“I’ve been thinking about this for a while,” Jason started. “I think we should do the storyline quest from Sir Arthur first.”
Neither Dan or Wayne looked ready to agree, as I knew Wayne liked the mysterious Lady Tessa and her requests for Wayne to honor her fallen family, but Jason continued on without waiting for a response.
“Now hear me out. This will make more sense after I am finished.”
All of us nodded at Jason to continue.
“The quest from Sir Arthur was available as soon as we arrived here at Level 20. Before, when we got quests from Sir Kenyon, they were always in line with our level. So, in theory, we should have been able to do the storyline quest straight away.”
This was sound logic that I could find no fault with.
“But we know,” Jason continued “that the guys that got here after us weren’t able to pass the quest, and they are out in the forest now trying to grind like we just were. The reason was just as we suspected: our gear was not good enough to go up against the Trolls when we got here, even though we do have our titles and a few more pieces of epic loot than they did.
“Still, in almost every fight we had before we reached the Keep, we survived by the skin of our teeth. Sometimes we lost people. I bet others had to get more levels before they could have completed the same.
“My guess is that AltCon has these quests geared to what players will likely have when they reach levels as the game progresses. In other words, months down the line when people can equip themselves with better gear at lower levels through the market and whatnot.”
I had to admit to myself that I hadn’t thought of this at all. Of course AltCon would want to make the quests challenging. Jason was right. As the game progressed people would be able to outfit their characters in the gear we were now wearing at much lower levels. Players would start crafting the armor and selling them at less than the merchant price. As supply increased, the price would go down significantly. Jason was definitely on to something here, and I nodded for him to continue.
“I don’t think there is any rush on the Lady Tessa quest. We should definitely go talk to this Old Lady Madsie before we head out, but I doubt there will be any timer on the quest since it has been ‘years’ since the brothers and her father departed. I just want to see if the quest will take us in the same direction as the Trolls. If it doesn’t, we do the Trolls first, then do Lady Tessa’s quest. Our gear should now be around where AltCon expects players will be when they hit Level 20 when the game has gone live for some time.”
I still wanted to start with Lady Tessa’s mission, but when I looked at Dan and Wayne, they were nodding their heads vigorously in Jason’s direction. I was outvoted.
“Let’s go see this old lady then.”
*
As soon as we made Lady Tessa’s quest the active mission in our quest log, a location sprang up on our maps. The icon that represented Old Lady Madsie was located in the nicer parts of town, far away from the seedy underbelly that led to the Underground.
Dan led the way, and after several minutes of walking, we were approaching a building with a small porch jutting out from its entrance. Sitting in an old chair, pruning a potted plant, was Old Lady Madsie. As we approached the NPC, Madsie turned her head toward us, and then slowly started lowering her right hand toward her side.
With Dan in the lead, he was able to see what was happening easier than we could, and his outburst took us by surprise.
“Woah! She totally just pulled a blade! Wayne, she could totally be your mom!”
“My mom would beat your ass three ways from Sunday, Dan.”
“That’s what I just said!” Dan exclaimed. “Alex, I think you should take the lead on this one.”
“Look at our mighty Ranger, boys. He’s totally afraid of an old woman,” I said.
“You laugh now, but get jolted with a Taser and you won’t be making so many jokes,” Dan replied. “Try to do one nice thing for an old lady, and as soon as you grab her arm to help her across the road, 50,000 volts in the neck.”
“Well that explains the twitching.”
“Screw you, Allidouche! I do not twitch!” Dan exclaimed. Then he looked over at Wayne and whispered, “Dude, do I twitch?”
“A little.”
“Fuuuuuuck.”
As the banter continued between my group, I approached Madsie and said the quest line, “Lady Tessa says she wants more of the happy juice.”
Madsie slowly lowered her right hand back to her side. Dan was right, and I could see the glint of a blade as she rested the dagger near her leg. She then looked at each of us as we approached her porch and shook her head gently.
“I thought after all these years that Tessa would have given up on this foolishness, found a husband, and settled down to a quiet life. She lost all her family save me that day, and I can’t begin to think what would happen to her if the King ever found out she was still alive. Did she look well?”
Wayne stepped up to the old woman and said, “She did. The hurt was obvious in her eyes, but she was determined to see her family’s honor saved.”
“Bah! Honor! That and a few coppers will get you a drink at the Tavern. This is a foolish quest for you men and will likely cost you your lives. Not a one of those boys returned. Not a one! Do you really think you can succeed where the greatest warrior scholars in this land failed?”
Wayne took an involuntary step back at the anger that roiled off of Old Lady Madsie. Honor being an important trait in the Warrior class, Wayne looked none too happy at the old woman’s words. He rose up to his full 6’10” and approached the woman again. As he reached the porch, he leaned in so he could be closer to the woman and look her in the eye. Putting all of his command into an angry whisper, Wayne responded, “Each of those ‘boys,’ as you called them, were sent on a suicide run. Their bodies are likely lying in a heap somewhere without a soul around to give them a proper burial and send them to the gods. Now you tell me, Madsie, does laying the dead to rest sound like a fool’s errand to you?”
