by Ed White
Saber-toothed Tiger 45/50
Remy is on the job, locking the tiger down in ice as Paul and Lisa rush forward to heal our fallen pals. Where will we respawn? At the crazy lady roosting in her new shield nest? That’s a hike and a half back from here.
Mal and Kona are gone, cloaked I hope, while I’m standing with my baton aimed at an iced-down ice age beast.
Lisa yells back at me. “David!”
Shit.
Shimmering Blast.
Did we think that through? Remy’s ice block around the tiger begins to melt.
Granger hefts his trusty new war hammer and buries it in the tiger’s face, shattering its sabers.
Saber-toothed Tiger 38/50
Mal crashes into a tree and slumps, unconscious. He must have attempted to backstab the cat.
Mal HP: 3/10
The tiger’s massive paw is free. From birdmen to giant cats. One cat kicking our collective asses. The saber-tooth roars above the sharp crack of ice, but Remy is on it, with another blast.
Shadow Fox HP: 8/10
Vi-King HP: 10/10
A second tiger lands on Paul, Jonesy and Granger. Their health below five percent, the saber-tooth bats at Lisa and disappears, teleported away by Lisa’s Vile Vortex defense.
In a flurry of hands, Lisa takes care not to expend her healing on any one of the three, while Mal turns transparent.
Mal HP: 1/10
My head spins taking in the entire scene. Mal will die in another few minutes, but the second beast is on its way back too.
Damn it.
With a sprint to Mal’s side, I sink my fingers into the loam and slap my other hand on Mal.
Ley Bridge.
Energy channeled into Mal, his health restores and his body turns opaque. Relief floods through me, but the strength of the bridge is too much for me, and I take damage.
Greywaters HP: 5/10
Mal HP: 6/10
Lightning arcs from us to the first saber-tooth, shatters Kona’s camouflage and throws her from the beast.
Kon’ac HP: 7/10
I collapse beside Mal.
Maybe four or five minutes later, I come to, no nightmares, but blessed by the beauty of Lisa’s face studying me with deep concern, her hands on my chest. That smile, she rubs an eye with the back of her wrist. “Welcome back.”
She helps me up.
But what happened? My health hadn’t fallen low enough for me to pass out. Something else happened when I bridged to revive Mal. Was I bridging wrong? Was my health traveling with the stolen energies of the earth? Are we still too close to influence of the Fell Lands?
The first saber-tooth is dead. A red ley crystal hovers above its corpse. Remy, Granger and Jonesy are fighting the second, and Paul leans back from Kona, her health restored.
Not so bad.
A third beast vaults from the thick foliage, sinking its teeth into Granger. His health plummeting, he bludgeons the side of the saber-tooth’s skull.
Jonesy breaks from his attack on the second beast to fire on the third, but it swipes its claws as Jonesy’s cone of fire erupts from his baton. Granger is caught in the blast, with Paul awaiting his cooldown to cast healing.
Lisa is up at a sprint towards the fight and I follow.
The third saber-tooth rears up, struck in the back by Kona, who appears as the attack dispels her stealth.
I collide into the saber-tooth like a young boy hugging his parent. Stealing life from the beast, I direct it into Granger before the weakness hits me again. Lightning arcs between the two remaining tigers and scours the ground around Mal.
Struck by the tiger, I tumult through the air. The ground, sky and trees spin by, my flight cut short with an abrupt impact against the wall-like side of a monolithic tree. Lisa is the last and first thing I see.
“Up and at them, Davy.” Lisa brushes my cheek. A warmth ebbs, the last of her healing buff or the flush of her touch on my skin, both stimulate and revive me. I passed out again and the fight isn’t going well.
“Our batons aren’t focused at our levels. We can’t fire focused, narrow blasts, we’re damaging each other.”
Lisa nods. “Have to fire at point blank range. Dangerous to try without stealth.”
Entering party chat, I spread the word, stealth or not, Remy and I hold the tigers with control while the rest pile onto and fire point blank into the beasts. I hope to hell a fourth isn’t lurking in the deaths of the jungle.
