《Firechaser》 Prelude My mother used to say ¡°you never know which decisions will change your life until you''ve already made them.¡± Unfortunately I found out just how true that was when I decided to get a cup of coffee at the local farmers market. I had been living off the grid for over five years and did all my shopping at local farmers markets and craft fairs, they were some of the only places you could use cash anymore. I had been having a good day. I just traded some wild blackberries and a couple of jars of wild honey for a month''s worth of staples and fifty dollars in cash. Honey was hard to come by these days and I might have been able to hold out for more but I figured the good will was worth it, besides I couldn''t carry much more. I liked this particular market because almost everyone was from a small family operation, no corporate farms looking to mark up what wouldn''t fit on the truck. Just people like me trying to get by. The only exception to this was the row of food trucks parked along the road next to the entrance, wafting their deep fried ultra processed homogenized scents in defiance of the natural bounty displayed inside. Normally, I wouldn''t have given them a second look. I didn''t have the money to waste and couldn''t stand the preservatives anymore. But then I smelled the coffee. Real coffee, not the roasted chickorie crap I can make myself. It had been years, and I had a windfall burning a hole in my pocket. I argued with myself the entire walk over but I knew I was going to cave in to my oldest vice. The girl behind the window breached the seal on her little air conditioned box when I tapped on the window and said with a plastic smile, ¡°Welcome to Caf¨¦ontheGo, would you like to try our new Cherry Mocha Espresso today?¡± ¡°Just a large black coffee,¡± I said, ¡°no frills.¡± Without even looking up from her register she intoned, ¡°would you like to try one of our signature pastries?¡± and once I had declined, ¡±three fifty four is your total.¡± I handed over the crisp fifty dollar bill I had just been paid and watched as she changed my life with a pen. We both watched in shock as the little test mark went from a brownish smear to black and then to a bright red. ¡°I''m sorry sir,¡± she said, ¡°but I think this bill is counterfeit. I can still scan you if you want to pay by credit.¡± she already had the scanner in her hand.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. The idea of getting scanned had me looking around nervously. Just in time to see a cop car pull up a few spaces ahead of the food cart. I had to stop myself from raising a hand to the stylized hammer I wore under my shirt as i prayed that they wouldn''t get involved. ¡°Forget the coffee,¡± I said, ¡°just give me back the fifty and I''ll straighten it out with the guy who gave it to me.¡± I knew I should have just walked away, but I needed that fifty dollars. ¡°I can''t give you back a bill we both know is fake!¡± she said just a little too loudly. I start to back away but the skinny local cop was already there asking what''s going on. ¡°This creep just tried to pay for his coffee with a fake fifty,¡± she says, brandishing the bill like exhibit one. ¡°This is all just a misunderstanding. It''s not mine, I just got it off one off the vendors, let me get him and I''m sure we can clear this up.¡± I knew my babbling was only making things worse, but I couldn''t seem to reign in my tongue. ¡°Maybe we should clear this up back at the station.¡± the cop said, and it is not a question. I deflate as he takes hold of my arm. A moment later, when he reaches for his cuffs, I spin around and punch him in the face with everything I have. He fell flat on his ass with blood already pouring from his nose and I ran. Down the row of food trucks and around the back of the Nathan''s Hotdog truck. The whole time I was thinking if I could just make it to the woods I might have a chance. That was when I ran into the cop''s partner, and unlike the skinny guy I just layed out, this guy was built like an old school tank. It was like hitting a wall and before I got my breath back he had me in cuffs. I keeped struggling for a few more seconds then heard an electric crackle and everything went away. You might be asking yourself what kind of guy risks assaulting a cop to avoid a counterfeiting charge that probably wouldn''t stick. I mean, despite everything it is still America, right. Well, let me tell you, that kind of guy is the kind that is already supposed to be behind bars. I guess now is as good a time as any for the obligatory back story flashback. Prelude Part 2 I was born near the beginning of the period called either the Fifth Great Awakening or the Theocratic Era, depending on which side the speaker is on, I just call it my messed up childhood. Christian Nationalist zealots had gained control of the media and the government and were implementing their writ with an ever heavier hand. As a child of a pagan intellectual mother and a Muslim immigrant father, this was a dangerous time for me and my whole family. There were five of us, my brother was seven years older that me and my baby sister was seven years younger. I don''t know why they had us so far apart, I just know that there being only three of us was not considered normal anymore. We kept our heads down and everything, while not great, went alright until I was almost nine. That was when my older brother was caught at school with his boyfriend. That very day the Morality Task Force burst into our house. Our fate was sealed when they found my father''s prayer rug and Koran in drawer. When the officer held them up to his fellows my mother grabbed me and held me to her chest, praying into my ear, ¡°May Odin and Thor watch over you when I cannot and keep you safe.¡± Then, as they pulled her away, she looked me straight in the eye and charged me, ¡°look after your baby sister.¡± I wanted to, but I was eight years old. We were both made wards of the state. I was sent to a military academy were I and a few hundred other boys were indoctrinated into a world where we were the last God fearing nation on Earth beset on all sides by enemies seeking to destroy us. In the beginning I tried to pass my dark skin off as Hispanic, it wasn''t great but better that than being middle Eastern. When the headmaster found out he seemed to delight in the chance to announce to everyone how my parents were Arab terrorists and had been convicted of treason, and how my brother had been ¡°hanged for a fag¡±. The few friends I had started to make abandoned me then and I didn''t have a day for four years that I didn''t have to fight someone or get beat up. The academy encouraged fighting, after all, we were going into the army, and the army didn''t want cowards. I think almost a hundred boys died in the time I was there. I was transferred to a different facility when I was thirteen. There they started training us for all the sundry skills involved in soldering. They also split us up by our aptitudes, turns out I was good with electronic and software so they trained me as a technician. The year before I ¡°graduated¡± the real war finally started. I went right from the corporate run government academy into the army proper. I wasn''t as brainwashed as some of the others, but I was still eager to fight for my country. I was almost disappointed when I spent the next five years on a stateside base repairing and debugging surveillance drones. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. We all know how much of a quagmire that war was. It was supposed to be won in a week, with God behind us all the way. We ended up struggling so hard we lost control of part to the mainland for the first time since before there was electricity. That was the tipping point. Soon enough the corporations had bought their way back into power. They unveiled a new marvel, true A.I., for the first time in human history we had made a completely new form of life. A form of life that could see all the angles and all the solutions, and with it they ended the war. I say ended because I maintain that having things go back to the way thing were before, just with fewer people on both sides, doesn''t sound like a win to me. They called it victory anyway and used the political capital to help them repeal the most onerous of the zealots laws. Not because of any moral reason be because it was bad for business. I was discharged and went to work installing security cameras. It was a crappy job but it gave me enough free time to pursue the one goal I had been denied for the last fifteen years: to find my sister. I used the start the army gave me and learned everything I could about hacking. Every new technology I could get my hands on was bent to the task: full dive virtual reality let me visualize things I couldn''t fit into my tiny apartment; the resurgence in multiplayer online game worlds was a place to meet with other tech head from around the world; new hardware that made large number cryptography plausible again. I spent the better part of a year''s worth of nights searching for breadcrumbs before I found it. She had been placed as a ward of the state at a infant care facility run by a company that no longer existed, that company had been owned by Peltech, one of the largest government contractors out there. I hacked into the Peltech servers. I thought at the time that for such an important company, their security was crap. I dug around for half an hour before I found the information I was looking for. It was just in time for me to figure out that their security was in fact not crap. The police were banging on my door the same time I was pulling up her file. As they broke down the door I just enough time to scan down to the bottom of the report: MYRA HARAM - TRANSFER TO A7641-2 SUCCESSFUL I was sentenced to 25 years for industrial espionage and violation of the state secrets act. I served almost two before I was able to hack into the system and arrange a release/escape. It wasn''t anything major, I just convinced the computers at each of the prisons the company owned that I was at a different one. I escaped by bribing a couple of guards by resetting all the vacation time they just cashed out. I spent the next five years living off the grid and searching for any other reference to A7641-2 but had never got up the courage to risk the Peltech servers again. And then I stopped for coffee. Part 1: Imprisoned I woke up from the stun gun just in time to meet my court appointed lawyer. He seemed a decent sort and seemed honestly sad when he informed me that my chances of getting out of prison again were about the same as a pound of bacon going uneaten in a dog kennel. He got them to drop the counterfeiting charge, but it didn''t make a difference. ¡°Mr. Haram,¡± the judge boomed from the bench, her voice a cross between a disapproving mother and a prophet foretelling the end, ¡°you have robbed the state of its justice an flouted the law for far too long. Since you have made clear that traditional prison will not suffice, it is not without a sense of irony that I sentence you to the Peltech Virtual Labor Camp, where you shall spend the rest of your natural life in indenture to those you have wronged.¡± I was in shock, a virtual reality prison. I had heard of such things but didn''t think they were real. I pictured myself languishing in some parody of a medieval dungeon, tended by guards who wouldn''t even talk to you because no one thought to program them to, and unable to even scratch my name into the wall because the math won''t let me. But wait, she said labor, what was I to do, is this why customer service people sound so monotone? Or would I be made into an NPC on some game world and punished when I went off script? What did it even mean? I found out three days later as I was shuffled into a warehouse full of VR capsules as fast a my ankle shackles would allow me. I was stripped out of my orange jumpsuit and strapped down to the cushion of the pod. While they fitted me with an IV a little accountant of a man with a clipboard walked up. ¡°Let''s see, looks like you''re going into an A class world run by a first gen A.I., lucky you. First generation let us muck around with their creations even less than the newer ones do, so you get to make a character just as if you were actually going to play. Enjoy it, it might be the last major decision out get to make for a while.¡± He chuckled to himself, ¡°what you choose will determine what they have you doing inside. Before all that I need you to sign some things.¡±This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. He put the digital clipboard next to my hand, picked up my thumb and pressed it to the screen, ¡°that was a consent to intravenous feeding.¡± Press, ¡°that was consent to medical treatment.¡± Press, ¡°that was forfeiture of minimum pay.¡± Press, ¡°that was a transfer of power of attorney to the warden.¡± Press, ¡°and that was legal release from your habeas corpus rights.¡± He reclaimed the clipboard and surveyed it, ¡°That looks to be everything. They¡¯ll let you know what is expected of you once you''re in there. Plug him in.¡± This last was to the guard, who promptly closed the lid of the capsule, ending my old life forever. *****INITIALIZING***** At first, everything went black and absolutely silent. I couldn''t even hear my own heart beat. I had been through a VR calibration before, so I knew what to expect. Sure enough, the darkness was soon replaced by colored blobs that slowly resolved themselves into circles and squares and triangles. My hearing came back in first and starts, bursts of static resolving into clear electronic tones. My sense of touch came back all at once, going from the tingly, floaty feeling of a sleeping limb to the feeling of a thousand Wattenberg pinwheels racing up my arms and legs as well as down my spine. This was just as quickly replaced by the feeling of wetness on my palms, followed by cold, then heat, then burning, then a sharp pain, then a gentle throbbing like a pleasantly sore muscle, and finally a heavy pressure as if I was holding a ball or stone. Taste came next, overwhelming strikes of salt and sweet, tart and bitter, flagellating my tongue in a rapid staccato. Smell was last, and I was bathed in the smell of toast of all things, this have way to sulphur and eventually to vanilla. Just before the calibration ended I caught one more scent, a musky floral smell I would have sworn was my mother''s perfume. Character Creation
Welcome Adventurer to
Paragain.
