek’s other spells also deserved consideration.

  Forced Perspective (2 Active)

  Mana Cost: 85 Mana

  Description: Calculates and revisualizes the size of an object at distance. Roll a distant boulder between your thumb and forefinger. Knock aside a battering ram with a kick. Can be upcast for greater distances and larger objects.

  Duration: PER/WIS X Level

  Cool Down: 24 hours

  Rule of Three (2 Active)

  Mana Cost: 25% of Total Mana

  Description: This spell acts as a Counterspell and must be recast between rests. Any hostile spell directed at the Tek priest will be deconstructed into its basic parts recalculated and recast to a greater proportional result. Mana is not regained if unused.

  Cool Down: 1 hour

  “Wow, are these what I think they are?” The power behind these spells certainly made me rethink my opinion of Tek Priests. I could only imagine what it would be like to see a Mage cast a low level Frost Bolt spell countered by the Rule of Three and recast as the higher level Frost Lance spell. To say nothing of what Forced Perspective could do. His sister Gwyneth had always played this really annoying game with him where she ran around squinting at him between her fingers and threatening to “squish his tiny head” from across the dining table. Had she a spell like this, she could have actually done it!

  “Again, all these choices are great,” I muttered. Yet, while he had enough Blue nodes to unlock them, he didn’t have enough Green nodes to reach all of them. Also, there was still Sul’s Tier II spells and even Qas’ Tier II’s to consider as well. I was also nearly to Mir’s Tier II offerings and was hopeful for an upgrade to Minor Heal or hopefully that Weak Cleanse might be one of the Tier II choices. I would need both Green and Blue nodes for those too. I decided I would once again take the conservative approach.

  Tek node 4: +5 PER, Tek node 5: +5 PER. I paid 6 Green Nodes for the Perception increases and then paid the 1 Blue Node to unlock the Tier II spell I wanted and knowledge of it filled my mind.

  You have unlocked the spell Congruency Darts! Requires 2 Active Slots.

  I celebrated Tek’s divine gift, but I had run into a new issue I couldn’t ignore. My Active Spell list was almost full. I would have to reconfigure my spell load out when I purchased further spells unless there was a way to increase my overall Active Slot total. I didn’t want to drop any of my Active spells as each of them had been useful to me thus far, the notable exception being Lesser Spell Leech due to my Faction loss with Wik.

  Active Spell Slots: 8 of 9

  Minor Heal

  Minor Cube of Confusion

  Lesser Barrier of Light

  Caretaker’s Guidance

  Fade(2)

  Congruency Darts(2)

  There was also the matter of the loot I had gathered so far. Much of it was junk, but there was an item I wanted to examine closer.

  Fel Crystal Staff-Cracked

  Grade: D

  Level: 10

  Quality: Uncommon

  Durability: 2 of 25

  Primaries: +4 PER

  Secondaries: Shadowmurk Resistance +0% (50%) (Unavailable due to shard crystal damage)

  So much for this item. Hmm, this crystal looks like a piece of the Felshard! Did I crack it when I honey bombed the Shaman or is it because the crystal was linked to the Fel Shard?

  It was an interesting hypothesis, but I felt I was on the right track. The Shaman may have found a way to harness a small chunk of the shard for his staff to protect himself from Shadowmurk sickness. Then, with the Fel Shard destroyed the Shaman’s piece was destroyed too. The broken crystal was tied to the staff with leather strips. I was about to toss the whole thing aside, but my eye was drawn to a series of runes etched into the wood.

  “These runes weren’t made by Kobolds,” I muttered. I gripped the staff and let my fingers trace a rune. I felt a slight stirring, a weak response not from the corrupted energies of the shard, but of something warm and familiar. This staff was yet another stolen artifact from the Temple.

  I undid the rough knots and cast the lifeless shard away. Without the shard, the staff was about 5 feet in length and an inch and a half thick and fit well into my hands. During my examination, I received an updated notification.

  Staff of the Stone Bishop’s Bell

  Grade: D

  Class: Priest

  Level: 10

  Quality: Uncommon

  Durability: 15 of 25

  Primaries: +4 PER

  Secondaries: Blessing of Angelus

  Duration: 3 seconds

  Cool Down: 10 seconds

  The increase to my Perception was welcome, but what was a Blessing of Angelus?

  “An Angelus is a type of Church Bell, but what does such a blessing do?” I should have been more patient, because when I read the weapon’s description a smile slowly spread across my face as my excitement built.

  “Oh yes. Glory of Qas, this will do nicely…”