Critical failure!
Your pick has broken.
Your Lockpicking skill has increased by 1.
No! He’d broken another pick. He glanced up and saw the skeletons were close now. Too close. If he didn't pick the lock right now, he wouldn’t be able to outrun them. He pulled out his last pick, took a deep breath and focused on the lock.
This time he focused, ignoring the moans which were getting closer. He had to focus. Suddenly, he felt the tumblers click into place and the lock opened with a snap.
Your Lockpicking skill has increased by 1.
He pulled the lock off the chain and yanked open the door. There was a flash of orange and he realized Luna had already bolted down the steps. He jumped in the cellar and pulled the chain inside. The doors didn’t quite close all the way but he didn’t care. He slipped the large padlock through the chains and slammed it closed just as the first skeleton reached the door.
Stumbling back, he retrieved his daggers and watched as more and more skeletons pulled at the cellar doors. When they didn’t immediately give way, he relaxed slightly and started looking for things to pile in front of the steps. Luckily, there were plenty of things. There were shelves, crates and boxes of all sorts. And luckily, no giant rats.
He spent the next hour moving two large shelves in front of the entrance to the cellar and then stacking crates and boxes in front of it. The entire time, he could hear the skeletons pulling on the doors while others banged on the doors.
Once he had made his makeshift barricade, he slumped down in front of it to catch his breath and let his stamina recharge. The sounds of the skeletons trying to break in never ceased and he prayed the doors would hold.
Jace was glad he no longer needed to sleep since he would have gotten none that night. The sounds of the skeletons never ceased. They continued their pounding and pulling, but the doors to the cellar held.
Luna had gone to the furthest corner from the cellar doors and climbed to the top of a shelf there. At some point, she had curled up in a circle and fallen asleep, apparently confident in Jace’s ability to protect her. Or more like, she’s simply been too tired to stay awake. Occasionally she would pick her head up and look around and then curl back up and go to sleep. Jace smiled at the little feline. At least one of them could sleep.
Jace lost track of the hours but at some point, the noise from the door just stopped. It was sudden and after listening to it all night, the silence was profound. There were no windows in the cellar, so Jace couldn’t tell if it were morning. If it were, then the undead may have retreated back to wherever they had come from. Unfortunately, there was only one way to find out.
It took him almost an hour to move all the crates and shelves in front of the door, but he could finally see the light seeping through the cracks in the cellar door. Creeping up to one of the cracks, he looked out. There were no skeletons that he could see. He took a look through each crack with the same result. He saw no sign of the undead.
Luna had jumped down from her perch and was now near him. She wasn’t hissing and didn’t seem to look stressed, so he guessed she wasn’t sensing any skeletons either. He took a deep breath and retrieved his last lockpick and went to open the door.
This time he opened it on his first try, earning another rank in Lockpicking. After removing the padlock, he opened the door and peaked out. And almost got a pitchfork to the face.
“Watch it!” he snapped, and the pitchfork was withdrawn.
“I knew I heard something down in my cellar! Thought it was either more rats or… the dead,” came a familiar voice.
Cautiously raising his head out, he spied Ralf a few feet away with his pitchfork poised.
Ralf looked at him, obviously trying to make up his mind about something. “You alive or dead?”
“Alive,” Jace responded. “As long as I don’t get a pitchfork through the head!”
Ralf didn’t lower his pitchfork, but he did back up a few steps and motioned. Even still down in the stairwell, Jace could see the bags under his eyes and his haggard appearance. Probably most of the villagers hadn’t slept last night. “Well, come on out of there, let me see you. I’ve never heard those dead fellas speak, just moan, but there’s a first time for everything.”
Jace climbed up the steps with his hands raised and paused at the top.
Ralf did a semi-circle around him before finally lowering his pitchfork. “Well, you don’t look dead. But I warn you,” he brandished his pitchfork again. “You try and eat my brain and you’ll get a mouthful of pitchfork!”
“Fair enough,” Jace said. “And sorry I broke into your cellar. I couldn’t find any other place to hold up.”
The man looked at the cellar and shook his head. “It’s alright. No one ought to be caught by those things! I’m just glad the doors held. Why didn’t you take shelter in the tavern?”
“No one told me about the undead until it was too late,” Jace snapped. “I was all the way out at Jebediah’s farm when he told me about it just before sunset.”
“Well then,” whistled Ralf. “You’re lucky you made it all the way back here in time.”
Jace nodded and thought about what Jebediah had said. “And they’ll be back again tonight?”
“Two nights, every month.”
He handed the lock to Ralf. “Then I’d better make sure I have a place to stay tonight. Thanks again.”
“Sure,” Ralf called from behind him. “Good thing you had already cleared out them rats!”
Jace went straight to the tavern and ordered breakfast. The same crowd was there this morning, but they looked as haggard as Ralf had. There was also a much more sober mood. When people did speak, it was in hushed tones.
He ate his breakfast in silence and then left. He’d come back later and talk to the tavern owner. Jace had barely gotten a dozen steps when a portly man he hadn’t seen before stepped in front of him.
