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Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

Packs of laughing dogmen came streaming into the chamber. Stumbling, leaping, crawling over one another to grab their next meal. All their beady, ravenous eyes were locked on the two smallest party members at the back-- Seele and Kazuki. Weak, vulnerable; easy prey. The gnolls bounded forward with such ferocious speed and singular intent that it was already too late. They were just too fast. They'd be tearing into their quarry before anyone could peel away from the dire bat. A perfect ambush, save for one, fatal flaw:

The screaming locomotive of muscle and steel charging right back at them.

"Come on!" Graves's sword sang as it left its sheathe, meeting flesh and bone. One of the laughing dog's went silent, the contents of its throat spilling onto the stone. Two more ran over its falling corpse to get at its attacker. Pickaxes flew. The first was hacked off at its haft but the second found purchase in Graves's thigh. The man roared, grabbing the back of the gnoll's head and jamming its face into the other end of the it's own weapon. Adrenaline kept Graves moving as he pulled the pickaxe out, tossing it aside just as another group of gnolls joined the fray.

One of them pounced on his back, claws burrowing into his shoulders to keep it there. Graves kept swinging at its friends, nodachi twisting through the air in wide, deadly arcs. The beast climbed along his back-- leaving long cuts along the flesh as it did-- until it was close enough to lean down and bury its teeth into Graves's throat. The man's wordless bellows sputtered out into wheezed coughing, and his sword slowed in its swings long enough for the rest of the gnolls to rush him. They clamped down on his arms and began to wail away at his chest, peeling apart his armor like a tin can to get at the meat inside.

Kazuki shouted some nonsense and a spell erupted around Graves's body, flinging his attackers in every direction. He stumbled backward onto a knee, shooting the support a crazed, furious look-- don't get in my way.

His palm hit the ground, channeling arcane magic into the pools of fresh blood laid out around him. It came crawling through the air toward him, rushing into his open wounds, his finger nails and his pores to get at his bloodstream. Seconds went by before his wounds began to stitch themselves closed. An ugly, painful experience, where new flesh burst forth from the old and slithered across his skin to fit itself into Graves's injuries. It took the longest to repair the bite in his neck.

"Fuck!" Graves coughed up blood, rising to his feet. "Come on, come on, AGAIN!"

Seele was quick to follow up on Kazuki's spell, launching some kind of purple energy through the air. It hit each of the gnolls one by one, slowing them down. What were once rockets of mangled fur became sluggish, tired-- easy to kill.

Just as Benkei reached his side, Graves was running forward again, bellowing and hollowing. Blinded to the pain. Blinded to whatever was going on around him. The only thing he was tunneled in on were the next group of gnolls standing in front of him. Then he was on top of them, nodachi ready to sing through the air again...

And giant bolts of sharpened rock came crashing through the ground, impaling the beasts around him. Graves tried as best he could to avoid the sudden eruptions, but they were numerous and all targeted at the gnolls-- the gnolls he'd put himself right in the center of. Pain kissed his side, his leg, his arm. He yanked himself off the spikes and called more blood up to him.

He'd never felt more alive.

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

“If I pushed you, I don’t think I’d hear the splat.”

That great, terrible canyon stretched down for what felt like eternity-- so far down that the rock Rael had kicked never seemed to hit the bottom. It made bile rise up in the back of his throat. Heights were something he got a lot of back home in Nowhereseville, Indiana. The tallest point of the town was a hill right up from the church; some genius a long time ago had decided it was the best place for the graveyard. Andrew still remembered how badly his legs had ached after they'd buried his father.

"Think we found somewhere to fit all that ego." He grunted. Try as he might, he couldn't hide how nervous he was. He hadn't been able to compose himself since the Glitch. Every little sound, every sudden movement, made his blood pressure spike. His hand kept finding its way to the hilt of his blade, like a child reaching out for his comfort blanket. What was he goin' to do if he fell, exactly? Stab the fall to death?

It'd worked on those trolls back there, at least. Blood still lingered along the edge from where he'd lopped one'a those massive arms off. Fatigue still lingered in his muscles, too, as it never had before. All of the visceral aspects of Pariah's combat that Graves had loved had been cranked up to eleven now, n'...it scared him how much he was enjoying it. Sure, he was terrified of every blow he had to tank. It hurt to all hell, too. But the fucking rush he'd gotten killing those things was better than any high he'd ever experienced.

