World of Eternia: The Complete Collection

by Antony W. F. Chow

  The four turn quickly and see that there are guard stations placed just ten feet away on either side of the opening, but hidden from view until the Strangers exit the road. Oriental looking men in armor quickly pour out of these wooden buildings and surround the strangers to this land. Each newcomer is carrying a long spear ending with a curved blade, with two sets of bright colored tassels tied to the end of the blade.

  Wesley does a quick head count and notes that there are two dozen men in all, and quickly decides to avoid hostilities. "Drop your weapons and hold your hands in the air," he orders aloud.

  "Why should we surrender?" Conrad protests. "We could take them easily if we fall back into the tunnel, and simply defend while Lucious calls up his monstrous earth elemental to stomp these turkeys into pancakes," he suggests.

  "Our King has ordered us to avoid hostilities with the natives of this land if at all possible," Wesley reminds the barbarian. "As long as blood is not spilled, we may be able to negotiate some sort of treaty with the authority in this land. We also need to learn more about the people here. To do that, we need to talk to them rather than trade blows right now." To settle the issue, Wesley quickly drops his long sword to the ground before Conrad could reply, and the ex-Marine raises his gauntleted hands high in the air to signal his intention to surrender peacefully to the oriental guardsmen.

  The two spell casters exchange looks, and decide to follow Wesley's lead. They fully trust the old man and his intuition in handling these situations. If Wesley decides to parley, then that is what they will do.

  Conrad grinds his teeth and avoids hurling a curse word. We could take these turkeys easily, he fumes. However, he is not looking to mutiny against a man that Conrad respects. Reluctantly, the giant warrior drops his ivory club to the ground and winces as he hears the sound of his beloved magical weapon hit the yellow brick road with a loud “thud.”

  The guardsmen suddenly make a path for a man to pass through. This particular non-player character (“npc”) is distinct by his lack of armor. He is wearing a fine silk red robe, with gold trimmings, and a black bird with two tails that resembles a hawk on his chest. The newcomer’s hair is black colored but long, and tied behind his neck with a red string. His skin color is yellow, like the rest of the men surrounding the player characters. However, he radiates an aura of authority, and the guards appear to be both respectful and fearful of the newcomer.

  On a sudden impulse, Lucious looks at the man’s feet and sees that the character’s feet are not touching the ground at all! The npc is slightly hovering above the ground, meaning that he is a spell caster. The elementalist quickly turns to look at Diana.

  The priestess notices the stare from her boyfriend and sees that the pupils of his eyes are cast downward. Diana looks back at him quizzically for a moment, and then realizes that Lucious wants her to look at the ground. Finally she understands his concern as the priestess sees that the newcomer is wearing flat red slippers, but hovering an inch off the ground. She nods slightly at Lucious, who rolls his eyes exasperatedly at her slow uptake of his silent message.

  Conrad sees the exchange between the two in front of him, and quickly understands the silent message that the mage was trying to convey: the unarmed man is a powerful spell caster and the one person in this group to watch out for. If the parley attempt fails, then this spell caster will be The Strangers’ first priority to target. If the newcomer stands a little closer, Conrad can quickly spear the spell caster with a shoulder tackle and disrupt any spell casting. Even though Conrad is unarmed, it doesn’t mean he is harmless.

  Gatekeeper Kang Lu Ying stands in front of his guardsmen, and stares at the four strangers. His nose turns up at the offensive sight of the four unruly barbarians. There is no uniformity at all in their clothes, reflecting the chaotic nature of their society. He can’t help but stare at the bare chested, big oaf standing at the rear. In Kang’s society, the strongest stand at the front to protect the weakest amongst them. Based on the tall barbarian’s physique, he is obviously the most powerful warrior in the group. And yet he stands at the very back, as if requiring the protection of the two weaklings in front him!

