《Gaming on a MUD is difficult.》 CH.1 Character Creation A certain community college student was intently mashing a button on his computer. Filled with dreams of becoming a hero in a fantasy world he rolled up his sleeves and mashed buttons on his keyboard. Roll roll roll. Nope! Stats are not good enough, reroll again. One thing that has been a time honored ceremony is character creation. Are these stats good enough? Not if the list of randomly rolled dice can be higher. Roll roll roll¡­. The stats are rolled in a group. 3d6 (3 six sided dice) rolled 6 times over. Then the player will assign them to their stats: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma. Roll roll roll 12,10,4,17,11,14 Ugh¡­ those numbers are crap. Where are the 18s? Random number generator please give at least two 18s. The player trying to create his MUD character grumbled internally and mashed reroll again and again. This rerolling will go on for a while. It might be a good time to pontificate the meaning of MUD. MUD means ¡°multi user dungeon.¡± Maybe a little more explanation is required. Perhaps some history on online gaming as well. In the days of Yore back before the internet was much of a thing the modem was a novel invention. This certain college student started off online gaming on something called a BBS: A bulletin board system. The movie ¡®War Games¡¯ is a good example of this. The whole premise of that movie is a kid dialing up what he thought was a BBS with games on it and tried to play global nuclear thermal war. Anyway, another game that this young man liked was ¡®Legend of the red dragon¡¯. It was a text game where you could dial in to the BBS play for a few minutes, use your action points and be done for the day. This is what makes MUDs so novel. Yes, like LORD (legend of the red dragon) it is text based run through a terminal program. However, instead of just having some action points it connects via telnet and many people can be playing on the same server at the same time. At the time it was something that was a technological marvel. Back to the game: 18,8,14,15,18,4 Oh¡­ two 18s¡­. Very good! But that 4...nope reroll. All stats 18s that would be the ideal¡­ no ,the perfect character. Is that even possible? Maybe there is some kind of code that puts a cap on how high the sum total can be. Only one way to find out: keep rerolling. Hours passed and it became apparent that the perfect stats were likely unattainable. Sanity required something to be picked for progress to be made. A decision was made to try for a caster. The system was familiar to the now weary man in front of the computer. Caster classes could be: Bard, Cleric, Mage. Also there were the multi class options Cleric/Mage, Fighter/Mage, Thief/Mage, Fighter/Cleric. Paladin or Anti paladin was also an option but they had some really high stat requirements. Also, ranger was an option as well but like paladin they were not true casters and had limits on how high of spell level they could go up to. Being able to cast divine and arcane spells seems like a good bet. Though the trick is¡­ two 18s are absolutely needed because of how casting works. The game rules state that a cleric can cast only top level spells with 18 wisdom. If they settle for 17 then rather than 9th level cap it would be 8th level cap. It is the same with mage. If a mage doesn¡¯t have 18 intelligence then they can¡¯t cast 9th level spells. One could completely hamstring their character at creation by not rerolling enough and just not know it until much later after grinding levels. Cleric/Mage check. 18 wisdom 18 intelligence check. Next is to pick a race. Races also have stat requirements but the character creation is tricky¡­ you pick your race last so it¡¯ll only show the races that you meet the stat requirements for. Options are: Elf, Half-elf, human, Half-drow with how the stats are. Again other races exist but would require reroll. Half-elf selected; Lets go! Pick a name: How about Isaiah? That is a good name. Name: Isaiah Race: Half-elf Class: Cleric/Mage Level: 1/1 After confirming and finalizing the new character Isaiah is transferred into the game world. The very first room where new characters are plopped into the mud is a place called the ¡®Main Adventurers Hall¡¯ (MAH for short) with¡­ well mostly nothing. Typing the command ¡®inventory¡¯ shows two items: Holy Symbol Spell book One is for casting divine magic and the other for casting arcane magic. Divine magic one has to pray for that specific spell with the ¡®pray¡¯ command. Arcane magic one has to ¡®memorize¡¯. At level 1 there is one spell slot. Though getting access to spells is different for divine and arcane casters. Divine casters get spell domains based on their deity. Magi need to find scroll in game and transcribe them into their spellbook. The main adventurers hall is a room set up like one would expect an adventurers guild. There is a desk setup with a clerk to receive quest items. Several tables are set around and the whole room is filled with wall and ceiling mounted trophies of monsters and odd artifacts. On this MUD it is laid out with a series of connected rooms. There is one exit from this room: west. Most rooms are linked with directions ¡°north, west, east, south¡± some stuff is up and down as well. But the exits can be any word. ¡°Out¡± is a popular one for example. Time to adventure! Isaiah leaves the room to the west and is on a road that goes north and south through a town called shadow. To the north there is a crossroads that goes east and west intersecting the north and south word he is currently on. By using the ¡®peer¡¯ command he sees an NPC in one of the rooms at the cross road named ¡®town crier¡¯. Typing north a few times to get to the NPC he excitedly says: ¡°Hello Isaiah! You look new, do you need a map of shadow?¡± The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Talking is done with the ¡®say¡¯ command. Isaiah says: ¡°yes¡± The town crier says ¡°here you go!¡± and gives Isaiah a map. The map shows that the city has four gates: a north, a south, an east, and a west gate. At the crossroads there is a map that has levels of which are to go to. Isaiah looks at the map and discovers to the west there is a desert that level 1-6 characters can fight in. Just then, something flashes across the screen. Gabrielle enters. Gabrielle exits south. Apparently that is another player? They just walked past me so might have not been interested in talking. Time to head to the desert and see if we can get some experience points! After heading to the desert Isaiah discovers something very annoying. Low strength means that the character can barely hit anything and doesn¡¯t do much of any damage at all. Most of the rooms have rats. Rat attacks you! Rat misses you. You miss rat. Rat tickles you innocently. HP: 8/9 You miss rat. Rat misses you. You tickle rat innocently. This continues on for a while. The rat is vanquished after casting both the single cause light wounds spell and magic missile spell. However, having used all the spells prayed and memorized means having to prepare them again. Maybe picking magic / cleric wasn¡¯t such a great idea. Not great HP and being entirely reliant on magic doesn¡¯t sound fun. The only answer seems to be recreation. Oddly enough the command to remove your character so it can be recreated is . Suicide is typed. A prompt appears: ¡°are you sure? yes/no¡± Yes is typed and the connection disconnects. Well that was a bit of a setback. But on a brighter side it is a chance to roll for better stats! Suicide was a good excuse to take a break from sitting at the computer typing out commands to play the game. The young man prepared some unhealthy snacks and a soft drink and took a bathroom break before refreshing the closed telnet connection that cut out after the character he had just spent hours rolling and much less time playing was deleted with only a couple keystrokes. Reconnecting showed the main login screen. It was an ascii art with characters that were spread out in the shape of a dragon¡¯s head. Under that there was a prompt: Enter Your character¡¯s name: Isaiah was still a good enough name and was free¡¯d up because the old Isaiah committed suicide. The old Isaiah didn¡¯t really interact with anyone so it likely wouldn¡¯t cause any confusion to keep the same name. After entering credentials the young man was face to face with his old nemesis. A list of 6 stats: 10, 9, 14, 5 , 6, 17 Nope. Reroll. 4, 11, 15, 9, 18, 11 Ugh! Reroll. This went on for some time until a decent fighter/mage was rolled up. One with an 18 strength. This character could actually do some melee damage to those rats right outside of shadow. However this proved to open another can of worms. Apparently there is a thing called a strength percentile. Strength: 18(11) Warrior classes like fighter, ranger, paladin, and anti-paladin get to roll a 0-100 randomized number for their percentile. A strength of 18(00) could get a massive bonus to hit and to damage. However, the player doesn¡¯t get to see this character until they are almost done with character creation. Isaiah was an elf fighter/mage but with a not great strength percentile. There was no way to reroll the percentile. This was frustrating. ¡°Character creation¡­ I see you have shown me your final form¡­¡± thought the young man while he disconnected to see if that would let him restart his character from scratch again. This double walled RNG with lots of steps into the character creation was just so grindy. Eventually the 18(00) strength stat was rolled. However, fate was not kind. The elf race has some stat requirements and elf was the race he wanted Isaiah to be now. Half-elf was still an option but it would be nice to try something different. Besides, lots of the players were half-elves. They were a popular choice because they didn¡¯t have any stat requirements and also got low light vision. The main advantage to be an elf instead of a half-elf was because they had a +1 to dexterity and a -1 to constitution. Roll roll roll, suffer suffer suffer. Maybe this is what it feels like to have a gambling addiction? There must have been some kind of otherworldly force preventing perfection in stats and eventually the elf isaiah came out something like this Name: Isaiah Race: Elf Class: Fighter /Mage Strength: 18(71) Dexterity: 19 Constitution: 16 Intelligence: 18 Wisdom: 14 Charisma: 10 Yes, Charisma was the sink stat---so meta. But being able to have a stat higher than possible to roll with 3d6 was something to be excited about. Those rats were sure to not be able to hit him almost at all now! Hit points are averaged together for the two classes. Fighter has 1D10 (one ten sided dice) and mage (1d4). This multi class was a combination of the best hit dice and the worst. Cleric hit dice is 1d8 so that combo is a bit more tanky. Fighter/mage seemed like it might be a bit more enjoyable play style. Focus on fighter for damage output and maybe get some defensive / fodder spells to help with survivability. Another thing that is noticeable is that part of creation is to select a magic school for specialization. Some of the magic specialization options are: transmuter, invoker, abjurer, enchanter, diviner. Isaiah will be a diviner. Currently, the magic schools didn¡¯t mean much except for titles. Depending on the level, it shows a title. This is what is shown to the who list. A command that is executed by just typing . After finishing up, posing as a mage showed Isaiah¡¯s title. Isaiah --- Expert-know-it-all Well apparently a level 1 diviner is an expert-know-it-all. That title is somewhat silly. But newbies are supposed to be not too serious so it is okay. Isaiah left MAH headed north to the crossroads and east to the many rooms in the desert to fight rats. He didn¡¯t have weapons or armor and the only item on him was a spellbook with the starter spell magic missile in it. However having good dex increased his AC(armor class) and a high strength increased his damage and frequency to hit. The rat hardly touched him and he finished it in a couple hits. This process repeated until he had enough EXP to get to level 2 fighter and level 2 mage. was the command to level up. However, this didn¡¯t work in the desert it gave the message: ¡°This is not an appropriate place to advance, advance in rooms with boards, churches or trainers¡± CH.2 Light Another useful command that is hard to not spam is ¡®who¡¯. It shows the name of the character and their title. Typing who brings up the who list like so. -Players and High Mortals- Articut the high master priest Baldwin Shdednei, Vigilant Eye of God A ghost Drakoth the magical inventor Frey the employed fighter Gabrielle the low master priestess Inanna the decimator Koth the giant killer Larson the soul snatcher Laryia the expert trickster Light the master priestess Lliira the Joydancer Margath Relgar, First son of the Bards Morningstar the new student of nature Pyros the legend Tal the novice mage Tremear the cunning thief The characters with the custom titles were the high mortals. Currently, high mortal can be obtained by reading level 20. Even in a game made completely out of text players could not resist a chance to bling out their characters to stand out a little bit more. Getting to level 20 was not an easy feat either. Each level required about twice as much experience as the previous. And for whatever reason the experience tables were not the same for each class. It caused the multi classed characters to have levels different between the classes. For example anyone who multiclassed with thief would have a higher thief class then their other classes because it has the lowest experience requirements to level. The player could a certain class and that would be the title that showed up on the who list. The point remains that the titles have meaning. Time to try and find a place to advance to level 2/2. Isaiah left the corpses of rats behind and after getting lost in the desert for a while and killing a few more rats made his way back to the crossroads in the center of shadow. This time there was another character sitting in the room and not just rushing to wherever it is that people playing this game are in a hurry to get to. Light, the master priestess is here. Light says: ¡°hello¡± I was spamming buttons to get back to MAH because there was a board there. I typed advance twice getting to level 2/2. I stopped to look at my increased HP and noticed that I missed someone trying to greet my character. I backtracked and went back to the crossroads of shadow and saw light was still in the same spot. Lucky for me she wasn¡¯t in a hurry to be someplace. ¡°Hello¡± I said. There was an awkward pause. Classic RPGs like final fantasy or zork didn¡¯t really have much roleplay even though the ¡°R¡± in rpg means roleplay. Actually interacting with someone in a game in real time was a novel idea at the time. Yes, chat rooms were a thing. But this wasn¡¯t two people on AOL instant messenger cutie2001 chatting with oakley98. Character could talk, they could emote. They could even steal if they were bards or thieves. If they were so inclined Player Killing was even implemented. Light says: ¡°Hello there. I¡¯m Light simple priestess of Lathander. Nice to meet you.¡± If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Priestess? Could I have encountered the legendary gamer girl? I gulp behind the computer considering the implications. How do I handle this? Don¡¯t screw this up don¡¯t screw this up. I say, ¡°I¡¯m Isaiah, nice to meet you too!¡± I bow. She curtseys. Light says: ¡°Are you new here? Lathander¡¯s temple is west of the city. You could join me if you¡¯d like to talk or have any questions.¡± An invitation from a priestess? Of course I¡¯m in! I smile and say, ¡°Of course lead the way.¡± You have been invited to follow Light. Light whispers to you: ¡°Type follow light and you can follow me there.¡± I follow light and she heads out the west gates. We pass a farmland along the road and a temple. Past that temple we pass what looks to be a run down stronghold. Past that our destination is a bright temple with a gold and white themed interior. Light says: ¡°Welcome to Lathander¡¯s temple.¡± Light bows reverently at the altar. I say: ¡°It is a nice temple, very divine.¡± I internally kick myself for not being able to come up with something better to say. We continue chatting for a bit and I tell her about my nemesis the rats. She finds this funny. She also brought up that the rats drop gold when they die. To get the gold one has to either offer the corpses or bury them. I didn¡¯t find this funny. Leaving money on the table was not good. I¡¯m a college student. With only a part time job, 29 cent hamburgers and ramen are my lifeline. She suggests that I try to buy some gear from a vendor in shadow and gives me some money. She also says that I need to train in a weapon with the trainer in shadow if I want to do anything other than hurt myself when I equip it. She informed me that the stronghold we passed on the way here is called the Goblin Stronghold and a good place for starting off. When I told her i was a mage she even added that the goblin witch that is in there can drop a random scroll which I could add to my spellbook. Light is such a nice lady. She gives off a feeling of a caring grandmother. Eventually we part ways and I go back to town and buy a longsword and some leather armor and head towards the goblin stronghold hoping to get gold experience and magic.
The goblin stronghold started one room north of the west road. Two goblin gate guards were in the first room and they auto attacked. Unlike rats, these goblins had gear equipped. They wielded some goblin pikes and wore some goblin boots. I was expecting my new longsword that light had bought from the weapons store for me to clean these guys up with my 18 strength but it didn¡¯t go that way. Goblin Gate Guard missed you. Goblin Gate Guard missed you. You hit goblin ineffectively. HP: 19/20 Goblin Gate Guard missed you. Goblin Gate Guard missed you. You hit goblin ineffectively. HP: 18/20 I made a quick escape back to the south. Apparently, I was not getting hit by the goblin likely because of my new leather armor and high dexterity. However, instead of me killing the goblin my attacks were doing 0 damage to the goblin and 1 damage to me. Something was not working right. Taking a moment to collect thoughts it became obvious what the problem was. Light¡¯s advice should have been followed. Light said to go and train with a trainer in shadow with the sword. Isaiah¡¯s player felt bad. She gave him some good advice and took some time to set him on the right path and he just decided to do his own thing. Well, it was time to fix this right now. Isaiah made his way back to shadow and started going up and down streets. He found a church, a weapon¡¯s shop, a library, a bank, a general store, a healer, and finally a trainer. The trainer¡¯s name was Masjock and he was a burly man. Looking him over his description ended with a highlighted ¡®attack Masjock with the weapon you want to train in¡¯. You slash Masjock in the right arm. Masjock tickles you innocently. HP: 17/20 You stab Masjock in the left leg. Masjock tickles you innocently. HP 16/20 You slash masjock in the head. Masjock tickles you innocently. HP 15/20 This went on for a while. Not wanting to test if masjock would kill those who came to him for training, the elf left for the next room. It was at this point that having healing spells would have been nice. A wave of regret passed over Isaiah¡¯s player for having given up the priest class. It was not enough to force him to suicide and try to re-create as a fighter/magic/cleric though. Trying to level 3 classes at once just seems like too painful of a grind. However, there was a ¡®heal¡¯ command. It was not great, only healing one to four hit points and froze the character in place for a few seconds. Also, it seemed to fail as much as it succeeded. After a couple minutes of mashing ¡®heal isaiah¡¯ he was back to full health. Using the command ¡®profs¡¯ to check his weapon proficiencies it showed he was at 15%. This was very time consuming. After some painful grinding he got longsword to 100%. However, there was another thing that popped up in the ¡®profs¡¯ command. Your parents taught you in spears and you feel most comfortable with that weapon. What did that mean? Isaiah decided to try out the gamewide OOC (out of character) line and ask. Isaiah (OOC): What does it mean your parents taught you spears in your weapon profs? Someone (OOC): It means you can get spears to 120% in that weapon. Isaiah (OOC): Are spears good? Someone (OOC): You¡¯ll just have to find out. Well that was a bit frustrating. Who is someone? Have to ask Light when I talk to her next. Next up goblin stronghold round two. The goblin gate guards were not too difficult with a proper weapon. They did a little damage but died. This time Isaiah remembered to bury the corpses before moving it. It gave him a few HP so he didn¡¯t have to go back to using that heal command. Things were going well and in continued into the innermost part of the goblin stronghold. Goblin King is here. 3 goblin royal guards are here. Goblin king strikes you in the head strongly HP: 13\20 Goblin royal guard slashes you with sword. HP: 9\20 Goblin royal guard slashes you with sword. HP: 4\20 Goblin royal guard misses you. You slash goblin with sword. It was at this point that I froze up and didn¡¯t run away in time. Goblin king strikes you in the torso. HP: -2\20 You are at death¡¯s door. Your body is slipping from you. CH.3 Woah Death You die. Followed by a MUD-wide notification: All the thieves in the land suddenly wonder where Isaiah¡¯s corpse might be found. The game terminal starts displaying a death cutscene. Your world spins and you find yourself standing on an outcropping in a barren hellscape. In the distance there is a red and black wall with many faces on it wailing in pain. A black male figure appears from nowhere. Bane says: ¡°Ah another soul for the wall.¡± A female figure with a divine radiance surrounding her appears next to him. Ventri says: ¡°No so fast, this one is new. We should give him another chance.¡± Vetri says: ¡°You have died 1 time.¡± Vetri smiles at you. Vetri says: ¡°It is alright you can get through this.¡± Bane says: ¡°This one serves no deity so the death penalty will be increased.¡± Vetri waves her hand and a portal appears. Vetri says: ¡°You will be sent back to a church of your choosing. And one last thing, try to be more careful next time.¡± This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Then the cutscene stops and Isaiah is transported to a room set up like a staging spot to go to certain places around the realm to respawn. The room looks like a hazy place between worlds with mist swirling about chaotically. There are many exits but the only recognizable one is shadow. Isaiah glances around and notices that instead of an elf he is now a ghost. Trying several commands just makes his ghostly self emote: ¡°You wail miserably¡± Looks like ghosts can¡¯t do much. Luckily heading to the exit to the shadow church is an action that is not blocked while in ghost form. You wail miserably. Isaiah¡¯s player grumbles. Apparently typing commands like who, score, and say is difficult to forget they don¡¯t work while dead. Also, letting the whole mud know that a character messed up and died is a bit harsh as well. As soon as he heads to the shadow church the caretaker, an NPC by the name of Anita whispers to him ¡°Type pray to return to the living.¡± He does so and doesn¡¯t have commands locked anymore. He types score to check his character sheet. It looks like he lost 10% of his experience. Hmmm, did that mean dying could cause someone to lose levels as well? Despite his death he still had enough experience in both his classes to advance. Because a church is a place to advance, he advances both of his classes to 3/3. Sadly, he only returns with 1 hit point. Also, his gear is gone. His whole inventory is gone. It looks like the message about thieves looking for a player corpse was not just to add insult to injury. Player corpses can be looted. Well, don¡¯t want to give anyone a chance to loot Isaiah¡¯s corpse. The newly back-from-the-dead elf headed out of the church. The church was in the west part of town so it was a straight shot to the west to get back to the goblin stronghold. West west west west west west whoops too far, east alright now north to get back into the stronghold. You miss goblin gateman. Goblin hits you HP: -2/25 You die. The grim reaper cackles happily as he accepts Isaiah¡¯s soul. Lesson learned: Don¡¯t rush back to get your corpse unprepared. Much to Isaiah¡¯s players'' annoyance the death scene did keep track of how many times he died. Vetri says: ¡°You have died 2 times.¡± After repeating the steps not long ago Isaiah found himself in the shadow church. Anita was here and whispered for him to pray. Only she was not alone with his ghost this time. Light was there waiting for him. Light says: ¡°Hello Isaiah¡± Isaiah sighs. Isaiah says: ¡°Hello Light, how are you?¡± Light says: ¡°I¡¯m a little concerned for you Isaiah what happened?¡± Isaiah says: ¡°Well I was having some problems with a goblin king.¡± Light frowns. Light says: ¡°Let me help you.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°How can you do that?¡± Light says: ¡°I will get your corpse back for you just wait here.¡± Isaiah bows to light. Isaiah says: ¡°Thank you Light I really appreciate the help.¡± Light smiles. Isaiah says: ¡°It is no problem just wait right here.¡± Light leaves out. A couple minutes later light comes back in. Light drop corpse of Isaiah. Light says: ¡°Here you go.¡± Light smiles. Isaiah says: ¡°Thank you Light, how can I ever repay you?¡± Light says: ¡°It is nothing Lathander wants us to help one another just return the favor to someone else when you get the chance.¡± CH.4 Tea With Light A thought occurred to Isaiah¡¯s player, maybe this is what roleplay really is? Role Playing games on a computer or console were mostly just clicking or selecting fighter / cast / flee from a menu. Also this MUD wasn¡¯t like a tabletop game either. Combat in a tabletop game could take the entire session. On the mud combat was 5 seconds per round. If someone couldn¡¯t type the command they needed to cast their magic missile at an attacker then they would just not do any damage that round. The real draw of this game was the social interaction. Apparently the pause in the conversation was Isaiah¡¯s fault. Light appeared to be waiting for him to say something. Isaiah says: ¡°Yes Light! I¡¯ll help someone else get their corpse back if they come to me for help in the future.¡± Light smiles brightly. Light says: ¡°You are a good elf Isaiah.¡± Isaiah smiles. Isaiah says: ¡°And you are a good half-elf Light. Your god is no doubt proud of his priestess.¡± Isaiah¡¯s player decided to check his title now that he is posing as a level 3 mage. -Isaiah the lesser seer- Hey he is no longer the expert-know-it-all. Well that is nice. One of these days he¡¯ll have to strive to become a high mortal and make up his own unique title. That day will not be soon though. Level 20 is far away. Light says: ¡°Perhaps you would join me for some tea?¡± Isaiah nods. >You have been invited to follow light Isaiah followed light a couple rooms to the west and into an inn. The inn was called the three coins inn. It had an outside courtyard and an inside area where a waitress NPC stood to take orders. Her name was ¡®Catherinea, Waitress of three coins¡¯. Light sits down at a table and motions for you to join her. Isaiah sits at a table across from light. Light fishes through her pockets and hands Catherinea some coins. Catherinea gives Light a tea. Catherinea gives Light a tea. Light gives you tea. Isaiah¡¯s player brought up the inventory screen. Longsword (wielded) Leather armor (worn) Spellbook Tea Isaiah ponders. Isaiah says: ¡°Light, earlier I asked on the OOC line and a person with the name of Someone answered. What was that?¡± Light whispers to you: ¡°OOC, those people are wizards. They are the people who code the game. It annoys them if we go in and out of characters though that is why I whisper to you.¡± Isaiah whispers to light: ¡°OOC Okay I was just asking about weapon proficiencies I don¡¯t know why they snapped at me.¡± Light whispers to you: ¡°OOC, They see talking about certain in game stuff as giving away quest info. There are people who have gotten jailed or rid for that. ¡° Isaiah sighs. Light whispers to you :OOC, there is a board under the MAH that the admins post who was rid and why.¡± Isaiah whisper to light: ¡°ooc, what is rid?¡± Light whispers to isaiah: ¡°OOC it is when they delete your character from the game.¡± Isaiah shudders. ***
Gabrielle enters Isaiah nods at Gabrielle Isaiah looks over Gabrielle. Gabrielle is a svelte female elf. She has black hair and green eyes. She dresses in loose fitting priestly robes. She wears a bodice that shows up her bountiful chest and tight leather pants that show off her shapely hips. A holy symbol hangs from a silver chain around her neck. She has a black whip attached to her her belt. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. Another gamer girl was detected! And Isaiah is also an elf. Maybe this is a meeting destined by fate! Isaiah says: ¡°Hello Gabrielle! I¡¯m Isaiah. Nice to meet you.¡± Gabrielle looks over Isaiah. Gabrielle hmms and smiles. Gabrielle says: ¡°Nice to meet you as well Isaiah.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°The pleasure is all mine.¡± Gabrielle says: ¡°What are you doing here with the half-human?¡± Isaiah¡¯s player is kinda surprised at this. Half-human? What is a half-human? Gabrielle gestures at Light. Gabrielle says: ¡°She is half of what we are.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°Light and I were just having some tea.¡± Light whispers to you: ¡°Isaiah, we should leave.¡± Isaiah whispers to Light: ¡°Why should we go? She seems nice.¡± Gabrielle says: ¡°What are you two whispering about.¡± Gabrielle raises an eyebrow. Light leaves south. And because Isaiah is following light he also leaves just like that. Light shows impressive typist skills as she bee-lines it to the west to the temple of Lathander. Isaiah says: ¡°What was that about?¡± Light says: ¡°She is dangerous.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°Why is Gabrielle dangerous? She seems like a priestess just like you.¡± Light sighs. Light says: ¡°She¡¯s the high priestess of Loviatar. You should stay away from her.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°Loviatar what¡¯s that?¡± Light whispers to you: ¡°OOC type help loviatar.¡± Doing that brings up the help file. Apparently Loviatar is a goddess of torture. Holy objects to them include whips, ice and lightning. This game has a goddess of torture? Well that is unexpected. Isaiah says: ¡°Oh¡­ I thought that elves were good. Elves are fey creatures that frolic in the wilds.¡± Light whispers to you : ¡°OOC normally you can¡¯t roll an evil elf but there is a chance.¡± Isaiah¡¯s player shudders as he gets flashbacks to character creations. Such trauma. Imagine trying to roll a good Drow. Possible, but now imagine how many rerolls would be required to get a good drow with an 18(00) strength. Is masochism considered an official mental illness? Maybe rolling a good drow or evil elf might be the definition of that. Isaiah gasps in astonishment. Isaiah says: ¡°Maybe I should stick with trying to get revenge for dying to that goblin king and his royal guards.¡± Light smiles. Light says: ¡°Just be careful. You can hit him with a magic missile and leave before you take too much damage.¡± Isaiah¡¯s player lets out a big sigh behind his computer. He hadn¡¯t been using his spells at all. Well spell--right now he only had one spell. Hopefully he could find some scrolls for his character and get a more respectable collection of spells soon. The reality was that he¡¯d advanced his mage class without really using any mage abilities. It felt a bit like cheating. After a bit more chatting Isaiah bid farewell to take the fight back to the goblin king. He killed the gate guards and made his way back to the throne room. He sat in the room adjacent to the throne room and equipped his sword and memorized all the magic missiles he could for his mage level. His mud client would let him stack commands together if separated by a semicolon. He decided to see how this would work out. The command he wrote was ¡®north ; cast magic missile on goblin; south¡¯. Much to his surprise he was able to enter the room start casting the spell and leave before they got their attacks in. Goblin king attacks you! Goblin Royal guard attacks you! Goblin Royal guard attacks you! You begin casting a spell. You leave south. You raise your hands and 1 bolt of magic streams out of it and zaps goblin. Wait¡­ did that actually work? And the spell didn¡¯t fail from not being in the room? Isaiah wondered if the devs knew about this but there was something better to do right now. He could kill the goblin king and guards without taking any damage. However, it was not fun. He had to type ¡®memorize magic missile¡¯. Wait a few seconds to get the spell back. It was a little cumbersome. However with a little bit of time he had three dead goblin corpses which he promptly buried. The loot the goblin king dropped was a goblin crown and goblin scepter. The goblin royal guards had some chainmail and a goblin longsword each. He tried to equip the crown. ¡®Goblin crown is too small for you¡¯ He tried to equip the chainmail. ¡®Goblin chainmail is too small for you¡¯ He decided to use the scepter. He could sell the thing at the store and get some coins. Isaiah headed out. However some of the rooms reset while he was slowly and painstakingly blasting the goblin royal court away one magic missile at a time. He¡¯d killed the lesser goblins without too much trouble before so it wouldn¡¯t be much of a problem. You hit goblin ineffectually. HP:24/25 Goblin misses you. Mutter grumble---right you have to go to the trainer and train with a weapon. A scepter is not a bladed weapon is it? Isaiah just left and headed back to town not really wanting to do anymore fighting for a little bit and see how many coins he could get for the goblin¡¯s gear. It wasn¡¯t much, just a few hundred gold. Next stop, trainer! Isaiah was repeating his earlier grind trying to level up his blunt weapons with the trainer in shadow. Get 20 or so attacks in, take 20 damage, leave the room for the road and heal up. This continued until he was at 100% proficiency. He had finished up and decided to switch back to his longsword. Longswords are cooler anyway. In stories what does the hero always wield--a sword right? Well, equipping the scepter seemed to be a problem. ¡®You cannot unequip mace it is cursed.¡¯ Cursed? What? Time to ask over the lines. Isaiah (ooc): I try to unequip a scepter and it says it is cursed. What do I do?¡± Whitefalcon (ooc): you have to go to a church and pay for them to remove the curse. It says what to do on the sign. Isaiah (ooc): Thanks! And so Isaiah¡¯s next stop was the church on the west end of shadow. He head back in there and read the sign. Apparently one could pay for healing, forsake a deity, check for curses and break a curse for a fee. Isaiah¡¯s player typed out the command to break the curse. The text scrolls back at him. ¡®You do not have enough money to break this curse, it requires 1000 gold.¡¯ 1000 gold?! That is so expensive. The first magical item he got and it was cursed. Getting a magic item should be a cause for celebration. This is crap. How was he going to get rid of this curse? He stormed out and tried several times to unequip the scepter. It didn¡¯t work. He also was worried about something else. He tried to cast his magic missile spell. It also didn¡¯t work. Great, so if someone gets a cursed weapon they are basically screwed. This game is so punishing it is hard to see it any other way. Isaiah walked around a few more parts of the city he hadn¡¯t been at. There was an abandoned warehouse in part of the town. He sat there a few minutes to collect his thoughts. Sometimes someone just from being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Someone stabs you in the back! HP -98/25 You are on death''s door, your body is slipping from you. The grim reaper cackles happily as he receives Isaiah¡¯s soul. Your world spins and you find yourself standing on an outcropping in a barren hellscape. In the distance there is a red and black wall with many faces on it wailing in pain. A black male figure appears from nowhere. Bane says: ¡°Ah another soul for the wall.¡± A female figure with a divine radiance surrounding her appears next to him. Ventri says: ¡°No so fast, this one is new. We should give him another chance.¡± Vetri says: ¡°You have died 3 time.¡± . . . Great this cutscene again. After getting back to the shadow church completely empty handed no money, Isaiah¡¯s player checks this death log for what he suspects is his first PK(player killing). Deaths You have been brought low by: Goblin King Goblin Gate Guard Nightfall CH.5 More Goblins Isaiah decided to check the who-list to try to get an idea who Nightfall was. Players and High mortals Aigir the minor rogue Alindha the trapper Baldwin goes to Jihad Brand the war-monger Cimber the deceiving fiend Conrad the great gladiator Cyclone the high destroyer Dawn the minor priest Gaelen the minor believer in natural unity Isaac the Faithblade of Torm Keldoran the diviner Koil the lurking criminal A ghost Mahray the page Mosutha, the mage Syrian the petty thief Tremmor the employed fighter That is odd, don¡¯t see Nightfall on that list. Wonder why he doesn¡¯t show up. Suppose it is something to ask over the lines or Light later. Time to face reality, Isaiah was sitting in a church naked and afraid. He had been oneshot by a character who he hadn¡¯t even spoken to before. It reminded him of his very brief time playing diablo. He got a demo and logged on to battle.net. For some reason there were level 99 characters going around joining people¡¯s games and murdering them instantly in dungeons. It was so toxic people were justifying that it was okay to hack their characters to a level not possible in just the demo version. Terms like ¡°they needed to be taught a lesson.¡± were thrown around in chat. The only thing Isaiah¡¯s player thought when it happened to him by some rando was that it was time to uninstall. Well, he was playing this game on a mud client so the game ran on a server somewhere in Boise so technically he couldn¡¯t uninstall the game. He could uninstall the mud client but that would just be petty. Open world PK was a harsh reality but he met a couple interesting characters. Isaiah¡¯s player had to weigh his options. Perhaps if he got his character a little more powerful he wouldn¡¯t just just get stabbed down but whatever class Nightfall was. Anyway, now it was time to go back to get his corpse. Isaiah¡¯s corpse was gone, his killer was nowhere to be seen. His items sans his money were laying on the floor. He got his spellbook with it¡¯s solitary spell. He got his leather armor. He got his longsword. He got his goblin scepter. Now just to equip it all. He went and wore the armor and wielded the longsword. He was about to wield the goblin scepter when his gamer-sense tingled. If he equipped a cursed item he wouldn¡¯t be able to remove it without paying for it. Apparently, a poor man¡¯s break curse was death. Either pay the church¡¯s fee in gold or the grim reaper¡¯s fee in 10% experience to remove the cursed item. He went to the weapon¡¯s shop and sold the goblin scepter for 50 gold. At least cursed items were not worthless to vendors. And 50 gold was better than 0 gold. Getting PKed had left him completely broke. While the thing with Nightfall was unexpected, unwelcome, and unsettling there was a goblin stronghold that had some unexplored rooms. Isaiah made his way out of the west gate of shadow and headed back to the gate. He promptly slaughtered the gate guards, buried the corpses and collected the few coppers and silvers they dropped. Next he carefully killed the goblins on the way back to the king so as not to get yet another unexpected death. Next he slowly and painstakingly killed the king and the royals with his pew pew magic missile. It took a while but he got it cleared. The goblin scepter dropped again as well as a few pieces of goblin armor. Sadly, goblins were small creatures. Nothing they dropped was usable by an elf. Elves were medium sized creatures after all. On a side note, there were three sizes of living creatures. The sizes are unsurprisingly small, medium and large. Considering most of the equipment in the game was medium sized, playing a small or large sized character was harder. However, there was something to be said about that voadkyn ranger who could dual wield two handed swords. Dual wielding large weapons had great damage and also a really cool mental picture. Imagining a giant chopping machine is really cool. While Isaiah¡¯s player had zoned out for a bit spamming ¡®heal¡¯ to get his character¡¯s health topped out he remembered what he had come here to do. The place north of the goblin king¡¯s room was the last bit of the goblin stronghold yet to be explored. Dryzil laughs and offers everything in the room as lighting crashes down! Dryzil Cackles. What was that? There is a mob here. A closer look says it is a hobbit assassin! Well not sure why there is an assassin in a newbie area but it doesn¡¯t seem aggressive to him. He¡¯s got some kind of assassin¡¯s dagger equipped. Maybe it is better to just not mess with this monster. There were two more rooms left. To the east was a goblin witch. To the west was a goblin mage. Stolen novel; please report. He decided to go for the mage first. Goblin Mage attacks you! Goblin mage misses you. Goblin mage starts casting a spell. You strike goblin mage. Goblin mage shoots a stream of fire out from his hands burning you. HP: 20:25 Goblin mage misses you. You slash goblin mage. Goblin Mage tickles you innocently in the left arm. HP: 19:25 You slash goblin mage strongly in the left leg. Goblin mage misses you. Goblin Mage starts casting a spell! You strike goblin mage. Goblin mage drops dead before you. Well that wasn¡¯t terrible. Isaiah buries the corpse and checks to see what loot remains. And there it was--the legendary long awaited spell scroll! Isaiah gets the spell scroll and transcribes it instantly. He didn¡¯t even check to see what spell it was. Now, no one could call him a one hit wonder mage. He was now the proud owner of a spell book with two spells. Not one spell, nope two spells. Two spells was twice as many spells as he had before. This was cause for some minor internal celebration. Reading his spellbook revealed what new spell he got. It was a sleep spell! He tried to cast it and got an error message. You do not have the required components to cast sleep. Isaiah¡¯s player grumbled. Great this game also has spell components. Isaiah would have to farm this mob. Reset time for the room seemed to be around 15 minutes. Even if he was barely using his mage class he just had to have every possible scroll to add to his spellbook that those caster goblins could drop. Hopefully there are some spells like his magic missile that don¡¯t need components. Where does someone get components anyway? And how do you use them to cast spells? Isaiah used the annoying heal skill to top off his hit points after the fight. It took a few minutes but the goblin witch was just a couple rooms away. He walked past that room with Dryzil again who offered everything again. Was that some kind of ability? The assassin did his annoying cackle. Isaiah¡¯s player tried typing ¡®offer¡¯ but it just prompted him for what he wanted to offer. Next he checked the help file and saw the command was ¡®offerall¡¯ and the same thing happened. It destroyed everything in the room leaving it cleaned up. Why would a monster do that? The fight with the goblin witch started right as Isaiah entered the room. She was a female greenskin with pointy ears like the rest of her kind. Her inventory was as follows: Sword of Insanity (wielded in right and left hand) Goblin Robes (worn on torso) Goblin boots (worn on right foot, left foot) A scroll You slash goblin. Goblin Witch hurls a bolt of evil at you HP: 19/25 Goblin Witch missed you. You stab goblin. Goblin cackles wildly! Mana falls from the Heavens! Goblin Witch tickles you innocently with her sword of insanity. A rabbit appears from nowhere and attacks! This continued on for a few more rounds. Isaiah retreated back into the room with Dryzil once to heal up. The assassin offered everything on the ground like he did the last time and cackled. Maybe as well as an assassin his part time job was keeping the rooms clean? Isaiah¡¯s player was getting distracted by his own plots. He headed back in and finished off the injured witch with his word in a couple more rounds. He collected the loot after burying the goblin witch¡¯s corpse. He tried to equip the goblin robes and goblin boots but they were too small. He equipped his sword and went to equip the sword of insanity when his gamer danger sense started to tingle. Isaiah says: ¡°Wait, you¡¯d think I¡¯d learn my lesson after having to be killed by Nightfall to remove that last curse.¡± Yes, even if no one is there sometimes it helps to talk to oneself to collect one¡¯s thoughts. Isaiah had collected the gold, copper and silver coins the witch dropped. Every goblin in the place dropped a little bit of coin. Obviously, the king dropped the most coins but it was still not much. He would have had to run through this place several times to get enough money to break a curse. Isaiah was really wishing he would have picked a fighter/cleric class as he spammed the heal command to top off his hit points to restore the damage that the goblin witch¡¯s magic had done to him. Some of the rooms had reset and Isaiah had to fight a few goblins as he headed back to the church and paid the 100 gold to check the sword for curses. He was lucky! The sword was not cursed. Also, because he wasn¡¯t a small creature like the goblin he could wield the sword in one hand. He could also equip a second weapon and have an extra attack per round. However, his class was not ranger so the second weapon had to be a smaller one. He would need to use a sword sword or a dagger in his off hand. Isaiah sold the stuff he could not use at the general store in Shadow. He got a few hundred gold coins for that. The goblin king dropped another one of those scepters but Isaiah sold it. He didn¡¯t want to have anything to do with that weapon after the trouble one had caused him in the past. The sword did more damage. If Isaiah was a fighter/cleric then it would have been needed because cleric¡¯s couldn¡¯t use bladed weapons. Isaiah spent 2 gold on buying a dagger from the weapon shop. He noticed an annoying problem that was getting worse. His mage class wouldn¡¯t allow him to cast spells with armor on. It also wouldn¡¯t let him cast if he had weapons wielded. He had to type 3 commands to unequip his armor and two weapons. Also, casting the spell required a command too. So to cast his one magic missile he had to type 4 things. These 4 things needed to be typed in 5 seconds because that is how long the round was in this game. If he screwed it up it was a damage loss. He would attack with bare hands for that round. Also, because he wouldn¡¯t be wearing his armor his AC (armor class) would be worse. That meant he¡¯d get hit more often with melee attacks. Being a fighter/mage is tough, hopefully it¡¯ll get easier when he has more spells. The commands to cast a spell would be: Unwield sword Unwield dagger Remove leather Cast magic missile on goblin Wield sword Wield dagger Wear leather And it needed to be done in 5 seconds. How many words per minute would that be? Isaiah''s player tried to do this. He wasn¡¯t timing himself but it became apparent he couldn¡¯t do quick enough without screwing up a word and messing the whole thing up. It was time for him to use one of the functions of his mudclient. It was called a macro. Isaiah¡¯s player made two macro¡¯s one called ¡®arm¡¯ that wielded the sword, dagger and wore the armor. The other called ¡®unarm¡¯ that unwielded the sword, dagger and removed the armor. With that done hopefully it would make his life a little easier. Ungrim has defeated whitefalcon in the arena. Zeal has defeated whitefalcon in the arena. Whitefalcon has defeated zeal in the arena. Great, more global arena spam. Who thought it was a good idea to broadcast arena results across the whole game? Deaths, maybe an argument could be made but arena matches? Is there a way to request that it be muted? Or dare he ask one of those wizard people? His one interaction with one didn¡¯t go well. They seemed like a bunch of angry programmers. There was one more thing to do before calling it a night. Isaiah had killed dozens, possibly hundreds of goblins. He could level up. The places to level up were churches, rooms with boards and temples. This time Isaiah wanted to go level up in the temple of Lathander where him and light chatted earlier in the day. He headed west of shadow along the road and to the temple. The temple of Lathander remains a bright place with high ceilings and gold and white painting on the inside. He remembered his chat with light fondly. Light wasn¡¯t online right now it was getting late in the night. She might be in a different time zone too that could affect how much time they could have together. He advanced mage and fighter. He was a level 4/4 mage/fighter. Apparently he had grinded much more than he realized and still had enough to advance mage but not enough to advance fighter. For whatever reason it took less experience to advance his mage class than his fighter class. He advanced again. Now he was a level 4 / 5 fight/mage. Anyway, some up and some downs but most importantly progress was made. Isaiah¡¯s player was sleepy and there was still time to log in for the morning before class the next day. CH.6 Kaarell There is something interesting and awkward that can happen if someone logs in a populated space. Unlike in real life a character will suddenly appear at the last place they were logged in when they log off. There is no warning. Poof and the character is there when the login is done it doesn¡¯t take any time at all. It can be a bit startling or extremely awkward depending on what is going on in that room. Luckily he didn¡¯t interrupt lovers sharing a heart-shaped bed together in an inn. He logged in and popped right back into the temple of Lathander where an elf and a half-elf were chatting. Light, the Master priestess Kaarell, the low master priest Apparently Isaiah has just popped in on some kind of one on one meeting for Lathander clergy. Also, when someone logs out it unequips all of their things. If someone doesn¡¯t have anything worn they can be treated like they are naked. Isaiah¡¯s player typed ¡®wearall¡¯ and equipped his rather modest gearset. Light says: ¡°Hello Isaiah¡± Isaiah smiles. Isaiah says: ¡°Hello!¡± Isaiah says: ¡°How are you doing Light?¡± Light says: ¡°It is a nice bright morning don¡¯t you think?¡± Light looks and watches the sun rise. Isaiah smiles at Light. Isaiah says: ¡°Yes, Lathander blesses this dawn.¡± Light says: ¡°Have you met Kaarell yet? He is one of Lathander¡¯s flock.¡± ¡®Oh, maybe I¡¯m interrupting something¡¯ Isaiah¡¯s player thought when he noticed kaarell¡¯s lack of¡­ well anything. Isaiah¡¯s player¡¯s mind spun with speculation. Were Kaarell and Light an item? Kaarell was being completely quiet. What was he thinking? Maybe Kaarell was thinking ¡®what the hell, why did this 3rd wheel show up and ruin my alone time with Light?¡¯ What did he think of light? Did he like her too? If he did then Isaiah didn¡¯t stand a chance. He was still just a newbie. Newbie¡¯s were to be ignored. Isaiah¡¯s player decided to just keep talking to avoid his own thoughts. Isaiah says: ¡°No, I haven¡¯t met Kaarell before. I might have seen him in passing but we didn¡¯t talk or anything. I¡¯ve been busy fighting goblins. I even killed their king. It took a couple tries though. Somebody named Nightfall killed me with a stab to the back in the street of shadow. I don¡¯t know what I ever did to him, maybe he just doesn¡¯t like elves or something. But I¡¯m still going, haha.¡± Kaarell blinks. Kaarell says: ¡°Well met, Isaiah.¡± Isaiah looked kaarell over. He was a dark-haired green-eyed elf. And unlike him, he had good gear. His gear looked enchanted by how blingy it was colored. Isaiah felt...inadequate. Isaiah says: ¡°Nice to meet you.¡± Isaiah smiles. He wasn¡¯t smiling on the inside though he felt like Kaarell was a better version of Isaiah. Kaarell says: ¡°It is always a pleasure to meet another cousin.¡± Cousin? How were they related? It took Isaiah¡¯s player a moment to get it. ¡®Oh, elves call themselves cousins on this mud!¡¯ Isaiah says: ¡°Yes nice to meet you cousin.¡± Crap¡­ he just repeated what he said earlier almost exactly. Isaiah¡¯s player felt like disappearing. It was time to make a hasty exit. Isaiah says: ¡°Well, I going to go see if I can get some more scrolls from the goblin stronghold. I¡¯ll see you later¡± Isaiah waves. Light says: ¡°Be safe Isaiah, Lathander guide you into the new dawn.¡± Kaarell says: ¡°Lathander¡¯s blessing upon you cousin.¡± Isaiah exited the temple and was mentally panting. Why? Kaarell seemed like a nice guy, there was no reason to get all worked up. He needed to try to focus on something else. Yeah time to get some scrolls from the goblin witch and the goblin mage. Checking his inventory he realized he already had a scroll on him he forgot to transcribe. Whoops. The scroll was burning hands. Yay, now he had 3 level one spells. Mage¡¯s can cast up to level 3 spells when they are a level 5 mage? Hmmm, well so what 3 spells is better than 2 spells and he didn¡¯t use his mage class that much anyway. He was making progress. That is what matters. Burning hands looks like a similar spell to magic missile. It does instant damage but with a chance to hit extra targets. It should work nicely on groups of goblins. The help file for the spell didn¡¯t say exactly how much damage it did but according to the sourcebook it was based off it did 1D3 plus 2 for each level of experience the caster had with a max of 1D3+20. (1d3 means one three sided dice¡­ what shape is a three sided dice anyway) Compare that to the magic missile spell which does 1D4+1 for each missile. Also it gets another missile for every 2 levels. It also doesn¡¯t have a cap so at high levels that spell could hurt a lot more than that burning hands spell. Isaiah went back and tried the new spell on the gate guards. It shot a stream of flames out of his hands. Sometimes the message would show it burning more than one enemy which was cool. He had to unwield and remove his armor so it got hit more. It wasn¡¯t that great of a trade off sadly. Given that he had to use the heal command to very slowly recover a handful of hit points at a time it made every loss of hit points painful. Isaiah¡¯s spellbook was very light. Now that he had a renewable source of low level scrolls he¡¯d have to farm it for all it was worth. He farmed the lower level goblins for experience as he did his run of the goblin stronghold. The king and the royal guards were a pain to kill. He couldn¡¯t beat them without running away and healing a few times still so he just ran past them to get at the goblin witch and goblin mage. Dryzil was around but oddly, not in the same spot. It seems like he spawned in random spots in the goblin stronghold. Isaiah got a couple more scrolls and added them to his spell book. This time he got a Light spell and a detect magic spell. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. The light spell made a globe of light. It made the room he was in brighter. It was not terribly useful most of the time. Elves had low light vision so when night came they could still see. It was the same for half-elves. Other races like humans could be in a bad way if they were out at night without a light source. The exits would be hidden and all the room descriptions would say ¡®it is too dark to see.¡¯ It might be easier to die and get back to a town then fumble around in dark with no way to tell what to type to exit the rooms. He hoped it would never have to be in that situation. Isaiah offered the globe and it vanished from his inventory. Detect magic showed if an item was enchanted. He cast it and after a while figured out when it was active and he checked his inventory he could see some text added to the description of his items that were enchanted. For example: Sword of Insanity (glowing faintly) Glowing faintly, did that mean it was a +1 sword? His first magic sword. Did that make him a real adventurer? It was nice to get something better than the store bought longsword. Well, was it even that? He didn¡¯t get it by spending his own money; it was a gift from Light. It also did weird things in battle. Goblin missed you. You slash goblin in the right leg. Sword of Insanity tells you: I will now summon the demon king! A rabbit appears before you. Rabbit attacks goblin! Goblin headbuts rabbit furiously. Rabbit misses goblin. Goblin stabs rabbit. Rabbit drops dead before you. Apparently the sword had a chance to randomly summon a rabbit that would attack and tank a couple hits for him. It was not much but it was also huge. His biggest problem was healing. Isaiah¡¯s build really lacked sustain. He could tell that continuing to use the heal command was not sustainable. It would only get worse as his hit point pool grew more with levels. Having a random rabbit show up to help him now and then was nice. It had another special too. You slash goblin in the torso. Goblin tickles you lightly in the head. HP: 34/35 You stab goblin in the waist. Sword of Insanity tell you: What does this do? Mana fall from heaven. You slah goblin in the head. Goblin drops dead before you. Okay, that was kinda weird. There was a corpse of a goblin and mana sitting in the room after the battle. Looking at the mana just said ¡®magical food from heaven¡¯. I guess the description for the item was short and to the point. Because it was food he ate it and got a hit point back. HP:35/35 Oh that was nice. This sword was a handy little tool. True everything it did was completely based on being able to hit and RNG. However every little bit helps even if the possibility exists that it won¡¯t go off when it is needed most. He killed the goblin witch and mage again collecting scrolls and other gear from the dead goblins. Eventually Isaiah¡¯s inventory was full and he headed back to shadow to offload the gear at a vendor for a few hundred gold coins. Also, killing goblins again had got him enough experience points to level up again. It seemed like it wasn¡¯t putting as big of a dent in getting him to the next level because of how the experience needed roughly doubled for each level. He¡¯d need to look for another place to adventure soon. He planned to do that after he got all the low level scrolls he could get from the goblin casters. Isaiah headed out past the gate guards and onto the road that led to shadow. Gabrielle was there. Gabrielle starts casting a spell. Is this the end? Gabrielle, a high level priestess of loviatar, is casting a spell. There is a second or two delay between casting and when the spell goes off. So is a player is really quick they could have typed one of the exits and got out of there and avoided the spell. In this case north, east or west would have been viable options. Alas, Isaiah¡¯s player had not honed his instincts to dodge a spell with a second¡¯s notice so he took the spell full force. Gabrielle touches your nose and heals you completely. HP: 35/35 Huh? It wasn¡¯t an attack spell. Isaiah¡¯s HP was completely restored. He was at around 50% health because he was dragging his feet on using the heal command to painfully restore them a few HP at a time until he got back to town. Isaiah just sat there dumbfounded for a few moments. He expected death or dismemberment but got the opposite. What was Gabrielle¡¯s game here? Gabrielle smiles at you. Gabrielle says: ¡°Greetings cousin.