Wandering FoolAeternus || NexusLunar FestivalAffected Players: The Imagineer
Fool was content to lean on the counter of the booth and watch her miss a few times before she settled into the weapon. It was nice to rest and cool down, even if just for a moment. He tilted his head as he watched Imagine concentrate.
What makes this different from a real date? It’s the same people, same sensations… same emotions. Why couldn’t I ever do this in the real world? The thought was sobering. Jeremy looked down at his hands, rubbing his hands together and inspecting the palms.
I might die in this body. He looked up at Imagines face, slightly flushed, and full of concentration as she took her last shots.
She could die here too. The thought made the noise and lights of the festival seem distant for a moment. Was everyone here just putting on a false face before they went to their deaths?
Imagine turned to him and held up the gun, looking a bit abashed. Her comments made him smile, though not as much as it would have before his mind invaded. “Even if you had gotten the grand prize, no gentleman would take a soft bed from a lady.” Jeremy gave her a low bow, hat off and flourishing his cloak. Behind, the vendor was retrieving the prize, a red necklace thing. Fool blinked as he recalled what she had mentioned.
Shiinen said
Ah, they have little plush toys...Can we get a matching pair?
He sighed, not much for it then. Fool hugged her again, this time a bit more tightly- and met the vendors eye’s over her shoulder. “Stuffed Animals.” He mouthed it at the man, who looked confused for a moment. Fool gestured as much as he could at one of the fish, and then made a squeezing movement with one of his hands. For a moment he returned his attention to Imagine, “Thanks for thinking of me, but this is a festival-” meanwhile behind her, the Vendor was making a slow squishing movement with one hand, looking thoughtful. Fool would facepalmed if he could. He pointed at the red necklace, and snatched his poor fish out of the air, pointing at it awkwardly behind Imagines back. The mans face lit up, and he nodded, pulling out one of the plushies she had wanted. Fool held up two fingers and the Vendor shook his head. Fool wanted to growl, but instead continued, “-and we should
both enjoy it.” Jeremy let her go with a wide smile and stalked over to the vendor, the moment his back was to Imagine he stealthily held up three coins, holding up two fingers. The Vendor shrugged, pulling out a second stuffed animal thing and handing it to him. Fool slid the coins across the counter in the same movement as he snatched both toys from the counter and turned, proffering one to Imagine.
“Looks like you did win a matching pair.” Despite his smile, his fish, floating past behind her head, almost seemed to roll its eyes. “I chose this one, why don’t you choose what we do next?” He was going to need some time to think.
I always realized that I was trapped here, but I never considered what everyone else thought. Her first date? What if it’s her last? What about everyone else? The thoughts had cooled his emotions, letting rational thought take over again. Suddenly he understood the festival. He wanted to lose those thoughts.
HP: 63%
SP: 70
Level: 4
Inventory:Gold: 132
Deck of Cards
Dice & Cup x 10
Bread x1
Flint & Steel
Whetstone
Canteen (Empty)
Wood Club
Pellet x10
Stuffed Animal
Silver SoldierAeternus || AfrielMystic WoodsAffected Players: No one.
All his starter money gone, for this. The Silver Soldier looked up from his map of the forest, a fierce smile lighting up his face, torch light danced in his eyes. Before him were six other players. The party of seven stood at the entrance to Afriel, near the wagon load that had just been delivered, each person holding a
Lit Torch, as per requirement. Each should also possess at least one health potion. Konrad rolled the map up and stepped forward, he had waited for the last man to appear before starting. This let the others talk a bit and get to know eachother. All of them had gathered here for a common thing though; gold.
“Alright! We are going to set out in a few minutes-” Konrad paused for a moment, to let the conversations die off, ensuring quiet. “But first, we need to discuss what is going to happen.” His ice tinged gaze moved around them all, a constant smile tugging on his lips. “You all know the basics of why we are here; this is a hunt. The personal payment promised to each of you is 15
gold on completion of our outing. In the case that you should die, your items will be sent on to the user you specified in your private messages to me. If you wish to change, I suggest you send the appropriate messages now.”
