Acrion- Cascade

by Scott Seier

  While I processed her words the waiter came back around and asked if I needed anything else. When I answered no, and indicated I was done with the cup in front of me, he nodded and whisked it away. As he left a notification lit up my vision.

  The Anything Cafe

  Amount Owed

  13G 47S 5C

  If I would have been drinking something I would have spewed it all over Milenta. "What the shit!?" every gold is one hundred dollars of real life cash! $1347.50 to get myself roofied?!?! Milenta chuckled again and raised one of her eyebrows. "Problem?" she smirked as I almost hyperventilated.

  Now I knew why gold was so important in Acrion. It was because, at the highest levels, the players burned through it so fast that it would make a millionaire jealous. It took me a full minute to calm down and remember that Milenta herself had just transfered me 100 gold. I selected the bill and payed it with two mental clicks. Jeez.

  Milenta at least had the decency to look guilty after that. I think she heard me mutter something along the lines of "That gold was meant for something else" while I itched at my arm like an addict.

  I was momentarily caught in thought, trying to figure out how much gold I would need before I tried to buy out the blood debt thing. Milenta apparently thought I was angry at her rather than at the situation."By the way." She said casually, obviously trying to change the subject. "I saw before that your combat potential increased almost three fold since I last saw you. I was wondering if you would let me in on what you spent the last twenty four hours doing to get that result?" well, with the goal of changing the subject in mind, that was a damn good way of doing it.

  "You can see my combat potential?" Milenta shrugged casually and once again glanced around to make sure no one was in ear shot. "Well, there you go." She said. "Three of my character's secrets that you now know. I'm pretty sure that means you owe me three of your secrets then, right?" I was already shaking my head before she finished her sentence. "I don't think so. But if you want to agree to that format from this point forward, I would be up for it."

  She sat back, tapping her fingers on the back of her hand. "Okay, I can agree to that. A truth for a truth. I ask first, that's only fair since you're ahead of me already." I bobbed my head in agreement. The second I did, a golden strand of light was pulled from her chest, and the same was extracted from mine. The two strings wove themselves together into an intricate knot, then popped into a shower of sparks that rained down on the table between us.

  Milenta sat up straighter and squared her shoulders. "My first question is simple. Are you a spy working for an organization that means to damage either my own or the Eleventh Divisions reputation or holdings?"

  "Don't hold back...jeez." Milenta looked at me with a steely gaze. I was looking at the guild leader right then, not the girl I had just been chatting with. Sighing, I figured that the longer I took to answer the more guilty I seemed to her.

  "I, Lyst, the greatest ever, am not, to the best of my knowledge, a spy for anyone who wishes you, or yours, harm. Or a spy for anyone at all actually. Except maybe Vigil, under the right circumstances." For some reason the last part just came out. Huh, very lasso of truthy of the game... I guess the meaning of the golden threads was revealed...very interesting. Scary.

  Milenta nodded, sweeping her hair behind her ear as she seemed to relax. Her hair was so black, that at the right angle, it looked almost purple in the sunlight. A mental smack hit me hard enough that I actually felt it on my cheek. You are allowing yourself to become distracted by this girl. You revealed my presence without proper cause. That was a tactical misstep. She sprung the contract on you in such a way that I didn't see it coming. She even got you to suggest it in the first place. She is cunning. On the part of me not pushing you to run away with your tail between your legs immediately? I believe that her truths are more valuable than yours and there could be something to gain from this. Ouch. But accurate.

  "I was still worried about that to be honest, even after you acted all clueless the whole trip last night. There was still a chance that you were just a really clever spy, but now I know. Makes me feel better, sorry to have doubted you. Who's Vigil?" this time I felt no compulsion to answer. "No way. My turn." I leaned back in my seat and watched her, bridging my fingers together under my chin. It at least gave me an excuse to look at her even though it wasn't actually helping me come up with a good question. I was shooting for one that would distract her so she wouldn't ask about Vigil on her next turn, but for some reason the longer I looked at her the more I had trouble thinking. Odd.

  "What class are you?" That is not a question that would distract anyone. Ever. It is a one word response for gods sake!

  Milenta was watching me closely, biding her time before she was forced to answer. She tilted her head to one side and then to the other. "My class is slightly complicated. I started out as a Soul Stealer. It's a sort of Warlock, Rogue, combo. Then I moved in a different direction. But the Soul Stealer is technically my class. My actual class is currently something I don't like to talk about, but if you want me to tell you I can't refuse at this point."

  That's very kind of her. Perhaps I misjudged her. You'll see, but I recommend not pushing her on this issue. I agreed with that at least. "That's good enough for now. No reason to talk about something you're uncomfortable with." Milenta's eyes lit up a little. "Fantastic, in that case, Who's Vigil?"

  I immediately felt the slight nudge to tell her the truth. Indeed. "Vigil is a friend of mine." I answered simply. The nudge disappeared, but a nagging feeling replaced it. I hadn't given the whole truth, so now I needed her to release me from disclosing the rest. "He doesn't want to have his identity revealed at this time, so I would prefer if that answer would suffice."

