by Galen Wolf
We went forward cautiously, every now and again, Achilles would put up his hand to indicate a trap, then he would go forward, tinker with it and disarm it.
When we saw NPC guards rush towards us Achilles and Ajora would deal with them but I couldn't resist peppering them with my bow. I even got a kill or two.
We finally entered the main courtyard before the doors of the Royal Palace of Horrabia. The red sandstone building loomed up on three sides of the yard. Amazingly the heavy iron and wood doors were open.
I questioned it and Ajora messaged: There is a regular quest in here. It's called something like the Masque of the Red Death and, as I recall, gives reasonable loot and XP, but most people who aren't from Horrabia don't play it because even coming here will get you killed.
We sneaked our way into the stone laid entrance hall, lit with burning torches. Two more guards in red ceremonial armor snarled and rushed at us, but the huge polar bear that was Ajora and the flitting shadow that was Achilles made light work of them.
As we stalked forward down a long corridor, floored in red marble, with suits of armor and weaponry set along its length for decoration, Achilles again motioned for us to stop.
Big trap here: he messaged. Might take me a couple seconds to disarm.
Anxiety was ripping through me. Loki had promised to kill me all the way back to newborn. All I wanted to do now was get into the Red Tower, use the key, get my über loot, and get the hell out of there.
I knew that Ahn and Griffin and the rest of our allies would feel obliged to stay in the square fighting for as long as it took us to complete this boss fight. That meant even when they died, they would try to res and come back, and I knew only too well that each death removed a level, so it was going to be a bitter fight for them in the middle of enemy territory.
I couldn't really tell what Achilles was doing, but I heard his grunt of satisfaction as he disarmed the trap. It must have been a hard one because he signaled: No trap can get the better of brave Achilles; and did some kind of victory break-dance there and then.
We don't have time for this, dude. Ajora signaled. Let's get moving.
Along the corridor, one more trap and then we faced with the golden doors that led to the King's Chambers. Achilles checked the doors themselves. He tinkered for a second: Just a little one.
He grinned, removed some widget thing, showing me the mechanism that meant nothing to me, and put it into his inventory. With high trapping skills you can re-use any trap mechanisms you disarm and put them in traps laid for your own enemies.
Ajora threw the disarmed doors open. Even as a huge polar bear, the scale of the King's Chambers dwarfed her. I looked up and saw the glittering gold ceiling and then on all sides tapestries of dragons and fables. The floor was white and gold and there were red marble pillars all around the walls. A golden throne dominated the centre of the huge room. The throne sat on a pyramid style construction the led up by levels of steps getting narrower towards the top. The throne was wide enough for a man to lie on, but sitting there was a skeletal figure with a crown of gold. He wore gold armor and had in his hand some kind of magician's rod. Blue fire licked from his eyes.
"You didn't tell me he was a lich," I exclaimed.
"It slipped my mind," Ajora said. "Now hang back."
Elfhair was standing behind me. "I'm hanging back," she said.
Achilles was to the left, and I stood to the right of Ajora.
Ajora said, "I've done this quest twice before and I hope I can remember the tricks so we don't get fried. First thing is do not advance any further forward than where I'm standing until I tell you. Stepping forward will trigger the quest."
I listened hard to what Ajora was saying.
"So, he is a lich. Every now and again he will fire a freezing beam from his eyes. That is fatal so don't get hit by it. The beam goes from left to right in a three-quarter circle. To avoid it, you can get behind the throne or you can get behind the red marble pillars." She indicated the marble pillars that flanked the room on all sides. "He alternates attacks but, after the freezing eye-beam, before the next attack, he'll say something like "The flames, my servants, shall destroy you…" or something. But if you hear anything like that again get behind the pillars." She pointed. "You see there's a little plinth at the bottom of each pillar you can stand on, only room enough for one person per pillar. So when he says those words you jump on the plinth and the fire will burn the floor out for around 10 seconds. Then we attack again."
