On the screen in bright red neon letters ´Midnight lounge with Vix´ could be read. Vix was a succubus with light red bordering on pink skin. The horns growing from her forehead curled back and then back to the front. Her dark auburn hair framed her heart-shaped face as it cascaded down in curly waves. She wore a tight-fitting black evening gown with a low cut showing off her assets. She lay on a velvet red couch showing off her right leg through the slit of her gown.
“Welcome everyone to the first show of Midnight Lounge for our current survival tournament. I’m your hostess Vixallavox but you can call me Vix,” she said while winking at the camera on that last part. “We’ll focus our attention on zones one forty through one forty-nine. If you’re interested in the other zones check your interactive page to see which channel features your desired zones. As we’re going into our first night we already lost four of our contestants. In zone one forty-two a poor little goblin took a nasty fall off a cliff,” behind her, a screen popped up and started playing a video clip. “While the first round is generally safe to ease in our contestants it will not protect you from snapping your neck if take a step of a thirty-foot cliff. The clip showed said goblin chasing after some rabbits. While the rabbits dashed into a hole under a tree, the goblin crashed through the bushes and straight off a cliff right behind them.
“Over in zone one forty-four an unfortunate dark spawn wandered into an elite dungeon one minute after spawning in. While he put up a valiant effort in the first two fights he was quickly overwhelmed by the first sub-boss after running out of cards,” the video showed a sped-up video of the darkspawn’s dungeon battles. The clip ended with him being speared through the stomach by a giant scorpion stinger and promptly eaten.
“Zone one forty-eight featured our first head-to-head when two vampires of opposing houses tried to settle a blood feud,” she wiggled her eyebrows at the pun, “with starting decks. While the fight did see a victor, her victory was short-lived as right after her win she got attacked by a group of wolves. With her life points already being almost bottomed out the pack made short work of her,” the video displayed the vampire lady being torn apart by the pack of wolves.
“And that concludes our death reel for today. While some of our players played it safe, others have tried to pull ahead with some daring duels. With night having fallen the vampires and dark spawn will start their catch-up race since they dislike the sunny biomes. As we look over our scored bords for each zone we clearly see the warmongering green skins pulling ahead on the fight table. While still relatively healthy it’s only day one and that attitude always seems to catch up to them in the early stages. Hopefully, some elders tried to temper their bloodlust for them to get far in the tournament. The two elves in our zone bracket are both off to a very slow start. Since they’ve always renounced the tournament as barbaric they’ve yet to make solid waves,” the screen showed two side by sides of two elves. A male elf sat sobbing in a cave while a female elf was holed up high in a tree.
“But, our surprise comes from our first human in zone one forty-three. While those weak elves waste away their time he’s quickly adapting and is almost green-skin-like in his approach with vampire caution,” a highlight reel of Michael’s fight started playing. “He’s engaged in a fight with almost everything that crossed his path. While some green skins would have engaged the larger groups he was smart enough to avoid them. This dark horse is one to keep an eye out for.”
The show then transitioned into a more in-depth analysis of each zone and its players.
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It was still dark when my body woke me up. I was still tired but certain urges had to be attended to. Having anticipated this event I got up from the cot and tried to find the bucket I had brought with me. Having taken care of that I flopped back down on my cot and get some more sleep. I woke up what I assumed to be a few hours later since the light was spilling past the shutters. I sat on the edge of the cot and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. I drank some water from my water bucket. I used my wet hands to wash my face. While cold meat wasn’t my preferred breakfast I tore a strip from the hare meat from last night.
I decided to follow through on my plan from yesterday about searching the captain's quarters. I unlocked the shutters to let more light into the room. It took me around half an hour to go over all the furniture in the room but my search came up empty. Hopefully, I hadn’t used up all my luck on the finds from yesterday. I sat back on the cot to come up with a plan for today. There were a few goals I had in mind to complete and I needed to prioritize.
Welcome to a new day.
You recovered five (25%) of your life points from a long rest.
There are no updates to the tournament today.
I quickly checked my health points to confirm I was back to nineteen. The fact that it popped up after me being awake for a while might indicate it was on a fixed timer. Especially the part about the update was the biggest contributor to my thought. I dismissed the panel and went back over my internal to-do list. I still had some hare meat left from yesterday and combined with my starter rations should suffice till dinner. I had enough fresh water in my bucket to refill my waterskin so that was also covered. The keep would be my base for now so cooking more food and water would not be an issue.
