Chapter 4-14
There are four ways to acquire Skills. The first and most straightforward is to Level up – you’ll be granted access to a new Skill on the first Level of each Tier, as well as Levels 3, 5, 7, 13, 15, 17, and so on.
Secondly, you get a Skill from completing the Tutorial – the System calls it a Quest Reward, but outside of the Tutorial no one reliable has ever reported a Quest that gives out a Skill.
Third, you can find or buy a Skill gem. Good luck with that.
Finally, you can fucking go out and learn it – or at least, you can learn some Skills.
- Delver’s Guild Handbook, Section 3.2 – “Obtaining Skills”
With five recruits to four senior Delvers, one of us got to sleep through the night, and I’d won the right to it in a quick rock-paper-sword-snake-bird bout with Raylan and Zaire. That meant I was peacefully asleep in my bedroll, tucked in tight against the night chill, when I was suddenly awakened by a shout over the Comms.
<We have incoming from the north, everyone up!> Hassan’s voice startled me awake, and I scrambled out of my bedroll and to my feet, summoning my armor and shotgun as I looked around. By the time I’d gotten my bearings, Mason had already conferred with Hassan over their private channel or however they did it.
<There’s a group of ghouls heading towards us, all Tier 0, with a Tier 1 wight leading them. Hassan will eliminate the wight, leaving the ghouls for you kids to deal with. Az, you’re in charge, get everyone organized. You’ve got maybe five minutes to get ready before they’ll be close enough to spot us.>
The Barretts looked confused and nervous, so I slung an arm around each of their shoulders and pulled us into a huddle with Raylan and Zaire.
“What do you know about ghouls? Short short version,” I asked Zaire.
“They’re dangerous in close quarters but generally have no ranged abilities and are weak to fire and divine magic, Gunner Az,” he replied confidently.
My mind raced. We had two sources of fire, Alyssa and myself, plus more ranged damage from Zaire and Alex. Around us, the ground was nearly flat, mostly dirt with the occasional cactus or scrub brush. The three-quarter moon provided plenty of light to see by, at least for me.
“How fast are they?”
“They don’t run as fast as a person, but the undead never tire.”
“Alright. We’ll try to keep them at a distance and whittle their numbers down gradually. Raylan, get your bow out. Follow me!”
I took off at a fast jog to the west with a group of slightly confused recruits trailing along. I led them a couple hundred yards away from our camp, then formed us into a single line with Zaire on one end, Raylan on the other, and myself in the center between the twins. We were spread out about five feet apart.
Carefully, I formed the spellform for Fire and infused it into my gun. My first attempt was successful, and I felt the spellform get pulled into my gun, which was loaded with my standard ammo. It wasn’t long before I saw the movement in the distance, and I quickly adjusted our formation to face the threat.
The undead spotted us around the same time and broke into a ragged charge. It was hard to get a good count, but I was sure there were less than fifteen of them, with a single, larger monster towards the back. Identify. Identify.