I shook my head. “Not me, this time. Looks like this was the work of a player who started as a drow in drow territory, not on the surface like you did. She’s doing the full evil mage thing, though. Witnesses say she unleashed a spell that turned the whole village into movie zombies. And not all are accounted for.”
The laughter died in the group’s eyes as they heard that. One of the other guildmembers said, “So what’s the play?” Zombie apocalypse games were fun, for a while, but after a while you wanted to be elsewhere. Those of us who reincarnated here were in trouble if this whole world went to hell. No one wanted to play that kind of game for long.
“The soldiers are going to send rangers out to track any zombies that escaped, so those of you with tracking and stealth skills may offer to go with them. We also need to search all the buildings for survivors. The spell reanimated all corpses it touched as zombies, so there are probably zombies buried in the basements or under debris. Those of you with combat ability help the soldiers. Priests, this is a great time to learn about what holy magic can do against undead. There are two priests in the temple who survived the attack. Get with them and see what they can teach you.”
Lexichan looked at me, and said, “And what will you and your pets be doing?”
“We came here for a dungeon involving Drow, and Drow were involved in the attack. We’ll be going in, of course. But Athtar and the horses will remain with you in the village. Take him back to Mylenoris when you go. Let him pick out a subclass, since he hit 20. You can use the guild funds, and I’ll reimburse the guild from my pocket. Horses are no use in the dungeon, and I have a spell that will take us back to Mylenoris.”
Lexichan nodded, with a grin, and said, “Have fun, Leader. And try not to die ‘taming’ a drowess.” Of course that got laughs from all the players, including myself.
(Elsewhere)
Duskhaven was abuzz with activity. The capitol city of the kingdom of Ograin had been alight these past few weeks with a new religious group, calling themselves the ‘Scions of Torgan’. They had begun preaching to the people, and attempting to ‘cleanse’ the city of ‘evil’. Honestly, the preaching wasn’t an issue. Crackpot religious cults came and went like the tides, and the people who got suckered into them were generally not worth speaking of, anyways. But with Travelers in their ranks, their efforts at ‘cleansing’ had actually caused some damage to the local Thieves’ Guild, and their attacks on the Slavers’ Guild had been relentless.
But today, they had pledged to lead a march of their followers to sack the Slavers’ Guild, and free all the slaves. The leader of the Slavers’ Guild, Stanway Lashlord had heard this, and asked for help from the City Guard, while also alerting the Thieves’ Guild so that they could help disrupt the march. His family had been head of the Slavers’ Guild in Duskhaven since the Scourge, and none had ever challenged his family’s rule. The closest to a challenge they had ever com was a year ago when his eldest son, Stethyr, disappeared between Fathon and Vozhall, where he was setting up a new branch of the guild, but no one had come forward with a ransom demand, and the boy’s Guardian hadn’t been heard from, so no one knew what had happened.
Now, however, these religious nuts were threatening to try and shut down his entire operation! Sure, he had to deal with the occasional zealots, but even the higher-ups in the different churches knew that slavery allowed the society to deal with problems in a ‘civilized’ manner. One didn’t have to starve, if they could sell themselves as a slave, after all. And a slave collar was a good way of keeping criminals from misbehaving a second time.
At midday, these ‘Scions’ appeared, marching towards the guild as they had promised. There were over a hundred of them, led by a woman with red hair, and the look of madness in her eyes. The City Guard closed ranks to prevent their passing. The Scions readied weapons they had concealed beneath their clothes. The Guardsmen fell into a defensive formation, ready to blunt the attack. The thieves of the guild began slipping stealthily into the ranks of the Scions, picking pockets and readying to slaughter the fools. It was like the calm before the storm. The woman at the lead of the column raised a staff, and opened her mouth to speak…
EVENT!
Woe upon Duskhaven, for the wrath of a dragon goddess has fallen upon you! This city shelters those with the blood of the ones who bound the dragon Mirelth in ages past. Now that she has been freed from her bondage, all shall suffer her terrible wrath!
A screen popped up in front of every player and NPC in Duskhaven, just as a dome of magic covered the city. Upon the walls of the king’s castle, the dragon herself landed, and the roar she unleashed, infused with her magic, shook the ground, and caused terror in all who beheld her. Mirelth, the ancient calamity, had come seeking her revenge.
(Online)
Light_Makes_Right, Clarion, Ocarina, Breckley, Anonymous, DarkSoul, Magpie, Knobpolish, Anonymous2, Anonymous5, Cookie, Destiny in chat.
Light_Makes_Right: Oh shit! So glad I’m not in Duskhaven right now!
Breckley: WTF? I just logged in and the dome dropped in front of me right before I could get in. I want that event XP!
Scholar: Ooh! I know this one! Mirelth is an ancient dragon goddess from before the Scourge. She was sealed or bound somehow with an artifact after she destroyed a country!
Destiny: Did you see how that dragon nuked the temple district? Straight up wasted the temples!
