by Isaac Stone
“So what do you recommend if we encounter the Tribals?” I asked him.
“You will meet them and most likely on their terms,” he answered. “Even with a small party in those forests, they’ll know you’re on the move the moment you enter it. The forest is their domain and no one goes through it without them finding out. I’ll send along some tools and trinkets to share and trade with them, but be careful. Plenty of men have vanished into those forests and never heard from again.”
“The fiercest tribe paints their faces red when they are at war,” he continued. “You encounter any of them; the best course is to run. Better yet, find a place to hide and hope they don’t find you. There are tribes in the jungle we’ve never had contact with and they want to keep it that way. What better method of staying in concealment than to kill everyone who wants to find them? These are dangerous men used to dangerous methods. Mark well what I tell you.”
Oh, great, this is just what I needed. It wasn’t enough to be afraid of jungle creatures that could eat you and end the game, now I had to worry about mystical women that could weave seductive spells about you and tribal hunters who could kill you. If I was paying to play this would be incredibly exciting, but I wanted to get paid and sort out my own issues, and this game was looking like it was going to be way harder than the mountain. Made sense though, sequels usually do amp things up.
“What kind of danger to they present if all they have are spears and arrows,” I decided to ask him. A little out of character as I would expect an officer of my rank to have some knowledge in this area, but I wanted to hear his response.
“They can wipe your entire party out with arrows before your guns are drawn,” the colonel reminded me. “They can set deadly traps that will kill you when you trip them. They don’t have to attack in a civilized manner to kill. Ready yourself captain."
CHAPTER FOUR
The sergeant and private were waiting for me as I left the colonel’s office. I had the briefcase in my hand and was on my way to the temporary quarters the army’d assigned me before we left for the forest. My things were already in the room I was given. Although the game dropped me into this body, there was a still a backstory I needed to explore.
“Welcome aboard, captain,” the sergeant said to me as they fell in line behind me. “I trust your meeting went well with the colonel.”
“As well as I expected,” I told him as we continued down the hall. It appeared to be built out of an older fortress.
I decided to find out a little more about the colonel. “Is it true he married a princess from the local people?” I asked the sergeant. I heard the two men snicker, but stifled the sound quick.
“You might say that, sir,” the sergeant said. “Did you see her? She was by today.”
“The colonel’s wife came by the fort today?” I asked. “I was under the impression she and his children lived off the compound.”
“No, sir. Most of the married men have their wives behind the walls. Too rough outside for the boys to live there. Besides, I think she likes being close.”
“She might have been in the next room,” the private added. “Sir.”
“Next room?” I asked.
Private Tommy turned and looked at his sergeant. “Did he know?”
“He just arrived, I don’t think so,” the sergeant responded.
“The colonel’s wife doesn’t like to be separated from her husband for more than a few hours at a time,” he explained to me. “Something to do with a local custom. She posts her ladies-in-waiting outside the colonel’s office when she visits him in the adjoining room. You have to get them to deliver a message if anything important arises.”
“They carry knives, so you have to ask nice,” Private Tommy added.
“Quite unusual,” I mentioned. The detail of these back-stories never ceased to amaze me, it went an incredibly long way towards allowing the player to suspend their disbelief.
“Won’t last forever, sir,” Grom told me. “They have four children, her rank requires seven. Local custom, I’m told again. I expect she’ll give him some peace when number seven arrives.”
“And then maybe not,” Tommy pointed out. “She might want more to be on the safe side.”
“The poor colonel,” I laughed. “He’ll never be able to leave the army.”
“And it seems he’s making his own,” Tommy snickered. “Sir.”
My room was a small one on the second floor of the fort that looked into the courtyard. I stopped and watched the soldiers drill down on the parade ground. From what I could tell, most were local troops that were part of the colonial force. If the game stayed close to the historical line, they would prove to be the backbone of whatever government emerged after the British left.
I went back into my room as the two members of my team went to their quarters that were next to mine. I sat down on the straw mattress and enjoyed a cool breeze that flowed through the open windows. It wasn’t exactly central air conditioning, but in this heat, I would take what I could get. I checked and found the company had already placed all my personal things into a wardrobe and the cabinets that the room was furnished with.
Finally, it was time to see what was inside the briefcase and perhaps make contact with mission control at Ruby Realizations. I sat it down on the bed and slid out the files and logbook.
The logbook had the maps and character sheets inside it. As I suspected, the sergeant and private weren’t very high ranked, but possessed plenty of useful skills I could use to help me reach my goal. Solid companion NPCs. There was information in it on the different ethnic and tribal groups to be found in Baharaj. Although I would travel to the Maharajah’s palace in Dunwoody to embark on the trip in to the forest and jungles, I was currently residing in the capitol city of Lackbey.
Private Tommy was a grade 1 character and Grom a grade 2, as befitted their ranks. Each had important skill levels and survival abilities which I would need to consider the further we went toward our goal of finding the missing courier box. There was very little about the box itself, other than it was the end goal of the game. Once I had it in my possession, I was to contact the VR team and they would pull me out of this scenario.
