It was an incredibly powerful Special Ability, but he saw now that it was only applicable under the narrowest of circumstances. He could never count on it. But Dragon Call being revealed wasn’t the only change to this screen. There were now two branching paths. In thin lettering, one said Dark and the other said Light. There were now two potential Special Abilities under each.
Unknown
------
Level: Unknown
Damage: Unknown
Duration: Unknown
Modifier: Unknown
Description: Unknown
Both Bonecall and Father talked about this. But what exactly does the Dark and Light Path mean? Is it tied to something like in the Mass Effect games where the choices you make determine whether you go Paragon or Renegade? Or like in Star Wars where you would go Jedi or Sith? There are bound to be benefits and detriments to each. I’ve always gone with the Light before. But Dark abilities are normally really powerful.
He shook himself. His father had told Luke that he should walk the Dark Path with him. That meant it should be out of the question. He wanted nothing to do with the man. Besides, the Light Path had to be as powerful in the end, right? He wasn’t risking his friends by dismissing the Dark Path out of hand. The game couldn’t punish a player for going one way over the other. Or could it? Luke bit his inner cheek. Nothing in Neverfall was straightforward or simple.
Tearing himself away from those questions, Luke went to one last screen that he hadn’t paid attention to before now. It was the Quests tab and it showed him the following Active Quests:
Go Investigate the Keep
Talk to Mary Winslow
Go to the Graveyard
Speak to Amalia at The Drunken Dwarf Inn for location of hidden tome teaching spell against undead
Under Completed/Failed quests, there was one entry:
Speak to Reeve Manon at the Reeve’s Manor about getting a reward to kill the undead
The undead problem was related to Bonecall. He was a necromancer. He stole souls. He must be the culprit for all of the villagers hiding in Lethbridge at night, and the missing people. But as the Dream Weaving had shown him, they were nowhere near powerful enough to take him on. The Investigate the Keep, Talk to Mary Winslow and Go to the Graveyard quests were likely related to him as well so they should be avoided, too, until they were higher level.
The one quest that had Luke perking up was the one that was nearest to him. Amalia was supposed to be at the inn! Perhaps she was downstairs even now. He knew that some games had characters going through a full day or night cycle, but maybe he would luck out and she would be up by now. He focused on that quest and a checkmark appeared before it. When he checked the Map, it showed a marker right within the inn. Of course, the map was useless in indoors areas, but Amalia was certainly there.
He grinned and exited out of the Menu. He would find Amalia, and get that quest started even before his friends got up. If Ibelyn was awake and bleary eyed from last night’s celebration, Luke would pump him, too, for quests as well. There must be beasts that needed killing, villagers that needed saving, random things that needed collecting. He also remembered the things that he and Christopher had just glimpsed in the nearby forest. There had been a glowing path that just begged to be followed. There was bound to be something good at the end of such a path.
Though Luke knew their ultimate goal was dire--defeat his father in order to save him, themselves and all the Beta players, not to mention the future of Neverfall--Luke couldn’t help the surge of sheer joy and excitement that filled him at the thought of helping the people of Lethbridge and beyond, of wielding a sword and magic, of summoning a mighty dragon, of picking a path. He couldn’t wait to do all of that.
So he decided to start.
5
BATTLE MAGES NEED NOT APPLY
Luke managed to slip out of the bedroom without waking any of the others. He looked over at Cassie and Christopher’s room, but the door was still closed, and he didn’t hear any sounds of wakefulness coming from within.
He walked down the stairs to the inn’s first floor. It was strange seeing the normally packed barroom almost entirely empty. There was Henry, the barman with his paunch and balding head, polishing glasses behind the bar who gave him a friendly nod. Luke saw a few of the servers preparing for the coming rush by rolling silverware in cloth napkins, cleaning the empty tables and refreshing the candles so they were tall and clean without the stalagmites of melted wax that accumulated as they burned down during the day and night.
He could already smell meat roasting. His stomach rumbled as he remembered the tender beef that had practically melted in his mouth the night before. He imagined sitting down and simply asking for some breakfast before he started looking for Amalia. But then he caught sight of a woman in the far corner of the room, and all thoughts of food left him. Magic flowed out from her. His HUD alerted him that she was his contact for the quest he had active. It highlighted her in blue.
She wore a long purple cloak with the hood thrown back, showing a middle-aged, human face. Her short hair was dark brown with streaks of gray in it that matched her eyes. The table’s candle was drawn close to her face as she was reading a book that was spread open on the table before her. Her right hand was on top of the pages, one finger following along with the lines of text. He could see her lips moving as she read softly out loud to herself. For one moment, Luke thought that the book glowed. It was clearly magical. A sense of excitement flowed through him. Maybe it was a spell book. Maybe she would let him see it.
And if Cassie were here, she would be wondering how to steal it.
Gathering his confidence, Luke strode over to her. She did not look up though when he stood by the side of her table, practically looming over her, and cleared his throat loudly. She continued to read to herself, utterly absorbed in her book. He looked over her shoulder at the text, but it wasn’t written in English or Common so it looked like a cypher to him. She wasn’t speaking in Common either.