'Least there's nothing to feel guilty for,' he mused to himself, watching the rest of the party deliberate about how they'd get across this gap. Graves turned from the edge at Rael's request-- giving her a sly wink as he did-- and jogged to the back of the party to keep an eye out. 'S' not like they're actually alive.'

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

There was work to be done. The party wouldn't get another respite until the dungeon's end, so it was best they prepared for what challenges lay ahead. Their fearless leader, Benkei, was working with Rael to account for all the supplies they had to work with. They'd gotten to work mere moments after the attendant left-- were they just putting on a brave face? Or did a chance encounter with death really not scare them?

"Could use a snack." He cleared his throat on approach, burying his shame for another day. He hadn't expended much energy thus far, but he was still peckish. It was weird. He didn't get nearly so hungry so quickly in the real world. Was it all the extra muscle he'd put on in the game? An odd thing to mull over as he reached down and collected a sizeable bit of food. After a moment's thought and a glance over his shoulder he picked up a second share.

Then his eyes went to the collection of special items and potions they'd laid out. Graves hadn't taken the time to drop by the alchemist in Thorinn before the raid, stupidly enough. He'd gotten cocky, excepted to run through this no problem. "I could use one'a them ironskins too." He reached down and plucked one up, slipping it into a specially made loop in his belt. There was another vial hanging next to it that he pulled from its string. "Don't like takin' without offerin' anything back," he said, tossing it to Rael. "Extracted straight from a basilisk's fang. The guy said the poison's so potent it'll burn you just by lookin' at it too long."

Graves winced just at the memory of it, a hand moving up to rub his shoulder. "Think I believe him, too."

That single, concentrated extract was worth almost a quarter of the kill by itself. It would've made for a hell of a hunting tool in his arsenal if the world hadn't gone to shit. Now, all he could hope was that it saved a couple'a lives before the day was done. "Maybe hand it over to the archer. Can only imagine what a shot of that shit through the eye would feel like. But, y'know," he shrugged, "I trust your judgement any which way."

With a final, over-exaggerated bow, he turned away and was off.

His path brought him over to where Seele was "helping" the much larger Alja to her feet. Evidently they'd managed to work through her panic attack together. That brought some comfort, he had to admit. Alja was good at what she did and they needed her help if they were going to get through this. She might not be back to her usual, chipper self for awhile, but this would have to do. Seele'd done good.

"Here." Graves offered the second serving of food he'd taken over to Alja, plopping down on the ground where she'd once been to scarf down his own meal. "Goshta keep yer shtrengthh up." He sloshed out between chunks of jerky and dried out fruit.

The Voyagers of Duonia: A Medieval Fantasy RP

---

"Nobody'll rob you if you don't have anything worth taking." Chip mused aloud as he beat the snow out of his dirty cloak. A mangy, old thing, cut from polar bear fur and sewn onto patchwork leathers. The only thing on his person worth snatching was the coin purse tucked into his belt, but that rarely saw the light of day-- too buried in furs to ever attract any attention. It was stupid to walk around in a place so wretchedly poor as this all wrapped up in silks and wearing gold on your fingers. Even somebody as big as Dular couldn't protect Entyrea from the truly desperate.

And anybody cursed to live in this frozen hellscape was desperate from the start.

"Thanks for the help, Mister Temfarrow! We'll see ya soon enough. Off to the tavern, then." He waved goodbye over his shoulder, trudging along in the direction of the tavern. Dular was more or less leading the way, since she'd traveled these streets before, but Chip was getting a feel for the town already: its streets and alleys were not unlike the game trails and world roads he'd spent so much of his life following. If the pattern of fresh prints on the ground were any indication, most folks tended to go in this direction...and their feet tended to drag more snow than others going elsewhere. Better a clue than nothing, he supposed.

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

Graves didn't get up. He felt a hand grasp his shoulder and gentle words reach his ears but he couldn't hear them. The ringing was all there was. A loud, constant screeching, accompanied by a blood-pounding headache. His eyes snapped shut. It was quiet here. Dark. A place he'd often visit when he needed a moment of reprieve. Andrew was usually alone in this place.

Not this time.

'We're goin to die, aren't we?'

Probably. Dungeons like this one were meant to challenge top tier players. It wasn't strange for a group to wipe several times trying to complete one. Only this time they wouldn't get up, he supposed.

'Doesn't that scare you?'

