Gethane was attempting to count the number of stairs as they descended, but he soon lost count. Still the staircase spiralled around about them, falling down even deeper into the dark places of the earth. “Is it getting colder as we descend?” said Gethane and from behind him Ethir agreed that this was so. Still downwards they went. By now the cold was becoming increasingly fierce. Yet no ice clung to the steps or walls. It was if a chill air had arisen from below and was attempting to drive them back. Still down they went. Rizan continued to move downwards without comment and then suddenly they were at the bottom of the stairs. The archway at the base of the staircase opened out and the walls suddenly vanished on either side of them. Rizan moved forward enough to ensure that they were all free of the stairway and then came to a sudden stop.
“There are no walls!” said Legaoniel from behind them. This was a fair assessment of the situation for it seemed as if they stood in a vast open space. Or at least that may be the case, for their torches failed to illuminate the darkness at all. The only visible thing was the staircase behind them. Only that and the darkness, which hung about them, shadows flickering from their torches. Behind him Rizan heard Ethir groan loudly.
“Rizan...” she began but the warrior held his hand up to stop her. Whatever she had to say about their current predicament was unlikely to bring any comfort to the warriors so Rizan stilled her. Yet it was still sufficient warning. There was something very wrong with this place. It seemed as if it could possibly be huge. They had certainly descended far enough for it to be quite some size. The question of course was what kind of creature would live in such a place? It was the darkness. It needed to vanquished.
“Varesh!” shouted Rizan suddenly. “Release a fire arrow into the dark. I need to see how big this hall is, and what awaits us.” Without hesitation there was a loud creak from behind them and then they all watched as a brightly lit arrow shot rapidly in to the cavern above their heads. Higher. Then higher still. After a moment there was a dull explosion from far above and the remainder of the arrow began its slow descent, illuminating their surroundings with a bright white light as it drifted downward, revealing the true extent of the cavern in which they found themselves. They stood stunned into silence as the arrow continued its slow descent.
The place in which they found themselves was enormous. A huge empty cavern, featureless of any adornment or decoration at all, apart from a huge pile of blue rock that looked as if it had fallen from the ceiling high above them. The damaged roof rose above them far overhead, the walls running about the cavern in almost a perfect circle. There were no other exits that they could see, for the distance across this vast space was huge. Rizan reckoned it may take them the best part of an hour to cross it.
“What is this?” whispered Calvin as the arrow continued its slow descent. Rizan spun to face Ethir, who was making a low wailing sound, and he was shocked to discover that she seemed to be as if made of stone, her hand pointing to the huge pile of blue rock and rubble that was almost exactly in the centre of the cavern. She was struggling to speak, yet all that came out of her mouth was a loud, yet rising discordant wail.
Which was when the rock moved.
The ground trembled slightly as the arrow ended its descent in a small explosion in front of the pile of what they had assumed to be blue rocks. Then it’s light was no longer needed as the pile of rubble suddenly seemed to explode with cold blue light, illuminating the entire cavern. Gethane was surprised to discover that he had underestimated the size of the fallen rocks. It was the distorting effect of the size of the cavern. It made everything look small. It was only when the fallen rubble opened one huge eye and gazed towards them that the band of warriors began to realise just how big the pile of fallen rubble actually was. That and the fact that it was not fallen rubble either. Rizan heard several gasps from behind him. Ethir moved from his allocated space in the centre of the fighters to the front, standing beside the two fighters who were gazing at the rocks as if stunned.
Slowly the huge ice dragon began to unfold itself. Its huge wings crashed into their full length and beat against the sides of the cavern as it raised itself to its broad, clawed feet. The head of the beast rose into the cold air and an almost tangible sense of dread fell upon them. A deep dark voice filled the halls, seeming almost to shake the ground beneath their feet, rattling the teeth in their heads. The voice was deep and aged, and almost seemed to shake the rock about them as it spoke.
