On the other side of the garden Amok led the group to the next set of books and they got a lot of them with little incident. There were a few skirmishes with Wannabe Wizards but it seemed most of the guild thought The Travelers had been killed in the garden. Many were caught over cauldrons. And at one point Amok stopped the group in a study room turned alchemy workshop to refresh the runes on everyones clothes. They used some left over parts from the chrimrea and the petals from the plant. He even threw in some of the yellow drool ‘just to see what would happen.’ It only seemed to add a minor acid resistance to their armour which would likely prove useful.
“How many Wannabe Wizards are there?” Asked Ammy at one point when they wondering between shelves following Amok who was reading the numbers on the side.
“Like a lot.” Amok said, “lots of people wanted to be wizards, My guess would be 3 or 400 players out of the 1000 that spawned here, were queuing up to be wizards. All running errands for the npcs here.”
“And they all went mental?” she asked
“Nah some got bored before things went bad, others left when it started to go bad, a lot died when it went bad. I probably would have been one of those if Goodman and Red hadn’t come and got me.”
“Your welcome,” Goodman called from a-ways behind them.
“What about you? Why’d you make your character like that?” Amok asked her.
She shrugged, “funny, same as him.” She pointed at Brett who was standing nearby trying to disguise picking his nose as scratching it. “Everyone is all, gotta make the most beautiful version of me ever, or Gotta make a knight in shining armour. So I thought fuck it, no middle sliders.”
“Fair enough. Here, give me a boost.” He said, Ammy knelt down and Amok stepped up onto her knee and picked a book of one of the higher shelves. “Perfect last one.” He said, flicking through a few pages.
“So we can go?” Ammy asked.
“Yeah.”
“Finally,” she walked off towards Brett, and slapped his hand away from his face and told him
Amok pushed the cart towards Goodman, and told him as well.
“Great, we will distribute the books equally so no one gets encumbered when we are closer to the door. Do you know where Red is.”
“I’m here,” she said, making the other two jump, she laughed, “My dexterity and sneak, have really improved while we were here.”
“I can tell.” Goodman huffed, “alright Amok which way is out.”
The other two came over to listen, Amok said, “we should just be able to keep walking down there,” he pointed back towards the corridor at the end of the book shelves, “but it’s a big corridor and it leads into the Auditorium where the Guild has it’s meetings. The exit is on the other side of that. So I don’t know what you wanna do.”
“We’ll just go through.” Said Ammy, and Brett nodded.
“We should try and sneak by.” Said Red, “if we start a fight like that there’s a good chance we’ll lose, we’d be outnumbered and probably out gunned.”
“Yeah but if we did get through it’d be a great story, we’d be legends.” Brett said
“And it’d be hella fun.” Added Ammy.
“What do you think, Amok,” Goodman asked.
“Both options are equally hopeless, we should head back and go around the garden back the way we came.”
“The silver Crowns are back there” Ammy said.
Goodman thought for a moment, then said, “let’s check out the auditorium. We can decide when we are there.”
The others nodded and followed him as he led the way back up to and then down the corridor. Red walked next to him, “we’re going to fight them aren’t we?” she said.
Goodman shrugged, “you want to walk all the way back? I don’t this will be quicker. We can always just charge past them.”
She gave him a skeptical look but didn’t say anything else. If worse comes to worse she thought I can always get past them she wondered if she would abandon the others like that, and what she would do after. Probably try to head back to the mountain town and see if she could join Jax on his dungeon runs or something. They walked chatting idly among themselves, the odd laugh, here and there. Brett and Ammy spent some time teasing Amok about the books he had chosen, they had titles like ‘advanced magic theory’ and ‘rituals for the beginner wizard.’ The hall was a lot cleaner, almost free of the bloodstains and bodies that littered the rest of the archive, gory reminders of the beginning of the wannabe wizards guild. As they walked Red thought about what sort of person it would take to corral the chaos the the archive must have been in. It didn’t look like anyone was in charge when she and Goodman had come to pick up Amok. So someone must have taken charge between then and now in order to keep the archive in lockdown and prevent other players from entering with out being dissolved by acid. A lot of the Wannabe Wizards were wearing similar gear too. Granted it was tattered brown robes, but they also all carried invisibility potions and a lot of bottles of acid. Who was organising and distributing it all? Maybe that’s how they were keeping the guild together. Another unifying factor of the wannabe wizards was their low level. They had a high alchemy skill, and they tended to be quick and able to craft improvised weapons, so they weren’t totally new players but in raw level numbers they seemed to be far behind the rest of the players on this shard. It was likely because they didn’t leave the archive and the only monsters were the higher level monsters in the garden.
