[IC] Haven Online - Stage: 1

[Anders]

“Our healers really are trash.” - Young female voice.
“I mean, it’s day one of the patch.. we probably have time to learn the boss mechanics anyways.” - Gruff male voice.
“There’s no excuse, as the leading raid guild- we should have this shit on lock, day one.” - Younger male voice.
“Guys I think there’s someone in my apa——-.” The female voice went silent, cut off by the sound of her IRIS dying or being disconnected. Though her avatar remained, frozen in a blank staring daze.

---

Opening Day : Crossroads Update

The city of Bell was packed like a theme park, as the capital city of the new zone it was inevitable. The zone had a rustic old-fashioned feel to it, wooden buildings, grassy plains as far as the eye could see with hills and mountaintops in the unreachable distance. It was beautiful, one of the most artistically astounding zones to date.

“Dad, do you wanna scope out any quest hubs? See if there’s a new reputation to grind? Whatcha’ wanna do?” A leather-clad teenage avatar with a basic protagonist appearance, brown messy hair and daggers at the hip spoke.

“Or we can look for that rare ore that was datamined, spawns once a day and it’ll probably be great for crafting.” An elderly female avatar with salt and pepper hair and mild aging spoke in a boisterous feminine voice, flashing big bright teeth placing plated hands on her waists.

The marketplaces were the most packed, nearly impossible to pass through the roadblock without some form of guide. The NPC’s of the town were visibly overwhelmed, sweating and raising their tone to find some sense of organization in the herd of players. “Stay in line! Don’t cut, armor sets are to the left and potions to the right! The blacksmith closes at eight p.m!”

The plywood shacks behind the marketplace though? Smoke trails suddenly began arise from them, subtly, but it was there. The crowds of people were too busy picking every resource from the town they could, like a swarm of locusts before they set off the strip the surrounding area of what they could find afterwards. It was frightening more than anything. But they should have paid attention, maybe some of the more perceptive avatars would have noticed but none seemed to take action before the assault began. An inferno bloomed from all six shacks behind the marketplace, and began to consume the market stalls nearby and damaging some of the lower level players in the city.

“Bell is PvP enabled!” Screamed a few rowdy players in the roaring crowd, and then suddenly the chaos. The bandit guild “Our World” began to attack any lower level players ythey saw, setting off more explosives in other remote buildings as they ran for the town exits. A large telecom screen attached the tin water tower at the center of town beeped in announcement to attempt to break the chaos, prompting a large list of player names with a huge “Hunt” title at the top.

[1:] Burlap
[2:] Razalgul
[3:] Dodgr

Hunt - “Our World, Our City in Danger”

A quest would be added to every players Log, promoting them into a tutorial about the newly implemented mechanic. A player has been marked for toxic behavior, they are now able to be engaged like any NPC enemy in the wilds. The marked player can be stunned, but not mind-controlled, and retains all abilities before they were marked. Hunt Quest offer unique rewards based on the crimes committed by the player whom is being defeated, tutorial complete.

[Lord of Evil]

Juggernaut

Sean opened his eyes. What met his sight was a a minuscule bar of light cutting through a swathe of darkness. He could see a busy street, brimming with people going about their business. They were all unique, all wearing distinct clothing and armour. Some sported hair which seemed to completely defy gravity, and some were followed by fantastic beasts. Knights in armor, soldiers in camouflage and top hat wearing gentlemen scattered through the streets with no rhyme or reason. Sean smiled in the darkness; this was a sight that never got old.

He moved his arm and felt the reassuring weight of steel. His right hand grasped the solid handle of the massive lance at his side while his left hand held a towering shield aloft. He rose to his feet (he wasn't sure why he had been sitting), shouldering the weight of the armour that protected his body. He rose to his full height, head and shoulders above the crowd. He felt weighty and powerful. Unmovable. The Juggernaut was back.

