World of Eternia: The Complete Collection

by Antony W. F. Chow

  Suddenly, her back knocks into something hard, and she is unable to back away any further. Taking a quick glance back, she sees the death knight's skeletal steed turned on its side, blocking her path!

  “Got you!” the death knight calls out with his raspy voice as he is about to touch the human's back with his Finger of Death.

  The priestess instinctively spins her body to the left, and avoids the finger poke!

  The steed collapses to the ground as it is jabbed in the ribcage by the unholy Finger of Death.

  “Yah!” Diana cries out as she grasps her mace with both hands, and swings her steel mace like a baseball bat. The blow knocks the death knight's head right off, sending the head far down the cemetery.

  The suddenly headless body lands on its knees, and starts to disintegrate into ash along with the collapsed horse. Soon the wind blows across the cemetery again, dispersing the ashes throughout the field of death.

  The victorious priestess humbly kneels on the ground, and puts her hands together in prayer. “Oh Most Glorious Gods of Eternia, your servant humbly dedicate this triumph to you. May you continue to guide me to more victories in your name. Amen.”

  A green light starts to appear in thin air behind the priestess. Moving clockwise, the light traces the outline of a doorway. Soon, the rectangular doorway is complete, and suddenly glows brightly, forcing Diana to turn away. A moment later, the flash of light is dissipated, and a green portal hangs in the air.

  Diana pulls herself from the ground, and pats her robe to knock some of the dirt and sand loose. She walks over to retrieve her dropped slingshot and secures it back in place in her backpack. Standing before the magical portal, she boldly enters.

  Chapter 15 – A Gathering

  of Strangers

  Wesley finds himself in a grand room, with white marble columns along the walls, fine, lush carpet with a blood red color, and grand tapestries on the wall depicting heroes and heroines fighting fearsome monsters. On the ceiling are beautifully decorative chandeliers with scintillating, multicolor glass crystals that enhance the overall opulence of the room. At the far end of the room, on the opposite side, is a throne . . . made of skulls! The cavalier frowns at the throne, and wonders if the seat belongs to the Regent who had cast a curse over Castle Eternia.

  Confirming that there is nothing else of interest, aside from the throne of bones, on the far side of the room, the player turns around to check the area behind him. Wesley notes that he is standing at the other end of the room. The wall behind him is a sharp contrast to the grand opulence in rest of the room; the wall is blank with no doors as one would expect since there are no visible exits on the other three walls of the room. However, hovering in the air in front of this naked wall are three portals, in the colors of yellow, red, and green from left to right.

  Why isn't my blue portal here as well, the cavalier ponders for a moment, seeing that the room is empty but for himself. The portals are probably set for one time use only, he theorizes. In other words, if I enter one of these portals, the door will shut and leave me trapped with another party member in the pocket server on the other side, he realizes.

  Seeing that the mission cannot progress further until all four members of The Strangers arrive in this room, Wesley decides to use to the time to sharpen his long sword. He takes out a whetstone from his small belt pouch, and starts to work on his fine blade.

  * * *

  Conrad strolls through his red portal and enters the room. The portal slowly winks out of existence as its purpose has been served. He sees his leader sitting on the floor behind him, leaning against the wall and sharpening the edge of the knight's blade. “Well met, Stranger,” he booms in a loud voice, startling the older man.

  Wesley looks up from his blade, and sees that Conrad has arrived. The ex-Marine quickly notices that the solo trials have taken their toll on the big man, as the man has a number of big, ugly bruises on his chest and arms. The knight also notices that the reflective shield is missing, but the barbarian has somehow replaced the shield with a dangerous looking, double-edged war axe. Setting down his sword and whetstone on the ground, the cavalier gets up. As the armored man approaches the unarmored man, the knight raises his right fist.

  Conrad adroitly raises his own right fist while approaching the former military man, and their knuckles touch with a light tap. “Glad you made it, old man,” the younger man says with a broad smile.

