by Paul Bellow
“Not really,” he said. “Dreams are so weird in-game.”
I nodded, agreeing with him.
“While we’re waiting on Benji to get back, I’m going downstairs to check on that bath,” I said.
“I’ll stay here for now,” he said. “I’ve got more reading to do.”
“Don’t fall back asleep.” I walked toward the door. “We have a lot to do today. Things aren’t getting easier.”
“Sure thing, mom,” he replied.
I smiled as I walked out of the room. On my way downstairs, I thought about all the good times Eric and I had shared over the years.
When I reached the dining room, I saw the innkeeper seated behind the long, rustic bar.
“Good morning,” I said in a cheerful voice as I approached.
He glanced up, not enthused.
“Morning,” he said. “You missed breakfast, but I can make something special for an additional cost. The waitress didn’t show up for work this morning. You know anything about that?”
“No,” I said. “But I want to use the bath in the basement. How much?”
He perked up, straightening his posture on the stool.
“Name’s Basil,” he said. “Sorry for my foul mood. I wasn’t expecting to work today. The heated bath is only a silver coin, but for you, the first is free. Such a fine looking elf shouldn’t be soiled by dirt and grime.”
He grinned, displaying yellowed, worn teeth.
I smiled, not showing my true emotions.
Yet another NPC with real world emotions and goals in life? So strange.
“All I have is gold coins,” I said.
“Not a problem,” he said, hopping off the stool behind the bar.
I dropped a coin on the weathered wood. He swiped it up.
“How many baths does that give us?” I asked.
“Twenty one,” he said without missing a beat. “Including the free one.”
“Keep it,” I said. “We’ll be here on and off for a week or more.”
“That’s wonderful,” he said. “The realms need more adventuring folk like you. Anything else I can do to help, just let me know.”
I smiled then said, “Thanks. Is everything ready downstairs?”
“Yup,” he said, nodding his head. “I fired the boiler this morning myself. Water’s fresh and warm.”
“Can’t wait,” I said.
He kept smiling as I waved, then walked away to find the bath in the basement. I thought about the training manual I’d gotten.
Was Eric’s training book the same? I needed to go OOC and ask him. I stopped at the top of the stone stairs leading into the basement.
A few torches cast a dim light; just a quick dip. I stepped down, holding onto the right wall for support as I went downward.
With my luck, it would turn out to be a rusty tub full of dirty water. I grinned, amazed at how I kept forgetting the real world.
On the bottom of the stairs, I saw a short hallway with an open door at the end. The smell of soap wafted through the air. I stepped toward the doorway, anxious to see what I was working with.
My eyes widened as I reached an immense room. The marble walls and floor were offset by a wooden ceiling. A tub big enough for half a dozen sat against the far wall.
I rushed over, anxious to clean my virtual body. The game’s realism was getting on my nerves in a big way.
Steam rose from the water as I approached.
A few clean towels sat on a nearby ledge along with glass bottles. I stripped off my clothes, admiring my elven body. The realism of the game was good in some respects, I admitted.
As I stepped into the warm water to take a seat, panic hit me.
I remembered the real world.
We were trapped.
The anxiety slipped away as I sat down, my arms resting on the smooth marble surrounding the pool of water. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back.
Stress magically floated away. The game captivated me once again.
A sudden wave of paranoia washed over me.
Was someone watching?
I opened my eyes and scanned the room.
“Who’s there?” I asked.
Nobody answered.
“This isn’t funny,” I said.
Still nothing. What’s going on?
My heart beat faster as I stood. Once out of the water, I grabbed a towel to cover my nakedness. No one gets a free show.
Was it Benji? Maybe Basil? Someone else?
Or something else?
I kept my eyes open as I dried off then quickly got dressed.
Back upstairs, I saw Basil the innkeeper sitting behind the bar.
He nodded his head and smiled as I walked by.
Maybe I’d just imagined someone in the basement with me? I’d pushed the incident aside when I returned to our room.
I saw Eric standing next to the window, looking at the street below.
Was he the one spying on me in the basement? There’s no way. He couldn’t have gotten back up to our room so quickly. Right?
He turned and smiled.
“You all cleaned up?” he teased.
I nodded, not mentioning what had happened.
“We have twenty more uses of the bath if we need it,” I said.
“That’s nice,” he said. “But we’re about to head to the forest.”
“Who knows how long we’ll be here…in the realms,” I said.
I wanted to go OOC to yell at him, but I resisted the urge.
To survive, we needed to level up. And for that, we needed xp.
“Where’s Benji?” I asked.
After mentioning his name, the door opened, and he walked in.
“My ears were burning,” he said. “Were you talking about me?”
He grinned and walked over as if he owned the place.
“Just wondering where you were,” I said.
Had he been spying on me?
“Good bath?” he asked.
“What do you mean?” I stepped toward him, anger overwhelming me. “Were you spying on me?”
Benji’s face scrunched up.