***
We collect the fallen loot of red ley crystals from the tigers and take to the trees to avoid further attacks. Remy, the masked gentleman, has forfeited his share of the ley crystals to Kona and Lisa, to the annoyance of Mal. The view from above the canopy is awe-inspiring, stretching for miles, with no sign of the Haven or the red instance dome. We know it’s still there, because Fast Travel remains unavailable and is still displayed as our tagged destination. Traveling above the canopy hasn’t prevented attacks from other mobs—snakes, spiders, and killer monkeys. My strange nightmare imagery taunts me with each encounter of simian aggression and I can’t fathom how to interpret those twisted dreams. Why do I have a monkey phobia? But to the present, we need food and the new game instance is far away by foot and by canopy. The familiar intestinal pains I’ve not felt since log in, have returned. Maybe the game is too real, but a cold panic seizes me despite the heat.
The anxiety clears as Lisa joins me. “I don’t understand how Jonesy and the others Fast Traveled and joined you and me when the black armored warriors attacked, yet we can’t Fast Travel now.”
The Conglomerate, that’s why, Julia and her team. I turn to Lisa. “They’ve likely added to the security. The instance probably acts as a quarantine, while the system slows down as it tries to process the attack. We know these aren’t battle royale challenges, but the Conglomerate is using that lie as a cover for players to swallow.”
Lisa frowns. “They told you this?”
I shrug.
“Can you contact them?”
I shake my head.
“You only have a few days left, right? If we’re stuck walking to the instance and back to Haven, your time will run out before you find any”—she leans forward with her lips to my ear, causing a pleasant tingle down my spine—“hackers.”
“I don’t know.” I say.
She squeezes my hand and I return the thought. “Lisa, whatever happens, can I call you? Can we see each other outside of the game?”
Jonesy pops his head through a mass of waxy leaves the size of mattresses. “There you two love birds are! Get it? Trees? Birds? Bees?” He guffaws. I guess he isn’t being Jonesy-subtle anymore. From innuendo to in-your-face. Maybe Lisa’s wrong about him, he’s been “all Jonesy” since we left the owl lady with her shield. Even his lounging at the inn surrounded by hot women is typical Jonesy.
“What do you want? It’s not time to go yet.”
He makes smooching motions with his lips. “Right, time to recover HP. Time to eat. Your pal Remy says he’s vegan or something and Paul used some of his skills to figure out more types of fruit we can eat. They’re pretty damned big, too, we can probably keep what we cut up until Fast Travel is back online.”
“Yeah, that sounds good.” I glance at Lisa. “We’ll be right there.”
Jonesy laughs and reenters the foliage as Lisa pulls on my hand.
“I’d like that, David. Maybe we can have a proper meal, just you and I, outside of the game.”
Do I blush? I’m sure I must.
Lisa seizes my wrist, pulling me down. Confused I lean into her, but she moves her hand to my mouth, her first squeezing my forearm.
“Shhh.” She points to the sky.
My mouth free I choose to remain silent as I study the sky. Lisa pulls me close, her breasts squeezed against my back and arm. Her face beside mine, I follow where she points and begin to register the distant objects, dozens of them.
Lisa lowers her arm. “Spider riders.”
Chapter Seventeen<
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Peering through the mattress-sized leaves, Lisa and I marvel at the distant spiders gliding on almost unseen gossamer strands of webbing high above the sky islands.
“Spider Riders,” Kona repeats through the party chat.
I turn to Lisa, a better source of lore than wasting my time searching through the game wiki. “Riders? We’ve faced spiders already, what’s so bad about people riding spiders?”
“So far we’ve faced spiders the size of cats and dogs, but these are bigger than horses, with armed warriors on their backs.”
“The size of horses?” I balk. Staring at the distant gliding terrors, nothing pops up. “Why can’t I see any information on them? No UI tags?”
