by Dante Doom
“Perfect!” Sang exclaimed. “This can block the Trolls from getting to us while we investigate.” She crept over to the door and began to fiddle with the lock. She had put points into lock picking since her last encounter with a lock, and this was far easier to mess with. After just a few seconds, she had the door open.
“Nice work!” Van muttered. “But I could have used my lock rattling song.”
“Yes, please sing loudly while a bunch of sleeping Trolls are around us,” Sang remarked sarcastically as she walked through the gate. Van followed after her and they made sure to lock the door behind them.
“Safe and sound!” Van said, breathing a sigh of relief as he turned to inspect the area. “I can’t believe we got through that alive!”
“These traps and this gate are worrying me,” Sang said as she looked around. They were still in some kind of tunnel, but the ground was made out of smooth marble. “And check out this ground... not great.”
“Yeah, definitely something spooky is up,” Van replied. “I bet it’s some kind of surprise twist to this adventure.”
“Well, let’s hope the surprise doesn’t try to attack us when we aren’t suspecting it,” Sang said as she continued forward. The marble floors went on for quite some time, and the further down the tunnels they went, the more marble they saw. Even the roof of the tunnel was beginning to transform into what was mostly a marble surface.
“That’s definitely man-made,” Van said as he ran his hand across the smooth surface. “I wonder who put this here.”
“Same one who made those traps and that gate,” Sang replied as they reached another door. This door covered the entire opening to the tunnel, making it impossible to pass. The door was constructed of pure steel and there were strange runes on it.
“Hmmm,” Van said as he inspected the runes. “This is interesting! My Bardic Lore power allows me to read these runes, too. Ahem... ‘Be warned, those who wish to enter, for the history of a Druid is one steeped in violence.’”
“Interesting. I don’t see any way to open it up, though,” Sang said as she ran her hands alongside the door. There were no handles, and nor were there any kinds of grips that would allow for it to be pried open.
“Just kick it!” Van said.
“Kick a steel door?” Sang repeated, looking at her companion.
“Yeah. I mean, if you have the sufficient strength, you can break just about anything in this game down,” Van said nonchalantly. “And you’re definitely stronger than me. Just give it a good kick.”
“I think you’re trying to trick me into kicking a steel door,” Sang replied.
“I absolutely am not. Sang, I’m a very serious player and I would never do that to my good friend who I care about,” Van said with the world’s most suspicious grin.
“How about I use you as a battering ram to break this door down?” Sang offered. “How about that?”
“Battering ram heads were removed with the last patch,” Van replied as he dodged Sang’s attempt to grab him. “Just kick it. I’ll play my song of fury and rage. That should give you enough of a boost to where you can break the stupid thing down without a problem.”
“Alright, fine, I’ll try it—but I’m warning you, if I break my foot on a door and you laugh, I’m going to break the door down using your face. Understood?”
“I would never, ever lie to you, Sang, despite how hilarious it would be,” Van replied as he put his bagpipes to this mouth and began to play. His horrific noise greeted her, and the words YOU ARE ENRAGED appeared over Sang, giving her a bonus for her strength score. She looked at the door, looked at Van, and sighed and then brought her leg up in a very fierce kick... knocking the door down to the ground, shattering it to pieces.
“Whoa!” Sang cried out in utter surprise. “I just kicked down a door!” “Yeah, I told you,” Van said as he strolled past her. “You’re really freaking strong in this game.”
Sang grinned. It was such a different perspective, compared to how she was in her waking life. As a 5 foot tall woman with no upper body strength nor any kind of impressive physique—despite how hard she worked out—it was cool to feel so big and strong. The thrill made her stop and consider how easy it was to get caught up in the game. She checked the time and realized they had been going for almost 14 hours now. Sleep Time would be coming in a few hours, and she had almost completely forgotten about the waking world. That… that didn’t feel good. The exhilaration of battle and victory had distracted her so much that she’d forgotten she was really just lying in a tube, being given intravenous liquids for hydration and nourishment. She shook her head and moved forward, forgetting all about the joy she had been experiencing. She was on a mission, and she couldn’t get caught up in the excitement too much, for fear of becoming distracted.
