by David Petrie
"Aboard this airship are the only people aware of the situation at hand. It will most likely be the biggest challenge that any of us will ever face in our lives. The consequences of failure could be devastating to this company and the world as we know it." He jabbed two fingers downward against the railing in front of him. "However, among us, we have some of the finest players to ever set foot in Noctem as well as the best support staff that I have ever had the pleasure of working with. In short, it will be hard, but I believe in this crew. We can do this. Neal simply doesn't know who he's messing with." There was a heavy dose of pride in his words, and the speech rallied the crew more than Max would have expected, like the man genuinely had their respect. Alastair turned back to take his place in the captain's chair, filling it well as he pointed forward and added, "Full speed ahead."
Max stood between Kira and Farn as the Nostromo flew toward the starting point given to them by Carver's video. It had helped that they had been near their destination when they logged out the night before. At first glance, their starting point didn't look like much, just a small hut placed at random in a vast, empty desert. It was nowhere near a city or even a village. Max walked out onto the deck of the ship for a better look, but there wasn't much more to see from there either. Although, outside the Nostromo for the first time, he was curious about what the ship looked like. It was a cross between a navy destroyer and a vintage plane with some fantasy styling thrown in for good measure. It was a distinctive design choice, like it was somehow part of Noctem's military. Max liked the aesthetics but questioned why the game world needed something like a warship.
The craft descended toward the ground, stopping to hover above the tiny shack, dust billowing out in wide circles as it was pushed away by the ship's vertical engines. Alastair walked them to an opening in the railing where he pulled a lever. A rope ladder that almost reached the ground unfurled from the deck like a tongue. "There's nowhere for us to dock, so this will have to do."
Max peered over the edge at the ladder flipping around in the wind. "It's cool. This looks safe."
"Would you rather walk the plank? And yes, before you ask, we have a plank." Alastair waggled his eyebrows.
Kira shoved at Max, pushing him so close to the edge that he had to catch himself with one hand on the railing nearby. "Get going, fearless leader; we don't have all day."
"Alright, alright, cut it out." He laughed at her playful attempt to murder him as he placed his foot onto the first rung, making sure to not to let go of the ship's handrail as he found his footing. Kira hopped up on the railing, sitting a couple of feet from his hand before letting herself fall back like a scuba diver to plummet toward the ground.
"Well that makes sense," Max muttered to himself as he began to climb down.
He dropped from the last rung of the ladder, landing so hard on the dry, brittle ground that he took a small amount of damage in the process, as did the rest of the team behind him. He opened his mouth to comment, but Kira streaked through the air above before he got a word out, dropping a wave of healing energy like a plane dumping napalm. Max looked up as her trail of dust sparkled through Noctem’s eternal night sky. It was dark, but the full moon, provided plenty of light to see where he was going as he made his way over to the broken-down shack, finding Kira waiting at the entrance, her arms crossed and tapping one foot.
"Don't even say it," he pleaded.
She flashed him a dopey grin. "Took you long enough."
He ignored her and knocked on the door while the others looked at him questioningly. He responded with a shrug that asked, got any better ideas? No one answered. He drew one of his guns and stood to the side of the door with his back against the wall, the way he'd seen police do in so many movies. He reached down to hover just above the wooden handle. Before opening it, he nodded to Farn, indicating for her to take the other side. The rest of the group stood back. He turned it and nudged the door open a crack as Farn kicked it in the rest of the way, her sword at the ready. He followed, drawing his other gun and they fell into formation. They made a good team.
The room was empty, empty except for Max and Farn who now occupied the space inside. Their badass formation lost its impressive status with its overall lack of purpose. One at a time, the four heads of the rest of the party peered in from the sides of the door, silhouetted by the moonlight behind them. They relaxed as Max broke the silence.
"What the hell? Nothing." Just then, the dusty stone floor beneath his feet began to sink, causing him to jump back like a startled animal, making an embarrassing sound in the process. Segments of stone fell into place to form stairs and the entrance of a dungeon. "Well, that answers that." He brushed off a bit of dust from his pants.
