Guardians of Camlan

by A. T. Gilbert

  I need to have faith the game developers wouldn’t put anything in here that could get them sued.

  I almost laugh to myself at that thought.

  Another long slow breath and my focus on the pain goes away.

  Another long slow breath and I almost feel as though I’ve left my body.

  The fire has reached my torso now. The long cloak carries flames down my back, wrapping around me

  Another long slow breath.

  Another.

  The smoke does not seem to be affecting me.

  I can do this. Only fifteen seconds longer.

  Enhancement Received: Friend of Water Protection

  Description: You will sustain -20% damage from Fire element for the next ten seconds.

  When the time runs out the flames extinguish automatically. I open my eyes. There’s no sign of charring or burning on my clothes at all.

  Quest Completed: Feet to the Fire

  Description: You have withstood the flames of the Axios Trial and proven your devotion to The Lady of the Lake

  Reward: +300 XP

  I look at Brother Xavier questioningly.

  “The Lady of the Lake has deemed you worthy,” he says with a smile.

  Chapter 8

  I stand aside as Erinocalypse and TexBadass take their turns being tested by the Flame of Axios. TexBadass spends his entire trial with his eyes squeezed shut, his whole face crumpled as he uses every trick he can to withstand the pain. When it’s her turn, though, Erinocalypse is utterly calm, looking around the room, even meeting my eyes and breathing slowly. I can imagine her at one of those self-help seminars, walking on coals, sustaining intense pain without fear. Knowing how much pain the Axios Trial caused me, I’m impressed by her composure.

  It’s not until the completion of her trial that Erinocalypse reveals any anxiety. She lets out a long sigh of relief as she clings to my side and squeezes my hand. I squeeze back, trying to reassure her, but I don’t know what to say.

  Once the last ember is extinguished after Erinocalypse’s turn, Brother Xavier congratulates us. “Well done, Guardians. You three have passed the Axios Trial and may now learn the profession of Alchemy.”

  “What do we do first?” I ask. “Do we get, like, a recipe right away or do we need to find a trainer or something? Where can we get supplies?”

  “Before any of that, The Lady of the Lake requires an offering.”

  “Aw, come on. An offering in addition to the pain she just put us through?” TexBadass asks. “See, now? This is why I stopped going to church.”

  “Only one gold piece is required,” Brother Xavier says calmly. “I assure you the power you receive in exchange will be well worth it.”

  “Fine. No problem.” I hand over the gold and as my hand touches Brother Xavier I get a message.

  Congratulations! You have learned the Profession Alchemy Level 1

  Description: The most basic potion recipes are now available to you.

  Reward: +40 XP

  As the monk helps the others, I click through to look at my game options for Alchemy. At Level 1 I only have a limited number of potions I can make and even then I can only make them once I have the recipe, but I’m on my way.

  “The Lady thanks you for your offering and your devotion to Camlan.” He smiles at us as he drops the coins in the collection box at the end of the chapel’s aisle. “But you still have much more to learn. Tell me, Guardians of Camlan, what brought you to Castle Nennius? Perhaps I can help you on your journey and direct you to the best path to learning the great mysteries of alchemy.”

  Erinocalypse and I exchange a glance. What part of the truth should we tell him?

  “Well, we, um,” she begins. “We were hoping to be able to see the queen. We have something … “

  “We have something to present to her for her throne room,” I finish.

  “And do you have a plan for how you will get there and gain audience with Queen Vivian?”

  “Um. No. We thought we would just figure it out when the time came.”

  “I’m sorry, my friends. I can’t help you with that. I have no influence with the queen. You’ll need to find your own way to get her attention.”

  I sigh. “Okay. We can figure it out. Maybe someone else in the castle can introduce us.”

  “Speaking of introducing you, let me give you a letter to our Alchemy trainer here in the castle.”

  He returns to the low table in the back of the chapel and writes a short note, folds the paper and seals it with a hot blob of blue wax and a stamp.