  “I have no doubt whatsoever that all four of us will gather in this room,” the leader answers confidently. "We are the best player team in all of Eternia!" he declares boldly for the audio capture.

  “Yes we are the best!” the athletic man responds with equal boldness, as he catches on Wesley's intent quickly and backs up the old man. I hope you realize that we just painted a big red target on our backs, he thinks with amusement. But confidence is a big part of our makeup as players on this team, and we are not going to change the way we play this game.

  Wesley nods in appreciation.

  Conrad decides to talk about the solo portion of this campaign to pass the time. “What did the dungeon designers make you fight?" he asks. "I had a good ol' brawl with some lizardmen, in an inn of all places,” he shakes his head with a chuckle. “One of those guys was a real brawler, strong and big as an ox, and gave me a bunch of nasty bruises,” he looks down at his chest. “The dude even broke my shield with his axe. So I took this mean looking fella as a replacement for my shield. Can't wait for Lucious to show up, and cast his Identify spell to unveil the magical properties of this axe,” he adds while holding up the axe. "It better be something sweet, because I essentially traded my reflective shield for it."

  Wesley nods. “Yeah, Lucious is sharp, cunning, and ruthless. He's going to walk right through the yellow portal any second now," he says. "I almost feel sorry for whatever monsters have to deal with him, because the spell caster will quickly sniff out the weakness of the monsters he faces, and use the best spell available to take advantage. Sometimes, I feel like he's holding himself back because he's afraid to toss some big Area of Effect ('AoE') spell and hit us along with the monsters,” he notes.

  “Indeed,” Conrad agrees. “It's like our little man gets a big kick out of his spells — the bigger, the splashier, the better. I think Lucious will be popping right through his yellow portal soon. I'm only worried about Diana,” he admits, bringing up the big elephant in the room.

  “Me too,” the leader agrees. “Don't get me wrong. Diana can fight with her mace, her slingshot, and even that kinky whip she leaves in her hidden backpack. She has two problems though, as a fighter. First, she doesn't wear any armor, even though she could easily do so as a cleric instead of a priestess. Yeah, the priestess gets faster access to spells, and a slight bonus in the mana pool. But the armor restriction really kills her class for soloing. If you ask me, I think Diana just didn't like the way the armor looks on her; she cares deeply about her looks and is a bit vain in that way. Second, her weapons, by design, don't pierce the foe and draw blood. Consequently, her weapons do about half the damage of my long sword,” he observes.

  “Yeah, but I'm also using a club that doesn't draw blood either,” the barbarian argues. “Well, at least I was before I picked up this war axe,”he amends his statement while patting his new weapon's handle with tenderness.

  “While that is technically true, you're ignoring two factors in your ability to cause damage. First, the barbarian player class has enhanced strength, allowing more damage to be dealt per blow. Second, your class has better odds of making a successful hit and penetration with clubs, since that is the favored weapon for your barbarian class. So compared to a priestess, a barbarian will land more blows successfully, and inflict greater damage from each blow. Additionally, you have a ton of health, especially since your player class gets bonus health points. Basically, you have triple the health points of a similar level spell caster, and fifty percent more health than other melee fighter classes, myself included. For this reason
, you can shake off blows that other classes can't take,” Wesley concludes.

  “On the other hand, as a priestess Diana can heal herself an unlimited number of times. Whatever damage she takes, she can refill her health bar once the fight is over, or even while fighting if she needs a quick heal,” Conrad counters.

  “Ah, but that's assuming she's the one left standing after the fighting is concluded, or gets a break in between melees,” the military man points out. "An opponent is not going to wait politely while Diana uses a healing prayer," he notes. “Pass me your axe, man. I want to sharpen it up for you while we wait for the rest of the gang to arrive,” he offers.

  Conrad passes the double-edged axe to the knight with the handle facing up, holding out the weapon with one hand.

  Wesley grabs the axe with his left hand, and nearly drops it! He quickly sets the heavy weapon on the ground.