Max took a moment to do a last-minute equipment check of what he carried in his item bag and ammo pouches since he would be unable to retrieve anything else from his virtual inventory once they entered the dungeon. Then, satisfied with his choices in carry items, he made his way down the stairs.
Alastair's voice reached his ears, sounding as if he were standing right there with them, his name listed in Max’s chat group. "Talk to me, people. What's down there?"
Max raised a silver com-ring to his mouth. "It's a dungeon entrance." The enchantment on the item carried his voice back up to the airship. "We're going in. Over."
"Okay, keep me posted," Alastair said.
"Roger."
There was a short pause, about long enough for someone to execute an exaggerated eye roll, before Alastair added, "You can leave out the ‘overs’ and ‘rogers,’ Max. It's a fantasy game, not Call of Duty."
There was a second pause in the transmission, followed by Kira's voice, "Ha, you said ‘duty.’ Over."
Alastair didn't respond.
The stairs let out into a massive cylindrical room, a staircase spiraling down along the walls into its depths. The empty space in the middle spanned hundreds of feet across and well over a thousand down. Thick links of metal hung from the center of the ceiling, supporting a daisy chain of wrought iron chandeliers fastened to the walls in places with heavy support ropes, each layer decorated with silver statues of angels. An eerie glow filled the cavernous space as shadows played on the stonework of the walls. Max cringed. He’d played enough survival horror games to know how places like this treated their guests.
Corvin turned to the others while pointing at the statues, "Don't blink, am I right, guys?"
The joke was received by most with puzzled looks, but a couple of chuckles told him that at least Kira and Farn got the reference.
Kegan looked down over the railing-less side. "If Kira gives everyone Flight, we might be able to get down there fast."
"That sounds too easy. I assume something would stop us," Kira thought out loud while tilting her head back and forth as if weighing the risks. "I can try it alone and go down a couple levels, see what happens."
Max nodded, giving approval to the idea and she stepped off the edge without hesitation, hovering in mid-air like a hummingbird sipping from a flower. She dropped a level, stopping in the same abrupt motion and scanned the area from below while Max did the same from above.
"We've got movement!" Kegan shouted, pointing with an arrow at the chandelier as the statues came to life.
They hopped from one branch of the iron structure to another until they all stood facing Kira. Bows were drawn from behind their silver wings, and arrowheads found the fairy in their path. She darted from side to side, avoiding the first few shots. Her maneuverability kept her in the air while Max and Kegan laid down some cover fire to give her some breathing room so she could make her way back up. The bullets ricocheted with metallic clangs as they impacted with a statue's extended wings. Kira landed with an uncharacteristic stumble, and Farn moved in to brace her impact, preventing her from tumbling down the seemingly endless stairs.
"Okay, bad idea," Kira sputtered while regaining her balance, leaning on Farn.
As soon as her wings dematerialized, all but one of t
he statutes halted their attack and returned to their starting positions, leaving the remaining angel to take flight in their direction. It landed right in their path, a short sword clasped in its hand.
The uneven nature of the stairs made it hard to move, but the party worked with it as Max called out his commands. "Ginger, get behind it. I'll meet you there. Farn, keep it focused on the front. Kegan, find its weak points, and Corvin, lay down some debuffs." He didn't bother telling Kira what to do as she took up a position furthest from the fight to support the team and keep Farn's health from falling.
Like clockwork, the team clicked into action. Ginger fired a line into the wall above and leapt to the side, swinging off the edge of the stairs over the empty space below. She arched back around to land behind the statue for a quick strike that carried the critical damage of a back-stab. The angel staggered, giving Max a moment to sneak by while Farn shouted a ridiculous taunt in its direction. The thing stared at her for an instant, looking dumb as a spiral of green and gray smoke circled its head. Corvin snapped his caster shut as the poison spell he’d cast took hold, adding a fragile defense status along with it. A second later, Kegan fired three arrows, hitting his target in the head, neck, and chest. The neck was critical, the damage almost doubled by the active debuff. Max fired a few rounds into the statue’s back as Kegan loosed another arrow at its neck, their attacks delivering a one-two punch that brought the angel down.