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°Hello.¡± Gabrielle says: ¡°Stay safe Isaiah.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°...Thank you.¡± Isaiah waves. Isaiah bows. He left east heading back to town in a rush. He focused on what he came to town to do. Sell some goblin loot. At the general store he sold everything he had in his inventory that wasn¡¯t equipped. Luckily, the vendor didn¡¯t buy his spellbook when he unthinkingly tried to sell it. The vendor just said it was worthless and it stayed in his inventory. However, being on autopilot noticed that did in fact sell the scrolls he wanted to transcribe for his spellbook. Grumbling internally, the list of things the shot had for sale had some scrolls that shouldn¡¯t be there by default. And worse, they were marked up about 20% from what he sold them for. It sucked to waste coins by being careless but he wasn¡¯t thinking straight and needed to collect his thoughts. First, Gabrielle is an elven high priestess of Loviatar. Loviatar is the goddess of pain. Isaiah expected to get blasted into negative hit points and meet the gods showing off the wall they made out of faithless souls¡­.again. Isaiah¡¯s player tried to gather his garbled thoughts. Second, she did something nice to him. Why would a goddess of pain offer her clergy healing spells? Shouldn¡¯t they only have spells that hurt? Lastly, the grim facts. This MUD had evil characters. Evil roleplay was a fact of life here. Isaiah was lawful good. He expected his adventure in this land to be the tale of a hero of justice. So far his stay in this land had been helplessness against higher level players, relying on the generosity of them, and goblin genocide. Maybe Gabrielle didn¡¯t want him dead but what did she want? Trying to understand women was never a strong suit for him. Trying to do something he could do, Isaiah transcribed the spells into his spell book. The first spell was ¡®acid arrow¡¯, and the second spell was ¡®know alignment¡¯. He got a little lucky with these scrolls. They were both level two. He could finally say he wasn¡¯t a mage that only cast level one spells. Know alignment didn¡¯t need components. However, acid arrow needed three components to cast. Acid Arrow: Shoots a magically created arrow by a ranged touch attack. It does damage per round that lasts longer per level. Material components are a dar, powdered rhubarb leaf, and an adders stomach. Okay, it was time to figure out these spell components. Isaiah¡¯s player took to the lines to ask a question. Hopefully the wizards didn¡¯t snap at him this time. Isaiah (OOC): How do spell components work? Gabrielle (OOC): You need to have a component bag with them in it to cast the spell. They sell the components at the alchemist''s shop. Most towns have at least one. Isaiah (OOC): Where is shadow¡¯s? Someone (OOC): Ask in character¡­. So Isaiah headed back to MAH hoping to see if someone was there that he could ask about spell stuff. Today seemed to be the day he crossed paths with a lot of elves. Because there were two elves standing there chatting. Daelmas and Ambrosia were chatting to one another almost like they were on a date or something. Isaiah entered and tried to think of a good segway to ask them a question. He didn¡¯t think of a good introduction though. Isaiah says: ¡°Hello.¡± Daelmas looks you over Daelmas says: ¡°Hello cousin.¡± Ambrosia looks you over. Ambrosia smiles. Ambrosia says: ¡°Hello!¡± Isaiah bows to the other elves. Isaiah says: ¡°Greetings, I am isaiah, elven mage and I¡¯m new I was hoping to ask for directions.¡± Daelmas raises an eyebrow. Daelmas says: ¡°Pray tell what are you looking for?¡± Isaiah says: ¡°I am looking to cast spells that need spell components but am not sure where to find a components bag or the components to cast them.¡± Daelmas hmms and nods. Ambrosia giggles. Daelmas says: ¡°Cousin Isaiah, there is a shop south of here that has what you seek, also south of the southern gates is the mage¡¯s guild. They can sell you what you need there too.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°Thank you Daelmas! I¡¯ll go do that right away!¡± Daelmas smiles at Ambrosia Daelmas says: ¡°Princess Ambrosia, let us leave.¡± Ambrosia nods and smiles. Ambrosia says: ¡°Nice meeting you Isaiah good luck with your magic!¡± Daelmas begins casting a spell. Ambrosia begins casting a spell. A blue light envelopes Daelmas and when it dissipates he is gone. A blue light envelopes Ambrosia and when it dissipates she is gone. Isaiah went south and found the mage¡¯s tower. On the second flood he found an odd shop with a shopkeeper selling components. A components bag cost 10 gold. He bought one of those and checked the list of components that the store sold. He was bombarded with a massive wall of text. Aluminum chaff 48 gold 72 stored Bat guano 10 gold 22 stored Clay model ziggurat 48 gold 30 stored Diamond 960 gold 35 stored Diamond dust 1200 gold 88 stored Eye of roc 2400 gold 24 stored Copper 5 gold 80 stored Granite dust 48 gold 15 stored Mini shovel 48 gold 6 stored Nitric acid 72 gold 95 stored Rose petals 2 gold 53 stored Spider 10 gold 1 stored Sulfur 24 gold 12 stored Tiny chest 72 gold 40 stored Vermilion 18 gold 47 stored Oh getting the things he needed was going to be such a pain. Next stop go and find the other alchemists in town. Also, likely find another town. It seems like the shops don¡¯t have a comprehensive inventory. Instead, they are each randomized from what was available. Also there was a limited amount that one kept in stock so they could get their whole inventory bought out. Getting components could be done but it promises to be a very time consuming task. CH.7 Goblin Asassin There was another components shop in the shadow wizards tower and it was again randomized what things it sold. Isaiah still didn¡¯t have any level 3 spells. He could cast them if he had them but his level was way ahead of his spellbook¡¯s content. So he decided to go back to the goblin¡¯s stronghold and kill the witch and mage a few more times. Dryzil was in a different room then the other times he went there being annoying and offering things. He got 2 scrolls then killed some goblins farming the experience and a little gold. He didn¡¯t collect their gear this time because it filled up his inventory too quickly and he wanted to head back to town flush with scrolls. It was then that he noticed the world wide notification. The grim reaper cackles with glee as it accepts Tanis¡¯s soul. Tanis (OOC): Well there is 4 million gold down the drain (OOC) Tanis sighs. Soth (OOC): Ouch Someone (OOC): Not something for the lines. Isaiah¡¯s player boggled at this. His character has around 40,000 experience points right now. At what level would a death take 4 million? That would mean he had 40 Million experience points. Killing goblins was giving him a few hundred experience points here and there. It seems like a little less than at lower level levels. It looks like out-leveling a place is still a thing. He¡¯ll have to go check out that map in shadow and find another area to adventure soon. He decided after he got all the scrolls he could get from those goblin casters it was time to move on. Isaiah¡¯s player was going on muscle memory moving back and forth between the two monsters. He just had to type east twice to get to one. Then he had to type west twice to get back to the other one; the rooms just needed about 15 minutes to reset. It gave him a little bit of time to use the annoying heal skill to top off Isaiah''s hit points. East east, kill, west west kill, heal, wait. He repeated the cadence. East east, kill, west west kill, heal, wait. One of the nice things about mudclents is that there is a feature that can repeat the last command by just mashing the enter key. It takes 4 keystrokes to type west. But one keystroke to hit enter. This feature was useful going down longer roads like inside of shadow between shops or the trek west to the goblin stronghold. It was somewhat dangerous to use when there were aggressive monsters around though. If every adjacent room had monsters that would attack as soon as a player entered then instead of going to a spot to stop and heal it would be a spot where a monster was there to finish said character off. Isaiah normally played it safe in the goblin stronghold and did the exits one at a time. But he decided to get cocky when farming the scrolls the goblins dropped to see how quickly he could get from one fight to the next. That is how it led to him mashing east one too many times. Instead of getting the default ¡®you cannot go that way¡¯ when he typed a bad direction he found a hidden room. It was called ¡®lair of the goblin assassin.¡¯ Someone whispers to you: ¡°Just like you kill my kin I will slay you!¡± Someone stabs you in the back! HP: 5/35 Goblin assassin appears from the shadows. Goblin assassin misses you. You slash goblin in the right arm with sword of insanity. Isaiah¡¯s player freaked out at the near one shot and frantically typed west to get out of there. He did it quick enough to get out of there before another round passed. Isaiah¡¯s player¡¯s cheeks were pinched and he jumped in his seat. That text scrolling down a screen could cause such a jump scare was a testament of how attached he was to his character¡¯s well being. One room away from that nasty goblin wasn¡¯t enough. Also if the goblin witch respawned he could be in trouble. He retreated to the middle room. He was met with a not nice sight. Dryzil was there cackling like he normally did and offering all the items (not that there was anything) in the room as lightning bolts crashed down. Isaiah really needed to heal but he was shaken. He felt vulnerable with such low hit points and having some high level assassin cackling in the same room didn¡¯t help. So, he bee-lined it out of the goblin stronghold. The goblin king attacked him but he was quick enough to not get a single round in, same with some of the other goblins and finally he flew past the gate guards and out into the road west of shadow. He remember his chance encounter with Gabrielle there. She had healed him completely with one spell. It sure would be nice if she could do that again right now. The heal skill sucked. Cleric¡¯s were awesome. Healing spells were awesome. Even that cure light wounds spell he had before he recreated was better than the heal skill that healed single digits...sometimes.. And had a big cooldown. He wished he had some money to buy potions but they were not cheap. Gabrielle healed him for free. Maybe he should seek her out. No No No! Don¡¯t think like that. She¡¯s the follower of loviatar the goddess of torture. Can a goddess of torture have clergy that are not evil? Isaiah is lawful good,thank you very much. In a way Gabrielle had a lot going for her. She was beautiful and dangerous. That made her incredibly sexy. Ack! Stop, no more of that line of thought. Focus on something else. Isaiah had six scrolls in his inventory. He started transcribing them between heals. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. One of them was a duplicate so he would sell that at the general store. The spells he transcribed were: Chill Touch Identify Monster Summoning 1 darkness Ray of Enfeeblement Chill touch, ray of enfeeblement and Darkness didn¡¯t need components. Darkness was level 2. Chill touch was level 1. It was a necromancy spell. Identify was level 1 and it needed components. Identify needed a pearl and an owl feather. Monster summoning 1 needed a tiny bag and a small candle. Identify and Monster summoning were likely to be the most useful for him. Fodder was always useful provided it could stay alive for a while. Chill touch could miss but it lowered strength a little bit if they failed a saving throw. Ray of Enfeeblement didn¡¯t do any damage but it lowered strength a lot. Like chill touch it could miss if the target had too good of an armor class for Isaiah to hit it. Isaiah healed up and went back to lathander¡¯s temple to see if anyone was there. He decided to advance both his classes because he had the experience needed to advance. However, it errored out. You need to write a description for your character to advance. Do so by using the describe command. Oh, having a description is a requirement. I suppose the wizards at this place take rollplay seriously. Isaiah thought back to the wall of faithless souls he saw the last time he died. He wondered how serious that cutscene actually was. If the roleplay was that serious he¡¯d be in trouble if he didn¡¯t pick something soon. Dying and losing your character would make this game not have any players right? No one could be that masochistic. He only knew the location of 2 temples. Lathander¡¯s and Mystra¡¯s. Mystra¡¯s was right next to Shadow on the way to the goblin stronghold while lathander¡¯s was past it on that quiet forest road. The only clergy he knew were of Lathander and Loviatar. Hmm, choices are hard. Isaiah¡¯s player wrote up a simple description so that he could advance to level 6. Isaiah seems plain looking for an elf. He has sharp features, a slim build and is in good shape. He has observant amber eyes and bright hair of Silver. He had some goals. His first goal at the moment was to advance Isaiah. He accomplished this right after writing that three sentence description. Some characters had a small essay written for their character¡¯s description with colored text describing birthmarks, scars and the clothing they wore. Having clothing in a description seemed like a poor choice to him because changing gear would make it so the description clashes when what was actually equipped. That was not a big thing but it would bug him if he noticed. Anyway, now Isaiah was a level 7/6 Fighter / mage. He could still only cast up to level 3 spells. Of which he had exactly zero. But at level 7 mage he could cast level 4 spells. Also there was the fact he had zero level 4 spells in his spellbook too. He also had 45 hit points now too with the levels. He almost had 100,000 experience points though. If he died not without banking some more experience would he lose a level? Regardless, little by little Isaiah was getting stronger. Someone (OOC): I hate you all! A bolt of lightning strikes finbar from the heavens leaving well.. Not much. Raveena (OOC): huh? Someone (OOC): Say goodbye to a dirty abusive cheater. Someone (OOC): See rid board for more info. Isaiah¡¯s player wondered what this was about. Isaiah (OOC): Where is this rid board? Someone (OOC): It is under MAH Isaiah (OOC): Thank you Isaiah¡¯s player had to do a double take. The gods of this realm, the developers, would personally delete player characters. This wasn¡¯t like a console game where someone could exploit the hell out of a trick they found. Well, they could exploit the hell out of something but if they got caught or did something that angered the people running this game enough it could result in rather permanent consequences. Whatever this Finbar guy did it was likely very bad. Isaiah bowed to the altar in the temple of Lathander and headed to where the rid board was. It was a room that was set up like a formless void. Lost souls were flying around suffering for eternity. There was a board and it had 15 or so posts. Some of the people rid were for cheating a surprising number were for disrespecting an immortal. The latest entry was the Finbar character. Isaiah had never interacted with him. He didn¡¯t even see him online when he last checked the ¡®who list¡¯. The entry was just one sentence, ¡®Rid for abusing a spell and being a general asshole.¡¯ Well, whatever he did, the immortals were really vague about what it was. Would this finbar come back? Can someone make a new character after being ¡®rid¡¯? Isaiah¡¯s player guessed being ¡®rid¡¯ wasn¡¯t the same as a site ban. The game ran on telnet so unless the server blocked a certain IP number then someone could just recreate a new character. Isaiah¡¯s player thought the offending person would have to have a lot of gaul to reuse the name finbar. If it happened to him he¡¯d start over with a new name. These were dark musing and so Isaiah left this room filled with lost souls. He had questions but worried the immortal who hated them all would just use that ¡®rid¡¯ hammer on him because someone asking about admin abilities might be considered a hacker. However, these big thoughts were beyond Isaiah¡¯s player. Deity choice can wait. How to deal with immortal wizards can wait. He decided that he should focus on something he could do. Getting revenge on that stinking goblin that stabbed him in the back. With his 45 HP he could take that stab and let his sword of insanity do the talking. After leaving a wake of dead goblins Isaiah found that hidden exit. He of course collected the scrolls that the goblin mage and goblin witch dropped but sadly they were duplicates of what he already had. It wasn¡¯t a total waste of time though because he could sell them for a few hundred gold. He needed gold badly. Those spell components were not going to pay for themselves. Here it goes: Someone whispers to you: ¡°Just like you kill my kin I will slay you!¡± Someone stabs you in the back! HP: 20/45 Goblin assassin appears from the shadows. Goblin assassin pokes you in the right leg. HP: 15/45 You slash goblin in the right arm with sword of insanity. Sword of insanity tells you: ¡°What¡¯s this do?¡± Mana falls from heaven You slash goblin in the torso with sword of insanity. Goblin missed you. You slash goblin in the head with sword of insanity. You slash goblin in the left foot with sword of insanity. Goblin drops dead before you. Isaiah ate the mana that was sitting on the ground. HP: 17/45 Thank you sword of insanity for free healing even if it is only 2 HP. The loot the goblin dropped was a handful of silver, copper and gold coins. It also dropped a bone knife. The bone knife was a basic thing except for some glowing runes carved into it. This seemed to hit it might be magical. Isaiah cast detect magic. Bone knife(glowing slightly) Bingo, magical weapon acquired! He could actually use it too. Two swords of insanity would be awesome. However, Isaiah wasn¡¯t a ranger. Only rangers could wield two medium sized weapons. As a fighter though he could wield a medium and a small sized weapon. He went to wield the bone knife in his off hand. A costly mistake was almost repeated. The sneaky bone knife might be cursed. Isaiah typed to cast his new spell ¡®Identify¡¯ on it. You do not have the components to cast this spell. Dang it¡­ that stupid fail message. Where was that component shop? Isaiah needs some components. His components bag has exactly zero things in it. CH.8 Annoying Point of View Change. Annoying point of view change Designa was a half-elf cleric of Selune. He was a rather mellow character but he always stood for good even if he wasn¡¯t one of those holy crusader types. The sad thing sometimes is that sometimes people don¡¯t need much reason to make someone their target. Someone reaches into a bag and tosses powder in your eyes stunning and blinding you. The burning in your eyes prevents you from doing anything. You are stunned and cannot move. You are stunned and cannot move. Finbar appears as a fizzling of magic fades. Finbar begins casting a spell. You are stunned and cannot move. You are stunned and cannot move. Finbar glides his hands from side to side while chanting hypnotically. Outraged at Finbar¡¯s attempt at mind control, you attack him in a rage. You are stunned and cannot move. You are stunned and cannot move. Finbar begins casting a spell. You are stunned and cannot move. You are stunned and cannot move. Finbar glides his hands from side to side while chanting hypnotically. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Finbar¡¯s magic dominates you and you relax as he takes control of your will! Finbar says: ¡°Heh, little priest of selune. Or should I say soon to be a former priest of selune.¡± Finbar cackles Finbar taps a key and a rift opens in space. Finbar leaves rift. Finbar forces you to leave rift. Temple of Malar. The temple of Malar is a savage sight. It is full of trophies of beasts hunted. There are heads mounted on walls and stuff mounted all over the place. Finbar forces you to bow. You bow. Finbar forces you to forsake Selune. Designa has chosen to forsake Selune! Finbar cackles with glee! Finbar says: ¡°Now you will serve Malar whether you want to or not.¡± Finbar forces you to choose malar. Designa has chosen to follow Malar. Finbar (Malar): Welcome to the hunt Designa! Shortly after this Finbar cast some more attack spells and killed Designa. Because of the domination spell none of the commands Designa typed could do anything. Designa (OOC): Fuck you Finbar, I¡¯m mailing Law. There is no way you should be able to use domination that way. I hope they Rid you. Finbar (OOC): Someone is a sore PK looser. Designa typed ¡®mail law¡¯ and told the admin¡¯s of the game what happened. He wrote a rather nasty report and the people who read it several hours later when they were both offline were not pleased. Finbar had a reputation already. He played a dwarven cleric/mage of malar and was known for being really ruthless in his PKing. It was enough that he had been accused of cheating several times. But this was enough to get more than yelled at and told to stop. Death cost a player character 10% of their experience points. Also forsaking a deity cost them 10% of their experience points. In essence what Finbar did to Designa cost him a little under 20% of the character¡¯s total experience points. For a character over level 10 there is no way that wouldn¡¯t be enough experience point loss to lose a level. Experience point loss like that could set a character back multiple levels. Multikilling was banned. Multi Killing is killing someone and then killing them again right after you killed them. Some overly competitive players would do this to keep a character they thought might be a threat to them someday from becoming powerful enough to kill them. The only exception for this was if someone came back and provoked the player that just killed them a few minutes earlier. Finbar noticed that he couldn¡¯t log back in the next day after he logged off. It gave him a notification that his character had be rid and the name was banned. Not really pausing to think on his actions he just decided to play another character. Enter the name of your Character: Zilath And so Zilath the drow was made. CH.9 Healed by an evil priestess. Isaiah was blissfully ignorant of many of the grim fates that were being enacted around the world. Sometimes guild¡¯s warred. Sometimes people just killed whoever to see if they could. Sometimes people did sketchy things too like exchange items between their alts. In the case before Zilath would be Finbar¡¯s alt. If the immortals caught someone doing that they were likely to be punished harshly. People were not supposed to talk about their alts and stuff like that. The game stressed staying in character. Isaiah¡¯s plan was to go find the components needed to identify that bone dagger he got from the goblin assassin. So he headed through the west gate of shadow and saw Gabrielle standing there next to the gate guards. Gabrielle says: ¡°Greetings cousin. You seem to be injured let me heal your injuries.¡± Gabrielle starts casting a spell. Gabrielle touches your nose and heals you completely. HP: 45/45 Gabrielle smiles at you. Another newbie walked the gate and looked over both Isaiah and Gabrielle. After a moment he left and headed east into town. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Isaiah says: ¡°Why are you just standing here healing whoever passes by?¡± Gabrielle says: ¡°I am not healing whoever there is a specific criteria.¡± Isaiah raises an eyebrow. Isaiah says: ¡°And what would that be?¡± Gabrielle says: ¡°I am only healing elves of course.¡± Isaiah frowns. Isaiah says: ¡°I didn¡¯t think about that.¡± Gabrielle waves a hand. Gabrielle says: ¡°Look at the adventurers that come into shadow Isaiah. This place is filled with things that are half of what you and I are. Elves that don¡¯t act like elves are nothing more than pointy eared humans.¡± This was not what Isaiah expected out of Gabrielle. She was supposed to be evil. She was a priestess of Loviatar the goddess of torture. Villains are not supposed to make someone question right or wrong. He expected her to be like Nightfall, someone who just appeared from the dark and took people¡¯s lives for no reason. She had a point though. Isaiah was an elf, what about his roleplay thus far was uniquely elven? He could have very much just been a human, gnome or halfling. Was it faithfulness to other elves that made for good elven roleplay? Should Isaiah never go to the city and only adventure in forest areas? Would such a thing even be viable? Isaiah had apparently just froze up while Gabrielle was waiting for a reply. Gabrielle says: ¡°Well, think about who you will be. An elf or a pointy eared human.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°What kind of an elf would serve Loviatar.¡± Gabrielle smiles. Gabrielle says: ¡°You should go to the library and research my background one of these days. My story is not a secret.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°I think I will do that . . . cousin.¡± Gabrielle curties. Gabrielle says: ¡°I see there may be hope for you yet.¡± Isaiah waves. Isaiah say: ¡°Goodbye Gabrielle I have business in the city.¡± Isaiah left east headed to the main adventure hall. His thoughts were a blur. Gabrielle had really thrown him for a loop. People playing evil characters apparently are not like villains in RPGs. They can be much more articulate. He mentally added researching Gabrielle¡¯s background to his mental todo list. EX: Gabrielles Background [author] Maybe this should go into the glossary idk.[/author] The walls of the room lit up suddenly and briefly as lightning tears apart the night sky. Inside, a mother screams as she gives birth to her first child and the rumble of thunder is quickly overpowered by her cries. The bed maiden looks down upon her suffering, screaming queen, and in an instant the clean white sheets turn crimson red and wet with blood. The girl faints and falls to the floor with a slight gasping noise and as the birth is complete the room falls dead silent, followed by the sounds of pelting rain tapping harshly across the window. "Lady Alaishana has died, My Lord Miazha." "And the child?" "A beautiful Elven girl, sire, her beauty befitting of a princess." The king bowed his head and wept for his love, covering his eyes with his hands. This child he had never wished for had taken the life of his sweet love. How intelligent and beautiful his wife his wife had been, with wise, sparkling green eyes and thick black hair. "Would you like to see the child, sire?" "No, no. Just do as I told you, and quickly. This great tragedy that has befallen us could only be the work of a dark and powerful force. The birth of this child can mean only impending disaster for all my land, and those who serve me. Be gone with her now, and I decree from this day forth the child shall not return to my Kingdom until her soul has been cleansed and her heart is filled with the light of Eldath. Leave my presence, now, for I wish to be alone with my wife." The lovely maiden bowed her head and returned to the room where the queen lay, her life drained from her body. From her side, she picked up the newborn child and gazed upon its delicate face, her soft black hair and bright green eyes. Something with such beauty could never possess an ounce of wickedness, she thought to herself, but always faithful to her liege, she carried the child off and prepared herself for the night journey ahead of her. Escorted by two of the most noble and strong Elves of the forest civilization of Anthraenador, the maiden slowly made her way through the deep dark Elretrieene Forest, seeking a monastery devoted to Eldath, located somewhere near the opposite edges, near the Palestrine Lake. The forest was silent the as they wandered into its depths, which came as a relief but not a surprise. For within the forest beyond Lord Miazha''s kingdom, short of foliage, life refused to grow. Nobody was completely certain why, but it was said that centuries ago an evil mage had cast a curse upon the forest, devouring it of its beauty and life. For this reason, the forest had earned the nickname The Eternal Nothing. Arriving at the monastery, the maiden was amazed at the beauty of the grove, for it was nothing like the surrounding forest. While the priests within the monastery worked constantly to give new life to the forest, they had up until this time been unsuccessful, short of their own small area, which was enclosed by high walls on all sides. Here, however, was a place of ever growing beauty. Flowers pervaded the air with fresh scents, and the grasses and trees had taken on a beautiful, bright green color. A small stream wove its way around the temple, and reflected clearly the colors of dawn as the sun began to rise above the world. The human High Priestess met the Elven maiden at the gates and gracefully accepted the child into her arms. "May Eldath bless this child and fill her heart with kindness and her mind with peace," the High Priestess declared, "from this day forth she shall be known as Siera Llynaestrea Miazha, Elven child of Eldath, and her life will be one of tranquility." With that, the Elven maiden and two escorts left the monastery and began their voyage home, leaving Siera in the possession of the monastery, never to know or to see her father or home again. The monastery was ran by mostly humans who lived and spent all of their lives there. A few other traveling priests would come and go, along with the chore boys, who''s parents had sent them off to work for the monastery hoping to teach them discipline and righteousness. Often these boys were not humans, but only half. These were the first companions of Siera, but she learned right away that such creatures were not ones to grow close to, as they aged so quickly (Even her High Masters aged and died, only to be replaced by another. In this way, the young Elf''s life was in a constant state of change, and she saw little value in the lives of these humans). So instead of making alliances and learning the values of friendship, she soon began to play games with these lesser creatures, their short-lived lives meaningless to her. Manipulation became an art to her, one she strived to perfect. Between her mind and her beauty, Siera always got her way and came to expect this. There was nothing worse to her now than rejection, and she was well aware of the fact that her Elven blood made her better than those who surrounded her. She continued her studies of Eldath, but her faith remained weak, for she knew in her heart that peace never existed and in this ever-changing environment, it would never exist. Her thoughts were in a constant state of disarray as she sought out the truth and enlightenment they told her she would have, but it never came. Eldath never showed interest in the child and her prayers fell onto empty ears. And this is how her years passed. So many went by, so many worthless humans came into her life and left it when they became too old. She heard stories of life outside the monastery but was not permitted to experience it, for it was not the life for her. What was important right now, they told her, is that she find her enlightenment and perhaps then, when she is prepared, she could set off into the world to teach others of Eldath. Siera grew to be impatient, she felt herself more of a prisoner than an apprentice. She cursed her father for sending her to this place, and her mother for dying and allowing this to happen. She hated the old human hags who ran the church, and the boys of tainted blood with who she faked friendship. She hated it all, and she could think of nothing but her escape. Not from the monastery but from life itself. This suffering she did not ask for, and the pain of life became too much for her to bare. The only thing she found comfort in now was physical pain, because it was the one way to escape the mental torment she felt. To her, her deep cuts and burns upon her flesh were real when little else was. Peace? She had searched for it and never found it. Friends? She could barely tolerate those who surrounded her, let alone call them friends. Love? Family? She knew nothing of either, and her heart was full of grief because of it. Eventually, when her will to live had left her completely, when her pain became too overwhelming, Siera could do little but lie in her bed and think of death, of her life, and how pitiful it all was. She knew such deep sorrow was not to be a part of her nature, and yet it had become a part of her soul, just as the pain that tormented her night and day had become. Hopeless and weak, Siera waited for death. And then Travinor Asteriennikn, known to most as simply Travis, entered her life. A chore boy he was, just like the others, only this one was different, and Siera enjoyed watching him during the day but always kept her distance, for she barely had the energy to do otherwise. He was an Elf, one of the few that she had seen enter the walls of the monastery, and she wondered why one of such a prestigious race would willingly serve the wretched humans. Travis noticed her, also, for she had grown to be a very stunning young elf, with long, thick black hair, emerald-green eyes, and a perfect, pale complexion. He caught her quite by surprise the day he approached her, as she pretended to be reciting her prayers to Eldath, which normally was little more than some cruel curses toward the Lady of Peace. "M''Lady, I nearly find myself feeling pity for your Goddess as you recite for her your daily prayers." His voice was soft and soothing, with a hint of kindness. "I offer to her the words she deserves, not that it is any of your concern, Elf." She spoke without emotion, for such feelings were long void of her. With that, Siera stood from her kneeling position and returned to her bed, collapsing onto it and closing her eyes. Travis spoke again. "If I might say so, m''lady, for such a beauty your heart has grown cold." Siera laughed for the first time in weeks. "If you''re through then, I might ask you to leave me be." "You haven''t any spirit in your voice, I see no life in your eyes," Travis studied the Elven girl as she lay sprawled out on her small bed. "I''ve more life than I wish for." "Ah. I understand now." Travis laughed loudly. "It saddens me so to see such a fine lady act so weak, so pathetic, so utterly worthless." Siera remained silent, for she had never heard such honest words in her entire lifetime. She knew not how one was to react, and so she merely rolled onto her side, away from the Elven boy who taunted her now. "Is it death you want? Let me give it to you now. I see no worth in your life as it is," Travis voice suddenly became so cold, so sincere. Siera looked up at the ceiling and brushed a strand of hair from her eyes. She then focused her attention onto the Elven boy, and gave him a slight nod of her head. With that, the boy attacked her, unsheathing a hidden dagger that ripped open her pale flesh. He struck her numerous times, each blow bringing her closer to the death she desired more than anything. She came so close, her body lay on the verge between life and death. The pain that flooded through her veins throbbed and burned simultaneously, her deep wounds turning the white comforter that covered her bed into a deep, dark crimson color. She tried to speak, to beg him to end it all now, but no voice escaped her lips. He gathered her up in his arms and she could feel her broken bones moving unnaturally beneath her skin. She could hear him chanting softly, his breath warm on her neck. She wanted to cry but could bring no tears to the surface. She lay silently, and concentrated on her pain, for at that very moment, it was all she knew. Suddenly, all the feelings she had suppressed for so long flooded her thoughts. Her heart filled with vengeance for the unjust life that she had lived. She had so much hate, so much pain, at that very moment. And with these feelings she found great comfort and power. The strength she had lost for so long had returned to her double, and for the first time in years, she felt alive. Travis immediately realized this new spark of life and he chuckled quietly to himself, quite pleased at his accomplishment. "My dear Siera, how do you feel?" If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.She remained silent and studied him, for everything now seemed to be in a new light. Had she finally reached the enlightenment they had told her about? She could think it to be nothing else she knew in that instant that she was not the same person she was only minutes before. "With your acceptance of the pain and suffering of life, you have also accepted Her into your life." Travis spoke calmly as he stroked her blood soaked hair lovingly. And without knowing it, Siera had. As she thought, she had finally received her enlightenment, but not through Eldath. Her years of studying became wasted in a matter of moments, because in an instant it was Loviatar who finally saved her. From that day forth, Siera vowed her service to her Mistress, Loviatar, Goddess of Pain and Torment. Travis, a follower of the Mistress since birth, as his parents were, became her teacher. And Siera was a very devote and eager student. "Remember, Siera, that suffering exists everywhere, and is both the beginning and the end of everything. Nothing in this world is beyond the powerful force of pain. Spread it where it is needed, as well as desired. Torture itself is an art form, a technique one most know if they truly wish to teach what is True to this world. Learn it, and strike such vengeance upon all whom oppose you so that they will never fall into confrontation with you or those of Loviatar''s church again." This was perhaps the most important lesson taught to her during this time of learning, and Siera will never forget those words. As her faith increased, so did her power and her desire for freedom. Siera began to prepare for her escape from the monastery, as she knew there was nothing there for her. She sought to see the world outside the high, protective walls of the monastery, a world she knew only from the books that were used to teach her to read and write. Finally, a plan was devised. Siera could barely wait for the sun to go down, so anxious she was to complete her escape. Travis remained within the walls of the monastery that day, waiting with her until nightfall arrived. When, finally, the last old hag fell peacefully to sleep, the two young Elves acted. Quickly, they bound every sleeping victim to their beds. They then went about the monastery collecting gold, and sacred artifacts that might bring in a large sum of gold once they got beyond the monastery walls, and most importantly, they found the key that would finally release Siera from her prison. After these tasks had been completed, the two elves woke up the few people who remained asleep by smashing apart the oil lanterns near their beds, splashing the liquid contents over the floors, bodies and beds. They then walked hand-in-hand to the gate, where they stopped and turned around. Travis summoned a pillar of flames down upon the area, and almost immediately a huge blaze broke out, destroying everything. Siera felt a slight smile cross her lips as the tortured cries for help filled the cold night air, and she couldn''t help but laugh as then the screams slowly trailed off. Indeed, pain is the end of everything. Soon, the smoke became too heavy and the smells of burning flesh too much. Siera and Travis slipped out of the gates and escaped into the forest just as the sun began to rise. And for the first time, Siera was free. The years to come were a time of transition for Siera. She lived within The Eternal Nothing with Travis, for they were thought to have died in the horrible monastery fire, and to prove otherwise would only be incriminating their selves. They got by fairly well, if not better than half the population at that time, living off the riches they collected from the monastery, and also what they managed to gain from wagons which passed through the forest from time to time. Siera spent most of her days studying the words of Loviatar, and this only increased her thirst for knowledge. She quickly learned more than Travis ever cared to know, and soon Siera realized she no longer needed the Elven boy alongside her. In fact, his presence nearly sickened her. He had become lazy and demanding, and rarely spent any hours of his day praying to Loviatar. Siera once again began to feel like a prisoner, as Travis would often keep her bound for days if she became angry toward him, or threatened to leave him. As the years passed, Siera grew to despise both Travis and the forest, and she knew that soon she would take actions against him and again regain her freedom. "Lets play a game, Travis." The sun had began to set and Travis sat lazily against a tree, peering up at the sky through the dead tree branches which did little to block the brilliant colors forming against the late-day sky. In the distance, a blood-red moon began to appear, and she knew it was time to act. Siera held up some rope and smiled at Travis, walking toward him slowly. As she came closer, she roughly pushed his body back against the huge oak tree. She kissed him with fierce intensity, pressing her own body firmly against his. Slowly she made her way down his torso, opening his robe and caressing his tight chest and stomach with her gentle hands and warm, wet lips. She slipped the rope around his wrists and tied it tightly around the tree. She then bound his ankles in the same manner. She remembered the words he spoke to her years ago, as if he had only said it not moments before. "Anyone whom causes you pain deserves to suffer. If they take an eye, you take both eyes and a tongue in retaliation. Unleash upon them a pain not equal to what they gave you, but double or more." Siera picked up a dagger from the ground and slowly, lightly, ran it down Travis'' shaking body. He wanted her bad, desired her touch, her pain. She drove the dagger deeply into his stomach and twisted it before pulling it back out. "My dear Travis, my love, I''ve been keeping a little secret from you for far too long." Siera spoke barely above a whisper, her lips brushing lightly over his ear. "Tell me, what is it, beautiful Siera." His voice was rough and unsteady, his stomach wet and sticky with his own warm, red blood. "The truth is that I can not stand you. In fact, Travis, I would indeed have to say that I despise you." Travis seemed surprised at her words and his spirits quickly darkened. He raised his head to look into her eyes, quite uncertain if she was sincere, or if this was all part of her game. "And what''s even better is that I''m going to kill you. Rather, I''m going to leave you here so someone, or something, else may have the pleasure." Siera laughed softly at this. Siera stuck the knife deep within his flesh again, cutting it open. She continued this process, stopping only to tease him from time to time by licking her tongue over a cut, tasting his blood on her lips. After she had finished, his flesh was red with blood and open wounds. Already she could feel the presence of curious creatures, attracted by the pervading scent of fresh blood. Before she left, she blinded him and gathered up what little belongings she had, including all the gold available and her nine-stranded black leather whip. She then set off heading north through the dark forest. As for Travis, he barely stood a chance against whatever hungry beast awaited him that night. And before she had gone more than half a mile, she could hear his screams. Disappointed he would not suffer longer, she still managed to smile. For once again, Siera had earned her freedom. By the young age of 120 years, Siera had become quite frustrated with her life up until this time. With her newly found freedom, she was determined to make a new and brighter future for herself. Wishing to simply leave the past where it belonged, and due to her previous crimes at the monastery, Siera felt the need to change her identity. She remembered reading of a very powerful man during her studies of Loviatar. As the story goes, this man had lost everything in his life which held any meaning to him, and as a result of his suffering he turned to Loviatar, and promised to serve her devotedly for the remaining years of his life, if only she would bring him the strength to do so. This being done, the man, who''s name was Gabriel Greenson, mercilessly spread pain and the word of Loviatar throughout the lands from which he came. As those around him suffered and fell weak before his torment, the man''s own power and strength grew greater. Soon, he had behind him followers of great strength, as Loviatar would not tolerate the weak. A great plague fell upon the land, some say it was the deed of the Mistress of Pain herself, but, naturally, the man and his followers survived, while all those weaker, lesser beings perished. In this way, the man earned great power and riches throughout the land, and came to live happily ever after until the end of his days. Siera thought this man very desirable and wise, and choose her new name in his honor. Gabrielle Veritellyn, Elven Priestess of Loviatar. The name Siera was forgotten to her, and she swore harm upon anyone who dared speak it. Unsure of where she wished to go, the priestess knew only that not a town would pass her by which did not know the charge and power of Loviatar by the time she moved on. And in this way, she lived and traveled alone for many years. She collected riches as she traveled from various men and other sources, often through manipulations and deceptions, of course, all is fair in this game. Her own survival was of the utmost importance and she knew she would do anything to assure her own existence, an excessively comfortable existence, as it was. However, though pleased as she was, eventually Gabrielle grew bored of living this nomadic lifestyle. Traveling the ocean by means of a ferry one Springstime day, Gabrielle engaged herself in conversation with a drunken human sailor who could not keep his eyes off her slender Elven body. She told him of her plans and desires to settle down, for a while, at least, and figure out what her next move in life would be. He spoke with a slur, making his words nearly impossible to decipher, but he told her of an island known as Deku, where a town existed by the name of Verbobone. There, he told her, she would find a temple dedicated to the worship of Loviatar. Gabrielle demanded he take her there, and of course this man would have jumped into the sea to his own death if the Elf had asked him sweetly enough. He turned the ferry around, much to the dismay of the other passengers, and soon they were arriving upon the shores of Deku. Gabrielle found her temple immediately, for that''s how it was meant to be. She spent many days there afterwards, mediating and praying for Loviatar''s full blessing. The final evening of her meditations, Gabrielle''s vision became blurred, red, and loud shrieks of torment filled her ears. Pain overwhelmed her entire body and soon she fell to the ground, unconscious, where she lay for hours. She awoke a bit disoriented, but now she knew, with no doubts, that Loviatar had accepted her fully into the church. CH.10 Pearls and Light Isaiah set down the book that he was reading that contained Gabrielle¡¯s background. He was seated in the Shadow City Public Library. It was a large building with a glass dome of a roof. It had several floors with stone shelves filled with books and scrolls. There were ladders about to reach the higher levels and candles all around on tables with chairs. An NPC elf was standing in the room not doing anything. Her name was Armise and her description told that she helped people by keeping track of the backgrounds of players. Apparently ¡®background¡¯ was also a command. Isaiah¡¯s player tried typing background just to see what it would do. It popped into a text editor and he typed a couple weird things before he figured out how to exit the edit state. The weird stuff he typed interlaced with commands like ¡®who¡¯ just got plopped into the text editor instead of being used at command. He then needed to look at the help file to figure out ¡®background remove¡¯ was how someone deleted their background. It wasn¡¯t likely that anyone was going to research Isaiah but having nothing was better than gibberish. What would he write as a background anyway? ¡®An elf steps out of the woods. He kills some goblins and gets killed by goblins. Kills more goblins. He walks down a street in shadow and gets stabbed down by a hidden Nightfall for no reason at all. Well maybe something racial. Nightfall might just kill all elves on sight. Killing all elves on sight sounds like something an evil half-elf might do.¡¯ No, Isaiah needed a better background than that. He put it to the back of his mind promising to give it more though later. Now it was time to focus on shopping for components. There was this fancy magical bone dagger he wanted to identify. So he headed to the wizard¡¯s tower and looked at the components they had for sale. Bat guano 10 gold 4 stored Blessed leather 48 gold 67 stored Dragon scale 480 gold 70 stored Eyelash 3 gold 11 stored Fur 96 gold 82 stored Pearl 96 gold 41 stored Powdered amber 96 gold 19 stored Sulfur 24 gold 31 stored Tiny hearing trumpet 96 gold 32 stored Wing feather 20 gold 79 stored Isaiah¡¯s player blanked a bit at the list of components. What was he looking for again? Oh right, the identify spell he just transcribed. He checked the help file for ¡®identify¡¯ to try to jog his memory on what the components were. They were a Pearl and an owl feather. He spent 960 gold for 10 pearls and placed them in his components pouch. Well he tried to. It turned out he didn¡¯t have a component pouch. Where did it go? He was sure he got one a while back. Well another one costs 10 gold. He just paid for another one and placed the pearls in it. Hopefully this one won¡¯t go walking off like the last one. He only had a couple thousand gold on him and buying those pearls put a big dent in his funds. Isaiah was 50% equipped to cast identify. He had acquired pearls but lacked owl feathers. In in other words, he still couldn¡¯t cast identify. He would have to find another alchemist who had the component he needed in stock. He thought of another darker way. If the goblins died and respawned every 15 minutes could he kill the NPC and wait for her to respawn. Would that even work? She could be a deadly fighter and attacking could be his next death. Would the alchemist even respawn? The rates might be different for NPCs than monsters. Isaiah¡¯s player imagined the first round involving a squad of guards appearing from nowhere and his not even lasting a round after that. Maybe it was a good time to run away from this identify spell problem. The ¡®wholist¡¯ showed Light as online so Isaiah would go find her and ask for advice. He headed back out the west road of shadow. Light wasn¡¯t in the newbie areas helping out the low level players when he checked so he headed further west along the quiet forest road to where the temple of Lathander was. Light was in the temple alone. Isaiah says: ¡°Hello Light.¡± Light says : ¡°Isaiah, well met.¡± Isaiah smiles and bows. Light curtseys. Isaiah says: ¡°How are you Lady Light?¡± Light says: ¡°I¡¯m no Lady, just a simple priestess Isaiah. It is good to see you and I am doing well.¡± Isaiah smiles at Light. Isaiah says: ¡°If you are not busy could I ask you about the surrounding cities?¡± Light nods. Light says: ¡°I will try to answer your questions.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°Well, I am in need of Owl Feathers. I looked in shadow but could not find any at the alchemist in the wizard¡¯s tower. Do you know of other places to look?¡± Light hmms. Light says: ¡°Well Isaiah, Daggerdale has one. That city is north of shadow by quite a bit. Tonovi is near there too but you should stay away from that place. Elves are not welcome there. The city of Tharis is south of shadow but elves are treated poorly there. They get rounded up in the elven quarter of town and ruffians attack any elves they come across. Across the sea there is a town on deku isle called verrobone that has several shops that might have your owl feathers. West of Tharis there is a town called Azha you might check there as well.¡± Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. Isaiah frowns. Isaiah says: ¡°It sounds like there is a lot of hate for elves in these lands.¡± Light sighs and nods. Light says: ¡°It is true. The cities with evil ruling them do not like the good aligned race of elves.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°It bothers me. Is there nothing to be done to free my cousins?¡± Light says: ¡°The towns are set in their own ways. If you enter them expect poor treatment and be ready to defend yourself in some cases. Some of the ruffians in Tharis can even cast magic.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°Still I would like to go and defend the elves of Tharis someday maybe when I am stronger.¡± Light says: ¡°You don¡¯t need to be in a rush to get stronger. Focus on finding these feathers you seek before running into something too dangerous for yourself.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°Gabrielle says that we are cousins¡­ even though.¡± Light looks frustrated and frowns. Light says: ¡°Isaiah, I told you before to be careful around that Lovite Priestess. I don¡¯t even talk to her and I suggest you do the same. Her attention is dangerous.¡± Isaiah sighs wistfully. Isaiah says: ¡°I know I know¡­ it is just¡­ I was researching her and found that Gabrielle isn¡¯t even her real name. Her family served Eldath before she fell in lot with Lovaitar. If she is my cousin then I would seek her redemption.¡± Light smiles. Light says: ¡°Lathander seeks everyone¡¯s redemption; it is like the new dawn banishing the darkness. But she is her own person Isaiah and you cannot make her forsake Lovaitar.¡± Isaiah¡¯s heart hurt because he sensed that Light was worried for him. She seemed to want to keep him safe and away from the evil players. Light is a pacifist. She wasn¡¯t out there in the arena practicing player killer strats like White Falcon and Zeal. Light was the grandma figure that you came to for wise counsel. Isaiah¡¯s player didn¡¯t want to make her worry so he said he¡¯d be careful. He didn¡¯t lie to her but he wasn¡¯t a child. He could make good decisions on his own. Perhaps Isaiah was a bit naive. After Light and Isaiah parted easy in the temple of Lathander he headed back. First east along the quest forest road into shadow and then south along a path he hadn¡¯t explored yet. His quest was the quite-common owl feather. Between Tharis, Azha, and Daggerdale, Azha seemed like the place to go. Light cautioned him about Tharis so his plan was to avoid it. Isaiah waved to the guards at the south gate of shadow. The guards did not wave back, they were not programmed to respond to player waves. The elf went a few rooms and the pathway changed to a wagon trail with forest on each side. One of the rooms had a ¡®Grand monument carved from the earth itself¡¯ in it. Isaiah looked it over and it seemed to be a thank you to the beta testers. One could ¡®read¡¯ it and it would give a long list of 20 some-odd names. None of the names showed up on the who-list. Whoever these characters were, they must have moved on. ¡®Neat¡¯ Isaiah¡¯s player thought as he continued to the next room south of this one. The devs running this game devs who make this game put little easter eggs to remember players long gone that will outlast them. How many console RPGs had a list of beta testers on a monument in game? He couldn¡¯t think of any games with that. Isaiah kept heading south along the forested wagon path. The next thing of interest was an inn. It had a sign outside it with the name ¡®Rhapsody Inn¡¯ Must be some kind of a musical establishment. There was a door that led into the inn but it was closed. Maybe this place was a popular place where player characters gathered. Isaiah shrugged and kept going south. There was a game trail that led to the east. Isaiah checked it out for a couple rooms and it led to a big open zone called ¡®Darkwood¡¯. He peered around and saw some orcs and ogres in some farther off spots. There looked to be some Voadkyn camp in the center of the forest too. Isaiah¡¯s player remembered Voadkyn from somewhere. He paused for a moment and typed ¡®help voadkyn¡¯ on chance that it would bring something up. Voadkyn were also known as wood giants. They were like hairless giant elves. It triggered a memory of character creation. He shuddered as that brought up some traumatic buried emotions. Voadkyn was one of the options of races he could have picked when he wasn¡¯t trying to be a cleric. Voadkyn are a playable race. Also imagining numbers for stats rolling down the screen brought panic to Isaiah¡¯s player mind. The number 18 felt like it was taunting him, challenging him to seek it out. Six 18s¡­ the holy grail. Does it even exist? Isaiah¡¯s player shook his head and tried to get the memory of character creation out of his mind. Focus on getting to Azha! Isaiah headed back to the road. This wasn¡¯t the right way. He was looking for Tharis and the road that led west of Tharis to Azha. Isaiah player told himself not to get distracted and get lost and killed by monsters that out-leveled his character. Isaiah kept going south trying to find the city Light mentioned. South south south; Isaiah¡¯s next distraction was a wagon stuck in the mud. He looked it over and the description stated that the wagon driver was struggling to get the wagon moving because the wheels were stuck in the mud. Someone could help with a ¡®push¡¯ to the wagon to get it loose. Isaiah was all about this. His character had 18(71) strength. He should be a star pusher second only to giants and orcs. So Isaiah pushed. He took a single point of damage saying he hurt his back pushing the cart. Isaiah pushed a few more times before it came loose and the wagon driver gave him 10 silver coins. His player thought ¡®what a dumb mini-game. There is no way players will flock to a game where the objective is to just push the cart.