  This got Milenta to lean all the way back in her chair. I could see where her mind was going. I was pretty sure that this truth game only extended to in-game information. If Vigil was a real life friend of mine there would have been no compulsion to talk about him whatsoever. The fact that I answered at all was enough to tell her that he was an in-game entity, which on it's own was apparently interesting to her. I saw her eyes flash to my forearm where Vigil was compressed into a plate of black armor, but they didn't linger.

  "Sure, I'll gladly honor his wishes." The sigh of relief was hard to cover up and I was pretty sure she noticed it. "Okay Lyst, your turn, hit me with a good one." She opened her arms and invited the inquiry.

  A few questions popped into my mind, but only one was recurring. Hael. He was an officer in the guild, and she had spent all day yesterday with him. I couldn't nail down exactly why I was so curious, but I was.

  "How do you know Hael?" Milenta's smile wavered slightly and she looked down into her cup of interrogation potion pensively. "That." She paused, her lips lost somewhere between a smile and a frown. "Is a question that involves the real world, and as such, I am not compelled to answer truthfully." I bit my lip. Should have seen that coming.

  I leaned back and stretched nonchalantly. "Sorry about that. Didn't mean to pry." I stood up and straightened my dark gray robes. I was still wearing Arachkidar priest gear. Might want to look into changing it up, I thought to myself absentmindedly. "I was actually looking for Hael when I found you, any chance he's in town still?" It was time to move the subject far away from the truth for a truth game. I had to get moving anyway, my specialty wasn't going to create itself.

  Milenta looked uncomfortable and stood up as well. "No, he recruited a healer when he couldn't track you down. The party moved out to the woods, the ones teaming with outlaws. Trying to stack some kind of infinite quest, or so he said."

&nb
sp; I nodded and tipped an imaginary hat in her direction. "Thanks for the drink." Then I turned to leave, but couldn't. A very strong hand had grasped my shoulder. Looking back, Milenta was looking at me intently. Her normal playful smile back in place. "Our game isn't over. I didn't answer anything, so it's technically still your turn. Next time...we...could..." her words tapered off, her eyes locked on something behind me. I turned, but didn't need to search long before I saw what had caught her eye.

  "Hey.." She said quietly. "Wasn't there a lot less snow, like, five minutes ago?" she asked absently. I just nodded. The mountain in the distance, visible in a straight shot down the road we were occupying, was half white now. No clouds, no snow. And even as we watched I could see the white coloring spreading... it was like an avalanche coming from nowhere. What the hell...

  "What the hell..." Milenta mumbled as we watched. The Further down the mountain that the sheet of white spread, the faster it went. While we stood there it hit some sort of critical point and suddenly just flashed white in its entirety. It was as if an invisible blizzard had buried the thing in feet of snow. I was just about to ask Milenta if she had ever seen anything like this when a cloud of dust surged upward near the base of the mountain. It was surreal. Dust and debris hurtled hundreds of feet into the air. Watching from this distance, it was oddly...silent. That changed a few seconds later when the sound of ripping stone finally hit our ears. It was a sound that I had never experienced before. Like what I expected an earthquake would sound like if you were sitting right in the middle of it. Insane.

  "Volcano?" I asked, in awe. Milenta just shook her head. "No such think in Acrion. Everything is caused by something. This is...something. Plus, it happened at the base of the mountain..." Massive chunks of rock flattened entire swaths of trees for nearly a mile in every direction of the, for lack of a better word and despite Milenta's words, eruption. There was about a three minute gap before it happened again. This time further along, but still at the base of the now stark white mountain. "Oh yes. Definitely some...thing." Milenta whispered. If I didn't know any better it sounded like there was more than a little excitement in her voice...crazy girl...

  After the third dust plume, this time on the far side of the mountain, Milenta pulled an orb out of her inventory and whispered to it. "Cranst. Janis. begin raid prep. Group four." After that, she casually tossed the glowing ball into the air and it zipped off. No more than one minute later a portal cracked open in the center of the street. The bottom edges of the tear in space plowed the roads paving stones out of the way as easily as a shovel through snow. Note to self, don't get in the way of an opening portal...

  Two men stepped out of the portal. One wearing very elaborate armor and chugging a mana potion, and the other wearing the Acrion equivalent of a well tailored suit and tie. The more nicely dressed one glanced at the mountain with its three massive dust clouds, then looked away as if it was something he saw every day. "Mil, you've been out of contact for a long time. Is this one of yours?" he said, gesturing vaguely behind him towards the progressing mini-catastrophe. Milenta tilted her head back and forth in response. "Hard to say really. I would bet on yes, but no proof. How are you Cranst? Janis?" so the suit was Cranst and the potion chugger was Janis, noted.

