by Quinn Dallas
“The Devs hid it in the royal palace chapel.”
“And how are we supposed to get past the guards?” Yvir tightened her grip on the handle of her ax.
“It's a festival day so we should be able to get in,” Leonidas grinned wide. “The chapel is at the other end of the courtyard. We get in and then I'll recite the exit invocation.”
“Why not tell anybody else?” I whispered.
Leonidas spoke in a hushed tone, “Take a look around." He continued, “Some of these players enjoy the way things are right now, and they don’t want it to end.”
I scanned the tavern and it did appear that some player characters were having a good time. Too good a time, in fact. Others were bullying lower level players and NPCs. It was possible that a few PCs might desire to sabotage any effort to escape.
The Paladin was right, the less people who knew his secret the better. I cut a big hunk of cheese from the block sitting on our table and bit into it. It tasted amazing, I watched as my HP bar began to refill. Then I took a swig of ale of to quench my thirst. My hit point and energy indicators swelled to full. I took note of the glowing confirmation message:
A BLOCK OF CHEESE HAS GRANTED YOU 50 HIT POINTS.
A BLOCK OF CHEESE HAS GRANTED YOUR 25 ENERGY.
A MUG OF ALE HAS GRANTED YOU 25 ENERGY.
Refreshed my attention turned back to the conversation at hand. The Paladin appeared to have a good grasp of what was going on. So it made sense to follow his lead. If he wanted to give this a try, then I would follow him. Besides, sticking with a trusted group was a wise decision. It was too damned dangerous to go it alone.
“Okay, I'm in,” Cairngorm folded his arms across his chest.
“Me too,” said Yvir.
“We don't have anything to lose,” Shauna said.
“Then let’s not waste anymore time folks,” Leonidas stood and took a deep gulp of ale.
The rest of us stood as well to follow him.
Soon, we made our way through the drunk and rowdy crowd. It looked like some players were blowing off steam. The cocky Elf I spied earlier was in a yelling match with a rather boisterous Troll. We tried to sneak past the brawl without getting involved. That was when a large female Orc bumped into Yvir.
“Watch where you're going!” The She-Orc snarled.
Yvir snapped back. “My friends and I were just leaving.”
“What’s the matter little girl!” the large Orc-Woman shoved the lady Barbarian. “Scared you’re gonna miss up ‘yer hair?”
“I’ve got nothing to prove to you!” Yvir tried to push past the drunken Orc .
“Typical human trash,” the Orc grabbed Yvir by the shoulder.
“I bet your big boyfriend over there does all your fighting!”
Leonidas smirked, “She can handle herself!”
“And he’s not my boyfriend,” Yvir finished.
“You look like one of them camp followers,” she grabbed Yvir by the chin and squeezed. “Maybe you can pleasure some of my comrades for a few coins!”
The Orc regiment behind her let out yells and catcalls. Yvir’s face reddened and she balled her fists, “You don't want to pick a fight with me, lady." There was sarcasm in the Barbarians voice.
Leonidas nudged me and whispered, “Wait for it, this is going to be good.”
The She-Orc puffed out her chest and opened her mouth to speak. But, she didn’t get a chance to utter another insult. Yvir pulled back her fist and swung. Her powerful blow connected with the Orc’s jaw with a loud WHOMP! The Orc woman’s head snapped back and then she grunted. She then grabbed Yvir and lifted her off the ground, tossing her into a crowd of drunken elves. That's when all hell broke loose. One of theElvesfell backwards into a foul-mouthed Orc Warrior. The angry warrior punched the Elf and then his companions came to aid him. In the meantime, the huge Orc female had pursued Yvir. The two battle-hardened women wrestled and punched like maniacs. I’m not sure what happened next. Like a collapsing tower of dominoes the tavern erupted in pure chaos.
“Shit!” Shauna yelled. “It’s a freaking bar brawl!”.
Suddrnly, a glowing notification flickered in the air.
EVENT NAME: TAVERN BRAWL
ZONE: KINGS CITY
LOCATION: GRINNING GARGOYLE INN
EVENT TYPE: INSTANCED EVENT
EVENT STATUS: RUNNING
START TIME: 150
END TIME: UNKNOWN
No one drew weapons. It was all fists and some teeth -- Trolls liked to bite. Shauna had jumped on the Orc woman’s back and rained feather-light blows on her misshapen head. Yvir had righted herself and swung another meaty fist into the She-Orc’s jaw.