“Dedrurrurth!” he called out and Jace sighed. He’d asked a few of the villagers to call him Jace, but they always reverted to his character name. “I’m mayor Absalom. Sorry I didn’t get a chance to introduce myself before this but I also run the apothecary and it’s always busy before… Well… You know that time of the month shall we say. I must gather extra herbs beforehand.”
Jace smiled half-heartedly. He’d actually tried to go into the apothecary to see if he could get quests, but the door had been locked each time he’d tried. “What can I do for you?”
“Well,” started the man and Jace couldn’t help but feel like he was talking to a used car salesman. “I’m sure you are aware of our current, shall we say, predicament. You seem to be the adventurous sort and I thought perhaps you could look into exactly why these things occur and if possible, put an end to them.”
Mayor Absalom of Sinking Springs has offered you the quest, “Plague of Undead”
Reward: 100 gold, +100 faction with Residents of Sinking Springs, +100 faction with Absalom, item.
Accept quest? (Yes or No)
Jace looked at the reward. It was substantial. That meant the quest was most likely difficult, and without Charlena, he’d be going into a potentially bad situation with no backup.
He hesitated in accepting the quest so long, he saw a line of sweat drip down the mayor’s neck, though his smile never wavered. Finally, Jace decided to go for it. He accepted the quest.
“I’ll check it out,” he told the mayor and the man visibly relaxed.
Absalom grabbed his hand and shook it. “Thank you! Thank you very much Dedrurrurth!”
Jace released the man’s sweaty hand and wondered what he’d gotten himself into.
Chapter 20
Jace had tried to find out from the mayor where the necromancer had been buried but he had been evasive and finally claimed ignorance. Jace wasn’t sure if Absalom was lying or not but he didn’t press it.
Thinking about the quest, he guessed he’d need to explore the burial site of Mimira Sanguis. He couldn’t think of any oth
er leads and according to Jebediah’s story, that seemed to be where they came from. Or at least, that’s what the old man believed.
“What do you think,” he asked Luna. “Should we go to the dungeon?”
His familiar just looked at him as if to say, ‘How should I know?’
Jace tried talking to a few of the other townsfolk about the skeletons but every person he talked to quickly changed the subject or had nothing to say. The most he got from the villagers who would say anything was that they came two nights every month and that it had started five years ago.
He found it curious that the undead started coming to the village five years ago. If he remembered correctly, the battle between King Ackert and Mimira Sanguis had happened over 500 years ago. Why then had the undead only started appearing five years ago? He needed to investigate the burial site.
Before heading back to Jebediah’s, Jace stopped by the general store again.
He bought another set of picks and a 50 foot coil of rope. There were some other items he could have used but he was running low on gold. With his purchases stored in his inventory, he headed west, out of the village with Luna trailing along.
Jace cut through the woods to get to Jebediah’s forest, taking his time. He remembered the crazy run walk he’d done last night to get from the man’s home back to town and wasn’t up for a reverse repeat.
“Let’s not repeat that crazy run we did last night,” he said aloud.
“No,” Luna agreed quietly as she started stalking a butterfly. Jace paused to let her have some fun. She stalked it for several minutes as it flitted from flower to flower.
As Luna played, he thought about Charlena and wished he would have handled things better with her. She’d seemed like a nice girl and he’d appreciated her enthusiasm. He knew there was no way they could have a real relationship, but it had still been nice to have her around.
Jace turned his attention back to Luna just to see the butterfly fly high into the air and away from them. Luna stopped stalking and sat back on her haunches.
“You have fun?” he asked the cat as she watched the butterfly fly away.
“Yes.”
When he reached Jebediah’s farm, he found the old man tending his herds. Jace was surprised to see that the man had been right. The undead hadn’t touched any of the animals. Apparently, they really did just want humanoids. Specifically, they wanted the good player races, he assumed.
“Oh, you didn’t go into the burial mound,” were the first words out of Jebediah’s mouth.
“No,” Jace interrupted. “But I will.”
The old man shook his head. “Not surprising. To be honest, I’m surprised you survived the night. I have to admit, I didn’t think you would. It’s a long run back to the village and those undead are mighty fast. I was cursing myself all night for not inviting you in.”
“I almost didn’t make it back,” Jace admitted, remembering the mad scramble last night. “But this morning, the mayor asked me to investigate the undead and if possible, put an end to their raids.”
The old man raised an eyebrow. “Did he now?”
“He did,” Jace nodded. “Funny thing is no one in town was really willing to talk about it.”
“Weren’t they now.” Jebediah didn’t act surprised.
“What weren’t they telling me?”
The old smiled. “Oh, I’m sure there was lots they weren’t telling you.”
“Why wouldn’t they tell me what I need to know if I’m trying to help them?”
“Why indeed?”
Jace could see he was getting nowhere with this line of questions, so he changed his tactic. “Do you know where the burial spot is for Mimira Sanguis?”
“I do,” the man said.
Jace waited patiently for the man to continue, when he didn’t Jace prompted him. “And will you tell me?”
The man seemed to consider that question. “I reckon I will. But it’ll most likely mean I send you to your death.”
