After seven Dryad spawns, I had a full set of barkskin armour for my limbs (no armour on my chest and back yet) and another complete set had been saved and shared around the group for when Raitha assumed half-elf form again. I’d also upgraded my bow to a Finely Crafted Composite Short Bow. Experience wise, the session had been fairly good: I was nearly 8; Raitha was 8; Braja 6; Grythiss 10 and Sapentia 11. If we could sustain a level about every ninety minutes, we’d be on target for 100 inside of two weeks of full-time play. The problem was, however, we’d need time to shift camps every so often as we outgrew the levels and therefore the experience reward of the mobs. And none of us were doing much to improve our non-combat skills or obtain useful gear. Raitha and I, for example, needed to obtain our first spells and learn how to cast them. With Safehaven destroyed (was it recovering now we’d cleared the Goblins?) we’d have to ask Sapentia to teleport us to a place with hunter trainers and merchants.
When thinking about moving camps, I looked anxiously at the sky, which had really darkened. Strong blasts of rain smote us intermittently, even in the relatively protected bowl of the beach. Out at sea the waves looked immense; they were dark grey except where their foamy heads toppled over.
[Group] ‘Hold the pulls a sec, Raitha. I’m worried about the journey back. I’m not sure we can cross that sea safely.’
[Group] ‘We need to be out of here before sunset and yet it looks like stormy weather is coming.’ I could hear the concern in Braja’s voice and I shared it.
[Group] ‘Or we go vampire hunt.’ This was Sapentia. ‘We have couple of hours. If no way off the island, then we will log out sunset until sunrise or be killed.’
[Group] ‘And miss hours of gaming,’ I said heavily.
[Group] ‘Exactly. Whereas if we can find coffin before the sun sets, we get nice exp and can keep go to fight.’
Raitha voiced his opinion, [Group] ‘This appeals to me. I see his castle every time I fly up above the trees. And it is an enigma. Mute, yet appealing towards me to come and investigate. And there is this to consider too: by going to the castle we do not lose the option of camping out for the night if our time runs out.’
[Group] ‘I’m not sure this is wise.’ In fact, I was pretty sure it wasn’t. ‘If we are still there when the vampire wakes, we haven’t a chance. Much as fooling around in a vampire’s castle while we have daylight appeals to me, I’d rather keep the grind going for two hours and camp if the weather isn’t better. Grythiss, what do you think?’
[Group] ‘Lizardman doesss not fear vampire.’
[Group] ‘Yay. Good for you.’ Sapentia cheered him loudly.
[Group] ‘Braja?’
[Group] ‘I have concerns about what else might be in the castle. Traps and that. On balance though, I’d rather try it than have to log out early for the night.’
[Group] ‘All right then, we’ll try it so. Let’s hurry. Which way is the castle, Raitha?’
[Group] ‘Follow me.’
And we all took off, running south-east away from the beach and up over a headland, until the group arrived at a rocky tip of the island. There, just off the edge of the island proper was the castle. If it was solitude you wanted, you could not ask for a more isolated, bleak and careworn residence. Connected to the green, moss-covered cliff by a slender drawbridge, a grey square tower rose out of surging, dark waves. It was as though the sea were an evil monster, licking and slurping at a long, discoloured fang. With only narrow arrow slits for windows, the tower rose some hundred feet or so to a crenelated roof. From the top of the tower, a torn flag stretched out in the stormy winds, falling off then snapping tight again as the wind gusted. The emblem on the flag was a black raven against a scarlet background.
Raitha circled around the top of the tower and then – making me a little anxious – landed on one of the crenellations. [Group] ‘Once I was playing a pen and paper fantasy RPG and our referee had spent hours constructing a long dungeon crawl, only for us to use a spell that allowed us to teleport right into the final room.’
[Group] ‘I hear you,’ said Braja, putting his hand up to shade his eyes. ‘You think we should get in at the top.’
Raitha responded, [Group] ‘Is this a possibility? For the rest of you to come up here? There is a door, of course, although whether we can force it is unclear.’