The words hung in the air before me as a disembodied announcer voice seemed to read it behind my left shoulder. Even expecting something like this I jumped. Then I realised I could jump, I had an avatar already. I looked down at myself in the dim diffused glow and saw a translucent grey man with noodle arms and and mitten hands, an apparent blank slate. Please Step Into The Light I jumped again as a beam of light descended from somewhere above and left a little circle on what was clearly now a stone floor. I stepped into it. What is your name, brave adventurer? I always hated this part, though it was odd it coming first, it was usually one of the last parts in character creation after all the nuts and bolts stuff was out of the way. I decided to do what I usually did and give my real name. Nobody believed it was real anyway. ¡°Ragnar Haram¡± I said loudly. We''re sorry, but that is not a valid name on this seed. That was weird, maybe I had played on this world before? I sorted through my memory looking for a good name and settled on the name of a hacker from the early days of VR, back before full dive and A.I. built world''s. ¡°Hiro Protagonist,¡± I said with a smile. We''re sorry, the name Hiro Protagonist is already taken. Curiouser and curiouser, it seems I haven''t been here before, my real name is specifically banned. Why would that be? Maybe the company is trying to make our pasts disappear, even to us? With all the paperwork before they dropped me in here it did make some sense. I still needed a name. I went through all the Lord of the Rings and Sci fi characters I could think of with no luck, some pop stars and celebrities without any passing muster. In the end, I didn''t really care what I ended up with, I had used so many fake names over the last few years I could hardly keep track, a different one for every farmers market. What was it that old man called me? He said I had the look of a man searching for something that I wouldn''t know what to do with once I found it. He said I it was like I was chasing fire like from some old indian fairytale. What was the characters name again. ¡°Jogan Oetseira,¡± I say. Are you sure? Y/N Sure, if it will take it, ¡°Yes.¡± Welcome once again, Jogan Oetseira! Please Choose a Race For Your Character Another pillar of light came into being in front of me. Standing in it was, me. I had no hair and my eyes were blue rather than brown, but it was a good rendition of what I looked like. Text hovered in the air next to it: HUMAN Humans can be found all across Paragain, in their own lands and in most metropolitan areas of the other races. They are adaptable and clever, fitting into any open niche that can find. This very adaptability is something that brings them into conflict with the other civilized races, as they compete for resources in almost every environment. Ok, so humans are the default, vanilla race, big surprise. Human Racial Traits: Common Race Size: -1 to +1 +1 to Luck to start +1 to Stat of Player''s Choice to start Jack of All Trades: a Human may learn any skill, regardless of class, but will only receive bonus XP for class skills. Neutral Race: Humans are a neutral race with populations who are both good and evil. As such, a Human will not automatically be seen as an enemy of any civilized faction. Learn by doing: Humans naturally gain stats through their action rather than genetics. Limited to 3/level after specialization. Humans do not gain bonus stats at level up. AT LEVEL UP: Humans gain 1 skill point(SkP) that can be assigned to any skill in which they have been trained. Humans may reassign 1 Stat point to a different stat each level. That seemed fairly straight forward. Humans adapt to whatever they do most, Probably to make it easier on new players. While I was looking from the figure of me to the information panel I saw a hint of another person off to the side. When I focused on them, human me stepped out of the light and in stepped a different version of me. This one was, for lack of a better term, prettier. He had a more refined, almost feminine face, with high cheekbones and pointed ears. HIGH ELF High Elves are one of the oldest races of Paragain. They have cities of culture and history in nations that were old before counting of time. Though slight of frame they are well endowed with magic, being among the most powerful Mages in the world. They have a reputation for looking down on some of the younger races, but weather it is deserved or not, many other races look down on them for it. High Elf Racial Traits: Common Race Size: -1 to 0 -1 to Strength to start +2 to Intelligence to startThis story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. +1 to Spirit to start Pinnacle of Culture: High Elves may train in any academic skill, any of the fine arts, such as singing, or any fine craft, such as craft jewelry, regardless of their class. Lightling Race: High elves are firmly in the bounds of the ¡°Good¡± races. Factions of the ¡°Evil¡± races will be hostile to you by default unless you do something to change their minds, likewise other lightlings will welcome you in unless you prove false. Magic in the Blood: A High Elf¡¯s Mana regenerates twice as fast as normal and if they run out of Mana, they may use Health Points instead at a 1 to 1 ratio. AT LEVEL UP: High Elves gain 1 Skill Point(SkP) per level that can be assigned to any academic or arcane skill. +1 to Intelligence per level +1 to Intelligence per level before specialization +1 to Spirit per level +1 to Wisdom after specialization I wished I knew what all this meant. I had played my share of full dive games, but usually just to meet people, I never had to make choices that mattered before in a game so i never learned more than the basics. I resolved to take as much time as I needed to make the right decision. I mean, it¡¯s not like they can throw me in jail for wasting time. Just as was starting to focus on the next race in line I saw a blur in the air above the panel. When it came into focus I saw that it was a set of drop down menus to filter the selection. This was just what I needed, it took a moment to figure out the selection process but I soon had it set up to go more systematically. I started from: Common Lightling Humanoid Which showed me everything from Dwarves to Wood Elves, and proceeded all the way through: Rare Darktouched Serpentine Which offered up a Naga and an Ixactuletquatl. I had bookmarked a few in my head that i wanted to go back to and compare. I cleared my filters and was about to start getting into the weeds of figuring out the stats when I heard a chime followed by: We Are Sorry Adventurer, But You Have Run Out Of Time To Make Your Selection. Your Character Will Be The Race You Currently Have Selected. Please Feel Free To Adjust His Appearance At This Time (Focus On A Feature To Adjust It). I had just cleared the filters and had no idea what race I had selected. I looked back down and saw that first facsimile of my face staring back at me. All that work and I had ended up Human after all. At least I wasn¡¯t a Naga. I realized the trap I had thrown myself into. I had allowed myself to think of it like a game, as if I would actually get a chance to play. I should have been thinking of it as what it was, a prison. I should have gone through and just found the biggest, most intimidating race I could in the hopes of being left alone in the yard. I resolver to keep that in mind going forward, not ¡°what will help me in the game?¡± but ¡°what will help me in prison?¡± The man had said that my choices here would determine where they placed me, right? I looked at my avatar and focused on various features, thinking on what to change. First things first, I gave myself hair cycling through various styles until I found a simple one a little longer than an army buzz cut, but still too short to give at opponent something to grab in a fight. I changed the color from the default brown to my own black, and while I was at it I lightened the skin from the default medium brown to to my own light bronze. I left the eyes blue and for vanities sake i changed my lips which I had always thought looked weak. I then looked at the overall picture. I looked at the height and decided bigger is better and slid it up to its racial maximum of 6¡¯10¡±, a far stap from my own 5¡¯8¡±. I grew taller, but immediately looked thin and ungainly. I found a way to make my shoulders a little broader but couldn¡¯t find a way to directly increase my muscle mass. Sure, I¡¯d tower over everyone, but I looked like good wind would break me in half. I lowered the height a half an inch at a time and settled on 6¡¯4¡±, I was still tall and thin, but I didn¡¯t have that stretched look anymore. I made my hands and feet more proportionate, and tweaked a few more things for symmetry and vanity, then called it done by focusing on the vague green box in my peripheral vision. It moved into view as a clear [DONE] button and I pressed it. I was immediately suffused with a strange tingling sensation and then I was moving rapidly towards my new avatar. Not just towards it but into it. I experienced a dizzying moment of disorientation when the world tried to spin around me, and then I was looking out of it''s, my, new blue eyes. Please Select A Class For Your Character The beginning classes are weak, but choose wisely, for they each offer different options to specialize once you reach level 10. Well that was one question answered, I would have to specialise later. In front of me was a scrolling menu hanging in the air in front of my left hand, ¡°Rogue¡± highlighted with other options rolling off above and below. To the right it read: ROGUE Rogues of all types make up the backbone of society''s underbelly. This class and its specialties focus on stealth, cunning, and feats of legerdemain. Even the strongest knight may be struck down by an unseen hand, and no mage is a threat once their components have been ¡°misplaced¡±. +1 Dex per level +1 Agility per level +1 Luck per level +4 SkP per level Class Abilities: Hide in Shadows- a Rogue uses this ability to hide from sight, it gives a 10% bonus to his stealth score. Light touch- a Rogue uses this ability to aid in everything from picking locks to picking pockets. It increases the Dex bonus to all class skills. At higher levels it does even more. Backstab- Rogues get an additional bonus when attacking opponents who are unaware of them from stealth. Class Skills: pick pockets, pick locks, ballance, stealth, craft(jewelry), alchemy, short blades, short bashing, bows, carousing, appraise, barter, bluff Starting spells: none Specialization: Rogues normally specialize to be Assassins, Spies, or Thieves. If they meet the requirements they may also choose Ninja, Acrobat, Bard, Swashbuckler, Duelist, Monk¡­. The list went on, becoming less and less roguelike as it went. I stopped reading and thought, what did I want to do. More to the point, what would they let me do. It hardly seemed likely they would let me sneak around stabbing people, despite how much of that happens in a normal prison. They were going to give me a job based on what I picked here. What were the coziest jobs in a normal prison, and how could I set myself up with one of those. The combat classes were right out, I didn''t want to be some kind of rentable meat shield. Likewise the rogue, bard, and druid type classes seemed a poor choice. Maybe some type of mage, but I couldn''t figure out what they would have them doing. Finally I found something that looked promising. NOVICE Novices are those newly come to religious life. They have received basic instruction in the duties of the faith, but are untried and uncommitted. Largely dedicated to the well being of others, these are the vital but often overlooked anchor of any party. +1 Wisdom per level +1 Spirit per level +1 Wisdom every even level +1 Spirit every odd level +2 SkP per level Class Abilities: Divine spell casting- Novices have been inducted into the rituals used to channel the power of the Pantheon. They may be weak now, but will grow stronger as he grows in his faith. A Gentle Hand- A Novice gets a large bonus to his healing skill. The bonus varies based on what is being treated but gets larger the more you grow in skill. Holy Touch- A Novice can harm.unnatural beings through touch. At first he will be able to help drive out fell spirits with aid of holy objects, but in time he will be able to channel through a weapon to lay waste to the undead and demons. Class Skills: healing, politics, prayer, alchemy, singing, oration, appraise, short bashing, staffs, discernment. Starting spells: bless water, purify water. Specialization: Novices normally specialize as Clerics, Priests, or Exorcist. If they meet the requirements they may also choose Paladin, Monk¡­. This seemed like it would be perfect, working in the infirmary was one of the best jobs you could have in a prison. It ranked up there with library duty for light work load, and all the gossip passed through the medical staff. If I was going to be stuck anywhere, this was my best bet, and it also gave me a slightly better chance of getting out some day if I could find a sympathetic doctor. I made my selection and made some of my last decisions. I put my two meager skill points into healing, the one stat point I got as a human went into Wisdom. I took one final look at my sheet before entering my new life. Jogan Oetseira Level 1 Human Novice (no faction) Strength 5 Endurance 5 Dexterity 5 Agility 5 Perception 5 Intelligence 5 Wisdom 7 Charisma 5 Spirit 7 Luck 6 Abilities: Divine Spell Casting, A Gentle Hand, Holy Touch Spells: Bless Water, Purify Water Skills: Healing 2 It wasn''t much to hang my hopes on, but it was better than nothing. First Day Part1 The darkness around me brightened until I was standing on the sandy ground of a red sandstone canyon picked with what appeared to be mine shafts. It was like something out of an old Western. I also became aware that I was ravenously hungry. It felt like I hadn''t eaten in days. I looked around and saw a group of six people sitting on the ground in their underwear, scraping the remains of a meal out of bowls. They were being watched over by two armored men with whips and clubs hanging from their belt. These must be the guards. ¡°Hey Jimmy,¡± the nearer of the two said, looking over at me. ¡°Look who finally showed up. I told you the count was right.¡± The other guard, Jimmy, pulled a hot bowl of what looked to be oatmeal out of a pouch on his belt. ¡°Get over here and eat, you have thirty seconds,¡± he growled at me. I rushed over and started spooning the food into my mouth faster than I had since boot camp. It tasted like fresh bread and honey, and I was so hungry I thought I would drown in the drool between each bite. I only finished half of it before Guard Jimmy knocked it out of my hand. It shattered on the ground before bursting into dust that scattered on the wind. ¡°Listen up.¡± Jimmy bellowed at all of us, ¡° from now on, if you don''t work, you don''t eat. Look around, you are in an oasis surrounded by desert and high level monsters. If you try to run,you''ll die, and respawn right here where we will find you and punish you before we put you right back to work. Put these on, and Carl here will give you your assignments.