Konrad paused for a second, looking at the players assembled. He had sorted through the applicants to find these- not carefully, he hadn’t had the time- but carefully enough to find the serious players. The people here were the first ones that showed they understood just how screwed they all were. “In the case that
I should fall, I have given all your salaries to the local shopkeeper, and she will know if I fall in battle, and how.” Now for the good part. “As you all know, this game has robbed us of precious overhead maps, and using the HUD will take time and possibly cost you a precious second of reaction time. Because of this, I will be directing everyone to keep us safe. It will require everyones help as well. Everyone here will need to switch their settings so that messages from me will open off to the side instead of a regular
Message Received! notification. You should message me as little as possible in order to keep the group sending clear, but for every enemy sighted I would like a report.” The Silver Soldier halted his speech again, and looked around, watching everyone work through their settings, except for one man. An… Konrad frowned in distaste, an
Eliminator.
“You there, is there an issue?” The man glowered at Konrad when he was called out. “Why should we follow your orders? This is an MMO, not a fricken first person shooter.” Conrad reached up and dropped his hood back, exposing his face fully, tatoos rolling from his forehead, down his cheeks, and disappearing under his robe.. “Oh really?” He spoke quietly and stepped forward. “This isn’t a game, this is life. In this life, dying means you stay dead.” The other man stepped up to go toe to toe with him.
“Then my question is even more important. Why should we follow your orders?” The Silver Soldier smiled coldly before responding. “Leave.” The other man immediately looked surprised, backing off a bit. “Hey, wait a second-” Konrad looked past him and addressed the group. “If you can’t do exactly what I say, without question, you do not belong here. I do not intending on letting anyone here die, but that means doing what you are told, without question.” He ignored the sputtering
Eliminator, and decided to wrap the meeting up, there was hunting to do. “The pairings will be simple. White Knight with Sorcerer as group A, Healer with Champion as group B, Shieldman group C, you will be positioned between the two groups as a stand alone, but do not worry, you will have support. If we get separated, coding for calling out enemies quickly will be ‘w’ for wolf, ‘r’ for raptor, and ‘t’ for troll. Directly after the letter put a number to show how many are present. Alright, head out- I will tell you your positions on the way there.” Konrad stowed the map and moved towards the forest path leading back to Nexus, but a hand on his shoulder slowed him. The Eliminator.
“You can’t be serious, your health is too low for any kind of serious questing! Guys, open your eyes!” Konrad glanced at the others, seeing a bit of uncertainty. He turned and shoved the Eliminator back roughly. “You have little room to talk, assassin boy. Go find a real combat class before you complain to us frontliners.” The Silver Soldier left the user with his mouth open and lead the group of torch-bearing players into the forest.
The group was crouched on the road in a circle, gazing at the rolled out map. The Shieldman was on guard duty, watching for both road traffic and enemy ai. “This wasn’t a cheaply made gaming system, so its unlikely that enemies just spawn into the world at random- there has to be reason to it. I believe that there may be a limited number of ai in an area at a time, which means they have to be somewhere. Ideas?”
The White Knight pointed at a cave noted on the map, farther out into the forest. “That
is the logical place, if I was a GM.” Silver nodded, looking at the others, “More opinions?”
“What about here?” The healer was motioning to a section of the forest closer to the road, east of the cave. “I ran into wolves right around here before I arrived.” The sorcerer nodded, and leaned over thoughtfully to put his finger on the map closer to Nexus, still near the road clearing his throat. “I sensed some wolves when I used
Life Sense about here, but they were coming from Afriels direction, not Nexus’s, and not from the cave.” Silver nodded, a smile growing on his face. So simple.
“Good, we will position ourselves… here.” The others looked at him with some confusion, his finger was seemingly positioned in the middle of no where. The look on his face was one of determination and… glee? Within moments, they were on the move.
It been going so well. Four wolves dead with not a single drop in health. The arrangement had been simple. Group A hid within some bushes directly to Konrad’s left, Group B to the right. The Shieldman was hidden directly behind him. Konrad himself was positioned in the center of a ten foot diameter circle of spaced
Lit Torch items, stabbed into the ground. It had worked wonderfully. A wolf would come along periodically, and see nothing other than Konrad. Once aggroed it wasn’t aware enough to sense the others hiding in wait. Once it charged, it was a little matter for the group of six to handle. Konrad didn’t fight at all. Coming at him from the open end of the semi-circle, it was nailed by an ensnarement from the healer before it could even get close, then hit by a standard fireball from the Sorcerer. About that time, the White Knight and Champion had closed from both sides and finished the poor beast before it could even free itself.
After the fourth had died, everyone took positions again eagerly, but… it wasn’t a solitary wolf or two that came through.