And I dismissed that Language Perk because I hadn’t seen any need for it… until now.
Luke snorted. Something like this had happened to him before when he’d had to get past the guards in Marty’s mansion to rescue Cassie. He’d leaned into the Sorcery Perk rather than adding more to his Persuasion Perk.
But I got past them just fine with the level of Persuasion that I had. Amalia is an NPC with a quest to give. Surely, she’ll talk to me regardless of whether I can read her book or not.
Luke cleared his throat again and asked, “Are you Amalia?”
Her pointer finger paused in its skimming along the lines, and she stopped reading out loud. Slowly, her head lifted and intelligent gray eyes met his. Luke was struck again at how incredibly human the NPCs were in this game. Even when they weren’t human. The sense that they had a lot going on with them, that they weren’t just there for him as a player to get a quest, an item, or receive payment, but had a full life that had nothing to do with him. He actually found himself shifting uneasily under her regard as she seemed to look deep within him. And found him wanting.
“That may be my name, but what is yours?” she asked him.
“I am...” Luke paused.
He was at a loss for a moment. Should he give his whole name? Luke Stephens? Luke Mallory? Should he make up a name? Should he mention, or would she even know, who he really was if he just said he was Luke? So far only the Beta players realized that he was anything special. At least, outside of his activities in the game so far.
“You are?” Amalia prompted.
“I’m Luke,” he answered.
She had no reaction, and he felt a mixture of relief and annoyance. Relief because if she didn’t know who he was, then she wasn’t out to get him. Annoyance because summoning a dragon was badass and the game should reflect that.
“Well, good for you.” She smiled tightly and went back to her book.
“Don’t you have a quest for me?” he asked.
She lifted her
head again, eyebrows rising into her hairline. “Do I?”
“Y-yeah. You should. I’m pretty sure you do.”
She looked at him blankly.
Was he not doing this right? So far all of his interactions in Neverfall were as normal as if he were speaking to a real person. But she seemed obtuse. Maybe he had to be more specific.
“My friends and I have come to town in order to help the people of Lethbridge. I’ve heard that you know the location of a spell that can help with the undead. I wanted to talk to you about that,” he explained and waited.
She continued to regard him quietly for long moments without saying anything. He shifted from foot to foot, his Dragon’s Blood Armor clanking a little as he did so. He was reminded of the fact that Cassie thought he moved like some kind of drunk elephant. Finally, Amalia gestured for him to take a seat opposite her. He sat down with a relieved sigh. She closed her book before sliding it inside of her cloak. She laced her fingers in front of her and regarded him.
“I am in need of assistance,” she said.
“Good. Excellent. I am here to… to assist!” He gave her a smile that felt a little frustrated around the edges. “So… what do you need help with?”
“Well, first of all, I need a mage to assist me.”
“I am a mage. A battle mage.”
She looked at him with one eyebrow raised skeptically. “You are?”
“Yes. See?” He ignited his right hand with Firestream.
Her skepticism seemed to grow. “That’s… quite impressive.” But the way she said “impressive” sounded anything but. “What I really need is a truly gifted magic user on a certain path.”
“I--I am gifted! I know three spells. Four, if you count Dragon’s Call and…” Upon her look of wry amusement his voice cut off. He sounded pathetic even to his own ears. He knew three spells? Please! He extinguished Firestream and decided to own up. “All right, so I’m starting out. But I am a quick learner. And I really do want to help you.”
“You are definitely starting out,” she observed dryly.
“Just tell me your problem, issue, quest and I will do it. I will prove to you just how gifted I am,” he assured her.
“Asking for your help would be the equivalent of slicing your throat with that rather magnificent sword,” she replied. “I am doing you a favor by not telling you anything.”
“Ah, okay, so I’m not at the right level yet?” Luke finally got it.
And his HUD now flashed: You need to be a higher-level character to participate in this quest! There may be additional requirements that will be revealed once you are the appropriate level.
You could have told me that sooner, he thought at the HUD.
“That’s one way to put it. I mean you are not even a part of the Esoteric Order, let alone of my sort,” she said as she drew out her book again.
“Is the Esoteric Order the mage’s guild?” he asked.
She paused in her movements. “You really are new, aren’t you? My goodness! I haven’t seen someone so green since--”
“A yes or no would be great.”
“Yes, it is.”
“How does one join the Esoteric Order?” he pressed.
Maybe he had to be a member of the guild in order to be qualified for this quest. If he wasn’t in such a hurry to level up, he would have been more intrigued by this method of gaining information. It was hardly being handed out. Plus, it was realistic for Amalia to be suspicious of him and his abilities. He was only Level 5 and, in the grand scheme of things, he truly wasn’t strong.
“I really do want to know. About the Order,” he clarified.
She studied him again in that faintly disbelieving way, but finally she started to tick off on her fingers the requirements. “First, you have to have a modicum of magical talent.”
“I have that.”
Another raised eyebrow. “Yes. Well, people can differ in their assessment, especially at the beginning of one’s career.”