Sean laughed as he thought that uncharacteristically melodramatic thing. A deep voice reverberated from the darkness of his helmet, echoing out to the street. Some looked over in surprise but looked away once they knew who it was. He ignored those that continued staring and joined the throng walking towards the market. He would've skipped if he could, if the crowd had allowed him to and he wasn't wearing his heavy armour. That being the case, he hummed in time with his weighty footfalls as he walked along. He was in a good mood today. The new update had finally arrived and the town he was in was well worth the wait. He was looking forward to questing in the new area, seeing whatever he could see, doing whatever he could do. In theory he should probably have been farming the last few pieces of his armour set and wait out the crowd, but he didn't mind so much. Farming was boring, and the update was a whole new world to discover. No self respecting player would want to miss out, or at least, not any that he knew. Sean swung his lance up to his shoulder so that it would be out of the way as he walked, slowly approaching the packed market. He stopped for a moment, prompting several shouts of surprise and indignation. He threw a quick "sorry" out and scoped out the path. The market was positively brimming with players which would make it difficult to get inside. But, then, Juggernaut never really had that problem before. Sean grinned inside his helmet and continued his slow paced stride.

He arrived at his destination, eventually. The potions store was filled with a long line of people as expected, haggling and trading and buying. Sean stood near the back, close enough to see the wares, but he didn't reach out to get them. He was here to buy health potions but he wasn't really sure he needed them. He didn't take much damage because of his shield and his defense so he rarely used them. Granted, he didn't exactly have a way to heal himself, so any damage he took would likely stick. That being the case, though, it was probably better to buy delayed healing potions. They healed the same as normal potions but took effect over time and, most importantly, cost less money. But if there were tricky magic attacks then it was likely he would need a more immediate solution. But, then again, he was sure his large health pool would be enough to exhaust their mana.

As Sean pondered his quandary his ears picked up something strange. It sounded like a faraway drum, a sound which seemed rather incongruous with the environment. The drum beats got louder and closer until Sean realised what they were. Explosions. Sean waded out of the crowded store as fast as he could, emerging onto a chaotic market square. Flames rose around the square, apparently coming from the poorer districts of the city.
"Hm." Sean grunted, taking his lance down from his shoulder.
He got ready to deploy it at any time, but it was difficult to make out what was going on in the chaos. Suddenly his quest log was updated, and at the same time he spotted a strange movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned to look at the movement and saw the tower at the center of town light up as a screen appeared. Names were displayed on that screen, none of which he knew. Sean checked the quest log and quickly scanned the tutorial.
"So I just have to go beat up some dudes... OK." Sean mutttered.
He looked up from his HUD and scanned the chaotic field and more explosions burst out around the market. He couldn't see any of the marked players but that wasn't really a problem.
All I have to do is follow the screams...

He ran out of the market towards the heart of the growing inferno. Troublesome were like moths, in that you're pretty likely to find them around fires. He could here the screaming now and he decided to activate his skill before it was too late. He crouched down a little, bearing his tower shield to the front while keeping his lance at his side. He looked straight down the street and cast [Unstoppable Steel Charge]. He felt the power flow through his legs and yelled out a warning.
"Clear the path!"
Some looked towards him before echoing the call. Sean took a step forward, and then another step, and another, and another, and another. The people parted to the sides as the steel giant thundered past. His warning was being carried faster than he could run, which was good because he couldn't really stop his legs anymore. They kept going, one after the other, without much conscious thought on his part. He couldn't feel the wind on his skin, which was a shame, but what he could feel through the vision slit would do well enough. He was on the hunt now, he could handle everything else later.

[Thecrash20]

Jack Nomen

Jack rolled through the screen door to his house. He had just got out of working at Bill's. Some local shitty burger-joint his Mom forced him to get. "You need to get out more! Also your work habit should be through the roof at this age, me and your father didn't bust our ass for you to live and die off our money!" Jack's Mother told him before sending him off for his first day of work almost a year ago. It was a long day today. Lots of grease, sweat, and regret. At least it was over today and he had Two full days off.

