The Prisoner of Arabella

by Matthew Kent

  I grew tense at the message. In over an hour, we hadn’t seen a single PC or NPC. I think it was then that I caught the smell of wood smoke on the wind.

  Group Chat: Lorcan: I smell wood smoke. The breeze seems to be coming from the south-southeast.

  Group Chat: Appolyon: That’s from the direction of Stirbridge. Orders?

  Group Chat: Mikail: Dismiss horses and form a skirmishing line. I’ll take lead. Tekadan, go stealth and shadow the movement.

  Group Chat: Tekadan: Sir, its a group of NPCs. They are women, children, a few old men, and most of them are hurt.

  Group Chat: Mikail: Lorcan, move forward and make contact. Your charisma is high, so they will probably trust you. Find out what’s going on and if they are being pursued. Synon, you get on the left and back us up. Barb, you and Samael on the right. Harut and Apollyon, stay loose and float. If anything happens, burn it down quick.

  I was moving forward even as the rest of the party spread out. The first person I met was a haggard woman, her face dusted with soot and her eyes heavy with pain. She was clutching her stomach, her belly distended with pregnancy.

  “I’m Lorcan, and I’m here to help. What happened?”

  Her eyes were glassy with fear as she looked at me, but then she sighed and began to talk. “They came in at dusk. Ten or fifteen riders. They rode pale horses, and their eye—their eyes,” she said as she shuddered.

  “Dead red eyes,” a little girl said, her voice haunted with fear.

  “We’ll help if we can. Go that way,” I said pointing up the trail. “Does anyone know if you are being pursued?”

  Just as I said it, I heard a wail from the rear. There was a great snarling sound and a roar and scream. The panicked people pressed toward me. I caught a glimpse of something four legged and red.

  “Get to the travelers on the hill!” I cried out and rushed toward the rear to confront the creature.

  When I got there, I found it had killed two of the people, one a young boy. I couldn’t tell how old he was, but in on hand was clutched a long branch. The other lifeless form was an older man probably in his late fifties or early sixties. He held a rusty short sword in his withered hand.

  I saw the beast as it tore out the old man’s throat. Without a thought, I attacked. The haft of my Ashandarei slammed into the beast’s head to get its attention. Then, I fought a retreat, keeping myself between the monster and the NPCs. Occasionally, it would snap and try to get away, then I would poke it with the blade. Finally, I was in range of the rest of the party, and the beast got pelted with ice spells. As it did I heard a sibilant hissing before it died.

  Your party has killed a hell hound.

  300 Party XP

  Group Chat: Mikail: Good job, Lorcan. Let’s get back. Some of these people are in bad shape.

  X - X - X

  “What are you doing?” Synon asked as I eased one of the townsfolk to the ground and bandaged a wound.

  “Rendering first aid,” I replied looking over my shoulder at her. “You’ll be all right,” I said to the man whose arm I was bandaging.

  “Do you not have a sense of urgency? It’s not like they are real people.”

  I shook my head and finished the bandage. Mikail, Tekadan, and Appolyon were standing watch while Barbie Q was on overwatch. Samael, Harut, and myself were healing the townspeople as we could. Samael was with the pregnant lady.

  “Yes, I do. But they need our help right now. The journey is more important than the destination, Synon.” I gestured to the next patient. “Come here if you would. I want you to see something.”

  I beckoned Synon over as I sat next to a young girl. Her face was soot-stained; tracks from tears had washed down her eyes.

  “What’s your name?” I asked her.

  “Lucy,” she said.

  “Lucy, Synon and I are here to help. Can I see what hurts?” She nodded and showed me her leg. There were burns and a gash on the calf, and she thrust out her wrist. It was badly sprained and swollen. “Synon, can you assess her injuries?”

  Synon sighed deeply but began to check her out. “Broken wrist, first and second degree burns along her leg, sprained ankle and…” She took the girl’s head in her hand and probed a bloody patch of hair. “Possible concussion.”

  “Lucy, how were you injured?” She started to tear up when I asked.

  “I was t-t-trying to get my baby brother out of the house,” she started, and I leaned in and hugged her.

  “It will be okay.” I started to hum a tune and used my Song of Healing.

  Soon she was crying freely and eventually she fell asleep. I laid her down gently and smoothed her clothes. I looked at Synon and saw the confusion in her face.

  “How can they not be real?” I asked. “When have you ever seen such grief and feeling of loss?”

  I waved her to the next person, this time an older woman.

  “Ye done right by her,” the old woman said to me.

  I gave her a sad smile.

  “Her brother?” I asked.

  “Dead like her mam and pop I expect.” I nodded. “I’ll care for her Lucy is a good kid.”

  What Synon didn't seem to understand and that I could tell the angels did, was that the NPCs were people. They had hopes and dreams, fears. They felt pain and loss. I didn’t know if they had souls, but I thought perhaps it was like Alber Camus said: “I would rather live my life as if there is a god and die to find out there isn't, than live my life as if there isn't and die to find out there is.”