Two nasty looking Trolls had cornered Leonidas, and he danced on his feet. He had both fists ready, it was easy to recognize him as an experienced brawler. He also wore a toothy grin and his eyes twinkled with delight.
He was enjoying the mayhem! I thought as I avoided a bearded human’s clumsy punch. It was hard to tell the NPC’s from the Players as the brawl escalated. It was a frenzy of punches, grunts, and screams. Everyone in the room was higher level than I was. Without thinking I went into stealth mode fading from sight. Of course that didn’t stop the nasty Troll who had set angry eyes on me. He sniffed the air and then punched in my direction. I doubled over in pain when his fist connected with my stomach. Damn! Did that ever hurt. I shifted out of invisibility and planted a neat roundhouse kick to the Troll’s Jaw. It looked like my melee fighting skills were the appropriate level after all. The Troll fell back with a surprised look on his face. I become aware that I’d received a damage bonus from having attacked from the flank. I didn’t kill him, but the hit registered as a knockout blow. The Troll landed on the ground with a loud thud.
“Not bad!” Leonidas gave me a thumbs up. Then he ducked an ill-planned punch from one of his attackers. He was holding his own and loving it.
At the other end of the bar Yvir and Shauna had their backs to the wall. The Orc woman lay unconscious, face down on the ground. While two of her burly companions closed in on the human girls. Yvir hadn't drawn her ax. She held up her fists in a guard position ready for action. Meanwhile, Shauna kept near her. I worried about the diminutive cleric. She didn't have a ton of hit-points. I scanned the room until I found another party member- Cairngorm. A dark aura crackled around the Warlock. He was readying his magical defenses! A burly human PC lunged at him and he gestured. A bolt of black lightning leapt from his fingertips and struck the man!
Cairngorms attacker fell to the ground and gasped, “Dude, no magic in a bar fight!"
The dark haired magic-user picked up a bottle and smashed it over the man’s head. The surprised fighter slumped to the ground dazed.
“How’s that instead?” Cairngorm smirked.
I didn’t have time to react before two more attackers came my way. They were both elves. In the game lore elves didn’t much care for humans like myself. Especially when those humans were Shadow Thieves! In fact, there was a unceasing feud between the two clans.
“Fellas,” I held up my hands. “Can we not do this?”
“You are no kin of ours,” one of them spat. Both were PC’s and enjoying the role-playing.
“Get the filthy thief!” the shortest one yelled. At that point the two elves smirked and dove towards me. Fighting back was my only choice. My attackers were both roaring drunk and ready to rumble. I dodged their initial clumsy attacks. Thanks to my high Agility rating. both elves appeared to be built for tanking. Which meant they were much slower than me.
They made up for this in brute strength. We traded blows and my dodge rating held up! I hit them frequently enough. But didn’t do much damage to either. Before I knew it, Leonidas had come to my aid. Somehow he’d managed to knock out his two previous opponents.
“Let me help you,” his face was glowing with excitement. “I forgot about the Tavern’s special pvp mini-game.”
“Crap,” I
spat. “Yvir must’ve activated it when she punched that NPC Orc!”
“Have you checked your score?” He grinned wide and then tackled one of the elves.
“No time!” I yelled back. We seemed unable to use weapons during this mini-game. Yet, my rogue talents seemed unaffected. Which meant I could use placate. I grinned and waved my hand in front of the attacking Elf Tank. He frowned as my placate move clouded his senses. Appreciating that I could now do extra damage to him, I wasted no time.
I punched my bewildered attacker square in the jaw. The attack sent him flying backwards and brought me out of stealth. I wouldn’t be able to become invisible for another forty-five seconds.
“Take that” I heard Yvir yell. I turned to see the barbarian woman punch an attacking Orc hard in the stomach. Her meaty fist caused him to double over in pain. Meanwhile, Shauna had managed to smash a bottle into the crown of his ugly companion. I became aware neither needed any help.
