by Sam Ferguson
“Impressive,” Mike commented. “And what brought you here?”
Chris nodded. “Right, so Bohotes has a half-orc employed by the city guard.”
“Really?!” Mike asked.
“Yeah, I mean, he’s supposed to wear a mask like mine so no one else knows he’s half orc. I was sent to find him and give him an honor challenge.”
“An honor challenge?” Rhonda asked.
“Yeah, he has lost his honor by becoming a traitor. If he accepts my challenge, he will earn his honor back either by killing me or by fighting honorably. I think they said something about this particular half-orc being the illegitimate son of the chieftain or something. I kind of ended the conversation early once I activated the quest.” He smiled and then pointed at the group. “Thanks for the huge XP bonus by the way. That was a big help!”
“Wait,” Mike said. “You’re a level four?”
Chris nodded.
Mike folded his arms. “So basically you’re a level four because of us.”
Chris frowned. “No, I’m not, I’ve been busy leveling myself up.”
“Chris, level four requires a total of two thousand, seven hundred experience points. Level five only requires a total of six thousand, five hundred, and since the Road to Bohotes was worth five thousand XP per person...”
Brian scoffed. “Looks like you really should have saved more often,” he said.
“All right, fine, but I had nine hundred points already, so I had legitimately made it to level three, and I’m now just a few hundred short of level five, okay?”
Mike laughed and moved to the long table, gathering up bread and meat. “Well, I say we need to figure out a strategy,” he said. “Meredith wants us running through the main quest line. We can’t just do it with the four of us. Some of the quests require more people. You should come with us, Chris.”
Chris folded his arms and remained quiet.
“In any case, we need to understand our strengths better,” Mike said.
“And buy a lot more health potions,” Brian put in.
“I can make some,” Rhonda said. “It would be better if we had a magic healer.”
“I only have limited healing abilities,” Mike replied. “Almost all of my spells are elemental like fireblasts, or storm-related like lightning bolts. Things like that. But, I was thinking we could refresh ourselves on who one another’s patron deities are so we can more efficiently divvy out the quests based on each person’s special boosts.”
Chris moved forward and swiped the bottle of wine from the table. “Well, my patron deity is Khullan, the god who created all the orcs and other cursed races like goblins and such. It gives me melee attack bonus and a defense bonus against all damage types. Higher levels will—”
Mike snorted. “Are you going to make it to a higher level?”
Chris folded his arms and stuck his chin out to Mike. “All right then, you go.”
“Very well,” Mike said. “My patron deity is Mingar, son of Nagé. He gives me a boost on spell effectiveness and twenty percent additional mana. Higher levels increase those boosts of course, but around level forty and fifty I can summon storm giants.”
“Nice,” Brian said. “My patron deity is Khefir. So I get a sneak and lockpick bonus. Higher levels will give me different boosts like increased chance for critical hits, better weapon proficiency, and stealth boosts. If I hit level fifty, I can summon two drakes.”
“Sweet, what size?” Mike asked.
“Um, normal size I think, but if I hit level sixty then I can summon greater drakes, three of them actually.”
“Impressive,” Mike said.
“It pays to have a god of the underworld watch over you.”
Rhonda went next. “My patron deity is Kyra.”
“One could have guessed with that little moondust wolf pup,” Mike commented.
“Adds to my luck and intelligence,” she said without acknowledging Mike’s interruption. “Later levels I think help with potion effectiveness and might let me summon an astral wolf during battle. I don’t quite remember.” Rhonda’s avatar stared off into the distance as she checked her character stats briefly. “Yeah, one astral wolf at level thirty. At sixty I can summon two.”
“Add that to your pup and you’ll have three.” Mike looked down at the satchel and arched a brow. “Assuming you ever grow it to full size.”
“Leave Little Man alone, he’s fine just the way he is.”
“For now,” Mike agreed.
“That reminds me,” Brian said, turning to look at Rhonda. “I could use my luck flowers and ring back.”
Rhonda frowned. “I can make some really good elixirs with the luck blossoms though.”
Brian held out his hand. “Come on, fork ‘em over.”
Rhonda sighed and gave him the items.
Brian quickly equipped the ring again and happily noted that his luck was up a total of twenty points like it had been before, and both his attack and defense base ratings were increased by one. “Thank you very much.”
“Don’t worry, Rhonda, I’ll pick his pockets when he isn’t lookin’ and get them back for you,” Mike offered.
“Stick with houses, Mike,” Brian said, “otherwise you might end up with a dagger to the throat when you aren’t looking.” Brian grinned and the others laughed.
The group turned to Augustin. He smiled and gestured to Mike. “It’s funny you said your patron deity is Nagé’s son, because my patron is Nagé. She gives me a lot of combat-related buffs. Also, after level thirty there is a particular ability where I can summon a circle of Valkyrie warriors.”
“Whoa,” Mike said, his eyes going wide. “That’s cool!”
“So, where are you all off to next?” Chris asked.
“Not sure yet, we have to go back to the gatehouse and find the Greencap commander,” Brian answered.
“Well, before we do that, we should sell items and stock up,” Rhonda reminded him.
