by Ed White
Silence. The further we enter the ruins, tall, blackened skeletal structures devoid of flora and fauna, a shudder runs through me. Life avoids this place and a hunch hits me. Stopping, I attempt a minor pull on the ley energy of the area. It’s difficult. Sure, I’m new to this, but the reservoir of energy is considerably less and nothing is flowing.
Ex slaps my knee. “Be cautious, lad, only those with socketed ley crystals have a personal source of power to draw upon outside their HP.”
Oh joy, and I gave the red crystal to Lisa. She walks up beside me as we follow behind the group with Remy. She looks so happy. It was worth it. I ignore a crude comment from my imp.
A high-pitched hissing cry shatters the silence. The shrill Hollywood dinosaur cry, a mix of the deep roar of a lion mixed with the call of an eagle, cuts through the air. Red glow of aggro flashes across our bodies.
Here it comes.
Paul falls back as Jonesy and Granger take defensive stances. Both point their batons ahead while Remy, Lisa, and I follow suit.
The pounding of air by enormous wings assaults my ears, as a beast man alights on a ruinous column stabbing up from the blackened granite rubble. Two more, in full gryphon forms, swoop in and land, their talons scraping on the exposed bedrock. These resemble a combination of lion and eagle. Between the gryphons and beast man, a total of three War Makers.
Creatures
Name: Gryphon Beast Men.
Species: Gryphon.
Level: N/A
Class: Warrior.
Subclass: Berserker.
Affinity: None.
HP: 60/60
MP: 20/20
AC: 13
Attributes
Strength: 16 (+3)
Dexterity: 12 (+1)
Movement/Speed: 2
Combat Rate: 0.66
Constitution/Endurance: 17 (+3)
Physical Defense (PD): 3.5
Energy Defense (ED): 3.5
Body: 16
Stun: 32
Recovery: 6.4
Intelligence: 9 (-1)
Mental strength: 12
Senses: Perception 10 (passive)
Presence/Charisma: 5
Abilities/Skills
Shapeshifting.
Weapons
War Axe. Melee attack: +5 to hit.
DAM: 9 (slashing)
Exiles and survivors of the Gryphon Demos, unpredictable, Gryphon Beast Men gather in parties of War Makers, seeking combat.
Crap. They can fly.
***
Remy is already on the move, locking the two gryphons perched on the ruin within a mass of ice. Granger fires his socketed baton, striking the beast man with four hit points of damage. Jonesy follows with a blastwave of energy, knocking the two frozen gryphons from their iced perch.
Shimmering Wave. 50% chance to hit.
Range: 20-foot cone.
DAM: 10.
Each foe takes flame damage.
War Maker 51/60.
War Maker 53/60.
Damn it, that’s some low cumulative damage from Remy and Jonesy. This is going to be a hell of a fight, but Remy employs control, while Granger and Jonesy have taken aggro from the gryphons.
Already on its feet, the fallen beast man charges Jonesy, hefting an enormous war axe. Jonesy fires and the creature rolls, avoiding the edge of the Shimmering Wave. On its feet in seconds, it swings its axe in an arc, releasing a blazing crescent of energy not unlike that of the Scythe Warriors.
Jonesy and Granger are hit and down to 50% HP, with Paul and Lisa desperate to heal them back to full health, as meager as our health is combined in comparison to one War Maker. Even combined, our collective health isn’t equal to a beast man. We are so in the shit.
“Don’t stand there, lad, pay attention to your lady friend.” Ex slaps my knee with surprising strength for a walking user’s guide.
“I got it.”
Lisa glances over her shoulder. “David?”
“Sorry.” I move beside Lisa, my baton aimed toward the chunks of ice and fallen gryphons, still unseen.
Remy fires a renewed ice blast, a barrier rather than crowd control, between our party and the humanoid beast man.
Their health renewed by Lisa and Paul, Granger and Jonesy regroup, pulling back, staring up, ready for the three War Makers to take flight. Flight is their advantage and must be how they defeat all who challenge them.