  The owner smirks. “It's real heavy, isn't it? Good thing I'm strong enough to swing this baby with one hand. Anyway, I will do some stretching while we wait,” he says. Taking the unoccupied spot to the right of the remaining portals, he raises his arms up to initiate his familiar warm up routine.

  * * *

  “Well met, Strangers!” Lucious greets the two men once he notices them on either side of his golden portal. He sees Wesley leaning against a wall, sharpening a heavy war axe with a whetstone. He also notes that Conrad is doing push-ups, of all things! This dude must be bored out of his mind waiting, the mage thinks to himself. Either that or he's really a health nut. I guess I'll be nice and not remind Conrad that we're in a virtual reality, and he's not really breaking a sweat behind the computer at home.

  Both men rise from the ground simultaneously.

  “So who got here first?” Lucious asks.

  The two exchange looks. Finally, the professional athlete points a finger at the knight.

  The battle mage folds his arms. “So we're waiting for Diana in order to proceed to the next stage?” he realizes and inadvertently speaks his thought aloud.

  “Yup,” Wesley replies.

  “No worries, old man,” Lucious says. “Although Diana usually leaves the heavy fighting to you gentlemen, when she's in a pickle she can work miracles with her mace and whip. She will definitely show,” he adds with confidence. “That being said,” he pauses, “I can't wait to make fun of her for being the last one to arrive,” he grins wickedly.

  The other two men exchange looks again and shake their heads.

  The old knight takes his spot along the wall, and resumes sharpening Conrad's axe.

  The mage sees the axe for the first time and stares at it. “You picked up a new toy?” he asks.

  Wesley looks up at Lucious. He nods in Conrad's direction. “His,” he replies succinctly.

  The big man looks down for a moment, and scratches the back of his neck in embarrassment. “My shield split into two while taking a blow from that axe. I think it's magical. If you could cast an Identify and figure out its properties, I would greatly appreciate it,” he requests humbly.

  The mage kneels down in front of the cavalier, and sits cross-legged on the floor. He pulls out his Bag of Holding, and searches for a pinch of crushed diamond. Grabbing it between his right thumb and forefinger, Lucious reaches out with his left hand, and grabs hold of the war axe's handle. Closing his eyes, he chants the arcane words of the Identify spell: “loit-pooh-dert-gjin.” Opening his eyes in the real world, the player sees the name and properties of the weapon in his visor, and reads the words aloud: “Cursed War-Axe of the Berserker. +25% Damage, +25% Health, -50% Armor Class.”

  Conrad whistles. “That's an interesting weapon,” he remarks. “No wonder the previous owner was able to go toe-to-toe with me. The extra health allowed him to take whatever damage I was dishing out. And the damage inflicted was obviously more than my shield could take,” he notes while going over the battle with the barkeeper in his mind.

  “It's the perfect style of play to go against low to mid level monsters,” Wesley comments after a moment of thought. “They won't do enough damage to take you down; the defense penalty wouldn't matter for that reason. On the flip side, if you're facing an extremely skilled melee fighter, the lower AC would make you more vulnerable to taking critical hits.”

  “So I'll make sure I won't use the war axe against assassins,” the barbarian retorts nonchalantly as he stares at the dangerous axe in the knight's arms.

  * * *

  Diana takes small steps through the green portal. She is holding her mace, ready to fight again if necessary. After all, her health, mana, and stamina bars are all full again. When she sees the other three Strangers waiting in the room, she breathes a sigh of relief.

  “What took you so long?” Lucious asks while doing a Tai Chi routine. His left leg is planted forward in front of his body and his thigh is parallel to the ground, while his right leg is planted behind his torso for support. He pushes both hands gently outward, away from his chest.

  “Oh give her a break!” Conrad replies while hopping two steps back. He is doing some shadow boxing. He feints a left jab, and pounds his imaginary opponent with a hard right to the gut.

  “These boys were just worried about you,” Wesley says with a smile.

  Lucious throws a scowl at the old man, and continues with his routine.

  “Well, for your information, I was dumped in a cemetery, barely defeated a reincarnation of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, then beat up fifty reanimated low level skeletons, and topped it off by defeating a death knight,” the priestess recounts her solo adventures. “How about you guys?”