  “Take this message to the queen’s alchemist. You can usually find him in the Library several floors above. He’ll be able to help you advance your skills.”

  Quest Offered: Make the Right Friends

  Description: If you want to learn Alchemy, you have to make the right friends. Find Professor Alastair Dove in the Library of Castle Nennius and give him this message from Brother Xavier.

  Reward: +200 XP

  “That’s wonderful. Thank you so much, Brother Xavier,” I say.

  “You’re quite welcome. You may find that your path to mastery of Alchemy will help you on your path to see the queen. She herself is such a powerful sorceress; one is closely tied to another.”

  “I have one more question. Since we are Guardians of Camlan, do we have anything to fear from the soldiers and other residents of this castle? We do not know Queen Vivian at all except by reputation. We have a previous encounter with one of her enemies.”

  A brief cloud covers the monk’s face as he appears to weigh his words.

  “Well, all I can tell you is you must be careful. There is certainly no guarantee that the queen and her soldiers will greet you as I have. As a man of the cloth I am called to love and trust all who cross my path. As the ruler of this part of Camlan, the queen has no such compunction and her soldiers are quite loyal to her.”

  “Will you tell her we were here?”

  The monk shakes his head. “No, I will not. I have sworn to welcome and protect all Guardians of Camlan. And, besides, I rarely see the queen anyway. She likes having the chapel here but has not visited in many months.”

  “She used to visit before?”

  “Yes, she used to be quite devout. Things change, of course. I would like to see her in here more often, but it is not my place. Regardless, I will keep news of your presence in the castle to myself. Remain cautious. For as large as it is, word travels fast here.”

  “Thank you. We’ll be careful,” Erinocalypse assures him.

  “One last word of advice: the queen, after all, does not do her own enforcement. The real enemy to look out for is the captain of the guard, Crowhurst. He will follow whatever the queen tells him to do without hesitation or kindness. Good luck on your mission. May The Lady of the Lake protect you on your journey.”

  Chapter 9

  After our encounter with Brother Xavier, we exit the chapel and begin our way up the same steps we watched Lance climb earlier. The path is straighter than the winding stairwell before, and we can see almost all the way to the top. As Callidus leads the way, I pause to activate my Power Perception and immediately sense danger.

  A faint red glow fills the corridor in front of us. The stairway is wide and well-lit, decorated with tapestries and portraits and a thick maroon rug lining the stairs under our feet. The steps are shallow and wide, giving us a leisurely feel as we ascend, but the red glow warning me of danger arrests that calm.

  “Wait,” I say quietly, stopping Callidus in his tracks. I gesture to the steps ahead of us. “There’s something there. Some danger or trap. My Power Perception skill is picking it up.”

  “Would there really be a trap on the stairs leading down to the chapel? That seems weird.”

  “Look, I don’t know what to tell you. All I can say is I see a red warning from my sensors. You don’t see anything?”

  Callidus shakes his head but doesn’t take his eyes off the path ahead.

  “I don’t
know,” I say again in a whisper. “The light is filling the whole corridor up ahead. I don’t know what’s waiting for us.”

  “Helpful,” Erinocalypse says.

  “Whatever. Proceed with caution, I guess.”

  There are still more than twenty steps between where we are and where I see the red glow of warning. Following my instructions carefully, Callidus creeps slowly up the stairs, leading the way. At ten steps below the red glow, he pauses.

  “See anything yet?” I whisper.

  He shakes his head.

  “It’s so weird when you see something we don’t,” Erinocalypse whispers.

  “Yeah, well. It would be worse if I didn’t see it.”

  She shakes her head, laughing at me. “Keep going,” she calls to Callidus.

  I scan the steps ahead of him. The lush red carpet seems rarely trodden on; there’s no sign at all of regular traffic or creatures in this corridor. Whatever danger we are walking in to is no chaotic mob of rats or birds coming to swoop down on us.

