The group staggered across the sands, unable to see more than a foot in front of them, any attempts to light a fire for visibility being snuffed out. All they had to go on was a compass bearing from Sonya, who was absolutely certain they were going in the right direction to find refuge. Grey and Patrick had pulled up their cloaks to better shield themself from the storm, while James had raised his shield to try and stop more sand getting in the joints of his armour.
“Why…” James was about to ask why he didn’t buy the Desert Shroud back in Al’Vash, but then proceeded to be hit by a mouthful of sand, making him choke and refuse to talk for the rest of the trek. Eventually, through the wall of yellow, the party started to see something. A ruined stone arch jutted out of the ground, worn to the point of barely standing up. The group took cover under it, grabbing on to resist the strong winds.
Before the party could voice their disappointment, Sonya wiped her coat against the ground, revealing some kind of stone latch. James and Amelia grabbed it and pulled it aside. Behind them were dark stairs down into the sand beneath them. The travellers practically threw themselves down there, escaping the storm and finally being able to breathe.
“Thank you, Sonya,” Patrick gasped. “I will happily pay you double now.”
“You wouldn’t be saying that if you’d seen how much we’re paying here,” Grey said.
Sonya smiled back. “No, don’t worry about that. Just pay me more, I don’t mind.”
She laughed heartily.
Patrick created a small flickering flame, but even then it didn’t fully illuminate the stairway.
“Wanna investigate?” Patrick asked.
“Big dark stairwell of an ancient temple in the middle of a desert?” Amelia asked. “Yeah, sure, what could go wrong?”
The group walked down, the light above them slowly vanishing, but still nothing but stairs in front of them.
“How far down does this go?” James asked Sonya.
She shrugged,.“Dunno, never actually been down here. We have no idea what this place used to be. There’s a 50 year hole in Hammerfell’s history that we just know nothing about. This place is from that time.”
“Has any research been done on this place?”
“No, actually. Apparently it’s full of traps and monsters.”
“Oh, now you tell us,” Amelia replied.
“I thought you wouldn’t be dumb enough to walk down into the ruined temple that’s probably full of monsters.”
“And you’re dumb enough to walk with us?”
“I can handle myself.”
“I miss Delarius,” Amelia whispered under her breath.
Eventually, they reached the end of the stairs, entering into dark corridors that split off in both directions. As soon as a foot touched the floor, several torches magically lit up. For the awful state the arch above was in, the halls they’d descended into were surprisingly well kept.
“Well, that saves me a lot of effort,” Patrick sighed in relief and made the flame vanish. He turned to the right, and then fell through the floor.
Trident743
140/150 HP
The group panicked and ran over to where Patrick had fallen. Sonya crouched down and held her hand through the floor.
“Illusion magic,” Sonya muttered.
“Oh thank God, this is intentional,” James replied. He then shouted down to Patrick, “What’s going on down there?”
“U-um, monsters,” Patrick said. “Lotta monsters.”
“Can’t be that bad,” Amelia replied. She poked her head through the illusion.
Patrick was in a circular arena several meters below them. He was surrounded by a large group of massive scorpions, all of them chattering, poison dripping from their tails.
Scorpion 1-10
Level 10
60/60 HP
“C’mon Patrick, we’ve seen worse,” Amelia shouted, “and these things probably aren’t sentient, no issue with just killing them.”
“You’re not in the middle of them!” Patrick shouted back.
Amelia jumped down into the pit below, landing on her feet with her sword planted in the ground.
“Still not scared,” she said. Before any of the scorpions closed in to attack, she ran at one of them and slashed upwards, cutting it cleanly in two.
Glass Angel
Rising Slash
---
Scorpion 1
0/60 HP
As soon as one of them died, the scorpions immediately moved to attack the two of them. Patrick moved to stop their advance, while Amelia went on the offensive.
Glass Angel
Piercing Blow
---
Scorpion 2
0/60 HP
---
Trident743
Dancing Daggers
---
Scorpion 3-7
43/60 HP
---
Trident743
240/250 Mana
“Fantastic job you two,” Grey shouted down, “but how are you going to get out?”
Amelia looked around. Another scorpion ran at her, but she casually beheaded it and moved to the side as it’s corpse skidded across the ground.
GlassAngel
Perfect Strike
---
Scorpion 3
0/60 HP
“There’s no exit?” She replied, confused. “Thought there'd at least be a secret door or something.”
Stolen story; please report.
Trident743
Firebolt
---
Scorpion 8
0/60 HP
---
Trident743
220/250 Mana
“It’s a trap, Amelia. Why would they give you a way out?”
Scorpion 4
13/60 HP
“I thought the trap was the scorpions!”
Scorpion 4
0/60 HP
----
Trident743
225/250 Mana
“And what if the person in the trap kills all the scorpions?”
Skibabylon
Draw Pain
----
Scorpion 9
0/60 HP
“Most people wouldn't, right? And most people who could kill them probably would have some way of getting out.”
Scorpion 5
13/60 HP
“Which you don’t.”
Sonya looked over at James, who was sitting with his back to the wall, taking off parts of his armour and trying to get the sand out.
“You sure you don’t wanna help out?” Sonya asked.
“Nah, they’re fine,” James replied. “I don’t have ranged powers anyway. Wait, no actually, I do!”