¡¯ Isaiah had gotten distracted. He didn¡¯t mean to. He was 10 silver coins richer but still. . . the quest for the feather . . don¡¯t forget. South south south, Isaiah followed the road and the forest finally parted to the city of Tharis. He mashed south too much and it would have gone right past the gate guards of Tharis¡¯s north gate if they had let him. Tharis Guard blocks you and points east. Tharis Guard says: ¡°Elves are only allowed entrance at the east gate.¡± Isaiah stood there. The Tharis guards did not attack him for trying to enter the city while being elven. Apparently being an elf was not looked well upon the people of Tharis. There was a road along the walls. One went to the east and one went to the west. Apparently there were pathways to go along the outside of the city and avoid entering it to get past it. Isaiah followed Light¡¯s advice and went to the west. He walked a few rooms west and saw a beggar begging by a sewer grate. The beggar was wearing a hooded cloak so you couldn¡¯t see his face. Isaiah looked at him and the description showed it was just sitting there holding out a bowl at passers. Isaiah decided to experiment and gave him a couple copper coins. Much to his surprise the beggar gave him a key. Beggar says: ¡°Thank you friend you can get to the elven quarter through the sewers.¡± Beggar gives you ¡®sewer key of Tharis¡¯. Isaiah unlocked the grate and took a step into the sewer. The tunnel went south for several rooms and had a couple branches going east and west in a few spots. He didn¡¯t see anything in the sewer using the peer command. He wanted to be ready for a fight. He would equip his weapons. He wielded his sword and went to go wield the dagger in his off hand. He stopped himself and grumbled internally. Right, the bone dagger from the goblin assassin is not identified. Where are those owl feathers? Stop getting distracted! Tharis seemed to have some kind of connection to elves. It was really hard to just walk away. Secrets could be there waiting to be discovered. Isaiah¡¯s player wanted to throw caution to the wind and wield the bone knife. It would be a roll of the dice but what was this game if not a series of dice rolls? ¡®Focus! Stop getting distracted.¡¯ Isaiah¡¯s player said to himself from behind the computer monitor he was glaring at. He followed the path along the wall and saw some more Tharis guards that told him elves were not welcome in that gate either. He followed the road west of Tharis that was creatively named ¡®the road between Tharis and Azha.¡¯ Ch.11 Identify Leaving the west gate of Tharis Isaiah gave the guard who told him yet again that elves were only allowed through the west gate an impolite gesture. The guard being an NPC did not respond at all. The road west of Tharis, or rather the road between Tharis and Azha had forests to the north and mountains to the south. He typed west a few more times and the rooms mostly read exactly the same. They alluded to a large empire to the south. Something about a Tsarven empire existed south of the mountains. Eventually he came to a path leading north from the road. He peered north and it appeared to be some kind of barrow. One of the rooms was named ¡®burial mound¡¯. He wanted to check it out. But the area screamed of undead. He was no Cleric or Paladin who could turn undead. He was looking for an alchemist to identify his bone dagger not his death. He didn¡¯t see any monsters from the peer but he also knew this game had invisible enemies. That goblin assassin proved that something may look safe from a distance but it really wasn¡¯t. West west west Isaiah continued west. The next fork in the road leads to a ruined keep. It was just one room with a gate. He tried to open the gate and expected it to be locked. To his surprise, the gate opened. There were a couple rooms inside. Isaiah didn¡¯t think this was another adventure area because it was so small. He decided to risk a quick look around. One of the rooms had the title of ¡®Keep of the order of Metallic Dragons.¡¯ Isaiah¡¯s player remembered this from somewhere. Order Of Metallic Dragons¡­ where had he heard that before? Ah yes, the website. There were four guilds listed there. The Order of Metallic Dragons The Legion of Lost souls The Iron Fist The Illuminati Maybe this used to be some kind of a guild hall? The way this small area was written definitely came across as an abandoned guild hall. It just felt so sad. Literally sad, the text wrote out on the screen ¡°You feel a sense of sadness as you walk through the gates of this once great and noble bastion of past heroes.¡± Past Heroes¡­ this must have been an old good aligned guild that disbanded. Isaiah explored the few rooms. There was a courtyard on the other side of the ruined, unlocked gates. There was a treasury room that had an open and empty vault. There was a war room with a round table that some knights might sit at. The last room was a membership office. There once was a desk and a list of members. On the floor was a golden brooch. It was the emblem of the order of metallic dragons. Isaiah cast detect magic and picked up the brooch on the floor. He checked it out and it had a very vague description of being a metal emblem of dragons. It didn¡¯t seem to be magical so he could use it without getting cursed. It was jewelry so he could equip it over his armor without it conflicting. It was a nice little thing. Isaiah wasn¡¯t really thinking much about presenting as a member of a disbanded guild but a shiny trinket was a shiny trinket. Might as well equip said trinket and smile proudly. What great heroes walked these halls? Would Nightfall fear them? Isaiah¡¯s player imagined a fight where Nightfall missed his stab and a holy blade of a Paladin struck true, sending him to have an awkward conversation with a god and a wall of souls. ¡°Oh well, it doesn''t hurt to have fantasies¡± Isaiah¡¯s player said to himself from behind the keyboard he was typing on. He didn¡¯t even consider trying to get revenge against Nightfall. There was no way, Isaiah was likely dozens of levels lower than him and didn¡¯t know the first thing about player killing. Nightfall was invisible when he attacked. How would he even find him even if he was suicidal enough to try to play the ¡®warrior of justice.¡¯ Maybe that is what happened to this guild. People got together to play the warrior of justice and battle the evil team and it ended up like this. Isaiah¡¯s player wondered what the deal with the other guilds listed on the website was. Were the guilds all defunct? Were guilds no longer a thing? Was there a guild you could join that didn¡¯t involve dying over and over again? Such big grandiose thoughts were distracting. Why was Isaiah here standing in a ruined castle that he didn¡¯t belong in. Oh that was right he was on a much simpler quest. The quest for owl feather. Isaiah left the Order of Metallic Dragons. He continued down the Tharis-Azha road until it made it to the gates of Azha. The first impression of Azha was that the layout was confusing. One would expect just heading west on the road would eventually lead straight into the center of town but it wasn¡¯t laid out that nicely. Right before the city the room was called ¡®Crossroads of the empires.¡¯ There was a temple right there as well. He checked it out but no one was home. From his experience with Lathander¡¯s temple it was mostly just a place to hang out and talk. The temple was dedicated to the god Tyr. It had a bit of a fortress look. Maybe Tyr was a deity for knights. Isaiah¡¯s player started to ponder but chastised himself. ¡°Stop getting distracted, focus on what you are really looking for,¡± He silently told himself. Who cares about rumors of a Tsarven empire to the south and a grand elven civilization hidden in the forest. Here was the tricky part, the west gates were southeast of the temple and east a few rooms. Someone goes west¡­ expects east gates, passes the town and has to double back a bit and enters through the west gates. Isaiah¡¯s player discovered he was directionally challenged and struggled to orient himself correctly. The town was bustling. It had no gate that could be closed at night like shadow city did. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. The people had a bit of an arabic theme going on. One room was called a ¡®custom¡¯s office¡¯. There was a custom¡¯s officer there named Samir al-Emir. There was a barber shop as well. Though the barber was actually a healer. Isaiah¡¯s player thought this odd. What did barbers and healers have to do with one another? There was a couple vendors with a few things for sale in the market square (which was helpfully 6 rooms that made a square). There was a guy named Vishnu Bokara selling some estranged and mystical wares. Isaiah checked what was for sale. Some key on a cord that they wanted 900 gold for, nope, a golden ring they wanted 24 gold for. Hmm that might be helpful. There was a tarnished band of metal they wanted 120 gold for. He wondered if any of this stuff did anything useful. But he didn¡¯t want to spend money on anything but owl feathers right now. Isaiah found a room that said it was a south gate. There were no doors or any way to keep heading south. It looked like the game dead ended here. After walking around in circles a few times Isaiah finally found the components shop. Carbon 15 gold 21 stored Copper 5 gold 87 stored Fur 1 gold 47 stored Feather 1 gold 62 stored Gum arabic 20 gold 50 stored Nitric acid 72 gold 89 stored Owlfeather 10 gold 4 stored Water 1 gold 89 stored And there it was, the owlfeather he quested so hard for! Isaiah noticed that the feather was much cheaper. He tried buying a feather and put it into his components bag. ¡®You do not have the components to cast this spell.¡¯ It mocked him as he tried to cast identify on his bone knife. He broke down and spent the money for the shop¡¯s entire inventory of owl feathers. Well that is 40 gold down the drain it was a bit of a bummer. He cast the spell. Blinking several times, you chant a short phrase. You touch the Bone Knife and reveal its magical nature. Isaiah¡¯s player cheered to himself for completing his quest that he assigned to himself. He was proud that he was now the owner of a +1 Sword of Insanity and a +1 Bone Knife. Isaiah was proud that he had two magical items. He was hoping that he¡¯d get some better armor sometime and find other useful things this world had to offer. Incremental improvement was the path to power after all. The ¡®limbs¡¯ command revealed that he had many places on his body where he could equip things. It listed: Head: Neck: Torso: leather armor Waist: Left leg: Right leg: Left foot: Right foot: Left hand: Right hand: That was how many limbs? It looks like 10 things can be equipped. If he could get even a +1 item on everything that would be as good as full plate mail. He was assuming plate mail was AC10. He also wished he was small. Those goblin boots might give a better armor class as well. Well the downside would be wearing sinky goblin boots though. Oh well, one can¡¯t have everything. He had yet to see a goblin player online and figured there was likely a good reason for that. There had to be some enchanted armor or clothes in the realm somewhere he just had to find them. A thought occurred to Isaiah¡¯s player. Maybe some of the stuff sold by that sketchy mystical wares merchant was actually magical gear. Isaiah headed back and bought one of those golden rings for 24 gold. He eyed it and it just had a vague description of a golden ring. He gritted his teeth as he cast identification on it to see if it was cursed. Casting identify was not a painful experience but the fact that he was using up his precious components was painful. The golden ring didn¡¯t appear to be a +1 ring of protection. Was it just a cosmetic item? It had no + to it. He equipped it and nothing happened at first. But after a few second. Golden ring flashes. Then a few seconds after that. Golden ring flashes. It did this a few more times then until the text appeared. Golden ring flashes then vanishes. So, someone can equip it, it starts flashing then eventually vanishes after a couple minutes. Isaiah¡¯s player had no idea what in the world this was. Did it actually do anything at all or was it just some silly thing someone put in the game just for grins? It was only 24 gold so Isaiah decided to pick up another ring and not equip it. Maybe it might come in handy some time if he could figure out what it did or was even useful in some way. Isaiah decided he was too poor to experiment with the keys. Maybe some other time he would come back and see if he could figure out what they did. For now he walked a few more laps around the streets because with how directionally challenged he was he was sure to have missed a few things in this slightly arabic town. Eventually Isaiah found a tavern. It was called the Celestial Emperor Tavern. It was named after an ancient ruler of the Tsarvani Empire. Also it was a place of gambling which was outlawed in the empire. Such revelry is tolerated in the tavern though apparently (it even is written in the room description) There was a barkeep serving: Purple Stuff 15 gold Flame Strike 30 gold Water 1 gold One gold for water? That¡¯s highway robbery as they say. Isaiah looked at the barkeerp. He was a middle aged man who apparently spent a few decade in the army and was gifted a plot of land to farmstead. Instead of farming though he sold it and used the money to open this tavern. Again, how someone could tell this by looking at him was a bit of a mystery to Isaiah¡¯s player. There was another NPC in this in, some guy named Al-Radin. Isaiah looked him over. . . ¡°Excuse me, Isaiah, I think you were looking at me. . . I wonder why . . . I hope you weren¡¯t planning to kill me. I think I¡¯ll just make sure by KILLING YOU!!¡± Al-Radin wields Dagger of the Assassins. You see Al-Radin reach into a small bag, from which he pulls out a handful of powder and throws it it in the air! The cloud of dust formed by the powder billows towards you and your eyes are blinded by the irritants! Al-Radin stabs you in the back! HP: -15/45 You are at death¡¯s door, your body is slipping from you. HP -27/45 You are at death¡¯s door, your body is slipping from you. You die. The grim reaper cackles happily as he receives Isaiah¡¯s soul. Your world spins and you find yourself standing on an outcropping in a barren hellscape. In the distance there is a red and black wall with many faces on it wailing in pain. A black male figure appears from nowhere. Bane says: ¡°Ah another soul for the wall.¡± A female figure with a divine radiance surrounding her appears next to him. Ventri says: ¡°No so fast, this one is new. We should give him another chance.¡± Vetri says: ¡°You have died 4 time.¡± ¡°Hello again death, my over-often visitor¡± Isaiah¡¯s player said to himself from behind the keyboard. Deaths You have been brought low by: Goblin King Goblin Gate Guard Nightfall Al-Radin Apparently the game still considered Isaiah a newbie. He needed to level up and try to not die so easily. After the cutscent Isaiah almost went back through the exit into shadow. He luckily caught himself before having to walk all the way back south to Tharis and along the west road to Azha. His ghost wailed a few times as he typed blocked commands. Then he went through the exit to Azha and found himself in a mosque. Isaiah prayed at the mosque and got his body back. He quickly headed back to the tavern and making careful not to look at Al-Radin again he got all of his things from his corpse and left the establishment. They really had some unfriendly customers that liked that place. Ch.12 Tharis Sewer Isaiah had racked up what he thought to be a rather large amount of deaths in a short time. He thought about asking over the lines about deaths but didn¡¯t want to get RID by pissing off some wizard. The people who ran this game seemed like jerks. It didn¡¯t seem wise to risk antagonizing someone who could do much worse things than kill a character. The character didn¡¯t even need to be online to do it. What he did notice when checking the help file for the ¡®who¡¯ command was that typing ¡®who -p¡¯ would sort the players in order of deaths. He did that and noticed he was not even close to the top. Double digit deaths seemed like an inevitability. Was there anyone with triple digit deaths? Did he even want to know? Enough, Isaiah¡¯s player had to fight giving into despair. It was just a game. He could fight back and grow stronger little by little. He learned this day it was a bad idea to look at Al-Radin. He had his things and the money from his corpse. He equipped his armor and weapons and left Azha. The city was functionally a dead end. The only road to and from it that was actually in the game went to the city Tharis. Maybe knight¡¯s of Tyr would gather at the temple. But he hadn¡¯t met anyone that claimed Tyr as their deity . He didn¡¯t see a single player character in the Arabic styled town either. It was time to head back east. Isaiah followed the road eastward and passed the path leading to the barrows. His player continued mashing the ¡®e¡¯ button for east until his stamina gave out and he passed out for a little while (whoops). Then he waited a bit for his stamina to recover. Stamina recovered just by standing still. He mashed ¡®e¡¯ some more and watched the text scroll by until. . Tharis Gate guard blocks your path and points away. Tharis Gate guard says: ¡°Elves must take the east gate!¡± Isaiah kicked the guard for good measure and headed north. Luckily the kick was an emote and not an actual attack. His recent untimely demise didn¡¯t fill him with confidence that he wouldn¡¯t die in a single round if it came to blows with the guard. He decided to be extra aggressive and spit on the guard. Ha! Take that you elf hater! Luckily, the guard did not respond. Isaiah¡¯s player was a little worried certain emotes might set it agro. Isaiah¡¯s player told himself it was silly to be worried. The guard in reality was just a bit of code someone wrote up. It was not aware. Computers can only do what they are programmed to do, right? This whole game character developing awareness and behaving like people is just the stuff from fiction authors. Isaiah¡¯s player felt like he got away with being a little naughty. At least he hoped he got away with being naughty. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. The path outside the walls of Tharis city led north and then east. That same sewer entrance with the beggar was still there. Isaiah went into the sewers. He looked around a bit and didn¡¯t see anything. One of the rooms stated that the new government didn¡¯t know that sewers were being used by the elven underground to enter and exit the city. Again, it confounded Isaiah¡¯s player that such things could be discerned just by looking at a room. Isaiah tried to keep going south but there was a force that kept him from passing. He could peer past further into the sewers but the exit didn¡¯t seem to work. There must have been something he missed. Isaiah¡¯s player thought for a bit. What led him here? He talked to the beggar. The beggar gave him a key. Isaiah looked at the key and apparently it had some writing on it. He typed ¡®read key¡¯ and the only word on the writing was ¡®friend¡¯. Isaiah says: ¡°Friend.¡± Nothing happened. Isaiah says: ¡°I¡¯m an elf friend.¡± Nothing happened. Isaiah says: ¡°FRIEND¡± Nope, nothing. Isaiah says: ¡°Carebear friendship!¡± Isaiah does the carebear stare of friendship for friends. Emotes didn¡¯t work either. Isaiah just gave up. This was impossible. He typed ¡®friend friend friend friend¡¯ as his mocking final gesture before he left. The barrier dissipated and allowed him to pass. Isaiah headed further into the sewer and the room descriptions changed to show that he was walking through flooded tunnels with so much water he was almost swimming. The mind picture of an elf neck deep in sewer water was not great. He turned a corner, went east. A monster attacked him. A large gelatinous cube. Gelatinous cube missed you. You slash cube in the cube.. You stab cube in the cube with your bone dagger as it flashes. Sword of Insanity tells you: What does this do? Mana falls from the sky. You slash cube in the cube. You puncture cube. Gelatinous Cube misses you. Cube drops dead before you! Isaiah totally walked into that one. However he didn¡¯t even get hit once! The thing died in a couple rounds. His high strength gave him some good damage bonuses to melee weapons. Isaiah ate the mana and continued on. Isaiah totally walked into that one. However he didn¡¯t even get hit once! The thing died in a couple rounds. His high strength gave him some good damage bonuses to melee weapons. Isaiah ate the mana and continued on. A wiser player might have remember that the lower level elf that was Isaiah was not told Tharis was a great place for someone of his level. This was the problem with success. Success leads to overconfidence. Defeat one slime and they think they will never have a problem with them. A couple rooms later while slushing through the sewer Isaiah rand into a second Gelatinous cube. Gelatinous cube tickles you innocently. HP: 44/45 You are paralyzed and can¡¯t move! Gelatinous cube slowly dissolves you. HP 43/45 You are paralyzed and can¡¯t move! Gelatinous cube tickles you innocently. HP: 42/45 Gelatinous cube slowly dissolves you! HP: 41/45 You are paralyzed and can¡¯t move! This continued on for a while. Isaiah frantically typed east, west, flee, escape anything to get away. More text just scrolled across the screen. You are paralyzed and can¡¯t move! You are paralyzed and can¡¯t move! Several agonizing minutes passed. It felt like an eternity. Gelatinous cube slowly dissolves you! HP: 1/45 You are paralyzed and can¡¯t move! Gelatinous cube slowly dissolves you. You are paralyzed andt can¡¯t move. HP: 0/45 You die. Ch.13 Street Light All the thieves in the land suddenly wonder where Isaiah¡¯s corpse might be found! Again, the death cutscene rolled down the screen. Only this time there was a rather rude addition. Bane says: ¡°Would you be interested in the frequent diers program?¡± Bane grins evilly. Isaiah tried to say ¡°Yes¡± but all that came out was. You wail miserably. Eventually the now-familiar death cutscene was over and the choice of which church to go back to presented itself. There were 3 places he did know: Shadow, Tharis and Azha. There were other places he had no idea where they were. Attaya? Graez? The exit back to life was one way. If he went to a place he had no idea how to get to, the only way to get back was an intentional death. Isaiah chose Shadow city and prayed at the empty church. His character actually lost a level in each class this time. 6/5 Fighter / mage was his class and levels. His hit point max was down to 40 now too. Isaiah took a few minutes to use the ¡®heal¡¯ command to get his HP back up to max. He needed to head south back to Tharis and see how he would go about getting his corpse back from the slime that perma-stunned him and dissolved him 1hp at a time. Isaiah continued south, no money, no gear, inventory completely empty. He left out of shadow¡¯s south gate and followed the path where it branched to the Rhapsody Inn and then to further south to Tharis. There was a familiar elf standing in the room. Kaarell looks you over. Kaarell says: ¡°Isaiah, why are you naked?¡± Isaiah frowns. Isaiah says: ¡°. . . mistakes were made.¡± Kaarell says: ¡°Oh?¡± Isaiah sighs sadly. Isaiah says: ¡°Well, I was shopping for components and ran into a couple of unexpected encounters.¡± Kaarell hmms and nods. Isaiah says: ¡°There was this turban wearing guy named Al-Radin in Azha and I found out the hard way he doesn¡¯t like people looking him over.¡± If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Kaarell says: ¡°Yes, you¡¯ll find some of our adventuring peers feel the same way. A number of thieves look someone over to see if they have anything they want to steal.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°Those thieves, the same that have the backstab?¡± Kaarell nods. Karrell says: ¡°Yes an evil enough thief will just hide in the shadows and backstab their victim if they want all of their things. Why steal if they can take everything from your corpse?¡± Isaiah sighs. Isaiah says: ¡°I¡¯ve been on the receiving end of one of those thieves¡¯ daggers.¡± Kaarrell sighs. Kaarrell says: ¡°Haven¡¯t we all? Evils are just that, evil.¡± Kaarell says: ¡°As much as I enjoy sitting here talking on the street with a naked elf I feel that you might need aid given your lack of clothing. Perhaps I might help.¡± Isaiah blushes. Isaiah says: ¡°I¡­ um.. apologize for my nakedness. I was headed back to Tharis sewers in hopes that there is something left of my corpse that the slime has not consumed.¡± Kaarrell says: ¡°I can¡¯t imagine it would be a good idea to risk that cube¡¯s paralysis attack again. You might just be waking up in a church again.¡± Isaiah frowns. Isaiah says: ¡°What other choice do I have? Kaarell says: ¡°Let me show you a bit of Lathander¡¯s power cousin.¡± You have been invited to follow Kaarell. >Isaiah¡¯s player typed ¡®follow kaarell¡¯. You are now following Kaarell. Isaiah followed Kaarrell north and stopped in the first room on the city. Isaiah says: ¡°I don¡¯t think we are going the right way.¡± Kaarell says: ¡°Just watch.¡± Karrell studies his environment and raises his head chanting some prayer! You see the power of Kaarell¡¯s god flow forth into the room! You see street light start to move and come to life! Isaiah blinks in disbelief. Street light bows. Street light says: ¡°Lets sneak into Tharis sewers and get you your corpse back.!¡± Isaiah nods to street light. The three of them (Counting the street light) headed back south to Tharis and used the sewer entrance to the sewer. They went a couple rooms in until there was a straight shot for the ¡®peer¡¯ command to see the ¡®partly decayed corpse of Isaiah¡¯ that was in the same room with a Gelatinous cube. Kaarell had the street light leave and commanded it to pick up the corpse. A few moments later it dropped the decayed corpse in front of the two of them. Isaiah grabbed his things from the corpse and buried it using the ¡®bury¡¯ command. How someone could bury a corpse in a flooded sewer was a bit hard to picture. However it could be done. Isaiah¡¯s player didn¡¯t think about it too hard. Kaarell says: ¡°Are you missing anything?¡± Isaiah shakes his head. Isaiah says: ¡°No it looks like everything is still there.¡± Kaarell sighs in relief. Kaarell says: ¡°Let''s get out of Tharis, this town is not a good place for elves.¡± Isaiah agrees with Kaarell. Isaiah followed kaarell back north to the room outside the Rhapsody inn. Kaarrell has ditched you and you stop following him. Kaarell says: ¡°Well I need to go meet someone. Stay safe out there Isaiah. And remember the farther away from shadow you go generally the more dangerous things get.¡± Isaiah nods. Isaiah thanks Kaarell. Isaiah says: ¡°Again thank you so much for your help Kaarell you and Light have been such a big help to me.¡± Kaarell smiles and waves. Kaarell leaves north. Ch.14 Echo Mountain Isaiah¡¯s player was feeling defeated. He died twice and lost levels. He typed the ¡®quit¡¯ command to log out and go watch some anime instead of playing this MUD. The text scrolled across the screen: ¡°Thanks for playing, see you back soon.¡± The game just assumed everyone would be back. It was awfully confident for a computer program to assume that each player would be back. Isaiah could just not log back in. It was not like he was addicted or anything. He had some dark thoughts about the last session. Light had told him to go where he did. Maybe she wanted him to get killed. Maybe it was her fault. Light was a half-elf. Elves don¡¯t like half-elves. No, that was something Gabrielle would say. He was not like that. The reality was that Light had been nothing but supportive of him. If he confronted her she would likely just empathise with him and say she was sorry. She had no reason to be sorry it was his own fault for poking around because he was curious. The reality was that the game was incredibly punishing. Tharis sewers were basically a trap. And Al-radin stabbing anyone that looked at him was much the same. The Tharis guards had racial bias coded into them. Even though he hated that city¡¯s sewers he still wondered what else was there. He imagined talking to Gabrielle about his tale of woe and thought her reply might be something like, ¡°Yes, I see the goddess Loviatar has blessed you with suffering. Rejoice because pain and suffering are her blessing. Through trials and tribulation you will be forged into the sharpest of blades.¡± She would definitely say something like that. Isaiah¡¯s player watched the anime depicting a japanese school girl who got sent back in time and lost some gem that all the yokai wanted. It exploded into shards and there were many episodes of harrowing fights to just get a single shard back. He felt for that Kagome girl trying to get back what she lost. His character had lost experience and levels and she lost the gem her ancestor had spent her whole life protecting. Well if a high school girl can endure being spirited away Isaiah could do the same. Maybe he¡¯d become the hero of justice he envisioned Isaiah to be some day. Isaiah¡¯s player watched the white-haired red-clothed dog boy defeat enemies left and right against all odds. That was a true hero of justice. When faced with failure he just dug deep and defeated the monsters before it was too late. He wanted the same for Isaiah. Yes, it was a fantasy. But what was a world of swords and sorcery if not fantasy? Isaiah logged back in the next morning. The elf would be a hero of justice. He would stand up to evil and those that did dark deeds would flee him because he would bring retribution to those that deserve it. The road ahead would be difficult and there was one thing he was sure of. He was sick of killing goblins. Anything but goblins...he had to find a new place to level. Following Light¡¯s advice, he decided to head towards the next closest place to shadow than the Goblin Stronghold. It was a path leading north past the quiet forest road just west of shadow. The room¡¯s description read road to echo mountains. He exited the forest and began walking along a path in a canyon. He followed the path upward and it opened up into a pair of paths. One of them led to a cave and another out into an open area of the mountain. The cave looked more dangerous so Isaiah went to the mountain path. The path ended at a temple. Isaiah went in and it was an open airy temple. This windy place was the goddess Akadi¡¯s temple. Isaiah read the charge written on the altar. It said something along the lines of ¡®seek freedom lets the winds blow as they were¡¯. ¡°Chaotic stuff,¡± Isaiah¡¯s player thought. Akadi was a deity for those of the opposite alignment as him. Isaiah says: ¡°Hmm, neat.¡± Isaiah bows. Isaiah waves. Isaiah leaves. There was no reason for Isaiah to be in that temple. Akadi was likely a neutral deity. Players of chaotic good, chaotic neutral, and chaotic evil would be who would fit with that goddess. Chaotic Evil? Maybe that was Nightfall¡¯s alignment. The archetype of a chaotic evil character was a psychotic killer. He portrayed a villian in a slasher film. That is what comes to mind for a chaotic evil character. Isaiah bowed and waved goodbye to Akadi¡¯s place and headed into the cave. The cave was filled with dwarves. It was a bit of a confusing layout. Several branching passages that winded a bit and Isaiah got turned around a few times. Elves and dwarves were not supposed to get along but he was about to start murdering dwarven miners as an experience source. Lawful Good characters didn¡¯t do that. Eventually he found something different than stocky bearded fellows banging at rocks with picks. There was a stock bearded fellow blocking one of the exits. Dwarf blocks your path. Dwarf says: ¡°The path below is overrun with ogres. Are you sure you want to go?¡± Isaiah tried to go north again. Dwarf blocks your path. Isaiah hmms. Isaiah says: ¡°Yes, I would like to go.¡± Dwarf stops blocking your path. Dwarf says: ¡°Be careful they will try to kill you.¡± Isaiah went down into some abandoned mining caverns. There were ogres more than one in each room and they attacked him as soon as he entered the room. They missed mostly and he hit them. He also tried out a feature that made combat a bit less wordy. He typed ¡®briefcombat¡¯ and it simplified things. The downside was that it was impossible to tell how much damage was being done. You hit ogre. You hit ogre. Ogre missed you. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. You hit ogre. You hit ogre. Ogre drops dead before you. Isaiah¡¯s high dexterity was likely playing a huge roll in this. 19 dexterity was nothing to sneeze at. Humans couldn¡¯t even get that high. He was the pinnacle of elven nimbleness. He continued on eventually running into deep ogres. These ones hit a bit more often and if he ran into a big group he¡¯d have to use his hit and run tactics. You hit deep ogre. You hit deep ogre. Deep ogre hits you. HP: 35/40 You hit deep ogre. You hit deep ogre. Deep ogre misses you. You hit deep ogre. You hit deep ogre. The sword tells you: I will summon the demon lord to protect us! Rabbit appears before you. Well, Isaiah¡¯s sword of insanity still works. His bold rabbit protector was good for at least one hit. Isaiah continued along until he cleared the place. It took a while and eventually some of the ogres dropped the gear then hat. Isaiah used detect magic to see if any of it was magical. Most of it wasn¡¯t. It seemed like the ogre¡¯s gear was randomized. Sometimes spears, sometimes swords, sometimes axes, sometimes polearms, sometimes leather armor, sometimes chainmail. However one thing was the same for all of it. All of the drops are sized large. He couldn¡¯t equip any of it. Casting his detect magic spell he found a few of them that had a faint blue glow. There was some +1 stuff. He was not able to use any of it. Isaiah was able to equip any of it. He used to ¡®offerall¡¯ command to just make it vanish. Isaiah however did collect the coins they dropped. It was not much more than the goblins but every bit helped. He needed to stock his components bag and had nowhere near enough gold to do it. While echo mountains didn¡¯t have much to offer in gold it did have it¡¯s upside. The monster density was a lot higher than in the goblin stronghold. The experience was about the same as killing goblins. He was leaving a big pile of ogres and deep ogres because of their greater density. However, most every room had at least two ogres in it. Isaiah took some grazing hits mostly from the deep ogres but he was racking up experience points faster with the increased body count. He continued along tunnels going this way and that. He tried to stick to the left hand rule. Always take a left to avoid going in circles. It mostly worked. He didn¡¯t need to large gear on the ground so it just sat in the rooms. It was a reminder that he had already been in that room and was doubling back on himself. He doubled back a lot. The rooms respawned every 15 minutes so eventually his odd wandering led him to a room with discarded large-sized gear and more ogres. Trying to navigate a world made from text is difficult. He eventually found a room with a young dragon. It had red scales and attacked him. He expected to get completely killed but it didn¡¯t have any special attacks like the more advanced goblins. It could however hit him a lot more than any of the other ogres. The red scaled beast didn¡¯t blow fire or do anything dragon-like. Isaiah killed it after a few back and forth passes pausing in the next room over to use the ¡®heal¡¯ command. He felt like this dragon was a bit of a disappointment. What self respecting dragon didn¡¯t do a breath attack? He felt a little guilty when he collected the several hundred gold coins from the corpse after he killed it. No roar or anything just: Young dragon drops dead before you. Well, Isaiah got experience points and money. That was something. He was very close to getting his levels back that were a result of his unfortunate demise. After spending countless attempts to visit every room in this abandoned mine Isaiah eventually found something that looked a bit different. He ran into a room with some giants. They actually hit hard. Not instant death hard but double digits of damage hard. They were wielding two handed clubs and for a large-sized creature to need both hands to wield it it had to be very very large. One even had a special attack where he hurled a boulder. Throwing a boulder was a very giant-like attack. Isaiah¡¯s player approved. There were a couple close spots in the enter-exit fight with the giant. It must have been considered a boss of the echo mountains. However his bone dagger and sword of insanity were up to the task. He didn¡¯t feel like much of a hero of justice eating mana in the middle of a fight and being surrounded by half a dozen rabbits though. Also of note, the boulders were just text in the special attack. The giant wasn¡¯t actually using the throw mechanics with the boulder. That would have been cooler because the game actually supported throwing things. Anything wielded could be thrown. It would just appear on the floor in the room after it was thrown. There could have been a pile of boulder-style throwing weapons. As for loot, sadly like the rest of the items they were all large. Of note was a cloak of fir. It was some kind of cave-man style fir pelt and casting detect magic changed the name to fir cloak(surrounded by a faint blue glow). Isaiah had found his first magic cloak. Sadly this was a magic cloak that was too big for him and he couldn¡¯t equip it. He hoped it was worth something though so he picked it up to sell later. And so, painfully Isaiah made his way back the way he came. It became very apparent how directionally challenged he was as he kept seeing the same piles of loot he couldn¡¯t use. The mess got bigger as the rooms reset and the things in them remained. Is there an ogre maid that could sweep by after his little incursion to clean it up? He didn¡¯t offer things because the piles of trash(they might as well be) were landmarks to him so he could identify when he¡¯d been going in circles. After about an hour and much ogre death Isaiah found a room with an ¡®up¡¯ exit and headed south past the dwarves who were still mining away. It took less running into dead ends to get out of the dwarf mine part of the echo mountains. Also, not having a gang of ogres attacking in most every room made things a little less hectic. He had a new understanding of the term ¡®hackfest.¡¯ Isaiah eventually took another wrong turn trying to make his way back to the quiet forest road. He ran into a small cave near the temple of Akidi that he must have walked past before. It was a one room thing with a troll that attacked him straight away from entering. He decided to tackle the troll. It was a green smelly thing with pointed ears. Surprisingly it didn¡¯t seem to regenerate. His dexterity and armor seemed to be good enough to make it miss. So he was able to tackle it with only taking a couple hits. Again, every attack was a melee attack. Much to his surprise the troll had a tidy sum of money on it. 326 gold coins was not a bad haul. With the pocket change the ogres had and the big money the young dragon had it came out of this affair a couple thousand gold richer. He¡¯d need to do some components shopping soon. He had spells that he¡¯d never cast before because he couldn¡¯t afford them. Nevermind the fact that he had to find an alchemist that sold them. Isaiah¡¯s player internally grumbled. Back south down the canyon and then east along the quiet forest road past the Goblin stronghold and a temple he hadn¡¯t ever seen anyone in. He thought it was Mystra¡¯s temple...whoever that was. Isaiah¡¯s first stop was the general store to offload all the gear drops from the ogres. It was all large armor and weapons. Large chainmail, large studded leather, large scale mail, large tower shield. What was a hook fauchard? What was a Voulge? Isaiah¡¯s player had no idea what a guisarme was either. Whatever it was he sold about a dozen things and made a few hundred gold. He sold the fur cloak but it sadly was only 90 gold. 90 gold for a magic cloak? How does someone make some decent coins in this game? Isaiah decided he¡¯d put off swinging by the components shop in the mage¡¯s tower in shadow and instead swing by Lathander¡¯s temple to advance. He knew Light and Kaarell would sometimes hang out there so he might be able to chat with them a bit. Getting the experience back from that 10% loss twice was a hard pill at the time. Now though he felt better. Yes, he would just be advancing to where he was before but the thought of leveling up again was encouraging. Isaiah left shadow and buzzed down the quiet forest road to the west until he made his way to Lathander¡¯s temple. He advanced mage and advanced fighter. HP: 47/47 Hmm, that is odd. He was at 45 max hit points before. It looks like he might have found a way to game the system a little bit. He considered how he could abuse this. It didn¡¯t take long to decide playing with death and RNG was a line he wasn¡¯t willing to cross. If he got bad rolls on a level up he could just die and re-level. But he had spent hours in echo mountains grinding. Mostly because he got lost and ran in circles too much. But it was still a lot of grinding. Isaiah waited in Lathander¡¯s temple for a bit thinking perhaps someone he knew might show up. Someone (OOC): Need everyone online to meet at Fulgar¡¯s in shadow. There is a project we are working on. And no stealing or killing unless you want to get a rid-bolt. Isaiah¡¯s player gulped. The immortals want all the players to assemble? This couldn¡¯t be good. CH.15 Avatar Project Isaiah¡¯s player didn¡¯t want to find out what it was like to experience a rid-bolt so he left Lathander¡¯s temple and walked east along the quiet forest road. He passed a couple familiar turn offs, the canyon to echo mountains, the goblin stronghold and the single room temple of Mystra. He walked past the gate guards of shadow and headed northeast along the road until he came to the armorer''s shop. There were a number of player characters sitting there. Tanis, a male half-elf, Lliira a female half-elf, Vethor a male voadkyn, Harmony a male human, Rowena a female half-elf, Lusell a female human, Spungold a female Wemic. Isaiah¡¯s player wasn¡¯t really sure what a wemic was. Voadkyn were giant hairless elves. The help file stated that a wemic was like a beast person. He imagined a giant gnoll. It was quite the motley crew packed into this simple armor shop. Some of these characters would likely be at each other¡¯s throats if this wasn¡¯t an out of character event. It seemed like he might have come in mid event though. Fulgar says: ¡°And as you can see, NPCs can be controlled like this.¡± Fulgar winks seductively. Fulgar says: ¡°And they can be aggressive.¡± Fulgar attacks Vethor! Fulgar misses Vethor. Vethor hits Fulgar. Vethor hits Fulgar. Vethor hits Fulgar. The dagger in Vethor¡¯s hand SCREAMS horribly as he slashes it across Fulgar¡¯s throat! Vethor hits Fulgar. Vethor hits Fulgar. Fulgar drops dead before you. Someone chuckles. Someone says: ¡°Let me just reset the room.¡± Isaiah did a quick look around the room. It had the gathering of adventurers and one ¡®Corpse of Fulgar.¡± A moment later. . . Fulgar says: ¡°Well what did you expect?¡± Fulgar kicks Vethor. Vethor grins evilly. Vethor says: ¡°Nice one Tristan.¡± Isaiah did another look around the room. The corpse of Fulgar was gone and a new living Fulgar, the armor shop clerk, was there. Isaiah¡¯s player boggled at this. The NPC just came right back after he died. What was this madness? Someone says: ¡°You can also damage everyone in the room and tie it with an echo like so.¡± The weight of your sins burns your soul! HP: 46/47 Someone says: ¡°Anyway that is the avatar project. Go back to killing each other you savages!¡± Isaiah¡¯s player felt like he might have missed something important but he got the heck out of there. Some wizard was flexing his muscles and he wanted none of that. Also, what weapon did Vethor have? It seemed absolutely horrible. A screaming dagger? That was the stuff of nightmares. Note to self: Don¡¯t mess with Vethor. Isaiah used ¡®heal¡¯ to top himself off to 47 hit points after walking a few rooms away from the chaos. He was planning to just head back to Lathander¡¯s temple and then log off but figured sense he was in shadow he should go to the alchemist¡¯s shop and see if he could acquire some components for spells he hadn¡¯t been able to cast yet. After walking to the mage¡¯s tower he checked the shop¡¯s inventory. He walked past a strange ivory caver that had been there every time not really sure what that was for. Amber rod 72 gold 81 stored Bit of bone 29 gold 80 stored Blessed Leather 48 gold 18 stored Dart 1 gold 81 stored The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Eyelash 3 gold 66 stored Gum arabic 20 gold 98 stored Sunstone 48 gold 19 stored Tiny bag 5 gold 29 stored ¡®What can I use for the spells I have?¡¯ Isaiah¡¯s player thought to himself. He checked his spell book. He had a good selection of spells. He had picked up most of the lower leveled ones it seemed from farming the goblin casters. Armor conjuration level 1 Burning hands alteration level 1 Chill Touch Necromancy level 1 Detect magic divination level 1 Identify divination level 1 Light alteration level 1 Magic missile invocation level 1 Monster summoning1 conjuration level 1 Sleep enchantment level 1 Acid arrow conjuration level 1 Darkness invocation level 1 Detect invisibility divination level 1 Hideous laughter ilusion level 1 Monster summoning 2 conjuration level 2 Ray of enfeeblement necromancy level 2 Rope trip altercation level 2 Web conjuration level 2 Blink alteration level 3 Dispel magic adjudication level 3 Hold person enchantment level 3 Fireball invocation level 3 Lightning bolt invocation level 3 Monster summoning 3 conjuration level 3 Isaiah bought up all the tiny bags. That was a component for the monster summoning spells. Monster summoning 1,2,3 all used tiny bag and small candle. He also bought up all the darts. It was a component for acid arrow. Sadly that one needed 3 components dart, powdered rhubarb leaf, and adder¡¯s stomach. He also found they were selling both components for invisibility. He bought up all of those too Gum Arabic and Eyelash. 3 gold for an eyelash wasn¡¯t much. But couldn¡¯t you harvest your own eyelashes for free? What robbery¡­ anyway not like Isaiah¡¯s player had to guts to complain to the wizards that they should let him get free eyelashes. He didn¡¯t have that kind of gaul. Lastly, it looked like the blessed leather was a component for an armor spell. At 48 gold a pop that was a slightly expensive components so he just got 10 of them spending 480 gold on that. All and all it wasn¡¯t a huge bite for coins but his money had definitely taken a hit. It was becoming apparent though that rather than a components bag. The thing was more like a spreadsheet. Avatar project? He didn¡¯t get that at all. He decided that it had nothing to do with him. Isaiah made his way back to the temple of Lathander and logged out for the night. Isaiah¡¯s player was slightly freaked out about this whole avatar project stuff. It sounded like they wanted to add some kind of dungeon master position maybe? Well, it didn¡¯t have anything to do with him. The immortals just came across like they hated everyone. Everytime ¡°someone¡± had answered on the lines they always seemed snappy. His impression of them was a group that was potentially pissed off all the time. How else could someone who writes ¡°I hate you all.¡± to the entire game be perceived? Isaiah¡¯s player thought about these things as he finished up doing some real life stuff and headed to bed. Next morning he made some simple breakfast of cereal and coffee. His community college classes didn¡¯t start until the afternoon so he could spend a couple hours playing before he had to go be responsible. Isaiah logged in to see two people who he knew in the temple of Lathander. Light and Kaarell were sitting there chatting. Isaiah quickly typed ¡®wearall¡¯ a command to wear everything you could on his body. The game would unequip and unwield everything you had on when you logged off so it was generally the first thing someone did when they logged back in. Other players would treat players who didn¡¯t have anything worn like they were nakked. Kaarell had already seen him nakked once. He had to bare himself to another man¨Cer¨Celf and ask for help with no clothes on. It was not his proudest moment. Karrell says: ¡°Well, hello cousin Isaiah.¡± Karrell bows to you. Isaiah says: ¡°Hello there cousin and Light.¡± Isaiah smiles. Light says: ¡°Hello Isaiah.¡± Light smiles. Light gives you mint tea. Light says: ¡°We were just having tea and talking. You are welcome to join us.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°Thank you. I haven¡¯t had this tea before so I''ll enjoy it.¡± You drink mint tea. It tastes minty and refreshing. Isaiah says: ¡°Ah good tea.¡± One of the things about this game was that it had status for thirst and hunger. When one¡¯s hunger gauge was full it showed ¡®quenched¡¯ on the status. When it was zero then it showed parched and every few minutes the character would take 1hp of damage. It was the same with hunger. 100% was ¡®stuffed¡¯ while 0% was ¡®starving.¡¯ If a character was starving they too could die the slow 1hp every few minutes death. It wouldn¡¯t be a problem unless someone got stuck or lost somewhere. Isaiah says: ¡°What were you two talking about? I hope I¡¯m not interrupting.¡± Kaarell says: ¡°We were talking about how Lathander charges us with seeking harmony of the races.¡± Light nods. Light says: ¡°Yes we seek peace and an end to the cycles of murder that plagues this realm.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°What do you mean?¡± Kaarell says: ¡°Well, the old guilds used to war constantly and target players repeatedly for petty reasons such as pride.¡± Isaiah sighs. Isaiah says: ¡°Yes I know what they said about pride.¡± Light says: ¡°What do you think about pride?¡± Isaiah says: ¡°I think it says pride comes before a fall. And a haughty spirit before destruction.¡± Kaarell says: ¡°Don¡¯t get me wrong, I¡¯m proud of my elven heritage. But it is not something that we should look down on other people for. Some of our cousins talk about half-elves as half-humans or think of non-elves as lesser races. Yes we may be the longest lived races elves can live for 400 years. Lathander teaches us to strive to live together peacefully.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°I¡¯ve heard that phrase before, half-human.¡± Kaarell sighs. Kaarell says: ¡°From whom?¡± Isaiah says: ¡°Gabrielle told me. She was healing newbies. I thought maybe she was healing anyone just trying to help out but it was just elves. She didn¡¯t think non-elves were worth her time.¡± Light frowns in intense concentration. Light says: ¡°Isaiah, please be weary of Gabrielle. I¡¯m worried for you.¡± Kaarell says: ¡°She is the shame of the elven race. An elf should not be a priestess of Loviatar.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°I think that maybe she just needs to be shown some charity. Her family followed Eldath, the god of peace. ¡° Kaarell says: ¡°You are playing with fire if you want to befriend her..¡± Isaiah says: ¡°I know, I just wish she too could find redemption.¡± Kaarell says: ¡°She would use even your pure intentions to sink her claws into you Isaiah. Please tread carefully.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°I will be careful. Perhaps this is my calling to be a shepherd for our wayward cousins.¡± Isaiah smiles brightly. Kaarell pats you on the back. Kaarell says: ¡°May Lathander light your steps.¡± Isaiah¡¯s player decided that he¡¯d put off following a deity for long enough. He typed ¡®choose lathander¡¯. It was one of the commands that could only be used in the temple. In bold white letters a line of text appeared. Isaiah has chosen to follow lathander. Light Welcome! Light smiles. Light says: ¡°Welcome to the church Isaiah.¡± Kaarell says: ¡°Welcome, Isaiah.¡± Kaarell smiles. Isaiah says: ¡°Yes I should have done this a while ago. Looking at that wall of unfaithful souls keeps bothering me and I can¡¯t see myself anywhere else.¡± Kaarell says: ¡°We are happy to receive you.¡± CH.16 Kaarell explains it all The male two elves and half-elf woman drank tea and chatted in the temple of Lathander for some time. It was nice talking about a bunch of nothing for a while and not worrying about levels or getting killed or stolen from. Also, I learned that there was a very useful divine spell. Kaarell begins casting a spell. Kaarell protects this room against stealing. Isaiah ohhs. Isaiah says: ¡°Wow, that is an incredibly good spell.¡± Kaarell says: ¡°There are many thieves in this land. They like to hide in the shadows or use invisibility spells to search for marks.¡± Isaiah nods. Isaiah says: ¡°That is good to know!¡± Kaarell says: ¡°It would be the first time someone has snuck in on us either to spy or steal.¡± Kaarell looks at his spell book and begins memorizing intensely. Kaarell stands up. Kaarell closes his eyes and mutters some words. He opens them and they flash a bright green. Kaarell says: ¡°Casting detect invisibility like this reveals those hiding in such a manner.¡± Isaiah nods. (Detect invisibility ¡­ he had that spell, but just not the components to cast it¡­) Isaiah sighed. Isaiah says: ¡°More components I still need to buy. Being a mage is expensive.¡± Kaarell agrees. Kaarell says: ¡°It is also why you should try to get some mage robes when you get a chance. Components bags are the number one target for thieves because with all the components we need to keep stocked they can become very valuable.¡± Kaarell puts components bag in mage¡¯s robes. Isaiah says: ¡°These I got from Antioch but I don¡¯t think you are ready to go there yet. I think it might be a little too dangerous for you.¡± Kaarell looks you over. Kaarell says: ¡°Yes, you do need some better gear but it won¡¯t do good to get something that you can¡¯t equip yet.¡± Kaarell says: ¡°(OOC)It is +1 enchantment for each 5 levels. So at level 5 you can equip +2 at level 10 +3 etc.¡± Isaiah nods. Isaiah says: ¡°I¡¯ve found some magical items but they are mostly things that don¡¯t fit me. The goblin stronghold had some goblin gear that was magical and the echoes mountains had some large gear that was magical. It is a little bit frustrating.¡± Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Kaarell says: ¡°Also, one more thing, that metallic dragon amulet. It was the guild item for a now gone guild. Some of those holy warriors are still around and might not take kindly to someone wearing the item like they are members of a guild they never truly were a part of. It shouldn¡¯t be too big of a deal though there are worse things to wear.¡± Kaarell smiles. Kaarell says: ¡°You say that, but as you explore more places you¡¯ll find it is a lot harder to equip a large or small sized person. There are many more options for those of us that are sized between them. Don''t get discouraged.¡± Light agrees. Light says: ¡°I believe in you Isaiah, don¡¯t give up.¡± Isaiah smiles at Light. Isaiah says: ¡°Thanks Light, I¡¯m always counting on you for support.¡± Light says: ¡°Just return the service to those that need it one day Isaiah. Lathander wants us to help those that we can.¡± Isaiah nods. Isaiah says: ¡°I can do that!¡± Kaarell says: ¡°Isaiah can I see your spell book?¡± Isaiah shows spellbook to kaarell. Kaarell says: ¡°No no, I mean give it to me I want to see what spells you have.¡± Isaiah nods. Isaiah hands spellbook to kaarell. Kaarell reads spellbook. Kaarell gives spellbook to Isaiah. Kaarell says: ¡°It looks like you have most of the spells up to level 3. You can get some high level scrolls from the drow Jarrow in his tower on deku. It is not an easy fight though so you might want to wait before going to that island.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°How do I get to Deku?¡± Kaarell says: ¡°there is a dock on the east end of the shadow desert. It is a long walk and you might pass out if you do the whole thing in one go. A ferry docks there and does a loop, shadow, laerad, graez, and deku. You could also buy a boat and sail there but they are expensive. There are other islands that the ferry doesn¡¯t go to. Don¡¯t try them until you are stronger though. Deku is the easiest one but still I wouldn¡¯t go there just yet.¡± Light agrees. Light says: ¡°Maybe explore the other places close to shadow first.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°Which places?¡± Kaarell hmms. Kaarell¡¯s eye flutter as they stop glowing. He blinks and they look normal again. Kaarell says: ¡°Ah that is the problem with the detect invisibility spell, it doesn¡¯t last very long and it gets overly expensive to use it too often.¡± Kaarell says: ¡°Well you¡¯ve outgrown the goblin stronghold but there is the dragon¡¯s den cavern and darkwood.¡± Isaiah shudders. Isaiah says: ¡°Dragon¡¯s den doesn¡¯t sound like an easy place.¡± Kaarell smirks. Kaarell says: ¡°I know right? The naming is deceptive. There are no dragon¡¯s down there. Now it is just full of beastkin, orcs, kobolds, gnolls. There is even a quest you might try to clear. Look for banndalar in the walls of shadow. Just watch out for arrows, for some reason she lives in a place where archers like to shoot at you for passing by.