Madsie leaned in even closer and said, “Don’t give me that poppycock! If all you were doing was burying the dead, that would be one thing. But you fool adventurers will try to take on the same beasties that killed each and every one of them. And die for your efforts!
“But I made a promise to Tessa that I would aid the ones who came spouting that silly phrase. Since you won’t take my advice and just run the other way, here is what you need to begin your own ‘suicide run’ as you called it.”
Lady Madsie handed me a parchment with a rough sketching of a map. The location of the Capitol was obvious, and from there I was able to determine the direction the first brother must have taken to arrive at his assigned task. Unfortunately, it was not in the same direction as the Trolls. Where we would need to head due east to reach the Trolls, Lady Tessa’s quest had us heading north-by-northeast, toward the mountains.
Once the sketch was in my inventory, I expected a section of my Map to start glowing. It would be impossible to see what was in that area since none of us had traveled there previously. All I could see on the map was a large black splotch between the Keep and where the quest would eventually lead us. I figured we would need to get closer before our Map would give any indication as to where the quest area was located.
“Thank you for your help. We will not bother you anymore.”
The old lady continued to stare at us without answering. I figured this was the end of the quest dialogue and we should just head out to Sir Arthur, but when we started to turn away, Madsie gave us one more comment as a parting gift.
“That fool boy that made that sketch was too smart for his own good. Was always writing things down, even when he shouldn’t. Find Tristan’s satchel and you will likely find more about where the rest of the boys and their father was headed.
“And if you do somehow return, please come tell this old lady what ya found. I may seem like a grumpy old hag, but I loved those boys like they were my o
wn sons.”
“It will be the first thing we do when we return,” Wayne replied. I was happy he didn’t swear an oath as well, as I still didn’t know how those oaths could affect the game. Oh well, another thing to ask the Wanderer.
According to the map, it would take us most of a day just to travel to the damaged bridge, and none of us were against the idea of trying to find some new mobs along the way to gain experience and discover new content. The fauna so far around the Keep had consisted of the usual bears and wolves, but I was hopeful that this new direction would give us an opportunity to encounter a new type of mob. The usual grinding against the same mobs did wear out on a player after time, but I had to remember that we were still low level and that this was just a beta. The mobs we found would be your run-of-the-mill type. If it weren’t for the horrible truth of AltCon, I would be excited just thinking about the expansions that would come out for this game.
Choosing to start our travels the next day, everyone logged off with a renewed vigor. No more grinding. We were excited as we thought about demolishing this next quest.
October 22nd, 2043
With that renewed air of excitement, the guys ran around before we headed out, stocking up on supplies like food and drink and treats for Broham. It was still necessary for Dan to feed Broham to keep him as a pet, and Dan always kept a large supply of snacks on his person for the wolf. Between that and arrows, Dan had little room in his bags for loot we got from the mobs we killed.
We had been grinding pretty hard and working long hours between our numerous side jobs. Dan was constantly having to travel back to the Elder Elven tree to gather supplies, and Jason had been working non-stop as a Cleric for other groups. Wayne had no problem leaving Jenny and her group to their tasks now that they had leveled up a bit and gotten some of the new gear, and with my initial training done with Waseem, the previous evening was the first time we had all logged off relatively on time.
“Everyone well rested and ready to do this?”
“Yeah, Alex,” Jason said, “I slept like a baby last night.”
“That sucks, bro. I’m sorry.”
“What the hell are you talking about, Dan? ‘Sleeping like a baby’ is a good thing.”
“Homey, do you even think about the things you say?”
“Homey?” Wayne asked.
“I’m feeling kind of gangsta, with us going on this quest!”
“You are many things, Dan, but gangsta will never, ever, be one of them,” Wayne said.
“Forget gangsta. Dan, did you really just ask me if I think before I say things? Is the irony of that statement totally and completely lost on you? Do I need to bring Kaitlin into this?”
“Not cool, Allihater! And obviously sleeping like a baby is a bad thing. Unless you like the idea of waking up every two hours, screaming your head off, and nine times out of ten covered in your own shit. Sorry, dude, but that is not how I want to sleep!”
“It means resting peacefully!”
“But that’s not what happens! Now me, I want to sleep like a coma patient. Talk about uninterrupted sleep!”
“Still covered in your own shit,” Wayne pointed out.
“Damn. Good point. I’ll think about this some more and come up with a better analogy. But of all the things one could sleep like, it most certainly would never be a baby!”
“Hate to break up this exchange, but we are getting far enough away from the Keep now that we can probably find some mobs. You want to go range out a bit, Dan?” I asked.
“Sure thing. I’ll stay pretty close to the road, though, in case you guys need me,” Dan responded. “Or in case the Baron there says anything more that needs my clarification.”
As soon as Dan cleared the tree line I looked over at Jason and asked, “So, slept like a coma patient last night, did ya?”
“Sure, just minus the colostomy bag,” he said while laughing.