The first thing on my list was exploring the rest of the keep and the tower. After that, I’d go and explore in expanding circles around the keep. I had a feeling those goblins had a camp somewhere around here and that could mean loot. Having access to torches also made the big hole I found yesterday an option to explore. Travelling to the mountain was a long-term plan. Having found the keep made them less attractive due to the distance. There was also the main quest of defeating the other players. Preferably I’d have more cards by then. It was a numbers game and with only one more creature I didn’t feel that confident against another player for now. I thought about leaving my backpack behind while I explored the keep and tower but decided to take it with me so I could take any useful items I came across.
I removed the desk I had used to block the door and carefully opened the door. While I was pretty confident that nothing would be outside the door, it was just good practice to be careful. Peeking through the opening nothing seemed different from yesterday. I followed the wall back into the kitchen and it was almost completely dark. Only the smouldering remains of yesterday's fire gave a very faint glow of light. I carefully poked it to see if I could get another fire going but the embers didn’t show any signs of actual fire. Using a block of wood I pushed the ashes and debris to the back of the fireplaces and remade my fire teepee from yesterday. I lit another torch and quickly had another fire going. I filled the pot with fresh water and set it over the fire. I waited for it to boil so I could take it out of the fire to cool down. Having water boiling while I was exploring the keep made no sense.
With torch in hand, I made my up the stairs to the second floor. On both sides of the landing were heavy and reinforced wooden doors which luckily both stood open. I decide to explore the left door first. Behind the door was a short corridor leading to the middle wall but this wall had a door built for one person. Each side of the door held those arrow-slit-style windows. The room behind was above the captain's quarters and held a spiral stairway going to the next floor. On the left was a door leading to a corridor connecting to the rest of the second floor. The hallway wasn’t very wide maybe one and a half person wide. The first door opened up into a smaller-style bedroom. With the barracks on the first floor, this was likely the servant quarters. The second door went into another barracks-type room and was half as big as the one downstairs. Like the room before it, there was nothing of interest to be found.
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On the other side, I found the same layout with the corridor and staircase. If I had to guess the first room on this side used to be a reception area where the lord could entertain visitors. The second room looked like to be a guest bedroom. The remains of a single large bed stood against the wall with old furniture around the room. I checked a closet and a chest but both only held dust and regular-sized spiders. I made my back to the spiral staircase and made my way up to the third floor.
The staircase ended in another square room with arrow-slit windows on the outside and two doors leading to the right and straight ahead. Both doors led to the roof. A short set of stairs sat behind the door. I walked out onto the roof. Just like any other keep or castle, the wall was lined with crenelations. At each of the corners stood a similar parapet to the one I just left.
In the middle of the roof stood the tower. The square base of the tower aligned with the inner walls of the keep and formed a third floor. The tower itself was a square structure two stories higher. The outside held no visible windows and the top ended in another parapet. I made a round around the roof and checked all the parapets but they were, again, all empty. The door into the base of the tower was on the front side and was a larger but still single door. It took some force to push the heavy door open. The room behind the door could only be described as some sort of guard section. Most likely to guard the lord’s quarters and the tower. Yet another door barred entry into the actual tower itself. I was glad that the door already stood slightly open and I had no trouble stepping inside.
I stood in another corridor with two doors on either side of it. The first door on my left opened into another bedroom. If I was to go by the furniture since I’d believe it to be the bedroom of the lord's children. It held two single beds and various furniture you’d expect in a bedroom. Like all the other rooms it was cleared out of anything of value. The room on the right side led me to the master bedroom. The frame of a large king-size bed stood empty against the wall. In the corner stood the remains of a crib.
The final door on the left side let into another bathroom so I quickly left and made it to the final door. A small corridor behind the door held one door on the right and one at the end. Opening the door opposite the one I entered led me to some sort of servant area. I could see the makings of some sort of old service elevator you saw in old hotels where you’d use a pully system to quickly bring up items from below. It would be connected to the kitchen below us. Behind another door was another servant quarter. Going back into the small corridor I opened the final door on this floor and found the stairway that led into the tower proper.