“Who disturbs my sleep?” it asked. It did not seem enraged, or even concerned. Only curious. Yet the volume of the request seemed to almost deafen them. With a stamp of its foot that shook the floor and sent the band of warriors crashing to the ground the huge dragon rose in to the air and then flew some way towards them before once again settling down on the cavern floor about thirty feet before them. It towered above them all, its huge wings obscuring the rest of the cavern. Its long neck snaked high in the air, the blue scaled skin gleaming in the cold air. Then it leaned down towards them and sniffed loudly.
“Ah.” it said, and its words were so loud it seemed to rattle their brains within their skulls. “Adventurers.” It paused slightly, both eyes now settled firmly on Ethir who stood at the front of them all, her face a silent scream. “How tasty.” It laughed, and then opened its mouth, a long blue scaled tongue suddenly extending across the distance between them and wrapping itself around Ethir who was pulled high into the air and then, almost with relish, into the Wyrm’s mouth. There was a sudden sharp crunching and a slight splash of red against the huge blue scaled lips and Ethir was gone. Without even a scream. The beast stamped another step closer to them and began to lick its lips.
Rizan stumbled to his feet appalled. “Dragon!” he screamed, “You shall pay for that death by the name of Dark Knight Rizan the Destroyer, wielder of Angaro’ag the dark sword of justice!” The beast casually flicked it’s gaze towards Rizan as if considering which one to eat first, yet at the same time completely ignoring the leader of the band of warriors. After a moment it turned its full gaze upon Rizan.
“I am not a dragon, tin man” It laughed, and its laughter filled the cavern, the beating of its wings and the deep resonance of its voice drove them to their knees once more. “I am the ice Wyrm Vandrakarn, guardian of the deep ways beneath the earth, holder of the cold flame of the elder days.” The huge beast sniffed loudly. “You are unfortunately under a misapprehension.” Then it sniffed loudly once more. “No matter. I shall save the ones wrapped in iron till last. So inconvenient.”
Rizan dragged himself to his feet as the Wyrm began to laugh. “Attack!” He screamed. “For gold and glory! Destroy the beast!”
With that the two swordsmen sprinted towards the gigantic beast as the first fireballs from Vix detonated uselessly against the Wyrm’s hide. Squalls of air hit the beast with force but it glanced off it effortlessly. Arrows rained down from Varesh’s bow but snapped uselessly off its thick blue scales. Vandrakarn glanced at the two swordsmen racing towards it and raked a huge claw across their path, slicing both Gethane and Rizan in half. Neither had time to scream. Legaoniel gulped as she saw Rizan’s torso head one way, and his legs the other. Gethane simply exploded into a cloud of blood and entrails.
“Run!” screamed Calvin as the beast opened its mouth and spewed a burst of bright blue flame towards them. Varesh slipped into the shadows as he saw Legaoniel, Vix and Calvin vaporise into a maelstrom of devastating blue fire. Their ashes fell to the floor. The beast roared and another burst of blue fire took Gorvek as he sprinted towards the staircase, incinerating him instantly.
Varesh paused in the edges of the darkness. He could not be sure if the beast could determine exactly where he was concealed within the shadows he had woven himself, and so he remained perfectly still. He was now the sole survivor. Blood and ashes littered the cavern floor. He knew that the only way to proceed was to flee. Yet he remained calm and did not move. The beast paused slightly and then it spread its huge wings again, battering the c
ool air of the cavern. Varesh struggled to remain on his feet. he knew that if he fell he would lose his concealment. The shadows would abandon him. He struggled to remain upright. Yet he prevailed.
“You cannot remain hidden forever!” Roared the mighty beast, it’s tone of derision still shaking the ground. “I can wait.” With that it settled down on to its front legs, its huge eyes scanning the ground before it as if attempting to pierce the woven darkness where Varesh hid. The hunter froze. He could not move neither forwards nor back without alerting the mighty beast. Slowly, carefully, he nocked an arrow to his bow. If he could fire it off to his right it would avert the beast’s attention in that direction, which may give him time to reach the safety of the staircase behind him. It may not. Yet it was all he had.