These are some of the things Red was thinking about when they came to the door of the auditorium.
The auditorium was a large room with a walkway running around the outside of it. Small paths led down into the stage at the center which was in the middle of the room on a sunken dias. Surrounding it were seats which had built in desks so the students that came to the archive could hear the speaker in the center and make any notes they needed too. When the travelers stepped into the room the first thing they noticed was the smell. The second was what sat on the the sunken dias at the center of the room.
“What the fuck.” Said Ammy and Brett at the same time.
“Well that’s never going to work.” Said Amok.
“What a great idea,” Said Goodman
Red stayed silent instead she just stared taking in the bloody monstrosity laid out on the dias below them. A huge twisted thing made up of maybe 30 bodies lay stretched out on the floor. The different body parts were sown together with a what looked like a variety of ropes some of which looked like they were made of hair. The flesh golem since that the only thing Red could define it as, was a swollen parody of a human. The legs were short but as thick as trees, it didn’t appear to have feet just two misshapen stumps. Its waist looked narrow but that was only in comparison to the upper body, A chest which swelled unnaturally packed with muscles, like the Wannabe Wizards had just stuffed as many as they could in and hoped for the best. It’s head sat in the middle of its chest making it looked hunched as it’s shoulders loomed over it. The arms were only slightly less wide than its legs, but were long and would definitely drag on the floor.
Around the monster were huge cauldrons bubbling with red liquid, and tables had been set up, mangled bones and butchered flesh lay about them. Players worked tossing hunks of meat in the culdrons and butchering the bodies of recently killed players on the tables. The bodies wore the the armour of Silver Crowns. When Goodman saw this he nodded to himself but said nothing about it.
“How’d they make that thing? I mean you can’t just sow a bunch of people together and expect it to work.” Brett said.
“Well it is a game,” Ammy said
Amok who had stepped up to the railing of the walkway which circled the room said, “They must have read a book about forging golems or something. And decided they had nothing better to do.”
Goodman nodded, “they’ll use it to get out of the archive and secure a part of the city for themselves probably. That’s what I’d bet.”
“Surely it won’t work though? They’d need magic to get it working” Red said
“Probably what they are trying to do with all the cauldrons. Get some magic going there somehow, I don’t know. Amok said
They all stood and watched the players work around the Golem. Someone stepped away from one of their workstations and walked up to the golem he climbed up onto it’s chest and to it’s head, where he grabbed the things face and got held it’s mouth open inspecting something. Then he said something to the a pair of other players who were standing near by. The two other players went to one of the cauldrons and and grabbed a huge container which they dipped into the bubbling liquid bringing. They brought the container over to the body where the three of them maneuvered it with some difficulty above the golems head and started to pour the still bubbling liquid into the creatures mouth. Then they jumped of the golem stood back and watched. The creatures veins started to pulse red, and it groaned. It started to lift one its arms. Everyone in the room leaned forward. Then the arm dropped and the golem again was lifeless. Cries of annoyance could be heard from the players on the dias.
“Like I said,” Amok said, “it will never work.”
“Great idea though, really cool. We’ll have to see if we can get one.” Goodman said,
They started to move around towards the door on the other side of the room, following the walkway round. Satisfied they weren’t going to miss anything. Amok had started to hand out books, which people put away in their inventory the books disappearing as they were handed out. Their was a shout from behind them and a bottle flew out of nowhere smashing just short of the group. Dune appeared in front of them. He wore some heavy looking armour that looked like it had come of one of suits of armour on display, it made his movements sluggish. Next to him, still wearing silver crown branded armour was one of his goons.
Goodman Grinned, “Dune? Is that you?”
“Shit,” muttered Red under her breath, the Others spread out slightly sensing a fight.
“I’m going to kill you.” Dune said,
Goodman Frowned, “why? Because of the loot thing? Are you still angry about that it was ages ago.”
“You burned down the town!”
“Only some of it.”
“You cheated in our duel.”
“I’ll give you that one. But why are you so mad about it all, it’s just a game.”
“It is just a game,” Dune drew his sword, “and I’m going to win.”
“Awfully dramatic,” said Goodman he didn’t draw his weapon instead he put his hands on his hips, “maybe you will win, this quest for revenge you seem bent on. But you won’t win it here.”
As he finished speaking more bottles of acid flew through the air and smashed against the walkway. The Wannabe Wizards were screaming and charging them tossing the acid as they did so.