  These foreigners are apparently from a backward culture, and totally incompatible with the honorable ideals of the We Tang Kingdom. If these barbarians are allowed to enter Tenshen Village just further down the Three Year Road, named in memory of the sacrifices of workers made in carving out the tunnel into the granite rock, then the gatekeeper will lose face amongst the villagers as well as the underlings standing behind him. No, Kang must make them turn back immediately. [“What have we here? Are you strangers who accidentally stumbled through my portal? Or are you scouts for a planned invasion of the great We Tang Kingdom?”] He asks out of politeness to these strangers, doubting that the four of them would comprehend his language.

  The Strangers are unable to understand the man’s foreign language, which sounds Asiatic but none of them are fluent in any Asian language.

  The official smiles at the barbarians’ lacks of comprehension of his native language. [“No, you wouldn’t be able to answer my questions like this. Here, I will provide the means to help communicate.”] He removes a gold earring from his left ear, and slowly approaches the four until he is standing directly in front of the armored man, who is apparently the leader of this ragtag group. He holds up the earring in front of the leader’s face, and points a finger to the stranger’s left ear.

  Wesley understands what the official wants Wesley to do and slowly holds out his right hand. The gold earring is promptly placed in his palm. The cavalier turns to Diana. “Could you help me put this earring on my left ear? I can’t do it while wearing my gauntlets,” he requests.

  Diana takes the earring and puts it on the party leader’s ear as directed.

  Wesley turns back to face the official.

  The official puts his palms together with fingers stretched out, and nods slightly in greeting. “My name is Gatekeeper Kang, trusted guardian of the Three Year Road leading to the Tenshen Village behind me. Why have you trespassed on our land, strangers?” His eyes smolder at the accusation.

  Wesley returns the slight nod and imitates the hand gesture. “We mean no offense, Gatekeeper Kang. I am Wesley, an Ambassador from the Kingdom of Eternia. Our liege, King Richard, has ordered the four of us to seek the authority of this land, and perhaps start official relations with your kingdom.”

  The gatekeeper openly sneers at the ignorance of these barbarians! "You barbarians are standing in We Tang, the First of the Three Great Kingdoms," he states proudly. He makes a grand showing of eying the four barbarians up and down, and making a face at their unsightly presence. "Just what can you uncivilized barbarians offer us? We Tang values law and order above all, and your very lack of uniformity is an affront to our society," he points a finger at Wesley. "No," Gatekeeper Kang wags his finger, "you cannot be allowed to corrupt We Tang with your chaos and disorder. You barbarians will now be given a choice: turn around and go back, or stay and die."

  Upon hearing the gatekeeper's decision to deny entry into the Kingdom, his guardsmen lower their dragon heads in unison, and stand ready to charge at the barbarians if ordered to do so.

  Wesley keeps his calm in the face of the insults from Gatekeeper Kang. I'm glad that I'm the only one among us who can understand this pompous fool, he smiles to himself, or else there will be blood spilled already. But given the hostile posture of the guards, I think my party understands what's going on anyway.

  "I guess they want us to turn back, oh fearless leader?" Lucious quips while going through his mental rolodex of spells to use in this situation. I think a Wall of Fire or Ice will do nicely, he decides quickly.

  "Sorry," the leader replies. "It appears that these natives have a beef with the way we're dressed."

  "What's wrong with the way we're dressed?" Conrad sniffs. He likes walking around with his chest bare. It looks great on camera. "These guys are stiff like surf boards," he sniffs again, louder
this time.

  "Different cultures have different values," Diana replies. The doctoral psychology student tries hard to brainstorm a way to change the hostile attitude of the natives.

  Wesley tries to be diplomatic. "Gatekeeper Kang, our society values individuality and differences. We believe that these differences will lead to innovation and insights that expand our horizon. Perhaps you would permit our priestess to provide a divine demonstration of our advanced civilization?" he asks the official.

  Kang and his men laugh. "That's a good one," the gatekeeper replies. "There ARE no gods. Your very superstitions reflect your barbaric ways," he says mockingly.

  "With your permission, our priestess could demonstrate the power of the Gods of Eternia," Wesley persists.

  The gatekeeper makes a big sigh and decides to humor the strangers. "If you insist," he replies.