No shit! Andrew'd have to be certifiably nuts to not be frightened by a thing like that. It was only human, after all. Still, it was something he'd thought long and hard about for a long time, even before today: what'd it be like to die? He wasn't much of a religious person anymore. Odds were the only thing waiting for him was the void. That was a bit scary, he had to admit. Nothingness wasn't a concept he could wrap his head around.

'Its too soon. We're s'posed to have the rest of our lives head of us...'

Not much of a life worth living for, Andrew laughed. It was a scornful, hateful little sound. He'd had two short decades on this earth and what'd he waste them on? Shuffling through every day like a zombie? Playing games when other people were actually, y'know, succeeding in life? He'd gotten good at this last one. He was proud of that-- proud of this fake life he'd built for himself. It was more effort than he'd ever put into the other one.

'You never gave yourself the chance to, you fuckin' idiot. And now its gone!'

Maybe so. There were other around him, though- others who had actually used the time they'd been allotted. Alja must've had people that loved her waiting back home. Kalie wanted to be a teacher. Wasn't that something! How many lives would she go on to impact for the better if she got out of here? We have a chance to do some good here. A real chance. All that work you put into swinging a fake sword around and now you might be able to do something with it.

'...'

You're better at this than any of them, aren't you?

'Yeah.'

I didn't save up every penny I'd ever earned on a scalped video game so you can throw this one, solitary opportunity to not be a complete fuck-up away. So get up. Get up and kick some ass for me before you turn my brain to mush.

And with that Graves turned away, walking out of the dark and back into the humid corridor in the middle of a dungeon. His eyes slipped open. He could feel his heartrate slowing back to normal. The ringing in his ears faded into dull background noise. The headache lingered; that one was manageable, at least. He stood up, looking to the people around him- actually taking the time to see them.

To see them scared outta their minds See them being brave for the others around them. See them setting aside their differences to help however they could. See them taking charge, or offering up supplies, or even just giving words of encouragement when they had nothing else to offer.

They were a motley group of weirdos who never should've had to go through this.

Graves took a breath. "Don't fuck it up."

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

Anger burned in Graves' chest even as the group caught a moment's rest. They were collapsing along the corridor around him, exhausted and harried. He paced between them all, unable to keep still. Rael asked him if he was alright and he could only give her a nod. Graves was sure if he tried to speak he'd only end up yelling, and he knew that wouldn't be fair to her. He still had so much energy-- it infuriated him. One little misstep had taken him out of the action damn near immediately, forcing everyone else to pull his weight for him. His incompetence had almost killed Seele; how could he be so stupid? So reckless? Why'd a little pain cause him to run like a fucking coward?

He watched her slink against a wall, too hurt and too drained to even stand. She was ragged. The skin around her fingers had been sundered, her cheeks were still wet with blood leaking from her face and there was that black shit still running through her veins. It must've been the feedback from expending too much arcane energy- it wasn't something Graves had experienced personally, but he was vaguely aware of the mechanic. He'd never heard of it doing that to a person, though.

The distance closed between the two of them before he fully knew what he was doing. "Sit," he demanded, waving her down until she complied. Crouching next to her, Graves started peeling back her sleeves to get a better look at the damage she'd done to herself. It was...extreme. He could only imagine how excruciating it must've been. It'd take quite a lot out of him to fix, but it was the least he could do. Graves began undoing the straps on his own gauntlet.

With his other hand, he slid the nodachi from its scabbard and stood it up with its tip stuck in the floor. He moved the bare flesh of his arm against the edge. The steel was cold to the touch, damn near freezing compared to how humid it was in there. He sucked air between his teeth as he braced himself for the pain, then he cut. Two horizontal slashes, right next to each other. Blood began to flow immediately, so he was forced to release the sword and put pressure on the wound.

'Count to ten,' he told himself. 'That oughtta be enough.'

Once he reached ten he pulled his palm from his wrist: the two cuts were scarred over, and a large amount of blood was gathered in his open hand. "Keep still. This'll feel weird as hell." He warned. Then Graves took her hand in his. The pooled blood sprung to life, surrounded by arcane energy, and slithered inside her pores. It burned through her nervous system like a purging fire, destroying the corrupting substance in her bloodstream and repairing what physical damage it could find. The fatigue wasn't something he could fix, but he hoped this made up for earlier.

