The Greystone Chronicles Book Two: The Dire Lands

by Dave Willmarth

  Brick, being Brick, decided it was time to start the party. Extending his hammer, he hit the furthest zombie elf with a Holy Smite. With a moan, it turned toward him, and began to shuffle across the room. Each zombie it passed was alerted and aggro’d onto the tank. But this wasn’t happening fast enough for the dwarf. He scraped his hammer across his shield. Serpent Screech instantly causing every undead in the room to focus on him.

  Moving to the near corner, he began to execute their standard plan for groups of mobs. He used his shield to knock back the first few slow-moving zombies that approached. Knocking them to the floor caused the wave behind them to stumble over their bodies, and began a sort of zombie traffic jam. When all the undead were grouped up, Brick used his Shield Bash ability, darting forward and knocking several more down into a pile. Then Sasha cast her aoe Thorn Trap, and Alexander laid on the fire. Each of them hurried to cast Trap Soul on the zombies. It took less than a minute for all the zombie elves to perish.

  Leaning down, Max tried to loot the crispy corpses. He got nothing but soul crystals. “No loot,” he said, clearly offended.

  While Kai searched for any hidden doors or caches, Max moved to the closed and barred door.

  “No lock, just this bar. Looks like they wanted to keep something IN, not out.”

  Hearing that, Brick stepped up next to the ranger and prepared to open the door. When the rest were in position, he grabbed the handle and pulled open the door, shield held high in case a monster came charging out.

  There was no monster. Only a crying elf maiden sitting on a bed.

  “Please don’t kill me again!” she snuffled, wiping her nose with her sleeve.

  Alexander stepped forward. “We’re not…” his voice drifted off as the elf raised her face to look at him. She was beautiful. Not the standard beauty that came with elven features. On Io, all elves were tall, thin, with high cheekbones and narrow chins. This elf was drop-dead, supermodel meets Aphrodite beautiful.

  A smack to the back of the head from Lainey brought him back to his senses. “We’re not here to hurt you,” he said. Crouching down so that his eyes were level with her emerald green gaze, he asked, “What is your name?”

  “I… I’m Jules.” She hiccupped as she spoke. “You’re really not here to kill me?”

  “Why would we kill you?” Kai asked her.

  “I don’t know? Since I got here, every day the guy in the nasty doctor robes comes in here and kills me. When I respawn, he’s gone. And the door’s locked.” She began to cry again.

  “The surgeon is dead. He was a lich, and we captured his soul. So he won’t be bothering you again.” Sasha sat next to the girl on the bed and patted her hand.

  Jules looked hopefully at Sasha. “Can you… take me out of here? I really want to go home.”

  “Where be home?” Brick asked.

  Jules looked down at her lap. “In the game, its Antalia. That’s where I was when I was captured.” Her voice grew very quiet. “I can’t really go outside the game right now.”

  Lainey gasped, “She’s a player!”

  Having already deduced that from the multiple identical zombies, and the fact that Jules had been killed repeatedly, Alexander asked the next logical question.

  “Jules, from the number of zombies out there, you’ve been trapped here at least a couple weeks. Why didn’t you just log out? Or call a GM to help you?”

  Jules sniffed again, taking her time to answer. “I… I can’t log out. I mean, I can. But if I do, I might not be able to get back. And being in the game is so much better than… the other.”

  “Why wouldn’t you get back? Is there a problem with your gear?”

  “I promised I wouldn’t tell.” Jules looked down at her hands. “I signed a DNA thingy when I…” She stopped speaking, shaking her head.

  “DNA?” Alexander asked. “Do you mean an NDA? A non-disclosure agreement?”

  Jules just nodded her head.

  Getting angry, Alexander stood and headed for the door. “Kai, please stay with Jules. The rest of you, out here with me.” He held the door as Max, Brick, Lainey, and Sasha passed thru, then closed it behind them. He led them out of the large room, back into the surgery.

  “Odin! I need to speak with GM1. NOW!”

  The others looked at him with questions on their faces. “What’s going on?” Lainey asked.

  “That girl is a player. She’s been locked up against her will for weeks, being murdered every day. She says she’s signed some kind of NDA. My guess is she’s a beta tester like us. I want to know why she’s been left here to rot.”

  As he finished speaking, his father’s avatar appeared in the room. “Alexander…” he began.

  “Dad. What the hell? Tell me what’s going on!”

  “Calm down, Alexander. I will explain,” Richard said.

  “Jules is not a beta tester. At least not like all of you. She’s not here to test the game play. She’s here because she’s in a coma in the real world. Her body is in a pod just down the hall from all of you right now.”

  His father’s words took the anger right out of Alexander. “A coma?”

  “She suffered traumatic injury to several areas of her body, including her head. One of my original pod research team members, Dr. Westhall, is on staff at the hospital where she was admitted. She was connected to life support and monitoring, but her doctors didn’t hold out much hope. Having no family, she was a ward of the state at the time of her injuries. She had her 18th and 19th birthdays in the hospital.”