  Wesley turns to Diana. "It's your show," he says.

  The priestess looks back at her leader. "Are you sure about this? We could get Lucious to cast a spell instead," Diana whispers; she is afraid that the gatekeeper with his magic earring could hear the conversation.

  "These guys are clearly looking down on us. I'd rather save Lucious as our ace up our sleeve," Wesley whispers back and winks at her.

  "Fine," Diana acquiesces. "I will make my cross glow."

  Wesley turns back to face the arrogant official. "My lovely priestess has agreed to demonstrate the power of her belief in the Gods of Eternia. She will make her cross glow," he announces aloud.

  "Get on with it," Kang says impatiently with a wave of his hand.

  Diana walks pass Wesley to stand in front of the unbelievers. She holds up her cross and closes her eyes. "Oh Great Gods of Eterna! Your Faithful Servant seeks a Sign of your Favor. Amen." She opens her eyes, and sees . . . nothing changed.

  "See?" the gatekeeper sneers at the barbarians. "There are no gods! It is time for your superstitious lot to turn around, or else." The guardsmen start to approach the four Strangers.

  "Let's go back," Wesley orders as he retrieves his long sword off the ground, and sheathes it back into its scabbard. "We'll debrief when we return to Eternia."

  The priestess is still shell shocked at the apparent abandonment of her Gods. Diana slowly retrieves her weapon off the yellow brick road and mechanically loops the edge back into her belt hook. Without word, she quickly enters the portal, the raucous laughter of the natives ringing in her ears.

  Chapter 12 – Debriefing

  The golden portal flickers in thin air. The light pulses on and off, on and off, with a constant beat like a radiant pulsar in a dark night sky. The pulse is steady like a beating heart, pounding at more than a beat per second. Suddenly, the pulse rises rapidly--double, triple, quadruple beats per second. Finally, the pulsating light explodes in a scintillating rainbow of colors, and then dims to a former shell of its glory. Standing in front of the now darkened portal are The Strangers.

  The four players stand tall, immobile, like petrified statues for a moment. It takes time for the world environment to load onto each player's computer and then feed the three-sixty image into the player's virtual reality visor. Even though each member of The Strangers is using the still unreleased 2.0 version, which is half a pound lighter than the twenty ounces weight of the original 1.0 version, it takes time for the hardware to interpret the stream of data coming from the World of Eternia server. Virtual reality massively multiplayer online role playing game ("VRMMORPG") is a neat concept on paper, but recreating the digital environment and sending the massive data files into the player's goggles still take time, and therefore the data transfer can lag at times. As a result, the players can't move at all until the data streaming process is completed.

  Wesley blinks his eyes as he readjusts them to the familiar sight of his home world of Eternia. The four of them are back at the old, hidden temple where the portal is located. The Temple of the Dawn, as this location is known, was another closed off area that appears on the list of inaccessible dungeons that the players have compiled. It is really straight out of the now familiar playbook for the game developers to tease players with these awesome sounding names of locales, and fan speculation among players on what is in store for them when the locations are finally unlocked.

  The Strangers are not the only player group that has gained favor from the game developers to beta test new locations and run in-game errands for EDE. But then again, it is unlikely that Richard Gibson, the CEO of EDE, had granted ownership interests in the company to another player group. If he had, players will hear about it.

  Wesley shakes his head to push aside these extraneous thoughts. Man, it is so unlike me to let my mind wonder like this. I guess I was shaken badly by the failed mission. Let's see how the rest of the group is holding up, he thinks. "Are we all here?" the leader asks aloud while turning around to look at his party members.

  "Yup," Lucious quips quickly. He has a high end gaming computer that had cost a hefty portion of his year-end bonus to purchase; but his hardware allows Lucious to get back into the game quicker than anyone else in his party. He prefers to wait for the others to make a move first, though, whenever they go through a portal like this.

  "Present," Diana chips in. Can't let the peacock get ahead of himself, she muses.

  "Yes sir!" Conrad booms in reply. As a minor league baseball player, he probably has the worst computer of the four. I don't want to hold up the party, he thinks.

