On the pressed out scroll was an ornate illustration. It depicted an imposing, ominous, dark figure in strange armour who had his arms outstretched, and some kind of black magic coming out of his hands. Around him were hundreds of vicious-looking beasts, connected to the strands of magic as if they were being created by it, or maybe feeding off of it.

“Who is that?” said Max.

“Vortax,” Bron uttered.

Max could tell that Bron didn’t enjoy saying the name, and likely didn’t say it very often.

“That’s what most of us Willowdalian folk call him anyway,” Bron elaborated. “Some call him Mavexos the Malevolent, some call him Ishmarus, Master of All. I’ve been told in far away lands they call him He Who Dances with Death.”

“Who is he?” Max asked.

Bron let out a hearty chuckle, but there was no humour in it.

“The age old question,” he said. “Nobody knows, though everyone has their own theory, of course. Some think he’s a king from a bygone age who became consumed with greed, some think he is the physical embodiment of evil itself, manifested into life to wage war on our beloved Eldoria.”

“What do you think?” Max asked Bron.

Bron didn’t say anything for a while, lost in his own thoughts.

“I gave up thinking a long time ago,” he said, tipping the dregs of his own Bronze Brew down his throat. “It doesn’t do good to dwell on things outside of one’s control, lest you want to drive yourself mad in the process. There’s only one thing that’s truly known about him, and that’s how he gained so much power - through the use of orbs, something nobody else has ever been able to access. At least, if what you tell me is true, nobody until now.”

The gravity of the situation was now beginning to sink in for Max. This world was living in the shadow of some kind of dark lord, and it seemed he was the only other living person who had been granted access to whatever powers this dark lord had.

“If your intentions are pure,” said Bron, “you could be the first person in the history of Eldoria to have a chance at challenging Vortax.”

Images of him gloriously defeating this dark lord flashed through Max’s mind, but he still had so many questions.

“What has he done to Eldoria?” Max asked.

“Ravaged it beyond belief with his army of hostile beasts,” said Bron. “There was once a time when citizens of Eldoria could travel and exist safely. All of the animals were friendly. I remember being able to explore the wilds of Willowdale without a care in the world when I was a young lad. But when Vortax came to power, he used his orbs to unleash an unimaginable amount of vicious beasts across all corners of the world.”

“How long ago did he come into power?” Max asked.

“Must have been thirty or forty odd years ago now,” Bron mused. “But that wasn’t the worst of it. In those early days, the beasts were bad, but we found ways to get by. All that changed with the Cataclysm.”

“What was that?” Max asked.

“I remember it like it was yesterday,” Bron said, his eyes glazing over. “The skies turned red, as if the clouds had been painted with blood, and there was an almighty cracking sound that must’ve been heard all across the world. Then the trees in Everfell forest started to groan, and up he rose. Dreadroot.”

The glaze in Bron’s eyes was now catching the flickering reflection of the roaring fire.

“The scourge of Oakhaven was born on that day, and we’ve all been basically trapped here ever since, living in constant fear.”

“Dreadroot is a beast?” said Max.

“Not just a beast, son,” said Bron. “A giant monstrosity made of pure evil itself. An invincible bastard that’s taken the lives of too many of our people.”

“Invincible?” said Max. He wondered if that could really be true.

“Plenty have tried to take him on. I was one of the first. Me and four others. Two of my party were Ereni’s parents, Jackin and Esmer Etralis. Both skilled fighters. They’d defeated plenty of Vortax’s regular beasts in the years before alongside me. But Dreadroot was another matter. They’d put little Ereni in the care of our old healer Arintha, since she’d been training with her for a little bit, and was eager to become a healer one day. We went into that forest with hope, but when we came face-to-face with that thing, we knew we were in trouble. Ten thousand HP, and nothing we attacked it with taking off a single bit of it.”

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Max raised his eyebrows. He had just 50 HP, and there was a beast lurking in a nearby forest with 10K?

“We were about to get outta there, but little did we know Ereni was gonna sneak out of Arintha’s and turn up in Everfell. Said she was worried about her folks. Said she could heal them if Dreadroot hurt them in any way…”

Bron trailed off for a moment, and Max could tell he was reliving whatever had happened.

“Ereni must have only been nine or so at the time. Dreadroot didn’t even give her parents a chance. First he tethered me, then our other party member Norcroft, then Ereni, locking her in place. Then he skewered both Jackin and Esmer through the back of their heads and outta their mouths as they were looking at their daughter. The poor girl had to watch with tears streaming down her innocent face as Dreadroot then dismembered them limb-by-limb before their health hit zero.”

“Fuck,” said Max.

