Time Out

The team takes a breather.

SynopsisEdit

Juniper, Fenn, and the team move towards Sorian's Castle. Juniper reflects on his situation, noting that it's more like those experienced by NPCs—not players—in his games, and that such situations rarely end well for the NPC in question. He's not sure whether he should regard the team as antagonists or not, in terms of their opposition to Amaryllis.

With his newfound skill in skin magic, Juniper begins to prod at the Fool's Choker on his neck. He increases his skill in Skin Magic to level 1 merely by feeling and pushing against the pattern of coldness against his skin that the tattoo makes. He gains two additional skill levels by the time the team arrive at Sorian's Castle, plus one in Deception.

The castle's portcullis is lowered, but its corner is bent outwards. A courtyard is visible beyond, as well as the glass wall of the skyscraper that makes up the main building of the castle. As the team approaches, Fenn tries to surreptitiously communicate something to Juniper using what he perceives as Morse code—but he has no idea what she's saying.

As the team prepares to move in, a truly gigantic agglomeration of undead—the Biggun—appears around the corner, two blocks away. The creature launches corpses at the team by whipping one of its tendril-like limbs towards the party. Juniper watches as Quills scythes through the corpses, Carter takes the hits that the team sustains through his soul link, and Fenn somehow avoids being hit altogether. Juniper increases his Dodge and Parry skills to level 2 as he deals with the corpses flying his way.

As Juniper finally makes it through the portcullis, Fenn—at Quills' instruction—releases a shot from her artillery bow, taking out some of the umbral zombies emerging into the castle courtyard from the building ahead. Quills, Tova, and Leonold deal with the remaining conglomerations. The team enters the castle lobby, narrowly avoiding a second assault from the Biggun at the portcullis.

They fight their way up a staircase to the fourth floor of the castle, and Quills calls for a time out from Leonold. Leonold expends a tattoo to draw out a small circle around the party, and when the circle is completed, the team is transported to a dark space outside of time. Juniper lights his finger on fire to provide light.

While in time-out, Carter removes his armor, revealing himself to be of one of the races created by Juniper—the hairless, blue-skinned kashoonk. While Tova heals Carter's many injuries by drawing magic from the bones she is carrying, Quills grills Juniper for more information—he relays what Amaryllis said about the twenty-first floor housing the secret facility. Fenn asks who Juniper's friend is, and Juniper tells her Amaryllis' identity. Quills says that he does not highly rate the team's chances of finding her, and is concerned merely with survival of the team.

Fenn kisses Juniper on the cheek, and Juniper's Romance skill rises to level 2. He sits down next to her, and she continues to flirt with him. Having established the flirting as a cover, she tells Juniper in the midst of the flirting that the team intends to kill them both. She also elaborates on the nature of Carter's soul link with the others and tells Juniper that she is not included in the link. Meanwhile, Juniper has reached level 8 in skin magic—giving him the ability to move the Fool's Choker by a few centimetres.

As the team prepares to leave the time-out space, Leonold mentions that he has two Prince's Invulnerability tattoos. Juniper reveals that he knows what they do—pretending to have merely read about them, rather than having designed them as a custom Dungeons & Dragons spell back on Earth. The mention of the spell triggers an idea in Juniper's head about how the team could ascend the remaining castle floors.

Fenn says that she has one artillery shot left. Juniper tells the rest of the group about the plan forming in his head, which involves launching them upwards using the elevators in the building.

Featured charactersEdit

• Juniper Smith
• Leonold Pavran
• Fenn Greenglass
• Amaryllis Penndraig (mentioned only)
• Brownsnout Quills-in-Hand
• Inge Carter
• Tova Feidlimid

QuotesEdit

“You’re burning our oxygen, asshole.”
“Blood magic doesn’t oxidize, not unless he sets something on fire. It’s the best light source I think we have. Small mercies.”

—Tova and Quills, on Juniper's flame in the enclosed space of Leonold's time out spell.

“Broken wrist, broken ribs, broken face, broke all the fingers of my left hand, bruised from head to toe, feeling like a raw piece of meat. I’m going to need half Tova’s healing just to keep me going.”

—Carter lists off the damage he took from the team's entry into Sorian's Castle.

“So who the hell is our mystery girl? Who gets marooned in the Risen Lands and knows everything there is to know about secret research facilities that violate the exclusion zone?”

—Fenn is curious about the fireteam's target.

“I suppose you’re wondering why I kissed you.”
“Not particularly. I thought that was just … your way of trying to get under my skin. Or Quills’.”
“You’re cute. Not what you just said, that was borderline offensive, but in general appearance and mannerisms. There’s something very human about you, has anyone ever told you that?”

—One of many, many times that Fenn flirts with Juniper.

“Don’t play with your food.”
“I’m only half-elf. I have consumed very few people in my days.”

—Leonold seems to think that Fenn might eat Juniper, for some reason.

“They’re going to kill us both.”

—Fenn says something meant only for Juniper's ears.

“The usual bits and bobs, but if we’re talking things of note, then two of Prince’s Invulnerability, five of the Pseudo Perimeter, which probably wouldn’t even work in here, one more Fool’s Choker, and a single Faltering Candelabra.”

—Leonold lists off his tattoo arsenal.

“Fenn. How many artillery shots?”
“One. You call it and I’ll make it, but you had better pick well. Also, if we’re counting assets, then you should probably put my charms there as well. I have not yet tried to charm the undead, but we’ll call it a last-ditch effort, shall we?”

—Quills finds out what Fenn can contribute.

NotesEdit

Continuity notesEdit

• Deception is a "gestalted" skill, which accounts for its unusual levelling behaviour and capping mechanics.
• Presuming she's using Morse code, the first two letters of Fenn's arm-squeeze message are "W" (".__") and "I" ("..").
• The Biggun was first mentioned by Fenn last chapter.

Real-world referencesEdit

• The term "meatshield" has roots in video game terminology, where it's used to describe characters and enemies capable of drawing aggro and absorbing large quantities of damage, as a way of protecting their allies.
• When thinking about how he invented the Prince's Invulnerabilty spell, Juniper recalls Gary Gygax and Wizards of the Coast—the creators of Dungeons & Dragons.
• Apparently, while trying to determine whether or not Prince's Invulnerability would let them survive a fall from a lich's castle's parapets, Juniper's Earth friends made jokes about the "airspeed of an unladen swallow"—a reference to Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
• The DSM-5 is the fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association's manual for mental disorders.