by Jason Cheek
“The name is, Hefe Beatudown!” Hefe announced in a surprisingly deep voice. “Me and my companions here are looking for some information about where Princess Reeva is being held captive in the city.”
AJ silently swore up a storm as he hurried to join his two friends at the center of the room. There was no doubt in AJ’s mind that they were completely fucked as of now. The only possible good news was that none of the angry faces were armed with more than a dagger. All around them, the room was filled with a loud murmur that forced Hefe to raise his voice even louder to be heard as he continued.
“I suggest you give up the information we need sooner rather than later. Otherwise,” Hefe punched his mini-fist into his other hand’s open palm, “we’ll be forced to do this the hard way.”
AJ hung his head at the resounding silence that greeted Hefe’s brave words. It was like the calm before the storm. Even Bonnie Smash’s Half-Orc face took on a pensive look at her “Honey Bear’s” bold statement. This was the problem that came from shoving a six-foot, four-inch tall giant into a three-foot tall Gnome’s frame. Instead of having lowered expectation, Hefe had grown an even louder, shit-taking mouth than he’d had before. It would have been more impressive if he wasn’t so small.
Obviously, this was an acute case of Small Dog Syndrome at its finest, AJ thought sourly to himself. As if to emphasize the point, once Hefe’s words sunk into the crowd of seventy or so NPCs around them, there was a screeching sound of wooden benches being pushed back and hitting the floor as the crowd around them let out an angry rumble and surged forward. Snatching up the nearest bench seat that was free, AJ bellowed back and smashed his make-shift weapon into the first group of assholes to reach him.
***
“I can’t believe we’re doing another one of Jay’s crazy side quests while, you know, doing a crazy side quest,” Jill bitched as they walked along the base of the western wall.
“Helping Domenic is NOT a side quest.” Krystal stated, rolling her eyes at the look her girlfriend gave her. Instead of getting mad, Jill just grinned back as they continued their search.
Glancing up towards the top of the wall, Krystal studied the top of the slanted walls towering above. Not that she was particularly concerned about being discovered by the idiot Chaos Storm players pulling guard duty above. Really, what was the purpose of making players guard the wall when there was no way to see anyone at its freaking base? It absolutely made no sense, she thought with an amused smirk as Jill’s voice broke her chain of thought.
“So is this a pile of bodies that’s stacked up against the wall or are they down in some sort of bio-garbage heap of rotting death?” Jill mused as Krystal gave her a disgusted look. “I mean, how does he even know something like that is here in the first place? It’s not like he’s ever been to Telrain. Think this is some sort of sick quest?”
“Jay didn’t say,” Krystal replied pensively. “I honestly can’t believe there’s nearly a hundred Royal Knights and possible other troops willing to fight for us if we just raise them from the dead and heal them up.”
“How are normal NPCs going to be of any help against these Nightmare-tards?” Jill asked in exasperation. “I mean, they’re freaking NPCs!”
“I don’t understand it either,” Krystal readily agreed. Seriously, how could a bunch of NPCs be of any use in fighting against players? Still, if Jay said it would give them the edge they needed to take these assholes down, she was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Krystal silently thought as they made their way up the slight rise before them. Jay was always coming up with new ways to murder-face his enemies. This time though, she just didn’t see how all of this real-time strategy stuff was going to help them pull Domenic’s ass out of the fire. Unless he just used them all as cannon fodder.
“No clue, but you know how Jay is when he plays.” Krystal said, grinning like a fiend. “If there is some cheesy ass way to pull out a win-”
“Lame Jay will figure it out.” Jill finished, cackling at the nickname she’d given him so long ago when they first met. Now they all used it to give him shit whenever he used some particularly lame off-the-wall tactic to get the win. But, Krystal thought, if it’s what got the win, was it really lame? Then again, that was the joke.