…
Konrad turned with a roar, punching a wolf that was leaping through the air at him in its throat, unleashing
Soul Punch, white light bursting for a moment with a concussive
thump causing the wolf to fly backwards into the dark forest, out of sight. “Group A, rejoin B, rear to tree! Range center, flanking by Melee!” It had gone downhill fast. This apparently wasn’t an MMO where you could farm for experience off of a set movement path without awakening some nasty triggers. Wolves had suddenly come in a horde, and the worst part was that they couldn’t tell how many there were. A millisecond glance at the HUD was impossible, as wolves were lunging from the dark everywhere, at any time.
“C, report!” … … “
C, report!” He didn’t have enough time to send a message, with his point position. The entire group had formed an obtuse triangle, a Melee class to form each of the points, and the wide base was the Rangers.
Key: Ranged Class (X) Melee (O) Nothing (_)
____O____
_O_X_X_O_
The wide end of the triangle was protected by a great tree, letting those inside use projectile abilities whilst shielded from the melee classes.
“Focus range forward, melee keep on flanks- I am going after him!” Konrad dashed forward and diagonally to the circle of torches, About ten steps past C’s last known position, he came across him. The Shielder had backed up to a tree, being hazarded by five wolves at once, darting in and back. The man had been doing amazing, holding them off with his spear and blocking with the shield, but nips and bites had built up over time.
“Six o’clock Wolf!” Konrad hit the ground as a large dark body of muscle and teeth flew over his head, and then kicked off to nail it with his shoulder as it tried to turn about, slinging it onto the ground for a moment. Two of the wolves on the Shielder turned to face him, but Konrad didn’t stop to square off, kicking one over out of a lunge as he passed, the other springing towards Konrad’s throat. It’s jaws locked around his arm instead though, its weight knocking him over to his side, just a few feet from the Shieldman. The wolf was mauling his arm, ripping through his flesh, and fire flared in his mind, resulting in a blow that blew the wolf off of him, ripping off a small piece of flesh with it as it crashed out of sight into the forest. The other wolves reared away in alarm at that, forming a small circle. Konrad stood with blood rolling down his arm, scratches on his face and arms, and chest heaving. The Shieldman made no move to help him, Konrad had had only 50% hp to start with, he was a goner in everyones eyes.
The blood suddenly evaporated, eaten by a white fire, drops burning away mid-air as Konrad’s wounds seemed to zip up by themselves. The Silver Soldier had a wide smile, and his eyes were wide with energy and excitement.
“C, take point position with A and B.” The wolves leaped for him, and Konrad unleashed
Soul Warp with a wild laugh. The robed body blurred for a moment, and a series of concussive cracks split the air as all four wolves seemed to fly away from him, some slamming into trees and others tumbling through the underbrush and into the darkness. The Shieldman gapped at him for a moment. “I said GO!” Konrad roared at the man, getting tackled from behind as a wolf leaped onto his back, knocking him down. A precision fireball blew it away with a surge of heat, and instantly Silver rolled back to his stomach and crawled forward, the two ranged classes casting spells over his head. He reached his allies panting.
Konrad: HP-50% SP-55%
A
White Knight LV1: 71%
Sorcerer LV 1: 100%
B
Champion LV 1: 65%
Healer LV 1: 100%
C
Shieldman LV 1: 57%
“When I shout, go to the torch circle.” Their positions had altered slightly, but not all that much. Konrad was back on point, but with the Shielder beside him, forming more of a trapezoid than a triangle. They were holding the wolves at a distance for now, but it wouldn’t last all night. “Get a torch, and all melee hunker down around the mages. Mages go back to back, use your magic conservatively. We will start again from there…
GO!”
Everyone bolted. It was only about twenty feet away, but even that was almost too far. The Healer was almost dropped by a wolf midway, but the Champion
tackled it off of her, kicking it away from him and scrambling into the circle to join them- it would have taken too long for him to stand. They regrouped, and each was holding a torch outward, brandishing them at the circling pack. The White Knight and the Shielder had stowed their weapons, favoring the torches and shields to the sword and spear. The torches at least seemed to deter them a bit, like real wolves. “How are we doing on soul points?” It was almost as important as health, at this point. The Sorcerer shook his head. “Almost out, I have maybe two or three good fireballs in me.” The healer bowed her head along with him, she sounded almost despaired. “I can probably heal around 40% at most, but then I am done as well.” Konrad’s thoughts were racing.