“I’m no good at selling,” Mike said. “I can go hit a couple rich houses though.” He rubbed his hands together and grinned big. “Wanna come, Brian?”
Brian shook his head.
“I need to go and find a blacksmith who can repair my armor,” Augustin said.
“I can meet you somewhere if you DM me,” Chris offered. “But for now I need to go and handle my orc quest.”
“What about you?” Rhonda asked Brian.
Brian shrugged. “I had another place in mind to go explore. Besides, you’d get better prices.”
“All right, throw the items out on the table, all of you.” Rhonda tapped her finger on the table expectantly. “Give me whatever you don’t need, and I’ll sell it. But we pool our money together still, so don’t expect to get shares back right away.”
Everyone piled the surplus items on the table as requested, creating a rather disorderly mound of weapons, trinkets, and dishes. There were even a few gems and necklaces.
“Do try and get good prices on the jewelry,” Mike said. “They were not exactly easy to come by.”
“What happens if you’re killed and someone loots your body?” Chris asked Rhonda.
Rhonda stared at Chris for a moment, then arched a brow. “Well, I suppose if you want to use the money we earn from selling loot, then I guess you better not let me die.”
Little Man poked his furry head from the satchel at her side and snarled his agreement.
10
Accelerated Expansion
“Long time without seeing, my friend,” Augustin’s avatar plopped down heavily next to Brian at the Pink Quill’s bar where he had just taken a seat. Brian’s HP was down pretty low after his latest quest, and with no more health potions in his inventory, a full virtual meal would be the best way to replenish his health.
“What he means to say is, ‘long time no see’,” Rhonda corrected, taking the seat on the other side of him.
“Where did you guys just get back from?” Brian asked, surprised but happy for an unsched
uled meet-up with his friends.
“We met up on the road coming in from the south where a couple of dinos had fallen on a few fishmonger carts bringing fish to Bohotes from the inland sea,” Rhonda said. “Before that I was following up on an Anorit side quest to confirm rumors about an enclave of fairies maintaining a sacred site to the fairy queen to the southeast.”
“And I was busy fighting sharks to increase my athletics skill and earn some gold from the merchant guild,” Augustin answered with a bit of a sheepish grin. Everyone had agreed that they needed to spend some quality time grinding to increase their skill levels and earn XP to level up overall before breaking up to complete some of the main quest lines. The encounter on the gargoyle bridge had taught them not to underestimate the party size and level recommendations on the quest sheets. While most of them had taken a variety of side quests for experience and had identified a few choice locations for grinding, Augustin had spent a large percentage of his time out at the docks either fighting sharks or escorting fishing vessels.
Brian had three theories. Either Augustin had fallen for one of the merchants at the docks, was interested in the merpopulation, or had some grand aspiration of taking down the leviathan that stalked the inland sea. Really, though, it could be all three.
“Did you find what you were looking for?” Brian asked Rhonda.
“Actually, yes. Did you know this city used to be the stronghold of the fairy queen?” she asked. “You wouldn’t be able to guess from the look of the place now. It’s all rock and stone, gears and swords, but before the off-land factions got a toehold on Prirodha, this whole place was full of magical plants, fairy communities, and a main shrine where the fairy queen could commune with Terramyr herself. Did you know that the planet itself is believed to be sentient? Almost like a character in its own right.”
“The scholar back in Fezhik gave me a simple overview of the living Terramyr theory when I first spoke with him, but I didn’t realize that the Greencaps drove out a fairy kingdom to build this city.”
“Yep. It’s a good thing I had Little Man with me. I think I would have been reduced to a pile of taraxacum fluff if I hadn’t played my cards just right. The best part is though, they gave me the location of my missing ingredient to make elixir of moonlight,” she pulled Little Man out of her satchel as she spoke and set him on the ground to stretch his legs. The regulars here at the Pink Quill had grown accustomed to him after a few days of their team coming and going and had learned to either ignore him or were happy to greet him fondly. The proprietor stepped out from behind the counter with a bit of meat and called out in a sweet, high-pitched voice that seemed at odds with his burly, intimidating appearance. Little Man scampered over and happily received the treat, and the enthusiastic petting, offered him.
“It’s a good thing he seems to have come pre-programmed to be house broken. I don’t think that man would be so happy to see him if he wasn’t,” Augustin commented knowingly.
Brian nodded and Rhonda laughed.
“To be honest, I would never have guessed that so much care would go into programming characters to recognize him wherever you go. It’s pretty astounding. How many levels has he gained so far?” Brian asked
“I immediately gave him the five elixirs we bought from the wandering trader, and I’ve spent enough time in-game with him now that he has gained another two levels. We’re coming up on another level in about a day.”
“Soon he’ll be strong enough to allow him to mature,” Augustin observed.
“No way, I can’t imagine him any other way. He’s so adorable!” As she said this, Little Man returned to her, standing on his back paws with his front paws on her bar stool, panting happily, knowing he would be picked up and loved on. He wasn’t wrong. Brian wasn’t much for cute and fluffy things, but there was something undeniably alluring about that soft blue face.