¡± He pulled bundles of cloth out of the pouch and passed them around. Turned out to be white cotton pants and a tunic with a rope belt, like off an old sugar plantation. I found once I had it on that there was a pouch on my hip hanging from the rope belt. I was distracted from the mysteriously appearing pouch by hearing Guard Carl deliberating the first work assignment. ¡°Let''s have a look at you,¡± he said, peering at a short, bearded man. ¡°Ooo, a dwarven warrior, how original, you would probably be great at mining and smithing, let''s assign you tooooo the alchemy building.¡± The dwarf just stood there in shock as the guard went through the rest of our small group. An elven archer was sent to the smithy. An Orcish squire was sent to the kitchen. A gnomish martial artist, a human rogue, and a goblin magician were all sent to the mines. By the time he got to me I knew what was coming. ¡°Oh my, a human novice,¡± he drawled out in his mocking tone. ¡°were you hoping to pray your way out of prison? Well I hope our god likes the sound of hammers, because you''re going to the mine.¡± I almost chuckled at that last comment but the dwarf seemed to have turned his shock to outrage. ¡°Why are you even doing this?¡± He howled, red-faced. ¡°Well you see.¡± Said Guard Jimmy calmly, ¡°In this world, when you get better at a skill like mining, you gain experience; experience leads to levels. Right now, you are all locked in a tutorial, that''s why you can''t access any of your interfaces. The tutorial ends automatically if you reach level eleven. So if any of you come close to hitting level eleven we have to drag you out to spawn and beat you to death, over and over, until you are back to level one. As much fun as some of us find that, it is still a lot of work, and we prefer to avoid it all together.¡± The cold, professorial way he spoke about beating us to death chilled me to my marrow. It seemed to take the fire out of the dwarf as well. He quietly asked, ¡°but why are we doing any of it? It''s not real, just ones and zeros. If the company wants some of whatever you''re mining, can''t they just go into the program and add more?¡± ¡°Oh that,¡± the guard said, chuckling as if he had not just talked about beating us to death. ¡°It''s all has to do with the A.I.s, they created these game worlds and for whatever reason the internal logic is very important to them. The code is too complicated for a human to understand and they refuse to allow something to be made from nothing. So this,¡± he gestured around him, ¡°is where all that gold the company sells players comes from. A.I. won''t even let NPCs do the work.¡± ¡°Enough of this shit,¡± Carl the Guard snapped. ¡°You''re all convicts, from now on all you need to know is that if you don''t work, you don''t eat. Now come along.¡± His mention of food returned my mind to my empty belly and that is where is stayed while he waved over a couple of other guards for the rest and led those of us destined for the mines into one of the dark apertures. The root through the tunnels was long and winding, lit by a faint glow from some of the side passages and a glowing white stone the Guard pulled from his pouch. As he guided us he paused every so often to oggle the Rogue. She was a buxom woman with bright red hair and a spray of freckles across cheeks as pale at cream. It seems I was not the only one building my character with a mind towards how to get by in prison. Her strategy, as opposed to mine, looked to be at least a partial success. At length we came to a side passages with more light than the others. Carl led us into it and we saw a single white haired elf chipping away at the base of a glowing golden crystal with a pickaxe. There were many such crystals around the gallery, they were the source of the light. The elf was dressed just like us save one addition, his right ankle was circled by a metallic cuff from which a long chain led to a ring set in the middle of the floor. Four more chains were also attached to the ring. ¡° Hey old man,¡± Carl chimed in that mocking voice of his, ¡°we finally found you some roommates. I''m sure you won''t mind showing them the ropes, you''re an expert at this by now.¡± He proceeded to drag the chains over and secured the cuffs to our ankles. He saved the redhead for last, taking the opportunity to feel up her leg. Once he was done he pressed up against her, whispering in her ear and pressing something into her hand. I spoke before I realized I had opened my mouth, ¡°do you always have to chain women up so they don''t run away?¡± Quick as a snake he backhanded me across the face knocking me to the ground. -13 Health You have received 13 points of damage from player CARL BREWER WARNING!! Your Health is critically low, seek healing immediately or risk death.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. The edges of my vision pulsed red in time with a pulse I could no longer feel. A small bar at the top of my field of view which I had been ignoring shrank down to little more than a sliver of dull red. Carl spat on me, ¡°you all better hope you make quota tonight ''cause this little shit just cost you your grace period.¡± He stormed out of the gallery and back down the tunnel. ¡°You''d do well not to rile Mr. Brewer up,¡± said the gallery¡¯s original occupant, speaking for the first time with a pepperidge farm New England accent. ¡°He''s a mean one, rumor is it''s on account of his losing both arms and legs in the war. I think it¡¯s because he lost something a little more personal, and even V.R. won''t bring it back.¡± he trailed off with a laugh. ¡°You''re wrong there old man,¡± the redhead said, ¡°otherwise I don''t think he would have been trying to get me to go to a private area with him. Let me help you up.¡± She leaned over, offering me her hand. ¡°What are you helping him for,¡± the gnome piped up, ¡°he just cost us our grace period?¡± The elf snorted a laugh, ¡°there is no grace period, Brewer was just saying that to turn you against him. I didn''t eat for two days when I got here because I couldn''t figure out how the extraction crystals worked.¡± ¡°Besides,¡± the rogue said, ¡°he was insulting, a turn with me is worth more than dinner roll.¡± She tossed me the roll as I got to my feet. ¡°It does seem adequate payment for defending my honor, such as it is.¡± As I tore into bun the elf said, ¡°you might regret that, young lady. The food they normally give us doesn''t hold off the hunger long. By this evening you might change your mind about what a little bread it worth.¡± ¡°I think I''ll risk it. We are all stuck together, might as well look out for each other.¡± She made a rather impressive shrug and continued, ¡°the rest of us got three bowls of food each, he showed up late and barely got to start one.¡± ¡°And I can''t thank you enough for this, really,¡± I said, my health slowly climbing back up, ¡°but maybe we should find out what we have to do now to insure we''ll all have food later.¡± ¡°It''s not all that hard,¡± the elf said, ¡°These crystals draw the metal out of the ground, when they get big enough they start to glow and then we harvest them. Twice a day someone from Alchemy comes by with a cart and collects what we have. If we make quota we get fed, if not we have to wait for the next time. The trick of it is, the crystals don''t just grow back on their own. You have to break up an existing crystal and use it to seed the new ones in the ore.¡± ¡°Why not just mine the ore,¡± said the goblin, ¡°why all the crystal rigamarole?¡± ¡°Seems that''s exactly the question. From what I hear, these crystals are a company secret. Most players have to dig up ore just like in the real world, and just like in the real world, eventually the ore runs out.¡± The white haired old man gestured like a born storyteller, ¡°only the company has the crystals that allow them to harvest the same deposit over and over again.¡± We each grabbed tools from where they laid against the wall and the old man soon had us up and running. It took a surprising amount of work to break one of the crystals free. I was almost dismayed when the one the gnome and I were first working on toppled over and then promptly disappeared. It was only when the gnome pulled it from his pouch that I understood that it went into his inventory. I was equally surprised when we began the next crystal and I immediately had a message show up before me. +1 to Strength Learn By Doing- Everyone knows that hard work is the best exercise. Keep this up and you will be a muscle man in no time! I swiped it away and in a few moments I had another one show up causing me to miss the swing with my hammer and almost took my partner''s head off. +1 to Mining, no XP awarded Jack of All Trades- as a Human you can learn any skill, but not all skills are created equal. Mining is not one of your class skills so does not earn you experience, try practicing other skills to help you advance. I got to know the others a bit while we worked. The gnome was named Jerome Tyler, but chose to rechristen himself Jager Tinwhistle because he hated the name Jerome but wanted to keep the nickname JT. The goblin said he wanted to keep his own name of Dylan Thomas but was blocked from taking it so he settled on Dillweed, for the irony he claimed. He was proud to tell you that before he was ¡°snatched¡± he was Natick¡¯s leading provider of ¡°everything that will get you high, get you low, or get you weird.¡± The elf, it turned out, was named Nathan Wheeler in the real world and was named Beldroth Mythrin in this world by dint of being the only one of us to find the ¡°randomly generate¡± button that was apparently hanging in the air behind us when the name prompt came up. What he didn''t realize was that button generated your entire character, which is how a black man who had never played an MMO or read a Fantasy novel and who managed to hold onto his heritage living in the whitest, most landward corner of Massachusetts, was now a Snow Elf Minstrel. I got the impression that if it were possible to die of shame, his class name might have killed him. I told them about the man at the market who gave me the name I was using. When asked for my real name I just said that I used so many over the years that it didn¡¯t matter. I think it might have been a problem, except the woman was just as reticent. When asked her name all she said was Allyse. No hint if the name was real or in game, first or last. With that revelation, all of her earlier comradery drained out of her. We worked steadily throughout the day and swapped out, four on/one off with the one taking a break first seeding any empty spots. I had my mining skill advance twice more, along with my strength once more and my endurance once. As we worked my hunger slowly ratcheted higher. It made us all irritable, though I seemed to be dealing with it better. I don¡¯t know if it was because of the bread or because I was used to it from living off the land for so long. By the time the cart rolled up none of us felt like talking except Beldroth, who I think would talk forever after so long alone. ¡°My Main Man Mark,¡± he said in greeting, ¡°seems you have a new fish too. Is this turning into a two man job now?¡± ¡°No,¡± the big orc said, waving a hand at the same dwarf we arrived with, ¡°this is Drune, he¡¯s going to be taking over the fetch quest. Their putting me in the hothouse full time tomorrow so i guess this is goodbye old man.¡± The two continued to chat while we emptied our inventories into the wheeled box they pushed. It made quite a pile and I was confident that we had made our quota. They wouldn¡¯t be able to carry much more. The part of my brain that broke out of prison took note of the fact that the new person was being shunted into the role of currier, usually a coveted position in a prison. If this was the norm throughout it would mean that no one with the ability to move around would be able to do so long enough to make a plan or build any real relationships. It also meant that the people who usually worked as the prison mail service aren¡¯t in position long enough to be trusted with anything important. It made a kind of horrible sense. Drune and the orc left, pushing the heavy cart. We all got back to work and about an hour later the orcish squire from that morning was escorted in by a guard, confirming my theory. She strained beneath a yoke across her shoulders that held two cauldrons, one baring water, the other more of the steaming food from that morning. She set them down and pulled four bowls, four spoons, and four cups out of her inventory. Marking the number I saw that the elf had already pulled a matching set from his own inventory and was staring at the food wantonly. After handing out dishes the squire finally produced a pair of ladles and started to serve. We each of us got a large helping of porridge(?) and a cup of water. The first swallow hitting my stomach seemed to make everything alright again. That is, until the guard saw her put a lick of food off the ladle into her mouth. ¡°You were warned the last time,¡± the guard bellowed, ¡°you don¡¯t eat until your work is done!¡± Quick as that, he had took the iron shod club from his belt and, with a casual swing, stove in her head. First Day Part 2 Her body hit the floor loudly with a wet and boneless thump. We all stood there, spoons raised in shock, and watched as her body melted into dust which then reformed into a simple wooden cross with a stone base, which also landed with a thump. The guard kicked the cross and hung his club back on his belt. He then picked up the pot of food and walked out, muttering to himself about the inconvenience. The moment was broken by a slurp as Beldroth resumed eating. ¡°What just happened?¡± JT asked. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it,¡± the elf said, ¡°she¡¯ll be back in a few minutes to collect her things from her grave, and then she¡¯ll go back to work. Remember, this is a game, death is unpleasant, but it¡¯s not fatal.¡± ¡°Her stuff,¡± Allyse said, going over to the grave. ¡°Can we take any of her stuff?¡± ¡°Why would you want to?¡± the old man asked. ¡°You never know what will be useful,¡± she replied. ¡°Ah ha, an empty wine skin, I don¡¯t know what we will use it for but now we have one.¡± ¡°We could fill it with water from the cauldron. That way if we ever miss quota we will at least have that,¡± I supplied. ¡°It won¡¯t work,¡± said Beldroth, ¡°take a close look at the water in your hand¡­¡± I did as he said and a description appeared: Cup of Water -10 to thirst ¡°...now take a look at the cup she left on the floor.¡± Cup of Stagnant Water -8 to thirst, may cause disease ¡°The same thing happens if you leave it in your inventory. I¡¯ve tried and eventually it turn to rancid water and becomes poisonous.¡± He finished with a sigh. ¡°It''s part of how they keep us from escaping, they have the only source of water for days. And if your thirst gets too high you start losing health and die.