All in all, it was a pretty standard fight. Without the other statues firing at them from a distance, the thing turned out to be a bit of a pushover. Ginger even seized the opportunity to snatch a couple feathers from its wings as it fell. In the end, the only resource lost was time.
They regrouped, and Max reported the encounter back to Alastair on the Nostromo. Then, with no reason to stand around, they continued their descent, the occasional statue swooping over for a visit only to end with Ginger getting another handful of silver feathers. After traveling around the massive spiral a few more times and removing a modest number of angels from the dungeon, Max was starting to feel pretty good about their chances.
"This isn’t so bad." Kegan looked over his progress in his journal. "The experience is crap, but at least these guys are easy."
"Plus, I'm getting a ton of these feathers," Ginger added brushing a few against her cheek. "You want to buy some off me later, Kegan? I'm thinking they would craft some good arrows."
"Buy some?" the Leaf waved his journal at her like she had just committed a crime. "We're on an epic quest to save the world together, and you want to charge me for feathers?"
"It is a material world." She shrugged.
Kira rolled her body against the curved wall of the chamber until she stood with her back against it looking up at the flights above." I wish there weren't so many stairs, though. I mean how long is this gonna take?"
"About another hour. Maybe a little more?" Max peered over the side.
Corvin chuckled. "Anyone ever play Ghostbusters for the original Nintendo?"
Kira slapped a hand against her forehead. "OH GOD! The damn stairway at the end. Why would they make you press a button forty thousand times to climb each individual stair when you have a perfectly good d-pad available."
"I know, right? At least there aren't any ghosts chasing us." Corvin smiled as he passed her.
She tensed her body as if the memory brought her physical pain. "Don't get me started on the ghosts—"
"We got another statue," Max interrupted before she got into full-on rant mode.
They repeated the process of fighting a silver annoyance and traveling down a level several more times, the continuous victories building up their confidence the whole way. In fact, it started to seem as though Carver had underestimated their capabilities when he had created the quest. It was to a point where not even the decorative mosaic of death and destruction that sat on the floor of the chamber could shake Max's faith in his team.
He stepped off the stairs and onto the tiles, the others doing the same one at a time behind him. The image below his feet depicted what looked like the end of the world, cities falling and the souls of people being drawn in toward the center of the circular room. It was typical for a standard role-playing game. Each square tile reminded him of the 8-bit sprite graphics of games past. He hadn’t played any from back then like Corvin or Kira, but there had been a few retro-styled releases that he’d gotten his hands on. Now, a part of him expected the tiles underfoot to come to life and play out some kind of macabre, animated cut-scene.
At the center of the image sat a pedestal of coiled serpents holding a wide basin filled with a dark liquid. At six points around its edge were detailed skulls of polished black stone, their eyes turned upwards toward the angels above. Max looked up to see light glinting off their silver wings as the statues hopped down to the lowest chandelier for a better view as if they were curious - some even finding perches around the stairway a couple levels up when space became limited. Their blank eyes seemed to watch with intense anticipation.
Taking their places around the basin in line with the placement of the six skulls, the group stopped. Kira leaned down for a closer look at the grim shape in front of her. Max couldn't be sure, but for a moment, he thought that hers was somewhat smaller than the rest, like it had resized to match her own skull. He shook off the thought with a shudder before he let his nerves run away with him.
They each inspected their edge of the basin for some kind of indication of what to do next. Hands reached out in curiosity but stopped just short of touching as if that would be an action that couldn't be taken back. But after losing close to two hours on their descent down the stairs, they couldn't afford to be cautious now, and Max knew it.