“No,” he said. “Of course not.”
“Was someone spying on you?” Eric stepped over. “I’ll kill them.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “Did you get the cart fixed, Benji?”
“As much as I could for ten gold,” he said.
My eyes opened wider.
“Ten gold?” I asked.
“I took the gold out of your bag this morning,” he said. “Was I supposed to ask first? How else was I supposed to pay for it?”
“You’re fine,” I said.
We’d find more gold and magic items.
“Go get the cart ready,” I said. “Eric and I will be down in a minute.”
“You got it, boss...”
Benji left the room, closing the door behind him.
I turned to Eric and said, “We need to find Josh and get out of this game.”
OOC Penalty
-10% experience points next encounter
“What are you doing?” Eric asked, shaking his head.
“I need to talk with you,” I said. “This game is driving me crazy.”
He nodded—always a good listener.
“Go on,” he said.
“You haven’t noticed the way it’s more difficult to remember the real world the longer we’re in here?”
He nodded then put a hand on my arm.
“We’ll figure a way out,” he said. “After we find Josh. I’ve already got a few ideas. We need to clear this first level and get back to the tower.”
“How can you be sure?” I asked.
“I’m not sure,” he said. “But we’re both smart gamers. We’ll figure it out. Don’t worry.”
“But what if we’re trapped in here forever?” I asked, recalling a nightmare from the night before.
“We’ll get out,” he said then put his finger to his lips.
I cocked my h
ead to the side and scrunched up my eyes. He tiptoed toward the door then flung it open. Benji stumbled into the room, almost falling.
“Were you listening to us?” Eric asked.
“Yeah,” Benji said. “But I couldn’t understand some of the words you used. It isn’t elven or any language I know about.”
“Why were you listening to us?” I stepped forward. “Were you the one in the basement spying on me this morning?”
“Again,” Benji said. “No.”
He frowned as if offended.
“Someone or something was spying on me while I was taking a bath earlier,” I said. “And now we find out you’re a sneak.”
“I’m not,” Benji insisted. “Eric saw me pull up in the cart.”
“I did,” Eric said.
“Maybe I imagined it…” My voice trailed off a moment before adding, “But I don’t think so.”
“I’ll go with you next time for protection,” Eric said.
He grinned as if he had the answer for everything.
“I can protect myself,” I said. “But we should all keep our eyes open.”
Eric turned to Benji.
“You’re not wanted or anything, are you?” he asked.
Benji shook his head.
“No,” he said. “Not recently, anyway.”
“We should go and equip for this quest,” I said.
“The cart is ready,” Benji said. “What can I carry?”
“Anything and everything,” Eric said.
“I love camping outdoors,” Benji said. “A hunting we will gnoll.”
“Ooh,” I said. “That was bad. Please, no more.”
Eric laughed as I groaned at the bad pun.
After locking our room, we left the inn.
Outside, I admired the repaired cart.
“Still a bucket of bolts,” I said. “But looks better.”
“I did the best I could with the funds available,” Benji said. Sheryl’s Fine Antiques is on the way out of town. We can check her stock.”
“Lead the way,” I said. “Does she sell magic rings?”
“Yes, but I doubt she has anything we can afford,” Benji said.
“We’ll use the loot from the gnoll camp to get better stuff,” Eric said.
I climbed onto the bench in front of the cart and sat on the middle. The others followed, leaving me in between them.
Eric grabbed the reins and got us on our way.
“Turn here,” Benji said a few streets away from the inn.
He pointed at a single-story wood structure.
“That’s it?” Eric asked in an unimpressed tone.
“Don’t judge books by their covers,” Benji said.
He had a point. For an NPC, he’d been dropping a lot of wisdom.
Eric stopped the cart. We climbed out then tied up the mule.
Benji walked toward the entrance of the building.
“Follow me,” he said, motioning with his hand.
I glanced at Eric then followed Benji inside the shop. Wands and staves of all shapes and sizes covered the walls.
Yum. Shiny stuff.
“What does this one do?” Eric asked as he picked up a warped limb.
“Excuse me,” a well-dressed man said in a snooty voice. “Don’t touch unless you plan on buying. And by the looks of your motley crew, you don’t have the gold to afford anything.”
“You might be surprised,” Eric shot back.
“I most definitely would be,” the man countered.
“We have a hundred gold to spend,” I said, shaking a pouch. “Do you have anything offensive? We’re hunting gnolls.”
“Oh…” The man laughed. “You’re some of the crazy people who believe the stories we tell children at night.”
“Gnolls are real,” Eric said. “Why are all the shopkeepers in this town so snooty? Don’t you want our gold?”
“I have a few discounted items in the back you might be interested in,” the shopkeeper said.
“Great.” I stepped forward. “Show us everything.”
The haughty man turned then walked toward a back room. We followed him through the store to a door. He opened it then went into a smaller room with a long, wooden table in the center.