The country of Baharaj, according to the logbook, was an ancient civilization, which first appeared in accounts by the court scribes who traveled with Alexander the Great on his attempted conquest of the Indian subcontinent. As it was located in a key transit point out of the mountains, it was run over by a variety of conquerors. The local culture was Hindu for the most part, with a smattering of Shia Islam left over from another wave of conquests. In the low lands, there were a good amount of Buddhists and Christian missionaries were active near the British encampments.
I could find very little in the book on the lost jungle city of Virkya that Major Buttersnipe, my god that name, searched for prior to his untimely dispatch. Some of the parts of the logbook were still blank. The Ruby Realizations team shared with the one from Sandstone Gems their desire to give the player on so much information at a time. I noted the maps were incomplete and only showed the areas around the city and inside it. A plot cache was marked in a nearby market, which meant I would have to leave the fortress to find it if I wanted to proceed in the game.
I decided to go out and look for it myself. I could wait for the sergeant or Private Tommy, but I wanted to see this town for myself. According to the logbook, it was renowned for its temples and artisans who worked in brass. I had the logbook with me and it would show my path through the town as I walked. To return to the fortress, all I had to do was reverse my path and I would be back home in no time. To play it safe, I loaded the pockets of my uniform up with coins. I didn’t think there would be any trouble.
My level of naivety was off the scale.
The first sign things weren’t about to go as planned was the look the sentries gave me as I strolled past them. Both were Sikh, which I noted from their beards and turbans. They saluted me as I walked by. The moment I went out
alone, they froze in confusion.
My welcoming committee to the town was a small camp outside the fortress. Several dozen families were set up with pavilions and booths. When I appeared, they began to call to me in search of some business. However, I merely waved and went past. Although I could understand their pleas for the best products at the lowest prices, I didn’t need anything.
This was the second blunder I made.
Two blocks away I became the source of attention of the entire town. I was close to the market, but I had the distinct feeling that everyone was staring at me. Some of the looks weren’t obvious, but plenty of them were. The rains had washed the cobbled streets clean and the steam began to rise as the sun baked it. The smells of a thousand years began made themselves known.
First one ragged child followed me and asked for money. Not knowing what to do, I gave him a coin. Another one joined him. Followed by another. And then another. By the time I entered the market, I had two dozen children behind me.
This problem I solved by handing out all my coins. When the last one was gone, I held out my hands to show I didn’t have a thing left. This they all understood and most of them vanished. A few kids stayed around, just in case.
I bowed to the stall merchant nearest to me and walked over to a small wall, where I pulled out a brick. Here was the first plot cache indicated by my map. It couldn’t be too significant and I assumed it was some kind of message.
The cache consisted of a folded up piece of paper. I pulled it out and looked at the scrap in the bright sunlight. There was some writing on it.
“Behind you!” was all it said. Nice.
I turned around slow. To my immediate rear were four bandits. This had to be their role in the game as each was armed with a very sharp blade. None of them appeared to be local, which was, I am sure, the game designer’s idea of a joke.
“You have any money on you, sir?” the first of them said to me as he began to circle around to my right in a pattern that was less than friendly.
I realized the reason why the sentries and everyone else stared at me with such confusion when I left the fortress. I’d walked out alone into an environment where I wasn’t supposed to go. There was a reason that the fortress had thick walls and it wasn’t to keep the soldiers inside. It was to keep the population out.
I turned and looked for help among the merchants at the market. I could expect none as they all found other things to interest them than an idiotic Englishman who’d decided to stroll out into occupied territory. A few of the locals watched at a distance with some amusement. They found this to be funny and wanted to see how it would play out.
However, I did remember to take my logbook with me and quickly thumbed through it to the last place I’d read inside it before leaving the fortress. Sure enough, I was surrounded by a group of level three red shirts who had minor skills in knife fights and tactics. My own skills, listed at the front of the logbook, which no one could read but me, were listed at a much higher level. This would do me no good as they could combine their own skills and agility to over-power whatever I did. At least the game was nice enough to pause while I flipped through the book, that was something.
Worse, I didn’t have a gun. I’d foolishly left my holster and revolver in my quarters. I can be such a noob sometimes. I decided the best thing to do was to provoke a response and see what happened.
“I had some on me,” I told the group as they contrived to cut me off, deciding that as a veteran English chap I ought to give em some salt, “But I spent it all on your mothers last night, and trust me lads, they worked hard.”
The first bandit charged at me and forgot to pull out his knife. Which was to my advantage as the game would have ended at that moment if he did. One thing I’d heard years ago: in a knife fight everyone gets cut, it’s just a question of who gets cut less. Thankfully I lucked into fisticuffs.