Like any other day, Jack was smoking his cigarette outside on his houses back patio. The weather was windy, annoying Jack and causing him to put out the cigarette early. Tossing the Cancer stick to the wind to be carried off onto the neighbor's lawn. With the last lung full of smoke leaving his mouth, he rolled himself back into his home. Today was the day! Due to be being busy with work and sleep he only got a few hours a night to play Haven. But now he had 48 hours to play without having to worry about his job, sleep, and more annoyingly, his Parents...

Logged into the game and sent to Virtual World of Haven never lost its touch. Filling Jack with excitement to this very day, even after Four years of playing it. Now taking his virtual persona as Vector. Vector spawned in the mountains of Ereneth with his Suit equipped. The location was nothing special besides holding the Guild Training Hall of "MMA-O". He didn't really have anything to do with them besides having a close friend there. They met during WWG and had continued their friendship to meeting in real life at a convention. She was a friend in every way, but he hadn't really talked or met her in-game in almost two weeks. Vector felt like he was overdue for a visit. Although he hated going to the guild hall, his Guild wasn't really greeted too well over at those parts. Not hated, but definitely not welcomed. This was only more apparent when he finally arrived there. He reached the Training hall shortly, not meeting a single soul until he finally reached the Gates. They were open like most times. It needed no protection due to the Nature of the guild. Only a fool would try to come and cause a scene within this Guild's hall.

The main training square had a variety of things going on. Most were practicing PVP with each other in teams or even solo. Others seemed to be focusing on their aim with all types of ranged weapons on dummy targets, while others were focusing on crafting on the tables scattered around. It brought back memories when his Guild was in it's prime. Not nearly as many people, but most were still active and keeping busy at the Barn. As he walked through the Main Square a few player's stopped what they were doing to look at him. It wasn't out of the norm for Vector, his guild was very Famous in the PVP community and he probably had some fame backing it as well. Faintly he could even hear some comments.

"PLOX? What is one of them doing here? I thought they were exstinct."
"Oh you don't know? Akantha is friends with a few!"
"Who invited him? Looking for a fight? Leaderboards don't mean shit!"
"Woah! You think he was in WWG???"

He definitely didn't like the publicity he gained, but it occasionally had it's uses. Ignoring the comments, he continued looking for his friend. @SilverPaw

[The 42nd Gecko]

Calix Falborough

Calix wasn't particularly one who was always enthused for new content patches. It wasn't all that big a deal for him. He thrived in the old and forgotten. With how much player created content there was, he hadn't even finished the base game from release. Thus, if not for one small happenstance of fate, he wouldn't have logged in that day.

That happenstance being, while he was enjoying the warmth of the sun, reclining in his squishy lawn chair on the deck of the ship, he felt a bit chilly. Opening his eyes, he could see the skies suddenly overcast and cloudy. Kind of killed the point of sunbathing. "Hey, bro, I'm heading below till these clouds move away. Could you give me a call when they do?"

"Mmm." Was the inarticulate response of his brother. Well, at least of all the things to be obsessed with, being obsessed with piloting ships when you're heir to a ship building company is proper.

Down below, of course, Cali's goal was his VR rig.

---

~Heh... No one will ever suspect a cute little kitten of being the nefarious Sura, Artisan of Calamity!~ Kittensura thought to herself as she crept out of an alleyway, poised at the corner, ready to enter the street proper. "Hehe, this will be puuuurfect, if I do-Waa! Hey!" Kittensura suddenly could no longer reach the ground with her paws with instead her weight resting on her rear. The source of this mysterious condition was then revealed as a very close rang out.

"Aw, this game has kittens? This is the best game!"



Despite Kittensura's rather disadvantaged position, she couldn't help but struggle, "Lemme down! I'm a PC, a PC!"

"It even doesn't want to be held, just like a real kitten!" The schoolgirl looking character continued to coo and gush over the fluffy little Kittensura.

"Can't you hear a word I'm saying?" Kittensura tried to bat at the girl's hand, but, well, it was futile, she just didn't have the power to escape the practiced kitten-hold of the schoolgirl.