The two still in gryphon bodies hurtle through the edge of the ice barrier, shattering it at its thinnest. Slabs of ice scatter as the beasts flank Jonesy on the ground. They’re smart, adaptive. We’ve prepared to fight them in the skies and they’ve flipped the script, attacking us on the field. Galloping toward our leads, the gryphons shift into beast men, their weapons and gear flashing into place from a likely inventory of horrors.
Shimmering Blast.
Range: 10-foot cone.
DAM: 10.
I fire on the bastards.
Your foe takes damage.
War Maker 52/60.
Lucky strike. Unlucky for me, the lead beast man swings his axe and I leap to protect Lisa.
Greywaters HP: 2/10
A blast knocks the beast man back but I don’t see the damage readout—I’m down to twenty percent and blacking out.
Panicked, Lisa lays her hands on me.
Healing Touch.
Range: touch.
HP: +4.
Your touch stimulates healing and replenishment of HP.
Gentle and assured, her hands press against my chest, a warm glow emits and spread through my body. I realize that I’ve not received any restorative buffs since logging into this fully immersive world, and how soothing and similar it is to the bath and that restful moment of lucidity before sleep consumes you.
Greywaters HP: 6/10
Ex leans over me, his thick red, salt and pepper striped beard and flush face filling my vision. My chest tightens, not from the damage, but anxiety. I shake it away.
“Don’t be wastin’ any of that energy on a hard on, my boy. Up and at ’em, if you pardon the pun.” Ex would be far more useful as a guide if all the snark didn’t happen.
Sitting up, I squeeze Lisa’s hand. “Thank you.”
The air cools, filled with the harsh cracks of ice formation, Remy firing on the beast men. That dude’s relentless. Speaking of which, Granger is dueling with the first of the three beast men, raining damage upon the creature. He’s clearly our tank.
Jonesy engages the second of the shifted gryphons at range.
Shimmering Wave. 50% chance to hit.
Range: 20-foot cone.
DAM: 10.
Foe takes flame damage.
War Maker 49/60
The gryphon towers over Jonesy, his axe falling with slashing damage.
Shadow Fox 1/10
Jonesy turns transparent before I focus on his attacker. Our batons fire a wide cone. If I fire, then Jonesy takes damage too. He has no health left to spare.
Behind Remy, Paul’s already on it, casting healing on Jonesy, but Remy and Granger are engaged with the other two beast men, it’s up to me to stop Jonesy’s attacker.
Shimmering Blast.
Range: 10-foot cone.
DAM: 10.
Your foe takes damage.
War Maker 44/60.
This is impossible. We’re screwed.
Now I’ve gained hate. The beast man turns on me, charging with his axe. Whether by crescent of plasma or direct strike of cold steel, I can’t take its hit.
Lisa screams, tackling me to the ground. The beast man slashes his blade down onto Lisa and vanishes in a flash of light.
“The hell?”
Vile Vortex.
Range: 50-feet
DAM: 10
Recharge: 1 minute.
A vortex teleports enemies away when they strike.
Random effects:
100% chance of stun. 2 seconds.
20% chance of damage.
100% chance of teleporta
tion 50-feet away.
A temporary fix, not a solution. We need a proper strategy. I enter the party chat.
Me: Kona, Mal, where are you? How many more of these things are there?
Kona: You don’t wanna know, brah. There’s a flock roosting around a boss.
A flock, oh hell. Too late, I see Jonesy’s soul box flash into place above his corpse, and Granger turn translucent with another hit from his own attacker, before he falls and his soul box bursts into view. That leaves our two healers, myself and mystery man Remy against three beast men.
Jonesy shouts out over the party chat.
Jonesy: We’re headed back to you from the crazy owl lady at the respawn point. We gotta reclaim our soul boxes.
Remy: Both sides have long range attacks, us and them. We can’t fight out in the open, we need defensive positions. We’ll fall back to you and regroup.
Jonesy: Alright, Kona, Mal, best you stay hidden until we can use your attacks.
