The light surrounding Lilit was blinding. She clenched her eyes closed and covered them with her hand. Slowly she squinted through her eyes, her hand shading her eyes still.
As her eyes grew accustomed to the light she opened them more and began to take in her surroundings. She found herself in a bog, or a marsh, or whatever. There were rge standing ponds. The ground was soft and wet. Fog y thick on the ground.
Overhead the sky was overcast. So it wasn’t as bright as Lilit had first thought. She just wasn’t used to actually having eyes anymore.
She took a step forward and nearly fell on her face. It seemed like she would need to take a moment to get used to having a body again.
Her left wrist felt especially cumbersome for some reason. She brought her arm in front of her face. On top of the leather bracer on her forearm there was strapped a shiny, metallic band. On that band were a set of small, glowing button.
As her arm came parallel to the ground a holographic screen winked into existence above her arm. Welcome to the tutorial! Large, bck letters formed against the blue background of the screen. A cursor blinked at the end of the message. On her arm one of the buttons blinked along with the cursor.
Taking a guess, Lilit touched the fshing button. The screen wiped away and a new message appeared in smaller text. The Dungeon Delver Help Tool will vibrate and fsh with an incoming message. During the tutorial phase, helpful hints will appear as needed. You can access the knowledge database at any time by searching your query or scrolling through the categories.
The blinking cursor stood at the end of the message. Lilit tapped the next button again.
To complete the tutorial you will need to make it to the tavern in the middle of the marsh. You may come across enemy creatures or other adventurers. You may form small temporary parties for the tutorial period.
When Lilit pushed the next button after reading the message the screen winked out of existence. Well that was both helpful and at the same time not very helpful at all. She drew her mace from the iron ring hanging off her belt.
It was about eighteen inches long and solid metal. Leather was wrapped around the handle to offer a better grip. The head of the mace was a rge metal head with five fnges winging off about an inch past the surface of the head. It was very weighted and not banced at all.
Just carrying it in her hands at the ready was going to wear out her wrists. She let her arm dangle down as she trudged forward into the fog.
She froze after a few steps. What if she was heading in the wrong direction? In the fog she could end up anywhere.
Lilit pulled up her left arm and a screen popped into view. Type or speak your search term. To browse by category press the blinking button.
“How…” Lilit coughed. It had been a long time since she spoke and her throat was a desert. “How do I find the tavern?”
Use the map or quest log to mark a waypoint.
Lilit spent the next several minutes figuring out how to get to the map and quest log. The map was mostly bnk with animated fog swirling all around her. Guess she’d have to explore to see more of it. Through the quest log though she was able to set a waypoint at the tavern.
A beam of light, much like a spotlight back home, shone upward in the distance. It was directly in front of her. She took off in that direction, skirting brackish water and trying not to get sucked into the mud as she went.
Lilit had been walking for several minutes before a loud spsh erupted to her right. Looking over she could see the ripples in the water. A small wake of water was making its way toward her, distorting the ripples behind it.
Lilit prepared her mace and stood in as close to a fighting stance as she knew how. Mostly she spread her feet apart and bent her knees to lower her center of gravity.
With another loud spsh a rge body erupted out of the water. Her head automatically turned away from the spsh of water, and she knew her mistake.
A rge frog man appeared on the bank in front of her brandishing a rusty trident. The frog man jabbed his trident forward at Lilit. She barely dodged out of the way.
As she focused on him, a name popped up above the frog man’s head. Bullywug Lvl 1.
The bullywug would have stood about chest high if it wasn’t crouched down on its long legs. Its webbed hands gripped the trident firmly and it thrust forward again.
This time Lilit swung her mace into the path of the trident. It connected with the wooden shaft just behind the head. A small crack resounded in the air and the trident was diverted to the side.
The bullywug circled to the side, swirling its trident in small arcs back and forth. Ok, maybe she should have taken a second to look up her moveset before wandering into enemy territory. As soon as this was over she promised herself to look it up.
Until then, she still had her mace. She just had to get inside the reach of the trident in order to strike at the bullywug. Lilit circled away from the bullywug.
The next time it lunged forward Lilit spped the trident to the side with her mace and stepped forward. The tips of the trident were now well away from her body and she was close enough to attack for once.
On her backswing she put all her weight behind her swing. She aimed for the bullywug’s head. She wanted to end this quickly.
A blink ter and she heard the crunch and shatter of bone splintering beneath her mace. Thick blood and other bits flew onto her, some nding on her cheeks. One warm chunk nding on her lower lip. She found herself frozen in pce for a minute.