A chill went down Jace’s spine, even though he knew he could respawn. “That’s why the others don’t want to tell you nothing.”
“Because they think I’ll die?” he asked.
“You don’t think you’re the first adventurer to come into Sinking Springs do you? They come, they seem all heroic and then we tell them about the undead or they find out themselves. Next thing you know, they go marching off to the dungeon and we never see them again. You can only have so many adventurers on your conscience before you stop asking for help and just accept your fate.”
“Wait,” Jace said, his mind reeling. Was he saying they’d sent other players to this place and the players hadn’t returned? There were NPC adventurers, but usually they were in the form of mercenaries you could hire to accompany you on your adventures. They weren’t as powerful as players, but they could lend you some extra power if you needed it for certain dungeons or quests. But there was a cost. A steep cost. And not just in money. The mercenaries took part of the experience as well. Experience was more valuable than gold at higher levels.
Jace didn’t think Jebediah was talking about NPC adventurers and that scared him. If players weren’t returning, it most likely meant their characters had been perma-killed. Permadeath was very rare, but certain monsters could eat the “soul” of the character, permanently killing it and forcing the player to create a new character. Jace wasn’t sure what would happen if he suffered a permadeath. Could he create another character? He wasn’t sure and that scared him.
“If you’re thinking about walking away,” the old man seemed to be reading his thoughts. “No one would think the less of you.”
That was exactly what Jace was thinking. He wouldn’t have even risked Mordred on a quest that could involve permadeath. There was no way he was going to risk his actual life - digital or not - on a stupid quest. Not a chance. “I’m going to go back to town and wait out tonight in the tavern.”
Jace turned to go. “Good fella. It’s a shame that elf lass didn’t listen to me.”
His blood going cold, Jace froze in his tracks. He was sure he must have misheard. “Elf… lass?”
“Yah,” the old man chuckled. “About ten minutes before you, she shows up asking where the burial chamber was. Need to find some fella named Jason… Jaxon… Something like that. I told her and off she ran. I tried to yell after her, but she ran off so fast, she didn’t hear me.”
Jace around and caught Jebediah by the arms, his voice insistent. “The elf! What was her name!”
The old man was taken back by the sudden movement and Jace’s tight grip on his arms. “Uh… It was… Um… Almedha… Almedha Pressalor.”
Jace let go of the man and stumbled back. That was Charlena’s character. Charlena had come back? She was looking for him? And now she was off to a place of possible permadeath.
“No!” he yelled, causing Luna to jump. Charlena was rushing to a certain doom because she had been looking for him. Worse, she didn’t even know. He needed to warn her or, just like his parents, it would be his fault she died. He didn’t want that on his conscious, even if it was just character death. Not if he could stop it.
Whirling on Jebediah, he took a step towards him. The older man cowered beneath his glare. “Tell me where the burial crypt is. Now.”
The old man blurted out the directions and Jace took off west down the road. Even if he ran until his stamina was almost gone, he didn’t think he could catch up with her. Jebediah had said she’d been running too. Still, he had to try. He had to get there and stop her or, if it came to it, go in after her and get her out before it was too late.
“We save elf?” Luna meowed.
“Yes,” he replied, hoping it wasn’t just bravado. “We save elf.”
The two of them ran until their stamina was low and then walked until it had regenerated and then ran again. They kept it up the entire five miles to the dead oak Jebediah mentioned and then turned left into the forest. They followed an old game trail another mile befo
re it led into a ravine. He and Luna followed the increasingly rocky trail through the ravine.
The entire time he thought about Charlena. She’s logged off abruptly last night and he had feared maybe the fact that he was dead had freaked her out. But she was back and she was looking for him. And she’d gone into some place where potentially that character could be permanently killed and she’d have to create a new one. If that happened, his chance of ever seeing her again were slim to none. After all, it was only bad luck that wizard had stranded her here. He needed to find her before anything happened to her.
A small stream ran along the bottom of the ravine parallel to the trail but Jace couldn’t stop and admire the scenery. He kept walking alongside the stream. As he walked, he noticed small bits of armor, pieces of dried leather or other things that he guessed had fallen off the undead as they passed this way. That meant he was on the right track.
The guesswork came to halt as the ravine turned a sharp right, into a wall of stone. In the wall of stone, a large doorway had been carved into the rock itself. A door that had once sealed the tomb shut was lying askew, leaving enough room for a fully grown man to pass into the darkness beyond.
Jace noticed that carved into the frame of the doorway were ancient runes - runes too old to be from 500 years ago when the necromancer was defeated. The runes were from an ancient race called the Veteribus, referred to as the Ancient Ones. They had been the first inhabitants of the world who had passed away before the gods came and created the current races. In truth, it was a made-up language that was unique to VEIL, invented especially for the game. There was no in-game skill for the language. Instead, WorldCog left it up to the players to learn on their own.
And while not all players could read Veteribium, it was extremely difficult to get by as a high level player without some knowledge of it. The most powerful raids and artifacts were related to the Veteribus and knowing their language gave you hints, clues or warnings about what to expect.
VEIL Online - Book 1 Page 13