"And the mews, it's so realistic! Who's a good kitty?" Liz began petting the underside of Kittensura's jaw.

"OK.. Apparently not." Kittensura tried checking her status bar, even while distracted by the surprisingly enjoyable petting. ~Kitten Form... Mmm... Kitten speech! Aha! So that's what's making me unintelligible! Man this is nice. Now.. If only I knew how to turn it off.. Maybe I should have read the readme before putting this cosmetic on.~

"Mmm.. I don't see a collar, so it must be a stray! This game is the best. I hope my starter money is enough to buy a cute collar with a bell."

"How did a new player who can't even tell a PC from an NPC get this far in the game..." Kittensura whined, as she finally gave up the struggle, for now at least.

"Aw, I bet you're excited, a collar with a bell would be so cute on you. What do you think about the name Oreo? Too unoriginal?"

"Very much so. How about something dignified. Like Helicopter Maximus." Kittensura rolled her eyes. But it was hard to act dignified when you were being carried around.

"Mmm.. You're right, I'd want something that stands out for my first pet. I'm Liz, by the way. Oooh, that place has ribbons and bells! I could make a collar from those for cheap!" The girl obliviously continued, before spotting a vendor for tailoring materials.

Kittensura's face as the impending bell collar approached was one of feline-doom, but she was saved from the bell as a nearby vendor's stall exploded and the chaos began. Still, in Kitten form, Kittensura was both uniquely prepared to spy out the enemies and then do absolutely nothing about them. At least she had Liz to act as ablative bait.

[SilverPaw]

Akantha was in a very business-like part of their guild hall. This particular location was basically a medium sized meeting room, and functioned as the guild’s strategical and tactical core. Besides the front and back door both requiring approved access, the sparsely furnished rectangle room contained an ellipsoid table, black leather chairs arranged around it, and holographic data-pads and projectors adorning the room. The latter were used primarily for organizing guild group activities (such as raids) or watching them in-action (by way of an internal stream set-up). They linked the relevant data to a cloud storage, which was used to keep various in-game recordings, consisting mainly of their annual tournaments and other remarkable PvP matches. The entertainment material, unlike the other (more sensitive) contents of the room, was accessible to pretty much every guild member, through an externally provided link.

Overall, the room truly gave the impression of having been designed by someone who had extensive experience with corporations and had thus seen their fair share of offices, was familiar in such an environment, and knew what worked and what didn’t. It went without saying that the office’s designer hadn’t been Akantha, but rather one of her Lieutenants, though she and other key-members offered their opinion and approval for the final version of the design.

“Team alpha’s going after the marked targets. There’s a freaking crowd of hunters,” Akantha commented from the head of the table.

“Team eta and epsilon are still stocking up on potions,” offered one of the Executives after consulting another member.

“Those NPCs are hilarious! Have you seen how hard they’re trying? It’s out of their hands,” enthused one of the Lieutenants.

“Focus, Pooh,” sighed another, then continued with his own report. “Zeta’s patrolling and checking out the competition,” it was apparent he wanted to continue, but was suddenly interrupted by the fore-mentioned Lieutenant leaning closer with his own live-feed, eager to show off something.

“Oooh, look, Juggernaut’s been spotted during a charge! He’s knocking ‘em over like any pro bowler could! Aw, but these poor pins are getting wrecked,” he laughed heartily.

“That is only minorly useful, Pooh,” said the unamused Lieutenant in obvious exasperation. “And I wish you didn’t interrupt my assignment,” he stressed the word.

“You’re no fun, CatZ,” replied the other with an eye-roll.

“Guys.” Akantha interrupted them mildly. “It’s a clusterfuck with those explosions. Beta, Gamma and Delta are already on their way to engage the offenders, if they can single them out,” she gestured to a trio by her side, a Lieutenant and two Executives who oversaw the named teams and had debated over the details of the situation with her.