She looked down and could see the destruction she had wrought upon this bullywug. Its skull was a meaty paste with its lower jaw hanging down. The body flickered before melting and then quickly evaporating away.
It was too te though. She’d never seen something so horrendous in her life. She turned to the side and retched into the water. She fell on her knees and continued to heave until there was nothing coming up but acid.
She quickly wiped her face, noting that at least the blood and bits had disappeared along with the body. Her tabard was once again a pristine white.
She felt her left wrist vibrate and a small pinging noise could be heard. She quickly pulled her Delver up and a message popped in front of her. Gather any fallen loot by opening the pouch left behind by defeated monsters. Pce items you’d like to keep in your pack. Any gold will be stored for you in your account.
Lilit looked over to where the body of the bullywug had disappeared. Sitting in the middle of the grass was a small leather pouch with a leather string tying it closed.
She stood up and walked over to the pouch. Bending over, she picked it up. It didn’t seem to weigh hardly anything at all. She wondered what exactly could even be in this thing.
Her curiosity piqued, she pulled the knot apart and opened the pouch. A fsh of light and heard several things thunk onto the ground around her. Looking down she saw a rusty knife, a pair of boots, and a couple gold coins. Ignoring the knife and boots, Lilit picked up the gold. It immediately disappeared out of her hand. At the edge of her vision a small screen popped up. 3 gp.
Well, at least she didn’t have to lug around a bunch of gold all over the pce. She wondered how much a gold piece would buy anyway.
Before she could forget she pulled out her Delver and searched for her moveset. There it was. All three moves.
Smite – holy energy infuses your weapon and delivers extra holy damage. Can be used on melee or ranged weapons. Cooldown 30 seconds. Cost 25 mana.
Minor Healing – heal a target for 10% of their health. Cooldown 1 minute. Cost 20 mana.
Ward – cast a protective barrier around target. Cooldown 3 minutes. Cost 40 mana.
The cooldowns didn’t seem that long, but based on what she’d just experienced she had a feeling they would feel like a lifetime.
Also, cool and all, but how did she actually activate any of her powers? Lilit looked over the buttons on her Delver. She found a set of arrow keys and sure enough they highlighted different moves on the list. She selected the first one.
Smite – send a holy aura through your body into the weapon.
She started to question what that even meant when a fsh of understanding popped into her head, like just asking the question got her the answer. She visualized sending a holy aura through her hands and into the mace. She opened her eyes and the mace glowed faintly with a pure, white light.
She found the button to back out of the menu and selected the next move on the list.
Minor Healing – concentrate on the spell you want to cast and open your prayer book. Read the prayer from the book.
She searched through her pack, but couldn’t find any prayer book. She started patting herself down all over to see if maybe she had a hidden pocket somewhere. She found a rge pouch attached to her hip on the opposite side from her mace. Reaching in she found a small booklet about the size of her palm. Its cover was bck with gold etching along the edge. Turning it over she found the edges of the pages themselves gilt with gold as well.
She smiled to herself before concentrating on Minor Healing. Then she flipped open the book to a random page. And there on the page was a small prayer for her to chant.
She took a chance and closed the book. This time she thought Ward before turning to a fresh page. And there again was a small prayer for her to recite. How intuitive.
It would make casting anything during the heat of battle a little difficult. Hopefully her target wouldn’t have to hear her prayer in order for it to work on them or she’d end up hoarse from shouting.
Lilit let her arm drop. She pulled the mace back out from its pce on her right hip. Turning so she was lined up with the beacon in the distance, Lilit continued on her journey.
The next time she heard a rge spsh, she was more ready. She brained the bullywug before it could even prepare an attack. She noticed a small bar pop up in her vision beled Stamina with a small chunk missing from the end.
This bullywug had a rusty cutss that it dropped, another rusty knife, and two gold pieces. She ignored the rusty weapons again. Having to carry the weight herself and not just put it into a slot on a screen made her reassess what was important loot and what wasn’t. And she doubted the rusty weapons would be worth their weight if she could sell them.
The beacon didn’t seem to be getting any closer as she continued to travel toward it. The marsh around her was just as bleak and quiet as ever. She kept having to backtrack and find a new way forward as her path ended in ponds and thick mud. She nearly lost her boots twice before learning the warning signs for the patches of sinking mud holes.
She stepped through a patch of fog and stumbled right into a small group of bullywugs gathered around a fire. All three bullywugs and Lilit froze as they all locked eyes.