Ocarina: And with it, the best chance of getting rezzed in the city if you die during the event.
Clarion: WHEN you die during the event.
Magpie: What? Surely they balanced the event, right?
DarkSoul: Only if the Company was behind the event. But the Company is running this game ‘hands off’, right? Living world and all that drek.
Magpie: Then, that means?
Clarion: That anyone in Duskhaven will be fighting a pissed off dragon goddess, probably at full power, and definitely ready to do nasty things to anyone in her way.
Scholar: But where did she come from? I haven’t heard of any dungeons being found where a dragon boss got released.
l33tPally has entered the chat.
Z.Void has entered the chat.
Doomhammer has entered the chat.
Lightspeaker has entered the chat.
Shifty has entered the chat.
Anonymous6 has entered the chat.
l33tPally: Da fuk! I just got instakilled in Duskhaven as soon as I logged on!
Lightspeaker: There’s an event going on, but the power level is over 9000!
Clarion: OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAAAAND?
Ocarina: Check the scouter again!
Shifty: Damnit. I had just leveled up my Pick Pocket skill to Advanced!
Doomhammer: Did anyone see that announce just before everyone died?
Shifty: Yeah, it was weird.
Anonymous6: Yeah. “Curse of Living Death.” Lose points of Con each hour until you die. Then you become Undead, and trapped within Duskhaven. Of course, the people who got blasted will already be undead by now.
Z.Void: NOOOOOOOOO!
Destiny: Harsh. How do you remove it?
Doomhammer: Only way is to gain favor with Mirelth (she’s a faction now, it seems). Problem is, there’s not much room for rep grinding if you’re stuck in town.
Anonymous6: Or you have to get someone who is friendly with her to convince her to release the city.
Cookie: Hehe. I know just the person to do that!
Ocarina: You don’t mean…
Cookie: Well, you need someone to be friendly to a dragon, right? Zayn has the ‘Dragonfriend’ title!
Z.Void: NOOOOOOOOOOO!
Chapter 42 – Answers
Just after midday, we set out again, just myself and my pets. The dungeon entrance was a few hours hike from the village, and we should be there just before nightfall. Between the soldiers’ trackers and the guild’s rangers, the forests were being combed for traces of the undead, while the rest saw to clearing the rubble of the fire, s
tarting with the buildings known to have basements, or that hadn’t completely burned to the ground.
We were on foot now, since out of all of us, only I had a summonable mount, and that just wouldn’t do for the whole group of us. Along the way, we saw signs of the Drow raiding party, and it was clear that they had come from the Underdark entrance the caverns guarded. None of us were trackers by trade, so we couldn’t tell about numbers, and it was dumb luck finding the trail to begin with. We literally came upon the formerly undead corpse of a villager, missing its head, and a trail leading from that obvious point, in the direction we were already headed.
That settled the question of whether any of the undead had left the village. Some, at least, had followed the drow, at least this far. A single body and no great trampling of feet told me that there wasn’t a group of undead that came here, so probably they had spread out aimlessly alone or in small groups. That is what I hoped, at least. I did not wish to think about what would happen if a small horde of the things were acting in concert with each other.
Anyways, we continued on towards the caverns, on alert now that we knew at least some of the undead had come this way. Because our caution made us slow our pace, what should have taken us only until midday became a trek that found us only just reaching the caverns in the late afternoon.
The Scheming Caverns, as they were creatively (*coughcough*) called, started with an old outpost that had been built into some caves. The caves extended deep into what some would call the ‘Underdark’, the subterranean world that few surface dwellers ever ventured to (and fewer still willingly), but there was some debate as to whether that had always been so. There were scattered records of the caves being smaller at one time, and having been expanded or linked together to form that path to the underdark in times long gone by, before this age of the world, even. They got their name from the old fortress that used to occupy the topmost ‘floors’ of the caverns, a place that had been overrun by a cabal of crazed sorcerers who at one point tried to conquer the nation.
It was almost dark by the time we reached the fortress, and we had seen no sign of the undead, or the drow. That didn’t put us at ease, since none of us were trackers. We needed to find someplace secure to rest, since there was no way I was camping in front of the enemy’s gates. That’s just asking for trouble. Of course, you could say the same about going to dungeons, but still…
Anyways, as we passed through the ruined gates of the former outpost, we found that the area inside was in complete darkness. None of us had true darkvision. Yukiko and Nithroel’s races both had low-light vision, but the rest of us were limited to normal vision. Fortunately, Della had been practicing with her Dancing Lights spell, and the spell now lasted for 24 hours, meaning we would have light in the depths.
The first floor of the dungeon appeared to be deserted, which wasn’t that much of a surprise, since there weren’t any rooms left fit for habitation, and if Drow were anything like other elves, I suspected that they were glad of comforts when they could get them, which meant anywhere they set up a long-term post would have been altered to fit their aesthetics. That we didn’t see any signs of that made me wonder what it was that the reports about Drow were based on. There weren’t even any sentry posts set up near the exit of the first cave!
