by David Gunter
“Ok, so you’ve been experiencing all these things so that you can amuse others, but you haven’t met them yet, so all you see is your side of the story. And before you ask, yes, your pain and your joy and your entire life is someone else’s enjoyment or will be. No, you won’t understand this until you’ve increased in levels and had a chance to go beyond the City of the Dead”. He stopped, graciously letting her think for a moment.
“So I’m clearly not going to understand what you’re saying until I increase in levels? Maybe you can explain that?” She said.
“Sure, that’s a healthy place to start. You need to have more experience in this world before you can increase in levels, and that is how you’ll be able to fit more knowledge and understanding of the world into your mind. You haven’t been noticing, but your experience points have been rising a little bit at a time since the first moment you completed a task or did something that someone asked of you.” He said and paused, giving her a chance to verify his words.
Tala opened her character sheet once more and saw that something new appeared on it that she hadn’t seen before.
Character Sheet
Name: Tala LimbacoLevel: 1
5xp to level 2
HP: 15/15 Stamina: 15/15
MP: 15/15Soul: 15/15
Race: Human Zombie
Alignment: Dark Aligned
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Effect: Spirited Away
Away with the flesh, away with the sorrow. You will live on in a blissful state of oblivion. Only the coin of the living can bring you back. ‘A coin for a coin’, the boatman says. On the island of the spirits you can remember the living. Go there to know your self.
“Ok, but that level thing wasn’t there before, so what is going on here!” she said. She felt as if she was on the brink of losing her cool and that if something didn’t start to make sense soon, she was going to explode.
“And there it is, that feeling that you are currently having, it kind of feels like you’ve had something nagging at you for some time, and if you don’t let it out, it’s going to blow up or something. That’s a feeling that starts to grow more acute the closer you get to the next level. Most in this world experience this feeling as they are doing battle and are focused on not dying, or they are about to complete a quest and are about to speak to a quest giver to receive a reward. In those cases, they don’t notice the feeling because their focus is elsewhere. But in your case, you are about to complete a quest you don’t know you’re on, and you’re about to cross the threshold and receive a bountiful supply of experience points but don’t know it. So all you’re feeling is the anxiety and apprehension as if a storm was about to arrive, but you can only feel the annoying moisture in the air.” He paused once more and pointed at the boat they had been so casually standing by for the past few minutes as they talked.
She didn’t think twice about it and simply climbed into the craft and moved to the other side to make room for the navigator as he also climbed into the craft. Archy then bent over the side of the boat and picked up one of the ropes. As he slowly started to pull on the rope, the craft started forward and took the direction of the rope at a slow and relaxed pace.
Then he started singing, “Row row row your boat gently down the stream merrily merrily merrily merrily life is but a dream.” Then he paused and started laughing in that same deep resounding voice he’d used to speak.
Tala was torn between amusement and dissatisfaction as she had always wanted to be sung too, but she would’ve rather had the silence at seeing the place and occasion. Perhaps the choice of song was a bit lacking as well, but she dared not tell Archavious that. She cautioned a smile at Archavious, who seemed to shrug as if realizing that what was perhaps funny to him wasn’t that funny to her in her situation.
“Ok, ok, I guess it would make more sense if I had an actual paddle and wasn’t pulling on one of the strings of time. Well, don’t worry, it feels like I’m pulling on this thing slowly, but if you see, we’ve traveled far from the shore.” He said this and once more let the truth of his words hit her.
She looked behind his larger figure and saw that it was true. They had gone very far from the shore, and as she watched him pull gently on the rope, the shore became almost impossible to spot in the distance.
“So we are right at the edge now, I think. What you might want to do is stand and face the thing that looks like a waterfall. It’s kind of a neat effect as I pull on the next stretch of rope. You’re going to be transported through the veil and experience a wondrous thing. Or at least that’s what I’ve been told by those that have come back from there”, He said this and then waited for her to stand and face the thing that looked like a gentle falling waterfall in the distance.
When Tala stood and turned to face the waterfall, Archy then pulled on the rope, and she felt the rush of the waterfall accelerating towards her, and as she passed through it, she felt…
Archavious held out his hand and caught the coin that came out the other side easily. It always appeared to him that a soul was being converted into a coin, but he knew it was more complicated than that, and in reality, the coin was simply a type of place holder or marker for the soul that had passed beyond. Without that exact coin, the soul could not cross back because it simply wouldn’t be found. The coin was an ID generated and then returned, and he was as one constructing and then executing the command. In that sense, Archy was still just a programmer. But that kind of thinking felt like a long time ago in a place far, far away as he liked to say it.
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Tommy looked desperately around for any answer, but all that he had was some dusty clothing and the overwhelming sense of loss. He backed away, stumbling over his feet and into the street, and looked in every direction for an attacker that wasn’t there. He felt threatened and as if some greater plot was unfolding, and he was at its center. At that moment, he saw himself as weak and as an easy target for some unknown foe’s ire.