Kona and Mal agree as Remy captures two of the beast men in ice. He and Paul pull back into the ruins, while Lisa and I head left, through narrow passages of a fallen temple. Unable to follow, the beast man bellows, chopping at the black stone with his savage war axe. The stone reverberates, ringing like a bell with each strike, assaulting our ears as we crawl along in deepening darkness.
Ex appears ahead of us, waving his arm, directing us down a side passage. “Light your way with the glow of your batons. Quickly now.”
I turn to Lisa. “Run the glow on your baton and follow me.”
Lisa does and the light from our batons reflect off the original marble polish of the fallen stone. The passage continues a ways as the rock tolls with the strikes of the beast man. Two minutes pass and we squeeze out into a wide, circular chamber, ringed with enormous monoliths. Covered in spirals, the menhirs each stand twenty feet tall, beneath a cracked dome of quartz dozens of feet above us. The pale glow of the sunlight through the crystalline rock is pierced by a bright shaft through the jagged fissure. The beam highlights the embossed spirals of one of the standing stones.
My skin itches and Lisa’s hair flows as if we’re submerged or weightless. The red aggro aura and the ringing are gone. At least we’ve lost the attention of the beast man.
“Where’s the door? How do we get out? Lisa, what does your imp say?”
Lisa’s eyebrow jumps. “Say? Nothing. Where are we?”
“My imp led us here. He’s standing on my right, looking at the stones. Where’s your imp?”
“My imp doesn’t appear during battles.”
“Ever? Or because you remorted?”
Ex interrupts. “Don’t worry about all that, this is a crossroads of power.”
“My imp says this is a crossroads.”
Excited, Lisa leans forward. “An eschen. But how’s that going to help us?”
“I don’t know, what’s an eschen?”
Ex laughs. “You are a bit slow, aren’t you, lad? Here’s where I’ll earn my keep. As I explained in your training, eschen are points of confluence, where ley lines cross and great flows of mana erupt from the earth—power ley benders harness for health and magic.”
I turn to Lisa. She shrugs. “Is he finished?”
“Oh, yes, sorry.”
“Eschen are sometimes marked with a stone circle like this one.” She swings her arm in an arc. “But does your imp expect us to recharge ourselves and go back up that tunnel of collapsed temple?”
Looking back to Ex, I shrug. “He hasn’t said. But if we’ve lost the hate, we can probably escape the tunnel and regroup with everyone.”
Ex crosses his arms, annoyed. “Use your lady friend’s Vile Vortex.”
“What?” I round on Ex. “The hell you talking about?”
Lisa touches my shoulder. “What’s he saying?”
My face heats.
Ex sighs. “You want out of here, you activate a portal. Sweet lass there has the Vile Vortex skill.”
I blanch. “The hell. It’s random, I could teleport fifty feet and end up in the rocks!”
“Lad, I wouldn’t suggest that if it be possible. It’s random yes, but not in this case.”
I shake my head, turning to Lisa. “He wants me to hit you, which will trigger your Vile Vortex defense.” I spin around, stabbing my finger toward Ex. “And it’ll leave Lisa here, alone.”
Lisa stares at me, sighs and gestures with her hands to come at her.
Ex slaps his face. “That’s not what I’m saying. Lisa has the potential of a Celestial Infinite, lad.”
Ex is right, she’d gained her first level celestial armor before remorting.
Ex continues: “The Infinites bend reality. Vile Vortex is a defensive skill, true, but as a foal is able to walk minutes after birth, some skills are inherent.”
Tilting her head, Lisa takes my attention. “What’s your imp saying?”
Ex flaps his hand toward Lisa. “Ask her to stand at the center of the circle. You stand in front of her. Vile Vortex is defensive, but at an eschen, it opens a portal to another eschen.”
That doesn’t seem to make sense, but I repeat this to Lisa.
Ex continues. “As she increases in level and develops her class, Lisa can level this skill into a form of Fast Travel.”