But that was something we’d have to figure out later. For now, we found a building that wasn’t as dilapidated as the rest and began setting up our camp for the night. Well, that was the plan, anyways. If only the bugs weren’t biting. I slapped my neck where one got me, and came away with a small crossbow bolt. As things began to get hazy, all I could think was, “Well, fuck.”
(Later)
You know those times where you get really drunk, pass out, and then wake up someplace different, and wondering how you got there and where your pants are? Yeah, this was like that.
When I came to, the first thing I noticed was that I had a headache. Then a bit of a breeze told me that I was naked. I tried to move, and that’s when I realized that not only was I in a room without any light, but I was chained to a table made out of stone. At least, I hoped it was just a table. I wasn’t into the whole ‘getting sacrificed on the altar’ thing.
I was understandably peeved at the situation. “At least buy me dinner before you roofie me, geez!” All right, enough whining. I checked my status, and other than the stat drop from my items being gone, it looked like I was fine. Well, fine for the fact that I’d been out for almost four hours. Same with the girls, they were all still alive, but it looked like their items had been taken, too. So we were in bad shape, but not completely screwed. Yet.
To pass the time while I waited for the others to wake up from our lovely ambush, I decided to open up guild chat.
Zayn: Soooo, funny thing happened when we went to find the drow.
Raunaeneril: What did you do this time?
Zayn: Nothing, honest!
Cookie: You got captured again, didn’t you?
Zayn: Um. Maybe?
Lexichan: DAMMIT, ZAYN! What did I tell you about letting drow have their way with you?
Zayn: ‘Only if it was you’? :P
Lexichan: Nope! Nope nope nope! Not after what happened to Ruva.
Ruva: Not that I was complaining…
Lexichan: It took you three days before you could walk straight! You’re still complaining about your ass hurting!
Yukiko: Worth it though, right?
Bercilac: Yuki! What the hell happened to you guys?
Yukiko: Drow. Never saw them until they’d peppered us with poisoned crossbow bolts.
Zayn: I feel like a co-ed at a frat party. Woke up naked, chained to a table.
Yukiko: At least you got a table! The girls and I are in a cell of some kind, chained to the wall!
Lexichan: Zayn, I thought you said you weren’t going to go and get captured by drow princesses again?
Zayn: To be fair, I don’t know if there’s a princess involved.
Lexichan: That makes it SOOOO much better.
Cookie: Oh, boss! I’ve got some news you’d love to hear. Apparently miss Z.Void has been causing trouble in one of the human capitols. And then a dragon goddess swooped in and cursed the whole town!
Zayn: Mirelth has started to move, huh?
Bercilac: What did you do?
Lexichan: Zaaaaayn! What did you do?
Ruva: Boss?
Zayn: Well, I may or may not have released her from the artifact-level slave collar she’d been in. She’s probably settling scores.
Raunaeril: Of course you did.
Zayn: Well, these things happen when you have a luck score of 86.
Johnist: Hax! Lol!
Zayn: Yeah, so anyways, I let her go, and that’s how I got the Dragonfriend title. Oh, and I think when I get higher level, she’s going to make a play for me, since she marked me as her Consort.
Lexichan: Damnit Zayn!
Johnist: Only you, boss…
Zayn: Gotta cut this short. Someone’s coming. I can hear footsteps.
Lexichan: Anything you want us to do?
Zayn: Finish hunting the zombies. When that’s done, start looking up the names of the people who sealed Mirelth initially. She’s settling scores, so you can probably win big bonus points with her if you deliver her targets to her instead of making her track them down to individual cities.
Ruva: Will do!
Zayn: OK, I’m off to deal with the guards.
As I brought my attention away from the guild chat, I heard a door open on metal hinges. It sounded like a metal door, scraping against the stone floor. Simple, but effective. There still wasn’t any light, though. I figured that they knew I was awake, and were trying to spook me. Frankly, it was pretty effective, but I figured they needed me for something, otherwise why was I still alive. I heard the footsteps enter the room, but didn’t acknowledge them. What was I going to do, play into the scared victim routine by going “Is anyone there?” No. That gives the other side even more leverage. Let them get
frustrated trying to make me sweat.
Finally, a voice broke the silence. It was a female’s voice. “So, what do you have to say for yourself, hmm?”
That brought a cocky grin to my face. “Oh, I can say a lot of things. But I doubt you want to hear any of them. After all, you’re hiding in the dark. So I’m just going to lay here, until you tell me what’s going on. Or give me some light so I can see who I’m talking to.” Never give the enemy an advantage, even if you’re in a massively inferior position. Make them fight for everything.
The voice came from beside me, whispering in my ear this time, “And why would you want to see me, incubus?”
Turning my head towards the sound of the voice, I said, “To see how fuckable you are. I hear good things about drowesses. But I’m not into fatties or ugly bitches. So I gotta rate you and see how you’ll do.”
Rules-Free VRMMO Life: Volume IV: To the Deeps Page 4