  I think I would rather live my life and play this game thinking they had a soul and find out they didn’t than to die and find out they did.

  “What does this prove?” Synon said.

  “Just think about it, please?” I asked her then checked to see what aid the older woman needed.

  Chapter 9

  Mikail had located another group in the area to pass the refugees onto. They would take them to our keep and protect them. Synon was right; we had more important things to do. But I still felt bad for having to leave them. We had, though, left them in better shape than we had found them. I healed their wounds, and the old lady—Maddy was her name—I left with money to take care of Lucy and any of the other orphans. I told her I would check up on them when I could.

  Group Chat: Mikail: I had a message from the Goons. There is a band of undead outside the dungeon entrance. It's about fifteen minutes travel from here.

  Group Chat: BarbieQ: How many?

  Group Chat: Mikail: They are reporting thirty-five. And what appears to be a small group of three players bound in the center of the group.

  Group Chat: Appolyon: I wonder what that's about?

  Group Chat: Lorcan: It's a PVP dungeon. The undead PCs need an enemy to go against.

  Group Chat: Mikail: What?

  Group Chat: Lorcan: We need to get the bridge; they need it too. For us we can use the piece to find the others we need to open the way to Rhyou. The speculation is they can use it to open a way to the lower planes.

  Group Chat: Tekadan: So they want to open a way to Hell.

  Group Chat: Samael: Oh, great. They’re going through my ex wife's thighs. This time can we kill her?

  Group Chat: Appolyon: Samael, you know true evil never dies.

  Group Chat: Mikail: Enough. We head on meet up with the Goons wipe out the undead and get the bridge. That's the mission. Ex-wives can come way later.

  X - X - X

  We joined up with the Goon Legion players. There were seven of them when we met—the eighth had gotten cocky and been killed. Fortunately he hadn’t been turned.

  “Lorcan, this is Ganymede, he’s the leader for the Goons.” Mikail motioned to a man dressed as a warrior with a strange signet on his shield.

  “It's nice to meet you,” I said offering him my hand.

  “You don’t look like much,” he said, shaking hands. “Hard to believe you beat a full warrior build.”

  “I find it hard to believe you let an utter dick like Bruce
into your guild,” I replied and shrugged. “But weird shit happens all the time. Like us needing to defeat the dungeon and get a special drop.”

  “Yeah, about that,” he said, gesturing. “What the hell is going on? Undead taking PCs as prisoners?”

  “Those undead are PCs that have their interfaces taken over by a virus,” I said.

  “Virus?” Ganymede asked.

  “Yeah, they aren’t sure where it came from,” I lied. “They haven’t got enough PCs to get into the dungeon yet. We need to kill the PCs and send them to re-spawn or get them out of there.”

  “Contrary to popular belief, we don’t go around killing people just for fun,” Ganymede said.

  “I didn’t think you did. But if we don’t get the bridge people will start dying in a little over seven days.”

  “What?” he asked, startled.

  “The virus has players locked in the game. And the reason they don’t fix it with software is that they can’t, from what I understand. Arabella is also an AI that runs everything in-game.”

  “Nobody told us this,” Ganymede accused.

  “Would you have believed us?” Mikail asked. “I didn’t when Morner told me, and he was with the design team.”

  “Since they have the PCs there, that means they haven’t had enough to go into the Dungeon.” I sighed. “We free them. Anyway, we can then get in the dungeon, the undead PCs come after us, and we fight them on our terms.”

  “And the NPCs?” Ganymede asked.

  “Some of our weapons might turn them back with a resurrection.” I looked down, then I looked Ganymede in the eyes. “Most of them will die. But they’ll die if we don’t try, too, and a lot of others will too. Mikail and the others—they know strategy. Me, I know to make shit and apparently kill stupid people.”

  Ganymede snorted.

  “Yeah, we’ll work out the plan,” Ganymede said, looking at Mikail.

  X - X - X

  They say no plan survives contact with the enemy. This is a true statement. The entrance was located in a small valley amid low-lying ruins. The undead were roaming the area while the undead PCs were milling around the living PCs. There were thirty-five undead; ten of them were PC.s. The highest level PC was a seventeenth level wizard. The lowest was a level five ranger.

  We would hit them in two prongs. Of the NPC undead, the highest was a level twelve warrior, and the lowest was a level four. Since the NPC undead were milling, we needed to hit them in small groups, then draw them off. That was the Goon Legion’s job. We would hit the PCs, try to burn a few down, free the players, then head into the dungeon with the aim of drawing the undead PCs into the dungeon behind us.

  Apparently there is a god named Murphy in the game, and he’s a bitch. Things went wrong almost immediately.

  Raid: Mikail: Xynon, get control of your pet.

  Raid: Xynon: Something weird is happening. There is a ward here that's interfering with my commands.

  It was then that his bear charged early into the undead NPCs and drew their attention. Goon Legion were still not in position.

  Raid: Darbock: Here they come. Get set.

