We did so and just before I put my helmet on I gave my best friend a wave, thinking about how no one - Mum excepted - had ever stuck up for me the way Raitha had just done. As though aware of my thoughts, Raitha saluted, gave a nod and then turned to his equipment.
One of the great attractions for me of playing Epic was the sense of creativity it gave me. I was telling the story of Klytotoxos the Hunter and now was the time to add a new chapter to it. Klytotoxos and his twin sister, Raitha. Impatiently, I let the onrushing wave of sound and colour wash over me.
And I was back in game.
Hurriedly, I set off for my spawn point. Knowing it would take Raitha a few minutes to create his character, I allowed myself some slight diversions to check my traps, which brought me a rabbit and a hedgehog, which I felt sorry about. He was still alive, although pretty feeble.
Coming to the area at the edge of the forest where I had been born, I was disappointed no one was there. Just as I began to doubt our plan and worry that Raitha had begun life somewhere else, he popped into existence. A very lovely, slender, half-elf huntress clad in soft clothes of green and grey. She had long silver hair and sea-green eyes.
‘I was not expecting to meet Klytotoxos, where is Tyro?’ Raitha sounded surprised. He must have targeted me and seen my name.
‘It’s me, Tyro, I just wanted something more appropriate for a hunter and Klytotoxos means “famous with a bow.”’
‘I am disappointed. Still, at least I can call you Klyto, which has a similar ring to it. Well. How should we start?’
‘Let’s try to make bows and arrows. I think if we are the right distance apart, we should be able to aggro kite mobs.’
‘Remember, you are talking to someone who has only ever been a warrior. What is aggro kiting?’
‘Kiting is when you have a mob chasing you at a distance, like a kite on a string behind the person who is holding it and running away. Aggro kiting just means if I’m running, you shoot at the mob until it turns to you. Then as you run away, I shoot it. If we have enough room and enough arrows and especially if we are faster than it, the mob shouldn’t harm us at all.’
‘I understand and am eager to try this. Yet before we do, should I speak to that elven woman on the beach? She probably provides me with an introductory tutorial?’
‘Oh, of course. I didn’t think she’d respawn. I talked to her and she turned into an eagle and flew away to a boat. But she did give me three skills.’ I was surprised to see the figure who was my mother had respawned. It did make sense though, either her or some other NPC was needed for brand new players to get a start.
‘Just so.’ Raitha set off across the dunes to the white sand beach and I followed. The sky was a little greyer than on the day of my birth, when it had been a glorious blue, and a strong breeze coming from the sea lifted the pale tresses of the woman as she turned to watch us.
‘Let’s group up,’ I suggested, sending the invitation and of course Raitha accepted. Now any experience we gained would be shared and both of us would be able to loot slain mobs. Plus we had group chat available if we were too far away to hear each other in local or didn’t want to be heard in local (admittedly, with two people, you could just use private channels, but with three or more, group chat really came into its own).
When we were close enough to see into the woman’s extraordinarily vivid green-blue eyes she smiled, and it seemed as though I were bathing in the warmth of the midday sun.
‘My daughter.’ As had been the case for me, she made a fluid, welcoming gesture, bowing and shaping her whole arm. Her attention was on Raitha.
‘Pleased to meet you,’ said Raitha.
‘It’s time for me to depart.’ Shading her eyes, the elven lady, our mother, looked at a seagull as it dipped and swerved over a darker patch of seawater. ‘There is a message in the waves and the sand and the motion of the birds. The members of the Order of Nereids are summoned to war and I do not believe you and I will meet again.’ Even though I remembered this part, I was moved to a sense of sadness from the thrilling and fateful way in which she spoke those words.
‘I am sorry you are leaving so soon,’ said Raitha politely, and my sense of tragedy gave way to amusement. The NPC was talking in the language of an epic and Raitha had responded like she’d just popped in for a cup of tea but now had to go to the laundrette.
‘You must find your father. Ask for Knegos, in the town of Safehaven. He will guide and mentor you.’
‘I’m sorry to interrupt,’ I said, ‘but Knegos is probably dead. The goblin king - Pawnee or something like that - sent an army. I saw the banners with my own eyes.’
