Openings

by Thomas Davidsmeier

  “Right now if you’re all in agreement. If you win... I kid, I kid! When you win, you’ll get to come right back here at just this point in time. You’ll get to pick up with your plans here with a guarantee of no meddling milk toasts or Millhouses getting in your way. And, no applesauce either!”

  Jeremy did not even check with his co-conspirators.

  “We’re in.”

  The crimson creature turned around and said something to the winged beanpole of a man in a bed sheet talking to the other teenagers. In a few moments, there was a flash and then there were three swirling vortexes of light with doors in the middle of them.

  The being in the shades came to Jeremy first. “What color do you want? Purple, black, or green?”

  “Purple is the color of kings. That’s me.” Jeremy smiled at the inscrutable shades.

  “What symbol do you want?”

  Jeremy pointed to the silver skull-and-crossbones on his trench coat. “That’s my sign.”

  “You’ve got style kid. Let me suggest that you be a necromancer for a class. We’ve got plenty of really good set pieces for you to use.”

  Jeremy was not sure what that meant, but he liked the sound of a necromancer. He had become a big fan of the Walking Dead for a little while. It jumped the shark after awhile, but he still loved the undead.

  “If you think that’s what will work best, I’m in.”

  “Good, if you’re the necromancer, you’re gonna want to start in the southern plains kingdom. You’ll have a great set piece right from the start there.”

  “Sounds good, when do I go?”

  “Right now, J-Man. Step right through the doorway to glory and greatness.”

  ***

  Jeremy felt cold and clammy. There was a dank feel in the air, not like memes, but actually dank like the word really meant. He was sure he was sitting on some sort of brick floor or something.

  “Welcome to your spawn point. You are in the catacombs under the ruins of a once great city. Well, technically it never was a great city since we just created this part of the world about three months ago. But, it is totally set up to look like and be like the ruins of a once great city.”

  Jeremy reached up to his face and pulled down what turned out to be a solid mask made of plaster. If he had read more about history, he would have recognized it as a death mask.

  He sat up and looked toward the direction he thought the voice was coming from. He saw no one. There was a table draped in purple and black with a creepy decor that he totally dug.

  “Man, nice black candles, and I love the cover of that book. How’s it glowing?”

  Along with the big book and the black candles, there was a long, curling staff of grey wood, a purple and black robe hanging on the wall, and a skull neatly arranged on the table in front. There was a small treasure chest to the side, heaps of broken wood, piles of old rags, and a set of three large clay jars with animal heads for lids. Again, Jeremy’s lack of history stopped him from recognizing them as canopic jars.

  Jeremy looked around for the person who had been talking to him. He was alone in a little room made of bricks with a barrel ceiling. There was a door in the wall opposite the table but no other person anywhere.

  “You’d better get up and put your robe on. Get your staff, too. A treasure hunter is going to be here in a minute and you’ll need the boost from the equipment.”

  Jeremy finally spotted the source of the voice. It was the skull that was part of the display on the table. It’s jaw was moving on its own, and it was speaking somehow.

  “Cool effects, man. And, everything looks totally real too.”

  “That’s because it is, young necromancer. And the sword the treasure hunter has will be just as real when he gets here. So, chop, chop, get the gear on, unless you want it to be chop, chop, off with your head.”

  High school, especially gym class, had taught Jeremy to despised taking orders from people he thought of as inferiors. This skull, he figured, probably knew what was up, at least in this game place. Jeremy scrambled up off the brick floor and over to the table.

  Picking the robe up off its hooks, he pulled it on over his head and tugged it down over his linen wrapped body. Grabbing the wooden staff, he noticed that there were words floating over part of his field of vision.

  You have acquired a Novice Necromancer’s Robe. Casting cost of Bone Armor is decreased by 1 Mana.

  You have acquired an Novice Caster’s Staff. Spells cast while this is equipped will do +2 damage.

  “How do I cast?”asked Jeremy, wanting to get the Bone Armor spell up ASAP, even though he did not even know what exactly it did.