A few pathetic items had been haphazardly scattered over the top.
“This is all I have for customers like you,” he said.
I walked over and noticed a single wand carved from a thin, gnarly oak branch.
Good thing I learned identify.
I picked it up.
“That’s a powerful wand that will do wonders for your group,” the man said. “I can let you have it for a hundred gold.”
Eric stepped over and whispered in my ear, “We can’t trust this guy.”
I kept my eyes on the shopkeeper and cast identify.
{Cursed} Ogres’ Blowgun of Fire Beam [2/12] Charges
* * *
This cursed item will backfire 50% of the time, hurting the one using the wand instead of the target. Does 1d20 damage per charge.
“You’re trying to sell us a cursed wand,” I said, tossing it down.
“Um, yeah,” he said. “That’s why it’s only a hundred gold pieces.”
“Let’s get out of here,” I said. “None of this junk is worth anything.”
The man watched us until we’d left his shop.
Outside on the street, I walked over to our cart.
“That was pointless,” I said.
Benji untied the mule.
“Sorry,” he said. “Fishguard has gone down the drain.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Eric said. “It’s not your fault.”
“We should buy food, water, and other basic supplies,” I said. “Do you know of any good general stores, Benji?”
“You bet,” he said, nodding his head and smiling.
After we climbed back aboard, he led the mule to a shop near the eastern city gate. We stocked up on food and water for a few days.
Benji had come through once again. I wondered if it would be worth it to let an NPC join our party. He’d more than proven himself.
On the one hand, we might get less experience points each encounter with a larger party.
But he would get xp and level up…right?
As we rode out of the city then headed north toward Shockly Forest, I hoped we at least heard something about Josh. During the ride, I sat back and stared up at the bright blue sky filled with a few puffy, white clouds floating lazily toward the east.
Once again, the game drew me in deeper.
* * * * *
After several long hours of overland travel with no random encounters, we reached the edge of Shockly Forest.
Benji stopped the cart as the path narrowed and entered the forest. I smiled at the huge trees—ambassadors of time.
“Good to be home,” I said, getting into my character.
“The path is just big enough for the cart,” Benji said. “Should we keep going or leave it here?”
“We don’t know the exact location of their encampment,” I said. “So we need to go slow and keep our eyes open. I say we take the cart.”
“Agreed,” Eric said, nodding. “Let me have the reins, Benji. You get in the back and watch for anything and everything.”
“Got it,” he said then handed them over.
After he climbed in the back, I took a seat next to Eric in front. He pulled on the reins. The mule stubbornly refused to go.
“Yah-yah!” Eric shouted, snapping the leather straps.
I laughed, shaking my head.
He turned and asked, “Do you have a spell you can use?”
“No,” I said. “But let me see if I can help.”
“You can talk to mules?” Benji asked from the back.
“No,” I said. “But I have empathy with animals.”
While I didn’t have the skill in the game, in the real world I had an affinity with animals. I hoped my empathy with wildlife crossed over.
&nb
sp; “Give me a minute,” I said as I climbed down from the cart.
I could feel Benji and Eric watching as I walked up to the mule.
“Good boy,” I said in a soothing voice, my hand in front of its nose. “What’s wrong, boy?”
“You’re kidding, right?” the mule replied. “Your breath stinks so bad!”
I stepped backward in shock, tripping over a tree root and falling.
Benji and Eric both burst into laughter. I sat on the ground. “What’s so funny?” I asked.
“Benji knows how to throw his voice,” Eric said then twisted his head to look in the back. “I want you to teach me that trick.”
“Not funny,” I said as I got up.
The mule, amused, took a few steps forward.
“Whoa,” Eric said. “Hurry up and get on. We’re ready to go.”
“Can I join your party now?” the mule asked in Benji’s voice as I climbed aboard.
Eric laughed, and I smiled—despite myself.
While the game appeared fun on the surface, I could sense something darker and deeper watching us from the distance.
The mule pulled the cart down the path and into the forest.
Sounds of birds and other woodland creatures hit my ears.
I breathed in the fresh, virtual air. Calmness spread through my body as we rode through the most detailed forest I’d ever played.
“There’s some bee hives coming up,” I said. “About another half-mile down the path on the left.”
“We should stop and look for some royal jelly,” Eric said. “Might be beneficial for us if you know what I mean.”
He turned and winked.
I wanted to talk OOC with him, but I stayed in character.
“Maybe,” I said.
We kept going until the immense hives halfway up a few of the massive trees came into view. Eric whistled and stopped the cart.
“They’re huge,” he said. “And the honey could be super beneficial.”
I shook my head, lips pursed together, then glanced back.
“What do you think, Benji? Worth the risk?”
“Not if we’re on another side quest to the main quest of finding your friend,” he said. “Then again, extra gold would be nice.”
Eric got out of the cart.
“It’ll just take a minute to check the hives,” he said as he looked to the left then right. “There are no bees around. I’ll be fine.”