by Sam Ferguson
Lord Prin nodded. “One moment, let me get the keys. I am always happy to serve the Morr’Tai when I can.” He turned around and took a couple steps forward as Brian dropped into his sneak mode. The eye was wide open at first, but as they walked back to the desk the eye slowly closed. Just as Lord Prin reached the desk and stretched his hand out for the keys lying on top of it, Brian struck with his dagger.
He jammed his blade into Lord Prin’s neck and wrapped his fingers around Prin’s goat-like mouth. The satyr went limp in Brian’s arms, and he gently led him to the floor. Brian looted the body, and his eyes went wide.
[Acquired Morr’Tai master attire]
[+1 Bohotes town-watch chain mail shirt]
[+1 Bohotes town-watch scale mail greaves]
[+2 Bohotes town-watch chain pauldron]
[Acquired Whispering Ice]
[Acquired Flaming Death]
[+500 XP]
[+1,500 GP]
He unequipped his initiate attire and put on the full set from Lord Prin. Like the initiate attire, this uniform was mostly made of supple yet thick dark gray leather. It had a hood and cloak that were fairly plain, but there were elements to this suit that made it really stand out among the Morr’Tai. There were padded leather epaulettes dyed scarlet and trimmed with silver filigree. A similar design of silver filigree ran across the chest piece and over the knees. The bracers were much thicker than others he’d seen in the game, and they too were dyed red with a silver filigree overlay that added strength as well as uniqueness.
Imagine Barry’s face when he sees me in this!
[Leather Morr’Tai master hood equipped. Stealth +30 Armor +15]
[Leather Morr’Tai master hauberk equipped. Armor +15]
[Leather Morr’Tai master trousers equipped. Armor +15]
[Leather Morr’Tai master gloves equipped. Armor +15]
[Leather Morr’Tai master boots equipped. Armor +15]
What really excited him even more than the cool armor though was the description he saw for the weapons. The swords are magical! Brian lamented that he couldn’t equip them both, but he checked their stats in his inventory.
Whispering Ice: Forged by a dwarven master armorer with dwarven
steel and infused with a silver alloy, this blade has been honed to the very
finest degree of quality. Whispering Ice has severed many heads since its
creation, but it is known more for its ice enchantment, which saps enemy
stamina and leaves a powerful frostbite in the wound. +10.5 Slashing
damage. +5 Frost damage. +5 Stamina drain.
Flaming Death: Forged in the fires of New Konnland, this blade is
made with Konnon steel and infused with a silver alloy. It also carries with
it the fires of the volcano from which it was born, and has been the scourge
of many monsters on Prirodha. +11.5 Slashing damage. +5 fire damage.
With Brian’s current skill stats, that would add an additional seven damage to each blade.
[Centaur captain’s silvered steel glaive unequipped. Slashing damage -18.5]
[Flaming Death equipped. Slashing damage +18.5; Fire damage +5]
Brian smiled. Now that was a weapon worth carrying!
He exited his inventory and looked down at the nearly naked satyr.
[EXPELLED FROM GUILD: MORR’TAI]
[-5% sneak]
[-25% critical damage with daggers]
Brian frowned. Expelled? That shouldn’t have happened. He should have been promoted after this next quest. He shrugged, assuming it had something to do with the glitch. The whole quest had begun wrong anyway, which was just the sort of thing Meredith would need to know about. Still, just to be thorough, he grabbed the keys and opened the door to the jail cells. To his surprise, they were all empty. Off to the right was a large grate over a drain system. He turned around to leave but saw his victim’s corpse still lying on the ground.
“You should have disappeared by now,” Brian said. He shrugged and mentally added it to the list of glitches he’d report to Meredith. He used his glaive like a pry bar and popped the grate loose, then went and grabbed Lord Prin by the ankles just above the hooves.
“Sorry ‘bout this,” he said as he dragged the satyr to the drain and dropped him into the underground sewers. He replaced the grate, relocked the door to the cell block, and then swiped the plumed helmet off the desk for good measure.
[+1 Bohotes town-watch officer helmet]
He made his way back up the stairs, concerned that he might have to fight his way out. He devised a plan to run up the stairs leading to the battlements. He’d likely be able to control the fight better up there. When it came to it, however, he needn’t have worried. None of the town guards seemed aware of the murder.
He exited the building as easily as he had strolled in, and no one stopped him as he returned to the abandoned house that served as the cover for the Bohotes Morr’Tai lair.
When he arrived, however, the old woman who guarded the entrance did not greet him with a smile. This time she held a staff in her good hand that had a glowing red crystal on top.
“You broke the code,” she said. “You must either pay the penance or remain an enemy to the guild forever.”
Brian frowned. “How much?”
The old woman eyed him. “It’s supposed to be six hundred.”
Brian shrugged. That was easy enough to pay, but before he could access his user interface, the woman stood up and jabbed his chest with her staff. The jewel glowed brighter.
“But that doesn’t feel like enough for your crimes! You should have to pay... five thousand!”
