The Ghost Tower: A LitRPG Adventure

by Thomas K. Carpenter

  Reward: Large conch shell and increased Rock Leaf Elf reputation once you return to Lhoris.

  The latch on the pin in back was broken, but otherwise the brooch was pristine. It appeared to be a perfect replica of the Mother Tree worked in metal. The detail was extravagant. Each leaf looked handcrafted and meticulously placed on the branches of the tree. Terran wasn't sure how the maker had turned the metal the autumnal colors to match the leaves, but it did not appear painted.

  "The craftsmanship on this is incredible," Terran said, eyes wide. "No wonder Ara would be happy to have this back. I wonder if there are any elves capable of making something like this anymore."

  Cosaint Family Brooch (+3 craftsmanship)

  Generations of craftsmen have benefitted from this enchanted brooch.

  After analyzing the brooch, Terran carefully wrapped it in a cloth then gently tucked it into a safe spot in his bag. He wondered how Ara's armor making skills were going to improve once she had it back. As he looked at the splendid armor she had created for him, he found it hard to imagine it could be any better.

  Since it was only midday, the three decided to continue their journey. They still needed to find the Bells of Dagrath flower in the Silent Plains, which looked to be at least another day's worth of travel. As they walked Terran thought more about the battle with the bugs. Had he imagined the change in Zara's eyes or was it a sign of the rage she was fighting inside of her?

  "Zara, towards the end of that beetle fight you seemed to be able to control some of your actions. How did you do that?" Terran asked.

  Zara was quiet for a long time. "I'm not certain," she finally responded. "I was remembering that one time at lunch when Tabitha was making fun of my tics. Do you remember that?"

  "Hard to say. Tabitha liked making fun of everyone."

  "This was the first time you talked to me. She was flinging her arms around like a drowning person looking for help right in front of me. Her friends were all laughing and egging her on. You came over, turned me around, and said, 'Ignore her, she doesn't know how to control her hatefulness, and she hates everybody.' Then you had me join you guys for lunch."

  "Oh yeah, I remember that. And once again I'm reminded of how dumb I was to have a crush on her," he said, shaking his head. "But how did remembering that help you control the rage in the fight?"

  "I think focusing on your acceptance of me despite my tics and stuff reminded me that I need to do the same with this demon arm. I don't know. I'm not sure if I can ever get rid of it and maybe I just need to start working with it instead of against it," she said with a sigh, her eyes focused on some distant memory.

  "That sounds reasonable to me. The more we accept who we really are, the better we'll feel. Now you'll just have to train yourself to tap into that at the beginning of a fight before you agro an entire burrow of bugs," he said with a smile.

  You have completed a quest: Help Zara gain mastery of her rage.

  Reward: 10,000 exp and a slightly more controlled berserker

  You have gained the skill leadership

  Leadership 1 (CHA)

  You can't even lead a horse to water, but it's a start.

  Terran was happy to see that he had been able to help Zara. Maybe they were finally getting back to where they were when they'd started the game.

  Chapter Eight

  They made camp that night near the edge of the Silent Plains. The closer they got to the plains, the more the trees had thinned out, giving way to open grasslands. The lack of cover in an unknown area had Terran flinching at every sound, but as they drew nearer even the sounds were thinning out. He assumed that was because there were fewer forest animals around, but he couldn't shake the eerie sensation that kept the hairs on the back of his neck stiff.

  "So we're trying to find some flower. What was it called again?" Zara asked as they broke camp in the morning.

  "A shellflower or the Bells of Dagrath. It's a group of small green flowers that grow bunched on a tall central stem. Kinda like a hyacinth, but bigger," Terran answered.

  "And all we know is it's somewhere on this plain? That seems like looking for a gap in full plate armor."

  "I think it's a really common flower, so it shouldn't be that difficult. At least that's what I read in the book Zoras showed me."

  "Oh good. I really didn't want to be searching the entire plain for a single flower," Zara said with a grin. "Maybe I should have asked about that before I agreed to this mission."

