One, two, three, four... maybe just a few more... Mhmm... alright, that should be enough. I raised my axe to my side, about midway through the height of my ribs, and a blue ephemeral light swept over my armor, like blazing hot semi-transparent flames that were gone as suddenly as they appeared.
"High charge!" I yelled out, running one step and leaping the next, making a trail of light as my body suddenly accelerated towards my targeted position: Right where I guessed the mobs Totsurugi had gathered would probably be. Unlike real life, none of the dirt that was lifted into the air entered my clothes (or in this case, my armor) at all nor was it left dirty, even though there was a small crater where I'd fallen. Gritting my teeth with a rush of momentum, I spun in place alongside my axe, one single cleave wiping out every foe my friend had gathered. I grinned.
"Right. Just some two or three more and your quest should be complete, right?"I planted my axe on the floor by the staff side, and whistled a bit while I waited. My eyes drifted to the surrounding trees and traces of farmland, with occasional dropped details like some dropped insignificant object, leftovers from a campfire, or the tools of a resting farmer. Such details were always there, immutable unless players actively wanted to change them permanently. On the other hand... My attention was now focused on the crater I made, which no doubt would repair itself the moment I was out of range. Dissonant Steel Online prided itself on the fact that players had such an ability to affect the world and create permanent consequences on many story elements and the world's very content, but if every little thing players did had such a major effect, the game would be a mess that either the system couldn't handle, or would at the very least spiral out of control extremely quickly. So minor things like this, if a player did them, would always be fixed, while major effects like taking over a city were made permanent.
Some might find it strange for one reason or another, but if nothing else I was glad quests like these weren't affected. It was hard enough to help new players with them around, now imagine how it would be if no one could really know how quests would ever be?
- - - - - -
After completing that quest, we arrived at an area with a true sight of death. Skeletons of animals and people alike laid on the ground, some even seeming welded to random objects, many of which toys now rusted or broken. The trees were dead as far as the eye could see, and most likely beyond that point as well, as even without leaves and with such thin grey trunks, the woods were still too dense to see all the way through.
It was at that point that we heard a voice call out to us, coming from a man in hooded robes, waving a distorted arm with blue cracks at us.
"Hey! Heeey! Over here!" He called out as he approached us and us him. The hood was without doubt familiar, in fact it was the exact same one from the tavern they'd gone to for information! The man stopped not far, panting as he tried to catch his breath. There were clear signs of even more dirt than before on his robes, and even the hood was a little ripped from how much it was pulled to stay in place.
"I'm glad I could get to you in time. I saw you going out the gates in Shelia's direction, so I just had to ask... to think you'd be sent to such a place after helping me. I, I just couldn't sit idly by, so I came here through a shortcut I found. Please, I wish to repay you the favor you did for me earlier. I want to guide you to Shelia. Nothing like someone who came from there as a guide, right? I'm sure you've seen the state of the forest... And I'm sure you'll see how it happened soon enough. To tell you the truth, I am quite terrified of the place, I absolutely don't wanna go back there, have to go through all that again. So, if I may be so greedy, might I request just one more favor in return for aiding you, and going through such a trial again myself? My daughter and my wife, I last saw them in town. I don't know where they are, whether they are even still alive. I know there may not be much hope, but even so I believe there is some, so please promise me you'll help me find them! Or, in the worst case scenario, whatever may be left of them."Right as he finished saying that, the quest pop-up appeared offering a quest labeled "A Town Full of Life".
While you may have your guesses, the truth of the events that transpired- or are yet transpiring- in Shelia remains ultimately hidden still. A guide will no doubt be crucial in reaching the city. But can you keep the promise to find his family?
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Objectives: Uncover the situation in Shelia and the location of the cloaked man's family.
Rewards: 4 Gold Pieces; 200 XP
Totsurugi accepted the quest, and the mannequin man nodded.
"Thank you, thank you so much! Ah, I don't believe I have introduced myself yet, have I? My name is Chelvric. Chelvric Edwardson. It will be my pleasure, and my horror, to guide you today through the woods once known as the fairy sea." He bowed down with a hand on his chest, holding still for a moment. He eventually opened a single eye, glancing over at the dead, dead woods, then he gulped down and stood.