[Group] ‘I don’t think we can, unless Sapentia has a suitable spell. We don’t even have rope, do we?’ I turned to look at our wizard and was struck by the contrast between her dull, uninteresting avatar (expressionless, heavy face, practical, unadorned clothes) and the real woman we had met earlier.
[Group] ‘Apologies. No way up. But I can Fireball any doors in our path and blow them away.’
[Group] ‘In that case I shall come down and resume my half-elven body. An eagle is not a suitable form for indoor fighting.’
[Group] ‘Good idea,’ I said.
With a flurry of his large wings, Raitha landed beside us and, after a moment in which she stared at me with her fierce yellow-ringed eye, she began to transform: wings becoming slender, outstretched hands; cruel beak a gentle face; body lengthening to become a female version of my own. Once equipped with the barkskin armour and bow we had been saving for her, she looked great (as great as a Beauty 11 character can look) and we were ready to go.
First across the narrow stone bridge was Grythiss. [Group] ‘Don’t look down,’ he said.
Naturally, I did. It was a dramatic view: a drop of about thirty metres (survivable if you missed the rocks) to a sea seething against the foot of the cliff and generating long pale streaks of foam in the aftermath of the crash of near-black waves over barely submerged rocks. On the far side of the bridge was an arched, heavy wooden door with black iron studs in it. We gathered in front of it.
[Group] ‘Does anyone else think this is reckless?’ I asked. ‘It’s not too late to call it off.’
[Group] ‘You kid us.’ Sapentia laughed.
I chuckled too. [Group] ‘You’re right. We’re going in. How do we get the door open though?’
Grasping one of the two large iron handles, Grythiss grunted as he turned it and pushed at the door. To my surprise it opened and with a big lizardy grin, Grythiss gestured us inside.
[Group] ‘Almost as if he wants visitors,’ muttered Braja.
Chapter 12
The Vampire’s Tower
A carpet (lush and red) dampened the sounds of our group as we made our way into the tower. At the far end of the corridor was a narrow arrow slit, which let in plenty of light as far as I was concerned, but the humans among us seemed to find the castle dark, for Sapentia lit an oil lantern and held it high, causing our distorted shadows to stretch and recede along the bare, stone walls as it swung back and forth. Probably, all of us felt tense as there was none of the usual light-hearted banter.
[Group] ‘Look up.’ Braja pointed to the ceiling where there was a dark hole I had walked right underneath as I’d entered the building. It was narrow, like a chimney.
[Group] ‘What’s that?’ I asked.
[Group] ‘Murder hole. Isss where our enemiesss drop boiling oil on our heads.’
[Group] ‘Lovely,’ said Raitha in a mutter.
[Group] ‘Fortunately, there doesn’t seem to be anyone up there.’ Braja had borrowed the lantern and was doing his best to peer up the shaft. With a shrug, he stepped away.
We had a choice of four doors, two on each side of the corridor. Grythiss had his reptilian hand on the bronze handle of the nearest. [Group] ‘Ready?’
[Group] ‘Go for it.’ The truth was, I wasn’t really all that prepared. A hunter fights best outdoors, not in the narrow corridors of a castle. At this point I should be readying a sword and a spell or two. I had neither, so with an arrow held against the limb of my bow, I peered over our tank’s shoulder.
The room beyond was surprisingly large, taking up more than a quarter of the castle. There was light from two arrow loopholes and also from a lit fire. So I could see the man
standing looking at us with an expression of surprise. Tall, balding, his clothes included a fine, shining waistcoat with a complex green and yellow pattern for its silk lining. It was hard to tell what character class he was, if, indeed he had a class. Perhaps a wizard.
‘Goodness me,’ he exclaimed, ‘visitors! Do come in. Have a glass of wine.’
One arm extended, he gestured to the seats, which were delicate creations of entwined, pale wood. Or was that bone? From a glass cabinet, he took a bottle of wine and gave us what I thought was a very insincere smile.
Taking three decisive steps into the room, Grythiss brought his iron longsword down with a sweeping blow to the man’s head.