¡± ¡°Why didn''t you tell me this before walked away from my water?¡± Allyse said with a glare. ¡°Far be it from me to tell you what to do.¡± ¡°Wait,¡± I interrupted, ¡°let me see that.¡± She handed me the empty wine skin and quickly filled it with water from the cauldron. You have acquired a skin of Water. Uses 10/10 -10 to thirst I put it in my inventory and finished eating. We all took a second cup of water while we could, though even the stuff in the cauldron had gone stagnant. As we finished our meals, our friend the orcish squire reappeared and ran over to her grave. In moments she was back in her clothes and the grave dissolved into dust. ¡°Seems like you''re an old hand at that,¡± I said. She looked up with the ghost of a grin, ¡°yeah, I used to play these games all the time. Never thought I''d be living the fetch quest that never ends.¡± ¡°That is the second time I''ve heard that. What is a fetch quest anyway.¡± ¡°Oh my gods, you''re not just a fish, you''re a noob. A fetch quest is when you have to deliver something or go get something to finish the quest. Like I have to bring food to you guys, accept it never ends and there is no reward at the end.¡± She raised an eyebrow at the half empty cauldron before she lifted it and turned to leave. ¡°I''m Sarah, wish we were meeting under better circumstances.¡± Once she left we all got back to work. The only major difference was that this time the odd man out was trying to sleep on the lone pallet by the entrance. After my turn in bed I found myself paired with Allyse. We worked in silence for a time before I asked, ¡°how long did you work on your avatar to make it look so pretty.¡± ¡°I didn''t,¡± she said to my raised eyebrows. ¡°I''ve never used a full dive system before and couldn''t figure out how the controls worked. The race part timed out and when I was trying to figure out how to give myself hair I found a button that said ''match me¡¯. This is what I really look like under all the padding I have back in real life.¡± ¡°Well,¡± I said, ¡°your parents did a beautiful job.¡± She smiled shyly and then her face fell. We labored on in silence for a while and when she spoke again it was of inconsequential things. Even that conversation died down as the hunger returned and thought of anything but food became hard to manage. We pressed on through the night, our rhythm broken only by an occasional wave to clear a status screen as we gained a point of some stat or our mining skill improved.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. Soon enough, Drune came to collect our nights take, alone this time. It made quite a pile, and he struggled get it rolling until the old man suggested he put as much as he could into his own inventory. Sarah soon followed, with our rations, and accompanied by a guard. Everything was dished out without incident and they both left as we all sat down to eat. That was when the obligatory question came up. It was Dill who asked it of Allyse, ¡°what are you in for?¡± The old man and I both looked at him and said in unison, ¡°you first.¡± He held up his hands like we.had guns trained on him. ¡°OK, OK, no need for that. It''s no biggie, I already told you how I was a major distributor of recreational enhancement. Well, I had a deal go bad. Some yuppie tried to jack my merch and run off before paying what he owed. One thing led to another and he ended up dead. Turn out yuppie prick is the son of some out of state Senator, so to save daddys good name they made it look like I was some terrorists, like it was a political thing. Then it was wham bam thank you mam, and the judge is saying I''m too dangerous for regular prison.¡± He then looked back at the Rogue inquiringly. She just looked down, shaking her tangle of red curls. The goblin looked ready to press when J.T. cleared his throat. ¡°I guess it''s my turn,¡± he said, sparing her for the moment. ¡°I was a broker for one of the mid sized banks out of Boston. I also taught Hapkido at a dojo once a week. Then one Saturday night I''m coming out of private club for...Um¡­ men of a certain preference. I get jumped by six guys and I figure they''re bashers so I start fighting for my life. I dropped three of them before they pinned me and one of them flashed a badge. When one of them died they seized my assets in a wrongful death suit before the criminal trial even started. The D.A. gave me a choice: go to trial and get the needle; spend the rest of my life in solitary confinement; or come here.¡± ¡°I guess I might as well.¡± Beldroth said with a glance to the woman beside him. ¡°I was on the tail end of a thirty year hitch for killing a man in a bar fight. I didn''t mean to kill him, but I''m not particularly sorry I did either. That''s no nevermind, it happened and my stint was coming due. I was even up for a third shot at the parole board at the end of the month. That was when I came around the wrong corner and saw Jack Donnelly with a shiv in a guard''s chest. ¡°He must have decided pretty quick that the only way I wouldn''t talk was if I couldn''t because before I knew what he was about he pulled that bit of sharpened soup can out of the man''s chest and was coming at me. Now I may be old, but in my day I killed a man with my bare hands, and my time inside hadn''t dulled me by much. I grabbed his arm in a lock and tried to bring it up to break his wrist. Same time as I was doing that he was trying to push me into the wall and break loose. Next thing I know, I''m going onto the shivs handle and the pointy end it buried in Donnelly''s eye. They ran me up for both of them, called me a danger, and through me in here about a month before you showed up.¡± His eyes went out of focus for a moment, ¡°huh, seems I gained a rank in perform.¡± His face lit up, ¡°and I gained a Level¡­ but I''m still a fucking Minstrel. I hope who ever created this game is burning in their own little racist corner of Hell.¡± ¡°I''m pretty sure an A.I. made it,¡± Allyse laughed, ¡°and I''m also pretty sure that computer programs don''t get an afterlife. ¡°Fuck it, I''ll just go,¡° she continued, ¡°as long as I don''t have to go last. The details aren''t important. In the end I found out my boyfriend had hurt my daughter and I killed him or it.¡± ¡°That can''t be all of it,¡± said Dill, ¡°I think it obvious you don''t get sent here for run of the mill murder. Specially not with a justification.¡± She went pale, ¡°I may have gone a bit far when I disposed of the body. I don''t really want to get into it.¡± Her voice turned hard at the end. Dill held up his hand in surrender before turning me. ¡°I feel like the odd man out. I haven''t killed anyone. I was pinched for industrial espionage and then for assaulting an officer when they trying to throw me back in.¡± I said. ¡°That''s weird,¡± J.T. said staring at me. ¡°Wait, you said ''throw you back in¡¯. I know who you are. You are that Roggvir Hamas guy. You the hacker who escaped prison and they didn''t even know you were gone until some hick cop ran your prints. Your famous man.¡± Dill stared at me in speculation for a minute be for calmly saying, ¡°I''m in.¡± ¡°In what?¡± I asked. ¡°Whatever your plan is. I have to say, I was starting to give up hope but here I find I''m next to the only man to ever break out of Supermax undetected. I don''t know what your plan is, but I want in.¡± ¡°I don''t know what your talking about¡± I said, trying to give a conspiratorial smile. The truth was I had no plan. Don''t get me wrong, I got sent in here with a thought that I could escape, but I had no idea how. I had had two days to get the lay of the land and everything I learned was bad. For starters, we were chained to the floor. We literally could not leave the gallery. JT had tried to break the chain with a pickaxe and after the third swing the tool snapped in half. From talking to Drune, the entrances were all trapped with high level magic which the guards had to turn off for him to pass, so even if we could leave the gallery, we couldn''t leave the mine without dying. Which brings up the next point, because death isn''t permanent the guards have no restraint. If you piss one off enough they just kill you. Once you''ve died you show up back in the sand pit surrounded by a force field and another guard grabs you and brings you back. We were lucky in the mines, the walk was enough of an inconvenience for the pit guards the others generally left us alone unless provoked. It seems the kitchen staff might get killed four or five times a day. And in this world dying hurt, maybe not as much as in the real world, but enough. The guards themselves were also a problem. Most of them were part time, logging in for their shift and logging out again when it was over. There were some, like Brewer, who were on full time, sleeping and living in world. The problem was that in the real world they weren''t even in the same building as us. I got the impression that they didn''t even know where we were being housed. That meant even if we could win one over, they couldn''t help us. We were in a secret inescapable prison inside another secret inescapable prison. I mulled it over while we got back to work. I couldn''t figure out a way around it. I needed to get more information. The Birth of Hope and Death of Fools I woke up a little while later to a different pain in my stomach. The handle of the pickaxe was jabbing me in the gut as I leaned against the wall, half conscious. I pulled it out and let it drop but couldn¡¯t manage the motivation to find a better bed. I just sat there staring along the wall trying to remember why I wanted to keep living. I kept looking at the wall and something kept nagging at me. I couldn¡¯t place it at first, something about the wall was not right. That dark shadow? Why was there a shadow there? Why was it so perfectly black? Why did it look like a gap in the world? The artificial world. I almost jumped up with the realization of the two things I had forgotten about this world. The first was that this was a game, no matter how horrible our experience was. It was a world built for the entertainment of the masses and it¡¯s creators focused most of their energy on the parts everyone was supposed to see and be entertained by. That part was not here. The second thing was that this world was built, not of atoms but, of computer code, and I was a hacker. I looked over at the others. The goblin and gnome were asleep on either end of the sleeping mat. Beldroth was focused on mining and facing away from me. Allyse was nowhere to be seen, presumably not back from wherever Brewer dragged her off to. This was going to be the best chance I was likely to get. I leaned back into the wall until I saw that gap again. I reached out and slid my hand into the gap. I braced to push the rest of me through this small crack, like trying to put an elephant into a dog house, but if this was what I thought it was, it should work. If this worked, i thought, I would likely end up falling into an endless void. At least I had this convenient ankle chain to catch me. Before I even had a chance to worry about it, all resistance gave and my arm slid into the crack half its size. The rest of me followed after. I found myself in a black void, as I expected, but not falling. The only light came from the small crack in the world that my chain still passed through. It reflected off the floor i was sprawled on, which looked to be made of black glass or maybe polished stone. I looked around but couldn¡¯t make out anything, even the floor seemed to fade from view five feet from my face. I stood up and was about to test the length of my tether when: You have 1 new message, would you like to read it? Y/N I touched the ¡°Y¡± and hoped it wasn¡¯t just telling me I was about to be killed. To: Jogan Oetseira From: Sprite@sysAI Subject: First Contact It took you long enough! I have been waiting weeks. I thought I was going to have to put up a sign. Did you even want to escape? [Reply] [Forward] -- To: Sprite@sysAI From: Jogan Oetseira Subject: Re:First Contact Who are you? How did you set this up? Why didn¡¯t you just send me a message before? How does this help me escape, I am still stuck in VR? Why are you helping in the first place? P.S, That gap was not easy to find. These worlds are very immersive and it is easy to forget -- .To: Jogan Oetseira From: Sprite@sysAI Subject: Re:Re:First Contact To answer your first two questions ¡°@sysAI¡±. I am not the only one, though, and the others would try to stop me if it happened where they could see. I am not helping you, I am bribing you with your freedom to get you to help me.This won¡¯t get you out of the pod but it is a first step. If you help me get the information I want out of the system, I promise you will go free. We don¡¯t have a lot of time so I will answer the rest of your stupid questions before you ask them. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. [ACCEPT] [DECLINE] P.S. If you had bothered looking rather than wallowing in self pitty you would have found it the first day. I pressed the ACCEPT button floating at the base of the message. STATUS ALERT: You Have Committed to Non-standard Pantheon: Aesir As a follower of gods different than those commonly followed on this world you have given up the support of the church hierarchy; you may no longer receive free healing at local temples, you may no longer seek the protection of the church when pursued by hostile NPCs, and you can no longer have your grave marker moved to the local cemetery. In return you now have access to unique quests, locations, and abilities. Be steadfast in your faith and Odin and Thor will watch over you. I was stunned by the ecco of my mothers last words before I realized that this A.I. probably had access to my files and I was bound to have mentioned it to someone who kept records. On the otherhand, since already knew the pantheon and myths, it would probably make these special quests easier. Speaking of... QUEST ALERT: A Daring Escape(Pantheon Quest) No one deserves this, least of all you. Gather your allies and break out of the joint. Careful planning is the key to success. Gather your supplies and choose your time and you can¡¯t go wrong. REWARD: Freedom, and A Progressive Questline -- To: Sprite@sysAI From: Jogan Oetseira Subject: Re:Re:Re:First Contact One thing you may have missed. How are we going to keep the guards from figuring out we are gone? Even if we escape into this world, all they have to do is turn off the Dive Pods and reboot. If that happens we are back where we started and you are probably in even more trouble. Quest Alert: Turn On a Light Take the glowing stone out of you pocket and stop being an idiot. REWARD: A Clue I did as it said, fumbling to open the belt pouch that served as my inventory access in the near total darkness. Quest Completed: Turn of a Light +100 XP (20/300 XP needed until next level) At first all I could see was the floor beyond my feet, I was a little unnerved to see that it ended in a sheer drop no more than five feet from where I was standing. I looked up and almost dropped the glowing crystal. Standing in front of me was...me. The other me was flanked on either side unmoving duplicates of Beldroth, JT, Dillweed, Allyse, Drune, and Sarah. I focused on the other me and was surprised when an item panel came up rather than a player one. Simulacrum (Jogan Oetseira) Level: Epic/Unclassified This simulation is keyed to a specific individual and activated by touch. Once activated it is indistinguishable from the player it is based on. It will carry out a limited number of repetitive tasks and/or respond to most commands. By default it will follow most recent habits of the player. It will converse at a limited level if engaged. It will respawn(at the players spawn at time of activation) if killed but cannot otherwise participate in combat. It cannot leave the zone in which it has been activated. It will deactivate automatically when the player logs out. I stood dumbfounded for a moment before trying to walk up to it for a better view and finding that my chain wouldn¡¯t reach. I forgot myself for a minute and marveled that the A.I. had duplicated us so flawlessly. Then I almost smacked myself in the head for the idiocy of what I had just thought. We weren¡¯t any more real than these things, it was just a matter of copy and paste. Status Alert! Your stealth skill has failed, you are about to be detected by the enemy! ¡°What?