Varesh released the shot. The arrow shot off to the right and struck against the cavern wall, making a loud echoing sound as it collided with the cold stone. To Varesh’s considerable surprise the Wyrm did not turn to face the diversion or even move at all. It simply blinked once. Then laughed, the sound of its mirth shaking the ground. Varesh felt fear rising up into the pit of his stomach as he realised that Vandrakarn was looking directly at him. It smiled once.
“Actually” it roared. “I could see you all the time. I just wanted to see what you would do.” Moving slightly the giant Wyrm lunged forward and tore Varesh’s head from his body then quickly swallowed the rest of him.
“Delicious!” It roared, and moved back to the centre of the cavern to begin its long sleep once again. As it settled down the blue light slowly began to fade, as the shadows began to fill the dark hall again. Then rapidly the light faded, and all was darkness once more.
“Okay, okay!” yelled the head of the HR department. “That’s enough! Stop the video!”
In the large conference room the impressively high tech computer screen suddenly faded to a bright blue pinprick of light and then turned blank as the lights in the room came back up. The office was large and obviously designed for conference and teleconference meetings, but at this moment in time it was lightly populated. The top table had five prosperous looking men in sharp suits gathered about it, facing a much younger (and much more casually dressed) man who was sat at a small table in front of them. The arrangement of the furniture certainly suggested to the younger man, who wore a large day pass badge that read, “Brian” that this was very much a judgement and trial kind of thing. Casually he crossed his legs, his dirty, badly worn trainers almost wagging at them as if goading them to proceed. From the table in front of him Brian could almost smell the indignant testosterone in the air. Just to rile them a little more he smiled in a kind of goofy way (he had practised this in the mirror several times a day since his suspension from work the week before) and adjusted his glasses upon his nose. The milk bottle lenses glinted slightly in the reflected power light from the now picture less monitor.
Brian completely embraced the irony of the fact that the desk the five men sat behind was deliberately raised about a foot or thereabouts so that he had to look up to answer any questions which was, judging by the way the five of them were almost wriggling in their seats waiting to get started, obviously about to begin. The largest one of the men - who also sat at the centre of the table, the other four executives flanking him two on each side had a small card placed on the desk before him. Brian had already registered the words, “Derek Cheeseman, Head of HR” marked in gold letters upon it.
“Okay.” he said to Brian as the other four men fumbled with their notepads, looks of complete horror and disappointment etched collectively on their faces. “What the hell was all that about?”
Brian sniffed once and adjusted his glasses. Tugging at his T shirt (the logo upon it reading, “I am not a geek. I am a level Fifty War Lord”) he looked once more at the bunch of suits arrayed before him. “It’s role players, isn’t it?” he spat, “I bloody hate role players.”
The group of HR representatives arrayed in front of him seemed particularly unimpressed, if not confused. The man to the far left of him wagged a finger at Brian and attempted to admonish him. “Role players they may be” and he frowned. “But they are also customers.” Several of the other executives began to nod almost in unison. Brian desperately tried to put a scene from the film, “Wayne’s World” to the back of his mind.
“Whatever.” continued Brian. “I mean - “For gold and glory! Destroy the beast!” What the hell is all that about? Bunch of Muppets if you ask me. They hang around all the game trade centre’s mouthing off their “thees” and “thous” and so on. Gets right under my skin it does. If you ask me they got what they deserved.”
Cheeseman wiped his brow as several of the other men shook their heads angrily. “How they choose to play the game is not up to you, Brian. They are paying customers and you have just managed to incinerate eight customers’ avatars seemingly effortlessly. Can you not see the damage you have caused?” Brian just grinned at them, but did not say a word. Cheeseman tutted and asked the man to his immediate right a question and the man pushed a folder across to him. Cheeseman glanced at it briefly. Decided to change tack.