“It will take some time to sort out,” one of the Executives began “We should–”

The conversation in the meeting room was interfered with by a loud knock on the door. Since whoever decided to bother them most likely wanted her, Akantha stood up and opened the front door, facing a violet-skinned female humanoid avatar with glowing green eyes. She was looking at Akantha with something akin to affront mixed in with frustration.

“Yes?” the guild leader drawled out the question, staring down at the other member with faux calmness.

“There’s someone from PVP PLOX? here! Again! And I’m fine with them, leader, really, but you know how some others are,” she finished with making a poor attempt at excusing her initial outburst.

Akantha sighed. “Name?” The other girl blinked at her, puzzled. Akantha rolled her eyes and repeated “What’s the person’s name?”

“Um,” the violet girl stalled. “I don’t know.”

“Fine, I’ll go check out the situation,” Akantha said, exasperated. She turned back into the meeting room, looking over the members. “Can you handle this? It’s probably Vector.”

“Sure, go greet your boyfriend, leader,” shouted Pooh. Akantha only snorted in reply.

“We’ll manage the situation and keep you informed. Will you go to the new instance yourself?” asked CatZ.

“I might,” Akantha replied. “I’ll notify you. I may pick up the last of those who wanted to go there today. But maybe I’ll just go there on my own,” she shrugged. “I trust you can co-ordinate the teams without me here,” she looked at all the members in the meeting room, but her gaze lingered particularly on the three Lieutenants present; they were her seconds-in-command and could be most counted on to keep things running smoothly.

“You know we will.”

“Got it, boss.”

“You bet we can, Akantha.”

There were several other replies, all affirmatory. Akantha left the meeting room, closing the door behind her, and the guild member who had come to fetch her trailed after her.

The path she took led her to a narrow balcony overlooking the large open-to-the-public training square, where several members were doing their own thing, but a few of them were also staring at the visitor, muttering among themselves in a discontent manner.

“Fuck’s sake,” Akantha whispered to herself, then descended to the ground level of the guild’s hall bellow. The visitor was indeed Vector, as she had thought it might be.

“People,” she proclaimed loudly, getting the attention of most of the members. “You really should know by now that Vector is my friend and the guild he’s part of is our ally,” she stressed that last part. Most members were content with that, but some remained frowning at Vector, probably just jealous of his success. Akantha stared them down until they finally returned to whatever they had been doing before.

Akantha stepped closer to Vecor. “Hey,” she greeted happily. “Long time no see. I gather you’d rather we go somewhere more secluded,” she led him outside of the hall, to a stereotypical zen garden which was technically part of their territory, as it was still on the mountain, though a NPC took care of it.

“Have you been to the new zone yet? We made a bit of a guild event out of it,” she commented.

@Thecrash20

[A Lowly Wretch]

[Pawn] + Rook

He never liked visiting the city.

It was always crowded with people, something he wasn't very comfortable with. He'd never been much of a social fellow but with the guild still in the back of his mind he wore his worries like he wore his backpack.

"Say, Rook, You wouldn't happen to see anything up there?" He asked his significantly taller magically automated companion.

"\\: Negative. Multiple entities ahead. Structures ahead." Rook answered back in it's typical stiffly robotic manner.

As they walked up [Pawn] was able to confirm what it had just said as he approached the town of Bell. A rustic town with a fair degree of attention paid to detail. They approached from the south, passing alongside the stream of travelers as one of many as they entered through the large open wooden gate. The theme of this town struck him as an old western frontier town on the prairies, something which clashed with the theme park-esque glut of players all buzzing here to there and so forth like a big hive of land bound bees.