“They’re too far away, and that’s a good thing, because they can’t see us. They’re the Chol, Atlantean Inheritors. Corrupt animystics, they worship undead gods and demon lords of the Underworld.”
As usual, I’m not up to snuff on all aspects of the lore. “Animystics?”
“Ley benders who draw power from the totems of animals, the anima, the soul.”
“So, animal mystics?”
Lisa frowns. “Not furries, if that’s what you mean.”
I shake my head. “No, you’re saying the Chol can control and draw power from animals.”
Lisa nods.
Before I can ask about demons and the Underworld, Jonesy and Granger lean through the leaves and wave us over, as Remy and Mal join them from the shadows.
Kona emerges from her personal rogue camouflage among the huge waxy leaves and points overhead. “There’s no Chol on the canopy that Mal or I could see, but I don’t know how many warriors are gliding past higher up, above the sky islands.”
Jonesy nods at Kona. “They’re passing by. If we hide out lower into the canopy, we won’t have to fight.”
I raise my hand. “Will the game let us hide?”
Granger grunts, but Lisa speaks up. “As long as we don’t generate aggro, they will keep going. If there’s a quest, we can ignore it. The challenge level is too high.”
“So?” I say. “Why are they here if we can’t fight? This place confuses me.”
“Campaign training once we’re at higher levels, before we’re able to enter the Realms.”
“Okay. That makes some sense.”
Lisa pats my shoulder. “You said ‘place’.”
We both smile.
Ignoring my concerns, Jonesy and Granger wave us toward the clusters of vines and twisted networks of smaller branches leading deeper into the canopy. In the sweltering heat, we walk through the lattice of tropical flowers, ferns and masses thriving on the massive upper branches of the jungle giants. The going is slow, with the occasional disturbance of monkeys and insects, we’re cautious to avoid battle and the risk of drawing the attention of the Chol warriors gliding by overhead.
“Seems to me that we’re moving against the tide of the Chol, rather than away.” No one disagrees with me.
Granger turns to Jonesy. “We’re headed toward the new game instance, but if we divert, and just go back to Haven...” He stops before revealing anything to Remy, knowing we’re all under non-disclosure agreements—everyone but Remy, who doesn’t know why I want to investigate the game instances.
“Maybe Fast Travel will be functional soon. We could wait,” Paul says.
Remy raises a hand. “No, there’s some sort of system error. Even so, perhaps the Chol are fleeing the area.”
What would Remy know about errors? Mal looks to be thinking much the same, with an eyebrow raised to our masked rogue.
Mal whips out of sight among the leaves and thick vines as all hell breaks loose around us.
***
“Malcolm!” Kona is torn away from us, her arms and legs flailing. Granger and Jonesy already have their batons ready, Granger with his coveted War Hammer in his right hand. Remy has vanished.
Paul backs up to protect Lisa even though my job is to protect the healers—Lisa and Paul. We all stand with batons aimed out, back to back, crouched.
“The hell is going on?” I say.
Granger hefts his war hammer. “The Chol.”
The enormous leaves shake and splay apart ahead of a tarantula-looking monstrosity with a body the size of a horse’s torso. Holy hell, this place is all sorts of crazy, like the games Jonesy, Paul, and I used to play. Those were the days.
Random encounter: Giant Spider.
Rewards:
200 XP
Ley Crystal +1
Creature
Name: Giant Spider.
Species: Spider.
Level: N/A.
Class: N/A.
Subclass: Mount.
Affinity: Chol.
HP: 30/30
MP: 20/20
AC: 14
Attributes
Strength: 14 (+2)
Dexterity: 16 (+3)
Movement/Speed: 2
Combat Rate: 0.66
Constitution/Endurance: 14/28
Physical Defense (PD): 2.8
Energy Defense (ED): 2.8
Body: 14
Stun: 28
Recovery: 5.6
Intelligence: 2 (-4)
Mental strength: 14
Senses: Blindsight 10 ft. Dark Vision 60 ft. Perception 10 (passive). Websense (in contact with web).