‘Help! Help!’ Staggering, our host glanced towards the fireplace.
‘Do you think this is best?’ I asked Grythiss. ‘I don’t know about you, but I was brought up to be more polite when someone offers me a drink. Shouldn’t we talk to him?’
‘Help! Yes! Polite. Be polite!’
With just a grunt by way of reply, Grythiss kept on smashing into the man, whose life bar was down to half. This was surprisingly high considering the unanswered damage he was taking. As I was getting no data from having targeted our opponent, I had no other way to judge the difficulty of this encounter.
‘No one worth talking to lives in castle of vampire,’ observed Sapentia from behind me.
‘Agreed,’ added Braja, ‘now step out the way, let me come in with my mace.’
Moving to the fireplace while the two of them struck again and again on the seemingly defenceless man, I studied the mantelpiece (two silver candleholders with melted candles stood on it; between them a painting of a stormy sea). Why had he looked this way?
The doppelganger is dead.
You have gained experience.
If lizards could look satisfied, then this one did. As I moved my gaze from Grythiss to the dead man on the floor I saw he was changing shape, his clothes melting into a grey humanoid figure that was a lot like a shop floor mannequin.
‘Aha,’ said Sapentia, with a cry that expressed the fact that she was right. ‘A doppelganger!’
‘Good call.’ I had to concede the “punch first, ask questions afterwards” technique was correct. Doppelgangers could be extremely dangerous. They obtained an assassination attempt on a character whose appearance they had adopted. If we’d let this one chat to us, at some point when unobserved it would have transformed and tried to replace a party member by assassinating one of us. Then it would have worked its way through the party.
‘Any treasure?’ asked Braja.
‘Nothing.’ Sapentia had bent down over the corpse.
‘Did anyone else notice he looked over here when shouting for help?’ I asked.
‘I couldn’t see much at all, you were all in the way,’ Braja complained.
Stepping over the body, Raitha came to assist me as I looked all around for a mechanism that could open a secret door. Of course I lifted up the silver candlesticks (and put them into my inventory to sell in the future) in case they were in fact levers of some sort. After pushing, pulling, rubbing my fingers over the wallpaper and around the frames of the painting, I hadn’t discovered anything. By contrast, Raitha had ducked into the wide fireplace and immediately cried out: ‘Eureka!’
‘What is it?’
‘An alcove with rungs going upwards. I’m going to climb them.’
‘Take care.’ There was nothing more practical I could say. Hunters could get some relevant skills for this situation, but we were really supposed to be climbing and tracking in the outdoors.
‘Lizard go next.’ Grythiss pushed past me and pausing, confused for a moment, looked at the fire. Then he looked up. ‘Which wayssss?’
‘Examine the left wall, she disappeared into a space there somewhere.’
‘Thank you.’
It was amusing that our tank, who had been so brutal to the stranger a few minutes ago, was so polite to me.
‘You’re welcome.’
‘Well, I suppose I should go up next, in case there’s healing needed further up.’ Now Braja came through, ducking into the fireplace, his light hair catching the brightness of the flames like it was gold.
‘And it makes sense for you to guard rear.’ Sapentia wanted to follow the others up too. Handing me her large staff, she reached upwards, then turned around surprised.
I had put a hand on her shoulder and pulled her back. ‘If there’s a trap and they all come tumbling down, I’d rather two of us were uninjured.’
Her human avatar gave a surprisingly authentic shrug, that suggested while I had a point, it was unlikely remaining with me would make any difference. Remain she did though.
[Group] ‘I’m up,’ came Raitha’s soft voice. ‘It’s a library.’
[Group] ‘On my way!’ Sapentia had real excitement in her voice and I wasn’t surprised. Accumulating a wide-ranging set of spells was essential yet hard for wizards and sorcerers, and if there was any place you might find new ones for your repertoire then surely a vampire’s castle was one of them?
