by Galen Wolf
"Makes sense," Griffin agreed.
"I know it makes sense," I said. "But I want to get up the levels as fast as I can, get the skills, then practice so I'm ready." I pointed at Griffin. "This handsome bear has already told me I'm not going to get any mercy from Loki and his team, so I want to be prepared for them, and that means racing up the levels as quick as I can."
Ahn frowned. "I've seen people level too fast before. It's all very well to get the skills, but you need to take the time to learn as you go along. Otherwise you end up with high level skills and no clue how to use them, in my humble opinion."
Ajora shook her head. "No. Let him do what his heart tells him. Anyway, the Fire Festival's tomorrow, I believe."
I nodded.
Ajora tilted her head and brushed her blonde hair from her face. It was hard to read her expression in the firelight. She might have even been being kind. She said, "Do you need any cover when you go in there?"
I shook my head. "No, I think I'm gonna try to be stealthy. As far as most people know, the Kanchenjunga Fire Festival is nothing special. It happens every week. I think there's some obscure quest around it that nobody can remember, and so as far as I'm aware people don't go there." I looked at Ajora. "Is that right?"
"As far as it goes," she said. "Yes, I think it's right. There may be something in what you say about going in stealthy. You don't want to attract notice and draw the whole of the Thieves Guild down on your head."
Over the other side of the campfire, Ahn sat back. "The only problem you've got is that Loki stole the Easter Egg from you and he might have worked out the meaning of the rhyme for himself by now. He's smart."
I smiled in the firelight. "I guess I'm going to have to take that chance."
The next day I logged onto the game early. I had hardly slept in my bed at home and was itching to put on my virtual reality gear and get back into the Greenwood. Actually, it didn't matter how early I was in the game because midnight at Kanchenjunga was still midnight. The game would not be hurried whether I was there or not.
The quickest way to Kanchenjunga would be to go through the Old Forest and swing on the forest vines using my swinging skill. I could then swing north right into the Black Forest of Keld. From the maps I'd looked at, I could board the ferry north to the small village of Ontario. From Ontario, I would have to take the mountain road through the foothills of the Iron Mountains up to Kanchenjunga.
I had logged off in the Temple of Time in my home city of Vinab. Trying to be as inconspicuous as possible I strolled north through the gatehouse past the guards and passed the cottages with their flower gardens up to the Old Forest Road. At the top of the road, I turned left and made my way to the Stone Cross. Once I was inside the forest, I used Camouflage and Sneak to make my way as stealthily as possible north. I didn't want to be spotted by anyone. I didn't go to look to see if Elfhair was fishing. I guessed she'd moved to a safer spot after her encounter with Loki.
I was jumpy. As Ajora and Ahn had said, this was a dangerous time to be a little ranger at large in the big PVP world.
I stalked my way north through the trees of the Old Forest to the Great River, stopping every now and again when I saw promising bunches of herbs and poisons. I had time to kill before midnight. Deer and rabbits ran away from me as I wandered, and I caught sight of the odd player character going about their business. I took an apple out of my inventory and munched on it.
It was still just before noon when I came to the Old Forest and saw bandits skulking near the Triangular House, but my stealth defeated them and they didn't spot me. Then I came to one of the great trees that the rangers used for swinginginto the treetops. I grasped hold of the bottom boughs and hauled myself up into the tree. I climbed until I found the first of the well-used vines. And, resisting the urge to beat my chest and yodel yet again, I swung north. The first swing took me over the great river into the densely packed trees on the northern bank. I landed on a wide branch, caught another vine and swung north again. After three swings, I was in the treetops of the Black Forest outside the city of Keld. Keld was almost in the middle of the northern continent of the Greenwood. The Fishy River ran south from the Iron Mountains before joining the Great River that came to the sea near the city of Vinab.
I dropped quietly into a woodland glade. Flowers bloomed all around and bees and flies buzzed lazily in the pleasant sunshine. I strode through the Forest Gate in the city walls of Keld. Because the City of Keld was allied with the city of Vinab, the NPC guards allowed me to pass.