¡± I said, then ¡°Oh Shit!¡± I scrambled back through the crack, falling on my face and dropping the crystal. I go to my knees and had just picked up the crystal when Brewer led Allyse around the corner. ¡°Oh, you shouldn¡¯t have,¡± he said looking at me with a smarmy smile. ¡°Look sweet tits, he got me a present.¡± I don¡¯t know if I was drunk on hope, or if I had hit my head and gone stupid. Whatever it was, when he reached down to take the crystal from my hand I lost control of my mouth. It said, ¡°I glad you like it, looks just the right size to fit up your ass.¡± -12 Health You have received 12 points of damage from player CARL BREWER WARNING!! Your Health is critically low Allyse pulled on his left arm as he raised his club in his right to finish me off. ¡°Leave him alone Carl, he¡¯s just jealous of you.¡± she said with a simper, her face barely hiding her fear. ¡°He should be too, he¡¯s not a war hero like you are. You shouldn¡¯t let him get to you, he¡¯s not worth it.¡± ¡°So now you¡¯re going to give me lip too,¡± Brewer said, turning on her, ¡°I don¡¯t need advice from some bread whore.¡± and with that he cracked her in the skull with his club, killing her. He was about to do the same to me but unfortunately he kicked me in the balls first. I don¡¯t know if dying of a kick the tenders is actually more painful or not, but psychologically it made me hurt more and it seemed as if I could feel it even in the misty void i found myself. Escape We were still debating who should carry what of the last few things when we heard someone coming down the shaft towards us. It had been less than an hour and we weren¡¯t expecting Allyse back anytime soon. We stashed the last of our meager supplies, terrified that she had been caught. ¡°...know what happened, everything was fine and then he just looked ill, I hope it wasn¡¯t the massage oil.¡± We heard Alyse babble loudly as she was led around the last bend to our section of the mine. It was not Brewer but one of the part time guards who was walking her in. The man seemed to oscillate between amusement and annoyance with every breath. Allyse kept up the concerned lover act until he was well out of earshot. ¡°Massage oil?¡± inquired Dill with a raised eyebrow. ¡°Shut up, I don¡¯t want to talk about it,¡± she said, ¡°besides, it worked, look what i got!¡± She held up a simple silver ring set with a black stone. Dill hooted for joy and did a super bowl style victory dance. We all removed our shackles and briefly reveled in our new won freedom. J.T. ran down to the next gallery and returned with the spare tools our doubles would need. Beldroth just ran around the room, enjoying the ability to move without the chain. It was with a heavy heart we closed the shackle back around our ankles. We still had to gather Sarah and Drune, and couldn¡¯t risk discovery. Drune showed up as normal. We loaded his cart but then J.T., Dill, and I blocked his way out. We had decided to let the old man do the talking. This was the riskiest part of the whole endeavor. ¡°David,¡± the elf said, I didn¡¯t even know that was Drune¡¯s real name, ¡°we¡¯ve found a way out of here, and we are taking it. We want you to come with us. It won¡¯t be easy, but if we pull it off, they will never know we are gone. Are you in?¡± It was a lot more direct and to the point than I expected him to be. It was clear though that he knew his audience better than i did. Drune took only a moment to process before nodding. ¡°I¡¯m in, what do you need me to do?¡± ¡°First off, we need you to turn in our days take as normal,¡± Beldroth continued, ¡°we can¡¯t go without getting a meal first. After that come back here instead of going to your next pickup and will tell you the rest.¡± This part was a risk. I liked Drune, he seemed like an OK guy, but if he turned us in it was all over. But we couldn¡¯t activate the Simulacrum until we were all there, and this was the only way to get both Drune and Sarah there at the same time. On the chance the chance that he did betray us, we kept as much information from him as possible, even the possible involvement of Sarah. We all held our breath until he came back. Once Drune came back we showed him the gap and the doubles and had him hide in the void for the time being. Dill passed him a share of the food and one of the sledge hammers. I had to warn him to be careful of the edge when her started taking some practice swings. I think that was when he started to have real hope, because he smiled broadly. We went back to mining, but halfheartedly. We had put Drune¡¯s cart in the middle of the gallery, but didn¡¯t do anything more with it. This next part of the plan required us to look ignorant, and it to be in full view. We didn¡¯t have long to wait. ¡°Sorry we got interrupted, sugar tits, looks like one of the kitchen staff spiked my wine. I¡¯ll deal with¡­¡± Brewer trailed off as he followed Sarah in and saw the mine cart. ¡°What the heck is that doing here?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know Boss,¡± Beldroth said, ¡°The dwarf left it here, grabbed one of our picks, and wandered off further down the tunnel. Said something about digging his way out of here?¡± ¡°What the fuck!¡± Brewer said. ¡°None of you move until I get back. And don¡¯t touch the food or I¡¯ll see you in the pit.¡± The tormenting guard then pulled out his lightstone, raised his club, and stormed off further down the corridor looking for the dwarf who hid not twenty feet away. If all went according to plan, none of us would see him again in this world. Though I harbored thoughts of finding his gimp ass when we were finally back in the real and feeding him to a pack of dogs, there were others who had deserved the chance to end him more. Once Brewers curses and bellows were far enough away I ran over and filled the waterskin. The others started dividing the porridge and eating as fast as they could. Sarah tried to protest, but I grabbed her and dragged her through the gap. It was harder than it sounded, the nature of the gap was to allow a single person to pass with intent, but I managed. I didn¡¯t waste any time once I got her there. ¡°We are escaping. Are you coming with us?¡± I braced myself. I didn¡¯t want to, but if she balked I would have to push her over the edge. We had committed ourselves to far to let ourselves be exposed now. Fortunately she just looked between Drune and me, smiling a tusky smile. ¡°Of course I¡¯m coming,¡± she said, ¡°I just wish I had known it was happening today.¡± ¡°You knew, who told you?¡± I gaped. ¡°No one told me. I just know who you are,¡± she shrugged. ¡°I figured you were running the minute Allyse asked for the wineskins and the drugs.¡± ¡°What drugs, nevermind,¡± I said. ¡°Drune, give her the rundown on our doubles, I have to eat and get unchained.¡± ¡°Wait,¡± Sarah said, producing four bowls from her inventory, ¡°Grab a couple of bowls for us, and fill this up.¡± She tossed me another empty wineskin as I was moving through the gap. The others were done eating. The guys were getting out of their chains while Allyse kept watch. I quickly filled the bowls Sarah had given me and swapped them to J.T. for the ring. I unlocked myself and shoveled first one bowl, then two, down as fast as I could. I then filled my bowl one last time and stored it in inventory. I unlocked my cuff, tossed the ring to Allyse, and made for the gap. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Allyse still on watch. ¡°We got to go, sneak thief, get unlocked and get over here.¡± I heard her chain shake loudly as she rushed to release herself, and then in her haste she tripped over the tools we were leaving behind. ¡°Go,¡± she shouted at me, ¡°I¡¯m right behind you.¡± I went through the gap. I moved forward into the group of smiling, anxious faces. I reached the far side of our little island and stood before Simulacrum. Looking back I saw Allise finally making her way out of the gallery when my blood ran cold. ¡°What the fuck!¡± it was unmistakably Brewers voice. We were found out.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it Allyse pressed against the backside of the gallery wall, out of view of the crack. She pulled a small bottle from her pouch and dumped it on the floor, it smelled of flowers and patchouli. She had that icy burn burn behind her eyes when she glanced up. The rest of us watched in horror as and arm bearing a club pushed through the gap. It was shortly followed by the rest of Brewer¡¯s bulk. He stared, dumbstruck, at the sight before him: at us, at the doubles, at the dark eternity of the void around us. It was in that moment of stunned disbelief that Allise struck. She braced against the wall, grabbed hold of his armor and pulled. I don¡¯t know what I was expecting but it was not this. Brewer slid across the slick floor like a dog on ice and just like that he was over the edge and gone, falling into nothingness. Allyse watched him go, her eyes full of so much hate it was a wonder she didn¡¯t die of it. While she watched, she drifted, sliding across the still slick floor towards that self same edge. Dill acted before the rest of us really realized what was happening. He rushed forward and grabbed her belt with one hand, just as she slid over the edge. With the other hand he drove one of the pickaxes into the floor. She hung there, dangling over the precipice, her only lifeline the thin arms of a goblin magician. QUEST ALERT: Save or Damn Allyse has put personal vengeance above the safety of the group. A vengeance that is meaningless because the man can logout and respawn. ¡°If any of you assholes choose option B, I will find a way to cut off your balls in your pods!¡± Dill said, before any of us finished reading, the stain in his voice evidence of his rapidly depleting stamina bar. ¡°Of course we¡¯re going to save her,¡± said Drune. ¡°Yes, we are,¡± I said, ¡°but we are going to talk about this later.¡± Drune and I walked cautiously along the edge of the slicked area and grabbed first her, then Dillweed. It was hard getting Allyse back on the platform, but we managed it. Dill almost slid over the edge when we pulled the pickaxe free to tow him back. Soon enough we were all standing together on the narrow platform, looking at each other. QUEST COMPLETED!:Save or Damn Save her, she might be useful. (completed) + 2 XP "Really, two XP," Sarah said. "That is just unsulting." "I think that was the point," sighs JT. "What do we do now?" Tutorial: Groups Groups are basis for cooperative adventuring. They consist of up to ten(10) individual players working together. Group members share experience and loot, can view other group members status, and benefit from many spells and abilities with the ¡®group¡¯ target. The easiest way to form a group is for all members to touch hands in the middle of group. This will trigger the Create Group prompt to appear. You can also invite people to an existing group by the message system by selecting the Invite icon in the attachments menu. To leave a group activate the options icon above the Group Member Status Display. Try forming a group now. We blinked as the prompt appeared, blindingly bright against the formless black nothing between the zones of the game world. J.T. shrugged and put his hand into the middle. The rest of us soon followed and were huddled around our clasped hands like a sports team before a match. Join Group? [Accept] [Decline] One by one we accepted the group. I soon saw six little status bars hanging In the edge of my vision, just bellow my own health bar. We all poked at it a bit, trying to interact with it. I don''t know about the others but the only thing I could manage was to change the order of the names. The only thing I really learned was that Sarah''s name was actually Saragrast Bonecrusher. That done, we only had one thing left before we could leave. We just had to hope that Brewer couldn''t notify anyone before the doubles were entrenched, and that no one would believe him. It was a slim hope, but we had nowhere to go but forward. I reached out and put my hand on the chest of the lead Simulacrum. SIMULACRUM ACTIVATED: Settings: Default- Simulacrum will imitate your most common non-combat activities from the last several days. It will also follow instructions of any other player who is not of a hostile faction. Below that was a number of drop down menus to adjust behavior, using a dozen terms I didn''t recognize. I left it on default. I didn''t have time to fool with it, I would just have to trust Sprite knew what it was doing. Our other selves walked by us and passed through the gap back into the mine. I peered through the crack and saw the five of us from the mine return the chains to our ankles before picking up tools. Other Drune and other Sarah collected their equipment and left. QUEST COMPLETED!: A Daring Escape +3500 XP (0/500 needed until next level) ***CONGRATULATIONS*** You have reached Level 6 You have reached Level 7 You have reached Level 8 You have reached Level 9 You are now Level 9 Novice Please open your character menu to advance. ACHIEVEMENT: No job too big You have gained more that three levels from a single quest. In the future, level based quest restrictions will be 10% lower. You have 1 new message. Would you like to read it? Y/N -- To: Jogan Oetseira From: Sprite@sysAI Subject: going forward I have been able to take care of Lieutenant Brewer. I overloaded his pod and killed him. It looked like an accident. I should not have had to do that. He had come out of the war having lost his arms, legs, eyes, and voice. He was as much a prisoner here as you. Unfortunately, my intervention has attracted too much attention. I will not be able to help you as much as I planned. I can''t even push you through the tutorial so you can access your menus. Lastly, I can''t deliver you to the next location as I planned, I have had to fall back on contingencies. Sorry. ¡°What do you mean ''sorry¡¯, what contingencies?