Chapter Eighteen
Sang followed after Van, surveying the area with caution. She wasn’t sure what was around the corner, and much to her surprise, she realized that the entire area was completely covered in vines. The marble was still visible through the vine webbing, but for the most part, everything was green, lush and covered in vines.
“Man, this place gets more and more confusing,” Sang grumbled. “First marble and steel, and now vines?
“Yeah, those runes were in the Druidic language, too,” Van said. “I wonder if maybe this whole quest was just some kind of horrible, clever trap?”
“Trap? Like what? Someone’s luring unsuspecting players down here and killing them?” Sang asked as they reached a large well that was sitting in the center of the vine room. There were no other entrances or exits—it was just a large room full of vines with a massive well in its center.
“Probably,” Van said as he leaned over and looked into the well. “Hey! Check it out!” he said, pointing at the well excitedly. Sang glanced down and noticed that there were images within the water of the well. It was as if she were looking through a live video feed. She could see the Druids in the jungle... the same ones who they had met earlier that day.
“Interesting,” Sang said. “Looks like some kind of magical well.”
“Look!” Van said, pointing to one of the people in the water. It was a woman who was wearing a bearskin hood, and she was walking towards what seemed to be a screen. Sang tilted her head in curiosity as the water began to bubble and move. Then a figure began to emerge from the water—it was the Druid in the bearskin hood.
“Jump back!” Sang warned as she leapt back and pulled out her bow, aiming it at the figure who was still rising from the water.
“Hahahaha!” cried the woman. “I see you interlopers have discovered my lair!”
“Indeed, we have!” Van said, holding up his bagpipes and readying himself for a fight.
“Fear not!” the Druid said. “For I bring you no harm!” Her name read Lady Soara of the Claw, Level 15. “In fact, your arrival is most fortuitous for me! For you see, these Druids have meddled with this great jungle for too long!”
A dialogue box appeared in front of Sang.
Meddled? What do you mean?
Die, wicked Druid!
What do I care?
Sang selected the first option.
“You see, these Druids have come and erected a temple so that they may live out their lives in peace, but in doing so, they reject the most important tenant of being a Druid! We Druids worship nature, and nature is nothing if not cruel, passionless, and above all, violent! These fools think that nature is serene and peaceful, but look at the world we live in. There are creatures that eat their own young for survival, there are bugs that will plant eggs in a living host, and there are animals that will bite and kill because they are bigger and stronger. Nature is not peaceful, and nor should the path of the Druid be one of peace! I have come so that I might enlighten these fools!”
Enlighten? How?
You are evil and must be stopped.
Nature is not cruel, but we perceive it to be cruel!
Sang selected the first option again.
This caused the woman to throw her head back and cackle evilly. “Oh, you see, they believe in nonviolence, and so they must be punished! I have found these Trolls beneath the earth—natural creatures of vileness and cruelty! Each fortnight, I cast a hex upon them, causing them to rise up as one and raid the camp, killing a few Druids and dragging others into the earth so that they may be devoured. Soon they will grow desperate! Desperate enough to realize that their path of nonviolence makes them weak! They must become strong, just as nature intends! Only the strong survive!”
Sang shrugged at Van. It made some level of sense... a path of nonviolence would lead ultimately to someone being taken advantage of by those who were violent. Still, she did realize that it wasn’t morally right to kill the Druids just because they were nonviolent. Another dialogue box popped up.
You’re a madwoman! Prepare to pay for your crimes!
Why kill them? Why not tell them of their folly instead?
Ha! Serves those hippies right!
“Man, I hate longwinded dialogue,” Van mumbled. “If only you would skip!”
“I’m interested in what she has to say,” Sang said as she chose the second option.