James looked down through the illusion and chucked a sword at a scorpion that was currently harassing Amelia, striking it in the eye.
Scorpion 5
0/60 HP
“Could you throw that back to me?” James asked.
“Bit busy right now but we’ll get to it,” Patrick replied. He was about to throw a fireball at another scorpion, but before he could he got stabbed by the tail of one who managed to flank him. Amelia then stabbed it, which killed it instantly.
Trident743
110/150 HP
Poison
----
GlassAngel
Piercing Blow
----
Scorpion 7
0/60 HP
“Ah, that’s not good,” Patrick said, before coughing up blood. “I’m so glad this game simulates being poisoned accurately.”
“Do we have any kind of poison heals?” James asked Grey.
Trident743
Firebolt
----
Scorpion 10
0/60 HP
----
Trident743
205/250 Mana
“We don’t,” Grey replied. “If normal enemies are going to start having status effects, we could do with picking some up the next time we hit a town.”
Skibabylon
Healing Beam
With all bar one of the scorpions dead, the last monster made a reckless charge towards Amelia and Patrick. Patrick shot in the face while Amelia leapt up and stabbed in the back, finishing it off easily.
Scorpion 10
0/60 HP
----
Trident743
210/250 Mana
----
Encounter Complete
Level Up!
All Party Members gain 1000XP
All Party Members gain 900 Gold
All Party Members: Level 10
Skibabylon: New ultimate: Resurrect
“Wait, what!?” Amelia said incredulously. “How did Grey get the level up and not us!?”
“I’m not sure how that happened, frankly,” Grey replied. “Guess I was just very close to the XP threshold.”
“You must have been close, you killed one guy!” Patrick shouted back.
"I was the only person here who survived the Battle of Corigrad...well, other than the guy that wasn't there."
“I think we’re all missing the main point,” James said. “We have ultimate moves?”
All classes have two Ultimate moves to unlock. They can use these ultimates once before resting at an inn.
“That’s pretty stingy,” Patrick noted. “They’d better be good.”
“They are. Oblivia killed me with one,” Amelia admitted begrudgingly.
“We’ve had resurrection items for ages. I don’t think this ultimate is that special.”
“Having a raise whenever we need it is always handy,” James admitted
“Alright, come on up,” Sonya shouted to them, throwing a rope down into the trap.
“Where were you keeping that?” Grey asked. “And why didn’t you use it earlier?”
“Because the monsters weren’t cleared yet,” James replied. “Sometimes it’s still hard to believe this isn’t a game.”
“Just help me lifting these two idiots up,” Sonya snapped back.
The three of them yanked up Amelia and Patrick. Patrick chucked James’ sword back at him, which he then caught and sheathed in one motion. All of them walked back to the entrance, unanimously deciding that that direction was probably best avoided.
“Well, I think it’s time we finish up for the night,” James said. “Sandstorm isn’t going to be finishing for a while…”
“Exactly 2 hours and 22 minutes,” Sonya said in a robotic voice.
“Thank you,” James continued. “And I don’t think we’re going to be able to get much done afterwards, except walking across more desert.”
“I’m sorry, you want us to stop?” Amelia asked. “You know there are lives dependent on what we do here right now?”
“We still have normal lives to lead,” Grey pointed out. “We can’t be drawing too much attention to ourselves by staying in the game 24/7. Best thing to do is lay low.”
“We’re living on borrowed time,” Patrick responded. “Kable’s gonna have found out by now an-“
“If Kable knows that we killed Draconautis, we’d already be in jail or worse,” James said. “Rushing headlong into this isn’t going to save anyone. Just take a step back, plan our next move…”
“And pray we’re not hunted down in the meantime?” Amelia replied. “Is that it? Your master plan?”
“Do you have a better idea, Amelia?” James asked. Amelia didn’t reply. “Well, that settles it. Same time, tomorrow then?”
“Sure,” Amelia said bitterly. “We’ll see you then.”
GlassAngel has left the party
Trident743 has left the party
James turned around to Grey as the other two vanished.
“That wasn’t too harsh, was it?” James asked them.
“I don’t think it was,” Grey replied, “but then again, I agreed with you. Amelia and Patrick are very uptight about this.”
“Who wouldn’t be?…Aren’t you?”
Grey smiled. “I’ll do my best not to show it. For you guys.”
James put a hand on Grey’s shoulder. “Grey, don’t bottle up your emotions. You can be honest around us. God knows we all need to be more open about some things.” He took his hand off Grey’s shoulder and opened the log out screen. “See you tomorrow.”
Player logged out. Shutting down headset. Have a nice day.
James Stats: Level: 9 VIT: 350/350 STR: 20 DEF: 30 DEX: 10 SPL: 15 INT: 1
Amelia Stats: Level: 9 VIT: 200/200 STR: 30 DEF: 5 DEX: 25 SPL: 5 INT: 1
Grey stats: Level: 10 VIT: 200/200 STR: 20 DEF: 15 DEX: 15 SPL: 30 INT: 1 Healing Pool: 560/600
Patrick stats: Level: 9 VIT: 150/150 STR: 35 DEF: 15 DEX: 20 SPL: 25 INT: 1 Mana: 210/250
