Last Horizon: Beta

by Daniel Schinhofen

  “Correct,” Amythyst smirked, “Sis isn't the best on names and wanted to give players at least a nod to the major cities they knew.”

  “Makes as much sense as anything else,” Terets added.

  “Oh look, oakmoss, be right back,” Kittish exclaimed and walked towards, it causing both the sneaks to vanish into stealth.

  Dumadin rolled his eyes and sighed, “Really guys I am sure tha...” he was cut off when a young bear charged him and bowled him over. “Gah, what the bloody hell? This is getting old.” The bear roared and bit at him as he tried to hide behind his shield. “Anytime now guys. Could use the help.”

  A moment later Terets and Amythyst both unstealthed and laid into the bear. It died quickly under their onslaught. As Dumadin got back to his feet and Kittish healed him, Terets went to work on the skinning and meat collecting.

  “The devs have a sick sense of humor,” Dumadin grumbled.

  “Yeah, Larry Vetenburg and Paval Romonov did most of the monster AI coding. They're a little creepy if you ask me,” Amythyst said with a slight shudder. “They both look at people as if they aren't really there, or at least they did when I met them five years ago.”

  The group started walking again once Terets had finished with his task. “Twelve hours in game of walking, collecting and fighting. Let's get to it, eh.” Terets smiled as he finished his sentence and the group started chatting as they walked on.

  VENO

  The next day after hours of walking they finally arrived at the gates of Veno. The city was surrounded by a thirty foot wall of mortared stone with guard towers spaced at regular intervals. They'd been passing farms growing food for the city for the last hour of travel before they reached the walls.

  Passing though the gateway they saw a bustling metropolis of various races going about their day. The four friends worked their way through the crowds until they reached a main intersection with signs pointing to various locations in the city.

  You have found Veno, Capital of Vadena.

  You receive one thousand experience and can now mark this is a fast travel location on your map.

  “We have it marked. Let's head back to Stoutbank and get these clothes back to the farmer,” Kittish suggested.

  The whole group marked Veno as a fast travel point, leaving them with only one currently open then traveled back to Stoutbank. As they popped back into the town square they noticed Bjorn speaking with a shirtless individual who was standing next to a cart filled with pumpkins. Bjorn noticed them and waved them over as he finished saying something to the shirtless gentleman.

  The group approached and the gentleman turned. The group smiled at Johnny Pumpkinseed, who grinned back at them. “Oh, there you are. I was thinking maybe the goblins had gotten you. Bjorn here was telling me that you were alive and had been in town a few days ago. We must have missed each other on the road if you tried to get my clothes back to me at the farm.”

  Dumadin cleared his throat, “Actually, Johnny we had forgotten and just remembered a short bit ago. We were making all haste back to your farm. We just happened to see you here, which is very fortuitous for us all.” Dumadin dug the farmer’s clothes out of his bag and handed them over. “There you go. Hopefully you and the wife can now get back to your love of the land.”

  Johnny accepted the clothes and beamed, “I did promise you a reward for helping me out. Here ya go, two more pumpkins for your trouble.” Johnny handed two pumpkins to Dumadin in exchange for his clothes.

  “Our thanks, Johnny,” Dumadin grinned and handed the pumpkins to Bjorn. “If you don't mind Bjorn, we won't have the time to properly make use of these, so have them as a gift from us.”

  Bjorn nodded, “I'll turn them into pies and give out free slices to all the adventurers in town.”

  “As you want,” Dumadin nodded and rejoined his friends. “See you two later, hope your day is well.”

  The group waved with smiles at the farmer and innkeeper and blinked out of existence, to reappear in front of Veno again.

  “That was a spot of luck,” Kittish giggled. “Saved us the trip out to the farm and back.”

  The group agreed and looked again at the bustling city in front of them. “Well, we have a letter from Theresa to her brother to give him. After that we can see what else we might need to do and I should let Felton know we'll be porting off to Dalton in the next hour or two.” Dumadin finished speaking and looked at his friends. They agreed with his plan and entered the city.

  Walking through the streets of the city was interesting. It wasn't wall to wall people, but it was very busy. Some streets had carriages and carts going up and down them with very little in the way of street laws. They learned quickly that you moved out of the way of the conveyances as they did not stop for pedestrians by seeing a luckless adventurer get clipped by a cart and thrown into a wall. The other folks nearby just shook their heads and kept walking as the person pulled himself back up and walked away murmuring about the driver.

  Shrugging, the group wandered for a bit then realized they didn't know exactly where they were going and found a guard to ask directions. The guard informed them which street would take them to the leather worker's shop and wished them a good day.

  Some time later the group found the shop, Silken Leathers. As they entered the shop a beaming dwarf greeted them from behind a counter, “Greetings customers, and welcome to Silken Leathers. I am Franklin Awlfist, the owner. What can I help you with this day?”