  “Poor thing…” Sasha hugged Lainey as they listened.

  “Westhall is a neurosurgeon. He’d been monitoring Jules’ condition, and in his opinion, she’d lost her will to live. The cognitive activity indicators in her EEG’s were declining. When we finally had successful test results on the pods, he recommended she be brought here and put into long term immersion. It took a while to get the hospital to sign off, but we made it happen. We managed to get enough of a sync with her brain to get her into the game. She actually helped a lot with that. She was already a player, before she was hurt. The character creation process was familiar to her, and she almost leapt at it!”

  Sasha was openly crying now. Richard’s avatar put an arm around her, and continued.

  “I myself visited her in the creation room, along with Dr. Westhall, and Melanie. We explained to her what had happened, and that she was in a coma. We offered her the chance to live in the game until such time as we’re able to restore her body. That’s why she told you she couldn’t log out. For her, leaving the game is falling back into darkness. And there’s no guarantee we’d be able to sync her up again.”

  “And the NDA?” Alexander asked.

  “It was actually just a one-page promise from her that she wouldn’t tell anyone in the game about the pods, or her situation. There are no penalties in it for her.” Richard scowled at his son.

  “How long… has she been in the game?” Lainey asked.

  “Nearly two months now. She was a level 20 rogue, before. But when she got back into the game, she mainly stayed in her starter city. At first, she just wandered around, touching things like flowers and trees. Then she would sit in a park and smile and wave at people passing by. Never did any quests. Eventually, an NPC seamstress sort of adopted her, began to teach her the tailoring skill. She focused on that, and it seemed to make her happy.”

  “And when she was kidnapped? Why was she just left here for TWO WEEKS?” Alexander was angry again.

  “As soon as you entered the room with her zombies, and I saw her face, I started an investigation. She was apparently taken by PWP and held in their keep for a week. There’s no record of her calling for a GM. When the tech that was monitoring her gameplay looked in to check on her, she was always just sitting or lying on the bed in what looked like a normal bedroom. That trend apparently continued here. I’m afraid he didn’t bother with a more thorough check to confirm her location, or notice that her level was dropping from being k
illed repeatedly. He has been fired for his… failure.”

  Richard’s voice caught. This was clearly an emotional situation for him as well. “I will personally apologize to Jules. I’m making arrangements for our psychologist to spend some time in-game with her. In the meantime, I would appreciate it if you all would see that she’s protected. Take her back to your guild house and let her recover?”

  Brick spoke first. “O’course we will! She’ll be well looked after, don’t ye worry!”

  “Thank you. All of you. Alexander, please come with me. The rest of you, wait here, if you don’t mind?” Richard headed back toward Jules’ room.

  The moment Richard entered the room, Kai froze. The NPC lock would keep him suspended until the unexplainable GM left the room again.

  Richard knelt down in front of Jules. “Hi there, Jules. It’s Richard. Do you remember me?” he asked gently.

  Jules looked at him and nodded her head. “The boss guy,” she mumbled.

  Richard chuckled. “That’s right. And the young man who just rescued you is my son, Alexander.”

  Jules looked at Alexander. “Hi.”

  Alexander couldn’t speak, so he gave a simple wave in reply.

  “Jules, I want to tell you I’m very sorry for your being stuck here so long. The man who was looking out for you let us both down. He didn’t notice you’d been captured. He’s just been fired, and when I left the lab to come visit you, Melanie was beating him on the head with a rolled up file folder.”

  This actually made the girl smile a bit. “I like Melanie. She’s funny.”

  Richard returned the smile. “Yes, and Melanie likes you too. In fact, she volunteered to be the one to watch over you from now on. Would you like that?”

  Again, Jules just nodded her head. “Is she watching now?”

  “I’m sure she is. She’s very worried about you. We all are.”

  Jules looked toward the ceiling and gave a small wave. “Hi, Melanie.”

  Melanie’s avatar appeared in the room. Complete with lab coat, and for some reason, bunny ears. She launched herself onto the bed, hugging Jules tightly.

  “Hey, sweetie! I’m glad you’re okay. I’m not letting some stupid-head look after you in the real world anymore. I’ll be there with you every single day!”

  Jules returned the hug. “I’m sorry to be such a burden on everyone.” Her voice was very soft.

  “Nonsense! You’re not a burden in any way!” Melanie scolded her. “I mean, you just lay about in that pod all day. You’re basically a great big goldfish!”

  Richard and Alexander both looked shocked, and Richard had opened his mouth to interrupt, when Jules began to giggle.

  Melanie continued, “We feed you, change your tank once a month. Easiest pet I ever had!” More giggling.

  “As for monitoring you in game, that’s nothing. I’d be watching this big lug, anyway.” She pointed at Alexander. “I spend all my time watching the game. It’s my JOB. And now that Alexander’s found you, he’ll be taking care of you, too. So I can watch you both at the same time!”

  Jules looked to Alexander and smiled. His heart stopped.

  Seeing the look on his face, Melanie shoulder bumped Jules. “I know, he’s pretty cute, right?”