For a moment I was alone in the room, my flickering shadow stretching across to the far wall; red and orange light cast by the flames giving the furnishings a warm tinge. Wouldn’t it be great to own a castle like this? Full of secret passages and mysteries. It was a shame that even if we found and killed the vampire, we couldn’t make this place our base (with each of us having a bedroom and hanging out together in rooms like this one). The problem would be that all the creatures who spawned here would respawn, probably even the vampire himself. Based on how Epic worked, gaining possession of property free from respawning mobs was a question of real-life money or completing very rare quests.
Turning my attention to the fireplace, once I knew where to look, I could see the opening: it was a black rectangle in the brickwork surrounding the fire. Bending, nearly crawling, into the shadows, I found I could stand up and see light some five metres up. The feeble, slightly erratic light of Sapentia’s torch somewhere on the floor above was creating a square of pale yellow above my head. In the walls, firm iron bars allowed me strong handhold and even with the burden of Sapentia’s staff, I climbed easily up to join the others.
As I looked around the room, again I had the sensation that this would be a fantastic place to own. As a half-elf hunter, I mean. Outside the game, I had respect for public libraries and no desire for one of my own. In truth, I didn’t read much beyond what I had to for school. My preference being for graphic novels, which hardly counted as reading. The room was a poorly lit (just one arrow slit to the outside world) hexagon shape with bookcases from floor to ceiling on every wall. They were all filled with books encased in dark blue bindings. Picking one at random, I found the letters strange at first; then, they shuffled and reformed into English.
…Mordred laughed: thus do magpies stutter with delight upon stealing; thus do rogues find humour in mocking the man who has entered their domain with no hope of protection from royal authority; thus does the hangman chuckle when the crowd call to him to begin his work. It was cruel, that laughter and I knew at once there was no hope for me…
Lovely. I supposed it might appeal to a vampire. Were all the books like this?
It was strange how the group responded to the library. Taking a random selection of volumes with me, I settled into one of the two, high-backed, midnight velvet chairs. Opposite me, in the only other chair in the room, Braja was doing the same, a huge pile of books beside him. His feet were up on the small table between us.
By contrast, Sapentia was stood before one wall, rapidly taking books down, scanning their contents and throwing them aside, creating a scattered pile on the (intricately designed) carpet. Something inside me winced. Of course, it was efficient of her. Yet I felt it was wrong to harm these books and upset the calm, reflective atmosphere of the room.
Cross-legged, back to another shelf, Grythiss had set his longsword down and was staring intently at a large book with vivid illustrations. Opp
osite him Raitha was looking out of the one, thin, window. When she blocked the light, I noticed my enhanced vision came over me like a camera automatically adjusting to a change in brightness. For a while there was silence, or rather, no conversation. There was the guzzling sound of the oil lamp; the soft whisper of a page turning and the occasional much louder thump of one of Sapentia’s books hitting the carpet.
‘We must consider the descent of the sun,’ observed Raitha. ‘While I appreciate a good book as much as anyone, it would be better to find the vampire first and kill him, then return here.’
‘Itss’s incredible. Lizardman wonderss who wrote all these books.’
That was a good point. Surely not the game’s developers. There was far too much content here for a human team to have generated it. Were they simply scanned versions of real-world books? I asked this aloud.
‘I haven’t recognised any,’ said Braja in response, which caused Sapentia to make a scoffing sound.
‘What?’ He turned to her, seemingly aggrieved, although I knew him well enough to know this tone was probably something of an act.
She paused in her search for spells. ‘How would you know?’
‘Oh, now you’ve let it out. You think I’m a man of little culture. Right?’
‘Of certain kind of culture.’
‘One that isn’t familiar with books?’
She shrugged.
‘You should understand something about the army.’ Braja closed the book he was reading and stood up. ‘Mostly, it’s a lot of waiting around. It’s very boring for weeks, months even. And then for a few minutes you get shot at. Different soldiers fill that waiting time differently. I read books. Every kind of book. Whatever the others had brought and left around. Romance, history, thrillers, fantasy, biography, sport. Everything.’
‘Okay, sorry,’ said Sapentia and went back to her task, abruptly, as if letting him know she didn’t care whether he was erudite or not.
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