by C A A Allen
If your character drops below 200 HP it is strongly suggested that you exit the game at one of the following locations:
ERROR…
Quality control write up and bug report due upon reentry. This message will not repeat.
“I got the death warning,” I stammer. And my pain confirms it. “This is bad.”
“Are the exit locations still in error?” Bella asks.
“Yes.” I kneel and rub my ankle. “That’s bad, too.”
“Hesitation is bad.” Bella steps around the dead Liergarnin. “Next time, don’t wait to bring down your sword. Is your leg okay?”
I look over the wound. “That thing tried to bite my foot off.” The laceration is only skin-deep, but stings badly. I won’t hesitate again. It is me or them. “I’m good,” I say, hoping its true.
Liergarnin (2) has been killed! For killing the monsters each survivor earned 80 experience points.
YOU MADE THE NEXT LEVEL! (3) Max hit points increased to 40. Strength+2, Agility+2, and Luck+1 increased! Total Abilities now 55.
You were hit for 4 damage. Status: 26/40
“I leveled up to three.” This requires verification. I pull my Grimoire from its sheath, touch the red dot and look over my stats. “I took four hit points of damage, but I made level three. Look, my abilities number went up too.” I flex my right bicep and feel it pulse. “I can kind of tell my strength has increased.” It feels good.
Hans smacks me on the back. “Bella and I leveled up after our first kills too. All three of us are at level three now. If you want to impress me, reach level four.”
Biff flips the nearest corpse over and runs his hand along its harness. He pulls out a small leather bag, rips it open, and holds out three silver pennies. “The spoils of a clash.”
Salo drops two pennies in Biff’s hand. “I found these on mine. Liergarnin never have anything good. Their tridents and daggers are rusty, dull, and of no value.”
“All gains go to the captain.” Biff holds his hand my way. “The booty is divvied up after the run.”
I look over the five coins. “Not much loot on these guys.”
Biff kicks his peg against the wall, scraping off fishy guts. “A timid captain’s coffer is often deflated of riches.”
I drop the coins in my bag. “I guess I’ll have to make my hustles bold to fill this bag with plenty of gold.”
ADD: 5 silver pennies to Jareth Goblinmasher. New silver penny balance: 15
Salo creeps down the hallway in front of us. He examines the floor and sidewalls with each step. The rest of us catch up to him at the end of the hall. He nods and points to an imbedded iron lever and keyhole lock. “Is this door more to your liking?”
Is he throwing shade because I didn’t go for the treasure room door? “According to my map, yes, this door is to my liking.” I reach for the lever.
Salo slaps my hand down. “A good captain would provide his party with a thief to determine if this door was booby trapped or not.”
“I’ll take care of this.” Bella circles the handle with an open hand and says, “Exarmo periclum.” A red spark snaps from the keyhole. “Aha. Good call Salo, that poison needle would have sent Jareth all the way back to the temple at Chittor.”
I glue my curious hand to my side. “Good looking out, Salo. I owe you an ale for that.”
“And me too.” Biff says. “I saved you from the Liergarnin with my peg.”
Bella smashes the needle with the hilt of her mace, then waves me forward. I grab hold of the handle. “I’ll pay off double at the next town, Biff.” I twist and pull but get no movement. “It’s still locked.”
Salo nudges me aside. “Prepare for a fight.”
I draw my sword and look over the blade. This thing sliced toad-fish neck nicely for being defective. I kind of like it.
“Uhraah!” Salo blasts the heel of his boot to the side of the lock with a booming kick. The door cracks in the center and bursts open.
We step into a rectangle room with a glowing yellowish-green ceiling. A heavy iron door is at the back wall, along with a rack of three harpoons and several weighted throwing nets piled in a corner. The smell of an unsanitary fish market on a hot summer day wafts over us.
Three little toad-people quickly shift to the back of what looks like a small oval hot tub filled with bubbling greenish muck. They start yapping quiet but snappy croaks.