While traveling the road, we rode our horses. When we sent Dan off to range, we dismounted and walked while he checked out the area. After several minutes, Dan informed us he wasn’t seeing anything out in the forest but Green mobs and nothing new to us. I told him to return to the group and we would continue along the main road for a bit longer before we sent him out again.
When our group traveled together, there was usually fun and witty banter going back and forth between myself and the guys. Usually it was Dan getting on Jason’s last good nerve, but we all knew by now that he secretly enjoyed it. For the first time in as long as I could remember, we were traveling in relative quiet. It had been a while since I took in the beauty of my surroundings and appreciated the artistry of the game for what it was.
As I had seen before, the level of detail was extraordinary. The road we traveled was just packed earth with a few well-worn ruts where wagons had traveled the same lane. Those ruts were located on the right and left side of the road, leaving a fairly large area for horses to travel down the middle without the worry of turning a leg. On the sides of the roads were ditches for what I thought must be water during the rainy season. It wasn’t the level of detail that surprised me, but the fact that they were there. So much thought put into just a simple road. The grasslands and the forest blended perfectly with the edges of the road. There were no sudden changes of vegetation to dirt. Painstaking detail was put into every part of the game to make it seem more real. And because of the realness of the game, we often went right past it without noticing. If there had been those places where the “game” aspect was obvious, it would have led us to pay more attention to the nature of our surroundings. The reality of the world made us feel like we were walking through a normal environment.
The sky didn’t fool you, though. The sky was too blue. You can’t walk through the cities of our world and see such a vibrant blue. Pollution had stopped that from happening anymore. However, that same pollution made for the most beautiful sunsets in the real world. In Resurgence they were pretty dull. Clouds and birds passed overhead while we continued down the road, and I wondered if we would ever encounter any avian mobs. I bet those would be a beast to take down. Pun intended.
The one thing I never tired of, however, was the quality of the air. Nowhere on Earth that I had ever been could claim an air so clean and smelling so fresh. I imagine AltCon had to send someone to the tops of the Himalayas to get an air sample they could use in the game. I often found myself—and other gamers—inhaling deeply when away from the towns. They too were likely enjoying the air around us.
“Contact in front of us.”
And just like that, our peaceful travels came to an end with Dan’s announcement.
“Dismount. What have we got, TC?”
“Looks like other players, Alex. but with the PvP rules in effect now that we are past Level 20, I think we should be on our toes.”
“I’ll take point,” Wayne said.
The new group of players would soon come close enough to make out, and I was reminded of the story Kaitlin told us about the group who stole the kills of others. I would be keeping an eye out to make sure these people weren’t all damage dealers.
To everyone’s surprise, these guys weren’t from Port Town at all. They were from the Citadel, which was obvious from their Dark races. There were two Dark Elves, a Halfling, and an Ogre. The Ogre looked to be their Tank, and the Elves were likely casters, given their robes. I wasn’t too clear on the Halfling, but I figured he had to be their healer.
“Holy shit, guys! It’s the legends!” the Halfling said as he approached us.
Wayne immediately stepped into the path of the Halfling, whose name was Tyke, with his hand resting on his formidable War Hammer. Tyke stopped quickly and held out his hands toward Wayne.
“Woah, man! We aren’t PKs!”
“And I’m supposed to know that how?”
“PKs get a red border around their names. I thought everyone knew that.”
Despite not wanting to ever say it out loud, I wanted to maintain an air of formality as I said
, “TheClaw, is he right?”
To Dan’s credit, he didn’t so much as brag once that I used his ridiculous name. “Checking, Alex.”
After only several seconds, Dan confirmed what Tyke said and apologized for not noting that bit of information before.
“No worries. It’s not like you can remember everything.”
“But… but…”
I looked over at Dan with a stern visage and repeated, “You can’t remember everything. So no big deal.”
He finally started picking up what I was putting down and nodded his head. Dan’s memory was an asset I never wanted anyone outside of our team to know.
“Sorry about that, guys. You’ve actually done us a favor by tuning us in to that little fact. So thanks for that.”
“You hear that, guys? We helped the legends!” Tyke said while looking back at his group and laughing. “I guess the rumors of your unbeatable abilities aren’t so true after all.”
There was no malice in his words, just playful banter.
“TC there gets beat all the time. Although he tells us he has to pay extra for that.”
“Ok, Allister. I see. You want to play with the big boys now.”
Jason’s timing was perfect, and any lingering stress of the situation washed away with everyone’s laughter.
“You guys out grinding or heading to do the Trolls?” the Ogre asked.
“The Trolls. You guys beat ‘em yet?”
“Nope,” said the Halfling while shaking his head. “We are heading back from there now. But best of luck to you guys.”
“Any hints you want to throw our way?”
One of the Dark Elves started laughing, “Oh no. We want you to experience that for yourselves. Although, if you do beat them, we may be asking you guys for advice!”
“Well then, let’s hope we have something to tell after we get there,” I said as we parted ways.
As Tyke and his group were walking away, I could hear them still speaking. The Ogre, who had a voice that matched his large body, said, “Those guys don’t seem like dicks at all.”
Restoration: The Rise of Resurgence: Book II Page 12