Visibly upset, our game-mother turned to look south-east along the coast. My own vision was heightened as a half-elf, but hers must have been more effective still, for a tear rolled down her cheek. ‘Safehaven has been burned and the smoke writes the story in the sky. The whole town was destroyed a day ago.’
‘What should we do?’ asked Raitha.
‘I cannot stay and help you; you must look after each other and fend for yourselves as best you can. Raitha, I can give you three skills.’
‘Ahh, excellent. I mean, thank you, mother.’
[Group] ‘Set Traps, Archery, Bowyer; I presume these would be the same skills as you received?’ Raitha asked me this in the group channel, so as not to spoil the role-playing branch of conversation taking place with the NPC.
[Group] ‘They are.’
Unexpectedly, our game-mother suddenly began to speak again and with a new branch of script that I hadn’t heard before, ‘Alas, I cannot replace the skills and wisdom that Knegos would have taught you. There is but one way I can help you further. Klytotoxos, your knife.’ As she held out a slender, long-fingered hand, waiting for my knife, there was something determined, yet sorrowful in her expression.
‘Here.’ Raitha held out his knife, realising that I no longer had mine.
A moment after she had collected it, I was surprised to see our mother cut along the lifeline of her left hand; immediately, it filled with dark red blood. She passed the knife to me.
Fortunately, when I copied her action, I felt hardly any pain, just a tingle. I must have cut deep though:
You have been cut by a knife for 1 damage.
Grabbing my bloody hand in hers, my elven mother pulled me close and as she stared intensely, hypnotically, into my eyes, squeezed hard. Blood, mixed together, ran down our forearms.
You have gained the ability Wolf Form.
Incredible. Unlike a skill, which had to be worked up gradually with a considerable investment of time and which could fail on use, an ability was a fully developed addition to your character’s competencies and it was always successful. Abilities were a bit like magic spells, except there was no spirit cost to use one and they were triggered instantly. In Epic, no one under level forty had an ability.
‘Now give the knife to Raitha,’ she instructed me.
[Group] ‘You are not going to believe this!’ I exclaimed.
[Group] ‘What is it, my friend, what just happened?’
[Group] ‘Wait and see.’
After the same, short ritual had taken place, our mother turned to look out to sea, where the boat I had seen last time was in view.
[Group] ‘This is extraordinary, I have been granted an ability. At level zero. Have you ever heard of such a thing?’ I could hear a sense of awe in the shrillness of Raitha’s voice.
[Group] ‘It’s amazing! I haven’t come across anything like it. There’s a paladin quest in Epic that can get Inspire Bravery at level forty, I think.’
[Group] ‘I believe you are right. Did you get the same ability as me?’ Raitha asked.
[Group] ‘Wolf Form?’
[Group] ‘No. Form of the Sea Eagle.’
[Group] ‘Wow! You can fly! That is so useful.’
‘Fare well children.’ The elven woman walked into the sea, her cream cape spreading on the surface. ‘I do not think we will meet again.’ With t
hat, her cloak seemed to come alive, enveloping her, turning into the pale belly of a shark whose grey fin rapidly disappeared, hidden behind incoming waves.
Watching her depart, it seemed to me that Raitha’s avatar had a mournful expression and certainly his voice, when it came into my helmet was regretful. [Group] ‘And thus our mother departs, having bequeathed two-thirds of her soul upon her children. Let us examine our gifts.’
[Group] ‘You mean try out our new abilities?’
[Group] ‘Most certainly, I do.’
Quickly accessing my UI, I made a hot button for Wolf Form, and then pressed it.
The world changed. It became taller, the trees more imposing. Higher still, the grey sky was too bright and I turned my gaze instead to the shadows of the forest. They beckoned: come, there is prey here. Above all there were scents, bewildering scents of all kinds, from the sweetness of honeysuckle and lavender to the heavy musk of wild garlic. Death had a bitter-sweet smell and the rabbit I had caught earlier was enticing. In this form, I need not worry about cooking.