¡± Isaiah boggles at this. Isaiah flexes his muscles. Isaiah says: ¡°Well I can take a few arrows without dying.¡± Kaarell says: ¡°I think you can do it if you are careful. There is some useful loot to be had. There is also the pirates cove but you might want to wait a bit for that. Some of those pirates are scurvy backstabbers.¡± Kaarell says: ¡°It is southeast of the shadow. You can find a cave in the corner of the desert or take a boat straight south of the shadow docks. Renting a boat is a bit expensive though it costs a few thousand gold.¡± Isaiah winced. (A few thousand gold was about all he had to his name renting a boat might make him broke.) Isaiah says: ¡°Well we¡¯ve been chatting for a while, maybe I¡¯ll go head out and see if I can find this quest for the dragon¡¯s den caverns. Where are the caverns again?¡± Kaarell says: ¡°It is just north of shadow on dragon pass road before you get to Antioch. The entrance is not super obvious so you¡¯ll have to look closely to find it.¡± Isaiah nods. Isaiah bows and waves. Isaiah says: ¡°Thank you for helping me all these many times.¡± Light says: ¡°Be well Isaiah.¡± Kaarell says: ¡°Sunshine and rainbows cousin.¡± Isaiah left using the ¡®out¡¯ exit of the temple of Lathander. He headed east along the quiet forest road and stopped at the gate guards. He must have overlooked it before but at the gate there were four exits: east,west,north,south. The north and south exits must be for the walls. He went south and the warning about arrows was not unwarranted. Arrow misses you. Arrow hits you. HP: 45/47 Ouch¡­ apparently shadow archers attack anything. He eventually found a room in the walls that had the NPC he was looking for. A middle aged woman named Bandallar. She was just sitting there and said nothing upon his entrance into the section of the wall that she was in. It looked like his first step would be to figure out how to get her to give him the quest Kaarell talked about. CH.17 Dragons den caverns Isaiah looked over Bandallar. He hoped reading the NPC¡¯s description would give him a hint as to how to get offered the quest his elven friend told him about. The idea of doing a quest where the only display has lines of text scrolling across a screen seemed awkward to him. In final fantasy for example a quest would just be to walk up to someone and press a button and a box with text in it would pop up. However, in this game the lack of any interface but a telnet client would make such things impossible so there had to be another way. Bandallar is a middle aged woman with a look of worry upon her face. She has deep lines from stress and long brown hair held back in a ponytail. (part of her description was written in 2nd person reeee) She looks at you as if seeking help. Perhaps you should try saying to her. Isaiah decided to give it a shot. Isaiah says: ¡°Hello.¡± Bandallar says: ¡°Hello Isaiah, you look like a capable adventurer. Perhaps you could me.¡± (Isaiah¡¯s player noted it was a little unnerving that she knew his name even without introducing himself but whatever) Isaiah says: ¡°Help.¡± (no response) Isaiah says: ¡°could I help you?¡± Bandallar says: ¡°Could I interest you in a ?¡± (apparently it was case sensitive, help is not the same as Help.) Isaiah says: ¡°quest¡± Bandallar says: ¡°I have this letter to give to my friend in the dragon¡¯s den caverns. It is north of shadow on dragon pass road. Don¡¯t worry, there are no dragons there no one knows why it is called dragon¡¯s den caverns of dragon pass road. Maybe at one time there was a dragon there but not anymore. Now it is just filled with foul things, orcs, kobolds, gnolls. I¡¯m worried for my friend who lives down there. Would you give him this note?¡± Bandallar looks at you expectantly. Isaiah says: ¡°yes.¡± Bandallar smiles. Bandallar gives you note. Bandallar says: ¡°Good luck with your quest.¡± Isaiah nods. He headed out north through the city walls. Archers above him peppered him with arrows if he stayed too long in one room. Eventually he weaved his way through shadow city. He headed through the main road and north onto dragon pass road. The pathway was through the mountains. Isaiah¡¯s player had to boggle a little bit about how the geography of this city flushed itself out. North was mountains, south was forest. West was farmland and further west was forest. There were the echo mountains a bit north off of the quiet forest road and more mountains to the north. However, straight east of the city was desert. It didn¡¯t really matter that much but the transitions to different biomes seemed a bit weird. He continued along for a bit and found a fork in the road. There were a couple wolves that howled every once and a while but they didn¡¯t auto-attack so he left them be. He was here to find the dragon¡¯s den caverns not to fight road wolves. The mountain pathway dead ends to another temple. He went to the temple and like his other visits to other temples this one had no players in it to talk to. The temple was to the god Talos. Talos is the god of storms and destruction. The temple was open air like Akadi¡¯s wind temple but this was more sinister. It also had a constant storm overhead complete with thunder and lightning. Isaiah high tailed it out of there. This was obviously the temple of an evil god. He followed Lathander now and had no place here. Isaiah backtracked hoping it was not lost somehow. He walked past the two howling wolves that he had seen before and continued north. The road branched again. West headed into a field while north continued into what looked to be the entrance to the city. The rooms stopped being called dragon pass road and the name changed to ¡®road to Antioch.¡¯ He walked up to the gate and peered down the main stretch of road. The city looked like a ruin. There were some rooms that had zombies in them as well. Isaiah entered the first room because it had no monsters in it and just a sign with some ruined gates. The sign said this is an adventure area for parties around level 15. The wizard who ruled Antioch has gone insane and is destroying this town with terrible magic. Brave adventures are sought to kill him and end his tyranny. Isaiah¡¯s player added killing Ignatius and ending his tyranny to his mental to-do list. This list also included saving the elves in Tharis¡­well first finding them. Exploring that barrow west of Tharis. It did not include going back into the Tharis sewer. That place sucks. Isaiah went back a few rooms and stopped at the wolves howling at the moon. He did note that it was daytime outside. But who was he to judge about wolves howling at the moon when the moon was not visible. To each their own. Isaiah¡¯s player decided he¡¯d risk asking over the lines for help. Isaiah (OOC): So is the dragon''s den not north of shadow? I seem to not be able to find it. Someone(OOC): Ask IC. Isaiah (OOC): Sorry Isaiah¡¯s player grumbled from where he was seated in front of his computer. It was never going to be that easy. So Isaiah headed back south down dragon pass road and through the north gates of shadow seeing if there was anyone he could ask for help. There was a male human riding a war horse by the name of Soth alone in the main adventurer¡¯s hall. Isaiah says: ¡°Hello Soth.¡± Soth frowns. Soth says: ¡°Lord Soth if you value your health.¡± Soth looks you over. (Isaiah¡¯s player internally cringed. Was he about to get PK¡¯d for being rude to nobility?) Isaiah says: ¡°Sorry Lord Soth.¡± Isaiah bows. Isaiah says: ¡°Could I trouble you for a moment of your time?¡± Soth nods. Soth says: ¡°Yes, speak young Isaiah.¡± (Isaiah was an elf, and technically speaking he was almost certainly older than this human. But he did value his health so he didn¡¯t mention it. Adult age for elves was 60 to 75 years.) Isaiah says: ¡°Well, I am trying to find the dragon¡¯s den caverns but I kept going along the road north of here. I found the temple of Talos and a city called Antioch. I didn¡¯t see any caverns but there was a field that was the only place I didn¡¯t check. Is it that way?¡± Soth shakes his head in disagreement. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Soth says: ¡°The place you are looking for is not obvious. Walk the road north slowly and look more closely at each room. Also, I would suggest investing in some climbing tools unless you are a thief.¡± Isaiah nods. Isaiah thanks Soth. Isaiah says: ¡°Thank you for the help Lord Soth I¡¯ll be on my way to the general store. I think I saw climbing tools for sale there.¡± Soth nods slowly. Isaiah went to the general store and checked the list. A beacon lantern 58 gold A bullseye lantern 29 gold Flask of lantern oil 96 gold A large cloth sack 2 silver A sharp dart 1 gold A torch 5 copper Silk rope 5 gold Climbing tools 29 gold Isaiah bought the climbing tools and was down 29 gold. It wasn¡¯t too expensive and it was something that he needed for his quest. He then went back north past Soth who still seemed to be sitting on his horse in the main adventurer¡¯s hall. He just continued to the north gate of shadow. He didn¡¯t want to annoy Soth who likely had knightly things to do. Isaiah made a point to not look him over even though Soth looked him over. If he did look him over than Soth would have noticed. His mind drifted to the look he gave Al-Radin followed by a dagger of the assassins in his back. Soth was riding a war horse so he just imagined him as a knight. So he could be a paladin or an anti-paladin. Would that mean a lance to the back if he decided to attack? Isaiah would prefer not to know the answer to that. Thank you very much. Isaiah continued along Dragon pass road much slower looking at the room descriptions. Then he noticed one had an extra sentence added to the end. ¡®There is a small opening in the side of the mountain.¡¯ Ah-ha! Isaiah had found the place he was looking for. However there still were only two exits to the room. North lead to Antioch and south led back to shadow. There must be a way to get into the cave. He just needed to figure out what to type. Now that Isaiah realized his mistake he had made it to the entrance to the Dragon¡¯s Den Caverns. Dragon pass road had around 50 rooms that looked exactly the same except for one sentence difference. Because of this it had him questioning himself about what other things he might have missed hidden in secret rooms or behind secret exits. Luckily in this case the obvious answer was the correct one. While the room didn¡¯t have the exit listed, typing the word ¡®cave¡¯ got him to the next room. The first room of the cavern also appeared to be a dead end. There was only one exit: out. But it was described as a large natural cave. There was moss growing on things and a large hole in the middle of the room that went straight down into darkness. The hole was the clue here. If he was just powering through rooms like when he traveled north along dragon pass road it would have thought this was it and that there was nothing here. He tried typing ¡®hole¡¯ hoping that would lead to the exit but it didn¡¯t. He got the default prompt for an invalid command: There had to be a way down there and it didn¡¯t appear to just be to guess the right word for the hidden exit. He had tried ¡®down¡¯, ¡®cave¡¯,¡¯cavern¡¯,¡¯dragon¡¯. None of the things gave him more of the default . Isaiah¡¯s player was frustrated. This reminded him of the old king¡¯s quest games where there was a little window on the screen where the player had to type things to do what they had to do in that area. He had never finished a king¡¯s quest game; he got stumped and gave up when he couldn¡¯t figure out the right phrase to type. He knew that this room was not a dead end but to him it might as well be if he couldn¡¯t figure out the command to type. Isaiah¡¯s player decided to go AFK (away from keyboard) for a while by typing the ¡®inactive¡¯ command. On the ¡®Wholist¡¯ this would show him with a [inactive] after his name and title like ¡®Isaiah the low minor seer[inactive]¡¯. He walked over to the small kitchen and poured some water into the coffee maker and added some grounds to the filter and set it in place. Isaiah¡¯s player listened to the whir and watched the dripping of brown liquid into the glass pot as he took stock of the situation. He had already failed once to figure things out on his own. That Lord Soth fellow gave off the feeling of a villain. Would Soth think of giving him a hint as a boon where Isaiah would owe him a favor later? Light had warned him about the evil players. They were dangerous. All that he neglected to do was to carefully read the room descriptions on the dragon pass road. He mentally kicked himself for that. In hindsight it was not something that should have been hard to figure out. He could go back and ask Soth, but he nixed that idea. Soth didn¡¯t even seem to like being talked to by some nobody elf. If he asked Light or Kaarell for help that might be seen as giving away OOC info and the immortals frowned on that. He wasn¡¯t sure what the punishment would be but that Tristan fellow seemed to have a hair trigger on his rid-bolt. He imagined another post on rid board ¡®Isaiah, and Light rid for sharing and taking OOC info.¡¯ Yeah, he didn¡¯t want that to happen. He could just go sit down at the computer and stare at the same paragraph of a room description and get frustrated again after 15 minutes. Standing before an unbeatable foe and breaking through your limits only worked in shonen anime. Computer games were completely unbending from what they were programmed to do. Something that he had glossed over were the climbing tools he had bought. Maybe the climbing tools were supposed to let him get down the hole. He formed a small plan but it wasn¡¯t a very proud one. You are no longer inactive. Isaiah (OOC): I¡¯m trying to use these climbing tools to climb down this hole does anyone know how they work? Vethor (OOC): Climbing tools or skills tend to be either climb or descend. Isaiah (OOC): Thank you Vethor. Vethor helped him. Like Soth and Nightfall, Voadkyn struck him as another evil villain. But it was out of character so it didn¡¯t count right? Isaiah¡¯s player decided it didn¡¯t count. With that thought he typed ¡®descend¡¯ and this time it took him into the next room with the message ¡®you climb down the hole.¡¯ As soon as he got into the next room. Rat attacks you! Rat misses you. You hit rat. You hit rat. You hit rat. Rat drops dead before you. Isaiah looked around the room. It had a similar appearance to the room above. It was a natural cave only with a hole going up rather than a hole going down. Also, there was a corpse of a rat on the ground. The only exit was north. He peered north and it was another room but it had two rats instead of one. Rats¡­ why did it have to be rats. Also the corpse of the rats seemed to have a pile of coins in it. Isaiah offered the corpse and picked up the handful of copper coins. Rats with coins on them didn¡¯t seem right but why turn down even this small amount of money. Eventually it led to a main room. It was described as a big open cavern with smaller tunnels splitting off in each direction. There were eight exits: North, northwest, west, southwest, east, northeast, southeast, south. South was the direction he came from and he suspected the only exit. He decided to go north. Instead of rats he ran into kobolds. Kobolds are like small serpent people. Of course this one attacked as soon as he entered the room. Kobold attacks you! Kobold missed you. You hit kobold. You hit kobold. You hit kobold. Kobold hits you. HP: 45/47 You hit kobold. You hit kobold. You hit kobold. Sword of insanity tells you: ¡°I shall now summon the demon king!¡± A rabbit appears before you. Kobold drops dead before you. The kobold dropped a small pile of coins and a spear. Isaiah checked the spear to see if it was magical. It wasn¡¯t magical. It was also small. Apparently kobolds are considered small sized like goblins. He took a second to use the heal command to top off his hit points and continued on. Some of the rooms had groups of kobolds, sometimes two or three kobolds. He was able to take them out slow and steady just using his bone dagger He and his rabbits kept going and further in there were kobold captains that hit a little harder and seemed to have a bit more hit points but it went okay. He really liked when his sword of insanity dropped mana so he could get a few hit points back each fight. That heal command was terrible to use. Sometimes the kobold captains had some randomized armor like leather, studded leather, chainmail, banded armor. He assumed that it was just a randomized list of armors to equip them. At the end of the tunnel there was a pool. He searched the area and found a button in the water. He typed ¡®push button¡¯ and luckily this time his first guess on the syntax was the correct one. There was a pleasant surprise from the corpses of one of the captains. Along with a handful of coins it seemed like a set of full plate armor had dropped. Full plate armor was very expensive in the armor shop. Isaiah figured it was better than what he had. He cast detect magic on it and found it was non magical. Apparently he wasn¡¯t lucky enough to find full plate armor so easily. However it was likely better than what he had equipped. However when he tried to wear it. This armor is not fitted for you. Of course it wouldn¡¯t be that easy. It looked like for full plate the game was going to make it difficult to acquire. The good news was that if he could sell it for 10,000 gold that would be his biggest windfall yet. Isaiah held onto the plate armor to sell later in town. Isaiah went through the other 6 branches of the main room he hadn¡¯t explored and found different races in each one. One had orcs. One had goblins. One had gnolls. One had bugbears. One had beastmen. The last one was a short path that dead ended. However, when he had pressed all of the buttons. There was a new door sitting closed in the last room on the tunnel with no monsters. Isaiah opened it and peered inside. There was an old man in a wizard¡¯s robe in the room. Isaiah entered and looked around. This place was a private study and lab for this old human mage. He had the stereotypical gray hair and big gray beard. He wielded a quarterstaff and had a silk cloak on. Isaiah cast detect magic and it said: ¡°Silk cloak(surrounded by a blue glow)¡± Isaiah had only seen stuff with a faint blue glow. Those turned out to be +1 magic items and this one was +2. Isaiah could really use a +2 cloak. Maybe that was the quest reward for delivery of the note. Isaiah gave the note to the old human. Wizard says: ¡°Ah! Thank you.¡± Wizard reads the note. Wizard says: ¡°It is good to know that Bandallar still thinks of me on my birthday. I suppose thanks are in order.¡± Wizard hands you a pipe. Wizard hands you pipe weed. Wizard smile. You have completed the quest ! That¡¯s it? All this slaughter to deliver a note and the reward is a lousy pipe? Isaiah left and went back to shadow killing the rats a second time as he left the Dragon¡¯s Den caverns. He really could have used that cloak. CH.18 Shopping Isaiah was a little miffed by this quest. On the upside he now had enough experience to level both his fighter and mage classes. On the downside he only got a lousy pipe for the quest reward. Whoever made that cloak and put it in the game created a moral dilemma for his lawful good elf. The only way he could see to get the cloak was to kill the wizard. If he was an evil character that wouldn¡¯t be an issue. As Nightfall had shown evil characters can just go around murdering everything like a psychopath. Maybe there was another way to get that magical silk cloak but he didn¡¯t see a way to do it while keeping his goodly persona intact. Isaiah thought maybe he could turn in the quest to Banndalar. So he headed back south along the dragon pass road and quickly went through the walls of shadow city to avoid the archers that would shoot at him from above. The middle aged woman just stood there saying nothing exactly like before. Isaiah showed her the pipe and she didn¡¯t respond. He pondered what to do. Isaiah says: ¡°Hello Bandallar I did what you asked.¡± Bandallar says: ¡°Hello Isaiah, you look like a capable adventurer. Perhaps you could me.¡± Isaiah grumbles. Isaiah says: ¡°nevermind.¡± He had no desire to go through the dialogue again and be assigned the quest he just completed. Isaiah was done here apparently. He headed back along the west gate of shadow city and along the quest forest road back to the temple of Lathander. No one was there right now but he felt like it was good roleplay to come back to the temple often to advance. You advance mage. Mage is now level 7. You advance fighter. Fighter is now level 8. HP: 60/60 Isaiah was now a level 8/7 fighter/mage. His hit points jumped to 60. It looked like he got some good rolls. A level 7 mage could also cast level 4 spells. It would be exciting to try this but he had exactly zero spells in his spellbook of that level. On that note he had spells in his spellbook that he also had never cast because he¡¯d never got the spell components either. He should try to fix this. He should have tried to fix this earlier. It was becoming obvious that if he wanted to be a mage he needed to make components shopping a daily thing until he¡¯d got a bit of a stock of casting components piled up. Also, Isaiah had the full plate mail that he got from a drop from one of the captains in the dragon¡¯s den caverns that he needed to sell. So Isaiah backtracked. He headed east along the quiet forest road and then swung by the armor store. Fulgar the shopkeeper that had been talking for that weird avatar project meeting was standing there. Unlike last time he didn¡¯t say anything at all. Isaiah sold the full plate in his inventory and the shopkeeper gave him 8238 gold for it. He couldn¡¯t equip it anyway; he suspected that only shop bought items could be worn. He guessed the wizards might have done this because they wanted players to suffer. But there was an upside. For the first time ever Isaiah¡¯s money was in the 5 digits. He had over 10,000 gold along with a bunch of other currency dropped from monster corpses. Isaiah tried something. He really wanted the full plate and he thought if he got it back from the shopkeeper then he would be able to equip it. He bought it back for 10,000 gold coins. Then he removed his armor (making him technically naked) and went to wear the full plate. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! ¡®This armor is fitting for someone else.¡¯ The armor said as he failed to wear it. He grumbled and sold it again. There went his thousands of hard earned gold for nothing. But he still had enough to go do some component¡¯s shopping at the alchemist in the mage¡¯s tower. Isaiah walked past the ivory carver that he had seen a few times but couldn¡¯t figure out why someone would want something carved from ivory. What did carving have to do with magic. Isaiah hurried and checked the components available. Bitumen 34 gold 53 stored Crane¡¯s Feather 29 gold 30 stored Eyelash 3 gold 91 stored Mini shovel 48 gold 21 stored Phosphorus 87 gold 33 stored Powdered diamond 4800 gold 93 stored Slug 4 gold 11 stored Well, this vendor didn¡¯t have the components he was looking for. Any good mage should be able to cast a fireball but for that he needed a supply of bat guano and sulfur. So Isaiah packed up and walked south to Tharis and along the wall outside the city. (Staying outside the city was very important!) and then continued west. He did it so quickly mashing directions that he passed out from exhaustion again on the road west of Tharis. Soth¡­Lord Soth might have had the right idea by investing in a horse. He sat idle in the room for a bit hoping someone wouldn¡¯t decide this would be a good time to stab him down and walked the rest of the way to the Azha components vendor. Aluminum chaff 48 gold 29 stored Bat guano 10 gold 79 stored Blessed leather 48 gold 77 stored Diamond dust 1200 gold 46 stored Eyelash of ogre-mage 144 gold 6 stored Sulfur 68 gold 21 stored It looks like randomization of this shop was on his side. Isaiah bought the fireball components. . . all of the stock. He also bought 10 blessed leather. He needed to try out that armor spell. He really needed to figure out which spells were useful and which ones he could ignore. It was just that there were a lot of them and it was a little overwhelming. Not taking damage was paramount so he decided the armor spell would be worth trying out first. You can¡¯t cast wearing all that armor. Isaiah grumbles. (right can¡¯t cast mage spells with the chainmail worn) Isaiah removes chainmail. You begin casting armor. A magic shield forms around you as the leather vanishes into your hand. Isaiah wears chainmail. (A few seconds later) This spell cannot offer protection to those wearing armor. The magic shielding around you glows then fades away. Isaiah sighs. It looks like there is a check in the spell to make it not stack with someone wearing armor. If he wanted to use the spell he would have to ditch his chainmail. This had two problems. He didn¡¯t know if the magical armor had better armor class than his chainmail. Second, the spell has a duration. Chainmail doesn¡¯t have a duration. So for him this spell was worthless. Well the armor spell was a miss. At least the blessed leather doesn¡¯t weigh anything sitting in his components bag. Next was to try out fireball. Isaiah headed back to the room before the goblin gatekeepers. He sat down studying his book memorizing all the fireballs he could. He then removed his chainmail (This time he remembered he couldn¡¯t cast wearing armor!) and walked north Goblin gatekeeper attacks you! Goblin gatekeeper attacks you! You begin casting a spell. You are busy casting. You are busy casting. Goblin gatekeeper misses you. Goblin gatekeeper hits you. HP: 59/60 You chant rapidly creating an orb of fire in your hand. A massive ball of fire jets out from your hand furiously growing as it slams into goblin. Goblin is singed by the blast. Goblin drops dead before you. Goblin misses you. You begin casting a spell. You are busy casting. You are busy casting. You chant rapidly creating an orb of fire in your hand. A massive ball of fire jets out from your hand furiously growing as it slams into goblin. Goblin drops dead before you. It was a bit of a bummer that he lost the melee attacks for the round while casting a spell. It would have been great if that was not the case but everything has a cost. Well, that wasn¡¯t bad. It also wasn¡¯t much better than just using his sword of insanity and bone knife. The fireball does area of effect damage which is a plus. However, he had to remove his armor to cast it which would make him easier to hit. He also couldn¡¯t be wielding weapons while casting. He would have to use a macro to unwield both weapons and remove armor if he wanted to cast a fireball in combat. Then he¡¯d have to use another one to re-arm and wear the armor again. If he could type quickly enough he should be able to weave it in and increase his damage per round. Though just swinging his blades was less of a hassle. He decided using his fireball could make a good backup plan if he came across an enemy he had trouble hitting because of their good armor class. Spells don¡¯t seem to care about someone¡¯s armor class. Isaiah offered the corpses and took the coins they dropped. The coins were just about the same as the cost of the components he used which was a bit of a bite. Also he noticed the amount of experience he gained from fighting these goblins has gone down from when he was lower level. It looked like experience points scaled with level difference. CH.19 Schatten Isaiah headed back east in the direction shadow city and walked through the farmland and the still empty temple of Mystra. He peered ahead past the gates and saw three elves in the main crossroads. Daelmas, Ambrosia and Gabrielle were gathered there. He wanted to talk with Daelmas and Ambrosia but he had mixed emotions about Gabrielle. Also the fact that the city wasn¡¯t safe. Nightfall could be lurking around looking for more elves to stab if that was his thing. It occurred to him that the last part was likely just a paranoid excuse to do something simpler. He didn¡¯t care, an easier task would be to try to get some more gold. The dragon¡¯s den caverns dropped that plate mail and if he could farm that he might be able to buy some more components and get a good stock of detect invisibility components. Isaiah went north and only walked past the room with the hidden entrance once this time. He climbed down the hole into the dragon¡¯s den caverns. His target was the various monster captains. He went down all the passageways until they dead ended killing everything. With the mana his sword of insanity and the heal command he made slow and steady progress just as before. He had killed everything and didn¡¯t see didn¡¯t see a full plate drop. Just for grins he had pressed all the buttons and went into the room with the wizard. He was still there and still attached to that silk cloak that Isaiah confirmed was likely +2 with his detect magic spell. Internally grumbling he did a second run through of killing captains. The experience point gain was also less then when he was lower level. Isaiah was starting to out-level this place as well. It took three run throughs and a couple hours of grinding before he got another full plate drop. He headed back to fulgars and sold a couple suits of banded mail, scale mail and one suit of full plate mail. With the 10 or so gold coins that each of the monsters dropped, the run gave him over 10,000 gold. He figured he had enough money to get at least some components to all the spells he currently had in his spellbook. Experience point requirements going up quite a bit was also starting to hang on him. Level 7 fighter required 64,000xp level 8 fighter required 125,000xp and level 9 fighter required 250,000xp. Similarly level 7 mage required 60,000xp, level 8 mage required 90,000 xp and level 9 mage required 135,000xp. An interesting fact that he learned while looking at help files was that teleport is a level 5 spell. According to said file, the spell didn¡¯t need any components. Magic missile had been his goto spell for much of his mage attacks simply for that reason. Even now, all of his level 1 spell slots were filled with magic missiles. Isaiah swung by the alchemist¡¯s and picked up all the tiny bag and small candles they had in store. Monster summoning spells all used the same components and they were cheap too. Maybe even he could afford to cast it without wincing as he saw the investment vanish in a second. He also picked up some fireflies and added them to his components bag. Some of the things didn¡¯t seem like they would be great to keep next to each other, like bat guano, phosphorus and sulfur. But it was fine, video game logic right? Isaiah headed south out of the city gate. He continued south past the rhapsody inn and looked at a path headed east into the darkwood forest that he had heard before when chatting with his new friends. True to its name, darkwood was dark. Tall trees with broad leaves towered above the twisting path and were suffocatingly close together. The path opened up after going east enough to an area that was largely like a grid. Most every room had 4 exits: North, South, East West. If it was on the edge of the area it only had 3. For example peering north and south from the first room in the open area most of the rooms lacked the west exit. He assumed whoever made this area wanted it to be open but not a complete rectangle. He continued along the east exits peering north and south to try to survey the area. One of the nice things about designing an area as a grid is that there were long sight lines to take advantage of. He could get a good idea of the darkwood without getting lost easily. The forest consists of a few orc camps with a couple ogres here and there and also in the center there were several rooms that had some voadkyns. It seems like the wood giants had set up a camp here. Using he also spotted a few voadkyn hunters around. Voadkyns were (to oversimplify) giant hairless elves. Isaiah should fit in well with his large pointy eared cousins. There was a flower vendor and someone selling various nick-nacks. There was a healer who sold healing potions. And surprisingly there was another player at the camp. Schatten, the low priestess. The wholist showed her as a female elf. Isaiah¡¯s player was exciting to find another character that might be a potential love interest. Isaiah says: ¡°Hello Cousin! I¡¯m Isaiah!¡± Isaiah beams. Schatten says: ¡°Sunshine and flowers Isaiah, I am Schatten, pleasure to meet you cousin.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°How are you?¡± Schatten smiles. Schatten says: ¡°I¡¯m fine and you?¡± Isaiah says: ¡°I¡¯m doing good, it is always nice to meet another elf.¡± Schatten nods. Schatten says: ¡°It is good to meet you here as well, cousin.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°So what are you doing in darkwood?¡± Schatten chuckles. Schatten says: ¡°It is strange to find elves in the forest or keeping the presence of our voadkyn kin?¡± Isaiah blinks in disbelief. Isaiah says: ¡°No I am, I didn¡¯t mean it like that.¡± This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. Schatten smiles and nods. Schatten says: ¡°I know, but to answer your question I am here to help the Voadkyn fight off the orc and ogre menace that has been plaguing these woods.¡± Isaiah nods. Isaiah says: ¡°I am here to do the exact same thing. Maybe we could work together?¡± Schatten says: ¡°Yes, we should fight side by side to cleanse this land.¡± Schatten raises her weapon up. You invite schatten to follow you. Schatten is now following you. You leave headed north. You leave headed north. You leave headed north. Orc attacks you. You hit orc You hit orc. Sword of insanity tell you: ¡°I shall now summon the demon prince!¡± Rabbit appears before you. You hit orc. Schatten hits orc. Schatten hits orc. Schatten hits orc. Orc drops dead before you. Schatten pats rabbit on the head. Schatten says: ¡°My, you charge into battle with no hesitation like a noble knight Isaiah.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°oh sorry, did I do something wrong?¡± Schatten shakes her head in disagreement. Schatten says: ¡°Nothing wrong, just a little abrupt. I was at least expecting us to form a party before we clashed blades with the enemy.¡± Isaiah laughs nervously. (That¡¯s right he¡¯d never formed a party anymore so he wasn¡¯t familiar with the command. Lets see here the syntax looks like then too add someone.) You create the party elves. You invite Schatten to the party elves. Schatten has joined the party. Isaiah says: ¡°There, how''s that?¡± Schatten says: ¡°We just need a couple war horses and we could charge these orcs like knights!¡± Isaiah laughs. For a while Isaiah and Schatten cut their way through the darkwood monsters with little trouble. With two of them the difficulty was almost non-existent. Isaiah took some damage once and schatten healed him. Schatten starts casting a spell. A small pulse of energy courses through you. HP: 60/60 Isaiah says: ¡°Wow! You are a priestess Schatten and here I thought you were a knight.¡± Schatten gestures to her scepter. Schatten says: ¡°Not using bladed weapons should have given it away.¡± Schatten grins and chuckles. Isaiah says: ¡°I guess I didn¡¯t notice. I¡¯ve had bad experiences in the past with looking people over and getting a knife in the back right after.¡± Schatten shudders. Schatten says: ¡°I¡¯m sorry to hear that cousin.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°Well I just stumbled into the wrong bar won¡¯t be going back there.¡± Schatten says: ¡°Yeah doesn¡¯t sound like a good place to be.¡± Isaiah led schatten through the woods a little more and ran across an ogre. Ogre attacks you! You hit ogre. You hit ogre. You hit ogre. Ogre hits you. HP 52/60 Schatten hits ogre. Schatten hits ogre. Schatten hits ogre. Ogre drops dead before you. (Isaiah was a little bummed out the mana didn¡¯t drop from heaven this time.) Schatten looks you over. Schatten says: ¡°That ogre clubbed you good.¡± Schatten starts casting a spell. A small pulse of energy courses through you. HP: 60/60 Isaiah says: ¡°Thank you Schatten your healing is so good I never want to be separated from you again.¡± Schatten blushes. Isaiah says: ¡°I um oh, I¡¯m sorry that didn¡¯t come out right haha.¡± Isaiah blushes. Isaiah stands boldly in protection of schatten! Isaiah says: ¡°It¡¯s the mans¡­er..elf¡¯s job to protect the healer.¡± (This was a command that would make him take hits that were meant for schatten) Schatten shakes her head in disagreement. Schatten gestures to her field plate mail. Schatten says: ¡°I¡¯ve got better armor than you Isaiah. If anyone should be protecting someone else it should be me protecting you.¡± Isaiah sighs. Isaiah says: ¡°Sorry I guess you are my knight in shining armor then rather than the other way around.¡± Schatten snickers. Schatten says: ¡°I would have loved to be a paladin; that was my goal back in the elf village I was raised in. Sadly, my parents didn¡¯t want to crush my dream when I was young and they didn¡¯t tell me that elves couldn¡¯t be paladins until they thought I was old enough to handle it.¡± Isaiah sighs. Isaiah says: ¡°Well you have some good armor, it must have taken a while to get enough money to buy it.¡± Schatten shakes her head. Schatten says: ¡°It was a gift.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°A gift? Where from?¡± Schatten says: ¡°From our cousin the first time he met me he treated me very gentlemanly. He said that he hoped I would gain strength quickly and adventure with him soon.¡± Schatten fidgets. Isaiah raises an eyebrow. Isaiah says: ¡°Another elf, maybe it is someone I know.¡± Schatten says: ¡°Yes, he is a priest of Lathander his name is Kaarell.¡± Kaarell is giving this cute elf girl expensive presents. What could this mean? Isaiah¡¯s player had a bad feeling but convinced himself it was nothing. Schatten is a nice girl. Kaarell is a nice guy, they were both friends and don''t try to overanalyze this. Isaiah¡¯s player desperately tried to keep his thoughts positive. Positive! Isaiah led the group to a room of the forest that had a voadkyn ranger in it. The rangers seemed to wander around a bit. There were some corpses in some of the rooms so they likely attacked orcs and ogres. Isaiah looked over the Voadkyn to see what gear it had on it. Wood ax(wielded in right hand) Wood ax(wielded in left hand) Voadkyn chain(worn) Isaiah cast detect magic. Wood ax(wielded in right hand) (surrounded by a blue glow) Wood ax(wielded in left hand) (surrounded by a blue glow) Voadkyn chain.(worn) (surrounded by a blue glow) Hmm. This NPC has several +2 items. Schatten says: ¡°Isaiah what are you doing?¡± Isaiah says: ¡°Nothing.¡± Schatten glares at you. Schatten says: ¡°It looked to me like you were casting detect magic and enviously looking at that Voadkyn ranger¡¯s gear. I hope you were not coming up with any bad plans to get it because I won¡¯t stand for it.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°No no, I was just wondering if it was magical or not that¡¯s all. Schatten puts her hands on her hips. Schatten says: ¡°I hope so let''s move on.¡± And so they wandered around killing monsters helping the Voadkyn rangers keep the forest free of orcs. Well the orcs would respawn after 15 minutes so it wasn¡¯t like the forest could ever really be free of orcs and ogres no matter how many they killed. In the southeastern corner of the forest it lead off into a bit of path and the room description changed to be less dark and more like a traditional forest. One of the rooms had a sign planted that read: Tharis Forest: Players will be forced to play their alignments here. **Due to abuse of the alignment system no one under level 10 may enter the forest You have been warned! Schatten looks over sign. Isaiah says: ¡°It looks like I can¡¯t go this way.¡± Schatten says: ¡°Maybe this is a good time to part ways. I should head back to the temple of Silvanus.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°Where is that?¡± Schatten says: ¡°It is far from here on the island of deku.¡± Isaiah nods. Isaiah says: ¡°I would like to come and visit it soon.¡± Schatten says: ¡°Be careful there are some strong monsters in areas there but if you stick to the main path you should be safe. When I first arrived in this realm I didn¡¯t know where it was. Kaarell led me there safely the first time so I could offer my greetings to the oakfather for the first time. I am ever grateful for his help.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°Well I can escort you back to shadow. I haven¡¯t been to the islands yet.¡± Schatten shakes her head. Schatten says: ¡°There is no need to, elves belong in the forest so let is part ways here. Shadow is full of villains.¡± Isaiah nods. Isaiah says: ¡°Allright, I look forward to seeing you again soon.¡± Schatten says: ¡°Sunshine and waterfalls cousin.¡± Schatten waves to you. Schatten leaves north. Schatten is no longer following you. CH.20 Deku It was a bit sad parting from Schatten. Isaiah went back to the Voadkyn camp and bought a flower from the flower vendor. It only had a weight of 1. For comparison his carrying capacity was 330. The chainmail weighed 22. The dagger weighed 2. His sword of insanity weighed 8. Frustratingly these stats were not visible to players anywhere. However dropping something and picking it back up was an easy if not annoying method to determine an item¡¯s weight. Incidentally, the first time Isaiah was created when he was a cleric/mage he didn¡¯t try to max out his strength at 18. Carrying capacity was scaled with strength. A character with a 3 strength would be practically unplayable. Isaiah pondered this a bit as he digested the emotions of being separated from Schatten. Isaiah sat there doing nothing for a bit. Being all alone was causing him to lose motivation. On reflection he kept checking the who list to see if Schatten logged off. It took a while but she did. He kicked himself for not offering to escort her back to her temple. However, he didn¡¯t actually know where it was so such an offer might just show how little he knew of the lands. She could have escorted him back to the temple but who would be wearing the pants in that scenario? Isaiah made the not-quick decision that it was time to take to the seas. He headed back west and found the path that led to the road that went south to Tharis and north to Shadow. From shadow he went east along that vast desert until he hit the sea. Dozens of notifications of ¡®snake attacks you¡¯ spammed by along with the descriptions of desert rooms. Each room had exactly the same name and it was much bigger than the darkwood. Eventually he could go east no further and stopped at a room saying he was on the shore of the saakrune sea. After that he passed out from exhaustion. Grumble.. One of these days Isaiah needed to invest in a mount. He apparently had to learn this lesson over and over again. After a couple of minutes Isaiah regained consciousness. He didn¡¯t dare move to another room because his stamina status was ¡®falling over.¡¯ He stayed still and let his stamina recover while he peered north and south. To the north, there was a line of shore to the sea that ended up against a mountain. To the south there was a series of shore rooms that ended in a canyon. However, one of the shore rooms to the south had a eastern exit instead of butting up against the inpassible sea. After getting enough stamina Isaiah headed south a bit and took the east exit. He found himself standing on a wooden pier. The only exit was back west. There was a sign and a ferry boat. Isaiah¡¯s player thought there might be logistical problems with a port that was surrounded by a vast desert with nothing else in sight for as far as the eye could see but he tried not to overthink things. Isaiah read the sign: ¡°You are at shadow dock. 0,36 The follow actions are available: well rent a boat at a cost of 1000 gold. will return a rented boat. will buy a boat for 20,000 gold. will call your boat to this down if you own one. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. will sell your boat¡± While reading the sign the ferry boat left the area. Apparently the ferry just comes and goes on it¡¯s own schedule. Likely if he waited a bit the ferry would return. Isaiah just barely had enough money to buy a boat but he¡¯d rather spend it on spell components. He wasn¡¯t sure how much use he¡¯d get out of his own boat. If it was just to go back and forth from deku island it might be a waste. After 15 minutes or so the ferry came back. A ferry boat enters the area. Isaiah looked over the ferry boat and it had a simple description: This is a ferry boat. The cost for a ferry ride is 5 gold one you pay five gold you will be let on the ferry. Typing ¡®pay 5 gold¡¯ put him into another room. It was a simple boat with two sailors manning a boat that can carry up to 10 passengers. There were some benches on the front of the boat where the passengers could ride. Text started scrolling by: The ferry leaves in 2 minutes. The ferry leaves in 1 minute. The ferry sails across the sea. Beyond the ferry you see this: You are on the saakrune sea. Off to the west you can see a parched desert. There is nothing but water to the east. The ferry sails across the sea There is nothing but water for miles upon miles. Water for miles upon miles. (this continued being each rooms description as the process continued every 15 seconds or so until the ferry got to the next stop.) You are docked at the island of Laerad. The massive island of Laerad''s docks border a wasteland. The land is cracked and scorched belching up waves of sulfurous gas. (Laerad was not his stop he¡¯d have to ask someone about it later. Isaiah stayed put on the ferry.) The ferry sails across the sea. Nothing but water for miles and miles. (Again this continued to spam across the screen for who knows how long.) Then the sailors stopped at the next island. Seafang Harbor This old decayed dock is about 20 feet long and hangs over the green stinking sea. There is a thick gray fog hanging over the water. (so the water is normal at the sea, but green on the dock, what is this some kind of industrial runoff?) Isaiah got off the ferry and stepped onto the dock. He peered around. It seemed like the only way to go was east. The braved elf headed into the mist that was on the dock and east turned into a place called the Shadowlord Forest. Luckily the forest was not a huge sprawling grid. The paths were mostly straight and to the east it looked like there was a town. A bit east and north there was a tower. The line of sight east was completely straight; he could peer from the east entrance all the way to the west entrance. The town¡¯s name was Verbobone. It had a very simple layout for which he was thankful for. The main road went east and west like he saw earlier and there was a dead end road that headed north into some kind of haunted house at the dead end. He could tell it was a haunted house because the room¡¯s description said ¡®haunted house.¡¯ Isaiah was walking around checking out the shops when something odd happened. All the thieves suddenly wonder where Saturn''s corpse may be found. Then a few minutes later. The grim reaper happily accepts Rygar¡¯s soul. Isaiah checked the who list. It seemed like a lot of deaths were piling up. All the thieves suddenly wonder where Taaveti''s corpse may be found. Harmony enters. Harmony reaches into a bag and throws a powder at your face. The powder gets into your eyes blinding you! Harmony starts casting a spell. A bolt of lighting zaps into you. HP: 10/60 (Isaiah panicked and started mashing west trying to get away) The blinding powder stuns you and you can¡¯t see. The blinding powder stuns you and you can¡¯t see. Harmony start casting a spell. (Isaiah tried to say ¡°please stop¡± but all he got was the stunned message about the powder.) A bolt of lightning zap into you. HP: -23/60 You are at death''s door your body is sleeping from you. You die. Then he got to see the death cutscene again. . . . Bane says: ¡°Isaiah, would you be interested in the frequent dying program?¡± (Isaiah wanted to say yes but prior experience taught him ghost just wail when they try to walk) Lea (OOC): Everyone hide! Harmony is trying to kill the mud again! Nightfall (OOC): Heh The grim reaper cackles as he accepts designa¡¯s soul. Eventually Isaiah¡¯s ghost went through the exit back to the church in Verbobone and he prayed to get a new body. Where he was killed there was no one. Just a sword of insanity, a bone dagger, a spellbook and a chainmail. He was again murdered by someone who he didn¡¯t even know or interact with. All of his money was taken. All of his components he scrounged just gone in an instant. It sucked. After Isaiah grabbed his things he typed ¡®quit¡¯ and left for the night. EX: Schattens background A mighty willow tree, whose branches rose to the sun and then cascaded down to the earth like emerald silk. The tree stood high atop a knoll, far away from many other trees. Its majesty a glory to behold and all paid homage to it. One day, an elven lady came to this tree. It was midday and the sun rose high in the air, warming things in the gentle early autumn. The lady was round with child and full to due, but her heart had longed to go for a walk within the soft grass and breathe in warm summer day. She came to the tree, alone on its knoll, the breeze gently rustling its branches as it wove its through them. There, she found herself weary, tired and sought to rest under those great branches, below that mighty tree. There deep in that shade she enclosed herself and rested falling into a light sleep as the butterflies flitted about and the birds called from the high branches. Her sleep was peaceful and as the day fell into mid afternoon she came to awake, rested and alone below that mighty tree. Uncertain of what awoke her, she gazed about but then felt a light pain. Not harsh, but enough to tell her that the child she held was coming. She could not return to the village, for even as she stood to find her way out of the branches that enfolded her, the pains came quicker. They were not so much that she found herself hurting and she marveled at this for her last two births had come with all the great pains and pleasures of childbirth. She sat again at the foot of the tree, nestled into the roots that grew up from the ground wondering what to do. She had no powers of the mind, nor any way to summon help. The child was coming, the labor pains told her this, but they were quiet compared to her two sons. It seemed there was nothing she could do, but wait And so she did. The tree held her in his embrace while the shadows of the leaves danced about her, caressing her and keeping her company. And soon, the child came from her womb. And again there was little pain. It was a daughter, with the tufts of red hair already showing and light green eyes. The child slid into the embrace of the tree''s shadowy midwives and they held her till the mother found her breath again. Then the mother brought the child to her breast and cradled the child within a cloak to keep her warm. Gazing upon the child, the mother knew her daughter had been brought to her by the kindness of the nature and the shadows that danced about under the tree''s canope. In honor of this gift, she named the child in the tongue of the elves. The name given was Shadow of the Tree, or Schatten Desbaums. And so it is said I came to be. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Well that was the story I was told of my birth. Mother was always the romantic, like her daughter. I was raised to be a good daughter, the ways of speaking proper and addressing those I met in a civil and well mannered tongue. I learned the court speech and was gifted the ability to read and write and even shown the art of music, though I failed to master it. My parents taught me to know love and happiness. They taught me to embrace each thing, each person, each experience as a learning tool. They also chided me for being a tom-boy at heart. It was probably the fact that both of my brothers were decades older than I, that as a very young elven child I looked up to them more then others. Their play fighting and mastery of weapons, their romps and excursions into the surrounding forests, caves and other places, driving my curiosity to do the same. Every cut, bruise, black eye or abrasion I brought home earned me my mother''s sigh and my fathers ''talk''. "Ladies," he would say, "didn''t behave like that." It never kept me from exploring, it never side tracked my yearnings to see new wonders. The books helped with that as well. I learned to read early on. As I said my mother was a romantic, and that rubbed off on me as she read stories of brave knights, solemn heroes, and soft-hearted princess to me each night. I gobbled them up and explored them with my imagination when I slipped out into the forest. Sometimes the hero, sometimes the villain, sometimes the princess. The caves became my castles, the trees my vast wilderness, ripe with dragons and fawns. Trinkets abandoned by others, left in the depths of the forest, my vast treasures. My weapons were sticks, collected from the ground and wielded like maces and swords. My cloak a magical garment that could transform me into anything or anyone. When I learned to read I can''t say, I was young, but I devoured everything I could lay my hands on. My favorite tale was that of Eve Lyendor, a Paladin of Silvanus, who soon became my favorite fantasy character. I often pretended to be her squire, following along, saving her just in the nick of time or helping her overcome the mad prince''s riddle traps. I always fancied her a brilliant golden hared elf woman with the purest of hearts and strived to be like her. I joined the church of Silvanus because of her. Or maybe it was because I was born under a tree. Later I learned I could never be a Paladin, that was something reserved for humans. It crushed me into a thousand pieces. My childhood dream, the reason I had gone to my apprenticeship with Silvanus, was gone in a flash of woeful tears. But I was there, and there was a treasure trove of books and scrolls I had yet to read, and so I stayed. The priests frowned at my desire to climb the trees and read in their branches rather then sit at the pews in prayer. At first, they thought I might turn out to be a ranger, but I had neither the skills for fighting nor the desire. I was far more interested in the emotions and the reasons for why things were like they were. I was esoteric, always wandering off to observe and watch interactions. Of animals, of people, of everything about me. I saw nature, its cycle, its balance in all things, not just the wilderness. And perhaps because I had been raised in an elven city and then sent to train in a larger human metropolis I found and came to understand the balance between the wilderness of nature and the wilderness of civilization. CH.21 Taking a day off Isaiah¡¯s player decided he was going to take a break from the game. He had been PK¡¯d (Player killed) twice now. Was it supposed to be people role playing together or just killing each other like a game of unreal tournament? The next day using the wonderful source of information called the internet Isaiah¡¯s player pulled up a site called ¡®mudconnector.¡¯ It is where he actually found out about all the other MUD¡¯s he¡¯d checked out before. He noticed it had a review on it. Review posted by Anonymous: ¡°The listing of shadowgate says it is a roleplaying mud but who are they kidding? The immortals just favor certain classes and let the rest be garbage. Want to be top of the food chain? Just create a fighter/thief/mage power level up get a screamer and some wrist sheaths and you can just one round everyone. ¡° Response by Tristan: ¡°Looks like someone has decided to take their personal grudge against me and my team here to the mud connector. The goal has always been to make PK the greatest roleplay experience the world has ever seen. Expect some changes in the near future.¡± Isaiah¡¯s player chuckled a bit at Tristan being put on the hot seat. In his own experience PK in the mud just made it worse. It wasn¡¯t really a fair fight. Both of the times he¡¯d been ¡®player killed¡¯ it had just been someone bursting him down in a round or two. The culture where higher levels just stomp on lower leveled ones because they can seem toxic. In fact, he was almost sure his early experience with getting ganked by Nightfall right in the middle of shadow would have been enough for him to leave and not come back. His connection with players like Light Kaarell and Schatten made him want to come back though. The game¡¯s website was also a bit interesting as well. Not only did it have a bunch of information on it (classes, races, deities, guilds) but also a couple game generated things. First, the who list was created in HTML form. It emulated the command only displaying it in a static webpage instead of lines of text scrolling across the mud client terminal. He guessed it wasn¡¯t updated real time but still it was useful. Also, there were hyperlinks to the players backgrounds which was neat. One could tell who was online and read the background of that player as well if they wanted to. There was a link to the player directory too. It had a bunch of html files in the player''s name. The directory listed how large the file size was and when it was last updated. He did a quick scroll through and noted that the largest background was Lea at 51 kilo bytes. It was very long and had a lot of dates attached to a series of entries. It was written like an appended journal. Having a background like a diary to be appended to seemed like a novel idea to him. After reading it, there were a few key takeaways to be made. First, Lea was associated with Harmony and Harmony seemed to be the owner of the Rhapsody Inn. Also, Lea¡¯s background was way too intimate. She had a failed engagement to Whitefalcon. That is embarrassing for other people to know about. Harmony tried to set her up in a relationship with someone named Margath. It makes him sound like a pimp. Regardless, he wanted to give this Harmony villain a wide berth. Anyway, the time had come to head to class. While some of the computer labs had the ability to run telnet most wouldn¡¯t let students install a mud client on them. If he was really desperate he could log in but it would be at an extreme handicap. Default telnet terminals had no colored text and no macros. Every command would have to be typed out. If he wanted to go east 20 rooms he¡¯d have to type out east 20 times repeating the last command typing each keystroke. There was a long list of rules on the web page too.