  "Ha! Too late now, but yeah, this should be quick."

  To pass the time on their journey Terran and Zara had been playing an old game they'd made up to help memorize things from their Difficult Creatures class. The instructor had required his students to know something about virtually every creature in the game. Zara'd had no difficulty with the task, but Terran had struggled just to remember names, so she had come up with the idea of the game and dubbed it creature eaters. They'd played the game for hours, and Terran was able to pass the class.

  "Your turn to start since you won the last round," Zara said, almost skipping down the path.

  Terran chuckled at the sight of the redhead with a large axe strapped to her back skipping ahead. "Bullywug," he said.

  "Giant," Zara responded immediately.

  "Um… Trembling mound," Terran finally answered.

  Zara grinned. "Displacer beast. You're going to have to do better than that."

  "Another T… I should easily know a T. Oh yeah, Troll."

  "Lynx." Zara laughed. "The setup was too easy. You'll never think of an X."

  "Shh," Luna hissed, interrupting their game. "Listen. What do you hear?"

  Everyone stood still for a moment, straining their ears. "I don't hear anything, Luna. What am I listening for?" Terran asked.

  "That's the problem. There's nothing to hear. I don't like it," the gray lynx responded.

  Terran surveyed the land around them. The only trees he saw were behind them like they had somehow climbed past the tree line, but they weren't gaining elevation. There was a lone scrub bush about ten feet further down the path. The bush was barely taller than the surrounding waist-high grass, and the midday sunlight reflected off the three-inch-long, spiky thorns that covered the branches, casting a menacing shadow across the path. Terran watched as a small bird flew past them, tried to land on a bush, but immediately turned around with a chirp. The lone noise was jarring.

  "Something's off," Terran said, shaking his head.

  "I feel it too," Zara said, taking the axe off her back and holding it in front of her. "We should be ready for an attack."

  "I don't even smell anything besides the grass. I don't like this place," Luna said.

  "Doesn't this road go to Dagrath?" Zara asked.

  "It connects up to the Trade Road that goes into Dagrath, but I don't think this route is used much anymore," Terran answered.

  "I have a feeling we may find out why soon enough," Zara said, falling into a fighting stance.

  "Stay with us, Luna. We'll all go together cautiously."

  The hair along Luna's spine stood up, Zara clenched her jaw, grinding her teeth together, and Terran tightened his grip on his staff. They continued down the path on high alert until they passed the scrub bush, and a notification flashed in Terran's vision.

  You have entered the Silent Plains.

  As soon as they stepped foot into the new zone an icon of a dark skull with its skin melting off appeared next to Terran's portrait.

  "What's that? Did you get that too?" Terran blurted out, scanning his group's health bars and seeing they each had the icon.

  "Oh no," Zara said. "Check out your character stats."

  Terran quickly opened the main page of his character sheet.

  Character: Terran

  Level: 12

  Class: Earthen Mage

  Crystal Bard

  Subrace: Rock Leaf Elf

  Champion of the Mother Tree

  HP: 312 (-10% Decay)

  Mana: 380
>
  Sta: 700

  Strength: 5

  Intelligence: 11

  Endurance: 14 (-10% Decay)

  Cunning: 4

  Agility: 4

  Charisma: 9

  "Oh crap. How do we get rid of decay?" Terran asked no one in particular.

  Luna backed up, ears flattened against her head. "We turn around," she answered. As the lynx retreated back into the Rock Leaf Forest the decay icon disappeared from her portrait.

  "Interesting. Seems like maybe the entire zone just has an endurance debuff. Ten percent isn't too bad. Let's keep going. We must have been feeling the aura the closer we got to the zone line," Terran said optimistically.

  "It's still really quiet, but I think we can handle the decay. Maybe they call it the Silent Plain because it's just so quiet," Zara mused.

  Luna's eyes shifted back and forth as she sniffed the air. "I don't like it, but if you insist, let's stay together and go quickly."