“Teleportation.” I grin. Ex has a decided Scottish affectation to his lilt. I don’t understand its context in the time period of the game, but I can’t help asking, “Can you say, ‘I’ve giv’n her all she’s got, captain’?”
He points at Lisa and stabs his finger at the center of the circle.
Lisa’s ever so cute eyebrows pinch. “Is your imp Scottish?”
Squee! Does she know Star Trek? “He wants us to stand in the center of the stone circle and activate your Vile Vortex. Ask your imp, it should explain.”
Her frown deepens, but she asks her imp.
“She’s saying the same thing. Let’s try it.”
Standing in the center of the menhirs, as the power flows around us, my whole head rings, before the familiar flash and tunnel of light flares, rising from the ground.
Chapter Fourteen
The journey between temple chambers is instantaneous. We flash into a similar ring of stones within a vast marble hall capped with a quartz dome. I breathe in on instinct, hold and dart my eyes around before release. A large arch, unblocked by fallen rock, opens to our left. I point it out to Lisa, but she sees it.
The ground is covered in dust, marked by footsteps of those transported here before us. Crossing the threshold out of the hall, text fills my vision.
Quest: Path of the Fallen.
Rewards:
500 XP.
Sedes.
Assorted ley crystals.
Assorted treasure, 1200 GP.
Foes: Undead doppelgangers.
Reward: 50 XP each.
Follow the Path of the Fallen. Should you stray from the path and die, you must set out on your journey once more. Defeat all challengers and win a sedes, only then will the gateway reactivate. Do you accept?
Y/N
A sedes. I look around for my rascally imp. He doesn’t choose to show.
“Lisa, my imp said I’d collect a sedes on this quest.”
She smiles. “Really? You already gave me your crystal, don’t try and give me the sedes too.”
Blush. I change the subject just a bit. “Why’s it called a sedes? Why’s everything got more than one name?”
That infectious giggle. “Your soul box is the seat of your soul.”
That doesn’t really explain it to me, but it snatched away my embarrassment. We smile at each other.
Jonesy yells across the party chat.
Jonesy: D, where you at?
Me: I don’t know where we are, but we’ll try to catch our bearings and check our party map. We’ll get back soon as we figure out how.
Jonesy sighs.
Jonesy: You haven’t run off to the location of the game instance have you?
Me: No.
Jonesy: Just Fast Travel back to Haven and then to the crazy owl lady.
Lisa shakes her head.
Lisa: “We can’t.”
A hologram of Jonesy’s head pops up between Lisa and I. “What happened?”
“I created a portal that took us somewhere.” Lisa marks our party map. It shows the ruins, our group and the owl lady, but doesn’t show our tags. Lisa and I aren’t displayed on the map.
“There’s a ruined building with a white dome. It has an eschen inside. I think it’s more than a side quest. Maybe we need to complete both to succeed.”
“Can you use the portal again?” Jonesy says.
Lisa and I trade a confused glance. “Don’t know, but I used Vile Vortex. I’ve a cool down, but the quest text says the challenge is the only way to reactivate the portal.”
Jonesy grunts. “So you can’t Fast Travel. Alright, we’ll try to take the boss through stealth attack. Finish this side quest of yours and get back here.”
When did Jonesy become a prick?
Lisa gives me a questioning glance. “David? Do we accept?”
“Yes, let’s run the gauntlet.”
Quest accepted.
***
Lisa and I charge down a long hallway lined with marble columns. The glare of sunlight blazes at the entrance to the temple, but as our eyes adjust, I quickly see what my other senses already told me—jungle surrounds us.
This isn’t the Fell Lands. We’re in the Wilds again.
“I don’t see any atmosphoids.”
Lisa’s right, the sky is clear, but for the occasional wisp of high altitude cloud. “Where are we?”
Our UI maps are blank, unless we choose our group, the Haven, or lands we’ve Fast Traveled through. The display fades.
“It’s pretty clear where we need to go.” Lisa points with her baton, to an overgrown avenue through the jungle away from the temple. The roots of the closest trees snake across the enormous paving stones around the portal building, but none have purchase in the quartz of the structure.