The portal flashed and disappeared. I looked around cautiously. The jungle had me spooked, if just a little. I was out of my element, looking around at the leaves a few steps away, and wondering if they were hiding anything.
I ran over to the palm grove and called out softly. “Idrissa, are you here? Come on, I don’t want to be here when it gets dark. These places are nasty.”
Something rustled above me, some dirt floated down, and then I was surprised to see a dried banana peel and a large palm frond hit the ground.
“Who are you?” a squeaky voice asked from above me.
I looked up to see a face that appeared more monkey than human. The monkey dryad was eying me through the large palm branches. This one certainly got the worst of it. Her sisters had at least some remnant of their old beauty, or at least their old humanity, but this one…
“Who?” I took a deep breath. “I’m a long-suffering martyr here to save you. Your sisters sent me.”
“Really?” The face broke into a smile. “You’re the one?”
“I don’t know about that, though I did help all three of your sisters already. And I’m going to help you, too. Probably.” Seeing as how the Fomor quest had been something less than a walk in the park, I was no longer sure of anything.
The little figure scampered down the trunk of the palm tree with incredible agility, running over to give me a hug. She was tiny, and so her nose ended up smashed against my thigh.
You completed a quest: Find Idrissa the South
This is the fifth in the Children of the Goddess series of hidden quests.
Reward:
8500 experience
Your choice of elite items
Single-use spell: random
Ability to unlock the sixth quest in the Children of the Goddess series.
But that wasn’t all.
You unlocked Level 56!
Points ready to be distributed: 5
Things were looking up.
“I’m fo happy!” the dryad exclaimed into my leg, not letting go. “I’d already loft hope.”
“Shouldn’t have done that. Well, you shouldn’t have given up hope, and you shouldn’t be blowing your nose in my pants—I’ve been wandering the jungle all day in them,” I said tactfully to Idrissa. “Don’t cry. Everything will be okay.”
“Ah, warrior!” The dryad unhitched herself from my pants, wiped her face, and thought for a second before raising a hand in the air. “I need to give you something in honor of our meeting and to thank you for coming.”
She leaped over to her palm tree and started digging around in a hole at the base of it.
“I hid something somewhere around here,” she said, spitting out the sand that kept getting in her mouth. “Ah, here they are!”
She ran back over to show me a signet ring and an earring in her palm. “They’re nice and magical. One of them belonged to a great king and helped him perform feats of valor, while the other belonged to a great mage. What she did with it…the whole jungle couldn’t stop talking about it for a hundred years. I know you’re a warrior, so you’d rather have the king’s item, but I don’t remember which is which. Just pick which one you want. If you’re lucky, you’ll guess right; if not, you won’t.”
Fifty-fifty, in other words. Either way, I figured, I’d come out ahead. Either I could wear it, or I could sell it at the auction. Getting an elite item never hurt anyone.
“I’ll take the ring,” I said to the dryad.
She grabbed it with her other hand and held it out to me.
Sleeping Reason Signet Ring
+35 to intellect
+29 to wisdom
+12% chance of restoring your mana after casting a spell
+3% ability improvement speed
+7% chance of spells cast at you being rendered harmless
Durability: 580/600
Class limitation: mage
Minimum level for use: 75
It wasn’t a bad ring; it was just a shame it wasn’t for me. Anyway, it was the type of thing I could sell for good money.
“Nope, you guessed wrong,” Idrissa squeaked. “Don’t worry, though, you can have this, too.”
She handed me a scroll.
“Thank you,” I said sincerely to the little keeper, dumping the ring and the scroll in my bag. I wish I had an apple. These dryads sure liked them. “Okay, so what can I do for you?”
“You can free me,” she replied, sitting down on a root. “And when you do that, I’ll tell you what’s next.”
“Next?” I knew freeing the dryads wouldn’t be the whole story, and the first one had told me the same, but still—I really wanted to believe that I was close to the finish line.
“Of course,” Idrissa said, scrunching up her face. “It’ll be easy though.”
Oh, I know your “easy,” all right. Everything seems easy when your job is to sit on roots and climb palm trees. Meanwhile, all I have to do is wear my feet down to the bone and drive myself crazy…
“Okay, we’ll deal with that later.” I held up my hands. “You just tell me what I need to do for you.”
“I need a gong,” she responded, batting her eyelashes. “The Gong of the Goddess.”
You unlocked Gong of the Goddess.
This is the sixth in the Children of the Goddess series of hidden quests.
Task for the first part of the quest: collect three keys (the Key of Bravery, the Key of Guile, and the Key of Intellect) hidden in three abandoned temples back in ancient times.
Task for the second part of the quest: find and bring the Gong of the Goddess, a unique item hidden in the cursed Monkey King Temple, to Idrissa the South. The location of the temple will only be shown on your map once the first part of the quest is complete.
Additional information:
The first part of the quest must be completed alone. You may have assistance getting to each of the temples, but you are the only one who can go inside. If you bring help with you into any of the temples, you will fail the quest.
You can have help completing the second part of the quest, though beating it on your own will earn you an additional bonus.