“Watch out!” Leonidas yelled! But it was too late. I turned in time to see a rather large green fist coming my way. Before I could move the bone-hard knuckles smashed into my jaw. The world exploded in pain. I struggled to stay conscious, but the room spun around me. I heard a loud whistle. Through my blurred vision I saw that the Royal Guard arrived.
“By order of King Alaric,” the guard commander called out. “You are all under arrest.”
I tried to stand, but my knees buckled beneath me. Leonidas headed over towards me, pushing past the crowd of rowdy tavern goers. There was much noise and chaos. The guards arrested everyone in sight.
I struggled to focus enough to bring up my HUD. But I couldn’t concentrate. Leonidas leaned over and grabbed my shoulders. He shook me hard, and spoke.
“Come on,” he pleaded. “Don’t pass out”.
I tried to answer him, but only gibberish came out. Leonidas pulled me to my feet and tried to guide me out of the fray. I heard Yvir, Shauna, and Cairngorm’s voices. In my addled state I couldn’t make out who was saying what.
“We've got to get out of here!”
“I’m much too pretty for jail.”
“That was a bit of fun if you ask me!”
“Let’s sneak out the back door.”
I lifted my head in time to see the Guard Commander blocking our exit. “Where are you lot going?” He barked, “Back in with the rest!”
"We're not going to jail!" Yvir confronted the Commander.
"Yes, you are!" The grizzled NPC stood his ground. "By order of the Imperial Guardsmen!"
I tried to speak, but everything went dark. “Great!” I moaned as I faded into unconsciousness.
CHAPTER 5
I awoke the world's worst headache. I struggled to focus, but my head was throbbing with pain. We're in the hell were we? I remembered the brawl from the night before. It had been a crazy balls-out bar fight. Then someone had hit me hard. After that I recalled the City Guard arriving. After that everything was big blank.
Abruptly, a holographic message materialized before me.
CONGRATULATIONS!
YOU’VE ACCOMPLISHED THE FOLLOWING FEAT:
PUNCH DRUNK
DESCRIPTION: YOU CAN’T KEEP A GOOD WOMAN DOWN. YOU’VE SUFFERED A TKO DURING THE “THE TAVERN BRAWL” MINI-GAME!
That's right! We were arrested during the bar fight. I dismissed the push notification and struggled to gain my bearings. Apparently, I was in a walled cell and it reeked. The aroma of sweat, piss, and vomit assaulted my nostrils. Through my blurry vision I spied Leonidas leaning against the stone wall.
"Sleeping beauty awakes!" he wore an arrogant smirk on his face. It made me seriously want to punch him.
"Har-de -har" I rubbed my aching head and placed my feet on the floor. I stood up and then fell back down onto the hard wooden cot.
"Easy there!" Leonidas sat beside me. "You took a pretty nasty punch,” he slapped me on the back. “You’re lucky to have your teeth still!" Then he gave me a tin cup filled with cool water. I quaffed it down and then leaned backwards.
"So we're in jail?"
"Yup," the muscular Paladin nodded. “That bar brawl brought the city guard in." He paused, “The weird thing is that not supposed to be part of the mini-game."
"You're serious?"
"Very," he stroked his chin. “The NPC's are definitely off script."
"We need to get out," This time I stood without falling over.
"Can you open that lock Madame Thief?" He pointed to the cell door.
“Piece of cake," I winked.
I didn’t have my lock pick tools, but I could improvise. The game had a mysterious manner of providing, if the odds were in your favor.
I scanned the room and noticed the wooden benches. Long nails held the joints together. I flipped one of the benches over and pulled at the joint.
Soon I'd managed to get a thin nail loose. Next, I went to the lock and got to work. The mechanics of the game should allow me to pick the lock and get out. After a few seconds I felt the crude latch snap and our cell door swung open. Another notification momentarily floated in the air:
YOUR BURGLARY SKILL HAS INCREASED!
"We must rescue the others," Leonidas said as he followed me out into the corridor.
We made our way down the torch lit hallway, there were guards ahead of us. I motioned for Leonidas to stop and the two of us ducked into a narrow alcove.
Slipping into the next cell block was a piece of cake. But not while Leonidas is tagging noisily behind. My stealth ability only worked on me.
