Azure: Gunner

Mods are like one-night-stands. Use ‘em hard and walk away without shame. An out-Leveled mod is as useless as an exhausted lover. There are always more where they came from.

There’s no reason to avoid second-hand mods, either – even dregs. Much like a less-attractive lover who relies more on skill than looks, a second-hand mod can be quite a pleasant surprise.

- Delver’s Guild Handbook, Section 7.3 – “Mod-ing on”

After dinner Mason assigned watches. He paired one of the senior Delvers up with each of us. I was to take the first watch with Vale, followed by Mason and Zaire, Elin and Block, and Hassan and Raylan. Vale and I took up positions just outside the cave, which surprised me.

“If yer actively hiding, watch from inside the cave so yer harder to spot. Otherwise, be more concerned with seeing a monster coming than with being seen. It’ll have smelled you afore you can see it anyways. The best reason to be inside is if there are flyers around. It’s hard enough to spot those durin’ the day, let alone at night, and they hunt by sight, not smell.”

As she talked, Vale’s plate melted away, replaced by the leather armor I’d first seen her in. I gaped.

“How did you… do you have two Class Armors?!” I asked in astonishment.

She chuckled quietly.

“Naw, just a little trick. This,” she indicated the leather, “is my Class Armor. T’ plate is regular steel. Too shiny and noisy for night work, it is. Summoning Class Armor stores whatever you might be wearin’ at the time, even if it’s more armor. Course, that means I’ll be sleeping in this,” she pointed at the leather again, “instead of something comfortable, but I’m used to it. This way, I can get my plate back real quick if needed. Stuff is a right pain to take on and off t’ usual way.”

That explains how a Healer can wear plate! Her baselayer must be light, which is what I would have expected. But as long as she’s strong enough, she can wear any kind of armor she wants. When she wants to change into anything else, she’s got to take the plate off piece by piece, using actual straps and shit. Interesting!

Our watch passed uneventfully. A few times I thought I saw movement in the distance, but the moonlight wasn’t enough for me to make out any details, and Vale never stirred from her position. Sensing she’d talked as much as she was going to, I did my best to stay relaxed and vigilant at the same time. I was surprised when I heard movement within the cave and Mason and Zaire emerged.

As we made our way inside the cave, I saw that someone had set up the dimmest mana lamp I’d ever seen. It cast a very faint red glow over the bedrolls, barely enough for me to make out where I was stepping. I felt exhaustion set in the moment I slipped into my bedroll, my armor vanishing into my Inventory, replaced by my jeans and t-shirt. I pulled my new jacket from my Inventory and folded it up to use as a pillow. My last thought before I fell asleep was that my bedroll was almost as soft as my mattress at the church…

I woke later than I had in ages. Hazel had always gotten us in bed early and up even earlier, but it was after 6 am when I was awoken by the sounds of people moving about the cave. As I started to get out of my sleeping bag, I realized that I had to summon my armor if I wanted to move about comfortably – I only had the one pair of boots, which were now attached to my baselayer.

I stopped in shock at the edge of the cave, looking out.

“What in the Wastes is that?!” I asked no one in particular. About forty yards downhill from the cave entrance was a very dead monster. It looked a bit like a cat, if the cat was bigger than the alpha spiderwolf, covered in scales, and had vicious looking horns emerging from a disturbingly human-like face. I could tell it was dead because its head, horns and all, was lying on the ground, several feet away from the rest of it. Identify.