I gauged his attack and went into a defensive stance I somehow knew. The game had given me mental skills I didn’t possess until this moment. He swung a standard roundhouse punch at my head that I intercepted with a reverse punch of my own. I struck him in the jaw. The bandit went down the moment I connected with him, Marquis of Queensbury rules I wanted to shout, but my fist burned with pain. I’d rolled for opposition in this game and won, but at a cost to my hand.
None of which was about to make any difference as the other thugs closed in with their knives out. I didn’t’ think I could beat this one, but I wasn't going out quietly.
The sound of gunfire stopped everything. We looked to the source of it and saw three of the local troopers in red uniforms on horseback with rifles. Someone alerted them. The game would continue.
The bandits fled into the crowded market. The troopers, Sikhs again by the beard and turbans, rode up to me.
“Are you alright, sir?” one of them said. “We’d heard reports an English officer was in danger and hurried over here.”
“You heard correct,” I told him. “Who summoned you?” I was under the impression the entire market couldn’t care less what happened to me.
“That young child over there,” one of the troopers pointed out to me. “He called our attention to what was about to happen a few minutes ago.” I turned and looked to the small figure that stood by the entrance to the market.
He couldn’t be more than five years old. I was astonished at the size of the boy. He’d placed his own safety at risk for a hated stranger. The kid stood at the gate and tried not to look in our direction.
“I gave him a few coins, sir,” the trooper continued. “Probably all he wanted.”
Without any thought, I walked over the child and looked down at him. I was concerned because it could go bad for him if word spread he’d helped the British. I was impressed by what he’d done.
Two little dark eyes looked up at me, puzzled by the attention he received. In one hand, the boy held something, which I assumed to be the coins he was given.
“What is your name?” I asked. At least the game allowed us to speak the same language. If it were overly realistic, the town would use 12 or more languages.
“Manish,” he told me.
“Why did you tell the tall men I was in trouble?” I asked him.
He held out the coins. I appreciated his honesty and that of the game designers.
I heard a sound behind me and turned to see the two troopers ride up. They looked down and one of them had a visible sign of disgust on his face.
“Just a beggar kid,” one of them said to me. “I’ve seen him around for a few days. Parents sold him to a gang of thieves. In a few years, we’ll have to shoot him. It never changes.”
While I stood there, I heard another commotion and turned to see the forms of Grom and Tommy work their way through the crowd. They had on their uniforms, but it was plain to see they’d put them on in a hurry.
“We got the word minutes ago you were in trouble, sir,” Grom said as he swiftly saluted me. “Are you okay?”
“I’m well, sergeant,” I told him. “We need to get to the farmers’ booths and stock up on supplies for the trip.”
I gestured to the young boy. “This lad saved my life. Was it not for him, I’d have bled out by now.”
“Really, sir,” Tommy cut in, “please don’t wander off like that again. You gave us a scare.”
“No parents, Manish?” I said to the boy. He lowered his eyes and it told me all I need to know. “How would you like to come and work for me?”
His eyes lit up. “I would like that very much, sir!” he responded.
“Good,” I told him. I turned to the troopers. “See that the men who bought him are paid for their investment. The boy will come with us.”
“Sir,” Grom interjected. “If I might be so bold, that might start all kinds of rumors.”
“Which is why I am putting you in charge of him,” I told the sergeant. “He’ll stay with you and Tommy for the time being.”
They didn’t say anything for a few seconds. Finally
, Grom spoke up.
“I suppose we can make a place up for the lad,” he told me. “I can always use some help when it’s time to leave for the trip. What do you want to do with him when we leave?”
“He’ll come along with us,” I informed him.
“In that case, we should make a place for him.” Grom turned to Tommy. “Take him back to the fort and get him cleaned up. Find a bunk for him in our quarters. He’ll rise with us tomorrow and start to work.
“As you command,” Private Tommy sighed. He reached down, grabbed Manish’s hand, and walked away with him in the direction of the fortress.
“Did you say something about supplies, sir?” Grom turned his attention back to me after Tommy vanished with the child.
We made our way through the market, this time undisturbed. A few minutes after Grom and Tommy arrived; a score of soldiers appeared to help us in gathering supplies for the expedition into the jungles of this isolated country.
I wanted to make sure that whatever we took along wouldn’t perish on the trip. The sergeant had a good idea what to buy and bring along as he’d lived in this country for a long time. I wasn’t sure what would last and what would spoil, so I let him pick out what we’d need. I told him to hire guides when we arrived at the location.
Another issue was the type of guns to take along with us. I’m not a gun enthusiast by nature, but had to learn about them if I was to play the scenario without too much trouble. My experience with the Tommy gun from the adventure on the mountain let me know that it would be a very bad idea to take one along too. Any type of automatic weapon from this time period would be too heavy and require more maintenance than I cared to provide. Grom recommended a carbine for each of us and a long-range rifle to take along as back up. Each of us would have service revolvers.
“The streets around here are full of these beggar children,” Grom let me know in his gruff way on the way back to the fortress. “Their parents are so poor that it’s the only way for some of them to survive. They grow up to be thieves and murderers if they survive initiation into the guilds.”
