Opening his inventory log, he began to read. There was the portal orb. No different than the others, except that it had a purple halo around it, indicating that it was a quest item. And that solved Fitz’s concern about using one of the other captured orbs and ending up directly in some wizard’s throne room surrounded by guards. A quest item like this would almost certainly send them to a safe zone where they could organize their pre-battle buffs and make other raid preparations.
He noticed that the drow had also been carrying more than ten thousand gold, as well as a collection of spell components. He tucked those away to give to Sasha for analysis. And her inventory bag had two hundred slots. That would be a major upgrade for most of his players. Next on the list was a staff.
Ironwood Staff of Culling
Item Quality: Rare
Stats: Wisdom +10, Intelligence +15, Mana Regen +10
This staff was given by a drow wizard to his apprentice as a reward for murdering every man, woman, and child in a human village single-handedly. The staff can generate a protective shield around its bearer that will absorb damage equal to the bearer’s health pool. Cooldown: One hour.
“No wonder the drow was so hard to kill,” he mumbled. The weapon effectively doubled the health of a player, while at the same time protecting them from hits that might interrupt spell casting. In addition to the attribute buffs. For those whose builds made them glass cannons, this would be a huge improvement. They’d have to make those who were interested in the staff roll to see who would win it.
Apprentice Mantle
Item Quality: Epic
Stats: Wisdom +20, Intelligence +10, Armor +10, Magic Resistance +20
This item can only be worn by those with Dark alignment.
Not of any use for his people. But he’d give it to Max to sell at the auction house and each of the players would get a share. Several of them, including Max and Brick, used the funds they could raise in-game to pay their real-world bills. Though since signing up with Jupiter Tech, his core group and the other testers were earning solid salaries. Still, Max loved selling items at auction.
The last item was more interesting.
Tyrolean Hat of Death
Item Quality: Epic
Stats: Agility +5, Dexterity +10
This hat, taken from the corpse of an elven lothario after a run-in with several jealous husbands, grants its user the ability to become invisible for one minute. Cooldown – twenty-four hours. In addition, the hat’s pins can be thrown at enemies, each with a different effect, such as poison, silence, stun, petrification, exsanguination, or discombobulation. Pins will regenerate twelve hours after use.
This one he thought they’d probably keep. If Max or Jules didn’t want it, he was sure one of the casters would jump at the chance to be invisible.
With their battle won, Alexander decided to see if the Elysian players could assist the other cities in their battles. He walked across the courtyard and waved his hand to activate the portal to Stormforge first.
Nothing happened.
He tried it again, thinking he’d simply been distracted and messed up the spell. But again, nothing. He quickly tried to open portals to Broken Mountain and Antalia with the same result.
Looking up at the sky, he asked, “Allfather, have you shut down the portals for the event?”
A moment later, thunder rolled across the forest and echoed off the mountain. Alexander took it as a ‘yes.’
“Interesting,” he mumbled to himself. He had been given reports on the development of a drow-world expansion way back when the development first started. But he hadn’t really paid much attention. The world event had taken him by surprise. And now this isolation of the cities during the event. Though he supposed it made sense. Otherwise, massive groups of players from cities who completed their defense could portal around and zerg the drow still attacking other cities, making the event less challenging for the players.
He considered taking all of his players with mounts and making a run for Stormforge. But again, he figured it violated the intent of the event. For all he knew, Odin would somehow punish the NPCs in Stormforge to balance his interference.
So he began to move about the keep, checking on his people. He congratulated some for leveling and sympathized with others who’d lost friends in the battle. As per their new tradition, they would hold a ceremony at sunset to honor the dead. Brick and another shaper were already working on adding the names to the monument by the druid’s grove.
Before the immersion pods, after an event like this Alexander would have spent some time offline looking at the forums. He’d watch some of the trending videos and the commentary from the several networks that had sprung up just to cover the various games out there.
Since logging out wasn’t an option, he decided to fill his time by making more of the dragon pins. He took a seat at one of the dining tables and got to work. For nearly two hours, he sat there working, only interrupted occasionally by Silverbeard or Lola wanting his input or approval on something. Citizens and players came and went, sitting to consume a meal or work on some craft, much as Alexander was doing.
The spells were so familiar and easy for him now that his mind wandered while he worked. He thought about Fibble, still trapped up in the roost with a paranoid mama dragon and the hatchlings. Since he hadn’t seen Kai during the battle, Alexander assumed his friend was still trying to calm his mate. Or just sharing their grief at the loss of their dragonling.
Alexander knew about grief. Especially the kind caused by the sudden and senseless loss of a loved one. Even now, more than a decade later, the attack that took his mother from him was still haunting him.
*****
Matt looked around through the eyes of his Dark One avatar. His drow muscles complained as he knelt before the throne of the ancient drow wizard who was his mentor and master. The wizard ignored him, as he’d been doing for the last few hours. Matt knew it was purely a power trip, but he needed to play along. To stay on this drow’s good side. He was, after all, the source of Matt’s power within the game. It was the wizard’s gold, intelligence network, and portal system that had allowed Matt to level quickly as he gathered power to himself. And it was the wizard’s army of demons and dark creatures that Matt was hoping would destroy the game world and make it unplayable, or at least undesirable, for the average person.