I walked through the residential streets of Keld until I came to the main city square with its statue celebrating the victory of the citizens of Keld in their defense against the armies of the evil city of Horrabia. Keld Square was a bustling place and NPC traders stood around selling food and provisions. The game of the Greenwood allowed player characters to create stalls and stock them. This meant many people lived in the fantasy RPG world without fighting at all. They often became very rich and built themselves opulent houses. For example, if you were a Loremaster and had the skills of potion making and runemaking you could get other people to mine silver and other raw materials for you or go in the woods collecting the herbs that would make the potions. Then you sold them. It was useful to have a Loremaster friend to get discounts on essential healing potions and other useful items such as levitation items or invisibility potions.
I stopped by the stall of a player Loremaster master I didn't know. While the player wasn't logged on, an NPC would run the stall for him. I saw the bearded, red-cheeked merchant NPC manning the stall. The merchant greeted me and asked me what I needed. I pointed out a mauve potion. "Is that invisibility?"
The NPC nodded. I'd used up my looted invisibility potion in the days since I got it and I could use a refill.
"And how much?"
"That'll be a hundred gold please." He stretched to take the potion down. "Can I help you with anything else, sir?"
"No, that'll be all for now, thank you." I glanced round. "Keld seems to have more stalls than my home city of Vinab. How come?"
"Yes, we concentrate on trade here."
"And that's why we have to come and help you out when Horrabia attacks, because you don't have enough fighters of your own."
The NPC's face wrinkled as if his artificial intelligence was programmed to feel annoyance. He muttered," We have always been a good ally to Vinab and our federation has proved profitable to both cities."
I waved him away. "It's cool man. Much appreciated. I'm just messing with you."
The AI wasn't smart enough to understand irony and the NPC scratched his whiskers as I turned to leave. There was something in what I said. In Vinab, we felt that Keld had got pretty much a free ride on the back of our defense dollars, or defense gold pieces, technically.
From there, I strode through the wide streets to the harbor area. In the harbor lots of small fishing boats bobbed with their brightly colored hulls. Ahead of me, I saw the ferry port. From here, you could catch a ferry south to Vinab (though swinging was quicker) or north to the Iron Mountains and the villages there. There was a lot of trade by boat because it was the only practicable way of bringing large amounts of ore, stone and timber down from the northern mountains.
I got onto the northbound ferry and paid my fee.
After around fifteen minutes, the ferry began to move north. I had never questioned how the ferry moved – it didn't seem to run on steam or have anybody rowing or have a sail so perhaps it moved by magic? Or perhaps it was one of the plot holes in the game mechanisms that the developers had overlooked?
The journey north took some time, but was very pleasant. A slight breeze ruffled my hair, but the day was otherwise warm. The sky was blue, and the sun burned bright and yellow. Extensive marshlands spread out north of Keld on the east side of the river. Other rangers had told me this was a good area to collect certain herbs and poisons that only grew in marshland. I made a note to come back one day.
But for now, my focus
was on remaining undetected. I pulled my hood up and sat quiet. NPCs sat on the boat whose only function was to go up and down forever and provide local color. There were also other NPCs - guards and traders, who were managing their player character masters' trade shipments up the river. I could see they had wine and food goods, as well as one trader who had a collection of weapons. These would be sold to player characters who had chosen to reside in the northern villages or in the wildlands in the mountain foothills.
I looked up the river and saw we were soon to pull into the village of Ontario and from there I planned to walk up through the mountains to Kanchenjunga. I glanced around and noticed a slight blurring on one of the back seats of the ferry. There was an old canvas sail that could they pulled over the ferry when it rained, but today the canvas was furled and the whole deck open to the afternoon sun. The bright sunlight made any attempt to use stealth more difficult.
I looked again and saw definite blurring on the back seats. It was only faint, but it showed me that my Spot roll (helped by the sunshine) had defeated a Stealth roll of someone who did not want to be seen. The hair prickled on the back of my neck. I was being followed. I tried to calm down. This could just be coincidence. I glanced back again without being obvious. The blur was still there. No, there was someone lurking.