  “Well, if we had more time, I’d tell you to read the book. That’ll teach you everything. But, for now you can just say, ‘I cast my spell Bone Armor now.”

  “What, I can’t just say, ‘Bone Armor’ to cast it?”

  “If it worked that way, every time you said the words, you’d be casting it. Like, you might say, ‘Should I level up Bone Armor or Evil Energy Bolt?’ Then, you’d cast both spells right then. You can set up short cut phrases or words if they’re weird enough that you won’t accidentally say them. The only other way is to pull up your character sheet and think at the name of the spell. That is not going to work in combat. For now, you better just cast it like I said. It’ll absorb 5 damage at your level before it shatters and you need to recast it.”

  “I cast my spell Bone Armor now.”

  Jeremy felt a momentary hum in the air, and then he was wearing a weird breastplate made of ribs and other bones.

  “Is that a skull in the middle of my chest? Cool!”

  There came a banging on the door of Jeremy’s little chamber a moment later. His eyes went wide as he looked up. “Guess it’s go time already.”

  The skull began talking quickly, his fleshless mouth making weird clicks and scapes as he did so.

  “Your damage spell is Evil Energy Bolt. Remember that. Now, put me over in that corner and hide behind the table over there. When...”

  The skull did not get a chance to finish. When Jeremy had comprehended the first instruction, he had gone into action carrying it out. He scooped up the skull and tossed him toward the corner then hid behind the table as quickly as he could. If the being had been a normal human skull instead of a magic construct, it would have been dashed to pieces. Instead, the skull was a creature in the game with Health, Mana, and other such qualities. It even had a name. Yorick. The only damage that Yorick took from the hasty toss was a severely bruised ego.

  Fear subsided just a little in the novice necromancer. The banging on the door continued as Jeremy picked himself up from off the floor behind the table. He had dove rather quickly. Caution was still the better part of valor. He had learned that from a video game about an assassin. Jeremy put himself in the darkest part of the shadows and waited.

  The door finally gave way with a gust of air as it swung violently in. The black candles guttered on the table, but stayed lit. A man holding a torch and a glinting longsword stood in the doorway. The light of the torch made it impossible for Jeremy to see any more details.

  “What have we here? Hmmmm... Lit candles, a book, and... ooo... Is that a chest I spy? Those jars look interesting as well.”

  The man entered the room cautiously and looked around. “Traps? No traps this time? Hmmm...”

  Not detecting any threat despite giving the room a careful examination twice over, he turned and went to the far corner where the chest was sitting.

  Jeremy suddenly realized that he did not know if Evil Energy Bolt needed to be aimed or what.

  The treasure hunter kneeled down in front of the chest.

  Yorick’s voice called out, “Rigor Mortis.”

  A purple glow engulfed the man by his chest. Jeremy took that as his clue.

  He stood up, pointed his finger at the kneeling man, and said, “I cast my spell Evil Energy Bolt now at that treasure hunter guy over there.”

  Like a gun, his fin
ger fired a ball of crackling sparks and energy. It was a deep purple with unnatural darkness woven through. This arcane projectile flew straight for the treasure hunter.

  You cast Evil Energy Bolt at Level 3 Rogue.

  Critical Hit! (Target was paralyzed.) You do 18 damage [(4+2) x 3].

  “Don’t stop, you’ve got to finish him!” the skull was shouting at Jeremy from somewhere in the corner.

  Jeremy came around the table and stepped in close to the paralyzed man.

  “I cast my spell Evil Energy Bolt now at that treasure hunter guy right here.”

  You cast Evil Energy Bolt at Level 3 Rogue.

  Critical Hit! (Target was paralyzed.) You do 12 damage [(2+2) x 3].

  He dies. Hope he wasn’t playing a Roguelike.

  You receive 400 XP.

  “Right,” piped up Yorick. “Good job and all. Congrats on your first kill. There better be plenty more for what I’m putting myself through here.”

  Jeremy was too busy doing a victory dance to notice the skull’s muttering.

  “Oh, fearless leader!” Yorick shouted. “You need to search the body immediately. Time is now of the essence.”