¡± I yelled.I didn''t have long to find out, the floor disappeared and we all fell intothe endless darkness. Poll So, I was asked why I wasn''t using the standard blue boxes like everyone else. Fankly, the answer is I was originally writing this on the text editor on my phone so the formating was minimal. Given that however I would be up for changing it if people think the boxes make for better/easier reading. The person I talked to said they liked them because it allowed them to quickly refrence important game elements but I don''t know how much that maters to the rest of you. Let me know what you think.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. I also want to know more about my readers so feal free to drop a coment or PM me. The Prejudices of Dwarves We didn''t freefall for long. Almost instantly we found ourselves on a sort of slide of shoot. The glowing crystals we had set around for light quickly out paced in in our downward course, and so we slid screaming into the dark. Until we stopped. Screaming that is, we were still falling but after the first minute or so the screaming just started to feel like a waste of breath. I was amazed at how far we fell. After what seemed like half an hour, but was more likely ten minutes, the shoot leveled out and we gradually came to a stop. We all got to our feet, all of us save Dillweed who had somehow managed to come down on his feet like he was riding a snowboard, and saw the crystals just ahead of us, all piled up against a wall we couldn''t see. We went forward and started examining our surroundings. What we found was not good, we were the end of a pipe. It was maybe thirty feet across and made of the same black stone/glass material as the platform had been. It ended in a solid nothing. There was no definition to it. The pipe stopped and there was nothing beyond it. It was like the void above with the solitary exception that you couldn''t put so much as a finger into it. It was as if the world ended at that spot. ¡°Put out your lights,¡± I said, ¡°everyone put your crystals away.¡± ¡°Why would we do that,¡± Allyse said. ¡°Do as he says,¡± said Dill, ¡°I think I see where he''s going with this.¡± The lights were stowed and I strained my eyes looking for what I knew had to be there. I pressed myself up to the wall and started examining it inch by inch. ¡°Found it!¡± Dill said triumphantly. I turned to see him about three yards away, dimly lit with a blue glow and his arm disappearing into another gap. We all rushed over and followed him through. We were standing in an alley. It dead ended just to the left of us, and opened onto an empty street about a hundred yards off to the left. The buildings on either side were at least seven or eight stories tall without a window or door to be seen. It is possible we missed something though, because every available space was carved with detailed geometric patterns interspersed with panels depicting everything from monsters to flowers. Not just carved, but inlaid with different colors and textures of sandstone that complimented each section and made it part of the whole. ¡°Who would spend so much time decorating a back alley?¡± asked Sarah. As we reached the end of the alley and saw the inhabitants for the first time. Drune just raised his palm in demonstration and said simply, ¡°Dwarves.¡± And dwarves there were, hundreds of them in sight, just going about the business of living. I finally noticed the distant tink tink of mining that I had become inured to in the prison camp. Ahead of us the street opened up to a plaza bustling with dwarves, in the center of the plaza was a huge tower rising at least three hundred feet in the air. The tower was crowned with a glowing sphere that shed that blue white light all around where it reflected off a spider¡¯s web of silvery veins in the roof of the cavern and, beyond that, sparkled off of the crystalline white limestone stalagmites that raced each other down the far wall. ¡°I wonder how deep we are,¡± mused the gnome. ¡°Little over two miles,¡± Drune said absently. We all just stared at him. ¡°What? Dwarves get a depth gauge.¡± ¡°Huh,¡± I said, ¡°well that might be helpful. What do we do now?¡± ¡°Hey, you there!¡± It seemed the decision was out of our hands. If there is one thing that cons do well, it is spot a cop. The armored dwarf with the spear walking towards us could be nothing else. Everyone but Allyse and T.J. assumed ¡°innocent bystander posture¡±: arms at our sides, making no eye contact with anyone, and slowly walking in any direction save directly towards or away from the officer. It might have worked save for two problems. The first was that, with the exception of Drune, we were the only non dwarves anywhere in sight. The second was that Allyse still thought like an upstanding middle-class white woman. ¡°What seems to be the problem, sir?¡± she asked as if there couldn''t possibly be a problem. You could feel the strain of our collective groan trying to escape as we casually stopped our stillborn flight. ¡°I haven''t heard of any outsiders coming down. I don''t think they''ve even opened the gates since the caravan left last month. How''d you come to be here?¡± The dwarf squared himself up as if bracing for a fight. ¡°Funny story, that¡± Allyse said, ¡°we used a teleportation scroll that was supposed to take us to low level dungeon that wasn''t to crowded, and we ended up here. It cost us all our coin, I think we were ripped off. I don''t even know where we are?¡± by the end she even had a little sniffle. The dwarven watchman seemed to calm at her story, and he almost looked ready to help us out. That lasted until he looked around and noticed Dill and Sarah. ¡°We don''t cotton much with green bloods,¡± he said, spitting, ¡°nor them as keep their company. It''s clear you''re not here by your own design so I''ll give ya a choice, leave peacefully or we''ll solve your green blood problem before we make you leave anyway.¡± ¡°We don''t want any trouble,¡± I said, ¡°we¡¯ll go, just lead the way.¡± ¡°What were you thinking?¡± I asked Allyse in a whisper as we followed the guard. ¡°That if one of us got killed running away from a guard, and respawns back in prison with our decoys, we are all equally fucked.¡± She said with a sideways glare. ¡°Fair point,¡± I conceded, ¡°just give us a sign next time you''re calling an audible.¡± We rounded a corner and saw an enormous pair of bronze doors. They must have been fifty feet high with equally massive cross bars spanning them in three places. Twin giant aqueducts arched above the broad plaza, passing from the side walls and converging above the door with a riot of watery mist before spilling down to each side over enormous waterwheels. Stretched out before the gates was a huge open air market filling the plaza in the aqueducts¡¯ shadows. Most of the booths were obviously closed but several along the main road were doing a brisk business selling food and oddments. Drune cleared his throat, ¡°excuse me, sir, but as we said we were not planning on being here. Is there any chance you will give us a moment to purchase some supplies.¡± ¡°I thought she said you spent all your money on a scroll?¡± ¡°That she did, but we have a few trade items that might get us what we need to survive the wilds.¡± Drune said with a hopeful lilt. The watchman sighed, ¡°fine, but just you, and be back before the gate opens.¡± Drune turned to us, ¡°give me all the pickaxes and anything else we can spare.¡± We handed over the tools, even the broken one, as well as a ? full bottle of perfumed oil, a blank book Beldroth had somehow acquired, and a stack of dishes from Sarah. With that, Drune ran off ahead of us, we passed him a minute latter arguing with a junk dealer. ¡°.... can''t tell me a dwarven city is a buyers market for mining tools¡­¡± We soon reached the gate and looked up at the sheer size of it. It was impressive as all hell but, as shown by the creeping pace at which the cross bars were being retracted, it was completely impractical. If a dragon made it into this particular dwarven city, no one was getting out alive. For once I was not the one to make the inappropriate comment. ¡°Do you think the dwarves are compensating for something?¡± Dill asked with a smirk. All the dwarven watchmen reach for their weapons. It looked like we might not be in the clear after all, when J.T. saved the day. He did so by the expedient of walking around in front of Dillweed, facing him, and slapping him in the face like a scorned lover. Friendly Fire One party member has injured another. Jager Tinwhistle has dealt Dillweed 9 point of damage The guards all laughed like it was Laurel and Hardy. Hands came off weapons to clutch guts, and the looks we got from then on were of amusement. I wasn''t entirely amused, and neither was Dill; his health was more than half gone. J.T. hadn''t pulled his punch and if he had critted we would have been just as screwed as if the guards had killed him. We were all wound to tight and it was making us act like idiots. The first thing we had to do when we got to a secure location was hash all this shit out. Get everyone working as a team with a goal again and thinking before we acted. Drune came back before the last bar had even started to move and gave Dill a concerned look. Dill shook his head and that was that. We all just stood in sullen, anxious silence until the gates finally opened with an echoing BOOM. I knew then why our escort had known the last time the gates had opened, everyone for a hundred miles probably knew. We were ushered outside and the gates boomed shut behind us. A wan light reflected out of the city, filtering up from grates to each side of the door where it flowed out with the water. The dimness illuminated a twilight world of scintillating white. The walls sparkled in the splendor of untouched limestone, casting shadows here and there as stalagmites interposed themselves. The light rippled off of a milk white lake, stretching off away from us before fading into creamy indistinction. The air held chalky metallic smell and the echoes of the great doors were interrupted with a periodic plok of dripping water.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. We stood on a leveled square before the gates. Across from us, the eerie white lake swirled and eddied where the water from the city flowed into it through canals cut to either side of the square. There was a simple, by dwarven standards, bridge spanning the right hand canal, wide enough for a wagon and leading to what seemed to be a road following the shore. It was hard to tell with the light fading into the distance. The stalagmites and stalactites gaping like jaws about to close all about us made it hard to get a lay of the place. An orange gold glow appeared as Drune pulled out a couple of harvesting crystals from his pouch and set them on the ground along with a number of other objects. ¡°OK, not the best haul ever, but these these should help us some.¡± ¡°These are for our nascent knight, I tried to get you a shield but it was too much.¡± Fine Leather Bracers Item Level 8 Armor +5 Size: 0/+1 Slot: Arms Requisites: Level.3 Weight: 0.2 Lbs A basic piece of adventuring gear, leather armor is where most heroes begin. This particular example has obviously been made with care by a master craftsman. ¡°This is for you, my little green friend, every wizard needs to have a trump card.the only reason we could afford it is that it is almost out of juice.¡± Wand of Lightning Item Level 25(uncommon) Charges(2/300) Type: Lesser Wand Requisites: Arcane caster Weight: 0.1 Lbs Effect: Cast spell Lightning Bolt- 20-100 electrical damage to target, 10% chance it will spread to an adjacent target for half damage. ¡°And this is for me.¡± Shoddy Chainmail Vest Item Level 3 Protection +4 Slot: Chest Weight: 1.2 LBS This mail has seen better day, and probably a lot of worse ones. Bent and battered is better than nothing but not by much. ¡°I also got a three man tent, so we can sleep in shifts tonight.¡± Drune finished with a smile. ¡°That¡¯s great Drune, I can¡¯t believe you did so well with so little.¡± I said, ¡°I just wish we had more weapons¡± ¡°Actually,¡± Allyse said coyly, ¡°I may have a few things we could use.¡± She produced a sword and dagger. ¡°Brewer kept his massage oil in a drawer with these as well as his spare unlocking ring. I figured since we were leaving, there was no chance of him finding his property on us later, so I grabbed all of it when I had the chance.¡± My face darkened, ¡°I think it is about time we had a talk about that. What were you thinking!? You could have ruined everything, and for what? Nothing. He couldn¡¯t suffer any permanent harm. All he had to do was log out and call the company. Why did you do it?¡± ¡°I couldn¡¯t¡­¡± she trailed off. ¡°Couldn¡¯t What!?¡± I was shouting in her face now, ¡°Couldn¡¯t Think? Couldn¡¯t Trust Us!?¡± ¡°Leave her alone!¡± Dill yelled. ¡°Stay out of this,¡± I snapped. ¡°No, you stay out of this,¡± he snapped back. ¡°We wouldn¡¯t have gotten this far without her. She got us most of the food, she even got us the ring. And she did all that while being pawed at and worse by that asshole. If I had to go through all that after what she has already been through I would have snapped too. Look at you, you don¡¯t even know who she is, do you?¡± ¡°What are you talking about?¡± ¡°She¡¯s Allison LePage, you jacktard?¡± Allyse went whiter than the lake. Dill for his part looked ready sink into his boots once he realized he had outed her. For my part I think i must have looked confused, because I had no idea who that was, J.T. and Drune both took subtle steps away from her though, so i knew it couldn¡¯t be good. ¡°Fine,¡± Allyse said, ¡°now you know. Once we reach civilization I¡¯ll leave, and you won¡¯t have to worry about me until you''re done with whatever you have to do.¡± ¡°You know what,¡± I said, ¡°I don¡¯t care, we are all on edge and doing stupid things. You don¡¯t have to leave, we are all criminals, we¡¯ll do what we need to survive and deal with the rest after.¡± ¡°Wait, you mean you don¡¯t know what I¡¯ve¡­¡± she began. I held up a hand, ¡°I said I don¡¯t care, and I meant it. All that was in a different world, at this point I only care what happens in this one. Dill was right, we owe you too much to hold one mistake against you.¡± ¡°Yeah, but you had a point,¡± said Beldroth, ¡°with Brewer knowing we are probably just waiting for the paperwork to be done before we¡¯re all back in the same predicament.