Tunnel Rat

Chapter 5: Shadowport

Shadowport had two major things associated with it. It was damp, and it was dark.

As legend had it, some hundreds of years ago the area was dominated by a tall mountain that overlooked a city on the coast. For one reason or another someone powerful didn't like the city much, and they did something horrible to get rid of it. The city and everything around it just disappeared, leaving a massive hole in the ground two miles wide and a mile deep.

Imagine the world was made of ice-cream and someone wanted to take a huge scoop out of it. Now also imagine the mountain was pretty close to the city, and the scoop sort of takes a big chunk of it, but leaves the top. The scoop also just barely cuts into the nearby ocean, so the sea comes pouring into the scoop and fills it up. Getting the picture? Big circular bay, under-cut mountain. A nice safe harbor for ships, but a little gloomy.

After the skies cleared and whatever bad stuff that was happening stopped, people came back to the area. The huge bay was ideal for a port. The area under the mountain was a great place for a city, protected as it was from the weather and marauding orc hordes. Sure, it was a little gloomy at times, but what city wasn't?

This is where Milo found himself after selecting his race and class for his new character.

Welcome back to the World of Genesis and the Game: Genesis Engine.

Congratulations on completing the quest: Eye of Wonder.

You have unlocked the class and race combo: Wererat Scout

Every clan has need of clever scouts to find treasures in dangerous areas, harvest rare materials, and secretly move about the upper world. Your services will be in great demand by whichever clan you choose to deal with.

You are currently in the city of Shadowport, in the Rustyguts Inn. Your room has been paid for the next 6 nights.

The innkeeper, Ralph the Mouth, has a message for you.

Milo was in a small, shabby room. There was a pallet with a dirty, patched blanket. On a small table were a pitcher of sour beer, a mug and half a loaf of stale bread. A very small window shaped like a porthole looked out onto a busy port city. He was at least four stories above the street.

The door had a wooden bar across it. Assuming that he was safe for the moment, he stretched and got used to his new body. He was delighted to have a tail. It was a bit shorter than his tail in the real world, but it was actually part of his body! It gave him back the balance he was missing in a tall human body. His feet ended in long, clawed rat's feet. His hands were close to human but with small claws. There was a light covering of grey fur over his whole body.

There was a pack on the bed. Inside were a pair of ragged pants and a shirt, plus a pair of rope sandals. A rope belt held up his pants, and the sheath of a small rusty dagger. He noted that the pants had a small pocket sewn on the inside of the waist. Inside the pocket were 5 copper coins. After he was dressed, he started to move the bar on his door, but was surprised when another screen appeared.

      Please finish designing your character before venturing forth.

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-You receive a bonus to your stats of +2 PER, +2 AGI, +2 DEX

-You receive a bonus to your foundation of +15 to Evasion, +10 to Forage, +10 to Mine

-You have the negative modifier 'No one really likes you.' Each person will have some reason they don't like you. Dwarves don't like your lack of beard. You smell bad to Elves. Humans think there is something shifty-looking about you. Halflings suspect you stole their bacon. For one reason or another you will receive a -20% reaction to most people until you prove yourself. And we're talking about your human form! Double that for your wererat form.

-Please rank the following as primary, secondary, and tertiary skills: Mining, Foraging, Skinning.

-Please select either Tail Fighting or Weak Claws as a primary skill. The other will be a secondary skill. Obviously only usable in your wererat form.

-You may take up to two crafting skills at the start. Choose from: Mushroom Farming, Rat Farming, Sharpening, Train Small Dangerous Creature, Cooking Things that used to move, What are Shiny things worth?, Plumbing, Mechanic, Cheesemaking, Bone carving, Trap-Making, or Constructing Large Structures that almost never fall down.

-You have gained these Primary Skills: Skulk, Climbing, Dodge, Small Blades

-You have gained these Secondary Skills: Throw Sharp Things, Acrobatics, Fleet of Foot

-You have gained these Tertiary Skills: Manipulate Lock or Trap, Hide

You may learn three more tertiary skills or Tier One spells.

-You have the Shape change ability, and the available form: Human. Changing to your human form has a cost of 500 stamina. Changing back to normal has a stamina cost of 250. You have a bonus to your stamina of 500 to fuel this ability. If you start either change with a lack of stamina, you will use health to make up the difference. Yes, this can kill you.

-You have the following perks: Superior Night vision, enhanced sense of smell, Dark Vision 20'.

He chose Tail fighting as a primary skill over weak claws. He was less sure about the gathering skills, but ranked them Mining/Foraging/Skinning.

The crafting skill list was confusing. He decided to take Mechanic and try to read up on the others. He left the second skill blank for later.

This time when he lifted the bar, no notice appeared. He opened the door a crack and looked out. Outside of his door was a narrow bit of scaffolding running around the room, with a dozen similar doors opening onto it. Several ladders lead down a story to a large room filled with several tables where people were drinking and talking. Other than a halfling and what he thought was an elf of some sort, everyone else was a human. He decided to try to shape change out of his wereform.

It was a rough experience. His bones and skin seemed to shift, especially his face, but he had no mirror to check. His height stayed the same and his tail disappeared. Despite being tail-less, his balance was good. He decided to venture forth.

No one paid him any notice as he exited the room or climbed down the ladder. He saw a large open door, and made for it. It led outside the building to a sort of deck with a railing. Milo stepped to edge of the deck and got a great view of the city. There were hundreds of ships in the docks from small fishing boats to huge merchant haulers. A sleek, black warship sat off to the side on its own, sails furled and oars pulled in. Men were loading cargo of some sort into its hold.

The sun was down low on the horizon, it's rays slanting directly into the covered cove and lighting up the city. He imagined this was as bright as it got, which suited him just fine. The overhanging mountain gave him the security of having a roof over his head. While the city might have seen like a gloomy, overcrowded slum to other players, to Milo it was enchanting. Street lights were being lit, and people moving about. He couldn't wait to explore.

As he turned, a voice spoke low in his ear, and a strong hand grabbed his arm. "Going somewhere Milo? Did you conveniently forget that we have a bit of business to finish?"

Milo's Character Sheet:

Name: Tallsqueak Milo Class: Scout Race: Wererat Human Level: 0 experience: 0 Boss experience: 0 Total: 0 Heritage: None BasePer LevelFrom StatsFrom CSPTotal Health 100 100 100 Stamina 600 100 600 Mana 100 50 100 Stat:RankCapexperienceBonusTotal STR 0 5 0 0 0 DEX 0 5 0 +2 2 AGI 0 5 0 +2 2 CON 0 5 0 0 0 INT 0 5 0 0 0 WIS 0 5 0 0 0 CHR 0 5 0 0 0 PER 0 5 0 +2 2 SkillsStatRank Experience P/S/T Skulk WIS

0

Primary Climbing AGI 0 Primary Dodge AGI 0 Primary Small Blades DEX 0 Primary Tail Fighting DEX 0 Primary Mining STR 0 Primary Acrobatics AGI 0 Secondary Throw Sharp Thing DEX 0 Secondary Fleet of Foot AGI 0 Secondary Weak Claws DEX 0 Secondary Sense Danger PER 0 Secondary Forage PER 0 Secondary Skinning DEX 0 Tertiary Manipulate Locks and Traps DEX 0 Tertiary Hide INT 0 Tertiary Open 0 Tertiary Open 0 Tertiary Open 0 Tertiary