  “Why? He isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.”

  “Actually, he will be. That’s kind of the point. You’ll see. Plus, after you read your book over there and learn Create Undead as your third spell, you’ll be able to have lots of dead guys going all sorts of places. But right now, you’ve got to search the body. Come on, this is really important. We put a lot of work into arranging this under the radar.”

  “You don’t have to be a whiny little baby skull, I’ll do it already. You better not be having me cheat at this game. I don’t cheat at games. It defeats the purpose.”

  “If you’re going to call me names, call me the one I’m supposed to have, Yorick. And, you’re not cheating. You’re just being clever.”

  “Right, York, like without the New. Got it.” In addition to skipping history, Jeremy had also not read a lot of Shakespeare.

  Jeremy bent over the body and searched for valuables. He found a pouch that felt heavy, like it had something in it. “Hmm, this feels like it’s actually worth something. What I’m looking for York?”

  Yorick gritted his bare white teeth. “An amulet.”

  Jeremy pulled a gold chain out of the pouch. He kept tugging, and sure enough, a golden medallion with a purple amethyst emerged from the leather. “Oh, I bet this is magical, right? Like +10 to my mana pool or something like that.”

  “Good eye on the magical,” said Yorick as he tried to remain positive with the young necromancer. “But, it’s not a buff. It is a multi-use item that has just one charge left in it. That was the only way to have it fit into the treasure table for that encounter. You need to put it on and cast the stored spell on our recently deceased friend here. But, you’ve got a little bit of work to do to prepare him first.”

  Jeremy was about to object when he noticed a notification in his vision.

  You have acquired an Amulet of the Hungry Cannibal (1/10).

  “What kind of spell is stored in this thing?”

  Frustrated, Yorick paused for a moment. “It is a Expert Create Undead spell. It will turn this fine fellow into a ghoul. Fast, lots of Health, and a nasty paralysis effect.”

  “Can I control that high level of an undead? I’m only a Level 1 Necromancer.”

  “No, if you raised him right now, he’d end up eating your liver. That’s what the rope in that refuse pile over there is going to be for. Grab it, and tie this guy up, not his legs though.”

  Jeremy sighed and dug through the refuse pile. “Why didn’t I get a demonic tutor with arms and legs to help?”

  A strange wave of offense went through Yorick’s bodiless voice. “Hey, I’m not a demon. I went to Hell, but I wasn’t one of the founding members. Got it?”

  “Whoah, man, er, skull. I was just making a Magic: The Gathering reference, not trying to insult you. I’ve got the rope. Am I supposed to tie him up any special way?”

  “No, just get it around him and secure it. If you move fast enough, he won’t be full strength on your side of the portal.”

  “Ooo, magic portals? Fast travel is always cool.”

  “Then the Divided Lands is the wrong game for you, unless you’re playing a wizard or you’re a hunk of non-living resources. The lead designers weren’t ‘down with’ fast travel. They are kinda old fashion by your standards. We had to lobby hard to even get these trade portals. I think the old men were originally gonna have you guys using wagons and teams of horses. Gygax kept talking about a cartage table and draft horse encumbrance. I think Tolkien was halfway through create the horse language before we convinced the two of them to do it this way.”

  Jeremy had stopped paying attention to Yorick when his knot tying had gotten difficult. Finally, he had tied up the corpse so that its arms would not be able to move. “This good?”

  “I can’t really tell. I’m still on the floor over here where you tossed me.”

  “Oh, right. Let me fix that.” Jeremy grabbed Yorick, took his staff and —

  Panic turned into terror for Yorick. “Whoooaah! Be careful with... Aaaahhhh! Oh, all right. That turned out a lot better than it could have.”

  — wedged the skull onto the top of it.

  Shaken but recovering quickly, Yorick assessed the rope work. “Oh, that will do just fine for this job. Now, go to the treasure chest and take out one gold coin.

  Jeremy stalked over to the chest, striking his staff on the floor with each stride. “This staff makes a cool sound, doesn’t it?” he asked as he bent over the chest.