He let his fingers fall to the bony face below his hand; its surface was far colder than what he imagined, almost like ice. He jerked his hand back again, expecting the tips of his fingers to adhere to the skull with frozen moisture. They didn't. Instead, the skull’s expression shifted, jaw contorting into a wide scream that tore through the cavernous space before it echoed back down to where it started. The flapping of silver wings followed as the angels above shifted, as if frightened by the sound. Max cringed along with them. Then, as if set off by a chain reaction, the rest of the skulls did the same, each member of the group jumping backward. Out of each gaping mouth rose a small, empty glass about the size of a single shot, the purpose for the dark liquid becoming clear.
"I was afraid of that." Kegan placed a hand over his eyes, expressing the group’s reluctance at the prospect of drinking any form of mystery fluid.
Max raised his com-ring ring to his mouth. "Hey, Alastair, we got some kind of black water here. It looks like we have to drink it to get this thing started." He didn't know why he was reporting it. It wasn't like Coldblood would respond with a casual never mind and send them home.
Instead, he got an expected, "Bottoms up," from their temporary employer over the group chat.
"Well, you heard the boss." Max sighed and reached for the glass, taking it from the skull unceremoniously.
Without warning, its jaw snapped shut with an implied murderous intent, causing him to yank his hand back again, dropping the glass. It fell with an echoing chime that reverberated through the chamber.
"Argh!" he yelled up at the angels. "I'm getting sick of all the jump scares. It's not even original anymore!" He growled in frustration as he looked for the dropped glass.
He found it under the basin where it had rolled to a stop. Despite being made of what looked like well-crafted crystal, it didn't break on the tile floor like it would have if it had been real. After all, it would have been foolish to have programmed something so important with the ability to break. He picked it up and dusted it off with his scarf. The others watched him. Kira snickered.
The surface of the black water was as still as death, like an obsidian mirror. His dim reflection vanished as he dipped his hand in, consumed by the ripples that spread out around it. The same unexpected cold
chilled his fingers to the bone as he filled the tiny glass. As much as he wanted to hesitate, he didn't. Waiting would only let his imagination run wild with the idea of what the liquid was. He tipped back the glass, and its icy contents hit his tongue, immediately changing temperature to scalding, like hot coffee that had been served without warning. An acrid taste filled his mouth, and an intense tingling swam across his taste buds as if he'd just placed a nine-volt battery to them. The sensation connected with something inside him that made him feel weak. He wasn't sure why, but fear climbed up in his throat. He choked it back down along with the liquid, coughing as it burned his insides.
The others waited in silence for a minute, eyes focused on him as if half expecting him to drop dead. Nothing happened.
"That looked like it sucked," Kira observed.
Max leaned on the basin for support. "Yeah, well I'm guessing we all have to drink it to activate the quest, so get to it."
Without a word, Corvin snatched his glass from the skull; its jaw snapped shut in response. In a single motion, he filled and downed the shot.
Max watched, expecting the same response that he'd had, but the mage just winced, placing a few fingers against his mouth as if his teeth hurt. His eyes widened, and he fell to his knees clutching his jaw. His eyes watered as he struggled not to spit it out. He forced it down, gagging, and then panted for a good thirty seconds, touching a few specific teeth as if he was trying to make sure they were still there. After a long moment, he regained his composure and pulled himself back up. "Sorry, I-I didn't expect that. It tasted like blood."
Max leaned on the basin. "Mine was like boiling acid."
"Well, shit." Kegan looked anxiously toward Ginger.
She shrugged. "It's a game. How bad could it be?"
They both picked up their glasses, filling them in unison and clinking them against each other before downing the evil cocktail at the same time. At first, they both seemed fine, then Kegan keeled over clutching his mouth as if he were about to vomit. Ginger's reaction was less visceral, staggering with one hand on her stomach. Her eyes welled up, and she blinked away tears. Kegan swallowed and proceeded to dry heave since the game wouldn't let him actually throw up.