Then Tommy glanced up and back the way he had come, and he spotted far away, the giant looming figure of the gate guardian, and thought briefly that this was somehow this creature’s doing. Yet as he looked at the colossal being, it shook its head, as if acknowledging his predicament, and pointed its finger further up the road in the direction of the Temple once more. Then it lowered its hand and nodded its massive head as if to say that this is where Tommy would find answers. Then the creature turned and went back to looking over the entrance losing all further interest in Tommy.
Tommy turned and ran in the direction of the Temple. He didn’t know what he’d find arriving there, but there was better than here and in this state of anxiety. Then he rounded a corner as the street opened up to an area with no adjoining buildings and then beheld a giant cube-shaped building that looked simple and completely out of place there. Its walls had deep and wide fins going vertically from the base to the top, and the only similarity to the other building was that it too was made of the same black glass-like stone which seemed to capture the reflections of the cloudy skies above. However, the building had no windows, and as he neared the building, he could hear a hum to the place that reminded him of the sound high voltage makes. Almost as soon as he touched the steps leading up to the building, a lightning bolt shot down from the heavens and struck the Temple on its top side and, before he could react, another bolt shot out from the Temple and struck another building nearby and that one in turn shot out and struck another and this seemed to progress throughout the entire city.
As Tommy watched the bolts leap from one building to the next, he wondered if there was some point to the action. Perhaps it wasn’t random but something that was planned and desired. The sight would’ve piqued his curiosity more if not for the very real and present problem he was trying to solve. Tala had vanished, and the words she had left him with needed an answer fast. He ran up the steps to the Temple and saw that a hooded figure was
close to the entrance to one side. He recognized the same style of swag the creature had reminding him of ‘Big Guy’, so he directed his pace to it and only stopped when he had reached a comfortable back kick distance from the creature.
“Ahoy there young scalawag, arrr ye liking to come aboard this fine vessel? I mean would ye like to board this here building? And by board I, errr, mean enter it?” The hooded figure said with a pretty strong sailors tone and demeanor.
“I, um, well I would like to enter,” said Tommy. “But I am also having an emergency and need an answer fast. My girl, I mean, well she’s a friend, and she just appeared and then she vanished into dust in front of my eyes, and she said, as she disappeared, that I needed to bring a coin to the boatman. But, well, I don’t understand any of this.” Tommy paused to catch his breath and was about to start another series of questions, but the hooded being held up his hand, asking him to stop.
“Now look here, young scalawag, there be answers plenty when the booty be bountiful. Arrr ye seeing my meaning?” The hooded figure held out a skeletal hand and rubbed his bony fingers in the universal sign for ‘have you got the doe’.
“Um, ok, what kind of booty would be agreeable?” Tommy stalled for time as he tried to figure out what he had of value in his possession.
“Well, that be the right sort of question that brings that ladi da sound to my ears. Why getting the where of a precious gold coin for the boat man that be worth at least a month of hard labor at sea. Or perhaps ye may have twenty copper on ye lad, presently?” The hooded swindler proposed.
A month’s worth of wages would be twenty copper? Tommy tried to do some calculations in his head of the significance of the amount, but not having been in this world long, he didn’t know how to measure it. If the hooded figure was to be trusted with anything, it would be that it would be looking out for its own interests, so out of instinct and upbringing, Tommy quickly countered.
“I’ll work for a month but only for thirty copper. Or I’ll give you ten copper today. You know, since money is worth more today than tomorrow, am I right? You may have also noticed that I’m no ordinary man too.” Tommy looked at the hooded figure with all the air of confidence he could’ve given, allowing only a small twinkle in his eye and the faintest smile to show.
The hooded figure looked at him quizzically and then gave a short chuckle. “Well, well, I see ye be a different sort of man surely. But we be seeing less of a man with every rising tide. I be thinking that ye wants to keep to the dark while at sea and ye be more of a hindrance than a help at times. Tell ye what I be thinking. I be thinking that ye be better cut for darker deeds. Working by the shore lines be my usual but work be scarce now as merchants be sending less and less to and from these parts of late. Me suspects some mischief is a foot and this be interfering with the booty flowing. If ye can uncover what be stopping the booty from coming around then we be agreeable parting with information to ye lassy’s gold coin. There may be some skulkery and some skullduggery with this request but ye be the one for the task. What say ye?” The hooded figure seemed to look closer at Tommy than Tommy would’ve liked but he couldn’t deny that this new ask was far better suited for him than the previous one.
“I accept the task in exchange for the information I’m looking for. Information for information seems like a pretty fair trade.” Tommy paused for a moment and then held out his hand as if to shake, and the hooded figure backed away slightly as if expecting a dagger in the ribs or an attack.