  The skull settled his rattling teeth. “I suppose it does if you’re not stuck on top of it. A little rough of a ride to be honest. Now, take that coin and go put it in the dead man’s mouth.”

  Jeremy should have been more grossed out, but he was not. He had been thinking a lot about dead bodies lately, but he had not had any real world experience. There was no blood. Except for the lack of breath and the scorch marks, the treasure hunter could have been alive.

  Yorick commented as Jeremy did the dental work, “Your crack about me being a tutor isn’t far off. I’m supposed to be helping you learn the ropes here and get started in the Game.”

  “Well, you’re doing a bang up job. I’ve got one kill, a tied up corpse with a mouth full of gold, and no idea what comes next.”

  If Yorick could have grinned, he would have. “Next, you’re gonna open up your Leader menu. Almost all of it will be grayed out because you aren’t a leader yet, not until you capture your first village. But, the word ‘Trade’ should be available. Then, you’re gonna...”

  “How do I open a menu?”

  “Oh, yeah, down in the lower right hand corner of your vision should be a little symbol that looks like a squiggly circle divided into sixths with a symbol in each pie slice. Look at it and think the idea, ‘Open.’”

  “Right, got it. Now, ‘Trade,’ then what?”

  “Then, you’re going to pick ‘Gift,’ then ‘Gold,’ then just one for the amount.”

  “Check, check, and check.”

  “Pick ‘Yes’ and get ready to cast on this guy, and then toss him through the portal that will open.”

  A moment later, a purple and unnaturally black portal was swirling next to Jeremy. The dust and refuse in the little catacomb room was tossed about by rushing air.

  Jeremy touched the amulet around his neck and said, “I want to cast the spell stored in this amulet, Create Undead.” He pointed at the bound corpse and a ball of purple shot out of his finger and hit it.

  The ball of energy slammed into the dead man’s chest and released bolts of bright, glowing, purple electricity. The electricity started to circulate over the surface of the body. It went faster and faster until the sparks enveloped the corpse. Then, the body began to change. It seemed to degrade and rot before Jeremy’s eyes.

  What had been the treasure hunter began to twitch and s
pasm.

  “Quick!” spat out Yorick, “Get it up and through the portal.”

  The smell was nauseating and almost made Jeremy pass out as he grabbed the reanimating ghoul. The treasure hunter had been a smaller man than Jeremy, and that made getting the ghoul on its feet much easier.

  When the first part of the stumbling ghoul touched the whirling chaos of colors, the substance of the portal changed. It flowed outward, enveloped the remainder of the ghoul, and pulled it the rest of the way through. With an audible pop, the light, colors, and wind vanished.

  Disgusted, looking down at his now filthy robe, Jeremy grimaced. “That was a major pain, York, my dude. A MAJOR PAIN.”

  “Trust me. You just helped yourself more that you could have done any other way right now.”

  “Fine. But, I’m not the trusting type.”

  With a hint of gloating, the skull added, “And, you’ll get used to the smell.”

  ***

  Jeremy was only a few pages into his Book of Experience when he heard an audible chime.

  Ding!

  Your Strong Ghoul has killed a Level 1 Paladin.

  You get 250 XP.

  You have reached Level 2!

  “Sweet! I hate paladins.”

  Chapter 4

  Chris followed Brother Aleksandr out of the little crypt, through the graveyard, and along a gravelly road. Backing up to the graveyard was a forest of tall, old trees. Chris recognized some oaks and a few pines because those kinds were easy for his untrained eye to identify, but he could not recognize any of the others.

  “Is this the border with the Forest Kingdom here? One of my friends went to it as their starting point. I’d really like to make contact with them.”

  Brother Aleksandr shook his head. The road went up a little rise and looped around a thick arm of the forest that jutted out. “No, this is a part of the human lands. It is roughly circular on my map of the area with a curling in part for the little village of Fenton, its farmland, and the fen just to the north. I would say it is approximately forty miles in diameter, give or take a mile or two.”

  The two men came around the stand of trees, and a church with a little stone house next to it came into view. The little hill they were cresting was the tallest one in sight.