"I presume you came with your preparations made? Or at least the ones that you could, given what you know... The sooner we can get there, the more of a chance my family will still be alive. Yes, let's hurry! Follow me."The group made their way into the woods, passing through trees and leaping over small obstacles, a path that would contain more trees and less corpses depending on the player's maturity settings and others of the type. Eventually, however, they were forced to halt, as a green glowing pattern gradually faded into view on the ground not far from them. Chelvric raised an arm in front of the group, and Totsurugi would be feel their whole body stopping suddenly, motionless. Then, Totsu and Chelvric would both move cautiously, leaning forward and glancing around, eventually crouching down behind a small bush. Totsurugi should be feeling absolutely no control over their own virtual body, which would be moving on its own. I remained free and couldn't witness what was about to happen, but seeing the way Totsurugi moved I could guess he was currently caught in this game's equivalent of a cutscene.
A small, lean, very clearly underfed animal, something of a cross between a tiger and a weasel, silently lurked their way through these dreadful woods, but they failed to notice the magical circle. As soon as they placed their paw on it, a geyser of green energy erupted into the air, barbed strings of magic tangled themselves against the creature's body, seeming to pull it down. The creature grew leaner and leaner, until their body began to form green cracks of energy, which created in turn a bright flash of light, and when it vanished the creature was no more than another one of the skeletons that littered those grounds.
"So many of us were caught... these, these things do not discriminate. We don't know where they come from, but we do know they were sucking out all the life they could from around here. If you're caught in one, you're dead. Please, be careful."Zone: Deadland Woods
Trait: Life Switcher - The area periodically generates traps that drain one's lifeforce if one is caught in them. Avoid the magic circles that appear on the ground.
From there on out and until we reached the town, the magical circles would appear more and more frequently, and in greater numbers. Sometimes they would appear so many they would force us to fight a monster (which I would one-shot), or force Totsurugi to cleverly move obstacles around to clear our path. As we grew closer, the line of trees began growing more sparse, and we could see silhouettes moving from side to side seemingly running, though their shapes were frequently rather bizarre. The occasional sound of a volley of gunshots filled the air, and if one were to look up, they might even see tiny trails of smoke dissipating into the air before getting very far up.
Reaching the farthest part of the woods, the answer revealed itself: There was a massive field of colored squared, enormous, a line of eight of them and stretching out for eight rows as well. There were many kinds of people here, namely human, elf and dwarf-looking ones, but many of them had parts of some toy attached to them like Chelvric had, and they wore hats strapped under the chin like a bicycle helmet. The hat the shape of chess pieces, specifically chess pawn pieces colored white. From the other end of the board, enormous chess pieces would emerge in a cloud of black smoke, and they would start leaping in their direction, bending as though their material was elastic or even flesh-based, though their looks very much were those of regular (yet ridiculously oversized) pieces made from painted stone. The soldiers with the hats would kneel down from time to time, aim their muskets at the pieces and shoot, causing the chess piece to explode into bits which dissipated into smoke. Only two solitary pieces, around the center back of the alternate-color field, remained still and untouched.
Even Chelvric was wide-eyed and had his mouth agape.
"What... is this?" He inquired.
"Chelvric?"The cloaked man turned faster than any of them had seen him move thus far.
"Lala?" He asked with a hopeful tone, as though he was begging fate to grant his wish. Whether it did or not was debatable: In front of him was the figure of a woman with what appeared to be a black blindfold and a bishop's hat. Her skin was incredibly pale and she wore a cloak richer than what the poor tools she was carrying would suggest, or maybe it was the other way around? Her legs were only thinner, in fact ceasing to be human-looking at all, and instead looking more like thin stripes of black metal. Chelvric found his fist clenching.
"Chelvric? You can... recognize me?" her voice echoed, slightly distored. He nodded. Seeing no response from her, but rather a worried look growing on her face, he spoke.
"I can. I could never forget you, Lala. Nor our daughter." He meant it both that he would never forget his daughter, and that the girl would never forget her mother either.
"I-I have come to find you. And Chelsea. Do you know where she is? I brought these brave heroes to help as well. They came to investigate what happened to our town, and perhaps to help as well!"Lala's head leaned down, and she shook it somberly.
"I don't know where she might be. I tried going back for her, but I was caught by...something. It was too dark. I think it was still daytime, but my memories are hazy. Maybe it was just that it covered me with something large? When I woke up, I was changed somehow. I wasn't like this yet back then." She moved her hand in front of herself as though displaying her body.