“Ah, you see, I tried to reason with them. I warned them about the dangers of nonviolence, but they refused to listen to me! Then... oh, then a terrible attack was perpetrated by the Werewolf Clan, forcing us to escape and seek refuge here. Many of us died, and I lost my only child! Yet, our fool of a leader refused to agree with me! Now, though—now they will all pay until they change their ways! And this is where you come in!” the wicked woman said, dramatically sweeping her hands wide. “For you can be the final nail in the coffin for these foolish Druids! They follow their leader, a woman of immense power; while she doesn’t fight, she has a powerful protection amulet that stops any Troll from harming her. If you can bring me that amulet of hers, I will be able to finally kill her and take control of the group of these Druids, leading them to live a much safer life by teaching them about the supremacy of violence!”
That’s crazy! I will never help you!
What’s the pay?
Sounds good; I’ll be back soon.
Sang frowned as she looked at the options. She wasn’t really sure what she should be doing here. “Van, what’s the best choice?” she asked as she looked back at him.
He shrugged at her. “It depends on what you want to do. This game allows you to make hard moral choices sometimes. So, we can help the evil lady out and get some kind of reward, or we can help the Druids out by defeating her.”
“Is there any clearly superior choice?” Sang asked.
“Beats me. You usually have no idea until after you finish out a quest, so it’s more about the effects of the decision. If we defeat her, we can get admiration and praise from the Druids, but probably not much in terms of items. If we defeat the Druid leader, we’ll probably get something sweet from the evil lady, but definitely not any help from them.”
“Oh, well... we need transportation more than anything right now, so we should probably kill this woman, yes?”
“Yeah! There we go!” Van said excitedly. “Let’s buff up before we take the job! Just drink any useful potions and prepare for a fight!”
Sang nodded and brought up her potions inventory.
She chose to drink the Potion of Barriers, the Potion of Swift Aim, and the Potion of Magic Resitance, all of them capable of helping her fight against a Druid, whom she assumed would be some kind of powerful spellcaster. As the potions rushed through her body, she felt very prepared for a fight. This was going to be a tough one and she knew it. But still, if Van thought it would be a good idea to fight this woman, then so be it. The problem wasn’t that she was a spellcaster, but rather that she had a higher level.
Levels were kind of different in this game, she knew. Other games, she had heard, used levels as a way to keep players from ever being able to fight against certain classes of power, but in this game, there were always automatic ways to defeat an enemy. If an arrow struck a vital area, it could deal damage as normal, regardless of the level of the character it struck. Certain weapons or types of attacks would always do damage, and it was possible to kill a high-level character without being at the appropriate level. While this Druid was only a few levels higher than them, there was enough of a difference for it to be a little harder than she would have liked. Thanks to the potions and Van’s bluffs, however, she hoped it would be an easier fight.
The dialogue box still hovered in front of her, and Sang took a deep breath before selecting the first option, bring on the woman’s evil laughter yet again.
“You fools! You are just as naïve and idiotic as those Druids out there! You will pay the ultimate price for your decision! You shall die!” she shrieked as her hands created a powerful purple sphere of energy around her.
“Now, Sang!” Van shouted as he dove for cover, avoiding the blasts of energy that were firing out of the woman’s hands. The streaks of energy were each bright purple, and seemed to follow him as he moved.
Sang fired an arrow at the woman, cheering as she saw the words 150 damage! hovering above the vile Druidess’ head. A burst of purple energy crashed into Sang from behind, however, taking her down by 50 points of Health.
“Ahh!” Sang cried out as the energy seemed to sting her in the back. She felt her energy getting siphoned away, and saw that her stamina was rapidly dropping down, as well.
“I’ve got you,” Van said, throwing a few darts at the evil woman. The darts harmlessly bounced off the woman’s bearskin armor, though. “I mean, uh, get her!” Van said, pointing at Sang. The Druid ignored his banter and blasted him right in the face, chucking him into the wall.
