Grand Game 586: The Three Pillars of a House

Congratulations, Michael! You’ve slain your 4th tier 7 creature, deepening your Power Mark. Slay further Powers to evolve your Mark further.

You have accomplished the feat: Fell a Tree! Requirement: Vanquish a full-grown tree. 

A young void tree has fallen—the first to do so in centuries. That you managed to orchestrate his defeat is a feat unto of itself. Yet, you did it while a mere Initiate and without the aid of any Powers. As a result, you have been offered a choice in the matter of your reward. 

Option 1: The rank 7 soulbound artifact, the nightstalker’s talisman. This item will grant you the tier 7 Class ability, shroud of darkness. This spell will envelop you in billowing black clouds that are resistant to dispersing and will nourish any wolf or player of Wolf blood within its area of effect. In addition, the artifact will increase your physical damage resistance.

Option 2: The rank 7 soulbound artifact, the mindslayer’s torc. This item will grant you the tier 7 Class ability, awakened slayer. This spell will create an astral simulacrum of yourself that can be used either in defense of your own consciousness or to attack the mind of another. In addition, the artifact will increase your mental resistance.

Option 3: The rank 7 soulbound artifact, the void mage’s signet. This item will grant you the tier 7 Class ability, spell immunity. The spell hardens your void armor into an impenetrable shell granting you complete spell immunity for 10 seconds. In addition, the artifact will increase your magic resistance.

Make your choice now.

I smiled. I’d finally come to my true reward for slaying the void tree. I’d half expected a trait, Class points, or even another ascendant point. 

What I had not anticipated was a soulbound item.

Not that I could fault the Adjudicator’s chosen form of reward. All three artifacts on offer would provide me with another Class ability—only my third such, actually. And the fact that each artifact was soulbound meant the new ability would become a permanent addition to my arsenal. I could never lose it. For all intents and purposes, it would function like an ordinary Class ability.

Except in two crucial aspects.

One, I wouldn’t be able to upgrade the new ability—which was disappointing. But on the other hand, not having to do so also saved me seven Class points. Because the abilities on offer were already at tier seven.

Tier seven, I repeated, still slightly awed by the fact.

That was a Power-level ability. Not elite-level. Not envoy-level. Power-level. Ordinarily, I wouldn't gain such an ability until my skills exceeded level three hundred, and the early accrual was only made possible by the fact that I was acquiring it via a soulbound item. So, despite the resulting disadvantages, I was more than glad the Adjudicator was offering me such an artifact. 

There was another consideration, too—Ghost. 

Courtesy of the jeweled pet item I’d looted from Leafbright, Ghost would also be able to use the ability provided by the soulbound artifact—making me doubly grateful of the Game’s choice of reward. Now, though, it was time to make a decision.

A nightstalker’s talisman. 

A mindslayer’s torc. 

Or the void mage’s signet. 

Those were the choices on offer. The significance of the artifacts’ descriptors did not escape my notice either. They matched exactly with the three constituent Classes of my melded voidstealer Class—which of course, could be no accident. Clearly, the Adjudicator had created the items specifically for my use, and that alone left me in no doubt as to their potential usefulness.

Yet, I could choose only one.

So which will it be? I mused.

Each of the three artifacts appeared to focus on a different aspect: the nightstalker’s talisman on physical combat, the mindslayer’s torc on psi usage, and the void mage’s signet on magic—or rather, on magic negation.

The shroud of darkness ability sounded nice. As both a form of crowd control and buff, it would incapacitate my foes—by blinding them—even as it healed my wolven allies. The ability would be most effective in a large-scale skirmish like the one I’d just fought. But outside of that? It would be… less useful. Then too, the core of what the shroud did—hiding me—was little different from what vanish did.

The nightstalker’s talisman is not an option, I decided.

Awakened Slayer was definitely intriguing. At the same time, though, its Game description was the vaguest. 

An astral simulacrum… what was that? 

And what did the Adjudicator mean by a simulacrum ‘of myself’? It almost sounded as if the simulacrum would be akin to the demonic aspects of Mammon I’d encountered in the Eastern Marches. That would make the simulacrum a construct.

But not a spell construct—a psi one.

Would the simulacrum be autonomous? The way Mammon’s constructs had been? Would it manifest in the physical plane the way my astral shurikens did? But if that was the case, how would it defend my consciousness, or for that matter, attack my foes’ minds?

I sighed. I had no idea. But at least the Game was clear on the simulacrum’s purpose. It was a tool for mental warfare, both offensive and defensive. And for now, that was all I could say for certain about it.

I turned to the last artifact.

Thankfully, there was nothing ambiguous about the spell immunity ability. What it did and how it did it was self-evident. The capability to nullify magic damage for a whole ten seconds was not to be underestimated either. With such an ability, I could confidently face even the strongest spellcasters.

Yet…

The ability was only defensive in nature. And it only worked against spell damage. And in many ways, what spell immunity did was no different from what my void armor already did, even if the tier seven ability promised to do it better.

No, I decided, I don’t need more defensive or crowd control options. 

I had a plethora of those already. What I truly needed—especially from my first tier seven ability—was more attacking options. And as vaguely worded as its ability’s description was, only one of the three artifacts offered me that.

The mindslayer’s torc.

On the brink of making my choice, I hesitated. Selecting the torc would be a gamble. It might not live up to my expectations as an offensive tool. Still, even if awakened slayer served only to strengthen my mental defenses, it would not go to waste—particularly seeing as how I was likely to run across more void trees in the near future.

The mindslayer’s torc it is, I decided resolutely and willed my choice to the Game.