"Look," I whispered. "I can go stealth and get into the cell block. But I can't take you along.”
Leonidas nodded. "I'll be fine right here."
I didn't say anything else. It took a moment of concentration, but soon I faded into shadow. Stalking past the dumb guards was easy.
Most low level NPC's didn't have stealth sight. I walked past them and traveled along a long and dark corridor.
Soon I found Yvir and Shauna sharing a cell with a large and pissed off Lady Orc. It was same ill-mannered one from the bar room brawl. Hopefully, she wouldn’t be any trouble.
"Shauna, Yvir-" I whispered into the cell.
"Is that you Kira?" Shauna walked towards the cell door.
"Yes, it's me, I'm going to get you guys out."
"What about me," the gruff Orc female grunted.
"OK!" I snapped. "Just keep freaking quiet!"
I crept around the corner and spied two more guards. One of them had ring of keys attached to his belt. This was going to be very tricky, I needed to get those keys off him without his knowledge.
I could stay invisible for some time, but once I dropped stealth I'd be vulnerable. Not only that, I couldn't re-enter stealth for forty-five seconds afterwards.
This whole thing could go turn into epic fail. So I needed to be smart about my next move. I waited for my opportunity. It seemed like an eternity before one of the guards spoke.
"Grungir," he said. "I got to take a piss."
"Go ahead." The key bearing guard said. "Not much going on here."
I waited for the other guard to leave and then I moved in. Grungir was leaning against the wall with his eyes closed. Good, he was sleeping.
I prayed my agility score was high enough for this pickpocket attempt as I moved in. My hands shook as I reached out for the keys. I managed to swipe them off his belt without disturbing him.
Victory! Of course I should have known something would go wrong. I lifted the keys and they clanked together.
Grungir opened his eyes, "What the fu-"
Before he could finish his sentence I struck. Smashing Grungir in the face with an elbow strike. My stealth blow dealing double damage and knocking the guard cold. There was no time to waste.
His buddy would return soon. Of course knocking the guard out had taken me out of stealth. In a few seconds I managed to get back to the cell door and unlock it.
My two companions and the Lady Orc stepped out into the
hall. A new message popped up for me to view.
CONGRATULATIONS!
YOU HAVE EARNED A NEW PET: ORC WARRIOR!
THE ORC'S ARE PROUD WARRIOR RACE FEARED FOR THEIR BATTLE PROWESS. THIS MIGHTY ORC WILL SERVE AS A LOYAL COMPANION DURING YOUR MANY ADVENTURES.
The lady Orc paused I could tell new programming was being assigned to her AI.
“Greetings Kira,” The lady Orc stood at rigid attention.
“My name is Mahk and I would like to join your party. If you want to wait before you decide to take my offer, you may do so.”
“Oh crap,” Shauna dropped her shoulders. “She’s a freaking reward pet!”
“Looks like she’s bound to Kira,” Leonidas smirked and shook his head.
I looked through the Orc’s stats. Her DPS was relatively low, but she had a decent amount of HP, which could prove useful.
On the other hand, I was Rogue, built for stealth a tank pet wouldn’t be of much use for me. I could just leave her- but she might be useful in helping us escape.
“I accept your offer to join up with our party,” I answered.
Mahk tilted her head to the side and blinked. “So what do we next boss?”
“We get the hell out of here!” I turned to the group. “Let’s go!”
I placed my fingers to my lips and motioned for them to follow me. We moved as fast we could and met up with Leonidas at the other end of the dim hallway.
"We have to get out of here,” Shana scanned the room looking for trouble.
Yvir also seemed primed and ready for action. The tall female Barbarian walked with tense muscles and a steady gaze.
I wasn't exactly sure how we were going to escape the jail with such a large party. But it wasn't like we had much of a choice. For the most part it seemed we were very lucky. The palace guard seems to be occupied and away. I called up my HUD display and looked at the map. As far as I could tell we were near the exit.
“I hear something up ahead!” Leonidas said.
The entire group stopped and pressed themselves against the wall. Before us was a large group of oncoming soldiers. I wasn't sure what the commotion was all about, but we've come too far to get caught now. I strained my ears to hear what they were talking about.