The world event that had been announced fit perfectly into his desires. He just had to make sure the drow armies won their battles for the major cities. That would take away the infrastructure that the players had come to count on. Safe zones for new players would no longer be safe. Auction houses, healing temples, class trainers, even guild houses would become inaccessible. The millions of players who visited the cities to repair or replace their gear would have to stand in line to visit the rare blacksmiths and merchants in the small villages outside the cities. At least, until those were destroyed too.
Jupiter Tech could create new cities, of course. Or simply grow the remaining villages to accommodate the players’ needs. But all of that would take time, and players were not patient people. Those who played for fun would get bored and move on. Those who played to earn a living would quickly find they couldn’t pay their bills without access to auction houses and a dwindling number of buyers. Millions would abandon the game. The company’s stock would plummet. Real-world economies would take significant hits, causing even more blowback against Jupiter Tech.
And that was when Matt would strike.
The combined financial losses and destruction of their infrastructure at Olympus would be the end of Jupiter Tech and the Greystones. They would finally pay for the needless death of his mother. For the pain she suffered in the hours it took her to die. They would learn that their choices had consequences!
Turning his attention from his thoughts of conquest, he cleared his throat for maybe the twentieth time, hoping the old drow would finally respond. Matt himself, even in his powerful Dark One avatar, couldn’t directl
y impact each of the dozens of battles taking place across the continent of Io on multiple servers. Even if he’d had time to plan this campaign himself, he was still only one person.
But what he could do was teach the old drow wizards how to beat an army of players. Because that would be their primary obstacle. None of the cities maintained armies large or powerful enough to hold off the attacks of the dark forces. If they were to survive the invasions, it would be by using players to defend them.
So Matt was trying to educate this wizard. The problem was, the NPC’s programming seemed to be interfering. He’d tried a few hours ago to convince his master that his troops should stop and loot every player they killed before moving on. This would mean that as the players respawned, they would find at least some of their best gear missing. And maybe the gold they needed to pay for repairs or potions. Players were an effective tool because of two main factors: they threw themselves into battle without much concern for their lives, and they generally had better gear than the NPCs and monsters they faced.
But if that gear disappeared when they died, they would become a less effective - and less motivated - fighting force almost immediately. The forums would spread news of the gear losses like lightning. And fewer players would be willing to risk getting involved. Those who died and lost their best gear might stay in the fight. But again, they would be less effective, rejoining the fight with inferior gear and at a lower level than before.
He’d wanted to share all this with the wizard. But he’d only gotten two sentences into his explanation when the drow had held up a hand to silence him. Matt had remained on his knees, the position his master demanded he maintain whenever they spoke, waiting for permission to continue. Having plenty of time to think, Matt had almost decided that he’d run up against some kind of NPC block. That talk of the players respawning and losing gear and levels after being looted by NPCs and losing their desire to return to this world seemed to break some kind of interactive algorithm or something.
This time when he cleared his throat, the wizard turned his head and stared straight at Matt, who went from feeling invisible to feeling like a squirrel being eyed by a hawk. Though he knew in his logical mind that this was just an NPC, a bunch of code, the old wizard was still intimidating as hell. He’d seen his master destroy servants and soldiers on a whim. And in the most painful and bloody ways. With the pain settings for the game as high as they were, Matt would just as soon avoid that type of reaction.
He took a chance as he lowered his eyes to avoid the wizard’s gaze. “I can help you and your fellow wizards defeat your foes.” He focused on the only thing he had to offer that would interest the drow. “I know how the adventurers think. How they operate. I can help you win!”
The wizard made a face that suggested he’d just sucked on a rotten lemon. “Fool! What could you know that we have not learned in the thousands of years we have battled against mankind?!” The drow thumped his fist down on the arm of his throne. Somewhere behind him, servants whimpered in fear. When their master got angry, someone usually died.
“Adventurers are new to Io. We arrived after your last war with the light races. Though your spies and scouts have had some interaction with them, you cannot claim to understand them. Being an adventurer myself, I can tell you how they think. What motivates them, and what they fear. I can predict how they’ll act in battle and help you prepare countermeasures, Master.” Matt tried his best to sound subservient but confident at the same time.
The drow on the throne looked down at him with a scowl. But his voice held a hint of curiosity. “And in return for this information, you want… what?”
Matt’s smile was cruel and filled with malice. “I want only to ensure that you succeed, Master. If your armies are victorious, I will return to my world and continue the battle there. You won’t see my face again.”
The wizard leaned forward in his chair, his face coming within a few inches of Matt’s. “And if we follow your advice and lose… you will suffer beyond anything you can comprehend.”
Matt lowered his head to floor in obeisance, hiding his smirk. If the dark armies failed, he’d simply abandon his avatar and let the old wizard have his way with it. He was betting everything on this event and he needed to roll a proverbial natural twenty to pull it off. He found that the long odds against him made it more exciting.
