Chapter 58: New Toys

The hot rush of victory thrummed through him as the hobgoblins head fell to the ground with a wet thunk. Another Champion slain, another step closer to his goal. He turned to Porkchop with a grin, slapping his friend on the shoulder.

“All according to plan.” He said.

Porkchop snorted. “Yes, we were definitely planning on you getting gutted.”

Kaius gave an exaggerated humph. “I’ll have you know that was definitely part of the plan. How else was I supposed to level Adamant Body?”

Porkchop cocked one furry eyebrow at him, staring directly at the stride long rent in his enchanted scales. “Of course, how could I forget?”

Kaius scowled at his friend’s look. “I never should have taught you that.”

Letting out a mirthful huff, Porkchop shoved him. Drawing a wince as his barely healed wounds twinged.

“Come on then. I believe we have loot to check. Is its axe an artefact?”

Kaius shrugged, using Identify on the oversized weapon. Thankfully, it was just a simple item, like all of the Champions gear had been so far. With how massive it is, Kaius doubted he could even pick it up. They would have had to lash it to Porkchops back, something that sounded like far more trouble than it was worth.

“Maybe it’s hidden in one of the piles of dead dwarves? Like the tree burrow after the Grimclaw?” Kaius suggested.

Porkchop let out a pensive grunt. “Hope not.”

Kaius couldn’t help but agree. The courtyard where they had fought the Hobgoblin was absolutely littered with them. Most of them were shock troops in ultra thick heavy plate. Even if they focused on checking the various squad sized groupings, there were still dozens of them.

“Well. We better get started.” Kaius sighed, staring at the ancient battlefield.

They worked their way slowly through the mustering ground, shifting through piled bodies of dwarves. It was exhausting work, even with their enhanced strength. With their plate being half a finger’s length thick, every corpse weighed as much as an anvil. After finding nothing but burnt out enchanted plate in the first dozen piles Kaius had had enough.

“This is ridiculous. We should have started in the middle.” He grumbled. Stomping his way to where they had first spotted the hobgoblin. There were a few piles of dwarves there, arrayed in a circle around the hobgoblins’ place of vigil.

They started shifting bodies. The first group had nothing, nor did the second. They spiralled further out.

“…Is there no loot?” Porkchop asked, concerned.

“Ridiculous! There has to be.” Kaius grew frenetic. Hawling aside armoured bones with increasing haste. Hurrying between patches. They split up, covering more ground.

Minutes ticked by, his anxious tension ratcheting up. Porkchop let out a hoot of joy.

“Kaius! Over here, I found it!” His friend called, words blurring together into a smudge of meaning as his excitement bled powerfully across their mental link.

Rushing without pause, Kaius hurried to see what Porkchop had found. He was standing over a larger than average pile of dwarves. All facing outwards like they had died to the last protecting…something. He got closer, seeing that Porkchop had hauled away the centremost bodies. Revealing a heavy steel chest embossed in gold. Foreign iconography covered its lid in a raised relief, depicting strange gods and their symbols. Palanquin handles jutted from the chest’s bottom, more than one dwarf still clutching tightly even in death.

Kaius leapt forwards, grinning widely.

“Good find.” He said. Stepping past his friend to take a closer look.

It was almost seamless, apart from the distinct evidence of a simple latch holding the lid closed. A lock held it closed, though it seemed time had been far less kind to the mechanism. Rusted and broken, it was barely held on by a hair thin patch of rust. Kaius ran his hands over the seams, checking for any traps. They hadn’t seen any yet, and Explorer’s Toolkit was silent, but it paid to be careful.

Porkchop whined behind him, growing impatient.

“Just a second. Want to make sure it’s not gonna blow up in our faces.” Kaius said.

Confident that the chest was safe, he yanked on the padlock, snapping it free from the latch. He flipped open the lid, nearly falling in when Porkchop just about shoved his whole head in there.

“Loot!”

Kaius smacked at his friend, shoving his head out of the way. “And how am i supposed to tell you what it does if I can’t bloody see it?” He asked, exasperated.

Porkchop let out a huff, pulling back so Kaius could see into the chest.

Kaius bent over, scanning the chest. Laying at the bottom of the gleaming interior were two artefacts. The first was a set of vambraces. Backed by leather and scalemail, the arm guards were layered in overlapping plates of a bluish steel and stretched all the way over the elbow. They were richly inscribed, chains of runes edging each plate and scale, while a larger sigil sat centred on a long slab of steel that stretched across the exterior of the forearm.

Kaius pulled it out reverently, feeling the heft and weight. It was lighter than he expected, and looked closer to plate than any kind of mail he had seen, catching the light as it reflected off the polished metal. It was a good find, while his scale stretched down to his elbow, his lower limbs were still left exposed. Every time he fumbled a parry, or slightly misjudged a block, he ended up taking wounds to his forearms. Hopefully now that would change.

Idley, Kaius noted that they looked like they were made of a similar material to his Serelian scale. With the garish clash in tones between his helmet and chest piece he had been concerned that he would eventually look like he had dressed in an armoursmiths reject pile. Thankfully, his latest find looked like it would blend into his scalemail quite nicely, the heavier platting similar to that on his pauldrons and gorget.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

He used Identify on the artefact.

Vambraces of Varkhossian Deflection:

Uncommon – Tier I

The Mythwroughts of Varkhos say that true valour can only be seen in the might of one’s blows, that survival is secondary to the immortality of a single, perfect, strike. Small wonder then, that their artisans have focused utterly on the art of leveraging fine defence into greater offensive strength.

Light plate and scalemail vambraces made from layered heliomite and steel alloyed plates, backed with fine scales and padded beast leather. These vambraces are enchanted to absorb a small fraction of the energy of parried and blocked blows. This energy is stored, once at capacity it can be expended to fuel an empowered blow.