“Hey, that’s a lot of in-game hours,” Brian suddenly realized as he processed the bit of information about Little Man having gained two levels in that manner already. “Are you sure you’re taking care of yourself? Eating, stretching, exercising, sleeping?”
“Meredith said the software was advanced enough to support our mental functions so that we didn’t need to sleep for about ten days, right?”
“Yeah, but that still doesn’t sound completely healthy,” Augustin sounded hesitant. “In spite of Meredith’s regular DMs to ‘encourage’ me to work harder, I’ve still been giving my body at least four hours out of every twenty-four to rest naturally, plus the time to eat and move about. The mind is more than stimulation and REM cycles you know.”
“I know. I’ve been logging out every eight to give myself a couple of hours to take care of my body. It’s pretty compelling to be in here though, even without Meredith breathing down our necks.” She nuzzled Little Man a little and didn’t look up at either of them.
“Addictive might be a better word,” Augustin commented quietly. He kept his eyes trained on his hands folded on the bar in front of him. Augustin wasn’t the type to tell other people how to live, and he clearly didn’t mean to give offense. The thought had occurred once or twice to Brian too.
“When was the last time you logged out?” Rhonda turned the conversation on Brian, clearly not wanting to respond to Augustin’s observation.
“Well…” he cleared his throat, “honestly, it’s been a while. I need a meal pretty soon here.”
[Has anyone seen or been in contact with Barry over the last couple of days?—Aikur]
Amazing timing, prof! Brian thought with relief. The mood had taken a somber turn that he would rather not deal with at the moment.
[Nope.—Kolvurin]
[Not me—Sylendra]
[No—Demetrius]
[Not for days… weeks? How long have we been playing? LOL. J/K (but not)—Zaglug]
[I don’t really have time to babysit your team’s login times, but I do know that for at least the last four sync cycles, Barry hasn’t logged a single minute of game time—Treshana]
[I haven’t either, prof. When was the last time you heard from him?]
[Way too long. Brian, I need you to hike to the Sylva Caves in the morning and check on him. We all understand getting caught up in your work, but this is too long to be out of touch. Make sure he comes to the next scheduled meeting. Same with all of you. I know you’ve been busy, but I expect to see each of your bright, shining faces. Or rather, those of your avatars—Aikur]
[Will do.]
He rolled his eyes and looked at his friends. Augustin shrugged apologetically, but Rhonda looked worried.
“That’s a long time to not have checked in. Do you think he’s okay?” she asked.
“This isn’t unusual for Barry. Last year he almost never sent his updates over the chat personally. Either made a volunteer or an undergrad do it for him, which meant that we only ever had half the story,” Brian replied.
“He also missed all but one of the team meetings,” Augustin added. “Granted, it meant hiking all day each time to meet at Termas Palguin, but the professor himself made a similarly long and difficult hike, and my team had to come from even farther.”
“Wow, and the professor kept him on for this year?” Rhonda seemed incredulous.
“Rumor is that Barry’s step-dad is a major contributor to the program,” Barry let the implication hang in the air. Rhonda nodded knowingly.
“You don’t happen to have any more healing potions, do you?” Brian asked her. “I’m down on my HP, and I was going to order food to restore it, but that takes time. I’d better get going if I’m going to finish the couple of quests I had on my list before I need to head out to check on our friend,” Brian said, taking in a deep breath as he pushed away from the bar.
“Sure.” Rhonda placed half a dozen potion bottles with a various range of glowing hues on the bar between them. Brian added them to his inventory.
“See you guys tomorrow night,” Brian said as he turned to walk away.
“You m
ean tonight,” Augustin corrected. “It’s already about 3am.”
“Oof. Not healthy,” he replied, imagining the aches in his unused limbs he’d be noticing when he logged out.
“Yuck. You guys are right. I think I’ll risk a little Meredith wrath and log out for the night and get some ‘real person’ sleep.” Rhonda headed for the save point and disappeared a moment later. Augustin was not far behind.
Brian had been busy with a large variety of activities over the last few days, but as yet still hadn’t picked up with the local assassin guild. He had run into a few minor bugs here and there, but nothing that rivaled the problems he had found in the Fezhik guild lair. It was time to go bug hunting in earnest.
Since Brian was already a member of the Morr’Tai, he didn’t need to repeat his efforts to find the new sanctuary in this city. It was already listed on his map. He just couldn’t fast travel there until he discovered it in person.
Setting his marker, he walked through a series of alleys and narrow streets as the sun set in the game world and the night sky filled with clouds, blocking much of the moonlight. As Brian turned down one alleyway, he saw a pair of large men enter the alley from the other side.
He heard the clanking of a glass bottle being kicked across the ground from behind. Brian glanced over his shoulder to see two more men.
Ambush, eh? Brian wished he had a bottle of that exploding potion handy, but his fears left him as he saw the telltale green text confirming these fellows’ intentions. The word “mugger” appeared over each of their heads. Brian decided to have a bit of fun. Since both pairs were still some forty feet away from him and there was a pile of old crates sitting against the wall to his left that looked tall enough to jump off of and reach the second-story window, he would lead the muggers up.