I clarified. "So we run forward beating him down and when we get the warnings he'll do these periodic attacks, we run to the pillars and shelter behind them and when the special attack is done, we run back and beat him down again? Simple."
"You got it chicken head." It was hard to tell when a bear was smiling, but I think she was. I got the impression she was enjoying this.
For my part, the last thing I wanted to happen was for me to die here so close to getting whatever that red key opened. I was bound back in Vinab. There was no way I would get back here fast and my allies would consider my death a reasonable excuse to withdraw from Horrabia. I wouldn't blame them if they did that, but I'd be sad I'd failed.
I frowned. "Anyway where's the entrance to the tower? You told me that this red key would open a room in the tower – but how do I get there?
Ajora pointed. "You see that big black iron door behind the throne on the far side of the room?"
I nodded.
"That's the door to the tower."
"Why don't we just run there now?"
"I would that it were so simple, little Barcud." Ajora patted my head with her huge white paw.
I nodded it away. "Leave off with the paw."
She gave me a bear wink. "The door is locked until the king is dead. You can't get up the tower until he's lich dust."
"Good crafting ingredient," Elfhair said.
"I'm not much of a crafter," I said.
She smiled. "I'll teach you."
Ajora guffawed. "Getting intimate over the forge, eh?"
I flushed, virtually.
"Okay are you ready?" she asked.
We all nodded.
Then she scratched her muzzle. "The problem is that we don't have a tank. Normally you would have a tank keeping his aggro while everybody else beat on him from the sides. I guess I'm probably the toughest here..."
"Hello?" Elfhair pointed to her heavy armor. "This wonderful mithril cuirass has been a drawback so far to all you stealthy types but I have a shield and a mace and heavy armor and I can heal myself so why don't I be your tank?"
"It's not ideal." Ajora shook her head. "How fast can you heal yourself?
"Pretty fast."
"Okay," Ajora said. "No plan is ever perfect. We have to make the best of it and try not to die. If any of us do die, I suggest we pull back and Elfhair raises us. As a fallback I have resurrection scrolls in my inventory."
I was a little reassured.
Let's go? Achilles was impatient. So was I, I could feel anxiety like caterpillars, butterflies and a few giant centipedes gnawing at my guts.
As we walked forward, the Lich King Praxis of Horrabia stood from his throne and began his pre-scripted speech of doom. To be honest, I wasn't paying too much attention. They tend to say the same sort of things in these circumstances: I doom you, I will destroy you, worms, maggots, etc, etc. We used the time provided by his blah-blah to get up and circle him. I was behind, Achilles to the left, Ajora to the right and Elfhair standing shield up bracing in front.
When he'd finished his little piece, he attacked.
"Steady," Ajora said. "When he moves, look for chinks in his armor. Remember, heed my words. When I say run, run. Got that chicken head?"
I rolled my eyes, turned and stabbed the Lich. 12 damage. It was a start.
Praxis used his rod to bludgeon, mixed with elemental attacks of ice and fire and I saw that Elfhair clearly had some resistance spells to these because she managed to stand up to them well.
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br /> We beat on him for a bit; Elfhair tanked well, I was proud of her. Then Praxis intoned, "And the power of the glaciers is mine..."
At that, Ajora yelled, "Run!" but we had all scattered back and were legging it to behind the pillars, taking one each. Elfhair's was next to mine. "You okay?" I said.
She gave me a grin.
I peeped out as the lich's ice gaze circled around the room, turning all to frost. When it was about to get level with me, I ducked behind my pillar. The temperature dropped like a stone and I yelped and stood back on the plinth as the marble iced up. However, the marble of the pillar absorbed all the energy with no harm to me. Once the ice gaze had passed, we ran forward to attack the Lich King again.
With my new Appraise skill I saw that the Lich King was at 73%. I guessed that he fired off a special attack at each 25% damage. We beat on him some more and Elfhair's tanking impressed me more. I saw glows of healing magic coming from her, and the odd flash of fire and electric as she renewed her elemental resistance spells, but she withstood his damage pretty well.