And then I remembered back to when I had bought the invisibility potion in Keld. There had been something odd about a figure to my right. It had been so subtle that it hadn't entered my consciousness at that time, but now I remembered the strange flicker in the air, and I wondered whether I'd been followed all the way from Keld.
With my hood still up I briskly disembarked onto the jetties of the small village of Ontario. Fishermen stood around on the landing stage offering bright silver mudskippers and another fat chap called out, selling ale. I hurried past them. I chanced a look over my shoulder but saw nothing now. I quickened my pace into the village itself to the row first row of cottages and ducked behind a recess in the wall. The village was quiet; it had a small population, and the streets were not busy. I unstoppered the flask of the mauve potion and took a sip. A vial held 50 sips per potion and invisibility lasted until you broke it by committing some offensive action against another player, or you chose to become visible again.
I looked with satisfaction as my hands became translucent and then transparent. This would normally suffice to make me unnoticeable but when the sun was bright, I could be spotted. I had already planned to sneak as well. I wasn't sure what benefit invisibility gave to sneak. They didn't exactly stack because they were different types of concealment, but as I recalled being invisible gave me +22 to my Hide skill, and with my high Hide, that should be enough to defeat anyone looking out for me.
I switched on my sneak and made my way unnoticed through the streets of Ontario until I got to the village square. A wooden finger post pointed in different directions, and I saw that the finger to the north had the name Kanchenjunga burned on it. I hurried out of the village. I wasn't going as fast as I would have if I hadn't been stealthed but it was more important for me to be unnoticed than to be fast. It was still a long time until midnight. I reckoned that I would easily get to Kanchenjunga by then – and possibly even have time to kill.
The land rose as I went north and the green fields and trees gave way to rockier, wilder terrain. As I got further from the village and the mysterious invisible figure on the boat, I began to relax. To tell the truth, I was enjoying my trip through the foothills. The Iron Mountains reared snowy and impassable in front of me. Kanchenjunga was a small village high up on the flanks of the mountains and an area of iron mining and timber production. The forests thereabouts teemed with wildlife and were a source of skins and furs that could be crafted into clothing and leather armor. They were also famous for their population of werewolves but I should be okay in the daylight on the road.
The day was hot and after walking for about an hour I decided my stealth was slowing me down too much and switched it off. I was still invisible – and would remain so until I committed an offensive action. I was a couple of miles out of Ontario now and had only seen a few traders' carts coming down the mountain and nothing going up. To the right and left of the road, forests covered the hills, and scrubland grew on drier patches, peppered with outcroppings of rock, some of which glittered in the sunlight revealing mineral deposits. I had no mining skills to speak of. Perhaps when I was bigger I would invest in crafting and get mining but that was not my priority now.
I strode on. I had just rounded a bend in the road. The path was dusty and covered in pebbles and small rocks. Scrubby plants grew on either side of the trodden way. I reckoned it would take around an hour to get to Kanchenjunga. At Level 10 in Survival, I would get an eagle, which would make travel so much easier. I couldn't wait.
My invisible assailant hit me without warning.
I felt a dagger stab into my side and a red message flashed across my HUD saying that I had lost 10 hit points. I felt the paralyzing poison Kura course through my body, but I had immunized against Kura, using the Immunization skill in survival that I got at Level 6. It would not affect me upon the first dose. If I was stabbed again with it, of course, it would work.
My attacker broke invisibility by his offensive act and was revealed as a character in black with a facemask – clearly one of the Thieves Guild. I pulled out The Weakener, my stat damaging knife, with my right hand and produced my leather net in my left. I hurled the net at my attacker.