1: Golden Rules Immortals have created this game with a goal and vision in mind. This vision is the goal of their actions. Their reward comes from the successfull movement toward this goal. Ultimately this goal is to make a game as successful a role playing environment and as near to Table top situation as possible in a MUD environment. Their actions are all geared toward the furtherance of this goal. Therefore, immortals'' words are final. They also can act outside of the rules listed here when it is in the best interest of the MUD. Immortals are also human. They can act rashly and improperly. You can appeal decisions made by an immortal to LAW. This can be done by MUD mailing law, or mailing tristan. The word of law is final. Players have the right to play the mud and enjoy themselves within the scheme of the MUD. That means within the role playing, functional, intended and logistic limits of the game. If you don''t have fun playing D&D; MUD, you do not have a right to make it fun for yourself by making it a cyber MUD. If you don''t like role playing you do not have a right to simply not. If you want to RP and play a D&D; mud you have a right to play here and have fun. In general, overt criticism of the MUD is unwanted and will result in bad feeling. If you have suggestions as to improving the MUD or the playing environment please feel free to share it. We understand that we are not perfect and can always improve. However, like all humans we do not appreciate simply being told we "suck". 2: Concerning OOC OOC means out of character. OOG means out of game. OOC is as your player not as your character. OOC should has its place on the MUD. This is best used when speaking about the game in general, asking functional questions, or making suggestions/comments. OOG has NO place on the MUD. This is not a meeting ground for long lost friends. This is not a cyber dating service. Email addresses, ICQ, AIM, etc information should not be exchanged on the MUD. If you are caught you will be at least jailed, at most removed completely. Please refer to the help roleplaying for more information. Using any out of game advantage, such as real life relationships, is frowned upon. This means information as well as role-playing situations. Just because two people are friends in real life, that does not mean their characters are not bitter enemies. This means that the paladin and antipaladin who are sitting next to each other at the computers should not be partying all over the place. Quitting or disconnecting out of battle is an unfair advantage. Think about it, how would you like it if the dragon you were fighting suddenly decided to quit and come back in a few hours? If you are caught doing this, you will receive the penalty of the death you were trying to escape. Use of offerall as an RP tool is forbidden. Offerall is a tool provided so that a player can get rid of unwanted equipment. Offerall is not to be used in an attempt to hinder other players. Offerall is considered an OOC device and falls under OOC advantages. Trying to exact an IC action against an inactive person is illegal. This includes attacking, animating, attacking horses, and all other IC actions. This includes waiting for the moment they go active and stabbing them. Conversely, inactive is an OOC action. Using it to avoid combat etc is the same as quitting out. Inactive includes edits as well in both cases. Mail is an OOC tool. Using it to communicate around languages or distances is illegal. The only IC action through mail is the legal bounty voting. 3: Concerning multi characters We allow a single player to have multiple characters. We believe that at times you may want to play something different, get away from a current character. We frown upon having armies of other characters. We feel that the MUD''s greatest experience is the continued dedication and connectedness with a single character. It may take a while to find the character that has the personality and situation that best fits for you. We ask that you use the ability to make multiple characters with respect to the goal of making a community of meaningful characters. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.Having two characters logged on at the same time is illegal. If you are seen doing this, both characters will be rid. Giving away characters is illegal. If you don''t want to play a character anymore, suicide , ask to be rid, or just stop playing (inactive characters are rid after 2 months). Switching between characters is bad roleplaying, and if you are seen doing it enough, then your characters will be linked. This means when you get into a situation with your thief and you suddenly decide that your cleric could kill this monster (or player) or get that item easier and do the appropriate player switching. Wanting to stop playing one character and start playing another under normal circumstances is reasonable. If you are switching between characters, quit and don''t just disconnect. If you are disconnecting and reconnecting, we will probably assume you are doing something illegal. Giving items and/or money between your own characters is illegal. If you are caught doing this in ANY way, the items/money will be taken away. If you keep doing it, your characters will be linked or jailed or rid. Talking about "your other chars" or refering to your other chars in a manner that tells people you are they is considered bad RP and illegal use of OOC information. If caught you will be jailed. This also applies to talking about other people''s characters in an OOC sense. The implication of these rules is that your characters can not know of each other. They can never have met, never have had any interaction. This means that your characters can not have any relation. They can not be brother and sister, husband and wife, etc. All characters must have a valid email address set. If your email address changes you should change this address. This is for three reasons. We track characters by email. If you ever have problems with a password, or registration and you need to email the administration, if the email you use and your email set don''t match we will ignore the message. We on occasion have had to send mass emails to people concerning the mud or its server. 4: Quests Quests exist in many forms. We commonly term them as quests, mini quests, random quests and avatar quests. They are all made to add more structure to the adventuring lives of the characters. Many people have had lots of fun figuring out quests. This is what we are striving for in the quests. Giving out quest information is illegal. This means telling someone how to do a quest as well as walking them through it when you already know how to do the quest. People partying to to do a quest for the first time is fine. There are also areas that are considered "quest-like" - this basically means there is some trick to getting out. Telling someone how to get through one of these areas will be treated the same as a true quest. If you are caught giving out quest information, you will be warned once and then rid. You may not lead people through quest areas. If you are providing (hired mercenary) to people adventuring through quest areas you may not provide any information about the quest or specials. You will have to absorb the effects of the other character''s decisions. This protection must remain at a reasonable level. If the character has no chance of surviving on his/her own and is staying alive solely by your presence this would also be considered breaking the quest rules. 5: Inter player relations/inter character relations As an environment of people from across the global coming together to play as other beings in another world. There are obviously some interaction problems that arise. As already stated, there should be no OOG interactions here. However, RL personalities may clash over IG (In game) issues. Typically we should all act as adults and treat the others as such until they prove to be otherwise. As characters, interactions should be based solely upon role playing reasons. OOG problems should not drive the actions of your character, nor should OOG concerns or relations. The paladin should not allow his RL girlfriend the antipaladin to slay small children without recourse, just because they are in a relationship. Multikilling is illegal. If you kill someone who has recently died (and has not had a chance to re-equip) without provocation, that is multikilling. If the recently deceased comes back and attacks you and you kill him or her, that is not multikilling. If you are caught multikilling, you will be jailed or rid. Please note that if a person is reequipped or appears to be reequipped but not in sufficient situation to be considered "back in game" then that person is still off limits. The accepted time limit is 20 to 30 minutes after gaining back some measure of equipment. That time limit, however, is not a point at which you may simply kill them again. Just use some sense and think about how you are after you''ve died. When you are under multi-killing protection you should simply attempt to re-equip and make yourself ready to re-enter the game. This is considered an OOC time. You should not RP during this time. RPing during this time would be considered back in game. Multi-kill protection is also not a shield through which you can loot, swear, insult. If you do any of this, then your multi-kill protection is lifted. Swearing at or directly abusing someone over a public line is illegal. Excessive references to real life over public lines is bad role-playing. Your lines will be removed at the discretion of any wiz online. They may or may not be returned, also at the discretion of a wiz. If you have a problem with lines, mail law and they will make a decision. Harassing someone in any situation is illegal. What we consider harassment is the unwanted inclusion of real life in the mud or the mud in real life. If you are ''bothered'' in character, then respond in character. If you feel that it is beyond the game, then please contact a wiz. Female characters are not entitled to help any more than male characters. A player should neither seek nor be given help simply because she is female. Much of the fun of the game is adventuring and discovering the MUD. Part of this fun is ruined when people are given things and secrets. Proliferation of equipment to those that cannot get it, is frowned upon highly, and if you do it often, you will be punished, especially equipment given to newbies and low mids. Any equipment sold should be at a steep price. Penalties include the standards of jail and rid for multiple offenders, and desting of equipment given, and what could be seen as intended to give. 6: General Conduct There are some common sense things that apply to any game. When playing a game of Monopoly, there is not a rule stating "Don''t rob the bank" yet clearly that is not allowed. The game has a spirit about it and if you work against that spirit regardless of a direct reference to that action in the rules you are in fact breaking the rules. You may have noticed, there was no lawyer class available. Reciting rules to the immortals and especially to LAW, will create far more ill will then anything else. I would highly advise NOT trying to play a lawyer. Scripts and triggers are illegal. If you are caught using them, you will be warned once, then rid if you continue. Using emotes to "talk" is illegal. If you wish to customize your speech pattern use speech. You will have your emotes taken away if you use emotes to talk. Emotes are for physical descriptios. You look at bob in wonder. You sigh quickly toward wilber. Using the lines, or information heard on the lines, for IC actions or interactions is not allowed. typically your lines will simply be removed. If you continue to abuse the lines, we will interpret this as a refusal to play the game as intended and simply remove you. Shouting has a warning when you use it, and you should read it sometime if you do use it. It is not necessary to shout unless it is an emergency. Wizes who are online usually listen to the lines, try asking for help there first. If you get no response, try typing who and tell a visible wiz if you need help rather than shouting. Remember, when you ask for help and are invisible, a wiz has no idea who you are. Logging out at the 2 minute warning is expected of all characters who are in a position to log out. This means people who are not in combat and not in an area of risk of logging into combat. If you do not follow the large yellow warning you risk potential punishment and/or loss of equipment. 7: Bugs Bugs and features are a common source of problems. Bugs fall into two major categories, things that are broken, (true bugs) or features that interact with other features in an unrealized or unforeseen manner. Some MUDs spend (literally) years testing and retesting areas, functionality etc, trying to track down the bugs. We feel that we serve the MUD better by doing the basic testing and play testing, and then allowing the populace to play in the area. We improve the MUD at a greater rate and we can let the player base help us shape things as we go more effectively. This, however, can create situations where things are broken, both for the benefit and detriment of the player. This will also introduce functionality that may conflict with other functionality. We expect players to always report these situations. Exploiting bugs is illegal. If you think you are getting something too easily, then you probably are and it is most likely a bug. If you are not sure, ask a wiz. If you are caught exploiting a bug, you will be jailed and whatever you have gained illegally will be taken away. If you continue, you will be rid.
These rules are fished out of the way-back machine and slightly edited.(author note) There was also a list of all the deities:
  • All players are encouraged to choose a diety to follow. The following dieites exist in our world: Akadi, Goddess of Elemental Air Auril, Goddess of Cold and Ice Cyric, God of Deception and Illusion Eldath, Goddess of Peace Grumbar, God of Elemetal Earth Helm, God of Guardians Istishia, God of Elemental Water Iyachtu Xvim, God of Hatred Kelemvor, God of Death Kossuth, God of Elemental Fire Lathander, God of Renewal and Birth Loviatar, Goddess of Torture Malar, God of Hunters Mask, God of Shadows Mielikki, Goddess of Forests Mystra, Goddess of Magic Selune, Goddess of Seekers Shar, Goddess of Loss Silvanus, God of Nature Talos, God of Destruction Tempus, God of War Torm, God of Protection Tyr, God of Justice
CH.22 Trying to bounce back. Spending a day away from a game looking at the webpage for the game still counts as taking a break right? After logging in Isaiah winced after he checked this exp and noticed the 10% missing. At higher levels death just keeps getting worse. If someone was a real asshole they could multi-kill someone back into newbiehood. In another way losing gear and expensive components could be much worse and harder to earn back. Isaiah headed back to the dock of deku intending to take the ferry back to shadow. After a while the ferry arrived at the rotting deku dock. Isaiah went to board the ferry and the sailor stopped him saying he needed to pay the 5 gold fee. After typing the sailor refused him saying that he didn¡¯t have enough money. Crap. Isaiah was stuck here. Isaiah was stuck in this place where the only thing he knew was how to get from the dock to the small city of Verbobone. This is exactly how he died last time. No, not last time, that was Harmony but the time before that. Exploring new places and risking death was something that came along with being an adventurer. Heroes are supposed to face death and break their limits when defeat seems inevitable, not die so many times that they get offered a frequent dying program from the gods. His path was clear; he needed to at least kill something however there was something else he overlooked. HP:1/60 60 is a lot of hit points to regain using the painfully slow heal command. The fact that praying at the church returns the ghost from the dead with 1 hit point is always a nice insult to injury. You begin tending to your wounds. Your attempt falters. (grumble) You begin tending to your wounds. You wrap a bandage around your arms and your injuries lessen. HP: 3/60 This continues for 1 to 4 hit points of possible healing at a couple minute intervals. Maybe one day Isaiah would be rich enough to have a bunch of healing potions at all times. HP: 60/60 A frustratingly long time later Isaiah was back at full hit points. Isaiah left the dock and went back to the small town on this island of deku. There were a few places to explore. First west and north of town there seemed to be a keep in the forest. East and north of town there was a tower. And it looked north of the main part of town there was a haunted house. The forest area to the east ended in a river. There were no room exits going east across the river like a bridge or rocks so it seemed impassable. Hmm what new place should he decide to go to? It didn¡¯t take much thought. The haunted house seemed to be the safest choice. Why was it the safest choice? It was the closest to the nearest church. The thought of planning for an imminent death seemed grim. Isaiah wandered around on the first floor a bit. The rooms were described as what would stereotypically expect for a haunted house. Everything was in disrepair. Walls were rotten and falling apart. The funrature¡¯s upholstery was in tatters. He fought several transparent ghosts which he was able to dispatch without much trouble. Sadly these ghosts didn¡¯t drop any gold. On the second floor he ran across something that seemed like it might be really scary. The death knight¡¯s description was that it was a fallen paladin created by a lich. Death knight attacks you! Death knight misses you. You hit death knight. You miss death knight. Death Knight hits you. HP: 51/60 You hit death knight. You hit death knight. The sword tells you: ¡°I shall now summon the demon prince!¡± The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. Rabbit appears before you. Rabbit misses death knight. You hit death knight. You hit death knight. Death knight tries to chill you with his fingers but you resist his touch. You hit death knight. You hit death knight. Rabbit misses death knight. You miss death knight. You miss death knight. Death knight chills rabbit with his fingers. Rabbit drops dead before you. You hit death knight. You hit death knight. Death knight drops dead before you. Isaiah offered the corpse of the death knight. The death knight had 49 silver and 4 gold. For being a knight he was surprisingly poor. The undead creature also drops some gear. It was a simple leather armor, a belt pouch, and a non-magical two handed sword. Isaiah took it all. He was right next to town and sold the two handed sword and leather armor for a bit of gold and decided to keep the belt pouch. It looked like it was something that could be used to store some things in. He was hopeful that it would be big enough to keep a components bag in to protect from thieves but considering how things have been created to be as painful as possible this far he didn¡¯t think he would be so lucky. As far as he could tell there was no wizard tower on deku where he could buy another component bag. There is also the problem even if he did go back he did go back he wouldn¡¯t still have money problems. Hand in hand with his goal to become more powerful was also the search for more coins. Now Isaiah had a bit of a problem. While his first instinct was to run back to areas he knew he could handle he also had originally planned to explore deku. Silvanus¡¯s temple was on deku anyway and Schatten treated it like it was her home. If he could find it and she was online then maybe the two of them could have tea together. If he was feeling especially brave maybe he could even ask her out for a date. A date with a cute elven priestess sounds exciting. Schatten wasn¡¯t online right now though so he didn¡¯t think he¡¯d see her in her temple. Or was it Silvanus¡¯s temple? There were an awful lot of deities for a player base that tended to not have more than 30 people online at any given time. Well, the wizards didn¡¯t show up on the who list so there could be more. It seemed like they either wanted to be left alone to code stuff or just give the impression that they were always watching and no one would know. He¡¯d never seen any of the immortals in their visible form. Maybe Tristan was lurking around invisible when he was doing that avatar project presentation and controlling Fulgar but as far as he could tell he would never know. Did detect invisibility show if a staff member was in the room? He doubted it. If he asked over the lines to see if an immortal would come to him to test it out it¡¯d likely be viewed as being disrespectful. Isaiah¡¯s player decided thinking about the topics of immortals was jumbling his thoughts too much. Meeting Schatten again would be a nice goal. Hopefully he could figure out where her temple was and meet up with her again when she was online again. Focus! Focus!!! Isaiah headed to the west of town and through the forest to the keep that was there. It was called blacktongue keep. It was a tower with stairs and smelled musty and of ale. There were a pair of keep guards in the first room. The keep guards were creatively named ¡®keep guard¡¯. The guards were orcs. They had unkempt matted hair and were very stinky. They didn¡¯t look like guards who did their job very well. The one was wielding a bastard sword and some silver chain mail. Isaiah was at full HP so he decided to give it ago. Upon entering the room with the orc gate guards they auto attacked him. Keep Guard attacks you! You miss keep guard. You miss keep guard. Keep guard misses you. Keep guard hits you. HP: 55/60 You hit keep guard. You miss keep guard. Keep guard hits you. HP: 50/60 Keep guard misses you. (at this point Isaiah switched to cheese tactics) You unwield sword of insanity. You unwield bone dagger. You remove chain. You begin casting a spell. You leave south. A swarm of magic missiles shoot out from your hands blasting into keep guard. You begin memorizing a spell. You waver. You have memorized magic missile. You leave north. Keep guard attacks you! You begin casting a spell. You leave south. A swarm of magic missiles shoot out from your hands blasting into keep guard. (this cheeky pattern continued a little bit until he the keep guard dropped dead) Isaiah offered the corpse and checked out what the keep guard¡¯s drops. It had left a normal looking bastard sword and a silver chain mail. After looking at the chain mail Isaiah noted it wasn¡¯t the same description as the chainmail he wore which he guessed was the default sold at the armor shop. This orc¡¯s armor had a symbol of a wolf emblazoned on it. Isaiah was a little miffed that the orc didn¡¯t drop any coins. Even rats dropped coins! Isaiah took a moment to memorize and then cast detect magic. He may not have any spell components but he had his spellbook and there were still spells that didn¡¯t need components to cast. Detect magic was one of these. None of the items on the ground had that suffix (A blue glow) so it all of it was mundane. But the experience was good. He could get 50 gold or so from the chainmail he thought so he grabbed it up. The bastard sword was maybe half that so he just left it. However, unlike the areas where he was killing before the experience point gain here was fairly decent. If nothing else he could safely grind these orcs to regain some of his lost experience from his recent death. After around the third set of armor Isaiah picked up he noticed that one of them had that blue glow. It was (a blue glow) not (a faint blue glow) he had found either a +2 chainmail or a -2 chainmail. He¡¯d memorized an identify spell to cast identify only to be rudely reminded that he didn¡¯t have the components. Isaiah went up and down the tower killing and looting everything he could see until he¡¯d filled up all of his carrying capacity. After that he went back to town and sold all of the non-enchanted armors for a few hundred gold. Detect magic had expired by then so he had to memorize and then recast the spell so as to not accidentally sell the wrong armor. RNG for the drop was not great. Of the armors she got, only one of them was enchanted. While he didn¡¯t have components for the identify spell the church could check for a curse. Isaiah took the armor and headed back to the church and paid for the church¡¯s curse check service. Feeling excited, Isaiah went to remove his old armor and equip his new +2 silver chainmail. However, what he got was disappointment. You are not high enough level to equip this item. (Darn it!) Isaiah (OOC) I got a +2 item and it won¡¯t let me use it says I¡¯m too low level. Vethor (OOC) I¡¯m guessing at your question here but it is +1 for each 5 levels. So for +2 item you¡¯ll need to be posing as a class that is level 10 at least. Is that what you wanted to know? Isaiah (OOC) Yes, thank you Vethor Ch.23 Jarrow Isaiah thought there should be more to keep blacktongue but he couldn¡¯t see anything and didn¡¯t want to get in trouble for asking for help. It could be seen as sharing quest information. He didn¡¯t want to miss out on things but it wasn¡¯t worth risking getting in trouble in his mind. Isaiah wandered along town a little bit to see what kind of shops were available. Most importantly, there was an alchemist. This one was much more of a hassle to get to than Shadow or Azha because he¡¯d have to cross the sea by boat and the boats only went at a certain speed. However, having more options was always good. Making component shopping trips seemed like it would become an inevitable part of being a mage. Isaiah checked what the alchemist (whose name was Seath, the alchemist) had for sale: Amber rod 72 gold 68 stored Bat Guano 10 gold 43 stored Copper 5 gold 64 stored Crane¡¯s Feather 29 gold 33 stored Diamond 960 gold 50 stored Drop of Blood 10 gold 28 stored Firefly 10 gold 76 stored Magnets 10 gold 65 stored Nitric acid 72 gold 1 stored Water 1 gold 20 stored Zinc 48 gold 14 stored Being mindful of his currently meager funds Isaiah only bought 10 Bat Guano and 10 firefly. He spent 10 gold on another components bag and put them into it. He tried to put the leather bag into the belt pouch he was wearing but of course it didn¡¯t fit. Why couldn¡¯t it be that easy? It was never that easy. Well whatever, he could cast a few lightning bolts now and he had some of the components to a fireball. He really wished that there were components for an identify spell. Yeah, pearls were expensive but not having the +2 next to the silver chain in his inventory was bugging him. That +2 would be a security blanket to let him know it wasn¡¯t cursed. Increasingly light money pouch please hang on! Isaiah continued along. He had been to the church and the general store. There was a bar that he walked into. He checked the menu and saw it sold several food and drink items. One of the side effects of dying is that you come back from the dead with your hunger satiated and your thirst quenched. Because of this he didn¡¯t need to buy any consumables of that sort for a while. There was another store that sold some kind of contracts? It seemed like a scam. There is no way that this game would have some way to get a passive income. That would be too easy. Isaiah decided to go wander around in the forest again. He checked out the tower on the other side of the city. It seemed like a small place. There was a room with a fire elemental in it and an exit going up. Isaiah went in and the fire elemental attacked him right away. The fire elemental sounded like a strong opponent so Isaiah didn¡¯t want to risk taking damage. He used the cheap trick where he started the magic missile spell and then left for the room adjacent to the one he was in. This was working well but it was dying slow. Isaiah tried to do this with a lightning bolt but it didn¡¯t work. It just gave the error message ¡°That target is not in the area.¡± Well, trusty magic missile is trusty. Fire elemental drops dead before you. Isaia quickly offered the corpse and collected the coins that it had dropped.. Peering up, Isaiah saw that the next room was a magic¡¯s hall with a single occupant. Jarrow, an old drow with a thinning white mane. Oooo. There it was. . . A drow, a dark elf. A drow exemplifies the mortal enemy of his elven race. Also, most importantly he had a scroll showing in his inventory. This did not take part in the conclusion that Isaiah¡¯s player made about the fate of the drow NPC¡­maybe. Mister Jarrow, Isaiah needs to kill you to right this world. Isaiah went up and prepared to be attacked upon entering the same room as the drow. Surprisingly the drow just stood there. That does it¡­ Jarrow is wide open, ¡°Lightning bolt!¡± You begin casting a spell. A bolt of lightning shoots out of your hand and zaps Jarrow. (Remaining firefly 9) Jarrow misses you. Jarrow begins casting a spell. A dart of acid explodes into your left leg. HP: 57/60 This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. (whoops, didn¡¯t expect that.. What was that spell?) Isaiah flees down. Pain floods through your left leg as the acid continues to burn. HP: 55/60 (what?! He ran away. Why isn¡¯t the damage stopping?!) Pain floods through your left leg as the acid continues to burn. HP: 52/60 (okay, let''s try to heal command) You attempt to heal Isaiah. You attempt falters. Pain floods through your left leg as the acid continues to burn. HP: 50/60 (Okay spell, how long are you going to last? Hopefully not until I¡¯m dead!) Isaiah high tailed it out of there and made his way quickly back to town. Pain floods through your left leg as the acid continues to burn. HP: 46/60 Pain floods through your left leg as the acid continues to burn. HP: 43/60 (Acid spell please stop!) Pain floods through your left leg as the acid continues to burn. HP: 40/60 Drastic times call for drastic measures. Isaiah went to the healers and paid for a cure serious wounds. Healer applies a salve to your wounds and takes 100 gold. HP: 55/60 Pain floods through your left leg as the acid continues to burn. HP: 50/60 Pain floods through your left leg as the acid continues to burn. HP: 48/60 (Please make it stop. How do I make it stop?) This continued along for a while. After the spell finally ended its duration it had done around 200 damage. And Isaiah¡¯s funds were down to a very meager amount. He didn¡¯t check the pile of coins that the fire elemental dropped but it was likely several hundred gold if not for that he feared the worst might have happened. He already had one death where he just watched his hit point slowly tick away and didn¡¯t want another one. Isaiah collected himself and used heal to slowly get back to full HP. He looked at his spellbook trying to figure out which spell it was that Jarrow used on him. He had the casting emote so he assumed it was a spell and not a special attack. Special attacks were like what the goblin witch did where she hurled a bolt of evil at him. The spell he had that seemed the likely suspect was an acid arrow. Isaiah had just never cast it because if the components needed. The material components of the spell are a dart, powdered rhubarb leaf, and an adder''s stomach. Ugh, it needed three components. It was a level two spell. He mentally added it to his mental checklist for component shopping later. He didn¡¯t remember those components being expensive but maybe they were. Hopefully not having a lower level spell like that would be mean. Lightning bolt only required firefly and fireball needed bat poop and sulfur. Calling it bat guano doesn¡¯t mean it isn¡¯t poop. Isaiah¡¯s track record for being a hero of justice wasn¡¯t so good: Evil characters brought to justice 0, times defeated by evils 2, drow magi ran from 1. While he didn¡¯t think he could get back at Harmony or Nightfall he did have a secret weapon to defeat that drow wizards and that was cheese tactics. Jarrow shouldn¡¯t be able to hit him with a spell if he wasn¡¯t in the room by the time he finished casting it. At least unless the spell was a magic missile. The elf Isaiah bravely went back to the tower of the drow. The fire elemental had already respawned so he killed it slowly with the casting magic missile and leaving the room over and over again. By the time it died he was around 600 gold coins richer. This time he actually checked the pile of coins from the drop to determine the value. He then continued the same tactic on Jarrow. You begin casting a spell You leave down. A barrage of missiles flies out from your hand and zap Jarrow. You begin memorizing magic missile. You have memorized magic missile. You leave up. Jarrow attacks you! You begin casting a spell. You leave down. A barrage of missiles flies out from your hand and zap Jarrow. This continued for a while until: Jarrow Drops dead before you. Not wasting a beat, Isaiah offered Jarrow¡¯s body and collected the scroll. It was a scroll of Ice storm. Isaiah had done it. He¡¯d defeated the racial enemy of the elves a drow and his reward was his first level 4 spell: Ice storm. Isaiah¡¯s spellbook contains these spells: Armor conjuration level 1 Burning Hands alteration level 1 Chill Touch Necromancy level 1 Color Spray Illusion level 1 Detect Magic Divination level 1 Identify Divination level 1 Light Alteration level 1 Magic Missile Invocation level 1 Monster summoning i conjuratio level 1 Sleep enchantment level 1 Acid arrow conjuration level 2 Darkness invocation level 2 Detect Invisibility divination level 2 Hideous laughter enchantment level 2 Invisiblity illusion level 2 Monster summoning ii conuration level 2 Ray of enfeeblement necromancy level 2 Rope Trick alteration level 2 Web conjuration level 2 Blink alteration level 3 Dispel Magic abjuration level 3 Fireball invocation level 3 Hold Person enchantment level 3 Lightning bolt invocation level 3 Monster summoning iii conjuration level 3 Vampiric touch necromancy level 3 Water Breathing alteration level 3 Ice storm invocation level 4 The components needed to cast an ice storm were a pinch of dust and a drop of water. Apparently water was for sale by alchemists. Paying for water¡­ Who would do that? Isaiah left back down the stairs and out to the entrance to the tower to take stock of things. He stood there for a little bit thinking about what to do next. He didn¡¯t want to be in the room where the drow or fire elemental respawned just to be safe. It took about 15 minutes for the room to reset but it didn¡¯t seem to be based upon when the monster was killed. Maybe the logic was more like check every 15 minutes and if there was not a thing in the room that was supposed to be there then add it back again. That was just his guess. . . it could be randomized like so many other things in this world. Isaiah spent some time brainstorming about a background for his character. He really liked how Lea used her background like a journal. The most common format for characters in the players directory was a few pages of what they were doing before they came to this land. Why stop there though? There were a few that talked about some of the stuff their characters did in the game. Those ones were the best ones in Isaiah¡¯s players mind. What would be a good place to start for Isaiah¡¯s background? He started out as a priest / mage and then became a fighter / mage. How would he explain that transition? Maybe Isaiah wasn¡¯t a very good priest and lost the class? He follows Lathander whose aspect is redemption so he could be someone looking for redemption. Perhaps redemption in the spiritual sense he really didn¡¯t want to go back to being a double casting class. It was too much typing. Maybe when he logged off he¡¯d throw something together. He could always change it later if he wasn¡¯t happy with it. Cheezu enters. Cheezu leaves north. Isaiah blinks in disbelief. (Apparently this is a popular spot.) Isaiah peered north. It looks like Cheezu fella didn¡¯t stop to fight the fire elemental. He went straight to jarrow. Isaiah checked the wholist to see what Cheezu¡¯s title was: Cheezu, the low minor blaster. Cheezu was a male half-elf. Also, that title seemed really low. Was Cheezu really high enough level for this area? Cheezu enters. Cheezu blasts 1 magic missile out at Jarrow. Cheezu sits down and starts studying his book. Cheezu wavers. Cheezu stands up. Cheezu nods. Cheezu leaves north. Isaiah hmms. (What is this guy doing?) Thinking about it a little bit, what was going on became obvious: Cheezu was doing exactly what Isaiah just did. He was killing Jarrow one spell at a time only at a much lower level. Isaiah yells: Good luck Cheezu Isaiah went back to town. He wanted to kill Jarrow again for another scroll but that Cheezu guy was going to be at it for a very long time if he was as low of level as Isaiah thought he was. Recalling that one of the components needed to cast an ice storm was water, Isaiah swung by the alchemist shop and cleaned them out of water. What poor fool pays money for water? Isaiah pays money for water. CH.24 Deku and Isaiahs Background. After placing the water in his components bag and yet again being bummed out he couldn¡¯t fit in in the worn belt pouch he wore he continued along out into the forest. The shadowlord forest was smaller than darkwood which was nice. Having it bisected by the town made things a little weirder to navigate. There wasn¡¯t really a way to bypass the town by way of the forest. Maybe that was weird or maybe it just made it a little easier to navigate this world of text. In a lagoon area adjacent to the river Isaiah got a bit of a surprise when he wandered into an area by accident. Vexia, The worst Seahag Vexia attacks you! You hit Sea Hag. You hit Sea Hag. Sea hag hits you. HP: 55/60 You miss Sea Hag. You hit Sea Hag. Your sword tells you: What does this do? Mana falls from heaven. You hit Sea Hag. Sea Hag missed you. You hit Sea Hag. You hit Sea Hag. Sea Hag drops dead before you. Isaiah checked out the corpse of the sea hag. She had a pile of coins and some strange stone. He offered the corpse and collected the loot. Not being far from town, Isaiah headed back and tried to sell the stone hoping it might be worth something. Sadly, the general store shopkeeper wouldn¡¯t even take it saying it was worthless. If the loot was worthless then what was even the point of dropping it? Frustration caused Isaiah to just offer the stone because it was taking up inventory space. The sea hag was named Vexia though. She was a named monster, not just one of the numerous sea hags that could spawn wherever in a field. There might be something there but Isaiah¡¯s player wasn¡¯t sure. Isaiah¡¯s player had only done one quest; the pipe quest. He wasn¡¯t exactly a questing expert. It looked like Vexia could keep her secrets for now. Maybe secret singular. That worthless stone was just one item if there were more secrets to be found from Vexia he didn¡¯t know where they were hidden. Isaiah just stood in the square of Verbobone for a while idling while his player was thinking what to do next. He had enough money to pay for the ferry back to the main continent and to leave this island behind. However, the main thing he wanted to do he hadn¡¯t accomplished. He really wanted to find Silvanus¡¯s temple so if there was a tea party there he wouldn¡¯t be the elf that missed out because he couldn¡¯t find it. In the spirit of exploration Isaiah continued looking around. He really hoped the temple wasn¡¯t in some dungeon area. All of the temple¡¯s he¡¯d found so far were next to cities and could be accessed by anyone without having to fight monsters to get there. Granted, most of them he hadn¡¯t any idea where to find them but the ones he¡¯d found included: Mystra, Lathander, Helm, Talos. All of those temples were either right off the road or not far from one. The annoying thing about this Island of Deku was that there wasn¡¯t much of a main road. The town was a bit of a hub but it was surrounded on all sides by forest. Thinking enough time had passed for Jarrow to respawn, Isaiah headed back to Jarrows tower with hopes that he could cheese his way into getting another scroll that was higher than 3rd level. Much to his surprise, Cheezu was still there plucking away. Isaiah didn¡¯t disturb him. If someone was willing to try to tackle that higher leveled drow as a newbie mage then he likely didn¡¯t need any distractions. Isaiah¡¯s player silently cheered him on, ¡®hang in there little guy you can do it. It will just take a while.¡¯ Isaiah wandered around the forest trying to figure out what he was missing to get to Silvanus¡¯s temple but not with much luck. He got turned around a bit and not quite lost because the area wasn¡¯t very big but it took a little bit of walking in circles to get back to a place where the peer command would give him a clear shot back to town. He went back to the inn and ordered some water and food and idled a bit. Asking about the location on the lines might get snapped at because it was ¡®in character¡¯ information. If he asked, he guessed the reply would be two words that he had seen to a lot of people¡¯s questions: ¡®ask IC.¡¯ For people who were new like this it came across as cold and uncaring. He pondered how much luck someone playing an Ogre, Goblin, or Drow would have asking someone IC for help. Just lacking motivation to grind more experience, Isaiah''s player decided to check the help file for Silvanus. He thought it kinda weird that there would even be paladin¡¯s of Silvanius. Silvanius was a deity that valued balance in the forests. Silvanus aka the Oak Father covertly sponsors brigands and secretly breeds and places predators to maintain balance in nature. Silvanius is a woodland neutral deity not a goodly one that would sponsor paladins. However, bringing this up to Schatten might not be a great way to romance her. First, the fact that he was researching her might make him come across as a bit of a stalker. If someone came up to him and began poking holes in his own background¡¯s viability they would come across as annoying and pedantic. Maybe it was all part of an elaborate character design by her player. The elf maiden who comes across as an upstanding member of the community but would turn on either good or evil with deadly intent if her goddess so willed it. This didn¡¯t fit with the pedestal that Isaiah¡¯s player wanted to put Schatten on. She was pure and holy. He liked her better that way so if there were a couple little things to overlook then so be it. Isaiah ordered another water and drank it and went inactive while his player decided to start writing a background for his elven character. He drew inspiration about how he started out as a priest character, then switched to a fighter class. The fallen priest aspect might work. He could always rewrite it again if he didn¡¯t like it. Isaiah¡¯s Background: I am Isaiah, I loved my God with all my heart. Dare I say that I still do? First, I must say, many thanks to the curious one for seeking to know about me. But it is not I that really matter but the power of the one who sent me and chose me to be a prophet. Let me tell you my story: I lived in a small elven tribe across the sea. My family was not noble, they lived their lives as uncommon wood elves in that they tended to an orchard instead of wanderings like wood elves are prone to. They told me many strange tales when I was young like that of elves that had eyes of amber like mine were trying to dominate the elven kind. It was silly, a silly tale. I never wondered why none of the other elves looked similar to me when I was young. My parents stated that elves turned against the gold ones though in a great battle. I''m not sure why but they told me this, I thought little of it. In my younger years, I sought to do the same to live my life at a half-paced level, seeking selfish goals. I often fell victim to the self pity sense I could never keep up with the stronger and faster sylvan children. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. But several years later in one preordained snowy day that all changed . . . Walking home from school (often I would seek out old elves who isolated themselves deep in the woods for schooling) A blizzard''s frosty mist slammed into the woods that were my home. Being only a fledgling, I was scarred. I feared death and what would happen to me if this frost and now-increasing snow took my life. It made me ask the question that turned my life around. Where would I go? Would I go to heaven or some other place? The Holy spirit within me convicted me of the truth. I had sin in my life. I wasn''t perfect and the wages of sin were death. Yes, physical death is a result of this cursed world''s sin but spiritual death as well. I knew I had hated before and done bad things. I need a clean slate. I needed to be washed from my old self. "I needed the new birth" My parents taught me many times about this new birth. But shamefully I rejected it over and over again. Postponing it day after day after day, until the prayers of my parents caught up to me this day . . . this day is white as snow. Convicted, I look up to the sky and saw the sun behind the clouds. Tears screaming down my eyes and frosty slakes melting on my then childlike cheek I cried out to Him, The God who is the light of the world. But through my remorse and repentance I found a new birth. In tears I said, "Save me O Father of heaven, For I am a sinner I know only your gift that you give freely to any who ask can save me. Please I call upon you for this gift for I''m not worthy of your love. " My God leads me to preach his message of the New Birth in many realms. Yes I haven''t nor do I claim to be perfect but. The father of lights is working on me. And every good and perfect gift comes from you, my father. At times I''ve been a wayward follower but still even today in my disgraces of the past I trust in Him. Later when I came to these realms many years ago I was a little intimidated. I arrived in shadow coming in from the boat docks. The city was full of odd creatures called humans and others speaking a strange language. I was a bit intimidated, so I left heading west into the quiet forest. Feeling dejected, I saw a pond and watched the sunrise there. Seeing the sunrise was always that thing that could calm and comfort me in the worst of times. Saying some prayers for this new realm, I asked for a kindred spirit. That prayer was answered with a new friend. A half-elf with sungold hair and a gaze that was neither condemning nor judgmental walked in to watch the sunrise. She seemed the only one around who had time for someone as new to the realm as I. Her spending time with me taught me a valuable lesson. It''s not power that matters but people. Light was always like a mother to me, when I was young and lost she took me under her wing. She was the first friend that I ever had in the lands of shadow. She was a spiritual constant in the tumult of emotions that would sometimes pervade my life. The most memorable moment I had with light was when I was praying in the temple and she walked in and I heard her soft voice, "Wow a prophet no less." Later, I made many friends such as Taaveti(he trained me somewhat in the ways of mages), Whitefalcon (kinda aloof but a good guy), Jody (she was a good girl who really got a kick out of lighting elementals), Margath (was really scared when the nameless one came as a dragon and stole the girl you were protecting), Ax, and, slore (she sold me all kinds of neat stuff). I knew harmony but he was always killing people myself included. There were many people who were nice to me and I advanced both in clerical powers and magus powers. But that is what my problem was . . . power. I was so busy advancing that I forgot the holy calling for which I was chosen. When I became convicted of this, I knew I could stay no longer. I made a long post on the main board talking about the new birth and how one could acquire the free gift of my God. I felt a great sense of loss because all this time I could have been using for my God I had spent on myself. I knew my words would fall on deaf ears. I quickly packed my things then I headed to the docks and sailed for many months back to my homeland. I spent much time in solitude and in prayer back in my homeland. I would climb upon the highest mountains and watch the sun and relax. Other times I would read and study the sacred scriptures memorizing them and hiding them in my heart so I''d never forget them and be led astray once again. For many months I did this, for time passes quickly for elves. Then I saw her, The love of my life and the destruction of it. I had heard about the dark elven kind before but had seen little of them. She was huddled in a corner behind some rocks hiding from the coming sunrise. By drow and even elven standards she was a great beauty, that is not what caused me to turn against my elven instinct to either fight this evil creature or flee for safety. Learning from my experience on shadow that people really matter, not power or other racial barriers, I was intrigued by her. Upon approaching her, she lashed out at me with a multi-barbed whip. I quickly dodged it because the attack was quick but not entirely accurate. She hissed some curses in a dark spider-like language and continued to try to wildly assault me. For some reason she never saw me good enough to find the mark. At first I thought it Devine intervention but looking closer she had a birth defect in her eyes, something that is cause enough for capital punishment in her people. That is why she fled. She was lost in this surface world and abandoned by her familiar evil realm when her secret was found out. I knew that she was at a vulnerable stage in her life. So daily I prayed for her conversion, never turning my back upon this wicked spider but taking care of her and feeding her as well. I taught her of the elven language and she told me her woes and came to understand . . . yes . . . for sure it was a gift of my God upon a member of the forsaken race. I thank him for it. "But it was never meant to be . . . drow and elves can''t be as close as her and I were . . . I . . . I never should have allowed myself to get so caught up in her." Then it came, a message from the elven high counsel. I was summoned. I went to stand before them, they gave me one command and dismissed me. I was to turn my new found love into them for judgment. This was the first time I had ever lied and the cascade of events which left me leaving to bury my holy symbol with the corpse of my wife. We fled to the only other place I knew of back to the land of shadowgate. When we arrived my bride told me that she was with child. I was both excited and scarred for I knew the child would be of mixed lineage. We hoped against hope that the child would be granted such grace as my wife was several years ago. Alas, but it seemed even though we raised him with life and love he stuck to the nature given him. It''s so sad. Even thinking back it makes me wish to weep. For one night while I was out hunting for the family I came back to find see my bride''s last breaths. She had a dagger in her back. I held her and wept over her saying she was going to be ok. The last words she said were: "I know heaven waits for me, so don''t you shed a tear. We''ll live eternally. I''ll be waiting for you there." I spent the whole night weeping over the body of my dead love. I didn''t care that she was a drow. The fellowship of the father of lights we shared together made that seem so small. Her lifeblood stained my hands on the desert sand. As is the elven custom I burned her remains in the sands of the ocean beach dunes in the north east corner near shadow. Feelings of remorse and sadness coursed through me. I cast my holy symbol into a tidal pool where it would be buried in the sands when the tide came in. I fasted and prayed by the sea for almost a month, drinking only water from a small spring of fresh water nearby. Time passed quickly but I knew what I must do. I knew now that is was wrong to go against the laws of our people. So, I searched out for my son, not to condemn him (though he was guilty) but for repentance. Finally he sought out the drow of this land and learned what it was really like to live like them. A cold lifeless void so lonely that one seeks to harm all those around them. Looking back to the life he once had he felt regret. After being harassed by the citizens of shadow for his lineage he came back to me and I finally obeyed that order that was given me by the high counsel. We took a long boat ride across the sea back to my homeland. The verdict was death by beheading. He never said a thing to me. I prayed for his conversion and pleaded with him night and day but he looked away empty. After the execution an elven guard came and gave me a note found in my son''s cell. It simply said, "I believe now . . ." Ch.25 Deku and Silvanuss Priestess After copying and pasting from the notepad text into mudclient and pressing enter, the game disconnected. Isaiah¡¯s player tried again to the same result. Confused, he asked over the line why it would disconnect him when pasting in a background. Someone answered helpfully that it was because of the text limit. The game will only take a certain amount of characters before it disconnects as a security measure. The right way to do it is to paste it in a little at a time. That is what terminal text editors are for. Given that a terminal based text editor has no modern functionality like there was no way Isaiah¡¯s player was going to rely on it. He may be a poor college student who can¡¯t afford Microsoft Word but he at least needed to have a local copy. He could do this but it wasn¡¯t something he could do often without really hating life. Also, now that he had a background he was committed to not suiciding and rerolling his class. Schatten¡¯s idea of an elven paladin was a tempting one but the system didn¡¯t allow it. Paladin being a class restricted to humans¡­ who decided that was a good idea? He wasn¡¯t going to change his race again and giving this trying to play the roll of an elf seemed like it might be a fun undertaking. In this world of text making one¡¯s character come alive with only typed words was an interesting proposition. Isaiah¡¯s player was a little worried about what the consequences might be going forward. First the immortals might get mad at him for some reason as they were prone to do with everyone. If they thought his old pre-suicide character was a different one and it couldn¡¯t be included they might demand he change it. He¡¯d heard a few immortals over the lines complain about how annoying it was to constantly read about players whose parents died in their backgrounds. So he knew some of them actually read the things. Second, setting himself up as a supposed redeemer of drow might put a target on his back for drow player killers. Thirdly, could he keep to the example of how Isaiah should be in his background? Being a bastion of faith is one then when someone is in control of the whole story but the player characters in this game were their own people. While he would want things to go one way with his interaction involving player characters it couldn¡¯t be forced. While Isaiah was sitting there idling/musing to himself an elf walked into the establishment he was at. Schatten enters. Schatten says: ¡°Hello there Isaiah, noticed you seated there. Mind if I join you?¡± Isaiah smiles. Isaiah says: ¡°Of course how are you today, Schatten?¡± Schatten says: ¡°I¡¯m doing well cousin. Sunshine and rain drops do you.¡± Isaiah ordered a pair of waters and snacks from the store and handed one of each to schatten. This was a human city and didn¡¯t have any fancy elven styled things to order. He didn¡¯t order any wine or ale because that might be seen as him trying to get her drunk. He was quite worried about how she perceived him. Isaiah wasn¡¯t the kind of elf who would get an elven maiden drunk and try to take advantage of her. Isaiah says: ¡°Have you eaten yet? Not much of a selection here but hopefully this will do.¡± Schatten thanks Isaiah. Schatten says: ¡°Thank you Isaiah.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°This is my first time on Deku island. It has been a bit of an experience.¡± Schatten says: ¡°Oh? How so?¡± Isaiah says: ¡°Well, I had an incident with a psycho killer half-elven bard that I had never even spoken to again.¡± Schatten says: ¡°Oh no..¡± Schatten looks worried. Isaiah says: ¡°Harmony blasted me down with powder and fireballs.¡± Schatten frowns. Schatten says: ¡°That is terrible news Isaiah I¡¯m so sorry.¡± Isaiah sighs deeply. Isaiah says: ¡°It is not like I stood a chance. How do you fight back against villains who can kill you in one or two shots?¡± Schatten says: ¡°I don¡¯t know. I haven¡¯t had any of the evils come after me yet.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°I hope it stays that way, you are a lovely flower and the land should cherish you.¡± Schatten blushes. Schatten says: ¡°Thank you Isaiah, that is too kind.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°So what is there to do around here?¡± Schatten says: ¡°I mostly come here to pay my respects to the oak father. Kaarell told me there are some drow that need to be culled and cultists in a graveyard on the other side of the river. I haven¡¯t had a chance to go explore there yet.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°Oh, I tried to make it to your temple but I got lost in the forest and couldn¡¯t find it.¡± Schatten smirks. Schatten says: ¡°I suppose even elves get lost in the forest once and a while.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°Yeah yeah, rub it in. But I couldn¡¯t figure out how to get there. Do you know the way? I couldn¡¯t find a bridge or anything to get by the river.¡± Schatten invites you to follow her. You are now following Schatten. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. Schatten leaves out. Text zoomed across the screen and Schatten bee-lined it to the river he couldn¡¯t figure out how to cross. Schatten says: ¡°Like this.¡± Schatten dives into the water. (Gah, the syntax was dive¡­ all I needed to do was type dive!) Isaiah dives into the river. You take a deep breath and fill your lungs with air before plunging beneath the water. (Oh no¡­an underwater level¡­dying by drowning is not a thing to look forward to.) Schatten invites you to follow her. You are now following Schatten. Schatten leaves east. Schatten leaves up. Luckily it was only one room that was under water. They came up on the other side of the river and text zoomed by as Schatten traveled south to the temple of Silvanus. The temple of Silvanus is a clearing deep in the forest. It is lush with vines and moss with a grove in the center. Great oaks rise all around. The biggest grove has a small crude altar. Isaiah read the charge on the altar. All is in a cycle deftly and beautifully balanced. It is the duty of the faithful to maintain this sacred balance as clearly as possible and make others see it. Fight against the felling of the forest banish disease wherever it is found and defend the trees. Balance is maintained by killing only when needful. Those that employ fire and those who bring axes into the forest should be destroyed as they deserve no mercy for defiling the woods. Isaiah¡¯s player second guessed Schatten¡¯s innocence after reading the charge. It seems like Silvanus¡¯s followers were supposed to be militant forest rangers. In his mind¡¯s eye he pictured Schatten as a pure and chase shrine maiden character. Maybe she had another side. Maybe she didn¡¯t. Schatten says: ¡°Welcome to the temple of Silvanus Isaiah.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°Oh thank you.¡± Isaiah bows respectfully to the altar. Schatten says: ¡°Oh one moment.¡± Schatten holds a finger to her temple. Schatten says: ¡°Kaarell is speaking to me.¡± Isaiah raises an eyebrow. Isaiah says: ¡°Huh? I don¡¯t see him here.¡± Schatten says: ¡°Telepathy spell is something all priests can cast when they are high enough level.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°oh, sorry I didn¡¯t know. Tell him I say hi.¡± Schatten nods. Schatten says: ¡°He says hi and he¡¯ll be joining us in a moment.¡± Isaiah nods. Isaiah says: ¡°I would like to ask him more about this island as well. The only really good thing I¡¯ve found here is Jarrow and his scrolls.¡± Schatten says: ¡°Yes this place is a little bit more convoluted than the areas around shadow but there is still quite a bit to see besides an elderly drow in a tower.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°I think it is weird that there is a drow on the surface. I always thought they built their cities deep underground and mostly kept busy backstabbing one another.¡± Schatten says: ¡°I suppose that is what the rumors of how they act are. I haven¡¯t had much dealing with drow and am not looking to do so anytime soon.¡± Isaiah nods. Isaiah says: ¡°Nor I. But I suppose as an elf we should stand against the evil they would bring out of the underdark.¡± Schatten agrees. Schatten says: ¡°We must protect the forests.¡± A blue light forms glowing brighter shining into the area. The blue light flashes brightly and vanishes leaving Kaarell behind. Isaiah blinks in disbelief. Isaiah says: ¡°What was that?¡± Kaarell smiles at Schatten. Kaarell says: ¡°Hello my love.¡± Kaarell kisses Schatten. Isaiah¡¯s world came crashing down. Well Isaiah¡¯s player¡¯s emotional investment in his character to be more precise came crashing down. Isaiah after all was just a game character. He had fantasized about the two elves forming a party and adventuring together. Their relationship would grow into something more. Eventually after they defeated some boss monster or brought an evil player killer low he would confess to her and she would accept his feelings. All of that came crashing down with a single kiss. Schatten loved Kaarrell not Isaiah. Jealousy washed through him. Why would she choose Kaarell instead of him? Well, for one he was a real priest of Lathander. He was not the fallen priest Isaiah was. He was high level. Perhaps not a level 20 high mortal. But it was only a matter of time he¡¯d get that high unless something terrible happened to him. High mortals were the ones that could display their own custom titles. Daelmas the elven weapons master was a good example. What had he done for Schatten? Not much, Kaarell on the other hand had showered her with gifts. Kaarell had given her gear advice and his own affection. Isaiah didn¡¯t even have the courage to confess to her. Isaiah stayed completely quiet not doing anything while the two other elves continued along in their own little world. Schatten says: ¡°Love of my life.¡± Kaarell says: ¡°Dawn of the night.¡± Schatten hugs Kaarell. Kaarell frenches Schatten deeply. This continued on for a few minutes until Isaiah had enough. Isaiah says: ¡°I have to go.¡± Isaiah leaves out. Isaiah went down the path north back to the river. He swam across back to the forest. He ran west to the deku dock and paid the 5 gold to board the ferry. The ferry leaves in 2 minutes. The message popped into the next line across the terminal. Two minutes passed as the repeat messages kept scrolling across the screen. ¡°The ferry sails across the sea.¡± ¡°The ferry sails across the sea.¡± The ferry stopped at another dock. Welcome to the island of Graez. Graez is the last bastion of good on this island of evil. Merchant ships come and go, adding much needed money to the economy as they desperately try to fight off the hoards of evil that claim the majority of this island. Isaiah didn¡¯t want to deal with it. The ferry leaves in 2 minutes. Kaarell has established a mental connection with you. Kaarell tells you: Isaiah you left so suddenly Schatten is concerned. (a minute passes) Kaarell tells you: Isaiah? (It took Isaiah¡¯s player a moment to figure out he could just type to send a message back.) Isaiah replies: Nothing is wrong. I just wanted to head back to shadow to do some components shopping. Kaarell replies: Okay I¡¯ll let Schatten know. Isaiah replies: Thank you . . . cousin. There was no more reply. Isaiah¡¯s player guessed Kaarell would have not contacted him had Schatten not requested it. He had what he wanted after all. Having another man er¡­ elf alone with his woman might make him uneasy depending on how secure he was. Isaiah got off the ferry when it made it back to shadow docks. He slowly made his way across the desert keeping an eye on his stamina so he didn¡¯t pass out again. Eventually he went to a place that he liked in the southeast corner of shadow. It was called the druid grove. It was a ring of trees with grass in the middle. It has some reference to an immortal named pator. Druid was not a rollable class. Maybe Pator planned on making it one but using the command on the immortal said he was married to someone named svaha and was all about druids. It showed his last login time as almost a year ago. Isaiah didn¡¯t feel like doing much he just sat there idling, wallowing in self pity. Gabrielle enters. Ch.26 Encounter at the druid circle. Isaiah¡¯s player flinched when the black haired priestess of Loviatar¡¯s entrance into the room¡¯s text scrolled across the screen. He quickly typed the direction of the exit to flee. However before he could press enter and submit the command Gabrielle spoke. Gabrielle says: ¡°Greetings Cousin Isaiah.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°h-hi Gabrielle.¡± Isaiah smiles weakly. Gabrielle smiles at you. Gabrielle says: ¡°How are you tonight, cousin Isaiah?¡± Isaiah sighs. Isaiah says: ¡°I¡¯ve been better, I just came to the druid grove to be alone and try to heal some heartbreak.¡± Gabrielle says: ¡°Ah, the pain of a broken heart. It is a special kind of pain. I understand.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°Why are you here?¡± Gabrielle says: ¡°Is it not right for creatures of nature like us elves to inhabit places of greenery such as this?¡± Isaiah hmms. Isaiah says: ¡°I suppose so.¡± Gabrielle says: ¡°I noticed my cousin running down the streets of shadow and decided it would be good to check on him. Is there anything you¡¯d like to talk about? Maybe sharing your burden would help.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°I thought a follower of Loviatar would rejoice in someone¡¯s suffering not seek to help them overcome it.¡± Gabrielle says: ¡°Loviatar teaches us pain makes one stronger, Isaiah. Your heartbreak is a trial for you to overcome and come out stronger for it.¡± Isaiah raises an eyebrow. Isaiah says: ¡°I would think you would laugh at me for seeking love in such a dangerous land.¡± Gabrielle shakes her head. Gabrielle says: ¡°Far be it from me. You are my cousin and I wish you to become what you are destined to become.¡± Isaiah sighs. Isaiah says: ¡°I¡¯m sorry that was rude.¡± Gabrielle nods and smiles. Gabrielle says: ¡°Pray tell, what pains you so?¡± Isaiah says: ¡°There was an elven maiden I have been adventuring with lately. I thought maybe we could be together but it seems her heart belongs to another.¡± Gabrielle makes a face. Gabrielle says: ¡°Correct me if I¡¯m wrong but do you speak of Kaarell and Schatten?¡± This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Isaiah gasps. Isaiah says: ¡°How did you know?¡± Gabrielle says: ¡°It is a shameful thing he does. Showering her with gifts and gear which she has not yet found on her own. The gods do not look fondly at this practice.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°What do you mean?¡± Gabrielle whispers to you (OOC) check help relationships Isaiah says: ¡°Okay.¡± Isaiah¡¯s player typed the command and did a quick look through it. It basically said that powerful characters were not supposed to be in relationships with lower leveled characters. Gifting gear that the character can¡¯t get on their own is banned. Marriages between characters that are vastly different levels will be rejected. Isaiah says: ¡°I see it is unfortunate.¡± Gabrielle says: ¡°Worry not about what Kaarell. He has no loyalty to his own kind. He is more like these half-humans that have infested these lands.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°Half-human or no he is a priest of Lathander and kin. I shouldn¡¯t think he wishes to make others suffer.¡± Gabrielle pats your head. Gabrielle says: ¡°Keep deceiving yourself and your suffering will be ever greater Isaiah.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°No, I won¡¯t believe it just like you there is good in him in everyone. Schatten made her choice and I must wish them the best for their life together.¡± Someone says: ¡°Gabrielle, I don¡¯t know why you waste your time with this weak elf.¡± Isaiah looks around. Isaiah says: ¡°Who''s there?¡± Someone says: ¡°Who indeed?¡± Gabrielle says: ¡°It is not nice to listen in on other people¡¯s conversations.¡± Nightfall appears from the shadows. Isaiah gasps in astonishment. Nightfall grins evilly Nightfall bows. Nightfall wields horrible screaming dagger. Nightfall says: ¡°Boo.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°I was just leaving.¡± Gabrielle says: ¡°Isaiah . . .¡± Gabrielle glares at Nightfall. Isaiah leaves east. Isaiah¡¯s player decided that he had enough for a while. He was quite distraught because of his elf character. He bee-lined it back to the temple of Lathander. Hopefully team evil would respect the sanctity of the temple and leave him alone. After spending a few minutes alone in the single room temple he noticed he didn¡¯t have any motivation to do much of anything and decided to log out. After taking care of his community college studies and work, Isaiah logged back in on the evening of the next day to a big surprise. Mudwide news: A new update will allow characters to have their aesthetics more defined. Also, subraces have been implemented for certain races. Everyone who doesn¡¯t have these set will be sent back to a creation room on logging in to set them up. Also, class given titles will go away as it is a giveaway for that character''s level. Character level should be an OOC info and not known just by looking at someone¡¯s title. High Mortals will still be able to set a custom title but it will not show up in their short description or on the who list. New variables have been added for setting your character¡¯s short description. The only required one is $R which will display race. $E will display eye color and $H will display hair color. Builds have been added as well as height and weight and age. Your friendly neighborhood immortal -Crystal You have been magically transported elsewhere. Character Creation Room. This is a room with some buttons and switches where characters can pick what they want to be. will get you started. There are no exits. Isaiah¡¯s player panicked. Character creation had been something he wanted to avoid doing again at any cost. The rolls of stat numbers scrolling across the screen for hours while he re-rolled had traumatized him again. Six sets of numbers between 3 and 18 in groups seemed to form in the back of his mind, closing in on him in massive groups waiting for his choice only to judge him for not picking good enough. His rational mind wasn¡¯t working right. He didn¡¯t consider that this might not take hours until he took a few minutes to collect himself and calm down a bit. CH.27 Re-Creators After taking care of his community college studies and work, Isaiah logged back in on the evening of the next day to a big surprise. Mudwide news: A new update will allow characters to have their aesthetics more defined. Also, subraces have been implemented for certain races. Everyone who doesn¡¯t have these set will be sent back to a creation room on logging in to set them up. Also, class given titles will go away as it is a giveaway for that character''s level. Character level should be an OOC info and not known just by looking at someone¡¯s title. High Mortals will still be able to set a custom title but it will not show up in their short description or on the who list. New variables have been added for setting your character¡¯s short description. The only required one is $R which will display race. $E will display eye color and $H will display hair color. Builds have been added as well as height and weight and age. Your friendly neighborhood immortal -Crystal You have been magically transported elsewhere. Character Creation Room. This is a room with some buttons and switches where characters can pick what they want to be. will get you started. There are no exits. Isaiah¡¯s player panicked. Character creation had been something he wanted to avoid doing again at any cost. The rolls of stat numbers scrolling across the screen for hours while he rerolled had traumatized him again. Six sets of numbers between 3 and 18 in groups seemed to form in the back of his mind, closing in on him in massive groups waiting for his choice only to judge him for not picking good enough. His rational mind wasn¡¯t working right. He didn¡¯t consider that this might not take hours until he took a few minutes to collect himself and calm down a bit. Isaiah pressed the button and the first prompt appeared before him. ¡®Your race is elf, subrace options are: Moon Elf Sun Elf Wood Elf Pick one.¡¯ Isaiah is a Lathander follower. Lathander is the god of the sun. He figured the sun elf should work best. ¡®Sun elf eye color options: Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Golden, Amber, emerald, green,violet,amethyst¡¯ Amber eyes sounded the coolest for his little elf character so he picked that. ¡®Sun elf hair color options: Golden, crimson, scarlet, ebony, red, blonde, silver¡¯ Silver was the winner here. Isaiah would be a silver haired, amber eyed sun elf. After selecting hair and eye color it was body type ¡®Elf body types: select 1 to 10 lower being skinner and 10 being bigger the result will be slightly randomized based on your charisma.¡± Isaiah selected ¡®4¡¯. Body type options: Slim, Frail, Sickly Isaiah became a Slim build. He was 60 inches and 95 lbs, the next line of text informed him. The next prompt was for age which he selected as average. There was a possibility to be a child, normal, middle aged, old, venerable. Normal was simplest as there were not any extra stat modifications. Also, normal was the only one that didn¡¯t get a strength penalty. He worked very hard on getting his 18 strength with a decent percentile. He didn¡¯t want it to get bumped down to 17 and lose all that hard work. Also, the age categories for elves were huge. Less than 102 was a child. Over 175 years was middle aged. Venerable aged elves are over 350 years old. The game runs at 3x the time as real life for day / night cycle so an elven character would have to be real life years to change age categories. Randomization gave him an age of 145 years old. There was another change that came to the game with these updates. Titles didn¡¯t show in the who list anymore. Everyone¡¯s short description had to include their race. The titles were now hidden from other players. Isaiah¡¯s player liked the titles they were cool but using the who list to tell what level people were and what class people were was also a bit unfair. He got the idea that the game was trying to throw a bone to people who wanted to be a bit more mysterious. However the list of adventurers seemed a bit less grand now. Players and High Mortals A brawny male voadkyn A sparkling blue-eyed lean female half-elf A slender male voadkyn A black-haired, blue-eyed male half-elf A burned blue eyed elf An elf with short dark hair, wearing a silver medallion A emerald eyed female half-elf with shoulder length blonde hair A male dwarf wearing silvery armor A female half-elf with cyan eyes and long, brown hair A green-eyed, dark-haired elf A pale-skinned amber-eyed sun elf A golden hair, blue eyed sun elf with etched armor A female unborn A gaunt male gnome A female wood elf with coppery red hair A well-built tattooed male drow An average male voadkyn There was no more list with ''Daelmas Luriel, Elven Weaponsmaster'' or ''Ambrosia, High Dragoness of Silver''. Gone was ''Gabrielle Veritellyn, Elven Outcast of Loviatar." No more ''Joy DeSoli-Vanthros, Bard of many Colors'' or ''Margath, First Son of the Bards'' The patch notes also include a new command . It recognizes someone by the name they are given. For example typing ¡°recognize elf as Isaiah¡± would tag the elf in the room as Isaiah and show Isaiah as the name for the elf in the room. It was going to be tricky wandering around and asking everyone their names. Isaiah¡¯s player wasn¡¯t really sure why everyone in the game was being required to share names with one another but it didn¡¯t seem like too big of a deal. The character creation / conversion wasn¡¯t too painful. Isaiah showed up as a ¡®slim male sun elf with silver hair and amber eyes¡¯ after he played around with the command and the variables. The only thing that was mandatory was race. If race wasn¡¯t added in then it would show up on the end. His original attempt was ¡®a golden elf¡¯ but that seemed a bit simple. There was something to be said for having it really short but some people also had quite long adjectives as well. After he was finished he got dumped back into the main adventurer¡¯s hall. It seemed like a good time to change his description as well. Isaiah is a slim male elf with short cropped silver hair and bright amber eyes. He wears light armor with a sword and a dagger at his belt. His muscles are toned and he is well balanced on his feet. Isaiah¡¯s player didn¡¯t know much about different kinds of elves but it didn¡¯t seem so important to him. How hard could it be to roleplay a sun elf? EX: Daelmass Background I was born to an ancient gold elven house in the land of Talmelia. To the Lady Anastrianna Laliesius and Avamil, of a lesser house. Within the elven homeland lived the three different subraces of elven kind, High, Grey, and Sylvan. This simple division would take up my earlier years. As the purest of the elven races us gold elves had the responsibility of leadership. Unfortunately, being somewhat less intelligent, the other elves did not recognize this, so as happens so often with the rabble, we had little choice but to force this upon them. It was in this pursuit that I was raised. The Lady Anastrianna, I shall call her that as I could not call her mother, was my teacher in this. I saw my father in the earliest years of my life, but nothing afterwards. He always meant little to me anyway. The Lady Anastrianna was my idol. She always knew what to do and how to do it. Still today I strive to be as calm and confident as her. Anyway, it was she that raised me. The Lady Anastrianna also seemed to share some of these thoughts, as she attempted to make myself into everything that she was. I was trained as a warrior and a mage. It was a simple thing for her to train me in swordplay and magecraft. The most important part of my training was in my beliefs and ideals. I was to be a perfect weapon for Lady Anastrianna. Able to think for myself in so far as to fight and lead others, but so utterly loyal that I was to do everything she wished without question. So able was she, that I never did question her. To one such as myself, the wisdom in her words and actions was obvious. Under her tutelage I excelled in all aspects of elven culture, for not only was I a warrior, but also a noble. I was taught life in the courtroom, for it was my responsibility to be above those I would lead. Ah, but such things are all but lost to me now, buried under the dealings with so many simpletons now. I worry not about it anymore. Anyway, I was perfect in such endeavors. As such, so very much was expected of me. I would not disappoint the Lady Anastrianna though. So it was with such motivation that I undertook my first tasks, the slaying of certain influential elves. So it was that I murdered some of my own people, lesser beings to be sure, but elves all the same. It was for the best though, as it still is today at times, unfortunately. It continued this way for some time. Hidden in the shadows, my house would strike at unknowing targets throughout the land. I believe my first task, oddly enough, was to slay a princess of another land. It was all too easy, as Lady Anastrianna told me it would be. She always believed royalty to be foolish, at least moon elven royalty. The princess seemed careless enough, walking alone on a rainy night. Of course, elves do not hurt each other, so I suppose there was little reason for cautious. The rain even washed the blood away, at least to all appearances. My life went rather like this for the next few years. It was not all just simple killings though. Gathering information and allies was always an important part. Spying, seduction, threats, all were ways my house and I used to further our cause. Everything came quite easily to me, having simply learned from the best. Until the other houses would stand with us, we had to cover our actions and ourselves. The easiest way to do this, at least that I have found, is through a reputation. People will, of course, believe what they hear repeated enough. So it was that I traveled. Bringing back many items of interest to the elves, as well as other odd deeds towards the good of elvenkind. Always, despite what so many fools would believe, we worked towards that end. I enjoyed this period of my life. Traveling was simple. Seeing new things and new places was always something I could take pleasure in. My traveling companions also pleased me, but I should say no more of them. Lady Anastrianna was always cautious to send me to only the worst of lands. So that I could see firsthand the brutality and depravity of other races. This only fueled my anger towards everyone. I never understood how such primitive beasts could take the world from my own kind. If only the others knew what I do. Eventually, the reputation needed was built up. My own, along with that of my house and the Lady Anastrianna, all went together to bring us such glory that many other houses almost fell over themselves to be allied with us. Naturally, only the gold elven houses were truly accepted. They embraced Lady Anastrianna''s idea to rule over the lesser elven races. Being superior, as they are, how could they not? Slowly numbers began to turn more to our own side. Into every aspect of elven life, we placed our people. I, myself, was made Weaponsmaster of the foremost school in the land. Magic is indeed part of what I am, but I have always believed in the reliability of the blade. I took my post to train our warriors and to spy on those who may prove difficult in the future. Our allies did this in the mage tower and other schools throughout the land. Getting into the other houses was trickier. I still do not approve of how this was done, and so I shall not say, out of shame. Much was learned about our enemy, how lazy they had become. Rather then take what was rightfully ours, the moon and sylvan elves were too easily amused with themselves. So careless and chaotic. It was an easy thing, to run this school. I delighted in playing an elven hero and coming together with the students. Naturally, I had to keep my true motives hidden. I met many interesting people at the school. Foremost being an elf who would later become my closest friend. His name was Maniliemal. A gold elf, naturally. He was an immensely talented warrior, and intelligent enough to know his own limitations. Completely loyal to the cause, he was quick to progress into one of my favorites. As we moved more students into the schools, a greater number of teachers were needed. Maniliemal filled that gap within my own school. Only once did I encounter anything truly interesting. Some elf, one of the sons of an older moon elven clan, showed enormous promise. I went to the Lady Anastrianna to seek advice on how best to approach this situation. As was to be expected, she believed this one should be slain, before he became too much of a problem. This was the only time in my life that I went against her. I did not hurt this elf, a mistake to be sure, and one that would come back to haunt me later. Eventually I was moved from the school. There was a better place for me, in the palace itself. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. I was to help tutor some royal brat. The young prince, Ladameous, was quickly taken with me. It was a shame he had to die. It was his first time hunting in which he met his end. A trip I set up for him, but did not attend. Of course, it looked like only an accident. A simple trick, but an effective one none the less. After a short period of mourning, I removed myself back to my house. I spent the next few years with the Lady Anastrianna, watching and learning. This was one of the happiest times of my life. There was work to be done though, and it did not last. After about three years I was moved out of the kingdom. A certain ambassador needed to be removed. This took me once again through the lands of the lesser races. As always, I saw only hatred and injustice everywhere. It is not so easy a thing for a faerie to move unnoticed. In fact, I could not do it. The ambassador heard of me, and received me. Unknowing of my true mission he was rather warm. I should have ended my mission right there. I feared letting the Lady Anastrianna down though, and so I carried through with it. The sudden death of the ambassador only naturally caused suspicion, and it lay on myself most of all. This was, perhaps, the beginning of the end for our cause. Knowing not what else to do, I returned to my position of Weaponsmaster at the school. A shadow remained on me though. It was difficult for them to believe one elf would kill another, so no action was taken against me, but I felt the curious stares follow my back at times. At the time I simply could not take it, I was not strong enough. Soon, I left the school, returning home to be with the Lady Anastrianna again. I had no wish for her to see me in such a state, but there was little choice for me either. Doing this raised only more suspicion. We did not know it at the time, but the other elves slowly had begun to prepare for a problem arising. This time, I avoid Lady Anastrianna as much as possible. Thankfully, for my own life, she did not make me feel accused. I am not sure if I would have been able to live with that, not from her. I still do not understand it, how they would have known. Yet they did. After spending my entire childhood fighting from the shadows, hiding from the eyes of the other elves, it was the other elves who struck first. That very elf, from the moon elven clan, that I spoke of earlier, slew Maniliemal. Lady Anastrianna was correct, as always, I should have killed him when I had the chance. Half the island turned against us. Moving like a machine of steel and magic, caught unaware the other houses stood no chance. Mine, however, was lead by Lady Anastrianna, and her full force was turned upon this resistance. Half a land against a single family of elves is hardly fair though. It was a glorious fight indeed, but in the end, we could not possibly prevail. Deep into the house itself the fighting went, until it came down within a room in which huddled myself, a few of my siblings and cousins, and Lady Anastrianna. Our only thought at the time was to allow the lady time to escape. With such motivation in mind, I fought brilliantly. Eventually, Lady Anastrianna was able to open a portal, to a place I still look for today, and so she escaped. With her gone I tired of fighting and was eventually defeated. Knocked unconscious, I was not killed, but my sentence was to be chosen later as banishment. And so here I am. CH.28 Raveena Isaiah took some time to hit up the local components shops and get what he could afford. He bought all he could for fireball and lightning bolt components as well as monster summoning. These spells were cheap and he liked them cheap. The pearls needed to cast identify remain expensive to him. Isaiah made it a point to kill the troll that dropped around 100 gold in echo mountains just because it was easy to get to and had decent cash per time sink. He¡¯d made it a habit to spend a few minutes zipping over there to kill it and collect the gold. Isaiah memorized some spells to make sure he had slots filled with the level 3 lightning bolt and fireball. His level 1 slots tended to be magic missile by default. He''d forget one of the magic missiles if he had to if he needed to identify things. His plan was to head back to deku and kill Jarrow again and try to collect a higher level scroll to boost up his spellbook but when he was zooming through shadow he noticed a female elf and wanted to go talk to her. He might have already known her because the who list didn¡¯t have any names anymore. Having to exchange names with everyone he met promised to be a pain. However, it wasn¡¯t different than real life. In reality people couldn¡¯t tell each other¡¯s names just by looking at them so it was not like it didn¡¯t make any sense. Isaiah, having spent most of his money on components, was walking down the main street of shadowing when he ran across ¡®a female elf with brown hair and blue eyes.¡¯ He stopped and figured a proper elf wouldn¡¯t walk past a beautiful elven maiden on the street without greeting her. Isaiah says: ¡°Hello cousin. I¡¯m Isaiah.¡± Isaiah introduces himself to the room. A female elf with brown hair and blue eyes says: ¡°Hello! I¡¯m Raveena!¡± Trying seemed to work. Isaiah says: ¡°Sunshine and dewdrops Raveena.¡± Isaiah bows to Raveena. Raveena looks distressed. Raveena says: ¡°I need to find a priest.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°A priest?¡± Raveena says: ¡°Are you a priest?¡± Isaiah shakes his head. Isaiah says: ¡°Not anymore what¡¯s wrong?¡± Raveena sighs deeply. Raveena says: ¡°I need to find a cure for something unpleasant.¡± Raveena gestures between her legs and winces. Isaiah smiles awkwardly. Isaiah says: ¡°Oh.. um¡­I¡¯m sorry I wouldn¡¯t know the first thing.¡± (What is with this game? Raveena has an STD how do you even code that?) Raveena says: ¡°Well hopefully a priest can cure me.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°Maybe Light or Schatten can help you? Do you know them?¡± Raveena thinks and nods. Raveena says: ¡°I have met them, maybe they can help me. Today hasn¡¯t really been my day.¡± Raveena sighs. Isaiah nods. A bolt of lightning strikes Cheezu leaving¡­ well not much. Isaiah blinks in disbelief. (Cheezu? That was the guy he ran across on deku. What in the world could he have done to get RID? Will have to check the rid board later and see what he did wrong.) Isaiah says: ¡°Not great weather we are having today. . .¡± Raveena agrees. Raveena says: ¡°I¡¯m not a big fan of lightning either.¡± Raveena shudders. Isaiah agrees with Raveena. Isaiah says: ¡°Yes, that kind is particularly dangerous.¡± Isaiah looks up and gulps. Raveena says: ¡°The gods can be assholes sometimes.¡± Raveena grumbles. (Isaiah¡¯s player paused for a bit at this, he didn¡¯t expect Raveena, a pure eleven maiden to curse the gods so abruptly and it left him speechless) Isaiah risked looking over Raveena. Raveena is a beautiful female elf. She wears reddish form fitting leather armor. She has long brown hair and bright blue eyes. It shows off her curvy, well-endowed womanly figure. She has pointed ears showing her elven heritage. She is carrying: Demonskin (worn) Slayer (wielded ) Gibbering shield (worn) Silk Cloak (worn ) Ring of Protection (worn) A red skirt (worn) A kit of blue vials (40 left) A large sack The first noticeable thing is that she could afford healing vials. It must be nice to not have to spend every single copper on spell components. Heck, even copper was a spell component and it didn¡¯t cost 1 copper. Also, her gear choice seemed a bit. . . dark. Wearing a demonskin and wielding a slayer she seemed more like villain attire than a heroine attire in his mind''s eye. Anyway, to each their own. Far be it from Isaiah to judge someone on how they dress. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. After an awkward moment, someone walked into the room where Isaiah and Raveena were standing. A male half-elf with black hair and brown eyes enters. Raveena smiles. A male half-elf with black hair and brown eyes flirts with Raveena. A male half-elf with black hair and brown eyes fondles Raveena¡¯s ass. A male half-elf with black hair and brown eyes says: ¡°Hello there baby.¡± (Isaiah saw this as some man coming in and harassing his cousin elf. It set him off a bit. So he looked over the newcomer) A male half-elf with black hair and brown eyes. . He is carrying: A bone knife (wielded) A bone knife (wielded) A silk cloak (worn) Leather armor (worn) A kit of blue vials (20 left) 2 large sacks Isaiah says: ¡°Hey who do you think you are harassing my cousin like that?¡± A male half-elf with black hair and brown eyes says: ¡°I¡¯m Marlykan who the hell are you?¡± (Isaiah quickly recognized the half-elf as marlykan because the spam from an unrecognized person talking was really annoying to read) Isaiah says: ¡°I¡¯m Isaiah and someone who demands elven maidens be treated with respect!¡± Marlykan says: ¡°What are you stupid?¡± Isaiah growls. Isaiah says: ¡°You leave her alone!¡± Marlykan raises an eyebrow Marlykan says: ¡°Or what?¡± Isaiah says: ¡°Leave her alone or I¡¯ll make you leave her alone!¡± Isaiah unwields sword of insanity. Isaiah unwields bone dagger. Isaiah removes armor. Marlykan says: ¡°Try me little elf!¡± Marlykan spits on the ground. You begin casting a spell. Marlykan tries to stab you in the back! A ball of fire blasts into marlykan Marlykan misses you. Marlykan misses you. You begin casting a spell. A ball of fire blasts into marlykan Marlykan misses you. Marlykan hits you. HP: 50/60 You begin casting a spell Marlykan quaffs a draught from a blue kit. Marlykan quaffs a draught from a blue kit. A ball of fire blasts into marlykan Marlykan drops dead before you. All the thieves in the land suddenly wonder where Marlykan¡¯s corpse might be found. Isaiah quickly got everything from the corpse and wore it all. The only things he could equip were the silk cloak and the leather armor. He did loot a couple thousand worth of assorted coins though. He took a moment to wield his sword and dagger and quaff one of the potions. HP: 60/60 Isaiah says: ¡°Well Raveena that mess is now over he won¡¯t be bothering you again.¡± Isaiah kicks the corpse. Raveena says: ¡°Well about that. . .¡± Isaiah looks at Raveena questioningly. Isaiah says: ¡°Yes?¡± Raveena says: ¡°You know how I said I was looking for a priest?¡± Isaiah nods. Raveena says: ¡°He paid me for a service and the disease manifested itself.¡± Isaiah tilts his head. Isaiah says: ¡°I don¡¯t understand.¡± Raveena says: ¡°Don¡¯t make me explain the service.¡± Isaiah pales. Isaiah says: ¡°Oh. . .¡± Isaiah looks at the corpse and grimaces. Isaiah says: ¡°So what now?¡± Raveena smiles at you. Raveena says: ¡°Well, aren''t you a strong and noble elf, but can I repay you?¡± Isaiah gulps. Raveena winks at you seductively. (this awkward conversation continued along for several minutes when it became quite apparent that Raveena was in fact a lady of the night and Marlykan was her client. Isaiah was looking for a polite way to exit the situation when he was interrupted.) Marlykan enters. Marlykan looks over the corpse. Marlykan looks you over. Marlykan says: ¡°Give me my things back.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°I don¡¯t have your things, these are from a dead person.¡± Marlykan says: ¡°Really? Then why are you wearing my cursed cloak?¡± Marlykan smirks. Isaiah shakes his head. Marlykan says: ¡°Fine. Die¡± Marlykan tries to stab you in the back! You hit Marlykan You hit Marlykan Marlykan missed you. Marlykan hits you. Marlykan starts scrambling about the battlefield. HP: 49/60 You hit marlykan Marlykan scrambles deftly from your blow. The sword tells you: ¡°I shall now summon the demon king!¡± A rabbit appears before you Rabbit misses marlykan. Marlykan missed you Marlykan hits you HP: 41/60 Marlykan fails to land a backstab on you. You unwield sword of insanity You unwield dagger You remove armor You begin casting a spell. A bolt of lightning leaps from your hand and zaps into Marlykan. Marlykan drops dead before you. The grim reaper happily accepts Marlykan¡¯s soul. Isaiah looked over the corpse again sitting next to the first one that was now looking a little rotten. He quaffed a couple more of the potions again to top off his hp. HP: 60/60 The only thing he had on him were a pair of daggers. Isaiah frowns. Isaiah says: ¡°How did he buy weapons when he didn''t get his corpse back.¡± Raveena says: ¡°Get money from his bank account?¡± Isaiah says: ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Raveena says: ¡°It is just up the road, you can deposit money in the bank so that you don¡¯t lose it all when you die. How do you not know this?¡± Isaiah sighs. Isaiah says: ¡°I just didn¡¯t know sorry I¡¯m new.¡± Raveena pats you on the head. Raveena says: ¡°That¡¯s okay now you know.¡± Raveena pets rabbit. Isaiah says: ¡°I think I need some time alone now this whole situation feels dirty.¡± Raveena nods. Raveena says: ¡°Well if you¡¯d like some company later come and see me.¡± Raveena winks and smiles. Isaiah says: ¡°Thanks I¡¯ll consider it.¡± Isaiah waves. Isaiah leaves north. Lathander¡¯s temple was becoming a sanctuary to Isaiah. It had become his default place to go when he wasn¡¯t sure what he wanted to do next. By the time he got there the rabbit his sword had summoned had despawned. It was a sad thing the sword would only summon rabbits in a fight. The rabbits were mostly useless in a fight. They couldn¡¯t hit anything and died in a single hit. However, he¡¯d grown attached to the cute fireballs. Rabbits aside, Isaiah¡¯s player needed some time to unpack the recent events. First and most importantly he had survived his first PK. Second, he probably should have run away. Or better yet, he shouldn¡¯t have jumped to conclusions in the first place. The reason Marlykan was acting like he owned Raveena was because he had paid for her ¡®services.¡¯ Maybe it spoke to his naivety that he didn¡¯t even consider the possibility a cousin elf might sell herself to a half-human like that. That aside, why didn¡¯t Marlykan run away? He normally would high tail it out of a hostile room if his hit points were dropping dramatically. The fights in this game were high stakes. The times that he had died his hit points vanished fast. Also, why didn¡¯t Marlykan try to chain stabs on him? That could be done with spells though stab would be better because it doesn¡¯t have a cast delay. Isaiah [OOC] Can a thief stab, then exit the room come back in and stab again? Vethor [OOC] Not for a long time, stab disables the walking to an adjacent room. Isaiah [OOC] Thank you vethor As Isaiah sat in the temple of Lathander a thought occurred to him. Perhaps the only real reason he came out of that okay was because of the fact the backstabs all directed at him missed. Granted, Marlykan was much lower level than a monster like Nightfall who could down him in a single stab but the thief¡¯s class signature ability was meant to hurt. He thought back of that review he read where the fighter/thief/mage was the ultimate player killing build. Maybe the person who wrote that scathing game review on mudconnector had gotten killed one to many times by people of that multi class build. It was their way to quit playing after giving up because of player killing imbalance and offering a final snub. Then there was his performance. In hindsight he copied Harmony¡¯s assault on him. He didn¡¯t have a bag of that powder Harmony used, nor did he know where to get it. It worked, but likely the only reason it did was because of the missed stab. He¡¯d need to ask a more experienced person for some advice. Being a pacifist was all well and good but there were some times when an elf needs to stand and fight. Defending Raveena¡¯s chastity was not one of them. If someone came trying to murder Schatten or Light what would he do? CH.29 The curse that keeps on giving Isaiah needed to not stagnate. The first thing he needed to do was to get rid of Marlykan¡¯s cursed cloak. Cursed gear was a pain. Cursed worn things lowered one¡¯s armor class. It would make them easier to hit. The -2 silk cloak he had made him that much easier to hit. So Isaiah headed back toward Shadow. Of course he swung by that oddly rich troll and killed it again to collect around 100 gold that it dropped on the way. Curse removal tended to cost thousands. This -2 cloak would cost 2000 gold to get uncursed. Isaiah sat in the church of shadow and reluctantly paid out the money. It drained his funds to just having copper and silver. It was very tempting to just die and have death unequip. Isaiah was still lower exp-wise then he had be before the Harmony murder. Dying on purpose didn¡¯t sit right with him though for enough money it would be sorely tempting. An acolyte accepts your sizable donation and then a priest chants a spell over the cursed item. Hoping to finally be free of the curse, Isaiah tried to remove the silk cloak only to get an unpleasant surprise. You can¡¯t remove a silk cloak, it is cursed. He¡¯d have to go farm some more gold to get it back. Isaiah headed back west towards shadow gates hoping to get another troll kill. At 15 minutes a respawn it would take him several hours to grind out enough to get rid of the final -1 on the silk cloak but that was the quickest way he knew how. Unlike when he walked past the guards. You step on some hidden caltrops and fall to the ground when they pierce your feet. HP:59/60 You have fallen and can¡¯t continue west. You have fallen and can¡¯t continue west. (spamming west didn¡¯t seem to work, it looked like Isaiah was stunned and stuck in the room) You catch someone with his hand in your pocket. You catch someone with his hand in your pocket. Someone chuckles. Marlykan appears from the shadows. Marlykan says: ¡°Just getting reimbursed for what you took from me. What are you gonna do about it?¡± Isaiah checked his money and saw some was missing. Marlykan frowns. Marlykan says: ¡°Not very rich are you?¡± Marlykan slaps you. You have managed to get back to your feet. Isaiah says: ¡°You are supposed to be dead.¡± Marlykan smirks. Marlykan says: ¡°Try again?¡± This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. (If Isaiah was thinking more clearly he might have wondered why this jerk was trying to bait him into attacking him so badly but he didn¡¯t.) You start casting a spell. A bolt of lightning blasts into Marlykan! Marlykan quaffs a healing vial. Marlykan quaffs a healing vial. Marlykan quaffs a healing vial. Gate Guard attacks you! Gate Guard attacks you! Marlykan misses you. Gate guard hits you. HP:51/60 Gate guard hits you. HP: 55/60 Gate Guard hits you. HP: 50/60 Gate guard hits you. HP: 45/60 Gate guard hits you. HP: 34/60 Marlykan hits you. HP:25/60 Isaiah was already spring loaded to run away because that seemed to be the best way to avoid dying and he started mashing west and left the combat. He ran all the way back to the temple of Mystra to try to figure out why his hit points had been vanishing so fast. He quickly quaffed about half of the blue potions and ended up at full HP. He probably didn¡¯t need to drink so many to top himself up but panic was panic. His inner miser cringed as several messages saying ¡®you feel not different than before¡¯ spammed across the screen. Marlykan [OOC] Darn, if you would have got back the way you came and tripped the other exit¡¯s caltrops you would have been dead by the guards for sure. Isaiah [OOC] WTF I killed you twice and you just keep coming at me like it is nothing. Marlykan [OOC] Haw, you can¡¯t stop me that easily. Vethor [OOC] The OOC like is not for IG stuff like this fellas. . . Someone [OOC] What the hell is wrong with you people? Why don¡¯t you fear death? Marlykan [OOC] Fuck you someone Someone [OOC] If you are not going to fear death I¡¯ll give you something to fear. Coming back after someone PK¡¯d you and attacking them is crap roleplay. That shit you and Raveena pulled earlier after that avatar interaction put you on thin ice and this is the last straw. A bolt of lightning strikes Marlykan leaving. . . well not much. Someone [OOC] Anyone that wants to disrespect the staff and then go straight to abusing city guard code for a PK can expect the same fate. Isaiah stepped one room out of the temple on the road west of shadow. He peered east to see if Marlykan was still there or at least his corpse. There were just the gate guards at the gate to shadow. Isaiah used to finger command to confirm his suspicions. Finger marlykan That play does not exist. Crap, pissing off the staff could have some rather abrupt and permanent consequences. That lightning bolt deleted his character. Isaiah [OOC] Sorry, things just escalated rapidly. Someone [OOC] Don¡¯t worry Isaiah I hate you too and all the other people who just use melee classes to get mage levels for free. Someone [OOC] Also look at your alignment and ask yourself if a character of that alignment should be attacking in cities at all. Isaiah [OOC] Sorry :( Isaiah¡¯s player decided to shut up at this. Someone was in a bad mood and he didn¡¯t want to prod the beast anymore. Ending up like Marlykan would probably be the outcome. It seemed like a good time to log out and take a break. Isaiah headed west towards the temple of Lathander but swung by and killed the troll again to collect the easy ~100 gold. You hit troll. You hit troll. You hit troll. Troll misses you. You hit troll You hit troll Sword tells you: ¡°What does this do?¡± Mana falls from the heavens. Troll misses you. You hit troll. You hit troll. Troll drops dead before you. You offer the corpse of troll. You get a pile of coins. Isaiah moved one room away from the troll. He figured the first thing he¡¯d do when he logged back in was kill the troll again and collect his pile of coins. Ah.. the search for more money. CH.30 the search for more money Learning is important. First lesson is that Isaiah was not nearly as dominating as he thought he was. Likely the only reason he was able to burst Marlykan down like he did the first time was because he was overconfident. If someone gets hit by a fireball and the next thing they do is quaff a few potions they likely won¡¯t get burst down so easily. Mages only have a certain number of spell slots if they can tank the damage and quaff enough potions they can fight through it enough to turn the tables. Obviously the best position is to be the one that starts the fight that always gives the greatest advantage. Second, with open world PK cities were not safe. One would think laws would protect people inside a city but it hasn¡¯t gone that way for Isaiah. Cities should be safe but in his experience the opposite was true. Team evil probably used cities as hunting grounds. If someone wanted to avoid getting attacked, being someplace obscure or inaccessible was the best bet. The safest place would likely be both. The mage¡¯s guild tower might be a good spot, unless it was a mage who was after him. Mage is not an obscure class and he knew from experience there were evil mages out there. Evil also had an advantage in terms of what would be okay for them to do. Isaiah was lawful good. He didn¡¯t think about it when he picked it but it was the most restrictive alignment. Would a lawful good character dish out death in town? Without a trial? Are there even trials in the game? Isaiah really jumped the gun attacking Marlykan on the streets of shadow city. If this was a tabletop RPG he¡¯d likely be facing a fine, jail time, or the executioner¡¯s block. The fact that players can come back from death complicates things. The penalty for murder should be death. Maybe some noble could claim killing a commoner for something minor is okay because things like that did happen in feudal times but Isaiah was just an elven adventurer. Whoever ¡®someone¡¯ was he/she was right that said conflict wasn¡¯t roleplayed well on his side. It would be easy to play the race card. Raveena was an elf and elven loyalty comes before human laws. It was a weak argument though. He suspected if anyone knew Raveena and he claimed to be defending her honor he¡¯d be laughed out of the room. Isaiah was pondering this while re-reading the description of the rooms leading up to the troll for the 10th or some time. Before he might go back to shadow and see what was going on there but after what happened he didn¡¯t feel safe there. He¡¯d still need to go shopping. It was the place to get spell components, healing potions and sell loot. While he was reading one of the rooms and doing some self-reflection he noticed something off about one of the descriptions. A few rooms north of the quiet forest road on the way to echo mountains it looks like there were some footprints going away from the path along the canyon. The room only had two exits: north and south. This might be another case of a hidden exit that didn¡¯t get displayed. Isaiah searched the room. You discover a hidden path leading into the canyon. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. The area had three cliff walls and descended into some kind of temple-like stonework carved into the cliff wall. The place looks ancient and where a symbol should be a carving of a bony arm holding scales is placed over it. Isaiah continued into the creepy structure. It was a dark place with large columns. The whole place was obsidian and gave off a feel like a distant memory of evil calling. To the south a huge iron door with a glowing sigil stood blocking the way further in. Isaiah tried to open the door but it was locked. Isaiah was no thief and couldn¡¯t pick locks. He also didn¡¯t have the key. This whole area was screaming ¡®nope¡¯ to him. A death might be nice so he could get rid of this cursed cloak but losing the experience would be bad. He needed one more mage level to get a spell he suspected he¡¯d get more use than any other spell yet. He just needed a source for level 5 scrolls. Teleport is a level 5 spell. Maybe Isaiah was being a bit greedy when he only had one level 4 spell but he really wanted teleport. Running around and passing out from exhaustion sucked. He wanted those days to be done. Also, showing up in a burst of blue light was a great way to make an entrance. Vanishing in a blue light likewise was a great way to make an exit. Having spent enough time searching around Isaiah left to kill the troll again. He collected the coins that it dropped. After a few more respawns he had enough to remove the curse on the cloak. Even though Marlykan was dead, and rid the thought of someone coming up to him and asking ¡®why are you wearing my cursed cloak?¡¯ sent chills down his spine. He unequiped the now +0 silk cloak and sold it at the general store for a dozen gold. After spending hours farming a single troll for 100 gold every 15 minutes he was scraping the bottom of his money pouch. When the game rebooted then all the shops would reset and he¡¯d not have to worry about that thing anymore. Having sold off all the gear he looted from Marlykan was a weight lifted from his shoulders. The sooner he had this embarrassing incident behind him the better. Feeling a bit free, Isaiah made his way back to Deku to kill Jarrow again. He made sure to stop for a while midway through running across the desert so he wouldn¡¯t pass out from exhaustion. Waiting a few minutes until the ferry arrived, he paid the fee and after a boat ride got off at the correct dock. He did the same in and out casting and avoiding eventually the old drow died and he got another level 4 scroll. Stoneskin: Level 4 This spell causes the target to be immune to a number of physical attacks. The amount of attacks depends on the caster¡¯s level. Components: Diamond dust, Granite Dust Isaiah¡¯s player gaped at the description. It had to be the best defensive spell he¡¯d come across yet. It was quickly scribed into his spell book. He went back to the little town not far from the drow¡¯s tower hoping the money he got from the fight would be enough to buy the components for the scroll. He got sticker shock. Diamond dust costs 1200 gold. Granite dust costs 400 gold a pop. The spell cost almost as much as it was for him to remove the curse on the silk cloak. Well¡­ not quite as much but 4 digits was sticker shock zone none-the-less. Isaiah¡¯s plan to keep stoneskin on all the time and never need to buy potions was thwarted by the simple fact that stoneskin was an order of magnitude more expensive than potions. Maybe one day he could afford to actually cast this spell. Isaiah¡¯s lack of gold was going to be the death of him one day . . he just knew it. Ch.31 Deku Cemetary Isaiah headed across the river and checked Silvanus¡¯s temple. No one was there. He had hoped for a chance encounter with Schatten again but the elf was not there. With the new changes he wasn¡¯t even sure if she was online. The who list had several female elves online. But who was the elf with coppery red curls? Which elf was the one with green eyes and black hair. Which elf was the one with pale blue hair. There were some people who he didn¡¯t want to meet. That male half-elf with blood red hair and a chilling smile didn¡¯t seem like a good guy. Hopefully it wouldn¡¯t be too much of a headache to recognize people over the coming days. Heading north of Silvanus¡¯s temple along a path Isaiah eventually came across a cemetery. The place looked like it hasn¡¯t been tended in years. Headstones have fallen down. The ground is uneven and piles of dirt from holes in the ground lie open. The fact that the pits are by the gravestones shows that the graves have been defiled. The whole place reeks of death and decay and only an ominous silence can be heard. After going back and forth with some identically described rooms he walked across a ruined chapel. The building used to have double doors. It had one door hanging on a bent hinge at an odd angle with the other door in splinters over the stone path leading to it. Heading in, Isaiah was immediately attacked in a hallway. Cultist attacks you! You hit cultist. You hit cultist. You hit cultist. Cultist begins casting a spell. You hit cultist. You hit cultist. You miss cultist. Cultist reaches for your left arm and fails to grab hold!! You hit cultist. The sword tells you: ¡°What does this do?