Reward:
20000 experience
Your choice of set items matching your class
A random and unique active ability matching your class
A random and unique passive ability matching your class
+10% to mana
Ability to unlock the seventh quest in the Children of the Goddess series.
Accept?
“Do I get a little helper?” I asked Idrissa wearily.
“What do you mean?” The dryad stared at me in surprise.
“You know, a little one,” I answered, “in a sailor’s uniform. So he can work his fingers while I’m getting the keys. We’re in a famous TV show[3], it sounds like.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” the dryad said frankly. “But I don’t have anyone like that. Can you do it without a helper?”
“Well, it’ll be hard, but I’ll do my best.” I sighed.
I accepted the quest and pulled up my map. One of the temples was available, as we’d fought a battle to protect some village or other nearby. Looks like that’s where I’m going first. I didn’t have access to the second or third temples yet, and they were a good distance away from anywhere I’d been, but it was just a matter of time with the number of missions we were taking on. On the other hand, time was starting to be a factor. I had a date in some marshes in the West, and the date was catching up to me.
The dryad spun off some kind of wild, happy dance, squealing and clapping her hands. I had to smile at her unbridled enthusiasm—at least one of us was having a good time.
“Okay, Idrissa, I’m headed off,” I said with a wink. “I’ll be back soon.”
“I’ll be waiting for you,” the little monkey said, suddenly serious again. “It’s not just my life and that of my sisters that’s riding on you completing this quest; it’s much bigger than tha
t.”
“It is?” I had an idea what her answer would be.
“You’ll find out when you bring the gong back,” Idrissa replied, disappointing me. “No sooner than that, and probably even later.”
I waved before opening a portal to the company headquarters. I’ll drop by Maykong, see what the local beauties are like, and get a chance to try out the stationary portal while I’m at it. Ah, I do have to make sure I pick up a pass though…
Chapter Five
In which the hero visits Maykong
When I heard the words “stationary portal,” I assumed it was something big and impressive, a blue abyss with white flashes inlaid with marble and standing on an enormous pedestal. It would have white steps leading up to it, and glistening brass figurines on the sides. The guards would be four of the Wild Brigade’s best, all wearing polished armor and brandishing swords.
Well, not exactly.
A visit to the Free Company office netted me a small scrap of paper. It read, Hagen, warrior, Seventh Free Company—not lying, and it was stamped with the date: 13 Crimson, 9583rd year after the Creation of Fayroll. Interesting. I headed in the direction the clerk pointed me, though all I found was a small stool, a rusty metal circle with flapping doors and something sticking out of the side, and a sleepy warrior standing nearby the whole contraption.
“Mr. Warrior,” I called over to him, “where’s the portal? Please don’t tell me this is it.”
“You’re looking at it.” He yawned, his entire face splitting in half. “I know you sneaky bastards, though—show me your paper.”
“Here.” I handed him my pass before posing another question. “Will it definitely get me to Maykong?”
“Where else would you want to go?” he asked me lazily. “Old Fild’s salon in Aegan?”
“Well, here’s the thing,” I faltered slightly. “I’ve never been there, to Maykong, and the places you haven’t been to—”
“Don’t worry about it. You’ll get to Maykong like you’re supposed to. The portal is constant, so you go where the owner wants you to go as long as you have permission. Here, take your paper back and get going. Climb up on that stool and dive in as soon as I press the lever.”
I clambered up, the soldier pressed some gadget that was apparently the lever, the flaps opened with a creak, and I traipsed into the blue portal. One strange thing was that it had some red streaks. Although… It’s an official, stationary portal. Maybe that’s just how they are?
***
Welcome to Maykong, the capital of the Southern reaches. Maykong, a pearl of the South, is known for its beauty, hospitality, and safety. It was founded back when—
When I had just started playing the game, I thoroughly enjoyed reading all the stories behind local sites, well, so long as I had the time. Then time passed, and I found that I’d lost the desire—everything is good in moderation. Yup, it’s old, it’s legendary… What else is new?
But the city really was beautiful. White buildings reached toward the clear blue sky with long, slender towers. The cries of seagulls and a light, pungent breeze told me that the sea was somewhere nearby. People shouted and talked, the noise typical for a large city, though it was soft, far-off, and muted enough to keep from being annoying. The odd part was that I was sure the portal would take me to some square, or, maybe, a bar. Perhaps even a fun kind of building with large-chested women of all shapes and sizes. Instead, I walked out onto the dust of an absolutely deserted alley. There was nobody to be seen, and all the buildings around me were closed. Some were even boarded up.
“Sahib, would you like a tame snake?” I heard a girlish voice behind me ask.
“What kind of snake?” I spun around as I answered, jumping to the side and instinctively gripping my sword.
On the porch of a boarded-up house sat a girl who looked to be around the age of eight. She had black braids, lively green eyes, and a heavily freckled nose. A fine little girl, in other words, if it hadn’t been for the company she kept—an incredibly large and, judging by the greenish liquid oozing from its fangs, poisonous snake wrapped around her slender arm and part of her body. The creature was longer than my entire apartment. How is she not collapsing under its weight?