The process was nearly wrapped up when a bright light filled the room. He turned to look, and saw the familiar uniform of one of the game's attendants. It was about damn time somebody said something. What kind of sick freaks would just throw all these horrible new things in without saying something first?

But then the man began to speak, and Graves felt a terrible lump rising in his throat. It turned out this wasn't just a content update. This wasn't even the game glitching out. Everything that was happening-- the pain, the hunger, the gore-- it was being done to them. And that wasn't even the worst of it. That disk plugged into Andrew's temple was apparently wired to fry his brain if he ever died in the game. How close had some of them come to dying in there without knowing about this? How lucky were they to be alive?

The devs didn't seem to know why this was happening, or even who was behind it, but they'd apparently been unable to take control of Pariah back. "Hours?" Graves repeated. His voice was quiet, shaken. "You knew about this for hours and you didn't say anything?" He knew the man behind the hologram couldn't hear him. Knew that this message was going out to everyone. And yet he felt like he was standing in the room with one of those developers he'd met all those months ago at a 'con. He felt like one of those awkward but enthusiastic men who'd made a game he adored had just drove a dagger into his stomach.

What if they'd been told back when they were prepping for the raid? How many people would've been saved if they'd known to just not go in?

Graves turned suddenly, throwing all his weight behind his hand as he punched the wall. He wanted to scream. Sixteen people were trapped in this dungeon until they completed it-- the only way out was always at the other end. They'd have to run through this death trap-- he'd have to watch real people die-- and none of it had to happen.

Would anyone notice if he went? He lived alone...the only one he'd seen in months were his co-workers and his landlord.

Would anyone care?

He dropped to his knees, silent.

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

They had to move. Their path to escape came grinding open just as the barrier that held up the ceiling began to flicker and fail. With all those holes torn into it it looked like it should've fallen much earlier, yet Seele kept it up all the same. She'd poured her all into protecting them and it was tearing her apart, literally. Kazuki was shouting at her to flee. Her strength was failing-- her body crumbling-- yet she insisted everyone else get to safety first. She was the only one that could hold it. Benkei said to hell with that.

A sword slammed into stone, cracking it. Magic ran through the shifting dirt like lightning in a thunderstorm: sharp, jagged and wickedly quick. It reached the stone underneath and willed it upward, tearing up from the tiles in the center of the room to meet the falling roof. Its shape was not unlike its caster's fist. His earthen construct would hold; not for long, but it would hold.

That was the signal to put their asses into gear. Graves reached down to wrap an arm under hers, taking her weight onto his shoulder. "Ya did good, kid. Time to go." The two of them were off, moving as quickly as Seele could manage. He had to pick her back up more than once on their jog across the room,making sure to keep his head down to avoid getting a last minute haircut.

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

A searing pain turned into a dull thrum as Kazuki worked his magic. Graves sat with his back against the wall, his face torn up with emotion. Pain in and out of game was a familiar friend to him, but this had completely and utterly caught him off guard. It was like he'd stepped on a real, not-made-of-code bunch of nails; it'd happened a couple of times when he was helping his 'pa build their garage. That pain a dozen times over was still less than this.

Shame. He was ashamed to be the first one to bitch out after taking a hit. It wasn't supposed to be this way, of course-- not that it made him feel any better about it. He was supposed to be leading the charge. Kicking ass, taking names. That was what was expected of him. Graves had a reputation that didn't include cowering next to his healer.

"Thanks." Still, he couldn't deny that Kazuki was helpful. He'd gone to work quickly on a wound he probably hadn't seen before this and fixed it quick. Threw in a bandage to boot, too. He was quick, efficient, didn't bother with chatter- it was something Graves appreciated. The fear in the man's voice when he called out to Benkei was...forgivable, given the strange circumstances. Something was very wrong here. "Seriously, man," he said as he stood up and gave Kazuki a look. "I 'ppreciate it."

The rest of the team, meanwhile, had gotten to working on getting them the hell out of there. Seele was struggling to keep the ceiling from falling on them, Rael and Benkei were solving the puzzle's riddle, and Alex had pulled some stunt to launch himself across the full length of the room to get to the actual levers themselves. The archer looked ecstatic at his success. "Just pull the god damn lever then! Seal's workin' her ass off and those spikes comin' down are gonna hurt a hell of a lot worse than these ones."

