by Edward Brody
We galloped for about 10 minutes or so before we reached a small village of around six or seven homes that seemed to be placed randomly in the rolling sand. There was one small, single-story building built out of stone, and the rest were basically sturdy tents. A couple of small children were running around, throwing pebbles at each other, and a couple of men dressed in dirty, tanned robes were standing with their swords and shield drawn, looking on as we approached. It seemed like they were expecting us.
I followed Dryden and his two men up to the village, and when the children noticed us, they scurried inside one of the tents.
Dryden held a friendly hand up so as not to alarm the men when we closed in. “We got your quest,” he said as soon as we stopped. He reached into his pocket and unraveled a parchment, handing it to one of the men.
“Bloodletters?” one of the village men asked. “We didn’t expect the quest to be taken by your group.”
“Is there a problem with that?” Dryden asked. “Or do you think we can’t handle the job?”
“It’s not that we don’t think you can handle it. It’s just that…” The man sighed and turned his head to his friend. “Nothing…” he continued. “We last spotted the group of bandits about a kilometer or so south. We’ll leave it to you.”
“Well then.” Dryden smiled. “We’ll be back soon enough.” He turned towards me and the other two men and raised his chin before kicking his heels at his horse.
We rode only a couple minutes before spotting a group of six men sitting around a burned-out fire. They wore torn brown rags for clothes, but each of them had a weapon and shield on their back.
As we approached the group of men, they all stood up and readied their weapons. We stopped about ten meters away.
“We have a quest from the village of Arriiage to take care of the lot of you!” Dryden shouted to the men. “You’ve been harassing them the last few days?!”
“Harassing them?” one of the men asked. “We just need food and water. Our caravan broke down, and our horses died a few days later. We’ve been lost in the sands for over a week now. We’re completely out of supplies.”
“No compass?” Dryden asked.
“Compass is shot,” the man replied. He took a step forward and lowered his weapon. “We took a little bit of food and some rice from their village, but not because we wanted to. We had no choice, really.”
Dryden sighed. “Well, I’m sorry for your unfortunate situation, but I can’t help who puts bounty on your heads.”
The man frowned and nodded. “We’ll leave… We don’t know any more trouble. Can you at least point us in the direction of somewhere safe?”
“I think you’ve misunderstood,” Dryden said. “If we let you leave, we won’t collect our bounty.”
“What?” the man asked. All the men tensed up at once.
“Men!” Dryden grunted loudly.
His two soldiers drew their swords and held them high.
“Wait,” I said, holding out my palm. “We’re not going to attack them are we? They just need help.”
Dryden turned to me and lowered his eyes. “You’re expecting us to help them and abandon our quest?” He smirked and tilted his head slightly. “Did you show up at my keep yesterday and throw a severed head on my dinner table or am I imagining someone else?”
Shit… I was starting to slip out of my fake personality. While I felt compassion for the troubled men, I couldn’t let my feelings get the best of me. I didn’t want to attack them by any means, but I really didn’t have much of a choice. If I didn’t follow Dryden, he’d kill me, and I’d have no chance of finding Maleena. I drew my dagger and gave a fake smile. “I was just surprised at your quick willingness is all. A weaker man may have asked them to surrender.”
Dryden returned the smile and yanked his sword out of its sheath. “Attack!”
Dryden and his two soldiers urged their horses forward and swung their swords at the hungry men as they rode past. Although we were outnumbered, Dryden’s soldiers were far stronger, and Dryden himself was a much higher level than any of them. Plus, we were all riding on horses which put the men on foot at a serious disadvantage.
Dryden and his soldiers each landed a blow, knocking three of the men down on the ground, and I kicked at my horse to join in on the action.
My reach was rather low given that I had a dagger, so I leaned sideway on my horse as I was passing a man who had his back turned to me, his eyes focused on one of the others. The tip of my dagger landed in his upper back and cut him upwards as I continued to ride past. The injured man fell to the ground wailed, then immediately scrambled to get back to his feet.
Dryden and the Bloodletters continued riding around in circles, slashing their swords at the remaining two men standing and anyone who dared to stand back up to their feet. I did the same, cutting at least two more of the men when they got back up, and eventually they were all on the sand, moaning and groaning from the wounds. They hadn’t managed to land a strike on any of us.
You have gained 2200 XP!
“Excellent job, men!” Dryden said.
“I don’t think they’ll be returning to that village anytime soon,” I said defiantly, still acting a ruse.
“Oh, they definitely won’t,” Dryden replied. He rubbed his chin for a moment as he looked at the writhing men. “Split their chests open and cut out their hearts.”
The two soldiers nodded and quickly hopped off their horses.
“What?” I asked. “Cut out their hearts?”
“Is that too simple? We could go with something a little more shocking. I know you’re a fan of head removal and all…”
“No, it’s just that they’re injured already, and I’m sure they won’t return to the village. The quest is complete, right?”
“Killing them will ensure they don’t return, and if they’re lying about being lost travelers, when their friends find them with their hearts removed, they’ll not be inclined to bother the village or stick around the area any longer than they have to.”