“Come, then. We shall meet with my colleagues and you can share this information with all of us. Our armies are already moving to attack. Let us be quick about it!”
With a wave of his hand, a portal at the end of the throne room opened. On the other side, Matt could see a dimly-lit room with a long table and high-backed chairs, all made of some blood-red wood. The wizard got to his feet and stepped past Matt as he moved toward the portal. Matt straightened his stiff legs and rose to his feet to follow.
*****
Special Agent McCoy and his partner rounded the block, each of them laser-focused on the houses they passed. The neighborhood was a quiet one, in an older suburb of the city. The kind where kids still rode bicycles or skateboards in the street.
They’d been assigned a quarter-mile square section of the area that his counterparts had traced the cell leader’s call to. The man who was responsible for so many deaths was somewhere within a mile radius. Or at least, he had been a few hours ago.
McCoy and his partner were one of twelve teams in plainclothes and unmarked cars who worked a grid in search of some hint of the man’s location. They had his photo and a profile that included everything that was known about him. Now they just needed a location.
An overweight woman in her fifties huffed and puffed her way toward them as they cruised slowly down the block. She was walking one of those tiny ankle-biter dogs that were back in fashion. The little thing looked like a hairball with legs and a nose. Just as they drew even with her, the mutt stopped to take a dump on somebody’s driveway.
The woman looked briefly at McCoy, then turned away and pretended not to notice the little shitbomb her precious pookie was dropping. McCoy stopped the car and leaned out.
“Excuse me, ma’am. I was hoping you could help us. We’re investigating a series of petty crimes in the neighborhood. Have you seen anything unusual or suspicious in the last few days?”
The woman took a step toward the curb and peered at him. “Who are you? You don’t look like police.”
He gave her his best smile. “That’s sort of the point, ma’am. We don’t want the bad guys to go into hiding because they see police cars cruising up and down.”
She looked thoughtful for a moment, then tugged on the leash as she stepped closer to the car. The little dog nearly flew across the sidewalk after her. She leaned in close to the car window and spoke in a loud whisper.
“Now that you mention it, there have been some things going on. I think Linda that lives two houses down from me is smoking the wacky weed on her back porch at night. I swear I can smell it! I think she’s growing it in her back yard. And I know for sure she’s banging the pool boy while Cliff’s at work.”
She paused to take a deep breath and look over each shoulder to make sure nobody was listening in. “We have a private security company under contract. Our homeowners’ dues pay for a guard to be patrolling 24/7. But I haven’t seen them in a week! I think they just sit in their little booth down the street and watch porn or something!”
McCoy tried not to let her see him roll his eyes.
“Thank you, ma’am. I’m afraid there’s nothing we can do about your security patrol. But I’ll be sure to have somebody look into your neighbor’s growing habits.” He produced the photo of their suspect. “Have you seen this guy walking around, by any chance?”
She leaned even closer to stare at the photo. After a moment, she shook her head. “I don’t believe so. He’s a handsome young man. Shame he’s turned to a life of crime. I’ll keep an eye out for him.”
McCoy handed her a card with his cell number on it. “If you do spot him, call us r
ight away. Don’t approach him, or even let him see you staring. We don’t want to spook him.”
She nodded enthusiastically as she reached into her sweatsuit and stuffed the card into her bra. “Very hush hush. I understand completely.” She tried to act casual as she stepped back and resumed her walk. Every couple steps she turned and looked over one shoulder or the other, looking like a kid who just stole from the cookie jar.
McCoy’s partner chuckled and handed him a slice of cold pizza as they continued down the block.
*****
Richard and Michael stared grimly at the young woman as she was escorted by Talbott from the elevator to stand in front of them. For her part, she looked scared, but unrepentant. As if to prove this, when Talbott brought her to a stop a few feet from Richard’s desk, she spat at him. The glob of saliva didn’t reach him, landing on his desk instead. He ignored it.
Richard spoke first. “Let’s save us all some time here. We know you’ve been working for Howard and Matt. We have your phone and have used it to track his. We’ll have him shortly, too. You’re done. You’ve failed. You’re going to spend the rest of your life in jail, or, if we can prove that you had something to do with the bombings, you’ll be put to death. It’s that simple.” He waited for her to react in some way. She just stared defiantly at him.
“What I want to know… is why? Why would you do this? Why would you help murder innocent people?”
Jenni continued to glare at him. Her eyes burned with hatred. No one spoke a word for a full minute or more. Finally, she screamed at him, “And you haven’t killed people?! What a hypocrite!”
Richard leaned back at the force of her outburst. Composing himself before speaking, he looked more carefully at her face. “I don’t think we’ve met before, outside of Olympus, I mean. And I’ve never killed anyone in my life. In what way have I wronged you?”
“Matt told me what you did! You murdered his mother! Sent her into a war zone because you were too cowardly to go yourself! Even though you KNEW an attack was likely!”
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