I return my sword to its sheath. These guys don’t look too threatening. “We mean no harm,” I say. “I am here for an item.”
The door in the back of the room swings open. A giant Liergarnin, twice as big as the ones we beat in the hall, takes a firm stance in the jamb. He is muscle-bound, wearing a complete set of plate mail armor, and has a belt lined with daggers and a gem-encrusted gold crown riding low on his head.
Frothing at the mouth, he croaks with a deep bass several times and waves to the others. One by one the little toad-people hop from the pool and scamper through the door behind him, dripping sludge as they go. The giant takes a step my way and stares with shiny black fish eyes.
“Croak.”
I am okay fighting toad-fish men, but this well-armed giant is another story. Maybe I can use some diplomacy. “I have no grudge with you, toad-king. I have come for the Keris of Knaud’s blade.”
“He has it,” Bella says in a low tone. “It’s on his belt.”
Hans stretches his fingers. “I have a spell that will weaken him quite a bit. Just say the word, and I’ll blast him with it.”
“Why did you call him toad-king?” Salo grumbles under his breath. “We stand before the illustrious king of the Liergarnin, not a toad-king. I’m pretty sure you insulted him.”
The Liergarnin king covers a wavy blade on his belt and shakes his head. “Croak.” He snatches a harpoon from the rack and hurls it at me in one smooth motion.
I step to the side just in time for it to whiz by my head. It crashes into a wall behind us and smashes into pieces.
Salo raises his shield.
“Acedia.” A bolt rips from Hans fingers into the creature’s chest.
“CROAK.” The toad stumbles back into the doorway, snatches another harpoon, and thrusts it at Salo, who dives to the right and deflects it off his shield into the pool of muck.
Biff tumbles across the floor, hops behind the door, and punches it shut, sandwiching the toad between the door and the wall jamb.
Bella and Hans rush in, pressing against the door to keep the toad pinned.
“Hurry, Riff.” Hans wedges his foot in a crack of the floor and pushes hard. “My spell won’t keep it weak much longer.”
Trapped, the toad-king struggles to reach its weapons belt and howls. “Croooaaak!”
I dart forward and pull the wavy Keris of Knaud blade from its belt. On the other side, I get a peek of the three small toad people desperately trying to pull their king to safety.
Hans whips a small dagger from a sheath on his calf and holds it to the toad’s throat. “Did you get what you came for, Riff? Can I kill this slimy wichser yet?”
Biff grunts. “We can’t keep him trapped like this much longer. He’s regaining strength.”
Salo joins the party in pushing the door. “Orders, captain?” he grunts.
I take a step back, but I can still see one of the small toad people grasping at its king’s leg. It looks through the crack at me with pleading eyes and a quivering lip.
“Let him go,” I command.
Biff, Bella, and Salo let go of the door as I kick the toad king in his chest. He flings back into the room and the door slams shut.
Chains, slams, and the clicks of closing locks vibrate through the room as the Liergarnin secure the door from the other side.
Hans throws his fists in the air. “Why did you let it go? I could have leveled up twice for killing a Liergarnin king. And I could have had its head and that crown.”
“We got what we came for,” I say. “Besides, I think the king was the little toadlets’ daddy.�
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“Toadlets?” Hans challenges me, putting his face an inch from mine. “They are monsters. And we need to kill them to level up. I used my only level three spell, and for what?” He spins and grips his fists harder. “This is exactly why I need to be captain of this run.”
He has a point, but I can’t admit it in front of the party. Not after leading them in our first successful encounter. I look at Bella and shrug. “That man has to be aligned evil.”
And I have got to get used to killing these monsters.
I hold the wavy blade up with two hands. It is a foot long and razor sharp on both sides. Its tang is lodged in a cracked bone handle wrapped in soiled strips of cloth. But there are no numbers on it that I can see.
“It’s a work of art,” Bella says.
“Except for this cloddish handle.” I pound the hilt on a nearby wall. “I need to get it off.”