As [Pawn] walked he kept his head low and stuck close to Rook, more behind it than anything since it's rather sizeable frame served as an effective plow, the crowded streets parting to allow this mass of stone through. They continued on, passing old timey buildings surrounded by curious players. He suspected he had yet to reach the market district which was good. He had no plans for shopping, especially not now. He had all the gear he needed for at least a solid couple of weeks of adventuring before he'd need to restock. His gear while not the best had served him rather fine thus far, being upper tier equipment for the earlier zones. There was little need for him to be on the cutting edge of equipment and as for potions he barely needed anything of the sort. He rarely sought combat and often let Rook tank the odd mob here and there, patching it up afterwards with his magic. As he was able to recover his mana between battles he hardly needed any mana potions, especially given the fact that his types of magic had very little in the way of mana heavy spells. He was mostly a summoner who's spells were largely to benefit his creations while they fought for him. At least that's how that was in combat. He tended to favor magic that could yield as much if not more out of combat use over in combat use. As for healing potions Rook couldn't use them and [Pawn] certainly never wanted to be put in the position where he'd need them.

_
The two of them eventually reached the city center where their purpose for visiting the city sat. A massive blue crystal enshrined in a finely runed device or as most people know them the Home Crystal. People were quite able to quick travel to any town with one of these lovery azure chunks set in them so long as they have visited it at least once. Seeing as this area just came out a lot of people were coming to seize the opportunity to have instant access to the new maps recently put out. Even if they had little reason to come or had other pursuits most would come if only to unlock this town's Home Crystal for future use.

As [Pawn] set his hand against the stone a bluish energy filled the air around him, blue motes of energy bubbling up from the ground and ascending around him in a spiral. A little translucent window opened in front of him. Home Crystal registered. With a thought he closed the message screen and continued on his way. All he needed to do now was leave the town, hopefully unrecognized, and he'd be scot-free. Free to roam the lands and explore the rich natural scenery of this graphically dense update. Just as they were beginning to walk towards the north gate however there was a low rumble in the distance followed by smoke and most notably the sounds of panic.

"What the heck was that?" As though listening the message screen atop the water tower lit up, brightly advertising a list of players under the tagline Hunt. In tandem a quest was suddenly added to his questlog, as indicated by the blinking Unread Quest icon at the top right corner of his quest tab. At a mere thought he opened the tab and brought up the new quest which told him in full the nature of this PVP event he was unwittingly volunteered for.

Before he could really even act the news along with the events down in the market place had stirred the thick crowds of people into a panic. He watched as the once busy crowd that surrounded him turned into a panicked mob, pushing and shoving each other as they ran for the many exits. Quite frankly he would of been among them in trying to leave but given his less than impressive stature he felt quite at risk of being trampled. Also there was little way for him to have Rook follow him at any reasonably quick pace as, given his size and strength, he'd probably trample a fair number of people which would be quite unpleasant and something that [Pawn] was morally opposed to making Rook do.

"Quickly Rook! Hoist me up on your shoulder!" He commanded, a sizeable stone hand gripping him around his torso upon his command. He was lifted up and sat upon the ridge of it's body, just beside it's head. Now that he was above the crowd he could see the situation a fair bit better. It seems there was a fair amount of fire starting to consume the market sector and there were certain players attacking others, the aggressors all belonging to the notorious guild Our World. He looked down and while there was no longer any risk of getting caught off guard by melee attacks he was still in plenty of danger. Unwilling to drive Rook forward at the risk of hurting others he did the only thing he could really do in this situation.

"Of the Crystal Rite, I summon forth the Seed. Basic Turret, activate!" He read forth the spell's incantation. Shuddering forth from the fabric of reality a strange floating sigil wrought from a deep bluish purple evanescent force manifested, strings of mana flowing from [Pawn]'s fingertips and pouring inside the construct's form like water filling a strangely shaped glass. Above the sigil was a small orb of congealed mana which shifted and churned with the motes it was comprised of. Beneath the sigil was a softly glowing circle of neon blue light which indicated the turret's position, a small triangular point affixed to the side of the circle denoting which direction it was going to fire. This was the Basic Turret, the very first spell in the Tower Defense bracket. Pulling up the screen name list presented by the message board he tagged each aggressor as a target, thus allowing for his turret to lock onto them should one of them step into it's sight radius.

With that he and Rook slowly started to make their way towards the north exit, taking great care not to step on anyone while he waited for his turret spell to recharge.