Neck-Deep In It: A LitRPG and GameLit Series.

by Jason Cheek

  To Jodi’s modern-day sensibilities, this was more like a cell than an actual room. Though, to her slowly forming medieval sensibilities, it was a sign of respect and luxury in a hard world where private space was at a premium. She could still clearly see the pride on Lady Chiara’s wrinkled face, along with the other surviving NPCs, as the old woman presented the room to an appreciative Startum Ironwolf.

  “It was more than one simple video,” Jodi muttered sourly under her breath, as the muted sounds of loud conversations along with the bumps of plates and mugs came to her ears through the heavy wooden door that led to the main room of the Viking-esque longhouse.

  In actuality, it was more like a video bonanza, Jodi wryly thought, as she stifled a yawn. One that she was going to end up paying for in spades, because she wasn’t about to let staying up too late the evening before mess up a Friday night of gaming.

  John was so jealous about not being able to join her in on all the fun. His pod was a good two or three weeks from being delivered if V-MMORG was able to keep up with their production levels. The plan was for him to join up with a few other of their “Egg-less” gaming friends at the local pub for beers to commiserate at not being able to play on the release of The World. Even so, he didn’t stop her from logging in and having her own fun. Besides their enjoyment at watching her stream, John and the rest of their friends were having fun ribbing her about getting caught up on the wrong side of the forum drama that was going on with her new Guild Leader.

  There was no doubt in her mind that her new friends weren’t going to let her off the hook for her snarky comments the night before either, Jodi thought, as she climbed out of her sleeping hides and began running her fingers through her long hair to get the kinks and knots out. Tying it back into a ponytail, she got to work getting everything packed away in her backpack as she mentally went over everything that had gone down the day before.

  The whole situation with Startum Ironwolf had initially seemed so cut and dry. The man had destroyed an entire NPC town and slaughtered all of its residents, before turning them into zombies for his undead army. Seriously, it didn’t get much more evil then that. On top of that, he was a PKing jerk that liked to terrorize low-level players and loot their corpses. Oh, and he was a misogynistic asshole that liked to sexually abuse the NPC women that he’d conned into being his companions. At least, it had been, up until she’d been challenged about her position by her brother and his military friends.

  “Fucking great,” Jodi growled under her breath, “just what I needed. A bunch of old codgers harping on me for not fully researching my position before running my big fat mouth.”

  Pressing her fingers to her eyelids, Jodi held that pose as her thoughts silently raged. It had seemed so cut and dry, especially when the video had plainly showed Startum’s crimes in all its gory detail. She hadn’t even questioned the validity of it all. Along with the video, there had been literally thousands of follow-up posts from players supporting Cristiane Sekhmet’s representation of the facts. Seriously, who in their right mind would bother fact-checking a post after that?

  Letting out a heavy sigh, Jodi stood up with a tired groan. It was odd feeling like her eyes were burning from lack of sleep, while at the same time, feeling perfectly fine and healthy in her virtual body. Doing her best to shake off the lethargy weighing down her limbs, she began washing her body down with the bucket of icy-cold water that had been left for her in the corner of the room. While she’d remembered her grandmother’s stories of taking cloth wipe-down baths such as this when she’d been a young girl, Jodi had never experienced such an odd way of cleaning one’s self up. Oddly enough, the bucket was the only item that had been in the room that she hadn’t brought along. Though, she guessed that fit with the theme of a medieval society.

  Still, when Jodi had first been told that she would be taking Lord Ironwolf’s old room, she’d expected something quite different. Her imagination had pictured an ostentatious room with a massive bed in the center for his many female conquests with ornate hand-carved furniture and silver candelabras of scented candles. You know, a bedroom that you wouldn’t want to look at in the glow of a blacklight and which befitted a pompous asshole that forced the NPCs to call him, Lord Ironwolf.

