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“That’s odd,” he sounded a little confused. “Shir-Khan says there are strange noises coming from inside the haunted castle. I told him that haunted castles were generally full of weird noises, but he insists the sounds aren’t the same as when we arrived here.”
Murmur cast her net out. All she could sense was rampant irritation and movement. She couldn’t help asking the question on her mind. “Since when can you talk to your pet?”
Beastial grinned as he answered. “Expanded my class didn’t I? Still a beastmaster, but my specialty has focused on my pet, deepening our bond, damage, and communication.”
“Pretty cool,” Murmur mused. Most of her attention was on her sensing net. Nothing alerted her to what the noise could be. She stood up, wary now, and what she saw made her double take.
But now the noise was getting closer, loud and rumbling, enraged and screaming, but she couldn’t see anything. Sinister inched a little closer to her, and they all backed into the gazebo, wildly looking around for whatever it was on its way to them. Had they triggered another event? Was this a world mob they’d inadvertently woken?
They’d already managed to pull and clear all of the mobs in the vicinity, so their path to see what was coming should be clear. If indeed it was mob-based. Murmur frowned, trying to figure out exactly what it could be.
“Stampede of alligators in the swamp?” Merlin offered, his voice trembling as he offered up a weak attempt at comic relief.
Suddenly everything was quiet, until a huge pounding made the ground underneath them shake. Murmur looked up, trying to get her bearings when it happened.
The door to the castle burst open, spilling easily fifty mobs out of the building and into the courtyard. There was no time to hide, and no way to fight this many at once.
Murmur gaped as the mass of enemies approached them, snarling faces and outstretched claws reaching for them.
The first mob that arrived in camp bashed into her, sending her flying back into the corner of the gazebo, its blood saturating her robes.
She struggled to push the thing off her, and spoke up. “Don’t hit them, Get your Evac ready. I’ll stun them; we should have the time. I have no idea how long it takes you to cast, but get us out of here.”
She glanced down, still struggling to rid herself of the mob that died on top of her, and gasped in shock to see Jirald’s snarky grin frozen in place by death, his hand fisted in her robes. Murmur choked a little, but ripped her clothes out of his grasp and belayed the anger she could feel inside in favor of getting her group out of here without experience loss. Casting her stun, she yelled, “Evac! Now!”
“Mur!” Sin screamed as the rangers’ evacuation began to shower them all in golden sparkles. “Watch out!”
Murmur turned, only to be hit straight on by a shadow ball of flame just as the Evac went off. It wiped all of the aggro, and left the mobs milling around with nothing in their sights.
But it also somehow left Murmur behind, hidden in a corner of the gazebo bleeding out next to Jirald’s corpse.
Real World Day 5: Somnia Online
She floated again. Murmur was getting really sick of all the floating, all the black everything. In the game, when she almost game died, and even at home. She’d only just managed to trigger Forestall Death, and she wasn’t too sure what she’d find, since all she had on her was a healing over time spell with about twenty seconds left on it. Murmur desperately hoped that trickle of healing would be all she needed. Did it make her sort of Feign Corpse? When it was active did the mobs think she was dead?
Trying to lift her head felt heavy, and painful, and the glossy ground was definitely wet with water this time. Her thoughts fogged, deep, and desperate, and then she heard hurried footsteps running through the water toward her, and scaly arms pulled her into a lap.
“Murmur, are you there? Little Murmur, answer me.”
It was Telvar’s voice, and Murmur opened her eyes and smiled at him. “Hi there, my dragon.”
“You can’t die, Mur. You have to get up and cast your illusion shield. You have to!”
“Why?” She knew she sounded indignant, even petulant, but she couldn’t help it. Mur was just so tired. “Why does everyone say I can’t die, especially when everyone else can?”
He took a deep breath and looked around, but for all apparent appearances, they were alone. When he finally spoke, he spoke so quickly the words bled together in her mind. “When you initially tried your headgear, something went wrong. You fell into a coma two months ago, but it wasn’t a natural coma. It seems to be directly related to your headgear experience, which was with this game. Your mind is active but your body is not. Your mother built a simulation of your house, and it’s where you log into if you log off. But Murmur, if you die, you run the risk of never again logging in here, or even perhaps not waking up in the actual real world. We just can’t be sure.”
Murmur sat up and raised an eyebrow. “What? That doesn’t even make...”
But it did. Since when had her mother worked from home, during a release of all things? Since when had her room’s curtains gone back to the exact same freaking crack every time she woke up? What about the strange glitches in and out of her bedroom? Why did she never actually feel hungry?
“Wait. How do you know this?”
Telvar paused for a moment. “Time here is different, but even so we have very little of it. Trust me, I will tell you everything I can, but you have to make it back to me first. Use that anger you’re feeling right now, use it to fuel enough energy to get you to stand up and cast that shield, because it’s all we can do to save you right now.”