¡± Mana falls from heaven. You hit cultist. Cultist drops dead before you. Isaiah checked out the corpse of the cultist. He cast detect magic before doing so. He had a mundane mace and some coins. Isaiah quickly collected the 20 gold coins and offered the rest before continuing on. Another room that looked like a service chamber had a group of cultists in it. A defiled altar sat in the center and the room had broken pews sitting strewn about. A partly collapsed roof made the area seem more cramped than it should have been. Three cultists are here. Two zombies are here. Combat notifications spammed across the screen. Isaiah didn¡¯t get by unscathed though. Cultist begins casting a spell. Cultist grabs your left leg and almost yanks it off! A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. HP: 40/60 You hit cultist. You hit cultist. Cultist begins casting a spell. Cultist sends a beam of fell energy at you. HP: 45/60 You hit cultist. You hit cultst. Isaiah leaves south. Keeping with his theme, Isaiah ran away and healed back up to 60 hp. He did this a few times and eventually the place was just a room filled with corpses of his enemies. Each of the bodies had a few dozen gold worth of various curiences. The nice thing though that Isaiah noticed was a priest¡¯s robe. Casting detect magic showed: Priest¡¯s robe (surrounded by a faint blue glow). Grimacing as he used the expensive spell components, Isaiah cast identify on the robe. Luckily there was no curse. Priest¡¯s robes+1 showed in his inventory. He successfully equipped it. Apparently, he could wear armor, and clothing in the same slot. In the case of his torso he had two things on them now. Having cleared all the monsters in this area Isaiah continued exploring. He came to a mausoleum. The place was not kept well but because it was made entirely out of stone it wasn¡¯t falling down. He opened the metal doors and went in. There was a sarcophagus in the center. Isaiah opened it and a mummy came out. The battle wasn¡¯t too bad but the loot he dropped was a bit grim. A blood stained sword (surrounded by a glow) Isaiah promptly identified the +2 sword. Elfslayer+2 Elfslayer¡­the sword¡¯s name was elf slayer. The description stated that it was a sword that was created by cultists and quenched by killing elven slaves. In doing so it made it more effective at killing elves. He promptly offered the sword. Even if he needed the money he didn¡¯t want to have this abomination floating around in the markets for someone to possibly buy. Isaiah made his way back to Jarrow¡¯s tower. The slow and painful battle netted him some more coins and another spell scroll: Wall of fire. Wall of fire: This spell conjures flames that surround the caster. Attackers will take damage each round. Alternatively this spell can be cast on an exit and anyone that walks through it will take damage. The material component of the spell is phosphorus. Isaiah checked the components shop and at 87 gold bought up a dozen phosphorus. The spell wasn¡¯t terribly expensive but 10 castings was almost 1000 gold. These things added up quickly. A fully stocked mage would probably have a fortune of spell components on them. After this, Isaiah swung by Silvanius¡¯s temple. Like last time there were no players there. Even though it pained him knowing he had no chance with Schatten he still longed to see her. Unless she had shot up to Kaarell¡¯s level she might still be interested in partying with him. The need for more gold and experience spurred Isaiah on to continue exploring the area past the cemetery on the other side of the river. A short while later he came to a cave. The cave was dark with damp stone walls. One of the perks of playing an elf was the ability to see in dark places like this. If Isaiah was a race without low light vision then he¡¯d likely need a light source or every room¡¯s description would just say ¡®it is too dark to see.¡¯ It didn¡¯t take long before one of the rooms had something that attacked Isaiah. The dark elf offender was creatively named dark elf. Darkelf attacks you! You hit dark elf. You hit dark elf. You hit dark elf. Dark elf misses you. Dark elf misses you. You hit dark elf. The sword tells you: ¡°I will not summon the demon king!¡± Rabbit appears before you. Rabbit misses dark elf. You hit dark elf. You hit dark elf. You hit dark elf. Rabbit misses dark elf. Dark elf drops dead before you! Isaiah¡¯s player felt a bit smug for his elf. He had killed a drow, the mortal enemy of elves with not taking a single point of damage. The drow had a non magical sword and a pile of coins. The drop was less than 50 gold in assorted currency. Isaiah continued clearing the caves racking up dark elf kills. He continued for quite a while running across some dark elf warriors who actually could hit him and gave slightly more EXP but they were not trouble enough for him to be a threat. Isaiah continued farming this area for hours until he had enough experience points to level up both of his classes. Isaiah thought this area was about the difficulty of the goblin stronghold from when he was half the level. After a while Isaiah had a bevy of rabbit following him around attacking dark elves but never hitting. The dark elves could kill them in a single hit but like rabbits there were always more. As long as his sword connected the summoned rabbit would appear for a couple minutes this would keep happening at random even if there were already rabbits present. CH.32 Level Up Having enough exp from grinding dark elves, Isaiah decided to go back to Lathander¡¯s temple to advance his classes. He went west through the shadowlord forest and waited at the decaying docks for the ferry to arrive. After the ferry arrived he paid the 5 gold transport fee and sat around until it got back to Shadow dock. He -slowly- walked through the desert so as not to pass out and quickly rushed through Shadow city from the east gate to the west gate to avoid running into any thieves or killers who might be lurking in the shadows. After that, Isaiah walked through the quest forest road and arrived at Lathander¡¯s temple. Like Silvanus¡¯s temple, no one was hanging out in the gold and white themed temple. It was a little sad, the temples seemed a bit cold and empty without players there to interact with. Isaiah¡¯s player typed followed by . You advance mage. Mage is now level 9. You advance fighter. Fighter is now level 8. HP: 70/70 Isaiah was now a level 8/9 fighter/mage. He used the command to see what he would need for the next level. Wizard exp to next was 135,000 experience points and fighter was 125,000 experience points. He had a little over 90,000 experience points at the moment. He¡¯d had setbacks but his level was higher now than it had ever been. Most importantly though Isaiah could now cast 1 level 5 spell. On a bittersweet note, the only level 5 spell in his spellbook was animate dead. Isaiah memorized it just to see how long it would take. A level 5 spell took a few seconds to memorize, not a huge amount of extra time compared to level 4, maybe a second more. He¡¯d likely go back to deku island later on and farm some more dark elves. If he grinded them for several hours without dying then double digit levels would be possible. The who list was still filled with a bunch of nameless one line descriptions of characters. This remained disconcerting. Isaiah needed to go socialize and exchange names with other players. Isaiah¡¯s player had enough grinding for the day. He could force himself to grind more exp but just wasn¡¯t feeling it. His mind was made up for him when a notification appeared. Ram usage limit exceeded reboot in 10 minutes. Kain [OOC] Darn, not good timing game, I guess I better hurry up and get out of here. Reboot in 9 minutes. Reboot in 8 minutes. Reboot in 7 minutes. Reboot in 6 minutes. Reboot in 5 minutes. Reboot in 4 minutes. Isaiah just stood there in Lathander¡¯s temple watching the impending reboot. Reboot in 3 minutes. (Log out now!) Reboot in 2 minutes. You have left the adventure. Come back soon! Isaiah¡¯s player spent the rest of the day doing real life stuff. He made a big pot of coffee and drank it in several cups while making a small meal for himself. Next he did his homework, fed the cats, and cleaned out their litter boxes. He had a part time job where he would work a few hours a couple days a week as well. It wasn¡¯t until later on the next day that he got time to log back in when real life stuff was finished. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. When Isaiah popped back into existence in the temple of Lathander he wasn¡¯t alone. A female half-elf with long blonde hair and a green eyed, dark haired elf were there. Also a notice scrawled across the screen the moment he logged in. High mortal position has been changed to align with the game as a role play mud. The position can be bestowed on characters who demonstrate good role play. Avatars and other immortals will take advice on candidates from other high mortals who notice good roleplay and think they have earned it. High mortal position is required to advance to level 20. A female half-elf with long blonde hair says: ¡°Hello.¡± A green eyed, dark-haired elf says: ¡°Would you be willing to officiate the wedding Light?¡± A green eyed, dark-haired elf says: ¡°Also hello cousin. I¡¯m Kaarell.¡± Isaiah''s player typed which recognized Isaiah as kaarell so he had to try again with . A female half-elf with long blonde hair says: ¡°My name is Light. Pleasure to meet you if we haven¡¯t met before.¡± After a bit of fumbling around both of them were recognized with the correct names. Isaiah says: ¡°I¡¯m Isaiah.¡± Light says: ¡°Oh, welcome back to the temple of Lathander Isaiah how have you been?¡± Isaiah says: ¡°Well enough, I had some struggles but am still kicking.¡± Light says: ¡°What happened?¡± Isaiah says: ¡°I made a mistake, I ran into who I thought was an elven maiden and moved to defend her honor from a half-elf named Marlykan who claimed to own her. It turned into a big mess.¡± Kaarell says: ¡°Ah, that former ranger.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°Former ranger?¡± Kaarell says: ¡°Yes, she used to be a ranger of Mielikki but her goddess did not approve of her nightly. . . activities. She no longer serves the lady of the wilds.¡± Isaiah gasps. Isaiah says: ¡°That can happen?¡± Kaarell nods. Kaarell says: ¡°Yes, I talked to her once about repenting and going back to Mielikki or even Lathander but she has no interest. She went on about how being alone in the woods with only trees to make out with was frustrating.¡± Isaiah frowns. Isaiah says: ¡°I see, I hope that she can find redemption one day.¡± Light says: ¡°I hope so too.¡± Kaarell says: ¡°You should steer clear of her Isaiah. She is an elf in name only. Shacking up with the high priest of Malar for a room in his castle is a betrayal of all things fair folk are supposed to stand for.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°Who is that?¡± Kaarell says: ¡°Melic, he is a very powerful warrior priest. He likes hunting. People are his favorite prey.¡± Kaarell looks you over. Kaarell starts casting a spell. Kaarell begins detecting magic. Kaarell says: ¡°It looks like you found some better gear congrats.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°Thanks, I¡¯ve been killing drow on deku.¡± Kaarell says: ¡°Good, our dark cousins they are viscous murderers.¡± Kaarell hmms. Kaarell says: ¡°Isaiah, when was the last time you backed up your spell book?¡± Isaiah says: ¡°You can do that?¡± Kaarell nods. Kaarell says: ¡°Wizbert in shadow can back up your spell book. It takes a little while but I¡¯d suggest you get it started right away. If things didn¡¯t go well when you got into a fight with Marlykan you might have been having to start a new spellbook from scratch right now.¡± Isaiah frowns. Kaarell says: ¡°Also, in the mage tower there are cubbies available to stash spell components. Those bags have a bad habit of just vanishing when you are in town. It would be prudent to not carry every component you own on you.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°Yes, I just got stoneskin and animate dead.¡± Kaarell eyes you. Kaarell says: ¡°Animate dead? What did you do with that scroll?¡± Isaiah blushes. Isaiah says: ¡°I transcribed it, but just for research purposes. I don¡¯t plan on becoming a necromancer.¡± Kaarell rubs his temples. Kaarell says: ¡°You sound like a priest of Mystra right now. Not every magic is worth knowing about.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°Sorry, I am always faithful to Lathander.¡± Kaarell says: ¡°Good.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°You and Light were talking about a wedding?¡± Kaarell says: ¡°I guess you walked in on us while we were discussing that.¡± Isaiah listens. Kaarell says: ¡°Schatten and I are handfasting. I asked her to marry me and she said yes.¡± Kaarell smiles proudly. Isaiah says: ¡°Congratulations!¡± (Isaiah player was bummed out about this though. He liked Schatten. He needed Isaiah to play the roll as a supportive friend. That was the right thing to do when someone who has helped gets engaged.) Light smiles. Light says: ¡°It will be a wonderful wedding ceremony. Kaarell asked me to officiate it.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°Well, I¡¯ll be off and get this spell backup going. Thank you for the help.¡± Isaiah left the temple and headed east then south to the mage tower. Ch.33 Zeal At the mage tower, he headed up a few floors and found an office with an NPC named Wizbert in it. He was a geeky looking human wearing a robe that oddly enough sported a pocket protector. The spells he sold were quite expensive. Several thousand gold for level 1 spells and close to 100,000 gold coins for a level 9 scroll. He also sold spellbooks and offered a service to backup a spellbook. Isaiah used the syntax and wizbert took it from his inventory. Wizbert says: ¡°Come back in 30 minutes and I¡¯ll have your backup done. I¡¯ll hold on to the backup and return the original to you then.¡± Isaiah seemed a bit naked without a spellbook. The time ticked by very slowly as Wizbert mumbled to himself. Wizbert mutters: ¡°Spells spells¡­ definitely spells.¡± Wizbert mutters: ¡°. . Spells gotta be spells.¡± Wizbert twitches. Isaiah¡¯s player typed and got a line of text in reply. Wizbert says: ¡°I just started! Come back later!¡± Isaiah went to go check out the laboratory in the wizard¡¯s tower. It was close to the top of the place, one floor away from being on the roof. The place was full of beakers, burners and shelves. The place was filled with secure cubbies that magi could store components in. Isaiah spent 100 gold to buy a cubby spot. Taking some out of his leather components bag, Isaiah stored a bit of each of the things. Still needing to kill some time, Isaiah headed to the components shop and spent the rest of the money he had on him to buy a single casting of stoneskin. The diamond dust costing 1200 was painful while 48 for granite dust wasn¡¯t nearly as much of a bite. Not having much to steal, Isaiah headed out into shadow city proper. In the main adventurer¡¯s hall stood a male half-elf with white hair. Isaiah decided to introduce himself. Isaiah says: ¡°Hello, I¡¯m Isaiah nice to meet you.¡± A male half-elf with white hair says: ¡°Zeal.¡± Isaiah bows. Isaiah says: ¡°Well met zeal.¡± (Isaiah quickly recognized the half-elf as zeal) Zeal nods. There were a few moments of awkward silence. So, Isaiah decided to say more. Isaiah says: ¡°I¡¯ve seen you fighting in the arena a bit, you must be an impressive fighter.¡± Zeal shakes his head in disagreement Zeal says: ¡°I¡¯m a ranger.¡± Isaiah nods. Isaiah says: ¡°I see a ranger, one of those types wandering the wilds.¡± Zeal nods. Zeal looks you over. (Isaiah¡¯s player jumped a little bit when he saw the text that was essentially zeal sizing Isaiah up.) Zeal frowns. Zeal says: ¡°That crest. . . ¡° Isaiah looks at everyone questioningly. Isaiah says: ¡°What crest.¡± Zeal points at the crest you are wearing. Isaiah says: ¡°Oh that one.¡± Zeal says: ¡°Where did you get it?¡± Isaiah says: ¡°This is the crest of the order of the Metallic Dragons. I got it from Azha.¡± Zeal frowns. Isaiah says: ¡°It was nice so I found it in a ruined keep and kept it.¡± Zeal says: ¡°You were not in our guild.¡± If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Isaiah says: ¡°I wasn¡¯t. Kaarell told me the guild stood for the light. I serve Lathander and it seemed a good way to honor those brave warriors.¡± Zeal nods. Zeal says: ¡°You are a mage.¡± Isaiah says: ¡°Yes?¡± Zeal says: ¡°Can you cast stoneskin?¡± Isaiah nods. Zeal says: ¡°Have you been to Antioch?¡± Isaiah says: ¡°Yes though I turned back before we went too far.¡± Zeal says: ¡°Good cast it on both of us and let''s head out.¡± Zeal invites you to join the party: party Isaiah says: ¡°I only have enough money to cast it once.¡± Zeal gives you 20000 gold. Zeal says: ¡°Go buy some more components.¡± Isaiah nods. (Isaiah¡¯s player wanted to protest but handing the gold back well it was hard.) He went back to the mage¡¯s tower and spent it all on granite dust and diamond dust. After picking up his spellbook from wizbert he memorized all the stoneskins he could and headed back to shadow to rejoin zeal. Isaiah player typed Isaiah has joined the party: party Zeal nods. Zeal invites you to follow him. You begin casting a spell. You sprinkle some granite dust over Zeal and begin muttering incomprehensibly. Zeal is suddenly surrounded by impenetrable granite armor! You begin casting a spell. You sprinkle some granite dust over Isaiah and begin muttering incomprehensibly. Isaiah is suddenly surrounded by impenetrable granite armor! You are now following zeal What happened next was a bit of a blur. Zeal whistled and a war horse appeared next to him. He mounted it and sped off to the north along Dragon pass road and into the ruined city of Antioch. Zeal was a blur of blades as he cut down zombies in a single round. Isaiah¡¯s number of attacks paled compared to Zeals. He must have had 6 or 8 attacks per round. Zeal hits zombie. Zeal hits zombie. Zeal hits zombie. Zeal hits zombie. Zeal hits zombie. Zeal hits zombie. You miss zombie. You miss zombie. You hit zombie. Zombie hits you ineffectual. HP:70/70 Zombie misses Zeal. Zombie drops dead before you. Eventually things started to get weird. They were fighting on what looked like floating islands zeal did someone and collected a thing. Isaiah wasn¡¯t sure what. After that they went to the next island and eventually climbed a tower in the far end of town. Both of them took a few hits but a single casting of stoneskin was enough to make it to the last boss. His name was Ignatius. Apparently Ignatius is a wizard who went mad and reduced Antioch to a state of undeath. Zeal didn¡¯t say a word and led them into battle with him. Ignatius attacks you! Zeal hit Ignatius. Zeal hit Ignatius. Zeal hit Ignatius. Zeal hit Ignatius. Zeal hit Ignatius. Zeal hit Ignatius. You miss Ignatius. You miss Ignatius. Ignatius starts casting a spell. Zeal hit Ignatius. Zeal hit Ignatius. Zeal hit Ignatius. Zeal hit Ignatius. Zeal hit Ignatius. Zeal hit Ignatius. You miss Ignatius. You miss Ignatius. After Ignatius touches a pin a searing bolt of electricity leaps towards you. The bolt shocks you dealing damage. HP: 30/70 Having been set free the bolt leaps towards Ignatius on its own, zapping him. Having been set free the bolt leaps towards Zeal on its own, zapping him. Zeal quaffs a potion. Zeal quaffs a potion. The bolt, having been spent, dissipates. Zeal hit Ignatius. Zeal hit Ignatius. Zeal hit Ignatius. Zeal hit Ignatius. Zeal hit Ignatius. Zeal hit Ignatius. You miss Ignatius. You miss Ignatius. (taking a queue from Zeal Isaiah also quaffed two potions) You quaff a potion. You quaff a potion. The potion cools your body, healing you. HP: 40/70 The potion cools your body, healing you. HP: 51/70 Ignatius starts casting a spell. Zeal hit Ignatius. Zeal hit Ignatius. Zeal hit Ignatius. Zeal hit Ignatius. Zeal hit Ignatius. Zeal hit Ignatius. You miss Ignatius. You miss Ignatius. Ignatius drops dead before you. Zeal collected some kind of manual and looked over Isaiah. Zeal gives you a scroll. Zeal says: ¡°Maybe wield your weapons next time.¡± Zeal kneels down before his holy and starts praying intensely. Zeal wavers. Zeal stands up. Zeal starts casting a spell. Zeal channels a strong surge of energy into you. HP: 70/70 Zeal leaves down. Zeal says: ¡°Or cast some spells, summoned monsters help a bit.¡± The two of them zoomed right back the way they came with him ditching Isaiah back in shadow¡¯s main adventurer¡¯s hall. Zeal says: ¡°I have to go.¡± Zeal leaves the adventure. Isaiah sat there for a few minutes trying to make sense of what just happened. Apparently Zeal was a man of action and didn¡¯t waste words. Isaiah checked the scroll zeal gave him. It was a nice scroll. Sadly it was also a scroll he could not use because it was level 7. Power Word Stun: When uttered, the power word stun completely without fail will be stunned. The duration of the stun is dependent on the hit points of the victim. The higher the health the quicker they will be able to shrug off the stun. After transcribing, Isaiah quickly went back to wizbert to get another backup of his spell book. His old foe poverty reared its ugly head again. Wizbert says: ¡°You don¡¯t have enough money to pay for me to transcribe your spellbook. Scram!¡± Feeling poor and vulnerable, Isaiah took all but one casting of stoneskin¡¯s components and placed it in his cubby at the communal lab in the mage¡¯s tower. Isaiah¡¯s character sheet showed him that even with the experience split from being in a party with Zeal it was the most experience points he¡¯d got in the amount of time that he¡¯d spent there. He imagined that most of it was from the boss monster, Ignatius. That strange spell he cast where it zapped lightning to several targets seemed really scary. He wasn¡¯t sure he¡¯d ever want to use it because of the chance it could bounce back and hit the caster but if it picked the same target three times and that target was Isaiah he¡¯d be dead for sure. It all happened instantly so there wouldn¡¯t be any time to quaff a potion or two to get some hit points back like with acid arrow. CH.34 Goldeneyes Isaiah didn¡¯t log in for a couple days. His player had some school projects to take care of and some anime to binge. When he logged back in he was greeted with even more updates. Luckily they were all just notifications that showed up at login. A new command has been created. No longer does everyone talk by saying ¡®say¡¯ they can customize how it works. The first word must be a verb as it will add an ¡®s¡¯ to the end of it. EX: will show [name] talks talks quickly: Player vs Player combat has been updated. If the attacker is a player and their Hit Points go below zero they will fall unconscious instead of dying. Knocked out players can be lifted up and carried with the command. People are heavy so they have to have enough inventory space to carry someone. Rope can be used to tie up unconscious players. This will make them [bound] and bound players cannot leave the room, use most commands (like casting spells, drinking potions etc) they can still emote, talk and reply to tells but not much else. Bound players can to get out of their bonds but it will show that they will do it to everyone in the room and use a large amount of stamina. The change goes in line with the goal of making the PK system be the best roleplaying experience of any MUD out there. Again, this is a roleplay enforced game, PK without roleplay is psycho killing. Psycho killers have been and will continue to be RID. Isaiah¡¯s player thought the first update was cool. The second update he hoped didn¡¯t affect him. He hated player killing. Isaiah had nothing but bad experiences with player vs player combat. Isaiah¡¯s player tested the command by typing Isaiah slurss: ¡°test¡± (Oh, right it adds and extra ¡®s¡¯) Isaiah slurs: ¡°test¡± That was just a test, a gold elf shouldn¡¯t slur. He brain stormed and tried out a few other things and settled on . Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°test¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°testing 1, 2, 1, 2¡± Isaiah cast an invisibility spell on himself before heading into Shadow. It still felt unnerving not being able to put names to the other players. He crossed past a rugged voadkyn, a towering firbolg and a golden-eyed elf. Isaiah wanted to check the in game boards in shadow city and see what things were posted there. Oddly enough, it seemed like a bit of a flame war had developed. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Dame Lussell, Knight of Loviatar Citizens of Shadow, Let it be known Knight Lussell has journeyed from far lands and arrived at Shadow. She is to be afforded all rights and privileges her title and lineage afford her. Pain will be freely dispensed to those that deserve it. Those that oppose her will fall by her lance and Loviatar¡¯s magic. Lussell the knight who runs away Nothing says brave knight like turning tail and running in combat with a small elf. -Goldeneyes Dame Lussell, Knight of Loviatar Avoiding an ambush with a thug that uses tricks like powder for blinding is not running. Cowards who fight without honor need only be ignored. -Lussell Lussell ignores challengers. I find it ironic that running away this so-called knight did not come and face me. Instead she said she didn''t have to accept my challenge. However, not long after she runs at me with lance leveled only the rumbling of hooves showing she intends to attack. I avoid her charge, and attack right back and guess what? She runs away. -Goldeneyes. Avoiding an ambush I do not have to explain myself to some dirty elven ranger who is as civilized as a rabid wolf. The lords of shadow should ban your kind from walking these streets. Shadow should take notice of Tonovi where only collared elves are allowed. -Lussell Isaiah¡¯s player mentally shrugged and decided to have Isaiah head back to the temple of Lathander and think about what he wanted to do next. Isaiah made it a few steps past the west gate into the farmland when something unexpected happened. You stumble across a trip wire and are flung from your feet. (trying to keep going west just spammed the same message> You are still trying to regain your footing. You are still trying to regain your footing. You are still trying to regain your footing. Someone unwields elven longsword. Someone unwields elven longsword. Someone starts casting a spell. The air around you seems to shimmer Invisibility is dispelled. There is a mist that flows off you as you appear from the shadows. A golden-eyed elf appears from the shadows. A golden-eyed elf gets trip wire. A golden-eyed elf says: ¡°You are not who I am hunting, move along.¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Sorry, was just headed to Lathander¡¯s temple. I¡¯m Isaiah by the way.¡± Isaiah waves from his position sprawled across the ground. A golden-eyed elf says: ¡°Goldeneyes.¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Well met Cousin.¡± Goldeneyes nods. Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°What are you doing here?¡± Goldeneyes says: ¡°Taking measures for an anti-paladin that seems to run away instead of standing her ground and fighting.¡± You have managed to stand again. (oh.. That must be the stun from the trip wire wearing off. It seems to be very similar to the caltrops) Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Is it that Lussell who kept posting about you on the shadow adventurer¡¯s board?¡± Goldeneyes nods. Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°What is an anti-paladin?¡± Goldeneyes says: ¡°Imagine a paladin, but take away honor and goodness.¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°I wish you good hunting cousin.¡± Goldeneyes nods. Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°I¡¯ll just be going then.¡± Goldeneyes says: ¡°Yes, hopefully I¡¯ll soon have a human head to post on a spike showing exactly what happens to people like Lussell around here.¡± Goldeneyes Background (written by his player, edited by me) I started out as a younger tracker in the Tsarven Army. You see, that was our proving ground, our testing ground. All young Elven males who are born into the service of Tempus must serve time with the Tsarven''s Peace Keepers. I never understood exactly why, but it had something to do with improving relations between the Elven nation and the Tsarven Empire. Plus, it gave us valuable military experience. I was not too happy with this. Serving with a bunch of hotheaded humans? Tracking for them, taking orders from them. The running joke with all of us who were leaving for service was that the Humans could not even track themselves, that is why they had to get outside help. Thankfully, it wasn¡¯t as bad as it could have been, a close childhood friend of mine was going with me. Same regiment and everything! We joked, and we had fun, the whole way there. Perhaps we would teach the Tsarven Empire a thing or two about military matters! After all, we had been to the Temple of Tempus, and had learned from the great scholars there about all sorts of matters. Our favorite had been when the Elves fooled the Orc armies, leaving them fighting each other. For a moment, let me step back. I realize that Elves and Tempus just do not go together. All our brothers say so, but they do not live in the border lands. You see, we have the Orc nation to the south, the Goblins to the north and to the East are the caves. From which, every evil you can imagine comes from. Every single Elven tribe, in our Nation, has a certain pattern to follow. Depending on your birth rank and order, you will be put with a certain God and following. Tempus, Mielikki, Eldath and Silvanus are the normal ones. Most of us are born into Mielikki and Tempus. We follow the God of War because we are constantly at War. As soon as we can pick up a sword, we are trained. Not to do so, would result in death for all of us, and our beloved Trees. So, we do it. And we do it well. Anyways, back to my story. Our first day in the Army was...well...horrible. They made us do all sorts of training, alongside the humans. Pushups, sit-ups, and everything else. As if we were not in good enough shape. Any two humans, we could run into the ground. Granted, they had more physical strength than us on average. But still, an intelligent mind does not need brute force! So that is how it was, for six weeks. Physical training, day in and day out. By the end, we were both a great deal stronger than anyone in our tribe. Then, we were graduated. Both of us were assigned to the Golden Edge. So named because it is the most beautiful and most dangerous area around. Our first mission was to scout out a newly found cave entrance. It was about an eight-day ride from where we were. Our grouped got ready, and we went out. My friend and I were always on point. Made life better for us. Did not have to deal with the humans all that much, except to keep them going in the right direction. A good thing they had us, or they would have been lost in a few minutes. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. The days were long and boring. The most dangerous thing we saw was a rabbit. Of course, we alerted our leader to this, so that they might not be startled or get routed early on. This earned us both clean up duty that night. Such is life, when dealing with the Tsarven, no sense of humor. Finally, we arrived. The cave entrance was huge, tracks littered the ground. Goblins, ogres, and all sorts of footprints littered the ground. Even some that looked almost like elven feet. Of course, this could not be. We had no tribes anywhere close to this area. As it was getting dark, our leader had us make a camp off to the side of the cave, in some fairly decent cover. Of course, it is hard to hide 20+ warriors, but we did our best. That night, it started. Blood wrenching screams. Demonic cackling. It was enough to make any seasoned warrior turn pale with fear. Suddenly, a bright light poured out of the cave entrance. It lit up the whole forest around us, as though it was high noon. That is when they poured out. Demons, hell spawn and Drow. A great number of them. The demons sniffed the air and smelled our fear upon it. Then the attack came. The swarmed over us. My friend and I were engulfed in a wave of Drow. We did our best to fend them off. Parrying, fainting, going through the motions as we had been taught. The rest of the troop was busy holding off a small horde of demons Greatly outnumbered, and severely out maneuvered, our leader called for the retreat. My friend and I, both having been wounded severely, tried our best to run. It must have been by the grace of Tempus that we made it past the initial battle alive. No one else was so lucky. The main force of our group was quickly surrounded, and killed, just as the order was given. And so, we ran. Trying our best to stop the bleeding from our multiple wounds, and still be able to head in a direction that would take us away from that little place of hell. My friend fell first. He had taken a sword in his side. Perhaps not fatal, if tended to quickly. But when on the run, it was lethal. I heard him fall. And I spun to help him. Whatever I could do. That is when two drow leapt from the shadows, and pounced upon him. They tore him limb from limb. Ripped his throat out and began to feast upon his bowels. There was nothing I could do. I saw them, and I heard more coming. Perhaps, I thought to myself, if I run and live, I can avenge him. As I ran back, I cried, and I cursed the drow, every single living drow. They would all fall beneath my sword, no matter what the cost. When I returned to my tribe, I was ordered out again. This time, with a holy mission. It seems Evil has been overwhelming the lands to the west of us, and I must find out why, and put a stop to it. If not, our whole nation will fall. Other villages have been sending out people as well, as many as they can spare. My tribe could only spare me. So now I go. Tending my thoughts of revenge and hoping to save my nation. Perhaps then, my friend will be able to rest. CH.35 Drow Darkness ¡ª After heading to the library in shadow and having Isaiah research Goldeneyes, Isaiah¡¯s player pondered what he just read. He took his fingers off the keyboard and tilted his head a bit. From his background the elf¡¯s hatred of drow was quite apparent. Also, the fact that he followed Tempus the god of war would explain he was of the ¡®slay evil immediately¡¯ camp. Isaiah¡¯s player figured he might as well go farm some more deku drow and see if he could get some more spell scrolls from Jarrow. He left out the east gate and made his way to the shadow docks again to board the 5-gold ferry headed to the island of Deku. One of these days he¡¯d have to buy a boat so he could go on a nautical adventure but that was a problem for future Isaiah who hopefully wouldn¡¯t be so poor. After carefully defeating the old drow in his tower, Isaiah collected the loot. He got a scroll and a pile of coins. The level 5 spell might come in handy sometime. -Teleport- This spell lets one magically move to another room that they have remembered. A room can be added to the location of remembered places with the syntax One can teleport to a remembered location with the syntax The amount of locations that can be remembered is based on one¡¯s intelligence. If someone tried to remember a location above the max then a random location will be forgotten. Some rooms are teleport proof. Trying to teleport to or from these rooms will cause the spell to fail. Isaiah¡¯s spellbook contains these spells:
Armor conjuration level 1
Burning Hands alteration level 1
Chill Touch Necromancy level 1
Color Spray Illusion level 1
Detect Magic Divination level 1
Identify Divination level 1
Light Alteration level 1
Magic Missile Invocation level 1
Monster summoning i conjuration level 1
Sleep enchantment level 1
Acid arrow conjuration level 2
Darkness invocation level 2
Detect Invisibility divination level 2
Hideous laughter enchantment level 2
Invisibility illusion level 2
Monster summoning ii conjuration level 2
Ray of enfeeblement necromancy level 2
Rope Trick alteration level 2
Web conjuration level 2
Blink alteration level 3
Dispel Magic abjuration level 3
Fireball invocation level 3
Hold Person enchantment level 3
Lightning bolt invocation level 3
Monster summoning iii conjuration level 3
Vampiric touch necromancy level 3
Water Breathing alteration level 3
Ice storm invocation level 4
Stoneskin alteration level 4
Animate Dead necromancy level 5
Teleport alteration level 5
Power word Stun conjuration level 7
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. Isaiah¡¯s player sighed at the lack of divination spells. Maybe having Isaiah choose to be a diviner was a mistake. So far he hadn¡¯t seen a single divination spell over level two. Oh well, it was too late now to go back. Isaiah is going to have to own his status as caster who specializes in divination even if it is very not meta. If nothing else he could always roleplay being an elf with some kind of mystic sight or something. While Isaiah¡¯s player was busy being frustrated about how he couldn¡¯t cast level 7 spells and power word stun was just a line of text in his spellbook until he leveled up a nice notification popped across his screen. The grim reaper cackles as he gratefully accepts Lusell¡¯s Soul! How about that? Looks like Goldeneyes caught his Anti-Paladin. While Isaiah strived to be a peaceful elf, knowing a hateful villain was knocked down a peg filled him with pride for Goldeneyes. He wondered how Gabrielle would react to this. Lussel and Gabrielle both followed Loviatar, the goddess of pain. Would she try to avenge her knight? Isaiah pondered these things as he went off to farm some more drow. He spent quite a bit of time killing dark elves and slowly gaining experience points. After a couple of hours of this it started getting really boring. The M in MUD stands for multi-user. Playing a text based RPG single player was on par with zork. Zork was published in 1980. Apparently, Isaiah¡¯s player was bored enough to start musing about classic video games so he started making his way back to shadow hoping to find someone to have tea and chat with. Some time later, Isaiah peered up and down the west road of shadow city and saw and elf he¡¯d chatted with quite a bit. He made his way south to the room Kaarell was in. Kaarell starts casting a spell. A bolt of lightning shoots out of Kaarell¡¯s hand zapping into Kaarell! (Wait what? Kaarell is casting lightning bolts at himself?!) Isaiah speaks eloquently with elven poise: ¡°Kaarell?¡± Kaarell starts casting a spell. A bolt of lightning shoots out of Kaarell¡¯s hand zapping into Kaarell! Isaiah speaks eloquently with elven poise: ¡°Kaarell please stop hurting yourself.¡± Isaiah looks concerned. Kaarell says: ¡°They took her.¡± Isaiah speaks eloquently with elven poise: ¡°Who are they? Who is she? I don¡¯t understand.¡± Kaarell says: ¡°That drow¡­ he captured Schatten and said if I don¡¯t kill myself she¡¯ll be having his half-drow children.¡± Isaiah frowns. (Okay, what the hell? This is supposed to be a roleplaying game not rape simulator) Kaarell starts casting a spell. A bolt of lightning shoots out of Kaarell¡¯s hand zapping into Kaarell! Kaarell falls unconscious from his grievous wounds. (Okay, Isaiah is way out of his league here; he had no idea what to do to calm Kaarell down.) Isaiah begins tending to Kaarell¡¯s wounds. Kaarell¡¯s wounds seem to heal. Isaiah begins tending to Kaarell¡¯s wounds. Your attempt begins to falter. This continued for a couple minutes until Kaarell regained consciousness. Isaiah speaks eloquently with elven poise: ¡°Kaarell. . .¡± Kaarell says: ¡°Zilath took her he said to suicide or else . . .¡± (Isaiah¡¯s player wondered if he meant suicide as in the command to delete your character or suicide as in an in character death) Kaarell starts casting a spell. A bolt of lightning shoots out of Kaarell¡¯s hand zapping into Kaarell! Kaarell falls unconscious from his grievous wounds. Again, it took a few attempts of healing to get Kaarell back up. Kaarell says: ¡°That Lathander forsaken drow. He is a monster.¡± Kaarell leaves north. Isaiah speaks eloquently with elven poise: ¡°Kaarell wait¡­ what should I do?¡± Isaiah sighs. Isaiah logged out shortly after this. The whole capture and torture or rape possibility hit his player hard. It made him feel sick. He could imagine if Schatten and Isaiah had ended up a couple he would be the one casting lightning bolts on Isaiah in desperation. Isaiah¡¯s player went about the rest of his day feeling haunted by these events. What kind of jerks would see the new system the game had and the first thing they went to was sexual assault? Whoever was playing this Zilath drow was messed up. . .seriously messed up. What in the world could have happened? Isaiah¡¯s player imagined his not so great encounter with Nightfall. That evil half-elf just appeared out of nowhere and stabbed him down. After that he just died. Now, with the new PK update maybe that wouldn¡¯t be what happened. Instead of dying immediately the victim would just sit unconscious and do whatever they wanted to the person laying there defenseless. Kaarell didn¡¯t seem to be able to find Schatten. She was probably taken somewhere else that he couldn¡¯t get her back from. Kaarell loved Schatten. He would fight to get her back if he could. There must have been a number of steps involved for Zilath to pull off his evil plan. Was Isaiah even up to the task of trying to fight someone like Zilath the drow? Perhaps the character he had envisioned Isaiah to be would fight tooth and nail for elven kind but Isaiah¡¯s player. Isaiah¡¯s player was scared. Above anything else Isaiah¡¯s player liked the idea of Light¡¯s ideal for peace among the races. How does one strike peace talks with dark elves who would take everything and smile while they did it. Could he handle being captured. Isaiah was not a very min/maxed character. If he really wanted to be a player killer then he should have followed the advice of that angry person who posted the review that said to make a fighter/thief/mage and just stab everyone down like Nightfall and who knows how many others of that same class were out there. If Isaiah was going to make his stand and fight back it would likely end up with lots of deaths or something worse. CH.36 Back after a short break. It seemed like a bunch of player characters were in a rush to get to high level. It is understandable. There is excitement in leveling up and getting stronger. The process to achieve that was the problem. Given the choice, Isaiah would be happier just spending time with Light and friends over a warm cup of tea. Being able to take on anyone on the mud seemed like a good goal but at the same time it didn¡¯t seem worth the effort. There also was the old proverb that those who live by the sword will die by the sword. Openly denouncing and provoking the evil players will likely only lead to more player killing. What Goldeneyes was doing calling out Lusell would be a good example. Calling out that evil knight smearing her ¡®good name¡¯ and killing her could lead to some big reprisals from team evil. At least he imagined that is how escalation worked. The obvious solution was just to not ever log back in. The news of what happened to Schatten and seeing Kaarell attempting to kill himself to protect her . . . it shook him in ways he couldn¡¯t imagine. In real life Isaiah¡¯s stomach filled with nausea for the rest of the day after the last gaming session. Mulling over the thought of quitting for good a couple days led to conflicting emotions. Avoiding the bad had merit, but unlike the previous MUDs he played before he felt like he actually made a connection with people here. The non-rp MUDs he had started with didn¡¯t leave any impression for the player characters. They were not trying to establish a persona with their characters. Because of this, he couldn¡¯t even remember the names of those that he interacted with. On the other hand, the thought of not ever seeing Light, Kaarell, and Schatten again saddened him. They were not real friends but his little elf Isaiah might be in character friends with them. It was a couple days before Isaiah logged back in. The knee-jerk reaction was to just leave and not come back but after pondering it a bit even if the fun he was expecting to have wasn¡¯t there he couldn¡¯t just leave, not say goodbye and vanish forever. After casting an invisibility on himself, Isaiah went to check the adventurers'' board in shadow. There were a couple more posts from the back and forth Goldeneyes had with Lussell. Lussell ignores challengers. On this day the evil life of the antipaladin Lussell has come to an end. Loviatar¡¯s knight has been brought low by the power of Tempus. Her head is mounted on a pike by the north¡¯s gates of shadow as a reminder of what happens to villains. -Goldeneyes. (Goldeneyes¡­ that elf is brutal he kills her and makes a big deal that will no doubt provoke all the other evils. Good on him for bringing that human to death though. She surely was up to no good. What kind of antipaladin wouldn¡¯t be up to no good?) The next few posts were from people who he didn¡¯t know so he just skimmed over them until he saw one that was dated a couple days later. Goldeneye The terrorist elf now known as goldeneye suffered Loviatar¡¯s judgement. He was captured by Knight Lusell¡¯s noble band and brought to Lovitar¡¯s temple where he faced the judgement of torture and removal of his right eye. The citizen¡¯s of shadow sleep safe knowing that such a savage beast has suffered lawful judgment. Lusell is a coward Lusell should step off her high horse and stop writing. She dared to show her face before me again and when I attacked her she turned tail and ran away. She consorts with drow and what she doesn¡¯t tell you is that their dark magic won her battle for her. She could never take me alone. Is there some kind of knightly guild to report her to so we can have her stripped of her knighthood due to lack of honor? -Goldeneyes Isaiah headed to the gate to check out if there actually was a mounted head on a pike there. Sure enough the description of the room had an extra line that said ¡®A pike is sticking out of the ground with a helmeted female human head stuck to the blade¡¯. Isaiah stook around for a while admiring the view when a familiar elf passed through. Goldeneyes enters. You poke Goldeneyes. Goldeneyes raises an eyebrow Goldeneyes begins casting a spell. The air seems to shimmer. Your invisibility is dispelled. There is a blue mist as you appear into view. Isaiah pouts. Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Did you have to dispel my invisibility.¡± Goldeneyes speaks with a low voice: ¡°You could have been a drow looking to stab me.¡± Isaiah sighs. Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Fair enough but you know those components cost gold.¡± Goldeneyes gives you 1000 gold. Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°You didn¡¯t have to do that.¡± Goldeneyes speaks with a low voice: ¡°You just complained about components costs.¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Fine.¡± Goldeneyes speaks with a low voice: ¡°I haven¡¯t seen you in a while.¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°I needed some time to collect myself. After seeing Kaarell trying to kill himself because Zilath captured Scatten I wasn¡¯t sure I wanted to come back to these lands.¡± Goldeneyes nods. Goldeneyes speaks with a low voice: ¡°Yes, I¡¯ve heard the drow are on the move. They¡¯ve even formed their own guild. It is called the Raiders of Night¡¯s Croak or something like that.¡± Goldeneyes spits and growls. Schatten enters. Isaiah waves to Schatten. Goldeneyes nods. Schatten says with a lilting voice: ¡°Hello cousins.¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Schatten, thank Lathander you are okay. What happened with you and Zilath?¡± Schatten frowns. Schatten says with a lilting voice: ¡°I¡¯d rather not talk about it. . .¡± Goldeneyes glares at you. Goldeneyes speaks with a low voice: ¡°And people tell me I¡¯m insensitive.¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Sorry.¡± This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Schatten says with a lilting voice: ¡°I forgive you Isaiah it is just something Kaarell and I want to put behind us. The important thing is that we are still together and some sick drow can¡¯t separate us.¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Anyway, congrats on getting Lusell Goldeneyes.¡± Goldeneyes grunts. Goldeneyes speaks with a low voice: ¡°Yes, I even tamed her war horse once. She and the horse she came in on turned tail and ran. The horse hit a trip wire and fell down. Lusell bravely ran away leaving the horse behind. I set him free in the wilds. Her horse seems happier not having such a harsh taskmaster kicking her in the ribs with metal boots.¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°It is a pity things didn¡¯t end there. How is your eye?¡± Goldeneyes snorts. Goldeneyes speak with a low voice: ¡°She did the typical song and dance for villains of her kind. Her drow bound me up after stabbing me down. She said she¡¯d keep it as a badge of honor to Loviatar for her victory. I¡¯ll get my eye back though. We both know that she can¡¯t take me alone. That tin can is a coward.¡± Given that both Goldeneyes and Schatten had been captured by the forces of evil and been tortured Isaiah worried for his future self that might have a similar problem. Also, given that Schatten didn¡¯t want to talk about what happened when she was captured he didn¡¯t want to press for details. Who would want to recount the events of being tortured? Isaiah¡¯s player wanted to know, but at the same time he didn¡¯t want to know because he would be kidding himself if he thought knowing such things wouldn¡¯t disturb him. Time to change the subject. Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡±So what have you been up to other than hunting evil knights?¡± Goldeneyes speaks with a low voice: ¡±Mostly hunting monsters on Laerad.¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Laerad?¡± Schatten says with a lilting voice: ¡°It is an Island, a bit more difficult than Deku.¡± Goldeneyes nods. Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Oh, I¡¯ve been hunting on deku. I¡¯ve killed a lot of drow there.¡± Goldeneyes speaks with a low voice:¡±Great, the only good drow is a dead one.¡± Schatten agrees with Goldeneyes. Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise:¡±We should go together sometime, have you been there yet, Schatten?¡± Schatten nods. Schaten says with a lilting voice:¡±Yes, Kaarell and I go hunting there often. You just got to be careful around the docks.¡± Goldeneyes agrees. Goldeneyes speaks with a low voice: ¡°The docks are dangerous, I ran into Whisper there the other day. He set up caltrops to catch people getting off their boat.¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise:¡±Whisper?¡± Goldeneyes speaks with a low voice:¡±Nasty drow, he likes to brand people and say they are his property.¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise:¡±That sounds terrible.¡± Goldeneyes speaks with a low voice:¡±All Drow are terrible.¡± Schatten says with a lilting voice:¡±Can you teleport Isaiah?¡± Isaiah shakes his head in disagreement.. Schatten says with a lilting voice:¡±Well, if you can find or buy the scroll you can set a teleport spot away from the docks. That would be the safest. Kaarell and I normally just use Word of Power to go to Asgard and set out from there.¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise:¡±Asgard?¡± Schatten says with a lilting voice:¡±It is the town on Laerad. The layout is the dock on the west end, then east of that the wastelands, east of that the god plains, east of that is parnelli forest. Asgard is in the forest.¡± Isaiah nods. Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise:¡±It doesn¡¯t sound too complicated.¡± Goldeneyes speaks with a low voice:¡±Take it slow, the monsters there are a lot more dangerous than the ones you¡¯ve gotten used to on Deku.¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise:¡±Is there anywhere else I should consider checking out?¡± Goldeneyes thinks carefully. Goldeneyes speaks with a low voice:¡±The cave in the southeast corner of Shadow Desert might be a good place for you to adventure too though some of the monsters in that place are a bit strong. It leads to a pirate cove too. If you own a boat then going straight south of Shadow dock leads to the cove as well.¡± Isaiah sighs deeply. Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise:¡±I don¡¯t own a boat. They are so expensive and I tend to spend all my money on spell components. Maybe one day I¡¯ll have enough spell components saved up in my cubby at the mage¡¯s tower to focus more on wealth accumulation.¡± Schatten says with a lilting voice: ¡°Would you two like some tea? Perhaps we can go somewhere other than the side of the road where the dead gaze of an evil woman glares at us from beyond the grave.¡± Goldeneyes chuckles. Goldeneyes speaks with a low voice: ¡°Sure why not.¡± Schatten invites you to follow her. You are now following Schatten. Schatten leaves south. And so, Schatten led the two elves to the three coins in shadow. She bought three cups of tea from the waitress and handed them to Goldeneyes and Isaiah. Schatten gives you tea. Schatten gives Goldeneyes tea. Schatten sips her tea. Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°So Schatten any news about your wedding? Have you decided on a date yet?¡± Schatten says with a lilting voice: ¡°Not yet, Kaarell and I have commissioned wedding clothes from a tailor after we have those." Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°I haven¡¯t seen any weddings in these lands. I wonder what it is like.¡± Schatten say with a lilting voice:¡±Designa and Lydia are married. Tannis and Joy are to be married as well.¡± Goldeneyes snorts. Goldeneyes speaks with a low voice:¡±Another one of those rangers who just sits around in the Rhapsody Inn drinking instead of protecting the wilds.¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Who?¡± Goldeneyes speaks with a low voice: ¡°Tannis. He is plenty strong but not a good example of what a ranger should be.¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Why is Tannis a bad ranger?¡± Goldeneyes speaks with a low voice: ¡°Rangers belong in the wild. If that half-elf wants to spend all his time singing and drinking, wouldn''t he make a better bard?¡± Schatten says with a lilting voice: ¡°Tannis is nice, and his fiance Joy like her name says is a pleasure to be around. She is playful and cheerful. She¡¯s the half-elven bard that you can¡¯t help but feel happy to be around.¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise:¡±Ah, so they are both half-elves?¡± Schatten nods. Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise:¡± What of Lydia and Designa?¡± Schatten says with a lilting voice: ¡°Kaarell and I have had tea with them quite a bit though mostly in Mielikki¡¯s grove. Lydia is a human priestess of Mielikki and they have a lovely temple that is more like a glade in the woods than a church. Designa is a priest of Selune. He is a half-elf as well with a bit of a tragic upbringing. Most of the Selune followers consider him the high priest. Though like Light he doesn¡¯t consider himself worthy of such a title.¡± Isaiah nods. Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise:¡±I don¡¯t know if I have met with any of them except in passing. Selune is an ally to Lathander though this I know. The lights of the sun and moon both bring comfort to the land.¡± Goldeneyes speaks with a low voice:¡±Yes, the cults of both Mask and Shar hate Selune¡¯s followers. The Drow thrive in shadow and darkness. They attack those of opposed faiths without mercy.¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Where are the temples of Selune and Mielikki?¡± Schatten says with a lilting voice: ¡°The temple of the moon goddess is on the dagger road. It is not far from Daggerdale and Tonovi. The forest goddess¡¯s temple is east of Tharis, near the world tree.¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°I¡¯ve not spent much time in Tharis. I had a bad experience there in the past.¡± Schatten says with a lilting voice:¡±You can just go around the outside of the walls to the east then south and bypass Tharis proper no need to go to the elven quarter and be attacked by state sponsored thugs.¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°So this world tree is part of Mielikki¡¯s temple?¡± Goldeneyes shakes his head in disagreement. Goldeneyes speaks in a low voice: ¡°The world tree is the heart of all forests. They are connected together there. Only rangers can enter. It functions as their guild. Also, it is a safe place from Drow because rangers cannot be evil.¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise:¡±Is it the same with all the guilds?¡± Goldeneyes speaks with a low voice: ¡°I¡¯m not sure about all of them. But generally only people of the correct class can enter. There are good and evil magi and the same with priests. This is not the same with rangers and paladins.¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Thanks Goldeneyes. I guess hiding in the mage¡¯s tower is not a good idea if a drow is after me.¡± Goldeneyes agrees. Goldeneyes speaks with a low voice: ¡°Most of the male drow around are magi. Only female drow can be priests. Without magic they are blinded by the light of the sun.¡± Isaiah nods. Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°That is good to know. How do you fight them?¡± Goldeneyes shows you an ornate longsword: This sword is crafted from pure mithril. It is etched with ornate markings along the blade. The hilt of the blade is made from a dark wood with a pommel that has a large emerald at the end of it. Goldeneyes speaks in a low voice: ¡°I wield a pair of these blades of elven make.¡± Schatten raises an eyebrow. Schatten says with a lilting voice: ¡°How did you get those?¡± Goldeneyes looks serious. Goldeneyes speaks with a low voice: ¡°I know what you are thinking. And no, I did not kill the elven rangers. I came across the corpses of my cousins after they had lost a battle fighting the Tonovi soldiers on dagger road.¡± Schatten nods seriously. Schatten says with a lilting voice: ¡°Good, I¡¯ve seen people kill the Voadkyn rangers for their gear and also the elven rangers for their gear. It is evil to murder the protectors of the forest.