  Patting herself dry with a piece of cloth that she used on the road for a towel, Jodi began donning her clothing and gear as a frown turned down the sides of her tightly pressed lips. Even when she’d been greeted with the stark reality of this barren hovel, she’d still tried to blame Startum for having his own room when his NPCs were living like cattle in an open barn. She’d relished the thought of getting the video evidence that proved her point so she could throw the man’s misogynistic attitudes into the Boomers of Zeppy’s Heroes guild and her brother’s faces.

  This whole mess had started with a friendly argument regarding the controversy about the destruction of Telrain that was burning up the forums, Jodi annoyingly thought. As soon as she’d started watching the unedited video stream of the actual events that had gone down in the capital, it became blaringly obvious that Cristiane’s video montage was a complete fabrication. The woman had edited out all the evil crap that her alliance had been doing to the NPCs and, with a copious amount of creative video editing, had placed the entire blame for the incident on Startum’s shoulders.

  While there was a serious amount of “cray cray” going on there that she didn’t want to touch with a ten-foot pole, Jodi did have some major questions for Startum. Namely, why had he so doggedly egged his psycho-ex on? It was like he’d wanted her to use the destructive spell on the city. Not that any of that was going to get her off the hook with the group of Boomers that she was traveling with. No doubt, she was going to have to eat some serious crow to get back into their good graces. Well, them, and the rest of the NPCs belonging to the House of Kayden. All of them had started giving her the cold shoulder after her negative comments about their Lord.

  The truth of the matter was that Jodi had privately hoped that if she could prove that Startum was a misogynist asshole that she wouldn’t have to apologize to everyone about the whole video thing. Unfortunately, that had proved to be a bigger problem than she’d initially thought it was going to be. The more videos that she’d ended up watching of the annoying man’s entrance into The World, and how he’d dealt with the NPCs, along with the issues that he’d had to face; the more she’d been forced to re-evaluate her original perception of him.

  Talk about annoying, Jodi railed in exasperation at the injustice of it all. She’d wasted the entire night after logging out trying to find something that proved her right. Coming up empty handed, she’d spent her whole lunch break the next day going through the bastard’s Twitch Stream at four-times normal speed and still found nothing.

  It had all been a complete fucking waste of time, Jodi silently complained. Take this room for example, Startum hadn’t asked for it to be built. His NPCs had simply done it for him as a thank you for everything he’d gone through to save the survivors of the House of Kayden. After watching everything that he’d managed to accomplish within his first few days in-game, it had gotten so galling that she’d finally said “fuck it” and headed back to work in a huff.

  Stomping her feet into her boots, Jodi clenched her teeth as she thought back to the research that she’d done on his female companions and demi-human slaves. Even though everything else had been a bust, she’d been sure that she was going to have no problem finding the video evidence that she needed to prove her point about this disgusting man’s abuse of all these women. Seriously, everyone on the forums had been talking about it. There literally had to be hundreds of posts discussing how he treated those girls like a bunch of glorified cocksheaths.

  Gripping the latch to the door, Jodi pressed her forehead against the doorjamb as she closed her eyes in frustration. Once again, she’d found nothing in Startum’s video archive to back up any of those accusations. While there’d been a number of seemingly questionable situations that had s
eemingly gone down, none of it had panned out once she researched it further. While Jodi might question what the man could possibly have in his pants that could please a Centauride, she hadn’t found any evidence that he’d forced himself on her or any of his other female companions for that matter. If anything, it had been the exact opposite. Even worse, nearly every thread that had been started about the supposed sexual abuse had been originally started by members of this Chaos Storm Alliance. The leader, of which, was Startum’s “cray cray” ex-girlfriend.

  Upon figuring that out, Jodi realized that she’d been duped yet again. Talk about being pissed off. Jodi was so mad that she’d been nearly frothing at the mouth when she’d finally gotten home from work. Upon hearing what had her so upset, John had busted out laughing at her efforts to find some sort of dirt on Startum. He’d always warned her about doing her own research on stuff like that before sounding off publicly about such issues.

  Let’s just say that hadn’t gone over too well, Jodi embarrassingly thought, reminding herself that she owed John a special apology when she logged out later that night. Her husband hadn’t deserved the bullshit that she’d said to him before he’d left for the pub to meet up with everyone. None of this was John’s fault. Jodi knew that she’d just been tired and angry which had made it easier for her to lash out.