I swallowed hard and remained silent, knowing that I couldn’t say much more in the situation without Dryden questioning my character.
“Go on then,” Dryden said. “We don’t have much—”
I held out my hand and quickly shot an Arcane Missile directly behind Dryden, landing squarely in the forehead of one of the lost men and causing his head to whip back and body to fall to the ground. While we had been talking and the Bloodletters were busy diving their swords into the other men, one guy had managed to sneak behind Dryden and was raising his sword to strike him down.
When the dead man’s sword clanked on the sand, Dryden looked behind him then back at me and smiled. “Good work.”
I nodded. The move was instinctive…I was just trying to protect my group. But I wondered if I should have let the man swing his sword. If he had landed and managed to kill Dryden, maybe my journey would’ve been over quicker… But then again, if Dryden wasn’t killed by the blow, it could have meant negative repercussions for me by not taking action. The hungry man looked pretty weak anyway.
Dryden waved his hand towards the man I shot. “You can do the honors on this one.”
You have been offered a quest: Open Heart Surgery
Dryden would like you to remove the heart of the lost traveler.
Reward: 2000XP
Do you accept this quest? Accept/Decline
I took a deep breath through my nose, trying not to show my disgust at just the idea of cutting someone’s heart out. I remembered the first time I shot a squirrel in Addenfall; that was almost too much for me. And killing humans in Knuckle Bay really made me feel bad. If it hadn’t been for kroka, I would’ve never been able to—
Kroka… The thought sent a bit of a tingle through my body. When I was on Kroka, even the worst of times felt good. If I only had more, I could—
“Gunnar?” Dryden questioned. “What are you waiting for?”
I rattled my head to shake away my
wandering thoughts and hopped off my horse. I walked over to the fallen man and stared at him for a moment… He didn’t deserve what I was about to do, but I tried to tell myself that he was just an NPC. I didn’t know him any better than any of the other random NPCs that I had killed.
And at least the guy was dead. A few of the other lost travelers screamed as the other Bloodletters cut into them while they were still alive
You have completed the quest: Open Heart Surgery
You have gained 2000 XP!
I felt disgusted with myself when the act was done. My hands and gear were covered in blood, and the scene surrounding the lost men’s camp looked like a Bloodbath. The last two days I had seen and done more violent and gruesome things than I had my entire time in the game. And even if they were just random NPCs that I had violated, the blood and other unmentionables in Eden’s Gate were just too real.
I wished that they weren’t. I wished that Dr. Winston had just made bodies disappear when they died or just prevented crazy lunatics like Dryden the ability to do sick things just to make a statement. I understood that Rupert wanted something that rivaled the real world, but some things were better left unseen.
Dryden allowed me to take whatever loot I wanted, so I picked up a sword, a ring, and a little bit of gold.
You’ve received: Desert Falchion. 21-37 Attack Damage. Requires 18 Strength. Requires 12 Dexterity. Durability: 6/10. Quality: Average Rarity: Common. Weight: 2.8
You’ve received: Band of Minor Vigor. Durability: 9/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Rare. Weight: 0.1 kg. +10 Stamina
You’ve received: 220 Gold Pieces
The sword was a nice base damage upgrade from the sword I had lost to the slavers, but it had no rune slots, so it wasn’t expandable in any way. Still, it was a relief to have something other than a dagger on me.
We left the bloodied scene and rode back to the tiny village where one of the soldiers threw a heart on the ground in front of the village guards.
“The job’s done,” Dryden claimed.
The guard of the village looked visibly disturbed by the heart, but he just nodded and ran off to fetch a small sack of gold.
As Dryden was counting out the purse, a horse sprinted towards us, kicking dust up high in the sky. It caused everyone to turn to see what was coming, and when the horse was closer, I could tell the rider was a Bloodletter.
The horse slid to a rapid stop, and the man on the horse had wide eyes and spoke like he had seen a ghost. “The two men and the girl from the other day… the same ones! I spotted them near the oasis!”
“The same ones?” Dryden questioned. “You’re sure?”
“I’m certain! They just saw them pass between the trees!”
Dryden stopped counting and dropped the remaining gold in his bag. “Let’s go!” he roared, and started rapidly in the route where the ride had come.
“Come on!” the other two soldiers yelled.
I had no idea what was going on, but I whipped my bloody hands around and kicked at my horse to follow in their direction.
Chapter Twenty-Five
1/23/0001
After a ten-minute ride, we came upon an area covered with dense, green foliage and numerous palm trees rising out of the ground. It looked almost like a mirage, being that it was surrounded by sand in every direction.
Dryden rode first into the strange oasis, and the rest of us trotted behind him. We slowed our horses down to a quick walk, and I felt mesmerized as I turned my head in every direction admiring the odd plants, colorful flowers and unusual canopy of fronds that were blocking out most of the hot desert sun. Birds were chirping and insects rested on leaves. In a way, it bore some resemblance to parts of The Vale. It made no sense how it was out in the middle of The Sands.
“There!” one of the soldiers shouted, pointing forward to what looked like a body of water ahead.