The hooded figure examined his offered hand for a moment, then whispered. “The handshake is something of an older custom and be one between honest merchants. But the tasks I be offering are of a different sort would ye say? What I be offering ye be a salute of sorts and I’ll give it to ye freely. This be the sign of two old salts offering terms in the shadows or by the docks”. And with that the hooded man held up his hand and making a hook with his index finger twisted his wrist as if to signify that something had been hooked then he continued. “This be the sign and it serve ye well around these parts and kind of employee-ment. What else has brought ye to here entrance? “.
The dealing seemed to have been concluded, and then Tommy remembered why he was coming to the Temple in the first place. He would have to figure out how to save Tala as he also found out what his purpose here would be.
“I have been asked to come to the Temple to find answers from the Temple. I’m unsure if the deity within will have the answers or if the Temple itself will provide these. The only clue I’ve been given is that the answers are here, and I will have to look for them.” Tommy looked from the Temple to the entrance keeper as if hoping for an answer to this unknown quest. He was sure to omit the part about the stone as he didn’t want anyone to go looking for the stone and discover his quest before he had a chance to know it himself. He had to be the first to find and look under the stone.
The hooded man looked at Tommy again as if considering him in a new light and whispered. “A dark quest on a dark day?” Then he looked back the way Tommy had arrived at the Temple and quickly looked back at Tommy as if to say that he had put two and two together and saw a deeper truth.
“Where ye be coming from exactly?” The dark hooded sailor asked, raising his voice slightly more animated.
“I am coming from beyond the walls and beyond the forest and beyond that”. Tommy left it vague like that and hoped he wouldn’t have to explain that he’d fallen from the sky a few days before.
“Did ye now. So ye appears before the temple on a dark day looking for a quest and I just be handing ye a quest that so chance be the darkest quest I has to offer? What ye playing at?”. The quest giver’s voice started to rise a bit more with every word as he continued. “So ye just stride up here giving me stories of the boatman and the coin and then ye thinks to trick me by this and get a dark quest? What kind of claims ye be making? Ye claiming next to be the Dark One himself?”
The way the conversation was going sounded to Tommy as if he had pushed all the wrong buttons all at once and would be making an enemy out of this shrouded sailor without much of a clue as to why. Tommy was about to say something and hopefully change the tone of the conversation, but then the demon on his back spread its wings wide and then screeched loudly. “Screeeeeeeeetch”. The hooded sailor jumped back as if he’d just stepped on a snake and, in the same action, pulled out a sharp dagger from the sleeve of his cloak and landed poised to strike.
“I be the eater of this soul and I am scary soul eater from land below.”, Said the demon worm on Tommy’s back. “My host lost his female friend before he runs here and he only wants to find her. She has gone to boat man as I see her flee there. Host speaks truth. The tall gatekeeper told my host to come to Temple and ask questions.”
Though the tension had escalated quickly with the worm’s presence clearly made known, it also looked to have worked to steer the conversation in another direction quickly. The shrouded sailor seemed to change his posture and put his dagger out of view. Tommy made a mental note of the slight change to the narrative the creature on his back had made for him and felt a slight twinge of gratitude, but this only made him feel sicker about his predicament.
“How did ye come by the demon worm?” Said the shrouded sailor.
“I fell in a dark cave a few days ago on my way here, and when I awoke, it had attached itself to my back. I don’t know how to get it off, but it did help me to get here safely, for what it’s worth”. Tommy spoke softly and without hesitation hoping that this would be enough of an answer but was doubtful that it would be.
“The god of this Temple be defeated by my hand and by the hand of each shrouded. Ye seek answers from a dead god, me thinks. A dead god is what ye will find here, in a dead city.”
Tommy had only had a small chance to see the dagger in the shrouded sailor’s hand but his attention to detail not failing him had also shown that it was not a metal dagger but made of somethin
g else. This made him think of his own dagger. The dagger that he had collected from the corpse back in the cave and which had awarded him some praise from Whispers.
“I have one of these daggers too”. Tommy pulled out the dagger and held it on his palm and held it in such a way that he could flip it and make it useful on a moment’s notice.
The shrouded sailor visibly relaxed and stepped forward.
“Scurvy dog! Ye have a dark dagger indeed, made of dark wood. Ye has embarked on the darkest of quests, but ye did not know it, me thinks. If ye had but shown this knife from the first, I’d had led ye to the dark passage straight, and any answers that ye desired, I would’ve provided freely. So ye clearly not be knowing the burden and the responsibility of the dagger or none of its privileges. There be much ye do not know. The quest I give ye is yours but a quest ye be having far greater than this. This building has no booty to offer ye, but if ye desire to enter, ye may. After what mischief here be done ye aught be finding the Bar Maid’s Slippery Inn and there ye asks for a taste of the inn keepers slippery lass. A little sip of slippery lass and you’ll know exactly what to do.” With that information given the shrouded sailor went back to stand at the entrance as he had been when Tommy had arrived and just stood there in the dark, giving Tommy a long and awkward stare.