  "Good," the leader nods in satisfaction. Looks like their spirits haven't been broken, Wesley thinks. "Once we leave this pocket dimension, we can head back to our headquarters for a debriefing. Then we will have an audience with the King and give our report," he spells out his plan of action. Without waiting for a reply, the knight turns back and starts to march towards the opening in the walls surrounding the temple. Once he reaches the outer perimeter, Wesley accesses his player menu. He chooses “Starter Town” as the new location, and instantly winks out of view of his teammates.

  The three quickly follow suit.

  * * *

  Wesley lounges on an old creaky chair, and puts his feet up on the long wooden table. He had taken off his full steel plate armor and left the heavy gear in his personal room upstairs. I’m glad I don’t have to play Tin Man in real life, he thinks. I don’t know how I would be able to handle that, he readily admits. He waits patiently for his party to arrive at the headquarters. While waiting in silence, the leader ponders the agenda for the debriefing. What went wrong? How could The Strangers have convinced that odious, arrogant gatekeeper to let the party through? More importantly, how come Diana could not cast her divine spell? This last question is the most troubling of all. Wesley is anxious to hear the theories, as he’s sure that Lucious already has something in mind.

  Wesley’s wait is short, as the rest of The Strangers arrive a minute later. He hears the lock at the front door turn loudly, “click,” and the three slowly enter The Strangers’ house and then head up the stairs. Each member of the party has his own personal room on the second floor of this small, two story house. The first floor is a combined conference and trophy room, with some hard to obtain in-game objects on display along the walls. There is also a cellar for storage of common items and supplies.

  The wooden table is oval shaped, with three set of chairs on the long sides and a single chair on each edge, for a total of eight chairs in all. The conference table is placed on the east side of the room, while the stairs are along the west wall. There is also a fireplace, which is not lit currently. The room is illuminated entirely by candle light, as there is no electricity in the World of Eternia. Nor does it appear that EDE will introduce modern technology into the game environment any time soon.

  The three Strangers wordlessly go into to their respective rooms to stow away their gears for dungeoneering, to give themselves some time to decompress and gather their thoughts for the upcoming debriefing.

  Lucious removes his purple cloak and hooks it on a nail behind the door t
o his room. He leans his magical staff against a corner to the right of the door. He takes a brief look around the room, and sees that everything is in order. Like all the other rooms, there is a bed, a table, a chair, and a big vanity chest. Sunlight shines through the window, and the elementalist frowns at the light illuminating his room. I was expecting to return to my room when it gets dark, he thinks sourly.

  The master mage had gone through the encounter with the smug NPC official multiple times in his mind, even though he couldn’t understand the language. Clearly the magical earring allowed the gatekeeper to understand what the party says, and that’s why Lucious decided to stay silent during the entire encounter. He also has a theory as to why Diana’s divine casting didn’t work, and it bodes ill for the party if King Richard decides to launch an invasion against the newly discovered world. Lucious decides to leave his magical Bag of Holding attached to his belt, and quickly leaves the room. As he makes his way down the wooden staircase, Lucious is surprised to see that he is the first one coming down the stairs. Usually Conrad is much faster. I guess the big fella was really shaken up by the encounter, he thinks.

  Wesley makes eye contact with the young man as Lucious takes a seat in the middle of the long side against eastern wall. The seat allows the spell caster to see if anyone enters the room. The Strangers have decided to keep the door unlocked, so that players and non-players could come in to speak with the party members per their open door policy.

  This policy is one of the compromises the group had decided to make after their win in the Anniversary Event turned The Strangers into celebrities within the game. As shareholders in the company now, the group has now become ambassadors and ombudsmen, the go-between for players and the game developers. At first, players hounded them continuously for months on end, but now The Strangers only get a few visits a week to deal with problems in game between players or with EDE.

  Lucious is equally surprised that he's the first one out of his room, but keeps silent. He decides to sleep on the table instead until the meeting starts. Nonchalantly he folds his arms on the table and rests his face, right side down, on his arms.