“Ooof,” he wheezed as Sang watched his Health drop down to only 5 points.
“Van!” Sang yelled out as she leapt in front of him, cutting off Lady Soara from her advance. She fired another arrow, but this time the word MISSED floated above the woman’s head as the arrow flew into the wall. Another blast of energy crashed into her, but luckily her Magic Resistance Potion blocked the majority of the damage. The words RESIST 5 damage! appeared, causing her Health to only drop down to 295 points. She grinned and fired her bow again, this time hitting the Druid. 150 damage! said the display again, taking Lady Soara’s Health down to only 300 points.
“Ohhh, I think I’m dying,” Van moaned as he slumped over. “I think that cracked my ribcage. She cracked my ribs!”
“Don’t die yet, Van!” Sang called out as she dodged out of the way of another blast of purple energy. “She’s almost dead!” Sang snapped off another arrow, and this time the word CRITICAL burst above the arrow as it sailed right into the neck of the Druid. She screamed out in pain and fell to the ground, clutching her neck in agony.
“Yes!” Sang said as she threw a Health Potion to van. He caught it and immediately quaffed it, bringing his Health back up to normal.
“We did it!” Van said as he slowly stood to his feet. “You killed her while I distracted her from getting any more damage on you!”
“Oh sure, you definitely helped with those darts,” Sang teased.
“Hey, I took plenty of damage that could have gone to you instead!” he replied. As the two laughed at one another and drank their healing potions, the Druidess on the ground slowly began to laugh.
“You fools!” she wheezed as she started to die. “If I must die, then I will be sure to kill every last one of those Druids! You might have stopped me, but you will not be able to stop the hordes of Trolls that I command! My final act in defiance of peace… is violence!”
“Oh crap!” Sang said as she heard screeching howls of horror echo throughout the tunnels. It sounded as if all of the Trolls had been awoken at once... and they were all scampering frantically.
“We need to get to the tunnels, and quick!” Van said. “We’ve got to kill them before they reach topside!”
Van and Sang quickly made a dash for the tunnels, but as they moved, the vines seemed to ani
mate in front of them, weaving themselves together firmly and barricading both Sang and Van inside of the well room.
“Ah crap!” Sang said as she pulled out her short sword and began to cut frantically at the vines. They were rapidly regrowing each time they were sliced in half, though.
“This isn’t working!” Van said as he used his new spell to try and set a vine on fire, but it seemed as if the fire would only burn for a moment and then fade away.
“We’re trapped!” Sang yelled as more vines wrapped around the entrance, creating even more barriers against their entry.
“Oh man, and I don’t see any other way out!” Van said as a timer suddenly appeared in the central room. It read 00:30:00.
“Great, just great, a timer,” Van grumbled. “That’s how long we have until the Trolls kill all of the Druids and we lose the quest.”
“Man, we should have just helped that evil Druid out instead; probably would have been easier,” Sang grumbled as she began to look around. “Wait, didn’t that evil lady travel through the well? Can’t we do that?”
“How?” Van asked as he scrambled back to the well and looked into it. He dipped a finger into the water and pulled it back.
“I don’t know... you’re the bard. Use some kind of song or something,” Sang replied as she looked at the portal.
“Check the crazy lady’s corpse. Maybe she had some kind of magical item on her that controlled it,” Van instructed. “I’ll use my bardic knowledge to see if I can figure something out.”
Sang rushed over to the woman’s corpse and opened up the item interface. There wasn’t much on her—just a few pieces of gold, a bearskin hood, and a sealed scroll. “Do you think a scroll might help?” she asked.
“Yeah, hand it here and I’ll read it,” Van said as he took the scroll from her, broke the seal, and unrolled it. He paused for a moment to study it. “Alright, it’s some kind of spell ritual, but the good news is that I have a skill in using spell scrolls. Give me a quick second and I’ll figure out what to do.” He scanned the document and began to mumble a few words to himself.