  "We're all good Milly, the guild has really been going to hell ever since Eric caved to the crowns demands for refugee sheltering though. Would have really liked it if you could have put some of that 'The Tactician' charm into the negotiations." This came from Janis, but with a friendly enough tone that I didn't think he was actually serious about anything he was saying. Cranst just nodded in response to Milenta's polite inquiry, ignoring his partners words completely and acting as if she should do the same, then pressed on. "To business then, shall we? Our inquisitors are already in place. Their report has the activity beginning at around nineteen hundred, yesterday. They also have some of you at the epicenter, so I can confirm, this is indeed yours..."

  Milenta just nodded and ducked her head sheepishly before muttering "Continue.". "It's a category four, at the very least. Projections have this entire area in the threat zone. The crown has been notified. Group four is mobilizing as we speak. Eric authorized The Pinch to be launched." Milenta's cheeks picked up a slight rose tint at that, but her expression didn't change at all. "I've also put the recall order in for group one, but they are about twenty hours out as it stands currently. I am expecting a full event quest to be granted by the kingdom any moment, and I have taken the liberty of contacting the mercenary guild, in case the event reaches a category five or higher rating. We would then need the help."

  So, event happening. Big kids were on the way. Four Flags was in the danger zone. Milenta somehow caused it all to happen. Got it. I decided to keep that last part to myself. If Four Flags was destroyed somehow, I doubted the king would be happy with whoever caused it. No matter how high her reputation was. Cranst paused his bombardment of information for a moment. "Ah, the quest has just arrived. Sharing it now. I suggest all friendly points be let in on it. It will certainly cut into the pay out, but will ensure completion. We don't want another Count Maru incident." Milenta just nodded.

  Quest Alert!

  New Quest Accepted

  Royal Decree! Save Four Flags!

  News of a possible event has come to the kingdom's attention

  If an event of any scale occurs in the vicinity of the town of Four Flags a full evacuation order will be given

  As part of your duty to the crown, you have been asked to lend aid to the town during this trying time

  Part 1

  Defend the people of Four Flags as they move to a safer area

  Part 2

  Investigate the cause of the instability that caused the event to trigger

  Part 3

  Suppress the activities of any persons who are using the event as an opportunity to act against the crowns interests

  Part 4

  Mitigate the damage to the surrounding land if possible

  Part 5

  Destroy, capture, kill, seal, bind, banish, or otherwise 'stop' the threat that the event takes the form of

  The prompt surprised me, but I accepted it after reading it all the same. This was on a whole different level than any quest I had ever heard of. It was an entire disaster effort in the form of a quest. "Jeez, they don't ask for much, do they?" I quipped sarcastically.

  Milenta focused her eyes on me, and then shot an accusing look at Cranst. "You shared it with him?" Cranst just nodded, unashamed. "He is under the silence sphere, and you have allowed him to listen to us up until this point. Was I wrong to assume that he is a friendly?" Looking around I noticed that other players were nearby and gawking at the large portal that had torn up the peaceful street, but I couldn't hear a peep from any of them. Silence sphere...Nifty.

  Milenta rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Yeah, no you're right. He's a friendly. Lyst. Please, can I have your word that you won't share this quest with any enemies of the guild?" she looked at me sternly, and I could sense the tension in her words. "Of course. I agree to not share anything I've heard here, or any quests I've gained, with any of your enemies." Another strand of golden light was pulled from my chest and met one that had been taken from hers. They once again were knotted together and then popped into a pretty oblivion. Milenta turned to Cranst. "Well, there you go." Cranst just nodded again. "As you say."

  Plans shot back and forth between the well dressed Cranst and the now semi-bored looking Milenta. Janis and myself just sort of stood off to the side, half listening. That was, until the fourth eruption, once again on the far side of the mountain, was heard echoing across the valley and spewing house sized rocks everywhere. This all seemed to mean something to the higher level players as they all, Janis included, reached into their bags and sent off several ferry orbs each. "So it's on then. Evacuation commencing. I need someone to recall Hael from the forest south of here. No need for an officer death to show up on our record for the op." Milenta ordered. Cranst
nodding at her words like it was his job, pulling yet another orb out of his pocket and releasing it after whispering to if first.

  Milenta was just giving her last orders when Cranst held up a hand and his eyes glazed over. "Milenta...two things. Firstly, I have a new report of a mass of outlaw players making a run for the mountain, a tagging run, no doubt. And secondly, Baron Flags has issued a full contract for a call to arms that went out a few days ago. Our inquisitors say that if anyone from the guild happens to pick it up somehow it could prove...troublesome, for all of us. I'm issuing a hold for the acceptance of all shared quests for the duration of the event." Something in my gut clenched.

  "Um, Cranst? What does it mean when a contract is issued on a call to arms?" Cranst looked at me, an eyebrow rising far higher than I had ever seen anyone manage before. "When a call to arms is contracted the objective of the call becomes an actual law. Anyone who has taken up the call then has to attempt to fulfill its requirements or else they will be penalized. Most Calls will go out as a bounty. Kill this, or kill that. An example of a penalty would be, if you ignored the call to kill a pack of wolves that were terrorizing a nearby farmstead, then you would be punished for every wolf that went unkilled, and be held accountable for any damages that your inaction may have caused. It's all rather vague, and has been, in the past, been used to completely exile players."