¡± Designas Background (written by his player, edited by me) Where shall I start? My birth seems a logical place. I was the son of an elvish woman. A father? He was a human, a soldier of Tharis. I never knew him, because he raped my mother. It seems rather odd talking about it this way, but I suppose telling people about things that hurt help the pain heal. Anyway, her village in the forests around Tharis was raided, the cityfolk hearing a rumor that the Elves were building a resistance there, in my mother''s village. Well, they were. My mother was an errand-runner, a young, seemingly demure and quiet Elfmaiden, or to one of the Tharisian scum, an easy target. The raiding party caught her as she was carrying a message of that party''s very arrival to the Elves. The easy target killed 3 of them, her short knife sticking in the last so that it would not come free. The rest grabbed her, pinning her to the ground... the rest I''d rather not imagine. Afterwards, they beat her senseless and dumped her in a nearby river. The villagers, suspicious as always, had alternate spy routes, so the raiders found the homes empty of people or booty. They burnt the village to the ground, camping in the ashes for a week in the hope the previous occupants would show themselves. My mother was dragged from the river after being sighted by the fleeing resistance Elves. They nursed her back to health, but she soon after discovered she was with child. One of the rarest couplings, an Elf and a Human, successfully conceiving, had occurred under the worst of circumstances. For a while, she was suicidal, but her friends helped her through it. Eventually she gave birth to a baby boy, an anomalous halfblood, joining human and elf as they never were meant to be - Designa, me. The villagers were careful not to make me feel different from the other elves, so careful I noticed almost as soon as I could reason such things. My looks were almost totally elven, except for my jet-black hair, and the fact I had to shave often after coming of age. Carefully, I isolated myself from all human feelings and thoughts, in an effort to be just another Elf. My mother raised me as an elf. Everything I knew was elvish, she also, was careful to ensure I did not slip towards the curses of Man. Like my mother, and many of the elves in the now-hidden village, I was a kindly, gentle person, with an inner core of fighting strength which kept us going - the Elves under persecution from humans, and me from the imagined and actual disdain for my halfblood status. When I was old enough, an elderly elf who knew how to read and write, even speak the human''s Common tongue, saw the curiosity in my eyes, with which I regarded everything I saw - storing knowledge away, learning about the most obscure things. At least obscure for my elven peers, who did not care for some of my inquiries. But the old man took me in, teaching me my letters, even (in secret from my mother) his knowledge of Common. With the new skill of reading, many things I had wondered about were found in the old man''s books. The villagers cared only for surviving - finding food, hiding from Tharisian raids, stealth and speed. I had talent in healing, an old Elvish skill yes, but which none other in the village had the chance to develop. When I reached manhood, in human terms, as my aging was that of the race of Man, not the slow crawl of my peers, I became the village healer, and with my letter-skills, scribe. The calm dullness of my life ended with a Tharisian surprise attack. I fled, dragging my arrow-pierced mother until she broke free and told me to run. I saw her, crouching, face towards the advancing soldiers and a long metal arrow-head she had pulled from her own flesh wielded in her hand. I ran through the forest, until I fainted from exhaustion. Waking in the deep night, I crawled towards a glimpse of light I could see. Reaching it, there I found my old teacher, curled into a fetal ball, blade-wounds staining his clothes and the ground around him. I thought he was dead, until his eyes opened and he spoke. "Look up, Designa. What do you see?" Looking up in puzzlement, I regarded the forest canopy. "The leaves of trees?" Chuckling painfully, he spoke again. "Higher, in the sky" I looked up, into a deep black sky, filled with twinkling stars and the moon''s round, white face. "Stars and a full Moon" He sighed, and said, "Yes, the moon". The light I had seen was coming from a glowing object clasped in his hand, which he now opened, showing a brilliantly glowing brooch. "Before I settled down in my old home, the village of my birth, now long destroyed, I was a Ranger of Selune, the Moonmaiden." Blinking, I said, "Yes, I read of her in your books. You had a lot of them about clerical lore" He smiled and clasped my hand. "And this brooch is a symbol of worship of Her. I want you to have it, I see the Selunic qualities in you. Find her temple, enter into Her service. You would make a fine Seeker." "But I cannot take your symbol! You need that yourself!", I said in disbelief. "I am dying, not even clerical powers can save me. Not that I have them, Selune abandoned me after I tortured a thief with Her spells, for stealing from me. She does not tolerate cruelty, especially by use of Her own strength." "Is that why you came home", I asked softly, to which he nodded. His other hand pressed the brooch into my palm. "Take it! You will need it in the times ahead. See how it glows? Only when in the presence of a true cleric should it do that, and I am not such." A vague pain in my hand made me snatch it away, the symbol dropping to the ground. Where his fingers had touched me, in a clasp, the skin was red like it had been badly burned. "It burned me!", I exclaimed. He painfully shook his head. "I burned you. The symbol rejects me, the heat of holding it is what keeps me alive and awake. Take it, it is yours." I took the brooch, and the cool glow seemed to soothe the sting of the burns. Before my eyes, they healed, leaving faint brown scars showing where his fingers had clasped. He smiled. "She accepts you. Goodbye, my student and young friend." His head sank to the ground, and his breathing stopped. What I hadn''t noticed before, the raw red burns, matching those I had seen heal on myself, covered his palms and chest where the symbol had been held to. The symbol flashed, and a soft white glow moved slowly up his body, healing all his wounds, and smoothing away the pain in his face. The glow brightened, and he disappeared. I camped on the spot for several days, regaining my strength. Taking the brooch, attached to my frayed tunic, I traveled north. I had heard of the city of Shadow, but I did not know where it was, except to the north of Tharis, which I could often hear, sometimes see (and always smell) to the west. I reached the Rhapsody Inn a week after setting out on my journey. A frightened, timid half-elf wandering in the doors, clad in rags, must have been quite a sight. Humans were there, and I shied from their faces. I forced myself to talk with the barkeep, and food and drink like I had not had in weeks were mine. I could not pay for the meal. No one in my village had ever used or mentioned money, seemingly a thing of Man to be despised with the rest. Dionysus began to go red in the face as I told him I didn''t know how to pay for what I had already eaten and drank - when a clanking metal-clad man stepped up and dumped some money in Dionysus''s hand. After the bartender left, the man turned to me and smiled, sticking out his hand. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. "I am Aenarion, Paladin of Torm." Carefully, I took his hand and shook it. "I am .. am Designa, I escaped from a Tharisian raid." Frowning, he nodded. "I do what I can to fight the fools in Tharis." Taking a careful look at me, he added. "I think you should get cleaned up." Leaving the inn, he mounted his horse and I walked beside him, not trusting the powerful animal. Up through Shadow he took me, showing me where everything was, and buying me some basic supplies - clothes, sacks, and some tools. I asked him where the Selunic Temple was. He explained it was off north, past a toll-gate, in Daggerdale, a dangerous place. This time on horseback we both rode north, past the gate, through the town of Dagger, to the Temple. I gave him back his horse and thanked him for his trouble. He smiled and waved, and was gone. The clerics of the Temple welcomed me, allowed me to keep the old man''s symbol. For nearly 2 years I remained at the temple, studying the clerical arts, adding to my already quite large (surprising my teachers) book knowledge of the matters. So my gaining of a full Cleric position was accelerated. I left the Temple to start the traveling life of Selunites. Every once in a while I would return, once staying long enough to help a Ranger, Cinque, enter into my Goddesses'' worship. Across the Great Continent I traveled, offering healing, food and drink from my Goddesses'' power to many. Even to Tharis I went, seeing the degradation of elf and Man alike, elves trodden on by Man, man living in the pit of his own filth. The caution and watchfulness taught by my younger days warred with curiosity and loneliness. More confident, I began to talk with people instead of keeping to myself. I found Aenarion again, the tall, powerful warrior helping me obtain things I needed desperately. In return, I healed him and his horse and sometimes kept company with him on journeys. Not exactly a fair trade; but he seemed satisfied with it, and I enjoyed the way things were going. Others I also met briefly; Valadan the fighter, Gadalin cleric of Torm, Mahray follower of Istishia, Niveaus the Bard, others I forget to name. Some of those who are famous in the realm of ShadowGate I met, too numerous to remember for the purposes of Armise''s filing. After I had everything I thought I needed, armor, weapons, equipment, and money; I became a little cocky. I also turned to drink. Almost permanently drunk I haunted the Inns of Deku and around Shadow, especially the Rhapsody, trying to forget my childhood and stem the boredom settling over me. Even Aenarion''s urging could not shift me, I had suffered too much fighting in the Realm, I decided. Time to rest and forget. My symbol hung unused, a tarnish beginning on its silver surface, from lack of care and spilt beverages. A sudden wake up call came when I was attacked in Shadow''s general store. I dragged my abused self in there, just as I was about to make a purchase, a thief jumped out and landed a knife in my back. After my revival by the Gods, I returned to find much of my equipment gone. In almost no time, I cleaned up and went running after Aenarion again for help. Patient with me as always, he agreed to help get replacements. I began to journey again, to Deku and beyond Dagger mainly, even once to Laerad. Laerad I never want to return too. Horrible place. Graez I avoided; I didn''t feel up to fighting such evil. My symbol''s surface glowed again, and I wielded the power of my Goddess in her service. It was good to travel again. And with most stories, this one continues on. Sitting around, having nothing to do, I wandered down to Shadow and began to scribble on another scroll. Events I have to write about, and those which I just want to, take form in my mind and on paper, as my pen moves across the page. Well, most of my friends have heard the news. Designa, that little cleric of Selune who used to keep to himself so much, never really talking to people, is engaged. Quite a bit after where I left off above, I stopped my adventuring again, in preference to just sitting in Shadow''s main hall, talking to people. There I met Lydia, a cleric of Mielikki. My usual wariness of humans in general was shrouded in a light alcoholic haze; and I had also been getting used to being in their company. We spoke for a while, I offered to help her get some things she needed. Well, she had to return to her temple to rest very soon, so we partied to Deku for a short while, clearing the graveyard nearby before she retired. We saw each other on occasion, around Shadow and Deku. A little while passed in which I didn''t see her at all. Then I did, she was at her temple, and wouldn''t leave. Something had happened, which I will not repeat, since I would not be able to tell the full tale. I have heard only a small part of it, and I did not wish to ask her to recount the rest. Other Mielikkites, when visiting their temple, tried to comfort her. Dolza was there the first time I met her there, although on later visits we were alone. I comforted her as best I could; urging her to leave and adventure around. Second visit, she did. My time adventuring on ShadowGate was limited severely during this period, but most of the time I could I spent partying with her, in widening areas. The Verre Bar she and I visited often, and we spoke of happenings around the lands. An incident, after a party with her and someone I had never met before, Girruuth, caused a sudden change in my thinking. I had become rather protective of her, and my little chat with him hurried my feelings on further. Although Girruuth promised not to interfere with Lydia and I after hearing what I had to say, I was a bit scared, and I admit, a little jealous, even a bit angry with Girruuth, which is almost totally against my nature. Soon after I gained my low cleric rank at last, matching Lydia''s own rank for the first time ever, and I asked Lydia to marry me. Well, she said yes, but you may have guessed that bit. Looking back on it, my style of writing makes it seem rather boring. If you have fallen asleep, wake up, I''m finished that part. Not much of interest transpired between then and the next part of my story, apart from a little adventuring on Laerad with Daaku, Arian and my fianc, adventuring a lot of places with just Lydia and a bit of wandering by myself. Recently, at least as of when I write this story, I was killed. The Creators of the ShadowGate realm made death small in consequence, although often people loose ranks within their professions due to the effects, however minor. I was able to regain corporeal status in time to retrieve most of my belongings from my killer; maybe even killers. I confronted Girruuth in the Rhapsody with some disturbing things I had learnt about him, although I was a bit tipsy at the time, and had (unknowingly) alerted a Sharran, who was haunting the Inn, to my choice of faith. He left, leading me, going back to shadow so that we could talk about his choice of deity out of range of whoever was grumping around invisible at the Rhapsody. In the middle of the conversation, the invisible Sharran stabbed me in the back, and nearly killed me in that single hit. I don''t know how he found us, but he threatened Girruuth, and told him to leave. I lay on the ground unconscious for what seemed an age. I was nearing consciousness, when someone hit me again. My mind perceived the invisible attacker talking to another invisible person, who tried some spells, eventually a cone of cold, which killed me. I was furious with Girruuth for a while, thinking he had led the Sharran there, but he seemed sincere in saying he had not, so I accepted he had had nothing to do with it. Wearily I returned to my temple to rest. And my encounter with the forces of evil was not alone - indeed, many of my friends have tales like mine. I saw my good friend Aenarion recently - he was barely recognisable. No longer did he wear his accustomed plate, riding his horse with a great pennant-bound Lightning Lance; clad in mere chainmail, wielding a sword, his horse nowhere in sight. His tale of woe is not for me to recall - suffice it to say he was taken, and tortured. Luckily, even though I was too late to help him, others had... bringing him out of his drunken stupor, raving around the city of Shadow; Nivaeus and Chimera had found him a little while back. Lydia, my beloved, was attacked in Shadow for no reason by Gabrielle.. the cleric of Loviatar who had supervised the beating of Zorena. If not for quick thinking and a spell in the right place, I don''t know what would have happened to her. Gabrielle tried to disable Lydia with powder, but she managed to get in a quick word of power... I am pondering what I should do, to run as I have for so long, or stand, fight and die, as surely will happen to me. Running will only prolong what is inevitable, or what seems to be so at this time... Continuing... We are hunted for no reason other than that we try to help. We restore order, heal people, bring hope, while that which hunts us tries to bring chaos, hurt, even kill, and spread dispair. The Raiders are part. The churches which oppose my faith and that of my friends, the dark churches, are most of it. Death rides on the wind, and it comes for us. I have never killed apart from in self-defense, or in the defense of those I care for. I have never knowingly caused a death, I have never sought revenge. That which hunts does all these things, its agents are many, too many. No longer can I run, or hide behind my happy face and kindness. Long have my many friends defended and protected me, since I am nearly helpless without them. I was caught without them by one who should have been insignificant, and eventually killed. They threatened my wife, with torture and death. My friends all, one by one, until I accepted their terms. For a while I was angry, and not kind, and drove away friends and possibly potential friends. But as always, seeing my wife (yes, I finally married Lydia, though I will not write of that yet) calmed me down almost straight away. For the brief while we spoke, I thought many things, and afterwards, many more. Quicker than ever I was re-equipped and ready for combat, and began to work on replenishing my hoarded sacks of odds and ends, and my supply of money. Soon tired of this, I carefully regained contact with my friends, most of whom hadn''t even seen me while I was throwing my little tantrum. But I had realized several things while I had been thinking, the primary one was that without them, I was nothing. People had begun to call me high priest, a position I never earned in my mind. I gave whatever informal authority I had had to Tarot, a respected member of our Church, and all my support behind her. Many things had happened while I was out of circulation, and also after I had calmed down. One of my best friends, and my favourite ranger of Selune, Vivian, had been threatened, then tortured, and threatened again, the last threat I think worse than the torture she suffered at the hands of Daelmas and Zilath. They are part of that which hunts us. I have hid, I have run, I have cowered before it, I have tried to ignore it, I have tried to talk to it, nothing works. It hunts us: my friends, those who I love, the woman I love more than anything in the world, and lastly, myself. I will meet it head-on at last, I will die many times, but I will leave my insignificant mark on its face, that it won''t forget me, and I will have done something against it at last. My hand is scarred with new, imperfectly healed burns, I hide it behind my glove, struck by lightning and scorched with magic so malevolent that even my Goddess could not heal it. If I succeed with everything I wish, no longer will it hunt us, it will flee. But, that shall be hard, and I doubt I have the strength. At least it should be stopped, for a while, so that others may live in peace, though we must be on guard constantly against it. My friends, take hope. My enemies, prepare yourselves. I do not attack without warning like yourselves, though I shall still stab from the dark, when you least expect it. ...What do I seek? Peace at last, for all, a world healed from its hurts... Somewhere I can stay with the woman I love, and explore with her There is so much to know, but no time to learn... DeSigna, Touched Stargazer, ever faithful of cleric of Selune CH.37 Night falls again. Someone says with a chilling smile: ¡°Yes, killing the forest¡¯s protectors is indeed evil.¡± Someone stabs Goldeneyes in the back. Someone flicks his wrist and grabs another dagger from the sheath. A dark mist fall off an invisible figure revealing a half-elf with blood-red hair. A half-elf with blood-red hair wields screamer. The dagger begins screaming horribly. The dagger in a half-elf with blood-red hair stabs Goldeneyes in the back. Goldeneyes falls unconscious from grievous wounds. Schatten says with a lilting voice: ¡°Nightfall¡­¡± (Isaiah took this moment to recognize the half-elf as Nightfall) Nightfall grins evilly. Nightfall stabs Schatten in the back. Nightfall flicks his wrist and grabs another dagger from the sheath. Nightfall wields screamer. The dagger begins screaming horribly. Nightfall stabs Schatten in the back. Schatten falls unconscious from grievous wounds. (Recognizing Nightfall was all Isaiah had a chance to do before the evil half-elf¡¯s blade came for him next) Nightfall stabs you in the back! HP:-21/70 You are at death¡¯s door, your body is slipping from you. Trying to type to run away yielded the same result. You are at death¡¯s door, your body is slipping from you. Typing in a futile attempt to heal also gave back the same line of text. You are at death¡¯s door, your body is slipping from you. His hit points gradually ticked back up while they were in the negative through. Maybe in a few minutes he could wake up and try to salvage this horrible situation. HP:-20/70 Your world spins and you find yourself standing on an outcropping in a barren hellscape. In the distance there is a red and black wall with many faces on it wailing in pain. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. A black male figure appears from nowhere. Bane says: ¡°Ah another soul for the wall.¡± The death sequence continued to scroll down the terminal screen. When it was over Isaiah joined a pair of naked elves in the church at shadow city for their respawn. Isaiah says elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Well that sucked. It is frustrating that Nightfall can just show up and kill us all.¡± Goldeneyes says in a low voice: ¡°It could have been worse. At least Nightfall only just kills people and nothing else.¡± Schatten shudders. Schatten says with a lilting voice: ¡°. . .yes.¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°I am frustrated. I wish I could fight back. We didn''t even get a single hit on him; he just instantly kills us all with stabs.¡± Goldeneyes says with a low voice: ¡°Nightfall is too strong for us now. Unless we can catch him off guard there isn¡¯t much of a chance.¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Maybe if we just kept stoneskin up it would protect us.¡± Goldeneyes say with a low voice: ¡°That wouldn¡¯t work either. Those screamers he wields hit through stoneskin.¡± Isaiah frowns. Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°That is so unfair.¡± Goldeneyes says with a low voice: ¡°Why do you think every thief who can get screamers is wielding them?¡± Schatten speaks with a lilting voice: ¡°Yes, the villains really like those daggers with tortured souls trapped in them.¡± Goldeneyes speaks with a low voice: ¡°Let''s go see what¡¯s left on our bodies.¡± Goldeneyes invites you to follow him. Following Goldeneyes the three elves went back to the spot just one room from the shadow gates where there was a large pile of gear. Nightfall had taken all their money and Isaiah¡¯s components bag. Apparently most of what they owned was worthless to that evil half-elf so he just left it behind. Getting picked on like this by high level characters for what seemed like no reason really bothered him. He thought of the rid board and hoped that Nightfall would get added to to already growing list of people rid for psycho killing. Goldeneyes wields elven longsword. Goldeneyes says with a low voice: ¡°At least I didn¡¯t lose my blades.¡± Schatten speaks with a lilting voice: ¡°He just took my gold. We should find a safer place to get tea from.¡± Isaiah agrees. Goldeneyes hmms. Goldeneyes says with a low voice: ¡°The Rhapsody is out. We are more likely to run into elf-killers there. Tonovi has elven slavery legalizes so that is out. Tharis is run by the temple of mask so that is out. Mullean is haunted so that is out. The little town in Deku is a favorite hunting ground for drow. Kinaro is full of dwarves. The only real elven settlement is the east district of Tharis but ruffians walk the streets. And I think we are not strong enough to brave the Attaya jungles to get to Seneca. I would invite you all to the world tree but we are not all rangers.¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°I just want some place where elves could gather and enjoy tea together as kin.¡± Schatten speaks with a lilting voice: ¡°Why not make the place yourself?¡± Isaiah blinks in disbelief. Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Is that even possible?¡± Goldeneyes nods. Goldeneyes says with a low voice: ¡°How do you think the guilds came to be? Or some of the houses people have in the realms?¡± Schatten speaks with a lilting voice: ¡°There are a few around. Rufus has a house near echo mountains. Lahanna has one off of dagger road. Melic has his own castle on the road to Kinaro.¡± Goldeneyes says with a low voice: ¡°The guilds were the same way. People came together and pooled enough money to build it and wrote plans.¡± Goldeneyes whispers to you: (OOC) if you write up the room descriptions and plans and one of the immortals has the time to build it they¡¯ll tell you the cost in gold. It is not a sure thing they can reject it for whatever reason but if you mail them it is possible.¡± Isaiah¡¯s player really liked this idea. It seemed like there was a lack of an elven town in this game. A place where elven cousins could get together peacefully and celebrate their culture seemed like a wonderful idea. There were plenty of elves: Himself, Kaarell, Goldeneyes, Daelmas, Gabrielle, Ambrosia (Lady Ambrosia?). Schatten speaks with a lilting voice: ¡°I think it would be a good idea. I¡¯ll ask Kaarell what he thinks.¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°I can work on some plans. How much gold do you think we¡¯ll need?¡± Goldeneyes shrugs. Goldeneyes says with a low voice: ¡°It could be 100,000 gold it could be 1,000,000 it depends on how fancy it is.¡± Schatten speaks with a lilting voice: ¡°It would be nice to have a safe place to call home.¡± Ch.38 Eye Problems While Isaiah was checking over his things to see if anything else was missing he looked over his spellbook and noticed that he had said something that wasn¡¯t true earlier. Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Cousins, looks like I do actually have teleport.¡± Goldeneyes just shakes his head. Schatten sighs deeply. Schatten says with a lilting voice: ¡°I worry about you sometimes Isaiah.¡± Isaiah smiles sheepishly. Goldeneyes speaks with a low voice: ¡°Using teleport and a rift key is a good way to transport troops quickly.¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Oh? What is this rift key.¡± Goldeneyes speaks with a low voice: ¡°Have you ever been to Azha?¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Yes, though that Al-Radin guy showed me the way out.¡± Isaiah frowns. Goldeneyes speaks with a low voice: ¡°Ever visit the shops in the plaza?¡± Isaiah nods. Goldeneyes gets a tarnish band of metal from sack. Goldeneyes shows you a tarnished band of metal. This tarnish band of metal looks like something that should be thrown out. It is greasy and is covered in nicks across the surface. It looks like something a mother would warn their children about bringing into the house. Goldeneyes speaks with a low voice: ¡°The shop that sells these. I don¡¯t have one on me right now. I think Nightfall must have taken the one I had.¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Sorry to hear that. I just assumed everything that the vendor sold was junk. It tended to crumble into dust when you tried to use it. Nightfall has gotten me twice now. I hadn¡¯t even talked to him once before the first time.¡± Goldeneyes speaks with a low voice: ¡°Guessing he just thinks of shadow as his own personal hunting ground. It is better not to try to empathize with evil though. That half-elf serves Shar same goddess as the drow and he should be made dead like any drow.¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°I¡¯d settle for just being left alone.¡± Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Goldeneyes speaks with a low voice: ¡°Stick to places you won¡¯t cross paths then. Use that invisibility spell you got when you go to town. Teleport past places where people like to set up traps.¡± Schatten speaks with a lilting voice: ¡°This is why Kaarell and I tend to just drink tea in the temple lately. Or he¡¯ll use a rope trick spell to cut us off from people hunting us.¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Are things that bad?¡± Schatten nods. Schatten says with a lilting voice: ¡°The only things keeping Designa the high priest of Selune and Lydia the high priest of Mielikki from leaving these lands are each other. A lot of bad things have happened to friends lately.¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ve spoken to those two much more than in passing.¡± Schatten says with a lilting voice: ¡°OOC- They are mostly on at nighttime with timezone differences and all.¡± Goldeneyes nods OOCly. What¡¯s this about time zones? Like different countries? Isaiah¡¯s player stupidly assumed that all of the other people playing this game were in America. That there would be a whole batch of players that logged on to the game while he was sleeping was an interesting possibility. If they were playing from Europe then they were living 8 hours into the future. Someone that seemed like a night owl to him could in reality be an early bird. Neat! Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know about you two but I need to get some money and experience back. How about forming a party and heading to deku to kill some drow?¡± Goldeneyes smirks. Goldeneyes says with a low voice: ¡°I¡¯m always up for ending some drow even if those drow are quite weak.¡± Schatten agrees. Schatten says with a lilting voice: ¡°Sure I can come, maybe we can swing by Silvanius¡¯s temple and have some tea afterward?¡± You have created party elves. You invite schatten to join party elves. You invite goldeneyes to join party elves. Schatten mentioned that she could just use the word of power spell and meet us at Silvanus¡¯s temple. But we decided it would be fun to take a boat and sail across the sea together after we made it to the shadow docks across the desert. Goldeneyes made me cast detect invisibility and peer around before we came across any choke points in case there were any bad guys setting a trap right outside the city gates. He made me do it again when we got to the Deku docks. It was a good thing that one of us actually owned a boat because Isaiah didn¡¯t notice he didn¡¯t even have the 5 gold to pay for the ferry until they were already sitting at the docks. Goldeneyes gave his advice about where to set a teleport room. Apparently right in the center of town was a bad spot because the blue light that the spell made in the room was a warning to someone that they were about to be attacked. Also, if someone is invisible it still makes that light so someone would know that there was a person teleporting to the room. Isaiah¡¯s teleport spot to Deku was some shipwright¡¯s guild building that he had no idea what people were supposed to do there. He likely would have picked the bar or the center of town because those would be the places he¡¯d most likely find people but so far Goldeneyes had been patient with him and gave him some really good pointers. For an elf, he was gruff, prone to violence but he seemed to really know what he was doing. After they spent some time killing Jarrow and cycling through the drow to grind some experience, Isaiah decided to see if he could help Goldeneyes with his Loviatar problem. The three of them were sourjourning in Silvanius¡¯s temple and it seemed like people were getting ready to part ways. Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Goldeneyes, I wonder if I maybe could help with your Lussell problem.¡± Goldeneyes raises an eyebrow. Goldeneyes says in a low voice: ¡°What do you mean?¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Well, Lussell serves Loviatar and Gabrielle, an elf, is her high priestess. I was thinking maybe she could get her to stand down and give your eye back as a peace offering.¡± Schatten sighs. Schatten says with a lilting voice: ¡°I don¡¯t think that dealing with evil cults is a good idea Isaiah.¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Still, I¡¯d like to give peace a chance. Maybe it might be the first step to redemption.¡± Goldeneyes says in a low voice: ¡°I won¡¯t promise anything, but if you can get my eye back I¡¯ll consider it.¡± CH.39 Meeting with Gabrielle The three elves talked a bit more about elf things and eventually parted ways and Isaiah logged off. Isaiah¡¯s player didn¡¯t really think through all the steps involved in getting the eye back from Lusell. The first was the biggest ¡®if¡¯ would she be willing to do it? Would she just attack him and laugh at him for being so stupid? If she was anything like Nightfall she''d just level her lance at him and ask questions later. Given the fact that she kept posting flame posts on the shadow board she likely had a lot of fight left in her. Calling Goldeneyes goldeneye repeatedly seemed like it was doing a good job of provoking him. And that elven ranger had killed her. He had killed her and planted her head on a spike. He didn¡¯t think players could modify the room descriptions so it was odd that it was actually written down there. Likely, it was something high mortals could do or perhaps it was something that required one of the immortals to implement. Would Lusell be headless? Hopefully not that would be just weird. She was a knight and if she had a detachable head would that make her a dullahan? Isaiah¡¯s player was going about his real life day when his thoughts wandered to all sorts of weird places. How was he supposed to even find Lussell? Obviously he could tell when that anti-paladin was online by looking at the who list. Even if she was online she could be in any room in the mud. If the listing on Mudconnector was right this game had tens of thousands of rooms. Goldeneyes seemed to find her by setting up an ambush in Shadow. He wasn¡¯t sure if casting invisibility and setting a trip wire outside of Shadow gates was a great way to show that he was coming in peace. That also would not go over well with her. She¡¯s likely respond with violence if he did that and said he only came to talk. However, he could just cast stoneskin on himself and try to burst her down with fireballs and lightning bolts like Harmony did to him. No, he wasn¡¯t going to do that. Isaiah wanted to be a herald of peace. He needed a peaceful plan. Lusell follows Loviatar. Perhaps his ¡®in¡¯ with her could be Gabrielle, Lovaitar¡¯s high priestess? Gabrielle is an elf. Isaiah is also an elf. Even if she served the goddess of torture she was still and elf. Hopefully that means something. Isaiah also had a long term hope that one day Gabrielle would repent from her evil ways and be a goodly elf once again. He really liked redemption stories. If Isaiah was the protagonist of some hero story Gabrielle¡¯s redemption and marriage to Isaiah would be a good ending. They could live happily ever after together. So many rampling thoughts ran all over the place as Isaiah¡¯s player while he was offline. Eventually he was able to finish up what he was going to do in real life and find time to log back in the next day. The first thing he did after logging in was kill that troll that had a hundred or so gold by echo mountains then teleport to Deku and kill Jarrow again. He dropped another stoneskin scroll and some money. Isaiah sold it at the general store in Deku. It didn¡¯t take too long and he got himself about 1000 gold from the ordeal. The rooms still needed to reset if he wanted to do it again so it wasn¡¯t a monty haul strategy. However, when an elf was coming back from being murdered and pennyless every little bit helps. However, he spent almost all of it on a new components bag and whatever cheap components he could find that wouldn¡¯t leave him completely broke. It was after running those errands that someone started ranting on the OOC line. Someone [OOC] It is disgusting how everyone is abusing the thief class. Is there anyone left who even plays a single class thief? Vethor [OOC] Maybe? Someone [OOC] Everyone online has a fighter class to go with their thief class. It is disgusting why even play a single class thief? Vethor [OOC] Fighter and thief classes complement each other well. Someone [OOC] Too well. It has to be nerfed. Destiny [OOC] Please don¡¯t nerf us. Someone [OOC] Two really obvious ones, wrist sheaths can only be used by single classed thieves and stab thac0 will only benefit from thief level not fighter level. Destiny [OOC] Noo, don¡¯t take away my wrist sheaths and make me miss my stabs. Someone [OOC] Blame yourselves, even ridding people for psycho killing hasn¡¯t fixed the problem. I¡¯m sick of people using their fighter class to just get freebie levels for thief. If you want to one shot people then roll a single class thief. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. Destiny [OOC] Boo, might as well switch to bard then. Someone [OOC] Don¡¯t get me started on bards. The exp table is so easy. It is like getting a fighter/thief/mage but not having the huge experience requirements. [OOC]Someone hates all you power gamers. Eventually, Isaiah was able to find Gabrielle in the main adventurers hall in Shadow. Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Hello Cousin Gabrielle.¡± Gabrielle smiles. Gabrielle says with an eerily soothing voice: ¡°Cousin Isaiah, pleasure to see you.¡± Gabrielle curtseys. Isaiah bows. Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°How are you doing?¡± Gabrielle says with an eerily soothing voice: ¡°I¡¯m doing well, and yourself?¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Well, I¡¯m worried about cousin Goldeneyes to be honest. I¡¯d like to speak to you about the eye that she took.¡± Gabrielle nods. Gabrielle says with an eerily soothing voice: ¡°Oh yes, the two of them honor the goddess of pain by bringing great suffering to one another.¡± Isaiah winces. Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Does it not bother you that a knight of Lovaitar has her head on a pole outside of the gates of this city?¡± Gabrielle smirks. Gabrielle says with an eerily soothing voice: ¡°Through pain, Lusell¡¯s soul will only be forged stronger. Her suffering at the hands of Goldeneyes only brings glory to the lady of pain.¡± Isaiah blinks in disbelief. Isaiah speak elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Well¡­ anyway I would like to meet Lusell and ask for her to give Goldeneyes eye back.¡± Gabrielle says in an eerily soothing voice: ¡°If it is for an elven cousin I will help you facilitate such a meeting.¡± Gabrielle begins casting a spell. Gabrielle touches her temple and closes her eyes in concentration. Gabrielle says in an eerily soothing voice: ¡°Lussell says she will meet us in the Temple of Loviatar.¡± Isaiah looks a bit nervous. Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°I¡¯ve never been there before.¡± Gabrielle says with an eerily soothing voice: ¡°It is between Daggerdale and Tonovi. I can lead you there if you need my help?¡± Isaiah¡¯s player didn¡¯t know how to get to either Daggerdale or Tonovi. Yes, he had seen the exits to the towns from the death room. However, being adventurous and going to an unknown place with no gear and one hit point seemed like a great way to not only lose all of his gear from his corpse but also to add a second death to the first one. He told Goldeneyes he would try to get his eye back from Lusell. What was the worst thing that could happen? He figured if he died and lost all of Isaiah gear it wouldn¡¯t be the end. Besides, spending some time with a hot and extremely dangerous elven girl is kinda sexy. While black hair and green eyes might be common for an elf, seeing such a combination in real life would be extremely rare. Gabrielle¡¯s description was extremely provocative; her body type was even svelte. What does svelte even mean? Isaiah¡¯s player had to look it up in a dictionary. It means ¡®sylph-like¡¯ or slender and elegant. Shortly after, Isaiah the elf was following Gabrielle the elf north. Isaiah nods to Gabrielle. Gabrielle invites you to follow her. You are now following Gabrielle. Gabrielle whistles for her mount. Gabrielle mounts her cheetah. Gabrielle leaves north. North North North they went along dragon pass road. After a little bit of twists and turns they stop at a fork in the road that leads further north to Antioch and west to what seems like some kind of corn field. Gabrielle says in an eerily soothing tone: ¡°Do you not have a mount Isaiah? I worry for your stamina¡± Isaiah shakes his head in disagreement. Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°I don¡¯t, it is on my list of things to invest in the future.¡± Gabrielle says in an eerily soothing tone: ¡°A simple horse can be picked up for a handful of gold in Shadow.¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°I will be alright so long as we don¡¯t go the whole way all at once.¡± Gabrielle nods Gabrielle leaves west. After a dozen rooms or so they turn north and walk past a gate for a city which they zip past. Their next stop is some kind of checkpoint where there are guards present who don¡¯t let them leave to the exit to the northeast. CH.40 Lusell Gabrielle doesn¡¯t even bother talking to the guards at the toll booth who block the passage further northeast. The black-haired green-eyed elf just starts spelling up preparing for a fight. Gabrielle starts casting a spell. Gabrielle caresses the ground and several sticks transform into snakes. Boa appears before you. Viper appears before you. Amphisbaena appears before you. Boa appears before you. Isaiah looked over the snakes. The boa and the viper appeared like normal snakes. The former being a big thick snake, and that latter being a smaller poisonous snake. Isaiah¡¯s player had no idea what an Amphisbaena was. Apparently it is a snake that has a head at both ends. Weird. Gabrielle says in an eerily soothing voice: ¡°Never pay these gate guards. They are from Tonovi a city whose motto is the only good elf is a slave. They even have an auction block in the town square where elves are sold to the highest bidder.¡± Isaiah nods. Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°How terrible, I hope the place burns.¡± Gabrielle agrees. Gabrielle starts casting a spell. From above, the gods grant power to Gabrielle as her god strikes guard with divine lightning from the clouds. Guard hits snake. Guard misses snake. Snake misses guard. Snake misses guard. Snake misses guard. Gabrielle starts casting a spell. From above, the gods grant power to Gabrielle as her god strikes guard with divine lightning from the clouds. Guard drops dead before you. Guard hits snake. Gabrielle starts casting a spell. From above, the gods grant power to Gabrielle as her god strikes guard with divine lightning from the clouds. Guard misses Gabrielle. Snake misses guard. Snake misses guard. Snake misses guard. Guard hits snake. Gabrielle starts casting a spell. From above, the gods grant power to Gabrielle as her god strikes guard with divine lightning from the clouds. Guard drops dead before you. Snake drops dead before you. The two elves left the tollbooth. Now that the guards were dispatched they were able to take the exit to the northeast without impediment. They passed a few patrolling guards. Isaiah peered northeast along the road and it looked like some of the guards were fighting an elven ranger along the road. Before Isaiah could say anything Gabrielle led him north along the road to Tonovi and they went a little bit before arriving at the temple of Lovaitar. About the time that they made it to the temple of Loviatar the snakes following them around had turned back into sticks. The temple of Loviatar was a little bit disturbing. It looked like a place of worship with high ceilings and pews for followers to kneel in prayer. There was an altar on a raised part of the room and against the walls were instruments of torture. There were whips, bamboo canes and a rack with straps for securing and stretching arms and legs. A human knight was also present in the temple when the two elves arrived. The whole idea about losing an eye and returning it of course flew in the face of what was possible in the real world. Considering this was a game, there could at least be a mechanic built into the system for something like this. Because there was not, Isaiah¡¯s player was completely baffled that to be presented with a situation like this. The whole thing was improv roleplay. The fact that Goldeneyes was tortured and maimed like this was sickening. Nevertheless, Isaiah trying to play his role as a peacemaker was exciting. His goal was to bring peace and harmony and unity to the elven players in these murderous lands. Ech, harmony might be the wrong word for his motto. That half-elf was a jerk who just killed people he met for the first time. There was a moment of silence while the two elves stood in the temple of torture with the female human knight. Isaiah was caught up in the past few minutes. He was kicking himself for not attacking the guards along with Gabrielle. Humans supporting a regime that normalized enslavement of an entire race deserved the worst kind of punishment. There were his cousin elven rangers fighting the very same regime along the dagger road. He wanted to go back and help them by fighting alongside them. However, his thoughts were interrupted. An armored female human says in a stern tone: ¡°Greetings High Priestess.¡± An armored female human bows deeply. Gabrielle says in an eerily soothing tone: ¡°Greeting Lady Lusell.¡± Gabrielle curtseys. (Isaiah¡¯s player quickly typed ¡®recognize human as lusell¡¯ because reading speech from unrecognized players was annoying to read. Seeing himself getting addressed snapped his attention back from where it has been wandering about.) Lusell says in a stern tone: ¡°This elf you bring is Isaiah?¡± Gabrielle nods. Isaiah says elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Greeting Knight Lusell. I am Isaiah.¡± Lusell says with a stern tone: ¡°The high priestess says you wished to speak with me.¡± Lusell looks you over. (Isaiah felt really nervous about this, like Lusell was sizing him up to see if he¡¯d be an easy kill. Considering his gear she was likely to come to that conclusion, he mused in his head.) Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Yes, it is because of my cousin Goldeneyes.¡± Lusell scowls. Lusell says with a stern voice: ¡°Goldeneye. A nasty beast of an elf.¡± Isaiah clears his throat. Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°I wish for him to have his eye back.¡± Lusell says with a stern voice: ¡°And what do I get?¡± Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°I can ask him to leave you alone.¡± Lusell says with a stern voice: ¡°He did not agree to this meeting?¡± Isaiah shakes his head. Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°No, I asked him and he said I would be wasting my time and likely end up being attacked.¡± Lusell smirks. Lusell speaks sternly: ¡°How like that bastard Goldeneye.¡± Lusell speaks sternly: ¡°I would have liked his word, but what good is the word of a savage anyway? I¡¯ll agree to the possibility of a truce in exchange for returning the eye.¡± (Isaiah couldn¡¯t believe it. He was sure that someone being the evil anti-paladin would want to rub it in every elf¡¯s face that she maimed another elf. She was taking the risk for a chance of peace? Maybe she was more afraid of Goldeneyes than he thought.) Isaiah holds out a hand to shake. Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Allright, I will deliver his eye along with your missive for peace.¡± Lusell shakes your hand. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Lusell smirks. Lusell takes an eye in a jar out from between her breasts. Lusell hands you the jar. Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°Er¡­ thank you.¡± Lusell says sternly: ¡°Have fun with that.¡± (Isaiah didn¡¯t want to hang around the temple of Loviatar and could take a hint that it was time to leave.) Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: ¡°I will give this back to my cousin and we¡¯ll see if we can find a healer to help him. Thank you for being reasonable Lady Lusell.¡± Lusell nods. Isaiah waves. Gabrielle waves to you. Gabrielle says with an eerily soothing voice: ¡°Take care of yourself cousin.¡± Isaiah teleported away with a quick typing of ¡®cast teleport to shadow¡¯. The blue light fades as the teleport lands Isaiah back outside the city of shadow. (Isaiah arrived at the spot where he had teleported in. It was a small clearing with a pile of rocks and a large tree stump in the middle. He looked around for any signs of trouble but there was nothing except for the sound of running water nearby.) Isaiah stands still. (He wasn''t quite sure how to find Goldeneyes. Usually he just ran across him outside of shadow or some place laying in wait to set an ambush for a drow or an antipaladin. Gabrielle could have cast telepathy to contact Golden eyes but he didn''t ask her. Also, trying to rely on an evil priestess didn''t do much for his self image.) Isaiah thinks: "Well, I know he''s been in the area recently so I''ll just keep an eye out for him. If he comes by here then I''ll try to talk to him." Isaiah sits down. (He sat down on the rock that was in the center of the clearing. He had no idea what he was going to say to Goldeneyes, and he doubted he''d get much out of him.) Isaiah poses sitting on a rock in the clearing. Isaiah ponders the conversation between him and Goldeneyes in his head. He''d say something like "Hi Goldeneyes. Here''s your eye." Isaiah gets up and walks around the clearing. He headed to the quiet forest road and peered to the west and east seeing if there were any other adventurers nearby. (Isaiah walked around looking for any sign of danger. He didn''t see anything and started to wonder why he even came out here. He knew he was wasting his time and was just getting frustrated with himself. He could go into shadow and see who was around. If there was a priest of high enough level they could cast telepathy to contact Goldeneyes. ) Isaiah sits down on a rock. Isaiah poses sitting on a rock in the clearing. Isaiah thinks: "Why am I doing this? I''m sure Goldeneyes was sure that I''d fail and Lusell would keep the eye just to make him suffer more. He said that I was foolish for trying to reason with a bunch of cultists that worship pain." Isaiah gets up and starts walking towards the road. (Isaiah figured that he might as well get back to town and see what was happening there. There was no sense in staying in the middle of nowhere when he would just idle and be auto logged out after 10 minutes.) Isaiah walks to the road. (The road was pretty empty. There were a few farms on the way back to Shadow but that was nothing new. He walked east past the goblin stronghold and the temple of Mystra and arrived at the city gates.) Isaiah walks through the gate. (There weren''t many people around. The sun was setting and only NPC gate guards could be seen in the rooms that he could peer into.) Annoyingly the gates would be closed at night. This made sense in the real world because who would want someone sneaking around while most of the citizens were asleep. However in a game, it mostly just made it so that players would mash ''east'' and get the message. ''You bumped into a closed gate'' as many times as they sent that repeat command. It could turn into an annoying wall of text if another player was not there and a moment of much embarrassment if someone was watching your character repeatedly bump into the gate that was obviously closed. Someone who tried to walk through a closed door once and bumped into it could just be unobservant. Someone who did that 6 to 10 times in fast succession could be perceived as something else. (Isaiah got tired of pondering the mental implications of walking into closed doors and decided to look for a tavern. He wanted to sit down and cross paths with a cleric who could cast telepathy to get ahold of Goldeneyes. At this point he was kicking himself for not asking Gabrielle to contact Goldeneyes. The thought of going back to the temple of Loviatar and asking for help finding the other elf had crossed his mind. However, asking an evil priestess for help as what was basically a messaging service seemed like he would really be pushing his luck.) Heading down the road south of Shadow, Isaiah sees a sign for a tavern called ''The Rhapsody Inn''. Isaiah heads to the Rhapsody Inn. (It was a simple inn with two floors. A single large room with a bar and tables and chairs on the first floor. There was a stage on the far wall where bards or other performers could ply their trade. Two NPCs were present in the room. One was the bartender named Dionisus and another was a drunken bard named Alinbar. Both of these people were human. Isaiah walks up to the bartender and asks: "Do you have a cleric in here?" The bartender, being an NPC, did not respond. Isaiah goes up to the bard and asks him: "Do you know where I can find a cleric?" Alinbar is drunk and does not answer. Isaiah approaches the bartender again and asks: "Is there a cleric in here?" After fruitlessly getting no response from the NPCs in the tavern Isaiah sighed. Of course it would not be that easy. Maybe if he waited long enough other adventurers might stop by. If he was lucky they might be able to help him contact Goldeneyes. Isaiah sat down at a table near the stage and watched the bard perform. He had never been to a bard concert before. Alinbar was drunk and likely would be a better clown than a bard. He kept playing songs that were all about love. These were not songs that Isaiah knew and so he found himself listening to them out of politeness. He was actually enjoying the music until he noticed that Alinbar was singing a song that was supposed to be about a beautiful girl that he talked with once then never saw again. Isaiah got up and went to the bar. "Hello?" Isaiah says to the bartender. Dionisus turns around and looks at Isaiah. Dionisus says: "Hello, Welcome to the Rhapsody Inn. Be sure to read the drinks menu and the food menu." Typing gave out a list of things. Pheasant 10 gold Elven steak 20 gold Story stew 10 gold Riddling Pretzles 6 gold Leg of Lamb 10 gold Likewise, typing also returned a list. Sparkling Melody 5 gold Rhapsody 10 gold Raging Tempo 10 gold Languishing Lyre 10 gold Mug of Licorice Lager 10 gold Evermeet Tea 5 gold Cooked Cocoa 5 gold Destroyers Draught 20 gold Glass of Feywine 100 gold Ode to Torment 500 gold There were a couple of things that were of note on the menu. First, Feywine seemed like an elven drink. Maybe he would try that. However, elven steak. . . well it was either poorly named or Isaiah eating it would be cannibalism. Also, Ode to Torment is the most expensive thing on the menu. Calling something ''Ode to Torment'' sounds more like a poison than a drink. Perhaps that is what it is. Isaiah decides to order a Sparkling Melody. Dionisus says: "I''ll be right back with your drink." Dionisus hands you Sparkling Melody. The drink swirls as if dancing to it''s own beat. Isaiah takes a sip of the drink. It tastes like a fizzy cocktail. As a side effect his head started pounding to a raging tempo after finishing the drink. Isaiah sits back down at the table and tries to think. Isaiah has been sitting in the tavern for several minutes. No one has entered. Maybe he had just come at a slow time? Or maybe the tavern was always this empty. Isaiah tried to take a sip of the Sparkling Melody but found that he could not bring himself to do so. Isaiah stands up and walks over to the door. He opens it and steps outside. Isaiah sees that the sun is starting to set. Isaiah closes the door behind him and walks around. To the north was Shadow city and to the South was Tharis. He peered both ways but didn''t see any other adventurers. Isaiah sighs and heads back inside. Isaiah goes back to the table and sits down. He starts to type: "Where is Goldeneyes?" The game just returns the default failure prompt: ''What?'' Isaiah types: "What should I do?" The game just returns the default failure prompt: ''What?'' Isaiah types: "I don''t know what to do." The game just returns the default failure prompt: ''What?'' Isaiah types: "I am stuck." The game just returns the default failure prompt: ''What?'' Isaiah types: "Can you give me some advice?" The game just returns the default failure prompt: ''What?'' Isaiah types: "Help!" The game just returns the default failure prompt: ''What?'' The game was case sensitive. Typing ''help'' by itself would bring up a huge list of topics with subtopics in a menu that was a pain to get out of. Pretending that he was a cleric Isaiah typed: "tell goldeneyes hello" >what? Tell goldeneyes it is me, Isaiah >what? I am Isaiah, the new cleric of the church of light. >what? Oh, you are the new guy. >what? Yeah, I am the new guy. >what? I am the new guy. >what? The new guy. Isaiah types: "I need help." >what? Well, I have been here for a few weeks and no one has offered to teach me anything. >what? You know, like how to fight. >what? How to hunt. >what? I have only seen a few people hunting and they never showed me. >what? They just left. >what? Just like that. >what? Like they were going to go somewhere else. >what? That is what happened. >what? Isaiah types: "Can you tell me where I can find someone to teach me how to hunt?" >what? There are no clerics here. >what? I am sorry. >what? Isaiah types: "So what do I do now?" >what? Isaiah, you must learn to survive. >what? I know. >what? Isaiah, you will die without training. >what? If you are going to stay here then you will need to learn how to hunt and fight. >what? I am sorry. >what? Isaiah, you must learn to survive. >what? Isaiah types: "Why did you say I would die?" >what? Isaiah, you have already died several times. >what? This game is not very forgiving. >what? After a while of typing gibberish that he knew the game would not understand, Isaiah¡¯s player decided to go inactive and get up from the computer desk to make some coffee. Maybe when he came back someone would walk into this inn.