Dunes goon put a hand on his shoulder, and said, “he’s right we’ll have to find him outside.”
“We really have somewhere to be,” said Goodman, he turned and signaled with one hand and the rest of the travelers followed him and he charged round the the walk way. Brett and Ammy were in the lead weapons drawn they were wooping wildly, and crashing through and Wannabe Wizards that had decided to make a stand in front of them. Red was running next to Amok keeping him covered with throwing daggers while he started a spell.
The Wannbe Wizards close behind them, they couldn’t see Dune or his Goon anywhere.
“It’s locked,” Ammy said as she and Brett made it to the door.
“I’ve got the key” Amok yelled, and ran towards the front of the group. Brett and Ammy stepped aside. Amok yanked out a chunk of wall , and launched it through the locked door which exploded. They sprinted through into the corridor beyond where Amok turned and pulled part of the roof down in front of the door preventing any pursuit.
Goodman laughed, “that’s my kind of key.”
They went about finding an exit.
Dune and Ullen watched Goodman and his friends retreat. They tried to give chance but were quickly cut off by the wannabe Wizards. The bulky armour Dune found on a display mannequin was heavy but had surprisingly fairly average stats. When he had the idea he assumed they would be far below average and the armour to heavy for it to be viable. But it was actually just a regular suit of armour the devs had stuck up as a display piece. He wasn’t sure if people were meant to see if they could wear them or not and had wondered if the stats on the display armour would be adjusted to people couldn’t just get good armour right away. Using the armour had also improved his strength stat, enough that he could use the armour in the citadel. He’d have to go back and get it if they ever made it out of the archive. Because Dunes armour was so heavy Ullen had, had to carry most of what was in Dunes inventory making him encumbered. Which lowered move speed, but gradually increased strength as well. Dune suspected that he too had the stats for the armour in the citadel as well.
They had had to move slowly through the archive, because of their equipment loads but the invisibility potions stopped this from being a problem. They had followed some Wannabe Wizards around. And discovered the the potions also negated any sound made by equipment of the players who drank them. Dune thought that was a bit over powered and intended to submit it as feedback at the end of the beta. The had followed the Wannabe Wizards hoping that they would be lead to an exit, or better yet Goodman. The Wannabe Wizards had kept talking about someone called Sain, and how he had survived the basement massacre, and that it was stupid that players needed to have access to a magic skill tree to be able to activate the book. There was a faint rumble from underground as they had said that. And the two Wannabe Wizards had laughed and walked on Dune and Ullen following.
They had entered a corridor that was a lot cleaner than the rest of the archive, free of the bodies and mostly free of bloodstains. The two wannabe wizards had walked through a door and without glancing either way had hopped right over the bar in front of them and down into the auditorium. Dune and Ullen had stopped at the bar and stared down at the monstrous creation down there. Ullen had nudged Dune in the side and pointed. They saw Goodman and his gang, walking round the walkway that circled the auditorium passing books between them. After a brief confrontation, with Goodman it was chaos.
Dune and Ullen had decided that close quarters was their best bet at avoiding being struck by a flying bottle of acid. And had charged the nearest crowd of Wannabe Wizards swinging wildly. Dune activated his new skill focus and found he was more than easily able to see the intentions of the brown robed players around him. Even though he himself also moved in slow motion he was able to deflect or counter any lethal blow, and only allow smaller ones through which glanced of his armour.
Dune was laughing wildly, as he lifted his sword to parry a blow from a cudgel made from a chair leg and spare nails, he knocked the weapon aside and kicked the player back. The Attacker flew back gracefully in slow motion, while he crashed into his friends, Dune saw a shiv out the corner of his eye the attacker aiming for the gap in the armour where the helmet met the chest piece. He shifted out of range and lashed out with the hilt of his sword. He felt the impact and the wannabe wizard slowly jerked backwards blood spurting from his nose. Then dune spun around and the blade of his sword tore through the bellies of two more players. He got a glimpse of Ullen who was struggling to maintain space around himself.