Before she could do anything the bullywug across the fire from her let out a loud croak and leapt clear across the fire and within a dozen feet of Lilit. He had a small cutss that he led with as he charged her. The other two bullywugs stood up and lumbered after him, drawing their own weapons.
Lilit needed to end this quickly with the first bullywug. There was no way she could defeat all three at once. She wasn’t even sure two would be possible, but she felt more optimistic about it than with three.
She stood her ground as the bullywug charged her, her mace held out in front of her to deflect incoming blows, or that was the pn. As the bullywug came within reach of her, she feinted to her right, away from the bullywug’s sword arm.
The bullywug took the bait and lunged forward as Lilit easily stepped around him and brought the mace down on the back of his head. He fell crumpled at her feet.
The other two bullywugs surged forward, croaking and hissing. One circled to the right while the other went left. Lilit backed away to try and keep them both in front of her. They stayed about ten feet apart from each other as they advanced on her. Far enough away that she could strike out at one, but close enough that the other could lunge forward and pce their crude spears in her back.
There had to be a way. Think. What would she do if this was a game? There had to be a way for her to defeat them both. This was just a tutorial level according to the Delver on her wrist. She hoped that meant what it did in games and that everything here should be easily defeatable.
Like a lightning strike, inspiration hit her. Of course! She reached down to her left hip and flipped the cover off the pouch holding the prayer book. Grabbing the bck cover between shaking fingers, she drew it out as the bullywugs continued to advance on her.
Focus! She needed a ward. She concentrated on that idea and flipped open the prayer book one handed. Yes! There were the words to her prayer. She just needed to take her eyes off the bullywugs long enough to read the prayer. Crap.
The bullywugs halted and crouched down as soon as she pulled the book out. This was her one chance. They were still far enough away that a single leap wouldn’t reach her. She took a deep breath and looked down at the prayer she needed.
“A wall of light,
A shield of light,
I offer protection,
Wrapped in argent light.
A wall of light,
A shield of light,
Reflect their aggression,
Wrapped in argent light.” She rushed through the incantation as quickly as she could. And just in time too. As she looked up both bullywugs were within striking distance.
One lunged forward, spear tip pointed at her heart. She stumbled backward, but wouldn’t be able to get far enough away in time to avoid the strike.
The spear tip came within six inches of Lilit and seemed to hit a wall. Light fshed like a ripple across the air in front of Lilit. She heard a small chiming sound and the bullywug’s spear ricocheted away from Lilt. The bullywug stumbled as it tried to recover his momentum.
The other bullywug sent out a cautious tap against the barrier surrounding Lilit. Again, about six inches away from Lilit it hit a wall and a fsh of rippling light appeared with a chime. Lilit instinctively flinched away.
This was her chance. Lilit leapt forward toward the bullywug on the right, her arm cocked back for a hard strike. The bullywug apparently wasn’t expecting her to attack because he flinched and stumbled back a step, bringing the shaft of the spear up to try and hold her back.
She took the spear shaft to the chest as she brought her mace down. Running into the bullywug’s spear shaft disrupted her swing however, and instead of crushing the bullywug’s head, she shattered his arm at the shoulder.
The bullywug immediately drooped to one side, hissing as he grabbed at his wound. Lilit heard the chime of her ward being struck as she followed, hot on the heels of the wounded bullywug. There was a small cracking sound mixed with the chime this time though. She feared that her ward was close to failure.
She lunged forward again. With one of his arms out of commission, the bullywug struggled to hold her off with his spear. She was able to quickly dispatch him.
There was the sound like shattering gss as she started to turn toward the other bullywug. It appeared that her ward was all used up. She twisted around, instinctively dodging a blow from the spear that wasn’t there.
Lilit and the bullywug gred at each other across several feet. Lilit was breathing heavily. And it looked like her stamina bar was down by half. She really wasn’t made to be a front line fighter.
She took a step forward, her arm cocked back. The bullywug seemed to tremble for a moment before it threw down his spear with a loud croak, turned and ran into the fog.
Lilit stood there confused for a moment. She had not been expecting that at all. Her wrist vibrated with a new message from the Delver. She held her arm up and the screen hovered over it. Some enemies can become frightened and flee when you quickly dispatch their allies.
Huh, cool. Less loot, but also fewer chances of dying. She’d take it. Lilit took a deep breath and then wandered around the ground, picking up her loot bags. More rusty weapons, a bruised apple, and five gold coins.