Brian shook his head. That was far too high a price. “No, there has to be another way.”
The old woman poked him again. “The only other way is death!” Brian drew Flaming Death. The old woman’s eyes locked onto the blade and her mouth fell open. “You dare wield that sword!? Have you no shame?”
The cellar door popped open and the assassin with the claymore emerged from below. He rushed forward. The old woman turned around just as the claymore cut her down. Brian took another step back, ready for a battle, but the assassin laughed and shrugged.
“The Master is ready for you,” he said. “Come downstairs.”
Brian thought about looting the old woman for the staff, but he wasn’t sure what that might do to his standing with the guild. Deciding to wait and see how things played out, he rejected the idea for now and went downstairs. The assassin with the claymore went to a stool and began reading a book as if nothing had happened. Brian continued down into the main lair and found the one they all called “The Master” talking with the tall woman.
The Master turned around and smiled, arching a brow slightly. “Is it done?”
Brian nodded. “Lord Prin is dead.”
“Excellent,” The Master said. “Come, I have another assignment for you.”
The tall woman folded her arms and scowled at Brian. It seemed to him that she had been hoping he would fail.
Where’s the experience, or the gold?
“The next assignment is this,” the Master said as he stretched out his hand with another parchment.
Brian looked at it and then back to the assassin. “What about payment for the first assignment?” he asked.
The Master cocked his head to the side. “You will be rewarded in time,” he said, “but you must complete this next assignment quickly.”
Brian took the parchment and frowned. Maybe the payment came late because he didn’t immediately get after Lord Prin? He opened the parchment and read the brief description.
There is a battlemage in a camp called Brightblade about fifty miles
southeast of Bohotes. He is the commander of a strange group of
battlemages that is practicing dangerous magic. Slay him immediately.
Return and report as soon as it is done. Tell no one of your mission.
Brian nodded. “All right, I’ll go right no
w,” he said.
“Excellent. Return once you have successfully completed your task. Do not delay.”
Brian turned and jogged his way back to the stairs. Like with the other secret mission, no announcement accompanied this one. As soon as he was outside, he stopped to DM Meredith.
[Another weird Morr’Tai mission. I’m off to kill some battlemage at a campsite about fifty miles southwest of Bohotes. It didn’t announce the quest. And the other one I completed, killing Lord Prin, didn’t give me any quest updates and it actually kicked me out of the Morr’Tai faction. I’m going to save my progress at the Pink Quill Inn, and then I need to log off for a bit of food. I have been going at this for almost a full day. I get we don’t need sleep with this system, but my stomach is killing me. Can you please send over those translations? I’d like to look them over while I eat. After all, I am here for the dig site.]
Brian then went to the old woman and looted her corpse.
[+1 baldritch staff]
The old woman didn’t have anything else on her besides rags, so Brian only took the staff. It seemed decent though, with a mana boost, spell efficiency boost, and a spell cost decrease. Another gift for Mike.
He went back to the Pink Quill Inn and updated his file at the save point.
[As a reminder, you don’t need to log out for your body to rest. I really need you to continue working—Treshana]
Brian snorted. Imagine having her as a boss full time. [I’m just going to get some food, I can hop back on right after.]
[Unacceptable. I have looked into the Morr’Tai quests. Very strange. Possibly a source for some of the cascading problems I’ve been tracking. I want you to follow this one through right now. I’ll meet you at the camp and watch from the crow’s nest on one of the buildings so I can observe—Treshana]
[And then you’ll send me the translations so I can see them while I eat?]
[Sure. Quest first, then translations. But go now. I don’t want to wait long—Treshana]
Brian sighed and exited the Pink Quill Inn. He cycled through his stamina several times by sprinting to the main gates, then turned to the east and ran to the stables. He had plenty of money to buy a horse, but all he really needed was something to get him there faster. He didn’t care if the horse returned to the stables as soon as he dismounted. He could fast travel back to a save point and be done for a bit as soon as the battlemage was dead.
After ensuring no one could see him, he hopped onto a chestnut-colored horse and took it for a ride. He looked at his map and saw a grayed-out camp called “Brightblade” and set a marker for it. The horse galloped along through the woods and over the same hills he had already crossed twice in the last couple of hours. Again he was careful not to ride through the steggo herd, but otherwise he was pretty careless about how fast he went through the forest. If he bumped into another turquloid, he could just try to outrun the thing on the horse, and if that failed, he could leap off the horse and run, leaving the horse as bait for anything that wanted to eat him.
With that thought, his mind turned back to the jathler he had seen at the beginning of the game. Could his horse outrun that? What was a T-Rex’s top speed? That had to be a fair comparison. Was it fifteen miles per hour or thirty-five? And could a horse even sprint that fast through a dense forest? Certainly the jathler would just crush trees in its path, but the horse would have to go around each one.
Brian shook the thought from his head. It didn’t really matter much either way. This wasn’t a real-life scenario. All of the animals, good and bad, worked with game physics and abilities. So... the jathler could probably outrun him no matter what. He would just have to watch out for anything large with sharp teeth.