“Do any of the melee classes have a charging attack of any sort?” All three shook their heads, silent for just a second, and then the White Knight spoke up. “It isn’t a charge specifically, but I have a light-based shield attack.” Konrad nodded, “It’ll have to do, won’t it? Alright, lets all move towards the main road, at a slow walk.” It didn’t take much intelligence to realize that the first person to run would be the first to die.
And so they marched. It wasn’t really all that far, because of the size of the first area. The entire time they were surrounded by wolves, edging in and going for a bite. Each time, a swift torch was there to make a fiery swing for an exposed wolf head. It seemed like it took hours to reach the road, but in reality it was just thirty minutes of constant panic. The wolves had begun to grow more frantic when it came into view, and when Konrad caught sight of the tree fallen across the road, he knew. “They are going to swarm us before we reach Afriel, at any moment.” His voice was urgent, but quiet. Everyone glanced about, meeting their companion’s eyes. There were easily fifteen wolves that had kept following them, and all of them had at least half their health, if not more; no one had killed a wolf since that fourth one.
“...What’s the plan?” The Champion spoke calmly. He sounded accepting of their fate. Some would make it in the mad dash to get back into Afriel, others would be dragged down. They all knew there was little that could be done. Konrad was quiet, and their group halted on the road. The wolves were braver, and louder. At the same time, every single person among them could make out the lights of Afriel in the distance.
“We will fight them.” Konrad looked at all of their bewildered faces with a blood thirsty smile. This was like a strategy scenario. A small, wounded and tired group, surrounded by a bunch of lighter but faster units. He could orchestrate it the same way as in a turn based strategy.
Konrad: HP-50% SP-31%
A
White Knight LV1: 62%
Sorcerer LV 1: 86%
B
Champion LV 1: 49%
Healer LV 1: 75%
C
Shieldman LV 1: 57%
They broke into a run for the town, dropping torches and booking it- it was about as long as a hundred meter dash, but the wolves were much faster Almost immediately, the wolves caught those in the farthest back position- the Healer and Sorcerer. They both went down, shouting- and almost instantly a clash of light and sound followed as the two Users with shields spun and unleashed their shield linked abilities. The white knights sent out a blinding flash, just as the Shieldman’s stunned and knocked the wolves straight off of the Healers back, the wolves yipped and fell over eachother, jumping away from the lights and preparing to fight- only to find the players long gone, sprinting ahead.
The scene repeated several times, but as they neared the small palisade separating Afriel and the forest, the two had run low on health, and no more potions were to be found among them. In the end, just ten meters from the gate, their little group formed a tight knot, the men with shields were doing nothing else but attempting to hold back the wolves as they moved back step by step towards the gate, the sheer weight of the wolves leaping and clawing over eachother to get at them was pushing the three men almost to the ground. The Champion had managed to break through the gates- aided by the mages and into town, barely with their lives intact.
Conrad snarled and helped the other two men push back, then growled under his breath.
“Get inside the gates.” The men barely glanced at him. “Get inside.
NOW.” Konrad activated
Soul Gravitation as the others broke past him and bashed their way through to the gate, an almost waterfall of wolves falling forward onto Konrad. The weight of them just cascaded about him, and Konrad was lost to view for a moment, and then the wolves blew backwards as he knocked them back with a concussive blast of white light, striking out left and right with SP fueled punches to hold back the tide desperately. A bite on the back of the leg, another wolf clamped onto his arm, and the Silver Soldier could see his health began to drain almost immediately, which was almost certain death. Suddenly there was a flash of white, and his vision went strange, symbols and smoke dancing across his eyesight. Then he was yanked backwards.
“You should have taken me with you.” His next conscious moment was in Afriel, next to Baggle’s wagon, on his back. Above him stood the Eliminator from earlier. Konrad sat up shakily, looking to his health bar. He could only glance back at the Eliminator, and then at the others, some crouching, but almost everyone else in the group was laying on their backs, panting. Konrad laughed and nodded.
“I suppose I’m still paying you anyway.”
A
White Knight LV1: 18%
Sorcerer LV 1: 17%
B
Champion LV 1: 23%
Healer LV 1: 21%
C
Shieldman LV 1: 19%
D
Eliminator LV 1: 100%
HP: 7%
SP: 0%
Level: 1
Inventory:Gold: 0
Map (Mystic Woods, Detailed)
Compass
Lit Torch