So she didn’t think he had much magical talent? He supposed a pure mage like her--he guessed that’s what she was--would be skeptical of someone like him who had chosen to split his skills between the martial and the magical. But he knew from experience in other games that battle mages rocked in the higher levels. They were flexible in a fight and could survive damage that pure mages could not.
Plus, I have Dragon’s Call and I’m betting no pure mage would have that.
She continued, “Then you need a letter of introduction from a mage in good standing of the Order.”
“Which I would obtain from doing a quest for that mage?”
Like doing this quest for you, perchance? But he didn’t ask that last part.
She nodded and then put up a third finger. “Next, you must present such a letter to a university. There is an Esoteric Order attached to every university. Itreles University in Renogath would be the nearest.”
On his HUD, there was a pronouncement: A new location has been added to your Map!
He ignored his HUD and nodded. “Sounds reasonable.”
She laughed. “It’s not! It’s damned difficult, but if you can’t hack it to get into the Order then you’re never going to make it through the training as a mage. There are so many pitfalls. So many wrong paths you can go down. They claim that there is already enough darkness in Neverfall without adding to it. So the Order’s become even more selective than it was previously. The quests are harder. It’s almost like they’re hoping people fail.”
Luke considered what she said about darkness, and then he recalled the Dark and Light Paths. He licked his lips, but asked, “When you mentioned darkness… in magic is there a Dark and Light Path?”
Her eyebrows lifted again, but this time not in amusement or frustration, but surprise. “Are you a Dark Path walker?”
“I--I don’t know what that is. I’m just trying to get some basic information.” He resisted the urge to rub his forearms, but the dragon tattoos that had been burned into his skin by his doppelganger in the Character Creation area tingled.
She was very still. She did not seem alarmed. But just careful. “It is rare for a mage to even have the ability to use the Dark Path.”
“Really? Why?”
She leaned forward after glancing around to check that no one was near enough to overhear them before whispering, “Because the Dark Path is the stronger, more complicated path. Not all can walk it. Not all are even asked. To be asked is an honor.”
Okay, so you definitely walk the Dark Path. Interesting.
He normally played as a Paladin, and, if he really had his druthers, he’d do that again. But remembering his friends’ deaths at Marty’s hands, he didn’t know if he’d have the stomach to keep in the Light if that meant his friends were in greater danger. And would it be morally right to not do everything he could to keep them alive when he had dragged them into this?
“The Dark Path interests me,” he told her.
“There’s a cost,” she said and her eyes glowed with an inner fire.
“Yeah, there always is.” He gave a faint smile.
She opened her mouth, clearly to say more, when he heard his name shouted from the opposite end of the room. He turned and saw his friends standing at the bottom of the stairs. Cassie waved to him. Mack was rubbing his face, still half asleep. His helmet was at an odd angle on his head. Christopher was as perfectly groomed as ever, and waggled his staff at Luke. Alicia stared suspiciously at him.
“You should go to your friends,” Amalia suggested.
He turned back to her. “But I’d really like to talk to you more about the Esoteric Order, your problem, and the Dark Path.”
“And we shall. But when we are alone. You do not want to speak of the Dark Path in front of those who will not understand,” she said. “Trust me on this.”
He nodded. He didn’t want to keep anything from his friends--this was just a game after all and it wasn’t like he really was going to be evil, his character was--but he didn�
�t need to burden them with something that he didn’t even know if he was going to do.
“I’ll come back and see you after I have some more experience,” he told her.
“I look forward to that.” She smiled and went back to reading her book.
Luke got up and went over to his friends. “Hey, guys. How’s it going?”
Cassie looked past him at Amalia. “Who is that?”
“A quest giver, but we’re not high enough level for her to hire us yet,” he explained. “She had some interesting stuff to say about getting into the Esoteric Order though. Christopher, I think that’s the equivalent of the mage’s guild in his game. Should be something we both aim to join.”
Christopher nodded. “I’m not much of a joiner, but they undoubtedly have the best spells kept there.”
Mack slapped Christopher’s back. “Wouldn’t be a member of a club that would have you?”
“Something like that. I just do not believe in groupthink,” Christopher told him.
Mack rubbed his still sleep-filled face. “Oh, that we know. You wouldn’t be you otherwise.”
“Why did you leave without waking us this morning?” Alicia demanded to know.
Luke raised an eyebrow at her. “Because I woke up at the crack of dawn and you were all snoring happily?”
“You should have remained in the room.” She crossed her arms over her powerful chest.
“Why?”
“Because, as we all discussed last night, your father will be sending his minions after us,” she replied.
Luke flashed on the dream, or the Dream Weaving. “Actually, he won’t be.”
Everyone stiffened.
“How do you know he won’t be, Luke?” Cassie asked. Her gaze skittered around the room, looking for his father’s armored figure.
“Because he told me. In a dream.” He held up a hand to hold off the inevitable arguments. “Let me explain.”
Neverfall: The Dark Path (Book 2): A Gamelit Lit RPG Series Page 4