Dune tried to charge through the battle to his friend but found there were just to many people in the way. He cut through another three players leaving their bodies bleeding on the floor and heard the deep roar of screams played in slow motion. He watched as a player behind Ullen smashed a bottle against the back of Ullens helmet. The acid hissed and the metal started to bubble and dissolve. Ullen let out a deep slow panicked scream and reached up for his helmet. This was all the opportunity, the Wannabe Wizards needed and one jammed a shiv into Ullens neck. Then another shiv went into the his gut. Soon the Wannabe Wizards were swarming over Ullen stabbing down at him with improvised knifes and shivs. Dune screamed and madly swung his sword around him cutting down players left and right. Soon there was a space around him. As the Wannabe Wizards backed off out of the range of his sword and let him bleed out. Some were franticly dragging the bodies away over the railing and towards the sunken dias where the flesh golem lay. He heard the deep sound of a voice speaking in slow motion, and dropped out of focus. A small status icon popped up under his health bar, which a part of him was pleased to see was still green, it was a little box with an eye in it, and over the eye was the number 23. When he thought about the icon text underneath it popped up and said ‘focus cool down 23 hours 58 minutes’ then he switched his attention to the crowd around him. They had left him in a circle and watched cautiously. The voice he heard while still in focus was shouting, “the bodies bring me the bodies. It’s not hot blood like boiling.”
Another answered, “what are you talking about Sain.”
“The bodies,” the first voice, Sain, said again, “it’s warm blood like living, or a fresh kill.”
The second voice started calling for the bodies and tools as well.
Dune walked up to the railing, the Wannabe Wizards around him parted to let him through, not one wanting to fight him again. He looked down at the Dias.
The players down their where frantically cutting the throats of the dead and draining the bodies in to a large container. Ullen was among them, for a second Dune wanted to charge down and stop them from desecrating his friends body like this, but with out focus, there was no way he could fight that many and survive. Also if he jumped over the railing the Wannabe Wizards standing around him now would shower him in bottles of acid. He wouldn’t make it two steps. So instead he watched as Sain grabbed Ullens body and slit his throat then he and to others held up the body draining the blood into a large metal bucket. They tossed the body aside after they were done. Dunes knuckles were white on the banister of the walkway.
Sain climbed up onto the body, of the golem and he and two others maneuvered the bucket of fresh blood over the golems head. Sain held the creatures mouth open and the other two poured. Blood over flowed out the creatures mouth soaking all three players and much of the golem and stage. Then they hopped of and waited. For a moment nothing happened. Then the golems veins started to glow red and it moaned, a deep sound that vibrated the bones of everyone in the auditorium. The Golem slowly raised one arm, then the other. Then it rolled onto its front and hauled its self to it’s feet.
The wannabe wizards cheered. Dune just stared at the golem watching it look around. The Wannabee Wizards around him clapped, cheered and whistled, all their hard and brutal messy work paying off. Dune focused on the golem and it’s name appeared, ‘untamed flesh golem’
“Shit” he muttered.
The golem roared and smacked Sain, who was standing nearest, he flew into the stands and crashed in a mangled heap groaning. The cheers turned to screams and the golem began striking out at the other Wannabe Wizards near to it. Tossing them carelessly into walls and the ceiling. It picked one player up and tore him clean in half. As Dune watched the carnage he wondered what kind of warnings were going to be on the box of this game. Then Wannabe Wizards around him started running. Some hopped over the rail and down into the stands bottles of acid in hand. Most charged round the walkway screaming “the back, get out the back way.” Dune not fancying his chances with either the flesh golem or the rest of the Wannabe Wizards went back out the door he came in closing it behind him and barricading it by shoving over a bookcase. But not before he saw the flesh golem leap up onto the walkway and charge after the retreating Wannabe Wizards who had found the back exit blocked by a heap of ruble. Dune sat out side the room for a minute and listened to the screams and shouts from inside. Then he started to jog back the way he had come, retracing his steps to the front of the archive.
The Travelers had found an exit to the archive which led out onto an alleyway behind it. They cheered and then wondered what to do next. They quickly decided on finding an inn that would take them and celebrating.
The Heathens Head wasn’t their first choice but Red had recommended it after they had been tossed out of 3 others. She had heard about it as one of the meeting spots for the npc thieves that weren’t affiliated to the thieves guild in the city. This made it a hostile location for both city guard and thieves. When the others asked why she didn’t mention it sooner she replied, “you’ll see”
The Heathens Head was below street level in the basement and sub basements of a tenement building, which itself was run down black and brown stains were across the walls, and any of the original wall that could be seen under them was dirty grey not the pristine clean white or light grey that the rest of the city was built from. The windows were either broken or boarded up. The front door had been barricaded from the inside at some point which meant to get into the building you had to go through The Heathens Head. The way down to The Heathens Head was a reeking permanently wet staircase that was far too narrow to walk down comfortably. Inside The Heathens Head the roof was low and leaked in a few places. The tables were made of wood that looked like it was rotting and the bar was just a row of barrels with a dirty rag tossed over it, the lighting was just a few candles, giving the whole place a sense of flickering menace. The other patrons of the bar were all npcs who drank in a robotic way and held the same stale conversations over and over. “Did you hear about the thieves guild?” one patron would ask,
“No? What have they done now?” another would reply.