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

The way behind them shut with a thunderous crack, causing Graves to jump. He glanced over his shoulder quickly. 'Hope nobody caught that.' There were more nerve-inducing noises coming from above them: the hideous laughter of shadowed things, ready to pounce. If only. They activated some kind of trap in the ceiling, causing spikes to jut out and- worse still- for the whole thing to start descending toward them. There was a way forward in the form of a door on the other side of the room, yet it seemed to be locked behind some lever-based puzzle. Great. The worst parts of Pariah were always the things that could kill you but you couldn't kill them back.

To make matters worse the floor seemed to be spiked up, too. Rael managed to avoid getting shish kabob'd, if only just. For all his many complaints about her, Graves couldn't doubt her speed or flexibility; nobody else in the party could replicate that maneuver. So instead he stepped up next to her and gave her a cheeky wink, "Don't you worry your pretty lil' head off. I got this." And he took a step forward onto the tile left of the one she'd checked. No trap was triggered so he put his full weight onto it, looking back at everyone else. Seele look like she was prepping to do something about the upper half. Alex had an arrow notched and ready to go at...something. But most of them were clueless. "Alright, everybody, keep in a line behind me and don't do anything stupid and we're gonna make it across just fine."

Just as he was starting to go Alja tapped him on the back, muttered something, and he felt an ice cold coat of armor wrap itself around him. He just shot her a thumbs up as thanks for the assist and pressed on to the tile in front of him-

A spike came flying out! He stumbled back, trying to avoid the point, only for it to catch the bottom of his boot. The tip pierced the hardened leather like a needle pierced cloth, and it kissed flesh not a moment later. Graves fell back into the arms of whoever was standing behind him, and a howl left his throat.

"GAAARGH! FUCK!"

It was a terrible, agonized bellow from the deepest part of his gullet. Pain shot through his foot and up his leg like he'd never felt before. Shock rocked his system. He'd been playing Pariah Online since its Japanese release, and in that time he'd suffered all manner of injury: impalement, limb loss, full-body burns. Yet none of that could compare to being nicked by one of these spikes. Confusion, panic and rage at his own stupidity flushed his mind as he stumbled on one foot, ushered to the back of the party. "What the fuck- what the fuck was that? What the fuck?!"

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

Foreboding hung in the air, heavy as smoke. Heat bore down from a code-built sun. Hunger rumbled in bellies that had never felt such a thing. The party of adventurers stood amidst a pile of would-be ambushers turned to corpses. Graves had waded into combat with the goblins the moment they'd appeared, throwing himself into their center to hack and slash away at their tiny, fragile bodies. Combat in Pariah brought on a rush like nothing else in the world. No other video game let him feel this way. It was over too soon, however, and he was left standing covered in gore that stunk far worse than he could've imagined.

He didn't pay it any mind. His attention was focused fully on what lay before him: a mural of some kind, depicting abstract images that must've had some kind of connection to the dungeon and what lay within. Hidden within it was doubtless information of great import-- a clue as to how to defeat its mechanisms, to conquer its bosses, to plant that ever so elusive 'world's first' flag. Graves gripped his chin with one hand, resting that arm's elbow across his second arm, wrapped 'round his torso. He squinted hard.

"I have no idea what the fuck I'm looking at."

His head rotated on a swivel over to the trio of backliners talking amongst each other about something less important. He cupped a hand 'round his mouth, and shouted over to them: "Hope you nerds are figurin' this out and not just jerkin' around!"

Satisfied that the brains of the operation would have this deciphered in no time, he turned on his heel and headed over to the main gate where most of the raid was gathered in waiting. There were a lotta people just standin' around, waiting to get into the action. It sounded like Benkei and Rael were discussing who'd take which half with Aaginim's team. Didn't much matter to Graves. There'd be things to kill either way they went. All this planning and strategizing and shit seemed like a waste of time.

There was other talk, though, that did concern him. At least a bit. Plenty of new mechanics seemed to be cropping up as the day went on. Alja getting drunk was the start of it, sure, but this heat? The rot of the dead? It had to be brand new. Like, within the hour or so they'd spent together new. Part of him was worried there'd be other, nastier surprises awaiting them. 'Doubt this circus can handle it.'

"I'm sure they'll be fiiine." Graves told Benkei. "All's we gotta worry about is gettin' these lowbies across the finish line," he said, jerking his thumb back at those not present. "You can handle that, right? Y'know, if we fail, ol' Aag's will put it all on you."

"No pressure or anything."