These new rig helmets were amazing. Giving me improved vision for being a half-elf wasn’t much of a technical challenge, but releasing appropriate scents for my environment, that was something else. Most of the scents I was picking up I had never experienced before and had no idea what they represented. This feature alone made the in-game experience a whole dimension more immersive than anything that had gone before. No wonder they wanted to save Epic 2 if they could.
[Group] ‘Look up,’ said Raitha.
There he was, sea eagle, a distant predator, wings outstretched, circling far above me. Giving him a bark, that I doubted he could hear, I ran over the sand dunes beneath him.
[Group] ‘Follow me.’ Leaving off his circling, Raitha flew north-west.
At first I ran to keep up, then for the joy of it. I’d never moved so swiftly, not even when my warrior in Epic had been buffed with Fast as the Wind, the best movement spell in the game. With a howl, I rushed around bushes, leapt over ditches and sent seagulls squawking into the air with horror.
[Group] ‘Where are we going?’ I asked, after several minutes of this delightful racing across the dunes.
[Group] ‘About a mile away, at that sandstone cliff, I can see a cave complex with human and half-orc pirates. Levels two to five. Perhaps more challenging ones are inside. In the forms we have now, I do not believe we need to make clumsy bows.’
[Group] ‘Agreed.’
After some five or six minutes, I detected the scent of humans and a similar smell, which I assumed was that of the half-orcs. Ahead of me, filling the grey sky with its dark presence, a tall sandstone hill, about two hundred metres high, jutted out into the sea where a stack had formed from the action of the wind and waves on the soft stone. As I topped the next dune, I could see the caves Raitha had spotted. Five, no six, pirates were in the vicinity; I ducked down on my haunches and, making my way to a clump of rushes, peered out from them to study the situation further.
[Group] ‘I could pull that level two near the tree line,’ I offered.
[Group] ‘Do so and I shall strike from above.’
Slinking along under the cover of the dune I entered the forest, where it seemed to me I was moving with extraordinary poise and delicacy. Hardly a leaf stirred as I stepped from shadow to shadow. Soon, I was barely twenty metres from the pirate, who seemed to be a bored human, performing guard duty against an attack that he thought would never come. Time to disabuse him.
I whispered to Raitha, even though in group chat the mob couldn’t possibly hear me. [Group] ‘Ready?’
[Group] ‘Ready.’
With a mighty growl that came out with impressive ferocity, I rushed upon the man, who raised a scimitar to fend me off. Ducking low, I raked his thighs with my front left claw and kept running.
You have clawed a pirate for 2 points of damage.
You have discovered the skill Claw (1).
‘Come back you wicked cur!’ The pirate chased after me and I led him away from the cave he was standing in front of, back towards the beach. In the open.
‘Arrrgh! Get off me.’
Even with my heightened senses, Raitha had dived in so swiftly that, until the pirate had cried out, I hadn’t realised my friend was already in the fight. Now, I span around and charged back to help him as he gripped the pirate’s head in his talons and beat at his ears with his wings.
I made a leap for our enemy’s throat.
You have bitten a pirate for 6 points of damage.
You have discovered the skill Bite (1).
The pirate is dead. You gain experience.
A golden glow momentarily engulfed Raitha who, half-fluttering, straddled the pirate’s body.
[Group] ‘Level one.’ I could hear the delight in his voice.
[Group] ‘Congratulations! Not bad progress here either, I think five more of these would take me to two.’
[Group] ‘Did you take a point of Dex?’
[Group] ‘Yeah. I was thinking Dex until five, then two levels of Spirituality ready for our first spells.’
[Group] ‘That seems wise. Let us do that.’ Raitha began pecking at the dead pirate’s eyes.
[Group] ‘Come on, Raitha, that is so disgusting.’
He laughed. [Group] ‘You are quite wrong. They are delicious.’
When I placed a paw on the body, a menu popped up with a loot list: chipped scimitar; a pirate’s badge; 4 copper pieces. The ‘Take All’ button was greyed out. Nor could I take the items one at a time.
[Group] ‘I’m not allowed to loot. We could use that scimitar.’