  The scout climbs the final steps hesitatingly, since he doesn’t know the exact moment when he will cross into the dangerous zone. As he does, I realize that the glow of warning starts just about the same spot in the hallway as where the larger of the portraits hang. Wide, ornate frames hold detailed paintings of all manner of creature. I look carefully at the first figure portrayed on the right, a tall, heavily armored knight who stands with his foot planted victoriously over the carcass of an enormous boar.

  A boar like the one I killed back on the first day of the Camlan Challenge.

  I wonder if these are other Guardians of Camlan, mythic heroes and protectors of this land.

  Callidus is about to step into their territory.

  [-4 HP!]

  I only realize I am holding my breath when the game flashes a message at me that I’m taking a tiny hit to my health.

  Callidus steps into the red section of the corridor, with SteelFeather and Balderdash13 just behind him, as the enemy surges toward him.

  At first I’m not sure what I’m looking at; the swirls and curls of magical smoke obscure my vision temporarily and it’s all I can do to keep my eyes on my teammates.

  Name: Spirits of Guardians of Camlan

  Description: The essence of these Guardians of Camlan has been embedded into their portraits. They stand guard here to protect the castle from invaders.

  It’s as though beams of energy are pouring out of the portraits on either side of them. To their right, the painting is of the knight standing over his defeated boar; to their left an imperious queen. Though my teammates don’t see the glow from Power Perception, they definitely see the figures streaming toward them out of the portraits.

  “Gah!” Callidus cries out before he winks out of sight and into Stealth mode.

  “Where’s he going?” TexBadass asks.

  I arm myself with my bow and arrow, but as I take a closer look at our enemy I’m not sure this weapon will help.

  In addition to the knight and the queen, other figures from the portraits lining the walls are streaming out of their frames to fill the stairway in front of us. Ghost-like trolls, warriors, mages, and a small dragon stand menacingly between us and the top of the stairs where we need to be.

  It only takes a few seconds for my friends to be surrounded. Several of the smaller of the trolls begin to circle the tanks, clubs in hand, darting forward one at a time to knock against the tanks. Curls of mist and spirit smoke shroud their feet. SteelFeather and Balderdash13 stand back to back, both with weapons raised against the spirits. She swings once at the closest troll but he shifts his misty shape and avoids getting hit.

  “I don’t think I can do this,” SteelFeather calls to us.

  “How do we fight smoke?” Balderdash13 asks with a small panic in her voice.

  “Hang on,” Erinocalypse says.

  Enhancement received: Bubble of Protection

  Description: You will sustain -5% damage for the next sixty seconds

  Balderdash13 relaxes a tiny bit and redoubles her grip on her ax.

  I, on the other hand, feel my shoulders tense up around my shoulders and aim my arrow at the attackers. Up till now, none of the spirits had noticed TexBadass, Erinocalypse and me, but as soon as the sorceress speaks, the dragon thirty feet away raises its head and looks straight at her.

  “You guys,” I say in a low voice, trying not to draw the attention of any of the others.

  But it’s a futile attempt. As soon as the dragon begins to stalk down the stairs toward us, the round dwarf and another of the knights both notice and join the slow attack. We’re collecting our own circle of enemies and the tanks still have not been able to inflict any damage.

  “Do something,” TexBadass says to the group at large, before muttering to himself. “Damn it. I have got to get me some kind of attack spell.”

  As the dragon gets closer to the tanks, SteelFeather swings at it and I cross my fingers that it’s enough to draw the monster’s aggro. He swings down, firmly and directly at the dragon’s neck, but the heavy sword slips straight through without making contact until it buries in the red carpet beneath his feet.

  “I can’t stop it,” he calls. “I can’t— Hey! Dragon.” He abandons use of his sword and begins throwing his arms in the air to draw their attention.

  Behind him, Balderdash13 is using her battle ax to attack the trolls without success. Some of them ignore her completely, walking past her to where we stand lower on the stairs. Some of them, though, are able to make contact with their spirit limbs and clubs in a way she is not. The largest of the trolls stops in front of Balderdash13, waits for her to swing at him, and bats the weapon away as though it is no more than a fly.