“This is Apofss,” the girl explained with a smile. “He’s smart, and he won’t just bite you for no reason. We’ve been waiting here for a long time; I brought him for you. If you take him, he’ll serve you faithfully.”
The snake hissed, almost as if to second what she was saying.
“Sure,” I mumbled, wiping the sweat from my forehead. “But how am I supposed to know what he thinks is a good reason to bite someone?”
“Your command, Sahib. Just point him in the direction of an enemy, and Apofss will go kill him.”
It sounded like a nice creature to have, though the thought of dragging the thing all the way around Fayroll with me had me in a cold sweat. I pulled out a gold coin and tossed it at the girl.
“Here’s some money, go buy something for yourself. Just keep Apofss. I don’t really need him. What’s your name?”
“Pawny.” The girl smiled, showing off where she’d lost a tooth. “Are you sure you won’t take him? He’s great, and I’m sure he’ll come in handy.”
“No, sweetie, I don’t think so,” I replied, waving my hand resolutely and earning yet another hiss from the great and useful snake. You forgot the part about how terrifying he is.
“I live over there,” Pawny said, her tone telling me that she’d warmed up to me. She pointed at a small house at the end of the alley. “If you change your mind, come on in. Just don’t be afraid when you come in; Apofss isn’t the only snake I’m training. None of them will bite you, though.”
I’d rather chew my right arm off than walk into that house, I thought to myself. I said nothing of the sort, however, but smiled at the girl sitting on the step playing with her snake. It was like she had no idea how dangerous it was.
“Hey, traveler,” she called again once I’d taken several steps away from her. “Hold on.”
I turned around.
“You were kind to me, and I can’t let you go without a gift. Good, like evil, is always repaid in kind,” she said, rolling off an unexpectedly deep line for someone her age. Our eyes met once again, and I started. What happened to the emerald-green eyes? Instead, there was a darkness in them, one with neither a beginning nor an end. “If you don’t need a devoted servant, you can at least take this talisman with you. I’d like you to have it.”
Apofss slipped off the arm of the girl, if she could still be called a girl with those eyes. He carried an object in his fangs, and, a split-second before he got to me, he reared up on his tail to look me in the eye.
“Go ahead, warrior, take it. I think it’s a trinket you’ll really need sooner or later.” She laughed, but her laugh was anything but girlish. Something about it told me she was happy with and confident in a job well done.
I held out my hand, spellbound, and Apofss dropped a little, surprisingly heavy, and incredibly life-like figure of a snake into it.
When I looked up, the alley was deserted. Tracks in the dust were the only proof I had that an enormous snake had been right in front of me just a second before. There were also plumes of dust kicked up in the wind. He was really there; I not going crazy.
True Servant of the God
A unique item, it is the only one of its kind.
Allows the holder to summon a true servant of the goddess Tiamat.
Limitation: the summoner cannot be in conflict with servants of the Dark Gods or the Dark Gods themselves. If that is the case, the summoned servant of Tiamat may poison the summoner, and rumors say the bites inflicted by the servants of the goddess are so poisonous that they can kill any creature in Fayroll. That, of course, is still nothing more than rumor, as nobody has ever tried to kill the gods or the world’s creators.
Usage:
To summon a servant of Tiamat, clasp the talisman in your palm, and say, “Servant, app
ear.” Then point to anyone in front of you, and say, “Kill.”
Cannot be stolen, lost, broken, or sold.
Does not disappear from the holder’s inventory after dying.
I stood there, stunned and wondering who I’d just been talking to. And why me? The only thing that made sense was the fact that I had one more headache on my hands. The dark side was beckoning yet again.
I stuck the statuette in my bag and walked away from the strange alley, which was still deserted save for the wind.
The city really was beautiful. I counted several types of architecture, with round Hindu motifs next door to strict Victorian buildings. There was no logic to it whatsoever, though it turned out surprisingly well.
The next half hour was spent ambling from square to street to alley, and finally, I found myself on the port promenade.
“Hagen, what are you doing here?” Someone smacked into me and happily kissed my cheek.
“I’m just walking,” I answered cautiously, wondering why, in the innumerable throngs of players in the game, I had to get all the odd girls and strange, random meetings.
“I thought you were in the North,” Milly Re continued, her mood unusually light. “Weren’t you going to be up there for a while?”
“It’s cold, and there’s nothing to do without a reputation,” I replied casually. “Why are you here?”
“What do you mean?” Milly asked in surprise. “The shipyards are here, and we’re building the Great Armada. I’m here at least once a week, sometimes more often than that. Today is a particularly exciting day; we have a ship we’re launching down the slipway. All the leadership of the clan is here.”
Uh, oh…then I have to go. If the clan leadership is here, then their guests probably are, too. And I can just guess who the first guest they’d invite would be. They may not have even had to invite her—she’d figure out a way to get here.
“No, this is clan-only, so she won’t be here,” Milly said, correctly interpreting the darkening expression on my face. “No one’s seen her in a few days anyway. By the way, if you’re so fed up with your clan, why are you still there? Just kiss them all goodbye and be done with them. We’d be happy to have you.”
Fayroll [04] Gong and Chalice Page 6