  By evening the only signs of life they had seen were the lone bird and several stick-like insects that had scurried across the path in front of them. They decided it would be safe to set up camp just off the side of the road, but Luna suggested they take turns keeping watch throughout the night. Although Terran and Zara weren't as bothered by the area anymore, Luna continued to pace even after they had set up camp.

  "I'll take the first watch," she volunteered. "I can't sleep yet anyway, and maybe I'll find something to eat when the sun sets."

  "Wake me up when you need a break," Zara said, climbing into her sleeping bag. "I can't sleep for more than a few hours at a time anyway. Might as well let Terran get as much beauty rest as he can," she said, winking.

  Just after midnight Terran was awoken by Zara gently shaking him. "Terran, get up. We might be wrong about this debuff."

  Terran rubbed his eyes and yawned. "What? What are you talking about?"

  "The debuff. Look. It stacks."

  Terran glanced at his portrait. The melting skull was still there, but now it had a two in the bottom right corner. A quick glance at his character sheet showed his endurance and hit points were now down twenty percent.

  "It must be on a twelve-hour timer. We came into the zone around noon, and just before midnight I got the message that decay had increased. That's probably why there's virtually no life here. If you stay long enough your endurance and hit points will drop to zero," Zara said breathlessly.

  Terran sat up at the news. "We need to find the flower quickly then. I think we'll be fine as long as we factor in time to get back to the forest after finding the flower. That gives us three days to search. Since there is barely anything alive in the zone, at least we shouldn't have any battles to worry about."

  "I hate to waste our time sleeping. Can you see in the dark, Terran?"

  "Yeah. I have the Mystara Eventide," he answered, getting up.

  Luna lifted her head from her paws as the two broke camp. "As long as I can get some catnaps every once in a while, I'm good to go." She stood and arched her back in a stretch.

  It was a warm and cloudless night, so no one had bothered to set up a tent, which made it easier to get moving. The silence of the zone created an eeriness that crawled on Terran's skin. He had never realized how the chirping of crickets or hoot of an owl in the forest was actually comforting. He felt like he was holding his breath as they moved through the silent darkness in search of the flower.

  As the hours progressed into days everyone seemed to be on edge. Scowls and snide comments replaced games that passed the time as tempers ran high. They had continued their search walking for about six hours, then resting for two. Fortunately, even the clouds seemed to avoid the zone, so they had been able to just crash on the ground wherever they stopped. They stopped bothering to set up a watch since there seemed to be nothing in the zone that would attack them while they slept anyway.

  As the sun cleared the horizon on the third day, Terran alternated between searching the endless grass for a flower stalk and continuously checking the decay icon on his HUD, which now had a four in the bottom right corner. His max hit points were down to 203, and there was still no sign of the flower. He knew by noon they would have to turn around with or without a flower.

  "Can we take a little break?" Terran asked as they neared a rock outcropping that would make a nice place to sit.

  As if the silence had crept into Zara's bones, she merely nodded as she threw off her pack and sat down on the rock. The zone seemed to not only be draining their endurance, but also their will to continue.

  Terran sat on the other side of the rock looking at his feet as he took a long pull from his flask. A few feet in front of him he spied one of the stick-like bugs scurrying across the path.

  "How are these stupid bugs surviving here? I swear they're the only creatures we've seen in three days," Terran sighed.

  "You're forgetting that deer carcass, or whatever animal it was, we saw yesterday," Zara said.

  "Since it was nothing but bones, I would say it wasn't surviving too well," Terran growled.

  "Yeah, sorry. I was trying to make a joke, but I'm no Flynn."

  Terran nodded and ran his toe through the dirt on the path. "And nothing seems funny right now. Where are these darn flowers? Zoras made it seem like this would be an easy task."

  Luna crouched down, tail low and swishing, as she watched the stick bug walk across the path.

  "Hey, don't eat that," Terran called to her when he noticed what she was doing. "I want to see where it's going."

  "But I'm hungry," she said, standing back up.