  “How is it doing that?” she cries. “Why can’t I hit it?”

  “How …? What can we do?” Erinocalypse asks.

  “They’re magic,” I say, urgently. “We fight magic with magic.”

  Chapter 10

  “Magic.” Erinocalypse nods, not taking her eyes off the monsters and enemies stalking down the stairs toward us. “Fight them with magic. Obviously, I can do that.” She smiles, looking far more at ease than our tanks are.

  “We’ve got to be smart about this, though, if these enemies aren’t paying attention to the tanks.”

  SteelFeather and Balderdash13 remain where they are, surrounded by smoke-like spirits of enemies that have streamed out of the portraits on either side of us. The swords cut straight through without making contact, but they continue to swing at the trolls, knights and dragon around them, trying to keep their attention, hold their aggro and otherwise do their jobs protecting us ranged damage dealers from the fight.

  Only some of the creatures take the bait; TexBadass, Erinocalypse and I slowly retreat step by step as we try to figure out how we can fight these entities.

  I save my bow and arrow to my inventory and don’t bother pulling out any other weapon. All the physical damage Balderdash13 and SteelFeather are trying to wield has been useless so far. Instead we need to fight magic with magic.

  “They’re smoke, right? Or look smoke-like? Try your whatever-it’s-called. The air spell.”

  “Surge of Air, Asher.” She shoots me a look as though she’s disappointed in my lack of recall for spells I have never personally have used. “I’ll try it.”

  We’re running out of stairwell to retreat into. TexBadass is now completely behind me, sheltering himself and watching over my shoulder at the action.

  “Really, dude?” I say, glaring at him.

  “Hey, now,” he protests. “I don’t have anything to defend myself like what she’s got. For all I know, a well-aimed swing at the head will take me down. I don’t want to die again. Let me tell you, it’s no picnic.”

  “I know, Tex,” I say, keeping an eye on the mage that has started stalking toward us and backing up into him. “I died too, remember? Stop being such a baby.”

  “You shut your mouth.”

  “Boys,” Er
inocalypse scolds, silencing us.

  I elbow the healer back another step, so he’s not crowding me, but I stay quiet. Erinocalypse pauses in her retreat to cast her spell, aiming a gust of wind at the dragon that is now only six feet from us.

  As the gale hits the dragon’s snout, the force of the air pushes the tendrils of energy to the side, away from us. The bulk of the dragon’s head is blown away, little by little, with the air that Erinocalypse casts.

  “Alright!” TexBadass says. “Nice job. Just gotta blow these suckers back to where they came from.”

  But as we watch, the strands of magical energy that had once been the dragon begin to behave differently. Where they had been blown apart, dispersing into the hallway, farther down, once out of reach of Erinocalypse’s spell, they begin to gather again. First the dragon’s feet and legs appear several steps up, followed by its torso, neck and finally head, all built out of the tendrils of smoke that manage to find each other again and recreate the original creature.

  “Well,” Erinocalypse says with a sigh.

  She doesn’t stop casting, though, and aims the next Surge of Air at the knight that is closest to us, blowing it farther away though not destroying it completely.

  “Stalling tactic,” she says.

  “Better than nothing while we figure out what to do. What else do you have?”

  “Maybe that freezing thing will work,” TexBadass suggests still keeping me between him and the danger.

  “Petrify? No, that’s meant to stop something that is … you know. Made of substance. Whatever this is, it’s too insubstantial for that spell to work.”

  She blows away another enemy, a knight wielding a mace that has stalked close to us.

  Since the tanks are practically ineffective, Erinocalypse’s Surge of Air is the only thing keeping us safe and keeping the creatures away from us. She can’t keep that up forever. Sooner or later we are going to need to start destroying them.

  I have magic, some magic. A little tiny, almost not worth mentioning magic. As Erinocalypse blasts away the bearded, smoke dwarf that creeps up, I step up to try my spell.