Jay had always been the best player of their group, whether it was FPS, RTS or MMOs. He was the guy to beat at their LAN parties. Sometimes, they’d travel around to play at the other LAN parties in the area to have fun and strut their stuff. They’d always end up with their top players challenging Jay to a match. Of course, he always won, which kind of helped on those days you’d get pissed because you could never take him down.
While it could be frustrating at times to never win a match against the man, Jay always did his best to evenly match the teams when they played home games. Usually he’d select the best three or four top players and set them against everyone at nearly impossible odds. Everyone loved those games. It was a chance to take out your frustrations on Jay, Mike and Domenic.
Usually, those matches would be three against sixteen, or sometimes four against twenty players, since sometimes she’d be asked to join the pro team to balance out the matches. Playing against those stacked odds was always fun as hell, even when getting your ass hammered. Krystal smirked at the double entendre. Even against those impossible odds, sometimes they’d manage to pull out a win. Truly, those matches were some of the best games ever, Krystal thought. Not that any of them were going to stop giving Jay a hard time about his odd way of looking at things.
She pushed those happy memories away as Jill spoke up. “So how are we supposed to find these dead guys?”
“He suggested that we follow our noses.” Krystal said, frowning at the horrible stench that seemed to be emanating from somewhere up ahead.
“Now that’s not disturbing in any way,” Jill said, gagging at the overwhelming smell that was now all around them. “I think I’m going to be sick.”
They stumbled to a stop as soon as they crested the top of the hill they’d been climbing. Below them, there was a ten foot deep pit that had to be the size of a football field that nearly ran up to the base of the wall. Inside the muddy pit was what could only be described as a landfill of rotting death. Corpses were piled up higher than the lip, while shit, refuse and garbage filled the bottom of the pit like a mini-lake of filth. Well, it looked like shit, Krystal thought. Did NPCs have toilets in the game? Whatever it was, it stank and looked like rotting liquid sludge.
Immediately, Krystal lost her breakfast as Jill joined her in the puking fun a second later. This wasn’t a slight up-chuck in the back of the throat, but a full-on puking everything out of your stomach level of vomit that didn’t stop until they were dry heaving. Supposedly, Jay had managed a similar feat earlier in-game without any negative issue in the real world. Issues such as puking ones guts out in their Egg while being in game. Whatever, just so long as she didn’t have to clean up the insides of her Egg when she logged out later tonight.
“I guess Jay didn’t warn AJ about this either?” Jill sarcastically asked, as she wiped the puke from her lips with the back of her hand, while Krystal used the edge of her robe’s sleeve.
“If Jay purposely didn’t tell me about this just so I’d say yes, I’m so going to kick his ass the next time I see him!” Krystal grounded out through clenched teeth as she climbed to her feet.
Glancing at one another, they warily made their way to the edge of the enormous landfill as their eyes swept their surroundings for enemies. No one could be seen keeping watch. Even the guards patrolling the wall couldn’t see down to where they stood without doing some serious acrobatics to look down at the base of the wall. Only the eyes of the dead and the small vermin feeding on the corpses knew they were there.
Krystal’s stomach violently twisted as she took in the hacked up bodies of the slaughtered Royal Knights in their tattered black leather uniforms. They were here where Jay had said they’d be. An unspoken rage filled her breast as s
he looked out over the senseless horror of it all. Was this the type of world the members of Chaos Storm wanted to play in every day? It reminded her of The Syndicate and the daily abuse they’d laughingly inflict on the player base of Chaos Online. No wonder Jay had a hard-on for these PKing assholes, Krystal thought, as she braced herself for what she knew needed to be done next.
Several of the bodies had slid down to the bottom of the pit and were half buried in the sludge-like muck and garbage. Luckily though, the majority of the bodies were relatively easy to reach atop the nearest pile of bodies. While she could start off at the top, there was no way she was going to get through this without getting down in the muck. She unslung her staff from across her back, and started forward as Jill caught her arm to stop her.
“You’re not seriously going to go down there and raise everyone up in that shithole?” She incredulously asked in a strained voice.