Mur’s thoughts raced, her body and mind suddenly numb. So many things were falling into place, so many small comments, so many small glitches she had just thought was the game overlapping because she was playing too much. She couldn’t remember what might have happened. And if it had been back when the headgear arrived, then how had she completed school? Was that programmed too?
The anger welled inside her and she looked at Telvar and asked one question. “Does Sinister know?”
Tel simply looked away, which was enough of an answer for Murmur.
With a scream she emerged back into the game and suddenly stood her aching body up, casting her shield in one fluid motion. Her vision flashed red, a sure sign her health was still dangerously low. There were no mobs around her but not six meters away, stood Jirald, looking at her with something akin to amazement and fear in his eyes as he stopped in his tracks. He must have gotten bound nearby.
“You!” She let out the word in a low guttural rumble that echoed through the whole courtyard. Taking all of the force of her mind that she could fueled by the anger at everything, including him, she formed a shield—a physical barrier—and walked forward pushing it in front of her. She smashed it into the instigator with all of her rage and might.
Jirald’s body flew high and wide, landing in the swamp over the other side of the wall with a crunch she could even hear from where she stood. The anger wasn’t gone yet, but that definitely went partway to make her feel vindicated.
She sat down to eat and replenish her health and brushed the blood from her hair, her mind in turmoil, plucking her plans from thin air. Sin had known. Had they all known? What did they gain from not telling her? What the fuck had her mother been thinking?
Murmur concentrated on feeling her gut, on her actual physical body, on realizing she wasn’t in the least bit hungry, on feeling her mind and realizing it wasn’t tired. She glowered as the others ran up to greet her, and met them with a stone cold expression, pushing down on the will to send them flying over the castle walls just like she had done with that training idiot, Jirald—even if he’d inadvertently led her to the truth.
She took a deep breath, and barely recognized her voice when she spoke, so pent up with anger. “So, who’s going to tell me which of you decided to keep the fact that I’m in a fucking coma a secret from me?”
She didn’t even nee
d to see every face turn pale. She’d known already. It hadn’t just been Sin at all. They’d all been in cahoots about it. Somehow, she’d known all along.
Murmur swirled her robes around her and left immediately for the safety of the one person who’d promised to be honest with her. The only one who’d told her the truth.
Telvar.
Storm Entertainment
Somnia Online Division
Game Development Offices
Launch Day—Early Hours—Day 5
“I’m waiting, Laria.” Shayla tapped her foot impatiently, staring down her long time industry friend.
Laria paced. “It’s not like that Shayla. I had to do something. There’s nothing wrong with her mind, we just can’t get it to work with her body right now. She’s so bright. She has such a future. I just wanted to be able to talk to her,”
A sob hitched Laria’s throat and she paused for a moment sniffing back the tears threatening to fall. Then she looked Shayla in the face and squared her shoulders. “I didn’t do anything wrong. The server that is our house for her when she logs out, it’s maintained on our anchor at home. It has nothing to do with these servers.”
Shayla’s expression softened slightly, however she still stood her ground. “That might well be the case, but how did you get her to register for the game, how did you scan her, how did we not get red flags? People aren’t supposed to be able to sleep in the game.”
“But that’s just it, she’s not asleep, she’s awake, at least partially. Her brain activity is off the charts and we just didn’t want to give up yet. But it’s being in that world that’s done it, it’s stimulated her mind.” Laria took a deep breath. “So with some help from my husband, we managed to engineer our anchor to treat the log in from a virtual representation of our home as a log in from a computer. It took a bit, and I may have asked the AIs to keep a little bit of an eye on Wren—”
“You asked the AIs?” Shayla did a double take. “What do you mean?”
Laria’s voice was unsteady but defiant when she answered. “I was desperate. With Michael gone I had no idea who to turn to. And since they run everything, I asked.”
“What have you done, Laria?” Shayla finally let herself plop into one of the office chairs. “If you’d just come to me…”
“But I did!” Laria practically shouted. “We were two months before release, and you didn’t have time, and you never had time. Yet I still performed, I gave everything for the launch to be a success, and I still managed to find a way to help my daughter. They’ll find a cure, they’ll figure out what’s wrong, but in the mean time she can still interact with the people she loves.”
Shayla bent forward, her head in her hands, before bringing her gaze back up with her hands over her mouth to look at Laria. “And what if she dies in-game, Laria? You know how likely that is. What then—what will happen if she really dies?”
Laria let out a sob, and her voice shook when she answered. “I don’t know.”
Game Terms
Aggro—When you walk too close to a monster, you get in its aggression radius, thus causing aggro. Once engaged in combat, players must be cautious not to exceed the tank’s threat level. Buffs, debufs, and damage output all contribute to the mobs aggro meter.
AOE—Area of Effect. Spells or abilities that effect an area and not just a single target.
Binding/bound—When someone/you bind(s) to an area, you affix your soul to that place in order to Gate back, or else respawn when you die.
Boss—Nope. He doesn’t employ you, he employs all the mobs trying to kill you. He hits HARD, and often has special group wiping abilities if not handled correctly by the tank and raid as a whole.