When he got to 50% he began to mutter words about fire and we all turned and hared over to the pillars again. This time it was not a beam attack, but an AOE, and the whole floor erupted in oily flames. I guessed if we'd been caught on the floor at the time of ignition, we'd have been burned to a crisp. The fire persisted for around half a minute and then we ran forward again, climbing up the pyramid of steps until we got to the golden throne and Praxis. We resumed our positions. I guessed that Elfhair had taken the time behind the pillar to heal up. I looked at her and I could see that her mana was down to 40%. Praxis the king's health was only 49% and I hoped this was going to work.
We beat him down again and when I saw he was about 27%, I got ready to run behind the pillars. I glanced over to Elfhair and saw she only had 15% mana left, and was down to 77% health.
He spoke more words of doom. I ran behind my pillar, a place that was getting very familiar. I just ducked behind it when the air in the center of the room erupted in a sphere of electrical lightning energy. Once again, if we'd been out in the open, we would have been cooked.
When the electricity dissipated Ajora called us back in. She was a damn good raid leader.
As we ran back towards the throne, I saw Elfhair was down to 10% mana. I shouted, "Do you have any Liquorice Root? That restores a little mana."
She shook her head as we ran. "I don't use pipes for curing, I rely on my magic. I've got an Allheal spell to cure afflictions. I'm a priestess, after all."
We got up to our positions. Elfhair raised her shield which was looking battered now and I guessed all her armor would need a good repair – which was bound to be expensive. I would give her a contribution from my loot.
Then the Lich bludgeoned her with his staff and I saw her buckle almost to the ground but she stood again. I Appraised her. She had zero mana and was down to 40% health. If she took another hit like that she would be dead. Ajora did have a resurrection scroll but would she get time to use it? If the tank was down the Lich King's aggro would turn probably to Ajora and I didn't think she'd be able to read the scroll under that kind of assault. I've been in quests like this before and seen them suddenly crumble. Some tipping point is reached, some key character goes down and then that's the end of the quest.
Kumquat heals 200-300 hp. I had bought a few at great cost. I got one now from my pouch and spat it at Elfhair to restore her up to 67% of full. Then she got hit a good blow again, and she was back down to 20%. I went into my pouch to get another kumquat but the Lich King swiped me and sent me tumbling down the stairs.
"Focus people," Ajora said. "We can't lose this now. He's only at 7%."
I picked myself up from the heap I'd fallen in and took Hale Fruit to restore my health. Then I ran back up the steps just in time to hear clanging of metal as the Lich King dealt a mighty blow to Elfhair. She lay crumpled on the steps and I saw that she was at 15% health. I spat kumquat at her and restored her to 65%. She got to her feet but she looked dazed. I thought if the Lich King hit her now, he would kill her. And I had no more Kumquat, though I did have a good number of Hale Fruit.
The lich turned to squash Elfhair, but with a cry of triumph, Ajora got a critical on him. It's extremely difficult to get crits on high-level NPC's or undead in fact, but Ajora must have used some ultimate high-level skill I wasn't aware of. He was now down to 5% and that triggered this final speech. The Lich King raised his hands up to the air as if about to summon something terrible down from the skies.
Achilles flipped past me, then turned and grabbed my shoulder. "What are you waiting for, man - get behind the pillar." But I was waiting for Elfhair and stepped down to her. Just as I got my hand on her shoulder, Ajora snatched and supported her, stumbling across the Chamber floor.
Tugging at my arm, Achilles screamed, "Run!" and I ran as fast as I could for the pillar. Just as I got there the whole room exploded in elemental fury. Electricity sparked in the air, flames blazed from the floor, huge blocks of ice rained down from above, and acid mist blew through the chamber.
I had got behind my pillar just in time.
The elemental storm persisted for around two minutes and then we ran forward to finish off the Lich King. He was dead within a minute. His bony form crumbled to dust leaving piles of gold and two chests.