“Just keep an eye out for the assholes that did this,” Krystal angrily hissed. Breathing through her mouth, she clambered down into the pit speaking over her shoulder. “I’ve got work to do.”
***
The area round Darom was filled with the typical monsters you’d expect to find in a starting area. There were level 10 Horned Hairs that completely ignored our presence as they munched on the snow covered bushes. Level 13 Tri-tail Foxes with poofy fur bounded away into the frozen underbrush as we passed within range. Both had white winter coats that helped them to blend in with the snow. There were even a number of level 15 Large Forest Wolves that were brownish-white and ignored us completely as we ran by. Although somewhat extraneous information for my current level, I was always interested in seeing what other starting areas looked like.
Deeper into the forest, we passed through an invisible line where everything took on a more foreboding feel. It was here that we ran past the remains of the level 38 Poisonous Web Slingers that had attacked Sir Hemmet on his trek to Darom. Holding up a closed fist, I signaled for everyone to stop as I knelt down to inspect the arachnids’ chitinous bodies.
To say they were disturbing to look at would be a massive understatement. Imagine a group of five spiders that had the central bodies the size of a St. Bernard that basically weigh around three hundred pounds. Now picture daddy long-legs of an appropriate size to fit the central body along with a fat bulbous head the size of your chest with two massive hollow-fangs sticking out. Fangs that came to a fine point, but were as long as your arm and as thick around as a man’s upper thigh at the base. Then you’d have an idea of the horror story I was looking at.
An unconscious shudder ran down my spine as I fingered the chitinous exoskeleton. This is what Sir Hemmet had punched his way through to take down the predators trying to eat him. Honestly, I didn’t even want to picture what a level 50 boss spider would look like. Looking up at the frost covered trees, I could see some semi-translucent webbing higher up in the branches from where the creatures had ambushed the knight. Thankfully though, none of the creatures were in sight now. I was just standing up when Helgath sidled up next to me on Neysa’s back.
“Orcs use creatures like this as combat pets.” Her voice barely made it to my ears from where she sat on the Silver Dire Wolf’s back as I raised my eyebrows questioningly. “If they capture an enemy they don’t want to keep or are angry at a slave, they’ll give them to their pets to impregnate.” Slipping from Neysa’s back, she turned one of the dead spiders over onto its back. Using her dagger, she cut away the thin membrane underneath where a massive ovipositor suddenly popped free. The sickly oozing tool looked scary as hell and was tapered to a point capable of punching into the body of its victim. Extremely different looking than a Meer Lizards ovipositor, which looked more like a massive sex organ.
“They will lay eggs inside any creature, dead or alive, to hatch their young.” Helgath said in a harsh voice. Wiping her dagger off on the snow, she sprung back onto Neysa’s back as I thought over what she said.
The World just didn’t have carcasses disappear. At least, not until a corpse was properly scavenged, skinned, or eaten by other predators. Focusing on the ovipositor, I slightly puked up in the back of my throat … or impregnated and eaten from the inside out by larva. Pushing the ugly thought away, I looked around trying to figure out why the other predators hadn’t sought a meal from the dead, until I considered the poisonous nature of the spiders. That, as much as anything else, had probably stopped the corpses from being consumed.
The sudden jump in monster levels was somewhat disconcerting. Either this was a much higher level area or the region had their monsters levels artificially increased from higher level players hunting in the area. Either way, we’d need to be aware of our surroundings at all times. Signaling for everyone to keep an eye out for enemies, I nodded for Sir Hemmet to lead on.
While the rest of us were mostly stealthy, the zombies were anything but as they broke through the underbrush without a care in the world. Within short order we were being hunted. It wasn’t the spiders like I’d expected, but large dog-like creatures with long clawed hands instead of paws and a fang-filled maw that was truly unnatural. They looked like some sick puppy had combined a pit bull and a panther together. A moment later, I finally caught one of the mobs with an Identify, Level 35 Black Tipped Large Fossa.