  Raid: Ganymede: Moony, set your Protection from Evil now. I’ll taunt, and you guys burn them down. Darbock, you pick up any strays.

  Raid: Moonbender: Dropping now and will spam Turn Undead between heals.

  Raid: Darbock: Check, boss.

  Then all hell broke loose on the southeastern flank of the ruins. Ganymede bottled the undead up in what had been an alley. It was about five feet wide, and the tumbled- down walls made the footing unsteady for the NPC’s. Dathis the wizard and Reanna_ Rayne the sorceress dropped big spells on top of the NPC’s as much as they could. Every few minutes a fireball would explode in the pack, and they would cycle through their area of effect spells. Geysers of fire, sheets of ice, and I think Xynon dropped a Stone Rain on them. We kept getting notifications, but we ignored them as we got ready for our own part in the plan. Then the undead PCs started to move.

  We had hoped they would move and all the PCs would reinforce the NPCs, but they only sent four players. Oleg a warrior, Tenesha who looked like she was a wizard, Hamon was dressed as some form of cleric, and Paulita who carried a bow, so she was probably a ranger.

  Raid: Mikail: Here they come. Break off, slow withdrawal, and make it count.

  Raid: Slayer187: Heh, that's what she said.

  We moved as soon as the undead PCs had engaged. We snuck up to them as close as we could and charged. Mikail had already decided to kill the hostages—they would re-spawn—and while they might lose experience, at least they would not be turned into undead PCs and used against us. Harut, Appolyon, and BarbieQ dropped area of affect spells onto the bound and helpless prisoners. Barbie chose an AOE Flame Geyser, followed by Harut’s Chain Lightning and Appolyon’s Continual Doom. My mouth went dry as a primordial darkness rose from nowhere and swarmed the players as they lay on the ground. The undead were not unaffected. Chago and Paulita fell to the spelled onslaught; the others recovered quickly and readied to counter attack.

  Raid: Mikail: Head to the entrance. Focus fire on the mage, and drop ice on the tank.

  My thighs burned with my effort as I ran. I was the lowest leveled of our team, but was running with the mages. BarbieQ showed her skill at PVP as she launched spell after spell at Kysa, their level seventeen wizard.

  Raid: Mikail: Lorcan, keep up.

  Harut took an arrow and stumbled. I grabbed his arm and supported him to keep him from hitting the ground. As we ran I cast my healing song on him. Synon stopped, took aim, and loosed a shot at Kysa. The round hit the wizard as she was casting a spell. She was knocked over, interrupting her spell. Harut then cast a spell that crashed into her prone form, and an ice fountain erupted, freezing her in place. BarbieQ launched a fireball on top of her, and we were able to get past them with only minor injuries.

  Raid: Mikail: Keep going.

  I felt a burning on my shoulder, but I shook it off as I followed the Angels into the tumbled-down structure that housed the entrance to the dungeon. I heard a roar behind me and felt myself flying forward and down the stairs. At the bottom there was a swirling blackness. The others had already ducked through. As I struck the bottom of the stairwell, someone clutched my shoulders and dragged me into the instance.

  The instance was a dark, dank hole.

  Ice rimmed the walls ,and our breaths came out as fog.

  “This will get old, quick,” I heard someone say as I pulled myself upright from my position on the floor.

  “Thank you, whoever pulled me in,” I said as I checked my gear. “Should we wait for them here?”

  “No,” Mikail replied. “The designer made this a random entrance dungeon. There are five or six entry points they can come in at. We should get a move on.” He looked each of us over. “Takaden takes the point, me, then Appolyon, Barbie, Samael, Harot, Lorcan, and Synon is last.”

  Watching, I saw Takaden fade from view as he started forward into the hallway.

  “How do we know they followed us in?” asked Synon.

  “I got a message from Ganymede. They entered the building right on top of us.”

  “Were the Goons able to get away?” I asked him as I played my Song of Courage and buffed the party.

  “They are pulling back. Most of the undead were killed. There are five left, but they are fairly strong.” Mikail shrugged. “They should be able to break contact in the next few minutes. Now from here on out we are in chat—no noise if you can help it.”

  We all nodded and switched over to the group channels.

  The ground crunched underfoot even though I tried to move quietly; there was still the sound of shoes on rough gravel. I was glad to hear the low crunch from Synon and some others. I wasn’t the only one. This was my first dungeon delve in a group. I focused on everyone else and prepared myself mentally for what we were about to do.

  X - X - X

  “Sir, have you seen this?”

  Miles lo
oked up from his desk to the speaker in his doorway. “Seen what?”

  “The errata for the patch that Arabella just announced.”

  “Patch?” He said holding out a hand to the engineer. “Let me see.”

  The engineer handed over her pad to Miles, and he read the errata.

  * Stealth scrolls - time effective has been reduced to half the previous time.

  * Invisibility - chance of detection has been extended by 1 foot per level difference.

  *Song of Healing - mana cost increased by 10. Healing capped at 100 HP.