  The men look at each other for a moment. None of them were put through anything as difficult as she did by the dungeon designers.

  Finally, Lucious clears his throat and speaks up. “I took care of a Cyclops that was tossing boulders at me in a forest, after killing off a bunch of tree elementals first. And then the Earth Mother tried to blackmail me into joining her Earth faction.”

  Diana's eyes widen in shock. “You actually spoke with a Goddess? A Greater Goddess?” she asks incredulously while pointing a shaky finger at him.

  The mage rolls his eyes. “Yes. She summoned a humongous, hundred feet tall earth elemental to trap me beneath the earth, and threatened to keep me below ground and suffocate me to death if I didn't join her faction,” he replies.

  “Did you?” Conrad asks.

  The young man shoots him an annoyed look. “I don't like being told what to do. Especially from a fickle Non-Player Character (“NPC”). I politely declined,” he says.

  “So how on earth did you break free?” Wesley asks.

  “I wrestled control of the elemental away from the Earth Mother, and commanded the elemental to take me back up tot he surface,” Lucious replies nonchalantly.

  Diana puts her hands on her head and groans. “Great! Just great! Now you pissed off a goddess, and made her an enemy! The sadistic game developers will create a special campaign for the earth faction to come after us. Watch -- it's going to happen!" she groans louder as she slaps her forehead. "Don't you ever think before you act?” she glowers at him while putting her hands to her hips.

  “Of course I do!” the mage replies defensively. “The fact of the matter is that I am a player,” he pokes a thumb at his chest. “And I chose not to become an earth mage. That is my right as a player to play the way I want to play, and I'm not changing into an earth specialist just because some dumb old NPC asked me too.”

  “Come on, guys! What's done is done, and it's time to refocus on the task at hand. Our mission is to remove the curse from Castle Eternia by defeating the Regent,” Wesley says, while trying to end the pointless bickering between the two spell casters.

  Chapter 16 – Regent

  “Spoken like a true leader,” a raspy voice says from across the room.

  The four party members turn their heads, and look across the room. They discover a finely dressed man sitting on the throne of skulls. The man is vibrant, almost as big
in size as Conrad. He is dressed in a navy blue, silken tunic and pitch black leggings straight from the medieval times. On his head is a crown full of encrusted diamonds, rubies, and sapphires gems.

  The man slowly gets up from his throne. He grabs a staff whose handle is made entirely of human leg and thigh bones, ending with a human skull with two fine jewels placed in the eye sockets. “Allow me to introduce myself. I am the Regent of Castle Eternia, and your humble host,” he says and nods his head slightly to his guests. “I do hope everything has been to your liking so far,” he giggles with a mad look in his wild eyes.

  The four Strangers look at each other uncomfortably. There is something off about this man. At first blush, this Regent looks majestic, the picture of a healthy man. Yet, there is a hint of madness in his facial expression, with those deep, sunken eyes that reflect the darkness in his soul. And the way he sits on that throne, without feeling repulsed by the skulls, provides ample evidence as to the man's true, evil nature.

  Without a word, the party pull out their weapons, ready to fight!

  The Regent continues to walk down the grand throne room, not the least concerned with the weapons drawn against him. “Come now, there's no need to be frightened of me,” he coos at them as if they are cornered mouses. He casually approaches the end of the room, where the four are fanned out. He pauses when he is five feet away. “Since there are four of you, and just one of me, it's not a fair fight, is it?” he giggles as the host wiggles a finger at them. Seeing no answer forthcoming from his guests, he continues. “So why don't we even up the odds?”

  The Regent taps his Skeleton Staff twice on the ground, and three black holes appear in front of him. The holes expand in size until three people step through the magical portals linked to the Nether Realms. The newcomers are exact duplicates of the Regent, down to the hysterical grin! The original Regent joins the triplets, and each man approaches a party member. “En garde!” they cry out in unison as they attack the party with their skeletal staves.