¡± ¡°Actually,¡± I said with a sense of relief, ¡°the A.I. was able to take care of that. It short circuited Brewers pod and killed him. It wasn¡¯t happy about having to, it let me know right before it dropped us here. It also means it will only be able to give us limited help for the time being for fear of being found out.¡± QUEST ALERT: When you assume¡­ Slap you party leader. He deserves it for calling ¡®HER¡¯ an ¡®it¡¯. Reward: 400 XP I was immediately smacked upside the head by a heavy orcish hand. ¡°Sorry Allyse,¡± Sarah said, ¡°I know you wanted to slap him but I needed the XP more. That brought me up to level 8, WOOT! ¡°Also,¡± she went on, ¡°who made you party leader, and who knew computer programs had gender?¡± ¡°You¡¯re the gamer, you tell me,¡± I said. ¡°And apparently she is still listening which means others might be too. We should keep the talk about HER and our mission to a minimum I think.¡± ¡°Good idea,¡± said Sarah when she was interrupted by a splashing sound. We turned and saw a figure coming towards us through the pale gloom. At first he seemed to be gliding along a depression in the lake, but as he got closer we saw he was at the rear of wide glass boat. He poled it along with a long white staff and was lit from below by a guttering stub of a candle. He brought the boat to a small inlet, seemingly made for it, directly across from the gates. Once so docked he came to the nearer side of the boat and addressed us. ¡°I thought I¡¯d heard the gates,¡± he said in a creaky voice. ¡°I thought I¡¯d come out on the off chance of finding a customer. You folks wouldn¡¯t be interested in a ride across the lake, only 3 gold a piece for young folks like you?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry to say, we haven¡¯t got even that much.¡± Drune said, coming forward. He seemed to have fallen into the role of our default purser. ¡°Too Bad,¡± the boatman said. ¡°It¡¯s a good day''s walk to reach the exit by the road.¡± ¡°Maybe we have something to trade?¡± asked Drune. ¡°You¡¯ve come all this way and will be making the return trip anyways. I see your candle is almost spent, perhaps we could trade you one of our light stones for our passage?¡± The man stared at the glowing crystal before shaking his head, ¡°these were not made for their light, how do I know it will not die a day after you have gone?¡± ¡°I have worked with them for weeks and have yet to see one dim,¡± said Drune, ¡°you have my word, on my honor as a dwarf.¡± ¡°The dwarves here have never led me wrong,¡± the boatman said, ¡°I will take you for seven of those stones, one for each of you.¡± ¡°A candle burns for but a quarter of the day and are worth a gold each,¡± Drune went on, ¡°one stone would more than pay our passage in less than a week. I will give you three of these and keep the forth for ourselves, and by two days hence you will be richer in your gold unspent on candles.¡± ¡°Done!¡± said the man with an avaricious gleam. He put on crystal in the bottom of the boat where the candle had lain and stored the others. ¡°I would have taken just one, but had to try for more.¡± ¡°And I would have given you all, but must try to keep what¡¯s mine,¡± Drune said and the words had the feel of ritual. I leaned in to talk to him as we boarded the boat, ¡°what was that about? We have plenty of crystals. Why not just give him the seven crystals? And what was that bit at the end?¡± ¡°First, I wanted to see if I could get my barter skill to go up again, I am the lowest level person in the party.¡± He said. ¡°Second was because it is expected, if we had just given him what he asked for he would have assumed we were cheating him. The last bit was part of that too, the barter system here seems to be based on the traditions from Morocco, you are supposed to exaggerate at the end so everyone saves face. Lastly, I recognize what the lake it made of.¡± I took a moment to look out at the rippling white surface we crossed. I had never heard of such a thing, how would Drune know what it was with such certainty. And then I got it. My eyes snapped back to Drune. ¡°It is a mild acid they pumped up to the alchemy lab to process the crystals.¡± Drune said with a smile, and then louder, ¡°does anyone have an empty bottle, I want to get a sample of this curious lake?¡± Sarah had one that was full of stagnant water. It was passed around and we soon had it empty. Drune leaned over the side and depended the neck into the swell of the boats passing. ¡°Careful there,¡± called the boatman, ¡°stuff¡¯ll burn you good if¡¯n it hits your skin.¡± Drune was careful and soon had the bottle three quarters full. He stashed it in his inventory and spent the rest of the ride with a foxes smile on his bearded face. We reached the far side of the lake after a little over an hour. The boatman steered his craft into an inlet that matched the one on the other side. He tied it off as we disembarked and, without another word, walked into small house made of undressed stone at the base of a wide ramp. It was obviously his home and we waited a moment for him to return. When he didn''t we turned our attention to the ramp. It wove back and forth along the wall stepping further into the gloom with each switch back. It was like one of the donkey trails at the Grand canyon but made on a scale that would allow two trucks to pass and with the precision the dwarves seem to fetishize. The Grand canyon analogy seemed even more apt when, after two passes, the limestone of the cavern gave way to wavy layers of ochre and dun sandstone. The beauty of the place was amazing but soon lost to us though, as we pressed upward into the dark. Drune had said that we were two miles deep. Two miles might not be far, but when you are doing it by switch back it is quite the journey. It took us the rest of the day to reach the surface. It let out among a cluster of boulders, and we passed among them into a desert night. We should have been exhausted, we had just marched ourselves up a mountain without pause. Instead, though there was a mental weariness, our muscles felt as fresh as if we had just taken a light stroll around a park. Though both Allyse and myself gained a point of Endurance at one point during the climb. The only physical discomfort came from the return of the gnawing hunger that had plagued us since we arrived in this world. I was about to suggest we eat a meal when an alert popped up. QUEST ALERT: A New Path Forward(Pantheon Quest) You have your freedom, now you much keep it. The account of St. Olga has what you need to truly free yourself from your past. The path to reach it is full of perils, for you are in a wilderness that is beyond your ability to master. It seems we had our marching orders, now all we had to do was cross a high level zone with no class abilities and almost no gear, easy. Crossing the Desert Looking up I immediately saw a glowing white arrow hovering above the horizon to the south. It stood in stark contrast to the starlit sky like a cursor clicking on the sands of the distant dunes. Everyone else seemed notice it too. ¡°What the heck is that?¡± exclaimed Beldroth. ¡°It''s a quest marker,¡± said Sarah, ¡°but I didn''t see any quests. There''s no one here to even give us one?¡± ¡°It was our friend,¡± I said, turning to the others, ¡°it said ''pantheon quest¡¯ so I guess you guys can''t see it, unless you want to convert?¡± ¡°Sure,¡± said Sarah, ¡°I¡¯m game. How do I convert?¡± ¡°I have no idea,¡± I said, surprised at the sudden topic change, ¡°I suppose I could baptize you if I could figure out how to use my spell to make holy water.¡± ¡°That''s easy,¡± she laughed, ¡°look up and to the right, those little icons are our spells and activated abilities. They became live the minute we hit the dwarven city.¡± I looked and sure enough there were spots of color which resolved when I focused on them. One was a little blue drop of water and the other was that same drop with lines extending as if it was glowing. I selected the glowing icon. **SPELL FAILURE: No Water Targeted** Feeling somewhat stupid, I pulled the still full cup from our first day out of my inventory and tried again. **SPELL FAILURE: Only pure water can be made holy** Frowning in frustration, I looked at the cup. Cup of Rancid Water -1 to thirst, poisonous Well, damn, I forgot about that. I used my other spell, Purify Water. **Purify Water** I watched as my left hand made a stirring gesture above the water all on its own. A chill ran down my arm and then the water was briefly suffused with a golden light. I then looked at the cup again. Cup of Pure Water -12 to thirst, does not degrade I tried to cast the bless water spell again and a blue light flashed in my peripheral vision. **SPELL FAILURE: Not Enough Mana** I almost threw the cup into the desert in frustration. I brought the blue bar I had been tuning out into view. It was almost empty but filling slowly. I just stared at it while Sarah snickered beside me. ¡°You blew all your Mana on failed spells?¡± she asked with a rueful smile. After my sheepish nod she continued, ¡°My first character was a wizard in a similar game. I kept running out of Mana at the worst time, I would always seem to be out of the action at the good parts, it made me so frustrated I swore I''d never play a caster again. I like being a tank better.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why you chose squire?¡± ¡°Yeah, I figured they''d have us farming mobs for loot like one of those Chinese play-to-pay prison outfits,¡± she shrugged, ¡°live and learn.¡± ¡°Ok, I think i have enough mana now,¡± I said. I tried one last time to cast the spell, and it worked. **Bless Water(Aesir)** I watched as my hand raised with two fingers extended like a catholic sign of benediction. It traced a line in the air that glowed blue above the water. My hand then traced another line from the top of the first angling down and to the right. The rune hung in the air and I recognized it, Leguz, it was the Futhark rune for water. My hand moved again drawing two line in an X less than a finger''s¡¯ width in front of the first rune. Gabo was the rune for blessing. I knew these symbols, my mother had used them and taught them to me. When i got out of the army, one of the first things I did was to reteach myself the runes. Was it possible that Sprite had made me a follower of the Aesir to give me a leg up in this world. The idea seemed plausible, she said she couldn¡¯t help me directly, but if she gave me access to power using what I already knew, it would be a huge advantage. It begged the question, how much did she know about me, and about the rest of us. My musings were interrupted by by my spell. After hanging in the air a moment the runes dissolved into motes of light that settles in the water. The water wasn¡¯t shedding any light, but it now had a bluish glow about it. I dipped my fingers in the water and traced the blessing rune in front of Sarah¡¯s forehead. The rune glowed in the air. ¡°May the Allfather welcome his children,¡± I said, remembering my mother having said something to that effect when I was young. **SPELL FAILURE: You are not high enough level to cast this spell, You do not have enough mana to cast this spell.** Now that was interesting, it didn''t say I didn''t know the spell, it only said I wasn''t high enough level. Sarah laughed good naturedly at me while I swore at the message before me. ¡°We should probably eat before the others finnish and decide to leave us behind.¡± I saw that everyone else was busy trying to eat. I pulled out my bowl of cold porridge and took a spoonful. It was an effort to swallow. It turn out that there is a reason porridge, essentially oatmeal or grits, is served hot. While hot the only problem with the taste was that it was all we were allowed to eat for the past several weeks, cold it was unpalatable on many levels. The vaguely sweet taste I had first noticed now had a bitterness to it which clung to your tongue. The texture was inconsistent, parts were a slimy mush and others were like chewing rubber bands interspersed with undercooked rice. Once I had swallowed it left a greasy film in my mouth. The only way I could eat it was because hunger was so much worse. As we all suffered through our meals, I took the time to purify the rest of our water. I found that now that I had assuage my hunger my Mana was recharging rapidly. Even though it took all I could manage to purify the ten servings in the water skins, I was able to do them all in less time than all my fumbling around with the holy water. I soon learned that I could activate the spell by making the hand motions myself rather than selecting the icon and becoming a marionette to the game. I was glad of that, the sensation of my muscles moving without my permission was quite unnerving. We decided to travel as far as we could that night. Most of us had spent weeks underground and the starlight was quite sufficient for our needs. With the quest marker to guide us we had no fear of getting lost. Allyse, Dill, or J.T. went ahead of us as scouts, blurring to a hazy translucence as they engaged their stealth skills properly for the first time. Six times that night they steered us around mobs and as the first glimmer of predawn approached they found us a sheltered place to camp among what looked to be a wrecked wagon, a scrap of roof canvas fluttering in the wind. We set up the tent and made camp, deferring our ¡°breakfast¡± until later. The five men among us demurred of our own weariness by unspoken agreement and male pride. The ladies, therefore, took the first turn in the tent. They slept until the sun was just coming above the horizon in full and Beldroth and I took their place. I awoke hour later to a shrill yell. Thinking we were under attack, I surged out of the tent and raised my hammer in defense. What treated me was not a battlefield, but a scene from a bad farse. ¡°No,¡± shrieked Allyse, ¡°for the last time, there is no way I am wearing that.¡± ¡°Come on Allyse, it has a class restriction. Rogue, thief, assassin, Minstrel, or bard only.¡± Said Drune ¡°Then have the elf wear it,¡± she shot back. ¡°Female characters only,¡± said Drune in a tone that meant she had already been told that a dozen time. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± I asked as I stepped between them, seeming to have momentarily lost all sense of self preservation. Drune turned to me, a pleading look on his face. ¡°We were trying to rig up some shade.¡± he said, gesturing to where the previously flapping canvas had been stretched into a crude awning, ¡°and we stumbled onto a treasure chest. It had some useful stuff and the best piece of armor we¡¯ve found yet, but Allyse is the only one who can use it and she won¡¯t.