Within short order, a pack of twenty had slowly surrounded us. Brazenly flittering through the treetops, they chittered to one another preparing to strike. A second later, the monsters attacked by dropping from the upper branches like assassins. None of the monsters connected with their planned targets though. Before they’d even reached the ground, my Frost Nova spell had frozen the handful above our heads. The rest were bodily tackled in midair by zombies as the rest of us attacked.
Like before, I went with Zap. Not because it did any damage, but because I wanted to level my damn Nature magic up. Besides, it wasn’t like the monsters were any kind of a challenge. Neristhana tossed Sir Hemmet a simple long sword, before joining Ryane, and Ulia in their attacks, while Fylreh and Brenna supported us with their bows from the flanks. Keela’s fists turned purple as she began blasting the mobs with Enhanced Shadow Bolts. At the same time, Helgath used her magic to blind the creatures, while Neysa leapt on the monster’s back to tear them apart with her fangs and claws.
With a zombie per mob, it was over almost as quickly as it had begun, especially since I had six Apoxsee zombies ranging from level 37 to 42 in the mix. The rest of the teams’ zombies were level 34, which were just one level lower than our enemies. Double-teaming the creatures took them down within moments. Although, more than one of my companions lifted a questioning eyebrow at my choice of spells. Shrugging sheepishly, I looked around for Neysa and Helgath once the hostilities were over. Both of them had disappeared towards the end of the battle.
‘Where did you guys take off to?’ I asked through our link.
‘Keeping a watch on the level 40 Elite Large Cave Bears that are hunting for food.’ The Silver Dire Wolf’s reply instantly filtered through my head as a mental picture of the mobs came through my link with the Half-Orc.
‘Do we need to head your way?’ I asked, worried about them both.
‘Nope, they didn’t turn around at the sounds of combat.’ Both of my soulmates answered back in my mind. ‘We heading out?’
‘Yeah, lead on.’ I thought, mentally breaking the link as everyone began moving out again. While it sucked on one level to leave the meat behind, I really didn’t want to spend the extra time it would take to skin the creatures and collect everything. Besides, I had a feeling this wasn’t going to be the only fight we ran into.
My intuition proved correct as we began fighting more and more enemies. Not that any of the battles took more than a minute to clean up since between our levels and our numbers, we were really overpowered for the area. There was some excitement when Neysa and Helgath were ambushed by a Level 38 Elite Silver-tipped Puma. The big panther took a chunk out of the Silver Dire Wolf’s flanks, before any of us kne
w what was happening. Helgath blinded the Puma instantly as the rest of us came to their rescue. The battle was over in moments, but it was a good reminder not to take any area lightly. A Regeneration and Neysa was once again in tip-top condition.
For better or worse, we never ran into the Elite Large Cave Bears or the Poisonous Web Slingers. Not that I was complaining about the later. Ginormous poisonous spiders weren’t really my thing. We did hear them at times. The chitinous armor made an eerie clackety clack echoing sound whenever they were in an area, which made it easy to keep away from their ambush spots. Between that and Neysa, Helgath, Brenna, and Fylreh’s scouting, we managed not to agro any of their groups.
Even with all of the fighting, we ended up making good time through the forest. At times, running silently through the thick woods at full tilt made me feel like I was Strider running after the Hobbits in The Two Towers. It was halfway temping to listen to the ground and say something about a large group of soldiers traveling a few hours ahead of us. The thought made me laugh at my own nerdiness. While that might sound stupid to some people, I was a nerd and little things like that helped with the more boring parts of the run.
Seriously, if you’ve never ran for more than forty minutes in your life. Trust me when I say, running is boring. I’d always heard running was ninety percent mental and ten percent physical. While I might not exactly agree with the stated percentages, I will admit that running took a huge amount of mental focus. You didn’t notice it in the first five minutes. Nor was boredom really an issue after the first fifteen minutes. It wasn’t until after the first forty minutes to an hour that keeping your mental focus really became an issue. You’d think that running through difficult terrain with the threat of monsters eating your face off would be exciting enough, but it wasn’t.