Clearly, the thief had expected the Kura poison to work and as he stood there wondering why it didn't, my net wrapped around him and sent him struggling against its entangling threads. I then pulled my second dagger out and attacked. Both of my daggers had been daubed in poison. I had a sequence now that I tended to use – a variation of the sequence Ajora had given me: first Vomwort to stop them taking healing pots or herbs, then Stryk to break both the enemy's legs, so they couldn't run away. Then two doses of Reza to break the enemy's arms, so they'd drop their weapons. By that time, they would be free of the net but that didn't matter because my next stab would contain the poison Harlequin to make the enemy dance. A few more stabs and the enemy would be dead. That's all supposing the enemy didn't fight back, save, or heal any of the poisons. Of course, in reality, an experienced player would be expecting these poison combinations and would be ready to heal them.
I lurched forward and stabbed the thief and heard the familiar sound effect that indicated strength damage had been done by The Weakener as well as health damage. The Weakener had the curious poison Moel on it. This made the victim bald. Most people thought it was a joke poison, but experts knew better. I stabbed with Biter and heard the acid damage sound effect. I still didn't have the skill that allowed me to see enemies hit points and I guessed that my assailant was higher-level than me but nowhere near the top of the Thieves Guild. It looked like they had sent one of their middle ranking thieves to assassinate me. I guessed the guy was around level 10 and he would have over 100 hp.
The enemy threw off the net quicker than I had thought and stabbed me with his dagger. I felt the familiar stomach heave of Vomwort but took a puff of my Liquorice Root pipe and cured my vomiting. The thief's right hand was doing something else that I couldn't figure out. I guessed it was one of the specialist thieves skills. I saw a rope and felt it snake around my ankles causing me to fall over. The thief stabbed me again, and I was now down to 55 hit points. I rolled right and pulled out a Hale Fruit and ate it restoring 55 hp, so back up to full health. I rolled and jumped, even with the rope around my ankles and stabbed the thief again. This stab had the deadly poison Blacktip on it and I hoped that it was a noob trick that the Level 10 thief would have forgotten about.
I expected the thief to eat an athillias leaf to cure the black tip. I saw the man's hand produce an athillias leaf from his pouch and put it in his mouth but then the thief immediately barfed it up. He hadn't cured his vomiting from the Vomwort. The guy took a puff of his pipe and I stabbed him
again with more Moel and then with the other dagger, Blacktip. As mentioned, the curious thing about athillias is that it cures afflictions in a particular order. So if you been poisoned by two poisons and athillias cures both, it will always cure them in the same order and it always cures Moel baldness before any other affliction. The thief ate athillias, and his hair grew again. Athillias only had a two-second cool down, but when the thief tried to eat more to cure the Blacktip, it had no effect.
With a smile of triumph, I stabbed him again. It was such an elementary mistake – not to know your healing order. I saw the panic on the thief's face. The Blacktip would kill him, but I didn't take chances. I stabbed again with Vomwort and Riddlewort. A belt and braces type of attack. My enemy could not sip or eat or smoke any healing potion or herb. With a cry of triumph I buried my daggers deep in the thief and saw the man's body collapse into dust and immediately transform into a shimmering ghost.
Because the thief was a higher level than I was, I got much more XP from this kill. A message went across my HUD: BARCUD HAS SLAIN ALEXANDER.
So that was his name. I felt a surge of pleasure and the familiar blue glow and saw I had leveled to Level 7.
I looked around the mountain road. This was unfamiliar territory, and I didn't know where there was a resurrection shrine even if I had been inclined to resurrect the thief who just jumped me.
I shrugged. "Sorry mate. This is war. You guys led an unprovoked attack on our Guild, so I'm not going to be doing you any favors." I shook my head. "What the hell are you following me for anyway?"
Although I was pleased with the kill, the fact that the Thieves Guild had sent someone to follow me to Kanchenjunga was bad news. Or was it? I had to think this through. I imagined this guy would soon send other thieves after me so I was going to have to be very stealthy. The ghost vanished as the thief went back to res where he had bound. Probably somewhere in Horrabia, far far away.
There were two things that could be going on here: the first was that this thief had identified me as a member of the Rangers Guild in Keld and just followed me out of town to kill me as part of the general warfare. That would be the good option. The second option was that Thieves Guild had deciphered the riddle in the Easter Egg and were following me to Kanchenjunga.