  Terran broke off a piece of the mushroom he had been eating and handed it to her. Her sandpaper tongue scraped his palm as she grabbed the piece, sitting down on her haunches to eat. Terran continued to watch the bug as it ambled across the path. He gently parted the grasses when it disappeared into the tall, brown stalks to keep following it. The bug moved quickly on its six legs, seeming to have some purpose.

  "This guy is booking it. He must be late for a party or something," Terran called back to the others. He wasn't certain, but he thought he saw Zara roll her eyes.

  "While you chase bugs like a little kid, I'm going to take a nap," Zara said, moving to the ground, stretching her legs out, and resting her head on the rock.

  He continued to follow the bug over the crest of a small hill and down into a little valley with a small pond. He had been so focused on not losing sight of the bug that looked just like a stalk of the grass with legs, that he wasn't paying much attention to his surroundings. But as the bug crawled up a greenish brown stalk, Terran froze. There were three other bugs higher up the stalk, and at the very end was a cluster of small, bell-shaped green flowers.

  Each bug had chewed a tiny hole in the stalk, and they were lapping up the white liquid that slowly oozed out like sap from a pine tree. Terran saw that there were about half a dozen other plants around, each with a few of the stick-like bugs on their stalks. He knew immediately these were the shellflowers they had been searching for over the last three days.

  He took out his knife and gently cut one of the stalks. As soon as he finished a notification popped up.

  You have completed the quest "Obtain a Shellflower."

  Don't be so shellfish and take them all!

  Terran almost cried with relief as he harvested the rest of the flower stalks. "Sorry, buddies, you'll have to find your lunch somewhere else," he said as he gingerly picked the bugs off each stalk and placed them on the ground.

  Once all the flowers were harvested he went back to the rock with his bouquet. "Look! Those stick bugs eat shellflowers," he called, startling Zara from her nap.

  "You mean if we would have followed one of them on the first day, we probably could already be halfway back to the Glenn?" she said incredulously. "Screw a nap. Let's get out of here."

  With the flowers safely stored in a jar in Terran's pack, everyone's spirits rose. Terran wasn't even bothered when his debuff ticked up to five about an hour later
. He was only at half his max hit points, but there was nothing in this zone to fight, so he wasn't worried. Much to Luna's distaste, Terran and Zara continued their game of creature eaters as they traveled. Now that they had the flowers, they went back to a normal traveling schedule of sleeping at night and walking during the day.

  "We should be back to the Rock Leaf Forest by tomorrow afternoon," Terran said, eyeing the black line of distant trees ahead of them. "Let's camp here for the night. I'm too tired to go much further, and we have at least thirty hours before the decay maxes out."

  "Works for me," Zara said. "I'm tired too. Losing all this endurance is making it harder to move. I can't wait to be back to the forest."

  Exhausted by the traveling and the lack of endurance, Terran easily fell asleep on his back, staring up at the blinking stars.

  He knew it was past midnight by the increase in the decay debuff when he was startled awake by the sound of a low, deep growl a few feet to his right. Even with his Theris stone it took his eyes a few moments to adjust and make out the silhouette of a large black dog, almost the size of a small horse, with a line of grotesque spikes protruding from its spine sniffing at Zara's head.

  Chapter Nine

  "Zara, get up!" Terran yelled, springing to his feet, the surge of adrenaline erasing any lingering exhaustion. Analyzing the creature revealed it to be a level 14 deathhound.

  Zara bolted upright and reached for her axe lying next to her just as he heard the grass moving some distance behind him. Terran was unsure of where to look, but when nothing came out of the grass he turned back to the deathhound, pulse racing.

  As his eyes adjusted he saw that the deathhound's skin was rotting off its bones in places. Its entire lower jaw was exposed to the bone, revealing three-inch-long teeth that made it impossible for it to fully close its mouth. The skin on its right side had also rotted away, exposing ribs and intestines tucked beneath them. But the smell was the worst. The creature smelled like a week-old corpse that had been lying in the heat of the sun after being dragged through a sewage pipe. The hairs in Terran's nose felt like they were on fire the closer he got to the creature.