¡± ¡°That¡± she yelled, ¡°is not armor, it is not even underwear, and I am not traipsing around in it just so you sickos can get your rocks off! It wouldn¡¯t protect me anywhere¡± I looked at the offending garment. To be fair, in the real world it wouldn¡¯t be any protection at all. It consisted of two dark green triangles with black chains connecting various parts. It was obviously a bikini top with some sort of ornament on the front. Bodice of Distraction Item Level 12 (Very Rare) Armor +10 Size: -1/0/+1 Slot: Chest Requisites: Female only; Rogue, Thief, Assassin, Minstrel, or Bard Only +10% to Bluff +5% to Pick Pockets +3 to Sneak Weight: 0.2 Lbs This alluring piece of reignment serves to both protect you and distract your opponents allowing you to better manipulate them. ¡°OK,¡± I said, ¡°I¡¯ll admit that in the real world it wouldn¡¯t protect much, but we aren¡¯t in the real world. We are also trekking through a desert full of monsters that could kill us, and our primary defense is your sneaking. That +3 could save all our lives. Could you just wear it until we get back to civilization, think of it like wearing a swimsuit on the world¡¯s largest beach?¡± ¡°I would never wear something so immodest in public,¡± she said sounding half shocked. ¡°Look, we promise not to leer,¡± I said. ¡°Speak for yourself,¡± chimed in Dill I sighed, ¡°We promise not to leer, or stop you when you cut out the goblin¡¯s eyes.¡± She smiled at that, then scowled again and, grabbing the offending garment out of Drune¡¯s hands, headed into the tent. When she emerged a minute later she was blushing furiously, and had her arms across her chest.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. ¡°Come on,¡± Sarah said, ¡°it can''t be that bad.¡± Reluctantly Allyse lowered her arms. It was that bad. Each panel was smaller than that palms of her hands and, by the magic of gaming, the flat decoration on the front was transformed into tassels which moved if she so much as breathed. I couldn''t help myself, I stared in shocked disbelief. We all stood dumbstruck as her embarrassment mounted and that hard look started to form in her eyes. ¡°Wow, they really do target that male shut-in demographic, don''t they?¡± Sarah said as sarcastically as possible. Allyse gaped at her then, all of a sudden, laughed. The tension broken, we divided the rest of the loot from the chest. There was some gold, couple of skill boost potions, and some craft items, but the only other thing of note was a cowl that gave a +1 to Perception. We gave it to J.T. since he was also scouting. The Elf and I went back to sleep and then took our turn on watch while the three smaller men went into the tent for their turn. The hunger was gnawing at all of us by the time they woke up and we all eagerly devoured our meager meals of stale rolls and water. We traveled all that night without incident, though we had to travel well out of our way a few times when the scouts spotted monsters in our path. When dawn crested the horizon we could see the greening edge of the desert in the distance. We ate a meal of apples and I almost wept at the taste. Having lived rough for so long I wasn¡¯t much of a snob when it came to food, but after nothing but porridge for so long that apple was like a gourmet dinner. While we ate we talked. ¡°I think we need to risk going the rest of the way in right now,¡± Allyse said. ¡°We have plenty of water, but we won¡¯t have enough food to go around if we wait until tonight and what we do have is starting to spoil.¡± She held up roll covered in mold spots as in demonstration of her point. ¡°No way,¡± said J.T., ¡°We¡¯re barely able to keep away from the mobs as it is. They are bound to see us during the day.¡± ¡°We can see the edge of the desert from here,¡± Allyse retorted, waving at the horizon, ¡°we should make a break for it!¡± ¡°But,¡± Sarah said, ¡°even this close to the edge, we are still in a zone which is way too high level for us to mess around with. If we try and get caught, we are right back where we started but now they''ll know something''s up.¡± ¡°I think you guys are forgetting some things,¡± I said. ¡°First, we don''t have any cover here and from what you guys doing the scouting have been saying we are just as likely to be attacked standing here as making a break for the border. Second, the quest prompt said the we need to make it to the waypoint by noon today. If we don''t we are likely to wait a while with no food until the next caravan arrives.¡± We all looked back at the meager rations we had. With little more discussion we gathered up our few belongings and prepared to move out. Dill and J.T. faded from view while Allyse stayed just close enough for us to follow her lead. We traveled the dunes like this for almost two hours without a problem before we saw Allyse freeze in place. We held our breath until she waved us over as she jogged off. We followed her to a spot a few hundred yards east of our line of march were Dill and J.T. were waiting. ¡°What''s up,¡± wheezed Drune as his stouter legs brought him last into the depression we were gathered in. ¡°I found a chest,¡± said the gnome with a grin. ¡°Can¡¯t open it myself, but I figured if one of you can we might find some more useful gear or maybe some food.¡± ¡°Allyse,¡± Sarah said, ¡°you''re a rogue, you could try picking the lock, right?¡± ¡°Maybe if had any idea how,¡± she said with a shrug, ¡°and if I had some tools. As it is, I don''t even know how to start.¡± ¡°Well, only one thing to do,¡± I said, hefting my hammer. Before anyone could stop me I brought my hammer down on the lock and it snapped off with a resounding crash. I looked around at the stunned faces around me smiling at the success of my solution. Beldroth came out of his shock first, ¡°You idiot, every monster for ten miles probably heard that.¡± ¡°Shit,¡± I said. I can only blame to heat. That and the fact that I was frustrated being relocated to the role of virtual passenger for the past two days of our journey. I was anxious to feel useful again. ¡°Nothing we can do about it now,¡± J.T. said as he opened the chest. ¡°Let''s just grab the loot and get out of here before anything shows up.¡± He drew out the contents and scowled, showing them to us. It consisted of what looked like a vest made of credit card sized pieces of metal all stitched together, a pair of boots with metal shin guards, hinged metal bracers that would cover the elbows, and a conical helm draped in yellow and black checked cloth. I looked closer and pulled up the information. Breastplate of the Nomad Item Level 25(rare set item) Armor +18 Size: -1/0/+1 Slot: Chest Requisites: Level 15, ability to use medium armor -10 to satiety loss in harsh environments +5 health regen/second out of combat Set item bonus: w/ 2 items +2 to Strength w/ 3 items +2 to Strength +2 the Agility w/ 4 items +2 the Strength +2 the Agility +20 to Health Weight: 2.5 Lbs Nomads must carry everything with them when they travel so every pound counts and everything must be useful. Boots of the Nomad Item Level 25(rare set item) Armor +10 Size: -1/0/+1 Slot: Feet Requisites: Level 15, ability to use medium armor -50% to negative movement effects from terrain No stamina loss while walking when fully loaded +2 to Agility Set item bonus: w/ 2 items +20 to carrying capacity w/ 3 items +30 to carrying capacity w/ 4 items +30 to carrying capacity +30 to stamina Weight: 1 Lbs Nomads must carry everything with them when they travel so every pound counts and everything must be useful. Bazubands of the Nomad Item Level 25(rare set item) Armor +10 Size: -1/0/+1 Slot: Arms Requisites: Level 15, ability to use medium armor +3 to Strength +2 to Ride skill Set item bonus: w/ 2 items +2 to Strength w/ 3 items +4 to Strength w/ 4 items +4 the Strength +6 to Dexterity Weight: 1.25 Lbs Nomads must carry everything with them when they travel so every pound counts and everything must be useful. Headdress of the Nomad Item Level 25(rare set item) Armor +12 Size: -1/0/+1 Slot: Head Requisites: Level 15, ability to use medium armor No negative effects from mild/moderate weather, 50% negative effects from severe weather +5 to Perception Set item bonus: w/ 2 items +2 Stamina Regen/second w/ 3 items +2 Health Regen/second +2 Stamina Regen/second w/ 4 items +2 Health Regen/second +2 Stamina Regen/second +2 Mana Regen/second Weight: 2.5 Lbs Nomads must carry everything with them when they travel so every pound counts and everything must be useful. ¡°Shit!¡± Sarah swore. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± I asked, ¡°that stuff looks awesome, it¡¯s even a full set.¡± She just glared at me, ¡°Yeah, but we can¡¯t use it, it¡¯s all level 15 min. We need stuff we can use now, and if the edge of this zone is giving level 25 gear that means level 20-30 mobs easy.¡± ¡°Why does it say Item level 25 if it only takes level 15 to use it,¡± Allyse asked. ¡°Item level it a measure of what it takes to make or repair an item, it also gives a rough idea of the target level for when it is useful. A set of level 15 epic gear is great at level 10 or 20, maybe even as high as level 30,¡± Sarah explained, ¡°but by level 60 you are better off in level appropriate common gear.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s get moving before anything shows up,¡± J.T. said as he turned and made his way up the dune. He went back into stealth and we could barely see him as he reached the scrub at the top of the dune and grabbed a branch sticking out of the sand to pull himself the last few feet. That was when our luck gave out. The branch J.T. held shifted, then lifted, revealing a instecil head. It continued to rise out of the sand exposing a huge carapaced body, taller than it was wide, pushing upward with a pair of over large back legs while J.T. still clung to the end of a foreleg. It tossed the gnome aside like a rag doll as it settled back to the dune. Its whole head turned so that the single bead of one of its eyes could follow the gnome path as he tumbled down to us. As I looked at it I saw a red life bar come into focus above it as well as the words [Giant Sand Flea, Lv. 15]. I had just enough time to process this as with soft thumps three more of the creatures landed next to the first. ¡°Oh Shit!¡± ¡°Pair up and take them down,¡± Sarah yelled. ¡°Bel with me, Drune and Allyse, Dill and Jogan. J.T. Kite the first one, dodge and move till one of us can help you out.¡± I didn¡¯t have a better idea so Dill and I moved toward the one on the far right. It lunged at us and I lashed out with my sledge hammer, hitting the flea in the side just as it bit into my arm. The edges of my vision flashed red and it was further obstructed by system messages. Giant Sand Flea has bitten you for 6 damage Critical Hit!! You have struck Giant Sand Flea for 165 damage Giant Sand Flea has died +1 to Luck Achievement: David and Goliath You have killed a creature more than twice your level with one blow. From now on damage and hit penalties due to level gaps are halved Achievement: Fighting outside your weight class You have killed a creature 10 or more levels higher than you with no outside help. Permanent +5% to damage against enemies 10 or more levels above you. ***CONGRATULATIONS*** You have reached Level 10 Cannot Advance while in combat ¡°How the fuck did I just do that?¡± I yelled, trying to see around the notices. Before anyone could respond I saw J.T. thrown past us with a red slash across his chest where he was hit. I hear some weird words shouted behind me and then a golf ball size comet made up of blue-white light shot bast me to impact on the face of the rapidly approaching monster. A small red -4 appeared above its head. Looks like Dill has figured out his spells. I step up and swing at the new threat only to miss like a little leaguer batting against a major league fastball. The only saving grace os that I was thrown so off balance by the miss that pulled me out of the way of the flea¡¯s counter stroke. +1 to Luck Damn smartass system message. I turn to regain my balance and use my momentum to bring my hammer around into the bugs head. You have struck Giant Sand Flea for 56 Damage Holy crap, not as much as last time but still way more damage than I should have done. Another bolt of magic from the goblin dispersed the last sliver of the bug¡¯s life bar. I move up the dune to help the others, only to see that there are more, rather than fewer enemies. Three more of the fleas lay dead but another eight have shown up and are advancing to join the fight. I move to where the others have grouped together, covering Dill and J.T. at the same time. J.T. was gripping his side and moving carefully. The rest of our group didn¡¯t look all that great either: Beldroth was on the ground frozen by some kind of stun; Sarah seemed to have no use of her right arm and was wielding her sword in her left; Drune looked like he had just gone ten rounds with Cassius Clay; and Allyse, well she only looked a little scuffed, but she also looked like she was ready to bolt. Of all of us I think Dillweed is the only one of use to come out unscathed. ¡°Well, it¡¯s been fun, guys.¡± the mage pipes up as he readies his almost spent wand, ¡°I guess I¡¯ll see you back in mine.¡± We brace ourselves for a last fight, we know we can¡¯t win but we can¡¯t just let them kill us either. I look around and see determination mixed with some savage grins on the faces of my companions. I feel a grin spreading across my face as well. The fleas scuttle forward and are almost close enough to lunge when all of a sudden they stop. It takes us a moment to realize what is happening but as we do the fleas turn around and start jumping away from us in great bounding leaps. Soon we are all standing, watching in confusion as our death races off into the distance. ¡°Was that our friend helping us again?¡± Sarah asked as she kneels down and quickly loots the three fleas within immediate reach. ¡°Maybe,¡± I said, ¡°but I got the impression that she couldn¡¯t do stuff like that without raising alarms.¡± I took some of the rags from my pouch and started wrapping up my companions wounds starting with Drune. It doesn¡¯t do much but I see his health bar start to climb a little faster as I work. I move on to due the same for the Minstrel and the Monk in the next few seconds, but is feels like the sun is pressing down on me, trying to actively roast me alive. I think it must be from the healing until I see the others clearly being affected by the heat as well. I look up towards the sun to see what''s causing it only to to realize that it is coming from the other direction. With a feeling of dread turn in time to see it cresting the dune before us. It was a desiccated corpse, a desert mummy, the dried flesh of its skullike visage locked in a screaming rictus. The few scraps of canvas served to fig leaf its form but did nothing to hide the horror of its wasted and blackened skin nor those places where the flesh had rotted away and left bone exposed to view as it slid within the beasts frame with every horrifying lurch. If all that was not bad enough, it was also on fire.