“Okay, Brian. Have it your way. Your work history here tells me you have been an in game customer advisor for some two years now, and have recently been promoted to the events and design team. Nothing on this record suggests anything out of the ordinary. Then this.” Cheeseman paused slightly as Brian did not seem to be paying any attention to him and was casually gazing through the window on the other side of the office. The HR director cleared his throat and Brian slowly turned his head back towards him once again, his trainer clad foot wagging slowly, threatening to disrupt his train of thought. “For God’s sake, Brian” he exploded. “You know we back up absolutely everything in game in case of eventualities like this. That’s how we just viewed the incident on the screen there. You know this! Surely you were aware that this would all come to light!”
Brian was pleased that he seemed to be getting to Cheeseman. As far as he was concerned the HR director was just another idiot in a suit who had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. “Yes. “ Said Brian, “I knew all of that. Though it was good to watch it from outside. I’d never really watched the dragon in action as such. Pretty awesome design, don’t you think? I’m particularly fond of the wings.” Brian was amused to see the outraged looks on the faces of four of the executives gathered before him but one of them merely frowned.
Cheeseman thumped the desk. If it was designed to startle Brian it did not work. He did not even blink. “You seem to be completely unaware of the severity of your actions” Said the HR director. “You single handed destroyed eight player accounts. Five of those players have since quit the game, and have been extremely vocal about our game in all the gaming press. The other three have mounted a class A legal action against our company.”
Cheeseman paused and then wiped his brow once more. Brian noticed that his face was slowly turning a very interesting shade of crimson, verging possibly on purple. “And this is all because you don’t like role players? Unless I am mistaken role players are paying customers who play a role in the game as if it were real? Am I right? Have you any concept of just how much damage you have done?”
Brian smiled back at them. “You don’t get it, do you?” There was a brief silence that did indeed concede the fact that the five men arrayed in front of him almost as if in judgement did indeed not get it at all. Brian adjusted his glasses once more, his eyes almost completely obscured by the thick milk bottle lenses. It made him incredibly difficult to read. Brian knew this. “It is not that I don’t get how much trouble this has caused.” Brian paused once more before finishing, “It’s just that I don’t care.”
Cheeseman almost leaped to his feet. “You don’t care?” he raged, and each of the executives on either side of him also stood, attempting to get Cheeseman back in to his seat. He was by now turning a very unhealthy purple colour. Brian simply smiled sweetly and continued to wag his foot back at them. Eventuall
y Cheeseman slumped back in to his seat and after several swigs of the glass of water in front of him began to turn slightly less purple. As he attempted to calm down he shuffled Brian’s personnel file on the desk in front of him. Brian continued to observe all five of them casually, as if they were some interesting kind of zoo display. He felt almost obliged to toss a banana at Cheeseman, and began to grin at the thought.
“I think we have heard all we have to.” Said the man furthest on the left and Cheeseman nodded vigorously. “I think we need to have the players in to make amends and hopefully bring an end to the law suits they have filed against us. They seem to be leaning towards some kind of apology being sufficient, it would appear, and you have some excellent work by our public relations department to thank for that, Brian”
“That and playing free for the rest of their lives” sighed the man on the far right. “Though I imagine it may take a little longer to disperse the cloud of bad publicity hanging about the game at the moment.” Cheeseman nodded and glared at Brian.
“Time, yes. and money.” Brian grinned back at him and continued to wag his foot at them. Cheeseman pulled open another file. “Of the eight players involved in this unfortunate incident five have closed their accounts and want nothing more to do with the game. We have refunded their monthly subscription for the time they had spent building their in game characters, and for all five the expenditure refunded is just over three thousand four hundred dollars. We can expect no more communication with them. Hopefully. The remaining three have filed a class A law suit for compensation but have expressed an interest in coming to a private arrangement. They are waiting outside with their parents. I think it is time we called them in.”
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