He galloped another couple of miles and heard a strange snort to his right.
Something that resembled a wild boar with tusks the size of an elephant’s and large scales along its back charged toward him. Brian veered a bit more to the east and looked over his shoulder. The boar-thing kept up the pursuit for quite a while, but it couldn’t match the horse’s speed.
“Ha!” Brian shouted. “Go back home, you stupid pre-bacon!”
He turned back around just in time to avoid running headlong into a mass of rocks jutting up about twenty feet from the ground. He sped around them and then barreled through the bushes ahead like they were nothing.
Several grunts sounded from behind him, quickly followed by shrieks.
He glanced back, unsure of what he would see. Three ten-foot-tall, feathered creatures were chasing him. Their strong back legs propelled them over the ground at an amazing speed while their shorter front legs reached for him with evil-looking claws. Their long, sharp teeth looked similar to a velociraptor’s, but Brian barely registered them, distracted as he was by the glowing frills that swayed along the top of their heads and down their long necks like leathery mohawks. One leapt toward him, covering an immense amount of distance in a single leap. The horse was scarcely able to keep ahead of them. The three creatures chased after him, snapping their fang-filled jaws. Previously concealed skin flaps flared along the sides of the ridge-frill, glowing brightly.
Give me a break! Brian focused his eyes forward. The marker was still about twenty-five miles away. He sped down into a ravine, his horse taking the slope masterfully and then leaping across the narrow stream at the bottom.
The raptor-things followed him down the ravine, but by a stroke of luck, a minute later the boar-thing appeared, snorting and grunting aggressively at the ravine’s edge.
Brian looked back to see two of the raptors, now suddenly aware of a free meal of all-you-can-eat bacon, turn and run up the hill. The stubborn boar charged down to meet them. One of the raptors took a tusk to the stomach, but the other leapt on the boar and started tearing at it with its mouth. Brian was suddenly inspired with a new sense of appreciation for the animal. Its stubborn pursuit had just rid him of two nasty looking predators.
The third raptor was undeterred by the distraction and gracefully jumped the stream to continue after Brian.
He led the horse up the other side, scaring a few sleeping deer in the process. The raptor was close behind, getting closer as it crested the hill. It attempted to capitalize on the proximity and lunged at them. Brian veered sharply to the east, then zigzagged back to the south. The raptor kept pace, but stopped gaining on them for a bit.
“Come on, little horse. I’ll give you a carrot if you go faster. Horses like carrots, right?” He patted the animal as if expecting a response. “Or wait, how about a sugar cube. I’ll have Meredith program a sugar cube. Just get me—” Brian stopped talking and looked up at the trees ahead. Two of them seemed oddly bent, as if the wind had blown at them during their formative years. And their leaves were... very densely packed. His eyes widened when he realized his mistake.
A jathler broke through the trees and headed toward him, bending low and roaring mightily. Its hot, sulfuric breath promised a very quick end if Brian didn’t figure out an escape path. The jathler stepped toward him, but he kept his horse going straight. The frilled monster was still pursuing too, so why not introduce the two dinos and let them get friendly?
Brian kept his eyes pinned on the jathler’s head, waiting for the right moment. Then, just as the dinosaur king reared its head back and prepared to strike, Brian turned hard left. The jathler broke through the branches and snapped down just as the raptor leapt for an attack. The raptor managed to land right atop the jathler’s snout as the jathler closed its massive jaws where it had thought Brian would be. Shaking its head, the jathler then maneuvered to attack the smaller dinosaur. The shrieking mass of feathers and frills was now fully entangled, thus giving Brian the distraction he needed to escape both predators. No matter which one of them emerged victorious, he’d be long gone by then.
The nice thing about running into the jathler was that there were no other predators after it. A few half- eaten carcasses here and there, but no predators.
After a few more real minutes an
d about twenty-five miles of in-game distance, he came to a hill where the trees had been cleared away. The valley below was clear as well, but had large bushes dotting the area. A wooden palisade surrounded the camp, but there was another ring of defense outside of the palisade as well. This one seemed to be comprised of metal poles with crystals fixed into the top ends. Between the crystals ran some sort of energy bolt that connected each pole. A translucent green energy flowed upward to form a dome over the camp.
“I can see where Brightblade gets its name,” Brian commented.
He rode the horse down the hill and toward the energy fence. As he approached, he realized the poles were well over twelve feet tall. If this fence was meant to keep things out, then it kept out only the largest of beasts. Any raptor or turquloid could pass under the fence unharmed, just as Brian did still mounted on his horse. The pair of guards patrolling the outside of the palisade noticed him, but made no move to stop him.
“Hail, traveler,” one of them said as Brian came close.
Brian didn’t respond. His stomach was growling in the real world, and he was not about to spend any more time in game than he had to before he could eat. As he neared the opening in the palisade he saw a pike barrier made to keep horses out. He dismounted and the horse immediately turned around and started trotting in a straight line back to the stables.