I saw Achilles level. Myself, I got halfway to Level 10.
Achilles stooped down to the chests. "They're trapped. Give me a minute."
"I'll get this loot later," I said. "I need to get up the tower."
As I spoke, with me looking at the tower door, and them crowded around the loot on the Lich King's throne, the main golden doors were thrown open and a party of Horrabians entered.
My heart fell. It was Loki, Samwise and two others I didn't know. The only comfort was they looked in a bad way and Ahn and Griffin and the Vinab forces had obviously punished them., but the fact they were here and our guys were not suggested that they had won.
I glanced at the Iron Door to the Tower. So close - I couldn't give up now. Loki and his troops advanced into the Chamber and my friends turned to face them. I knew that our party was at the end of its resources in terms of healing and potions, and because Loki and his gang were in their own city, they would be able to restock easily with herbs and poisons and potions.
I looked once more at the Tower door. I remembered the time Loki killed Elfhair and I could do nothing about it. I sighed. Everything I'd wanted to achieve was through that iron door.
But, fuck it, I couldn't abandon my friends: I stepped down to join them.
#
Ajora turned. "Go. The door's over there."
I shook my head. "I can't leave you. I can't let you face this shit bag alone."
Elfhair reached out and squeezed my hand. It felt almost better than leveling. "You've got to go," she said.
"I can't run out on you."
Ajora's blue polar bear eyes flashed angrily. "We've got this. You go. Hurry!"
Achilles said, "Go, man. Go."
I hesitated still. Elfhair squeezed my hand tight then let it drop. "Go," she said quietly.
With a heavy sigh, I turned and ran to the Iron Door.
Loki laughed out loud behind me. "The worm runs. Don't worry, I'll torture you after I've dealt with these scum."
He didn't know why I was going to the tower door, he thought it was cowardice. I grinned and put my hand on the black iron handle, but of course the door was locked. I was truly a chicken head. I brought out the flaming key from my inventory and turned it easily in the lock. I pushed the door open and mounted the red sandstone spiral stairs as fast as I could. It was only when I got a few paces up that I thought I should be careful. There might be traps here. There might be guards here.
Going more cautiously this time, I made my way up the tower. For extra security. I switched on my stealth and began to sneak. I saw small white mushrooms growing in clusters from the stone stairs. I didn't recognize them.
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nbsp; The stairs went up for a long way until they widened into a platform and at the edge of the platform was another door, this time red.
A guard stood there in red ceremonial armor. It's a good job he was an NPC – given he rarely saw a living soul, or even had anything to eat or drink.
He didn't see me because I was sneaking. I took my bow from my back and spent 5 mana on Focused Arrow. Focused Arrow had a 30% chance of a critical hit and when I shot, the arrow streaked and hit the man in the throat. He burst into flame and fell down dead. I was about to step over him and go for the locked door when a thought occurred to me. I looked at the graphic of the slain guard and thought it would soon disappear forever. I wondered whether the Disguise skill worked on dead NPCs? It was worth a try. I mentally hit the Disguise command and immediately transformed into a guard of the Royal Palace of Horrabia, wearing the ceremonial red armor with its bat insignia.
I just felt like looking like one of them would give me an extra level of security should I run into any other guards.
I took the fiery key again from my inventory and slotted it in the lock. Once again the door opened easily. I tentatively shoved it and saw that behind the door was a small treasure room. A chest lay on the floor. I stepped back, worrying about traps: I didn't have Achilles with me now but I thought it would be very mean of the developers to set a trap on the final chest of the Easter Egg challenge. At least I hoped it was the final chest.
Taking a deep breath, I lifted the lid. I felt a huge surge of pleasure as the XP hit me and I leveled to Level 10. There was no trap. Inside the chest was 10,000 gold pieces which I instantly added to my inventory. There was also a set of strange looking leather goggles. As I touched them, they identified as Goggles of Darkest Night. These goggles would allow me to see no matter if there was no light at all.