  Kittish and Amythyst stepped forward smiling at the dwarf and presented the sealed letter from Theresa. “Your sister Theresa Silkweave sends her regards,” Amythyst quietly informed him.

  Franklin's brow furrowed as he took the letter and breaking the seal read the page. “Figures she would do this to me. Family is family and I do owe her so I will abide by her wishes. She requests I give you my lowest possible prices on all goods for a one time purchase. Would you like to do so now or later?” Franklin's eyes became sharp as he watched them waiting for an answer.

  “That is very generous of you good sir. Your sister spoke so highly of you and your goods, we would not want to do either of you a disservice by offering unintended insult.” Kittish let her honeyed words flow softly and gave a small curtsy to Franklin.

  Franklin blushed and bowed slightly, “Well then, take your time and look around. If you wish to wait on the offer then please just let me know. I'll just take your names and make a note in my books that you are to receive a discount on your first purchase from me. If you wish to buy now, then by all means find the items you like and let us do what we can for you.”

  Nodding, the group began to meander through the shop and look over the fine goods. The merchandise in this shop was exquisite in detail and quality. After they looked though the goods the group murmured to each other. With the coin they had they would barely be able to afford some of the better pieces of armor or the big backpacks. After discussing it they decided to wait until after the orc village as hopefully it would give them a nice chunk of coin so they could really get some items here. Also, they might have Felton and Emelia with them so they could benefit as well.

  “Sir Awlfist, we've discussed it and at the moment we would only offer unintentional insult to the goods you do have on display here. We are not yet worthy of the quality of your goods. As such we shall be back after we have adventured some more and hopefully have made ourselves worthy of these fine goods.” Kittish and Amythyst both gave deep curtsies to the dwarf.

  Franklin beamed at the ladies and gave a deep belly laugh, “Well spoken you are, and polite indeed. It would be remiss of me to let you go without something to equal your words.” Franklin turned and rummaged behind him, pulling out two sets of leather gloves. “Here you are, ladies. These are not the best gloves but they will serve you well.” He placed the gloves on the counter and motioned them to come collect them.

  Amythyst stepped forward and collected the gloves murmuring something to the dwarf which caused his smile to widen
. As she handed a set to Kittish, they delicately drew the gloves on and thanked Franklin again. Taking their leave, the group exited the shop and stopped just outside.

  “These gloves are so comfortable,” Amythyst said flexing her fingers. “Silk lined leather, so soft and supple on the outside and silky smooth inside.”

  Dumadin blinked and coughed but didn't say what sprung to his mind. However, the cough seemed to be understood by Kittish who giggled and slapped Dumadin gently on the head, “You didn't say it which is good, but that was a bad thought my love.”

  Shrugging it off Dumadin smirked at her, “I am trying to do better.”

  Terets just rolled his eyes and offered his arm to Amythyst, “Shall we leave these two deviants and make our way to the mage building to get ported to Dalton?”

  Dumadin and Kittish laughed as Amythyst took his arm and began to walk with him. Dumadin then presented his own arm to Kittish and fell into step behind the others.

  As they wandered through town they noted the various shops that were here. Every conceivable craft was here, including the ones players had no use for like carpentry or architect. As they strolled on they noted that the map of the city was slowly filling in to help them find things inside the city later without having to ask a guard.

  Eventually they found the mage's building, which unsurprisingly was a tower town in the middle of a square. Nearby was the UPS building for mail services as well, which made sense.

  Upon entering the tower they were greeted as with most shops in town. “Greetings. How may the magi be of use to you fine folks today?” a spindly youth asked them from behind the counter.

  “We have a letter for the master of this spire from an old friend of his, Thallien. If you could fetch the master please so we may discharge our quest.” Terets said holding up the sealed scroll for the youth to see.

  The youth ducked his head and darted into the next room and was back a moment later. “Please wait a moment. I have sent a messenger for him.”

  A few minutes later an old man entered from the back and looked at the group, “Which of you brought me news from Thallien?”

  Terets handed the scroll over, “We all have sir, Thallien bid us deliver this scroll to you.”

  The elderly man broke the seal and read the scroll then nodded, “Dalton is it? After his journals then after all these years. Very well, are you ready?”

  The group looked and each other and shrugged, “Yes, venerable sir.”

  The mage cackled and waved at them. The group blinked at the bright light that filled their eyes. By the time they could see again they were outside of a different city.

  DALTON

  “Well, that was fast,” Dumadin said, still clearing his eyes.

  The group blinked their eyes clear and looked at the city before them. Dalton's walls were forty feet high and twice as think as those back at Veno. The towers set at intervals actually had guards on watch. The gate had guards stationed at it, watching everyone who entered.

  The group made their way to the main intersection and looked around.

  You have found Dalton, Capital of Satex.

  You receive one thousand experience and can now mark this is a fast travel location on your map.