"But I already woke up too late to go back. We don't know much of what happened, but we're willing to explain. We're trying to reach the town as best we can, but their attacks are relentless."Lala pointed at the board and the titanic chess pieces that kept spawning and coming for them.
"If we want to have a chance to get to town and find our home, we need to deal with these attacks enough to push beyond them and occupy some territory that isn't just this little edge of the forest, or what used to be a forest. Speaking of, if you managed to get through it, maybe you are capable of giving us more support. My husband said you wanted to learn more about what happened to the town, correct? Well, so do we. Our best bet for that is to reach it. It seems I've gotten myself a bit of magic so even I can support our forces here on this side, but I am not in charge of our forces. Our king would know better what to do with you. You can find her in that tent over there, alongside the strategy map."---------------------------------
The tent itself was nothing particularly impressive. It was a thin cloth tent in stripped colors, with a makeshift throne on the back. toys and gadgets were spread in heaps on the edges of the tent, alongside sepia photographs and flowers. At the very center of the tent there were a few small wooden chairs, almost benches instead, surrounding more or less a small table with a map rushedly drawn on parchment that was nailed to the table. Metal stamps with no ink laid on top of the map, seemingly representing their forces.
Leaning closer, the majority of the stamps were concentrated on a small area the edge that was attacked to a pattern of alternating black and white squares. This was clearly the board they saw. There was a large supposed river on the left, and on the right a garden of sorts labeled in crude ink "trayning groundz". Beyond the chess board, there was some manner of large dark valley, after which the town itself began. There were many streets, but to in particular stood out due to habe tiny flags stuck on them, one a large square area empty of what seemed like drawn buildings, and another which was the opposite, more a congregation of those. If Totsurugi approached any of these flags with his fingers or eyes, then a pop up would appear with additional information on his mission there.
It was a bit of a complicated matter since I had already completed the storyline, so how everything looked was completely different for me. Still, with a click here or there and I could more or less sync our quest instance, thus making me able to at least witness the environment Totsurugi was interacting with, and the map in which they could pick what quest they wanted to proceed with, if any.
1.The Board
The enemy attacks are neverending. Nomatter how many of them we defeat, they just keep reforming. Even though it isn't immediate, we barely have time to breathe, let alone get any proper rest. At this rate, it's a matter of time before we're too overwhelmed and have to cede this final piece of ground from what was once our home. If someone could deal with some of their numbers just for a short while, I believe we might be able to recover our forces somewhat and keep up the defense long enough to see things fixed.
2. The Grand Plaza
Based on the way they move, the enemy forces appear to be convinced that in some way they are playing a match of chess. As per the rules, if we defeated their king, we might be able to put a stop to them once and for all. However, that piece and the queen seemed to be protected by some sort of impregnable shield. My senior, the First Bishop, headed to the plaza in hopes of finding the source of it, or a way to "flip the board" if you will among the many inventions that would have been left at the plaza when all this started. But it worries that there hasn't been sight or word from him since. It's already been several days.
3.Practice Grounds
This is outrageous! How long must I be made to wait? You keep insisting that I fight for this town, when I was but a passerby with no attachment to it- and yet now IT is attached to ME! Provide me with a squire at once, or else my blade shall continue to not make a single prick upon your enemies.
In fact, it's best if you bring multiple people. I shall hold a test to see who would be better fitting to serve as my squire.
4. Tea Party District: Memories
I myself, and many more of us have missing family members, friends and loved ones who have yet to be found. Alive OR dead. I believe this search should be our top priority, if we ever find we have any forces to spare. In the meantime, I would like to share what information I can about it. My memories are blurry, I don't believe that is accident, but I know a spell which might be able to help. I do not yet understand this magic I have been gifted though...
5. The Rockfield Mansion
If we are to believe that indeed our foes are fighting by the rules of a chess game, then it may be that our lack of pieces is part of why we are under such disadvantage. Even excluding the bishop that went missing, we never found our rooks, queen, one of our knights and we only found six pawns. This is where the good news comes though: In a fortified home in town, we found a group fo four whose descriptions seem to match what we would think of as "rooks" and "pawns".
The bad news? Aside from them being surrounded on all sides by hordes of living toys and being distrustful of random strangers?
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BlueYellow