Buff—Most classes will get buffs that strengthen at least themselves if not others. These are effects they can cast which enhance aspects of their character.
Camping—When a group finds a spot that will yield good money and experience, they tend to stay in its vicinity. This is called camping.
Con—To consider a mob and see how difficult the fight could potentially become.
DoT—Damage over Time. This is an offensive spell that applies damage to a target over a period of time at regular intervals.
DPS—Damage Per Second. Usually used in conjunction with offensive classes, or damage output.
Debuff—This is the opposite of a buff and is usually used on mobs to detract from their strengths and make them easier to kill.
End Game—Every game has a goal. In some there’s a max level and events and fights only accessible once that level is reached. For Fable, the end game is everything.
Gank—When someone tries to player kill you without forewarning. Often succeeds in taking the victim by surprise.
Gate—You create a Gate to your binding point and travel there instantly.
Grinding—Sometimes gaining levels requires so much camping that it becomes tedious. That’s known as grinding levels.
Healer—Well...they heal.
HP—Hit Points. The amount of damage a character can take before death.
Kite—This is a tactic often employed by ranged classes such as the ranger. It entails slowing a mob, and running ahead of it, slowly picking down its health. Can also be used as a diversionary tactic to split multiple mobs if no Mezmerize Mesmerize is available.
Line of Sight (LoS)—If a mob can’t see you, but knows you’re there, it will have to run around the obstacle to gain access. This is often used to split up larger groups of melee and casters, so it’s more manageable for the group. The puller will line of sight the casting/ranged mobs to pull them around an obstacle for easier access and closer contact.
MA—Mental Acuity. A type of power generator specifically for Psionicists.
MANA—Mind juice, used for spells.
Meat Shield—The character who takes the hits in place of the rest of the group. The tank.
Melee—Those fighters who stand in close range and use weapons to fight with are often referred to as melee classes.
Mez – Mesmerize. Freezes in place.
MMO—Massively Multiplayer Online.
MMORPG—Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game.
Mob—an aggressive monster. Can be humanoid or animal.
OOM—Out of mana. Literally what it says.
Newbie—Also known as noob. Someone who has rarely, if ever played an MMO and has no clue what they’re doing.
NPC—Non-Player Character. Usually not aggressive unless you fuck up.
Pull—Often one person in a group/raid will be designated as the puller, the person who attacks the mob and brings it to camp.
Ranged—A class that can damage (usually) a mob from a distance. Like mages or rangers, etc.
Ranger Gating—Rangers are often known for getting themselves into trouble by kiting mobs in a solo setting. Or else, pulling aggro when DPS-ing. They’d die and resurrect at their bind point, making it what’s known as a Ranger Gate.
Respawn—When a mob or a person dies in-game, they will reappear at the spot where their soul was bound. The more powerful the mob, the longer it takes for them to respawn.
Root—A spell obtainable by multiple classes that causes the target’s feet to affix momentarily to the ground. They can still cast, but they cannot move until the root breaks.
RPG—Role Playing Game.
Tank—The meat shield aka the person who takes the bit hits for the group. Often needs to be swapped in and out with another tank during larger raids depending on a boss’ abilities.
Tether—In some worlds monsters have a specific area they’re confined to, and thus stop and don’t pursue their prey past a certain point. In Somnia, mobs do not tether. This does not apply to specific purpose NPCs.
Train—When a player or group has managed to aggro a large number of mobs who don’t tether, and leads the following of mobs to a specific spot, or through a spot, they call it a train.
Utility class—these are classes whose prime function is to support the group
, through abilities that protect or strengthen them as a group or raid.
VR—Virtual Reality.
VRMMORPG—Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game.
Wipe—This occurs when the entire raid or group die to an encounter.
Murmur
Class: Enchanter – Psionicist
Species: Locus
Real Name: Wren
Sinister
Class: Blood Mage
Species: Dark Elf
Real Name: Harlow
Devlish
Class: Dread Knight
Species: Lacerta
Real Name: Darren
Havoc
Class: Necromancer
Species: Dark Elf
Real Name: Evan
Beastial
Class: Beastmaster
Species: Viking
Real Name: Selwyn
Merlin
Class: Ranger
Species: Elf
Real Name: Mike
Rashlyn
Class: Monk
Species: Feles
Veranol
Class: Shaman
Species: Viking
Mellow
Class: Witch
Species: Dark Elf
Exbo
Class: Ranger
Species: Human
Jinna
Class: Rogue
Species: Dwarf
Dansyn
Class: Bard
Species: Dark Elf
Base Stat Sheet: Level Sixteen
CONstitution: 22
STRength : 10
AGIlity: 19
WISdom: 12
INTelligence: 31
CHArisma: 46
HitPoints: 304
MANA: 332
MA: 100
Abjuration: 87
Alteration: 82
Conjuration: 89
Divinition: 90
Evocation: 72