  In her heart, Jodi knew that John intellectually understood all of that and was probably, even now, commiserating with the rest of their Egg-less gaming friends. Hopefully, he’d still be awake by the time she ended up logging out. Otherwise, she was going to have to give him an extra special wake-up call in the morning.

  Standing up straight, Jodi did a final onceover of the nearly empty room as she did her best to calm her nerves down. No sense in blowing up on any of the crew here or the House of Kayden’s NPCs. At least, not if she wanted to have a decent relationship with any of them. As she prepared herself for what she knew she needed to do, Jodi mentally reached out to Fiona.

  ‘I’m here,’ Jodi sent, as she felt the familiar warmth of her link with the Blink Lynx appear in the back of her mind, ‘Are you nearby?’

  ‘More or less,’ Fiona replied with the undercurrent of a low growl coming through their link, ‘I’m stalking a group of Stealthed newfar just outside of the back gate for the local Rangers.’

  ‘Really?’ Jodi asked in obvious surprise, ‘For the local Rangers.’ Normally, the Blink Lynx didn’t like associating with humanoids. With a mental smirk, she teasingly asked, ‘Are these Rangers non-stupid?’

  ‘Surprisingly, yes,’ Fiona prickly answered with a mental flick of her ear. The Blink Lynx’s tone took on an oddly respectful tone, ‘They’re teaching their newest members how to hunt down Stealthers.’

  ‘How are they doing that?’ Jodi asked, perking up at the odd mixture of feelings coming from the Blink Lynx.

  ‘They’re able to teach them to see through Stealth at close range!’

  ‘I didn’t think that was even possible,’ Jodi thoughtfully sent, curious in spite of herself.

  ‘It shouldn’t be,’ the Blink Lynx replied with a disgruntled sniff. ‘From what the Rangers and Rogues were saying to the newbies in their teams, it’s a Skill that they naturally acquired from all of the Stealth fighting that they’ve been doing against the local newfar.’ Feeling Jodi’s suppressed excitement through their shared link, Fiona let out a mental harumph. ‘Of course, as soon as I learn their secret, I’ll let you know.’

  ‘Smart girl,’ Jodi approvingly thought back. Before she could say anything more, she felt Fiona clawing through the surface thoughts of her mind.

  ‘So, we’re okay with Lord Ironwolf now,’ the Blink Lynx asked in obvious delight, reading Jodi’s mixed feelings on the subject.

  ‘You know that I hate it when you do that,’ Jodi unhappily grumbled back.

  ‘I should be able to meet up with you at the back gate by the time you’re finished making amends and eating,’ Fiona derisively replied, slipping out of their telepathic link range before Jodi could express her displeasure further.

  “Gah,” Jodi grunted in frustration, “that little bitch!” Shaking her head at how easily the Blink Lynx could read her thoughts, she opened the door and strode into the main room of the longhouse.

  Immediately, the bustling conversation completely died away as everyone in the central living area turned around to focus on her. It was somewhat intimidating since the longhouse was absolutely filled to the brim with the House of Kayden NPCs eating their evening meal on the heavy wooden tables that ran nearly the length of the room. The only familiar faces that she saw were the handful of players sitting around the central fireplace that she’d met the day before in Delonshire. From the amused looks on most of their faces, they were curious to see how she was going to handle this rough group.

  As her eyes swept over the hardened men and women that were giving her less than friendly looks, Jodi realized that there wasn’t a civilian amongst them. It was more like looking out over a savage pack of wolves than actual people. Every last one of the NPCs were heavily armed and armored with recent battle damage scarring their gear, besides having a brutal aura about them that screamed of danger. Jodi didn’t know if it was a species thing or what, but these Half-Elves were nothing like the pretentious Light Elves of the Royal Army that she’d had to deal with back in Nren Unarith.