[Group] ‘Not to worry, my friend. Let us level up and if we still need such items, come back in our half-elf form when these battles are trivial.’
He was right, of course, but it was still frustrating to see that loot just lying there, wasted. It would disappear after ten minutes, along with the body. Oh well.
Beating her wings furiously, Raitha leapt into the sky and was soon high above me. It was fabulous that we had these forms.
[Group] ‘Hey Raitha.’
[Group] ‘Yes Tyro?’
[Group] ‘Let’s not tell anyone about this.’
[Group] ‘Our new abilities?’
[Group] ‘Yeah. For a little while at least. Until it becomes important for the project as a whole.’
[Group] ‘Agreed. Now, do we believe we can defeat a level three?’
[Group] ‘Easily.’
[Group] ‘Then I think there is a single pull on the other side of the cave, near the sea.’
Once more I experienced the pleasure of running as fast as a wolf, low to the ground, using the channels between the dunes to mask me as I made towards the sea. A portly pirate in a black-and-white striped top and holding a boathook was walking along the line of darker sand where it had been moistened by the waves that were rolling gently to shore. When he was about fifty metres from the cliffs, he turned and went back towards them, checking out to sea from time to time. I targeted him.
Pirate: Dangerous.
Very dangerous to a level 1 Hunter with no weapon, certainly. To a wolf with a savage bite attack and an eagle with sharp claws and hooked beak, much less of a challenge, even if we were only level 1. Gathering myself just below the crest of a dune, I waited for the pirate to come back towards me again and - with a quick check that Raitha was above me - I leapt over the sand, rushing silently upon him. My intention had been to engage the pirate with a bite or claw at his leg, then lead him away from the caves while Raitha swooped down from above. Like our last victim. Now I was upon him and he still hadn’t turned, I just sprang up on his back and, as he staggered forward, bit at his head, successfully; a big wound opened up from his left ear to jaw.
You have bitten a pirate for 8 points of damage.
You have achieved a Knockback. The pirate is stunned.
With the stocky figure splayed wriggling beneath me, I was able to bite again, fastening my teeth on his neck.
You have increased the skill Bite (2).
The pirate is dead. You gain experience.
[Group] ‘You could have waited for me to join the fun.’ Raitha had a laugh in his voice.
[Group] ‘You snooze, you lose.’
Despite the fact I knew I could not take it, I had a look at the loot: a boathook (a terribly slow two-handed weapon, without even a decent damage score to compensate, in other words it had a terrible Damage Per Second); a pirate’s badge and seven copper pieces. [Group] ‘Another badge. They must be quest items. Shame we can’t collect them for the rewards.’
[Group] ‘The experience was excellent. I am a third of the way to level two.’
[Group] ‘Hint taken. I shall spend less time mourning over the loot and more time pulling.’
And we were off on our level grind.
For the next three hours, I pulled the pirates from around the caves and even some inside when we managed to clear the whole area ahead of respawns. Sometimes three would come, so I’d lead them well away from the caves until they lost interest in chasing me. And if one of them lagged behind the others on the return journey, Raitha would come crashing down to start the battle.
This brought me back to when I was just a kid, playing Epic for the first time. I’d spent so many hours since, devoted to the one character, my warrior, that it had been years since I’d engaged in low-level fights. The main difference between then and now was that Raitha and I used to have long intervals where all we could do was sit and chat while our hit points crept back up. This time around, with the advantages of our new forms, there was hardly any need for downtime. We really didn’t get hurt that much. Usually, Raitha’s attacks stunned the pirates and I was able to get my bites in without reprisal. The first serious blow - a hit from a scimitar - didn’t land on me until I was level 3, and I had more than enough hit points to absorb it. Then too, as I discovered, as a wolf I recovered my hit points more quickly than I had as a half-elf.
Once we had reached level 5, the pirates outside the cave were providing only a small fraction - less than 2 per cent a kill - of what we needed to make 6. There were pirates deeper in the cave complex who were much higher level (and there were probably quests too). Venturing into confined spaces, however, was not a great idea for a wolf and an eagle.
The Dragon's Revenge Page 9