“There planning to steal the royal shield.” Said the first
“Bunch of crazies,” said the second. They would sit in silence for a minute or two then have the same brief conversation again. If players strayed to close, they would stop talking and try to stare the players down. The other npc patrons all held similar conversations, each of them vaguely referring to a quest from one of the major guilds. The other travelers however did not complain. They rowdily ordered a round of drinks and sat at a table in the middle of the room speaking in loud and uncaring voice and making boasts which were clearly untrue. Red quietly sipped her grog, the only beverage served at The Heathens Head, and only chipped in if she was directly referred too. Amok had already pulled out one of the books and was reading it by the light of a candle he had pulled of the wall. Goodman, Brett and Ammy were all talking in loud and uncaring voices about their combat and tactical prowess and what seemingly impossible challenge they should take on next.
Across town Dune had made it out of the archive and was rallying a force around the archive. Below the Archive Flux was reading through a new skill tree she had unlocked called ‘blood magic’ she could hear the footsteps of the golem above her but had no idea what it was. A part of her wondered were the other wizards had gotten too.
Inside the archive the Wannabe Wizards had baited the golem into smashing the door that Dune had barricaded by tossing an unlucky player in front of it. They had then ran scattered through the archive, the golem following.
In the Heathens Head, Goodman loudly announced they could sneak past the gate boss in town and see what was on the other side. Red had said she might be able too but doubted the others ability. The others had proceed to boast about their sneaking prowess in an effort to convince her.
Dune had rallied a reasonable force of Silver Crowns at the front of the archive and had found another squad to help him venture into the citadel to retrieve the armour. This proved easier than he thought, since the Guild had started to use it to farm experience points and items now that the monster spawns and layout were mapped.
Flux switched between reading the book on the pedestal and her skill tree, the book appeared to be an instructional book for blood magic. She was starting to understand why Goodman had broken into the archive and not tried to assault the citadel or gate boss.
Amok now had a stack of books in front of him and told the others that he might be able to put the gate boss to sleep with a spell. Ammy who was getting sick of all the talk of sneaking past it had said they should just kill the bloody thing. Brett toasted her and cheered his agreement.
Dune got to the armoury and picked out a suit of armour. It Shone in the light its surface completely unmarked by battle. the armour was the best he had seen, high defense light weight. Small increases to strength and dexterity while fighting on Silver Crown territory. Their wasn’t a single chink in the armour, one piece seeming to flow into the next. The helmet had an engraving of a thin silver crown around the top of the head. A single long eye slit and a smooth faceplate. His voice had a metallic ring to it when he spoke, “Let’s roll”
The Travelers finished their 4th drink and got another round, getting drunk in the game wasn’t exactly the same as real life but it was a close approximation. Goodman Brett and Ammy had started trying to figure out a strategy to kill the gate boss. Red reminded them they didn’t even know what the gate boss was, it was behind the big wall in town. No one had even seen it. Brett said, “It’s probably just a big knight in silver armour like everything else in this place.” The other two had nodded, even Amok grunted his agreement.
The flesh golem was led out the front of the archive by a screaming Wannabe Wizard. The golem grabbed him by the leg swung him around then smashed him into a fine paste on the flagstones right in front of the Silver Crown Ranks. Dune wasn’t there yet. The Players screamed, some charged some ran. The golem continued its rampage.
Dune sprinted back through the streets his new armour lending him strength and speed. The city counting as silver crown territory.
Flux dragged a pile of bodies together into the center of the room and began to cast a spell. Their hands began to drip with glowing red blood. The bodies, shifted and convulsed.the flesh melting into the bone, turning them red and shifting their shape. The skin turning into a long cloak, the bones into armour, and the flesh shifting into magically sustained weaponry. Flux grinned, a notification popped up on her vision, ‘Fleshmancy skill increase, Blood Magic skill increase.’ She looked down at her new suit of armour, and yanked of the Silver Crown emblem on her chest.
“Alright, Alright,” Goodman shouted, above the others who were in a fierce debate about what the gate boss was going to be, “I’m in charge here, and I say we just go and look.” The others all went silent, then one by one nodded their agreement. They finished their drinks and got up to leave with out paying their tab. A bouncer stepped in front of the door to stop them, Goodman killed him without blinking, and the others stepped over his body without looking back.