Presence/Charisma: 4
Abilities/Skills
Stealth. Climb.
Weapons
Bite. Melee attack: +5 to hit.
DAM: 7 (piercing)
Poison. Make save to CON 50%.
DAM: 10 on fail.
DAM: 5 on save.
Web. Ranged attack: +5 to hit. Range 30/60 ft. AC 10, HP 5.
DAM: Restraint. 12 STR check.
Resembling enormous ground spiders, the spider mounts of the Chol are found underground, spinning nests on ceilings and within dark crevices filled with webbed cocoons of past victims.
Wait, what? Underground?
Granger swings at the beast as Jonesy leaps backwards already firing his baton.
Giant Spider 24/30.
The spider rears up at Jonesy’s blast. Its recoil causes Granger to miss, his war hammer sinking into the more tender hard wood of the branch. I feel the blow shudder out along the living wood beneath my feet.
An armored, jaguar-faced warrior leans forward to calm her spider mount.
Random encounter: Chol Warrior.
Rewards:
450 XP
Ley Crystal +1
Character
Name: Chol Warrior.
Species: Human.
Level: N/A.
Class: Warrior.
Subclass: Skinwalker.
Affinity: Chol.
HP: 21/21
MP: 20/20
Attributes
Strength: 14
Dexterity: 20
Movement/Speed: 2
Combat Rate: 0.66
Constitution/Endurance: 14
Physical Defense (PD): 2.8
Energy Defense (ED): 2.8
Body: 14
Stun: 28
Recovery: 5.6
Intelligence: 10
Mental strength: 10
Senses: Dark Vision 30 ft. Perception 12 (passive).
Presence/Charisma: 14
Abilities/Skills
Shapeshifting. Stealth.
Weapons
Claws. Melee attack: +5 to hit.
DAM: 5 (slashing)
Bladed War Staff. Melee attack: +7 to hit.
DAM: 15 (slashing)
Smoking Mirror. Ranged attack: +5 to hit. Range 30 ft.
DAM: 5. Restraint. 15 STR check.
A body thief, the skinwalker enters the body of a victim and gains total control. Retains INT, CHA, telepathy and traits of the skinwalker.
Adopts host’s stats, knowing what the host knows.
If host drops below 0 HP, the body thief must abandon the host (range 5 ft). Host will die if not healed.
“These warriors
are as strong as their spider mounts. Why the hell do they even need them? Wait, they’re shapeshifters, maybe they are the spiders!”
Lisa slaps me across the cheek and shoulder. “Don’t stare at them, they’re skinwalkers!”
“They, the spider and warrior woman?” I jerk my head about, casting glances all around us.
Lisa grips my arm. “The Chol, the warriors, I doubt they only sent the lone scout.”
I nod, but I’m racked with confusion. “How do we watch for the next attack and not look at the Chol?”
“Don’t look into their eyes—they’ll steal your body.”
So that’s how they enter the body of a victim—the windows to the soul, a person’s eyes. Wait, body thieves. Did Jonesy’s guest avatar have this skill tree? Was that how I was able to jump into the red Battle Avatar? Does Julia Beechum know how I did it?
Tanking the spider rider, Granger taunts and takes aggro, firing his baton into the giant tarantula, keeping ahead of it and away from its rear end—one lot of webbing able to bind us all.
Force Wave. 25% chance to hit.
Range: 20-foot cone.
DAM: 15
Granger’s second attack hits the rider, but does no damage to the spider.
Chol Warrior 16/21
Focused on Granger, the Chol and her mount lunge at him as Jonesy fires on the side of the eight-legged beast. The spider twists and falls, the hairs on its left legs aflame.
Giant Spider 28/30
Granger swings his hammer, crushing the forward-most leg of the creature.
Giant Spider 20/30
The Chol warrior hisses, raising a reflective, odd-shaped object resembling the letter ‘p’. A torrent of smoke jets from the weapon.