“Let me see that.” Biff grips the Keris by the bottom of the handle and holds it upright. “This is the proper technique for removal.” He taps the top of his wrist with a fist. Clank. “This is a colossal looking blade.” He bows and presents it to me, free of its former handle. “Blessings.”
I pull the sooang from my bag and slide the sampir into it. The steel flashes red-hot then cools. It forms one flawless piece.
“Sheath it.” Bella points to my belt. “It’s got to have some damage ability now.”
I slide the dagger into the perfectly fitted sheath on my belt and a box appears in my vision.
TASK COMPLETE: Complete the Keris of Knaud II.
For completing the task you earned 400 experience points!
ADD POSSESSION: Keris of Knaud -1 (Sooang/Sampir)
Damage: 2-5.
Range: N/A.
Frequency: Error.
Quality: Incomplete.
Melee Weapon Attack: Piercing damage.
Soulbound to ‘Jareth Goblinmasher’ - Item cannot be traded or sold.
NEW TASK: Complete the Keris of Knaud III
Acquire the taguban to unlock the Keris of Knaud’s true power.
“Task two of the Complete the Keris of Knaud saga has been accomplished,” I announce. “I got four hundred XP for it. And the Keris now has some damage ability, but it is still at a minus one and of incomplete quality.”
Bella wipes both hands across her face. “So, we still need the sheath to make it right.”
“That’s our new task—Complete the Keris of Knaud III.”
Salo snatches the final harpoon from the rack and snaps it in two. “Rubbish. The Liergarnin are all about rubbish.” He pulls a net from the pile and hurls it onto the floor. “This is also rubbish.”
“Wait.” Hans pokes his shillelagh into the net pile. “There’s something—”
Salo plunges his hands into the nets and throws them off, one after another. Within seconds, he’s uncovered a large iron chest sealed with heavy bands and multiple dome locks.
Biff inspects all the sides carefully. “It’s a Hamid-Jazari chest. If the locks are operated in the wrong order, it will not open. They are also known to have poison stunners.”
I wrap my fingers around the chest’s top corner. It’s a real treasure chest. I love finding these in the game, and now I’ve found one for real.
The muffled sound of a horn blows outside, and somewhere beyond our room heavy doors slam and chains crash.
“Not good.” Biff’s body stiffens. “The king is sounding the alarm.”
Salo points to the largest lock on the chest. “There are great treasures in here. We gotta get it open. Where is that damn thief when we need him?”
Biff leans over the chest, and I see him slide the long, pointed fingernail of his right pinky into the lock and jiggle it. “Even a great thief would need some time to pop a chest this well fortified.” He moves and puts his ear to the wall. “We will be having a lot of unfriendly company very soon. We either need a powerful spell or some huo-yao to pop this chest open.”
Bella shrugs. “I can disarm small bobby traps, but not open locks like this. I’ve got nothing for it.”
“What is huo-yao?” I ask.
Biff pulls a small sack from his belt and shakes it. “It’s a blasting powder. I have some, but not enough to blow open a chest this robust. It would take quite a while to rig, and the help of a fire-throwing magic user to ignite it.”
I put my hand on Biff’s arm. “Maybe you shouldn’t be shaking that stuff.” I look in the sack of black powder and jerk my head back. “Smells skunky.” Hmm, with a little engineering, I bet I could turn this powder into some kind of easy-dynamite, chest-busting explosive. Hans isn’t the only one who has taken chemistry classes.
Salo moves to the exit door and opens it. “No sense in wasting our time trying to do things we are ill equipped for. We need to be on the other side of the wall by sundown.” He continues down the hall.
“And I need a drink.” Biff rests his hand on my shoulder. “We have to leave this chest behind. Onward.”
The first chest I encounter, and it goes unopened. This is an embarrassment to my DCQ prowess.
Outside the compound, we step into dwindling daylight. Slim, the useless thief, is talking to two girls in the courtyard. One is skinny as a pole with dull black hair and a beak of a nose. The other is beautiful and voluptuous, with wide hips, a narrow waist, and ample breasts. They both wave goodbye to Slim and take a path into the forest as we approach.