  She giggled as Jules’ face turned bright red. She nodded her head quickly.

  Never one for subtlety, Melanie kept going. “Lots of us girls stop by his pod to ‘check on him’ when he’s online. He’s all nekkid in there, ya know!” She winked at Jules, who snorted loudly before covering her mouth.

  Now it was Alexander’s turn to blush.

  Coughing, Richard said, “Yes. Well. Melanie, it’s time for you and I to head back. We’ve got a lot to talk about.” Melanie hugged the girl once more and stood up.

  “Jules, if it’s okay with you, Alexander and his friends will take you to their home in Stormforge. In a few days, Melanie and I will come back to visit you. What do you think?”

  Jules stood up and hugged Richard tightly. “Thank you. For everything. Without you, I’d still be drifting in the darkness. Or dead.”

  With that, Richard and Melanie faded from the game. A moment later, Kai blinked, and looked around.

  Alexander said, “Jules, do you have any gear or anything you’d like to bring with you?”

  She nodded her head, and moved to a wardrobe. Withdrawing her bag, she said, “When they kept killing me, I didn’t see any point in putting my gear back on every time, so I just kept it in here.” She threw the bag over her shoulder and said, “Ready.”

  Taking her by the hand, he led her out of the room and back to where the rest of the group waited. Kai followed behind. As they walked, he explained to her, “We’re in the 4th level of the dungeons of a ruined keep. We’re working our way up to the main floor.”

  He sent her a party invite, which she accepted. Then, after a brief thought, he sent her a guild invite as well. Also accepted. She smiled at him. “I’ve never been in a guild before. Oh! And its named after you and your dad!”

  Alexander hung his head in shame. “Yeah, I’m afraid I didn’t put a whole lot of thought into the guild name.”

  She squeezed his hand. “I like it!”

  As they reached the group, he continued. “This place is filled with undead. We’re clearing it as we go up. When we get into a fight, you just stay behind Sasha, here.” Sasha waved at her. Remembering his manners, he introduced everyone. Each of them shook Jules’ hand and welcomed her to the guild.

  Taking both of her hands, Alexander looked at Jules. “These people are all family to me. We’ve been through a lot together, and I’d trust any one of them with my life.” He paused until she nodded in understanding.

  “You don’t have to worry about what you say around us. We all know your situation, and we have decided to adopt you into the family. We’ll do all we can to help you get better.”

  As tears came to Jules’ eyes yet again, she became the center of a group hug. All except Kai, who kept a respectful distance.

  Chuckling, Sasha said to Jules, “Kai’s a dragon. Dragons don’t do hugs.” To which Kai gave his biggest dragon-toothed grin.

  Having cleared this level, the group headed upward to the next. Just like with Fibble’s hole, there was too much to carry in the lich’s treasure room. So they agreed to leave the treasure and secure it once the keep was clear.

  Moving up the stairs to third floor of the dungeon, Jules whispered to Sasha, “I don’t have any weapons or armor. I feel a bit useless.”

  Overhearing, Max halted the group. From his bag he produced the last set of armor they’d taken off Henry, leader of PWP. “This is good quality rogue armor. It should help protect you until you’re stronger.”

  Jules thanked him, and began to equip the armor. As she did so, Max produced a pair of daggers, and handed those to her as well. In full armor, and with daggers in each hand, the rogue looked much tougher than she had only minutes before.

  “You still need to stay behind Sasha,” Alexander warned. “All those deaths have taken you back to level one. A good sneeze from one of these level 50 mobs and you’ll be sent to respawn.”

  Reaching the third floor, they found more of the same. Corridors with cells, larger rooms filled with undead. They bashed, burned and skewered their way through, casting Trap Soul on each mob. With each kill, Jules gained multiple levels, at least to begin with. This was the ultimate power-leveling situation. And they collected soul crystals from nearly every mob.

  By the time they had fought their way through the third and second floors to the main floor of the keep, Jules had leveled up to 28, and the others had gained three more levels themselves, putting them at 37. Though they’d not run across any more named or boss mobs, killing several dozens of undead that were 15 or more levels above them was still great xp.

  The stairway they had climbed emptied into a hallway at the back side of the keep, where it was carved into the mountain itself. As with the lower floors, the group began
to systematically clear each room and hallway. After thirty minutes of not finding anything, living or dead, they began to relax. They split up into groups of two, with Jules tagging along behind Kai and Sasha, and began to clear rooms much more quickly. After another hour, they had cleared the first, second, and third floors of the main keep structure. Still they had found no enemies. It seemed that whomever was using the keep to build up the small undead army was sticking to the underground levels. Though Kai was concerned that they’d still not found a portal.

  All that was left was for them to clear the tower itself. The layer of dust on the stairs made it clear nobody had passed that way in years. The friends cautiously made their way up, having to leap a few times where sections of the wall and stairs had broken away. At one particularly wide break, one that was too far to jump, Kai actually grabbed each of them and leapt across the gap before depositing them and going back for the next. Dragons in human form were stronger than they looked.