Your choice has been made. Artifact construction commencing…

…

…

I lowered my dog-like downward in expectant anticipation. It seemed to take an eternity, but in reality, it was no more than a few seconds before the item crystallized between my pawed feet.

A rank 7 mindslayer’s torc has been created.

A gleaming hoop materialized on the bare earth. The torc was made from a thin strip of flattened silver and had been bent to form a perfect circle that would sit snugly around my neck—were I in human form, that is. The artifact also lacked any embellishments, and had I spied it in a merchant’s stall, I would have not spared it a second look.

Still, I knew the thing to be priceless.

But despite my eagerness to snatch up the item, I schooled myself to patience and reached out to inspect it with my will instead.

The target is the rank 7 artifact: the mindslayer’s torc. This item increases your mental resistance by 25% and grants you the Class ability, awakened slayer. 

Ah. Twenty-five percent mental resistance was nothing to scoff at. It would make an appreciable difference to my psi defenses—and Ghost’s as well. Sadly, though, analyzing the artifact had yielded no further insights as to the ability it unlocked. 

Extending a foreleg, I brushed my paw against the torc’s surface.

You have acquired the mindslayer’s torc. This rank 7 artifact is only usable by the player Michael. Do you wish to soul-bind this item?

I replied in the affirmative and felt new bonds slip into place between the torc and myself.

You have soulbound the mindslayer’s torc. From this point onwards, this artifact cannot be stolen, lost, or kept from your hands except by the strongest of enchantments.

Warning: You cannot equip this item while in wolf form. Since the mindslayer’s torc is soulbound, it has been automatically stored in your backpack. Note, no benefits may be derived from the artifact until it has been equipped.

I snorted in annoyance. I’d know I wouldn’t be able to put on the torc. Not only was I in wolf form, but I also had the maximum allowable items equipped already. Still, I had hoped to at least learn what the thing did!

I guess learning more of awakened slayer will just have to wait until I can shift again. 

Meanwhile, there were more Game alerts demanding my attention. Impatient now to complete my review of the messages, I let the last set of notices unfurl in my mind.

You have completed the hidden task: Ancient Resurgence. For millennia, no player or Power has seen fit to seriously challenge the void trees’ supremacy. 

Until today.

You are the first player in centuries to have slain a full-grown tree, albeit one who was amongst the youngest and weakest of his kind. Well done, scion. Your victory has rekindled a war long since thought lost and has given the nether fresh cause for concern. But not only did you slay a young void tree, you orchestrated the destruction of 4 harbingers and 4 overlords. You also saw to the destruction of an entire stygian nest and closed a tier 7 rift, forcing the void to retreat and relinquish its hold on sector 18,240. 

By your actions, you have shown yourself to be a Stygian Nemesis. This has become the third and final tenet of your burgeoning House. Staying true to your House’s tenets will deepen your Wolf Mark in the future. Straying from it will see your Mark weaken. 

Congratulations, Michael, you’ve defined all 3 tenets of your new House, thereby establishing the strictures to which the bloodlines of your new House must conform. As such, you may begin deepening your Wolf Mark once more.

Your task, Found a new House! has been updated.

A House is a nebulous thing. Some consider it to be merely a dressed-up faction. Others conceive of it as something more, as something that resonates with who they are. But what your House is, and what it will be, is for you alone to determine. If your House survives, its actions may very well echo through eternity. Choose well, Progenitor.

You have defined the doctrine of your new House, thereby fulfilling one of the requirements necessary for its founding. The central objective of this task remains unchanged, though.

Objective: Convince 2 Powers not of Wolf blood to join your House. 

 I sighed. 

The new Game messages confirmed something I’d long suspected—my Wolf Mark had stopped changing. In fact, it had stopped doing so weeks ago—ever since I’d left Draven’s Reach to be precise. And this, despite me completing numerous tasks in the interim. My Mark was supposed to change with every task completed. Yet it had not. 

So, why had it not?

At first, I had been at a loss to explain the change. Then, I’d begun to suspect the cause. However, until this point, I’d no concrete evidence to support my supposition. Now, though, I could say with near certainty when the change had occurred—and why.

The shift had happened five tasks ago—when I’d acquired the Wolf Progenitor Mark.

At first, I’d thought nothing of the timing, considering it to be coincidence only. The Progenitor Mark had served its purpose, after all—granting me the ability to undergo a second higher evolution—and there had been no hint whatsoever that it could, or would, do more. Adriel had known nothing about the Mark. And neither had Ceruvax and Farren. And so, I’d all but forgotten about it.

But then I’d received a task to establish the tenets of Wolf. And after that I’d gotten one to found a new House. And, finally, there was the last Game message and the not-so-inconsequential reference to me being a ‘Progenitor.’ They all suggested the same thing.

The new House and my Progenitor Mark were inextricably linked.

In fact, I thought it safe to assume it was only because of the Progenitor Mark that I was able to found a new House at all! 

Sadly, though, the realization didn’t give me any greater insight into what needed to be done to actually create the House. The latest task update was no help. I would even go so far as to call it maddeningly vague. 

And my most knowledgeable allies—Ceruvax, Adriel, and Farren—didn’t have any insights to offer on the matter either. They knew nothing about how to go about founding a new House, and not unexpectedly—given the strength of their ties to their former Houses—they seemed largely disinterested in the idea.

I would just have to figure it out myself—somehow.

But at least, I can deepen my Wolf Mark again from here on out, I groused. Doing so was crucial to achieving the next ascendant rank. 

Still so much to do, I thought, half-despairingly. How am I—

“Prime,” Ghost called out in warning. “We have incoming. The brotherhood are on their way.”