I hold my arms out wide. “You missed out on some fine looting in there.”
Slim turns from the girls. “No use looting when I don’t get a share of the treasure.”
“There was a huge chest we would have loved for you to examine.”
“What a coincidence.” He points in the direction the girls went. “There was a huge chest out here I was indeed enjoying examining. Besides,”—he gestures to my head—“I don’t see the Liergarnin king’s crown on you up there. Anything else in there is worthless. I don’t know if you heard the sound of that horn, but we need to be on our way. One of my girls is very familiar with the horn signals. Apparently, the king has decreed that he wants your party dead, and since I’m part of your party, we need to get out of here before we’re knee-deep in killer minions.”
* * *
Back at the main road, we take a right turn at the headless statues and continue on to the gate.
Who were those girls Slim was talking to? I think there is more to our non-fighting thief than we know. I drop back in the marching order and walk alongside him. “So, who were your friends back at the compound? You neglected to introduce us. That one was super pretty.”
“Just re-connecting with a few of the locals. It’s funny you should ask. Juliette, was eye-balling you for sure. She said she thinks you’re fine as Melomel XO wine.”
“She said that for real? Wait. Which one was Juliette?”
“I’m not telling. I don’t play matchmaker. Besides, don’t you see the way Bella looks at you? You need to be holding hands and kickin’ cups with her.”
“You think Bella likes me?” I glance over at her. She is fine and a gamer girl. Mack just might approve of this one. Besides, she and I can continue this back in the real world once we’ve saved DCQ. None of the NPCs can follow me home.
I can always find out more about Slim later. Right now, I need to investigate his Bella theory. I work my way to Bella’s side. But what to say? “So, what spells do you plan on using against the goblin?”
She looks down at her fingertips. “I have two level-three spells that could distract him. Leveling up is the key. If I can hit level four before we get there my options get better. At level five, I can really do some damage.”
“You really know your way around DCQ. I don’t run into too many players like—well—like you. I mean, you are officially the finest girl I have ever met that plays the game.”
“You must not get around much.” She flushes a bit, despite the cooling air. “I have a few really good-looking girlfriends who play in
my dorm. I kind of consider it research. My major is Game Production Management.”
“Okay.” This is way too good. We are into the same business. “My major is game development. But Management is good too. How’d you get into that?”
“My dad pushed me in the management direction as a trade-off for tuition. It’s worked out, though. I already have an internship set for this summer. I’m super excited about it.”
“I would take that trade for tuition any day,” I say. “Keeping up with the financial end of college has been tough. The best schools in the video game design field are no joke on cost. I’m going to make it, though. Hey, maybe we’ll meet on the professional level at E3 someday.” It felt oddly freeing to talk about life beyond the game. A crisp reminder of what we were fighting for.
“I’m definitely looking forward to that.” She smiles and kicks a rock from the path into the bushes. “You know, I have a few friends that are diabolical when it comes to school finance.”
“If we survive this, I’m gonna need their info,” I say.
“If we survive.” Bella fidgets with her Grimoire. “I got in an argument with my dad over my internship selection before I got sucked into the game. It was heated. I hate to think that was the last conversation we will ever have.”
“I feel you on that.” The way things happened between Mileena and I doesn’t sit well with me, and I didn’t even have a chance to say goodbye to Mack. “I left a few loose ends back home too.” I give Bella’s shoulder a playful shove and smile. “But we’re going to live-for-real-live. This is Madmartigan and Jareth we’re talking about. We’re like the king and queen of DCQ.”
Bella and I talk college life, magic powers, and game design until the wall comes into view. Mack would definitely approve of her. But what if she already has a boyfriend? Bella and I sure have a lot more in common then Mileena and I ever did.
The wall cuts through the mountains on both sides of the valley to a gate in the middle of the road. Amazing. I imagine this is as close as I will ever come to seeing the Great Wall of China in person. I love this game. The optics are incredible.