“No other beast would have taken pleasure in killing folk like that, but I could tell Dreadroot was revelling in it. Evil, vile creature. Only thing that saved us that day was an enchanted bracer Norcroft was wearing that was imbued with fire magic. When Dreadroot tried to slither his nasty roots around Norcroft’s arm, the bracer set the root on fire, causing Dreadroot to release his hold for just a moment. Not that it dealt any damage, but it provided just enough of a break for Norcroft to escape the hold, then free me and Ereni so all three of us could flee.”

“Has anyone tried fighting Dreadroot since?” said Max.

“Plenty,” said Bron. “And plenty have died in the process. Any that do come back say the same thing that we said all those years ago. That Dreadroot’s invincible. Nowadays, people have stopped venturing into Everfell altogether. And we’re pretty much trapped here in Oakhaven, especially since Kreasel’s bandits have made a home in the Crestcoven Caves, the only other practical way in or out of the valley. Only people that really come in or out of the valley these days are the occasional merchant, though those few and far between since the bandits usually rob ‘em on the way in or the way out.”

Max knew he should have been frightened of this Dreadroot beast, but he couldn’t help the underlying excitement that was rising inside him. Would these orbs that were seemingly so special allow him take on the beast, and maybe defeat it?

“It ain’t just Dreadroot out there either, lad,” said Bron. “Nobody knows for certain, since communication has become so difficult, but there’s rumours that the Cataclysm spawned many more invincible beasts like Dreadroot across Eldoria. The world’s in a bad way, and we can’t see any way out.”

The burning desire to battle these beasts was growing inside Max with every new bit of information Bron provided. There was a whole, brand new world out there for him to explore beyond the valley, and he knew there would be battles of epic proportions in his future. However, he also knew he wasn’t going to be able to take on any of these giant beasts without first figuring out how to use the orbs.

“I think I’ve talked enough for now,” said Bron. “You’ll need a good night’s rest after sorting out those kidnappers. You can stay here at the Brass Lantern for as long as you like, free of charge.”

Max was grateful, but he felt like he’d be taking advantage accepting the accommodation for nothing.

“Let me at least give you someth-”

Bron put a hand up to prevent him from finishing his sentence.

“If you eventually find a way outta Oakhaven,” he said, “other innkeepers won’t be so generous. Accept the offer where you can.”

“I appreciate it,” Max said truthfully, “though there’s a horse and wagon outside that apparently belong to me now.”

“I’ll sort that out for you, son,” said Bron. “I’ll take your horse to Farnhal - he’ll look after it for the night. You can go see him tomorrow if you feel up to it, and decide then if you want to rent a stable stall for it or sell it to him. And I’ll get your wagon parked in the wagon yard.”

Max gave Bron a grateful nod, and allowed him to lead him up the creaky wooden stairs to the tavern’s first floor, then into a small bedroom.

In it was a simple, single bed covered with basic linen, a desk with an inkwell and a quill, and a comfy-looking armchair.

“It ain’t anything fancy, and there ain’t a great deal of space, but I can assure you it’s clean, and you won’t get a better night’s sleep this side of the Willowdale Peaks.”

“It’s perfect,” Max said gratefully.

When Bron had left and closed the door behind him, Max gazed out of the window at the moonlit valley, processing the insanity of the day he had just had.

When he got into the bed, his body, sore from the adventuring and fighting, and unused to doing any kind of physical activity, thanked him for it. But his mind wouldn’t slow down; it was racing with thoughts about the orbs, the beasts, and Vortax.

There had to be a way to use the orbs. He just needed to figure it out, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep until he did.

First, he opened his inventory and scanned the UI for any text he may not have seen before, but there was nothing that seemed linked to the orbs. Then he tried thinking things like Activate Orbs, Spend Orbs, Allocate Orbs, and Assign Orbs, but none of these seemed to do anything either. He did, however, find that he was feeling incredibly sleepy. Unusually sleepy, since just a few moments ago his mind had been racing.

He decided that maybe he did need some rest, so he stopped trying to find a way to spend the orbs and tried to clear his mind, but in doing so, he found that he was once again wide awake.

What was going on? Had he really been feeling so sleepy just moments ago? Or had that been something else?

Max thought the words Assign Orbs once again, and the strange sleepiness returned in an instant. Now that he was experiencing it again, he noticed a slight discrepancy between it and the sensation he would usually feel just before falling asleep.

Slowly and carefully, he allowed the feeling to wash over him, tempting him with a warm, fuzzy embrace.

Assign Orbs, he thought again, and this time it was like being sucked into a blissful oblivion.

He was travelling through time and space, bodiless, at one with everything and nothing all at once.

And then…

He felt himself materialise, being stitched together like fleshy fabric in a dark, empty space that seemed to stretch for infinity.

New Location Discovered!

The Inner Sanctum

+1 Exploration Orb