  The animosity coming from the entire room didn’t seem to lessen in the least as Jodi made her way towards the group she was meeting with. Normally in a situation like this, everyone would go back to their conversations but not this group. The animosity rolling off of them in waves at her presence made her want to run back to Startum’s room. Not that she would ever turn away from a challenge. Nonetheless, she could feel the weight of their stares as she came to a stop near the fireplace and turned around to face the group.

  “If you’ll excuse me for a moment,” Jodi called out loud enough to be heard by the entire room as her eyes swept the various angry faces, “I would like to offer a … proper apology for my ungracious and,” she glanced over at Zeppy Blau’s surprised face before continuing, “uninformed remarks about Lord Ironwolf the day before.”

  Jodi’s words seemed to set off a low muttering amongst the NPCs that were looking back at her. Some of them seemed to be open to her words while others just seemed to get angrier. While the whole idea of offering an apology to a bunch of NPCs would probably seem ridiculous to her gaming friends that were watching her Twitch Stream, sometimes, you simply had to play the game. In that moment, Jodi knew there was no going back. At least, not if she wanted to have any kind of working relationship with the rest of the guild. Taking a deep breath, she stood up straight and continued.

  “The information I’d heard from the newfar … magic messenger board about what happened in Telrain was false,” Jodi said, as she struggled to explain how she knew anything about what was happening on the other side of the starting area, “Though many newfar believe this to be the truth,” her eyes swept the various faces looking back at her more intently now, “Lord Ironwolf didn’t attack the capital city of Telrain or slaughter its people.” Jodi could tell by the crowd’s reaction that they were hungry for any news about their missing leader and his adventures, which was making them willing to listen to what she had to say.

  “The truth is that the destruction of the capital was done by his enemies which they blamed on him.” Jodi’s voice turned stronger as her confidence rose. “Not only that, Lord Ironwolf didn’t slaughter the people of the city and turn them into zombies for his army like the newfar accused.” She momentarily paused to let the angry muttering die down before continuing. “Once again, the truth is that he actually saved as many people from Telrain as he could, before his enemies could completely destroy the city. From his own words, Lord Ironwolf believes that he managed to save nearly everyone that had been enslaved and over half of those that had been slaughtered in cold blood. Most of these people will be coming with him back to his lands along wit
h an army that he built during his travels.”

  “What kind of army did Lord Ironwolf manage to gather during his travels?” one of the male Warriors up front suddenly asked. His question seemed to set off a storm of others from the rest of the group.

  “How big of an army is it?” a female Ranger called out.

  “Hopefully, it’ll be large enough to help us stop the Hobgoblins,” the female Rogue next to her said as more of the NPCs began speaking up.

  “How many civilians does that mean will be coming to BrokenFang Hold?” a female Warrior wanted to know.

  “Won’t that slow Lord Ironwolf’s return?” another male Warrior asked.

  Jodi tried to answer the slew of questions coming at her the best she could. In truth, she didn’t really know enough about what was going on to answer a third of the questions being asked of her. Nonetheless, she did the best that she could, instantly going from a social pariah to the most popular person in the longhouse. Well, not most popular. Jodi was sure that many of the NPCs still weren’t exactly happy with her. Though, that didn’t matter when it came to hearing information about what was happening with their leader.

  Jodi had seen enough of Startum’s recent videos to be able to explain that he was traveling with around two thousand troopers which brought an excited cheer of hope from the NPCs around her. While she didn’t know all of the different species that were with him, Jodi explained that he had Dark Elves, Humans, Dwarves, and various Beast Kin that made up his army. To her surprise, none of the Half-Elves seemed to be offended that the army was made up of a mixture of humanoids. If she’d said something like that to any of the Light Elves in Nren Unarith, this whole discussion would’ve turned into a major bitch-fest right then and there.

  The more questions that Jodi answered, the more excited the NPCs seemed to get as the questions became more detailed. How did Lord Ironwolf get so many different races to fight for him? Were they all sworn to him as vassals? How could Lord Ironwolf possibly get all of them back here in time to fight against the Hobgoblin invaders? Were these troopers going to need new armor and weapons crafted for them before they could fight? What kind of classes and skills did they have?