We all moved at a slightly faster pace until the water started coming into view—a large, crystal clear pond with several small frogs bouncing around and butterflies flying aimlessly.
I heard the sound of grunt, something sharp striking something brittle, and then the sounds of multiple voices shouting something unintelligible. I looked at the other men, and no one said a word.
When we finally entered the clearing containing the pond, I saw the source of the noise. Two young brown-headed men, each in a patchwork of chain, plate, leather and cloth of different styles and colors were circling around a monstrous, 20-foot tall, bullfrog, trying to take it down. A short, blonde woman was standing near them, waving her staff in the air and shooting shards of what appeared to be ice magic at the frog.
“Try aiming for its legs!” one of the men shouted and jumped forward, slamming his club into the bullfrog’s knee.
The bullfrog kicked its massive leg, throwing the man upward into the air so that he almost did a flip, and when he landed on his back, he groaned. While his head was flat on the grass, he looked backwards to us for a moment, blinked, and scrambled to his feet.
“Shit, guys! Run!” the man yelled.
His two companions turned around at his signal, and when they saw us approaching, all of them bolted for the thickest part of the Oasis.
“Get them!” Dryden barked.
The horses wouldn’t have been able to travel off the trail we were on, so the Bloodletter soldiers immediately hopped to the ground and started running after the brigade on foot.
In the meantime, the giant bullfrog that the three people had been fighting made a croaking noise and took a big hop forward as it refocused its attention on us.
You have failed to inspect your target!
You have failed to inspect your target!
Dryden glared at me. “I said go get them!”
I looked to Dryden and then to the approaching, giant frog. “But what about this thing?”
The bullfrog shot its tongue towards Dryden, and the Bloodletter leader simply held up a strong forearm, allowing the frog’s tongue to wrap around it. The bullfrog’s tongue stretched with tension as Dryden held his ground and then jumped off his horse. He quickly reached up and grabbed at the tongue with the other hand and ripped it in two as if he were tearing apart a weak sheet of paper. The frog made a squeal of sorts and retracted its broken tongue as blood sprayed from its tip.
Dryden turned around, and it literally looked as if red, translucent flames were shooting out of his eyes. He must have been under the influence of a spell or some sort of ability. “Go!” he hissed.
I did as he said and jumped off my horse, and as I ran for the thick trees, I saw a red hue begin to glow around Dryden, and he rushed forward at such a speed that he practically became a blur. He held his sword out in front of him, blade first, and dashed right through the frog, cutting open its abdomen and passing through its back with his entire body. It all happened so quickly, that I don’t think the frog even knew what hit him as its blood splashed from every end.
As I ran, I turned one more time to see Dryden make a high leap in the air and land with his blade pointed downwards, crushing through the frog’s hard skull—a move that was probably unnecessary to kill the already dying monster. Dryden was covered in blood, and as I ran, I continued to hear him grunt and hack away at the frog.
He was way over the top, Dryden, but it was the first time I had a glimpse into his power, and it was incredibly frightening to say the least. He may have even been more powerful than the commanders that I saw battling between the Wastelands and Highcastle.
As I continued through the trees, I caught up to one of the Bloodletters, and he pointed to his right. “One of them ran that way,” he said as he turned for the other direction.
I nodded, veered off right, and continued running for several minutes until I saw the glimpse of one of the men that we were chasing. He turned back to look at me and then noticeably tried to pick up the pace.
I gained a little ground on the man, but both our staminas eventually ran out. We were both lurching ahead at
a snail’s pace, neither gaining any distance on the other. But that, I knew, would work to my advantage, as I was certain I could hit him with a spell if I could catch him at a good angle. We eventually reached a point where, through the trees, I could see sand and knew we were approaching the oasis’ edge. The man saw this as well and paused before trying to hook to the right to go deeper into trees. In that brief moment, I had a good shot and held out my palm, shooting an Arcane Missile that landed on the back of his shoulder.
He yelled and fell to the ground, and I continued ahead until I was standing over him.
Winded and breathing heavily, I pulled out my freshly looted falchion and held it out to him. “Stop…” I breathed. “Stop…”
The man groaned and continued rolling around, gathering debris in his wavy brown hair. “My shoulder!”
“Get up,” I ordered. “I’m tired of chasing you.”
The man looked up at me and snarled. “Fuck you!”
“Fuck me?” I reached down, grabbed the man by his tunic, and yanked him to his feet. As soon as he was standing, I pushed him forward, intentionally putting pressure on the spot where I hit him with the missile.
“Ahhh! Watch it!” the guy yelled.
“Walk forward,” I said sternly. “I’ll have a blade readied at your back.”
The man began walking slowly and moaned. “Yeah, yeah, yeah…” And just when I thought he was compliant, he suddenly ducked, grabbed the club latched to his side and swung back at me, knocking my blade out of the way.
I immediately steadied my blade back in his direction, as he held his club at me with both hands. There was a desperate look in his eyes.
“We don’t have to fight,” I said. “I’m not even sure what you’re wanted for. Just come with me and get this over with.”