  The group was looking around and debating where to go when they heard a shout, “For the Bananas!”

  Laughing, Dumadin looked around and spotted Felton and Emilia making their way towards them. Both of them were human with avatars that looked much as they did in RL. Oh sure, the avatars were of a slightly more heroic stature, but not over done like a lot of people had.

  “You two crazy Texans, or should I say Satexens,” Dumadin laughed and greeted them both with hugs. “You both need to be introduced to a party member that has been with us for a while. This is Amythyst. Amythyst, these are Felton and Emelia, very old friends of ours, who we've been talking about since we started this trip.”

  Felton nodded at Amythyst and shook her hand, “Pleasure to meet you, Amythyst. If you can handle these three then you'll be fine.”

  Emelia didn't contradict her husband, but rolled her eyes. “He's just as bad, don't let him try to fool you. It's nice to meet you, Amythyst.”

  Amythyst greeted them both with a smile, “It is so nice to meet you as well. They've been talking about you since we knew we would be coming this way.”

  Dumadin motioned Felton over to him and then started handing over a supply of steel bars. “Here you go man, have some. The last dungeon we did had a bunch of weapons that I broke apart for mats. I got some increase for doing that, so now you can get an increase for making stuff when you can.”

  Felton laughed and took the mats, “Danke. Just let me put these in the bank and we can start heading out. You said it was a good thirty plus hours of travel to the north, so we should get going. Maybe we'll find some adventure on the way, which would be nice. I haven't really been out of the city. I did some delivery and crafting quests I found here in town along with a long chain for the local weapon smith. That got me up to level ten, which is awesome, and I took a combat ability since you said we were going to hit up a dungeon. Em has been getting me ore from nearby and doing the quests she's found outside, so she's level ten as well.”

  The group was surprised and nodded, “We're only level nine and Amythyst is level eight. You guys must have been trucking right along to get there.”

  Em cut in, “I've been trying to keep up with him. He was just tooling around here and having xp shoved at him. A little frustrating that going out is harder than just staying in the city, but I'm more equipped to deal with the wilds than he is.”

  Felton nodded, “She went for Parry, Riposte, and just picked up Dirty Fighting I think. Makes her a freaking killing machine from what I've seen of it when I went with her yesterday.”

  Em dimpled and smirked, “Oh yes, leading with Dirty Fighting has made the others way more useful. I do have to drink a lot for the aether, I use a chunk every fight, but it is so satisfying.”

  “Sweet, this ought to be great then. Felton, what did you pick up at level ten?” Terets inquired.

  “Oh I picked up Crippling Shout. It decreases the chance for an opponent to hit you.” Felton smiled at Em, “With her using Parry and Riposte it was shredding things, because if they miss her she gets a riposte, and if she parries then she can Riposte. Personally I think that ability might need its aether cost tweaked slightly. She can use it almost all the damn time, makes it just a bit over powered.”

  Em stuck her tongue out at her husband, “I already put in a ticket on it. My reply from Jazzy said they would look at it before live launched.”

  The group chuckled, “Jazzy, eh? She seems to answer all the reports. None of us have had them answered by either of the other main devs or any of the others that got added after they hit funding levels.” Dumadin shook his head when he finished and eyed Amythyst slightly from the corner of his eye.

  “She has been working herself to death, I think,” Amythyst complained softly and shook her head. “She means well and just wants the game to flourish, but still.” A moment later Amythyst's face seemed to twist as she realized that she'd spoken out loud. Felton and Em both looked at her with raised brows. “Um, I mean that's what I believe,” she finished lamely, trying to avoid their eyes.

  Kittish cut in, “We'll discuss it when we're out of a major city and on the road alone, where we can chat privately.”

  Felton and Emilia raised their brows again then nodded slightly. “We'll wait until then, but now we really want to know,” Felton said looking around them. “Over there is the bank, the thing that looks like a small castle.” Leading the way to the structure Felton nodded to the armed guards by the doors and led his friends in.

  The inside was set up something like a modern bank except that there was no line. Just ten tellers waiting patiently for business. As the group looked on people appeared near a teller and walked out. Felton laughed, watching their faces as they tried to work it out.

 
; “If you walk up to a teller, it puts you into a phased state so you can conduct business without anyone nearby. I assume the vaults are the same but I haven't sprung for one of them yet to find out. Once the game goes live I will, though.”

  Em sighed softly, “He does so like his toys. Just wait here, he'll be quick.”

  Felton nodded and stepped up to a teller and disappeared. A few moments later he was back and striding to them. “All done. Let's get this show going so we can hear more.”

  The group walked out of the bank and made their way out of the city to start their journey north.

  FRIENDS

  As they made their way past the farms around Dalton they started catching Felton and Em up on everything they had been doing. After the long recap of their adventures they broached the subject that Felton had been patiently waiting for.