The first tower floor held a study and seating area with empty bookcases lining the walls. Similar to all the other rooms it was cleared out. The outside of the room held the staircase to the final floor. When I got to the end of the stairs I was greeted with yet another door. Oddly enough the door did not have any handle or a keyhole. I tried to push it open but it wouldn’t budge. I even threw in a quick shoulder check but that only resulted in a sore shoulder. That’s when my eye fell on a small alcove beside the door. I looked at it confused because inside was a smooth stone which looked oddly similar to a modern-day palm scanner. I tentatively place my hand on the surface of the stone. Nothing happened for a few seconds but then the hairs on my arm stood up as a minor shock of static electricity shot up through my hand and arm. I started to second guess myself when even more charges started to go up my arm. The plate was also becoming brighter and started to become hot to the touch. I tried to pull my hand away but was unable to do so. I could feel the plate now starting to burn my hand and I made the drastic decision to jump down the stairs. My forward momentum pulled my hand free from the plate and I half rand and half stumbled my way down the stairs. The upside of a square tower was the fact I could use the outer wall to halt my momentum as I crashed into it. It took another set of steps down when a loud explosion rocked the tower. I was glad that I decided to go down further since stone shrapnel impacted the wall I had used to stop my momentum. The smell of burned wood hung in the air and black smoke clung to the ceiling. I made my way back up the stairs to see the damage the explosion had caused. The entire area where the scanner used to be was blown out and a small part of the door was blown away. Looking at the collateral damage my action had caused I assumed that was not the expected result. Perhaps the mechanism that held the door closed malfunctioned with age.
With my way no longer barred I entered the final room of the tower. Stepping into the room proper I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was almost completely bare. There were only three items in the room. A rickety wooden ladder going up to a door in the roof and a desk with a chair facing the wall. On the wall hung an ornate but empty picture frame. While I had tried to temper my expectations I hoped to at least find something useful inside the tower. Why would they even put a lock on a door leading into a bare room? I dropped my backpack near the wall and took a seat in the desk chair. I looked through the desk but all the drawers were empty. I even pulled them out to see if they held a double bottom but it was just a normal desk with normal drawers. I started bouncing my leg as I sat in the chair. The rhythmic solid thuds of my foot tapping the floor suddenly changed to a hollow thud. I kept tapping my foot against the floor to find the outline of this hollow sound. I stood up and pulled the chair back before going on my knees beneath the desk. The hollow space was below one of the floorboards but I found no way to open it.
I retrieved the axe from my backpack and jammed it partially under the wood and put my weight on the handle in the hopes of dislodging the piece of wood. Something creaked and I hoped it wasn’t the axe handle but slowly the floorboard was rising. It took a few minutes but eventually, the floorboard gave way and I found a small space underneath it. Inside I found a note, a medallion, and an ornate dagger in a sheath. I pulled the dagger from its sheath to inspect it. It came away easily and I was surprised that despite its age it was in pristine condition and even still held an edge. I put it back inside the sheath and placed it on the desk. The medallion was a simple metal disk with an orb of swirling red and blue inside. I had no idea how the two seemingly liquids inside didn’t mix and became a purple mess but they kept on moving inside like some sort of lava lamp. I placed it next to the dagger and picked up the scroll.
The scroll was sealed with a wax seal displaying a sword and bow over a leaf. I carefully broke the seal and unrolled the scroll. While not expecting to be able to read the scroll I was even more surprised to find it blank. The only thing on the paper was the same seal on the top of the page as a letterhead. Now that didn’t make sense. Who would furl up and seal a blank scroll? This looked like a puzzle and I was missing a piece. I picked up the medallion and tried to look through it at the paper but the fluid didn’t let me see through it. I picked up the dagger next and tried to see if that held a clue about my mystery letter. I almost jumped out of my skin as I heard a noise behind me. I quickly turned around with the dagger in hand but it was only a piece of rubble from the wall that fell to the ground. I sat back down in the chair to calm my rapidly beating heart. I closed my eyes and slowly inhaled and exhaled to calm down. Once my body had calmed down I opened my eyes again to look at my mystery letter.
As soon as my eyes landed on the paper I was assaulted by nausea, vertigo, and a headache. Letters were swimming across the previously blank page. My headache intensified and I closed my eyes again trying not to throw up. The nausea and vertigo settled after a few minutes but part of the headache remained. I slowly opened one eye to glance at the paper to see if the feeling came back. Instead of the swimming letters, it was now a properly written letter. A splosh of blood decorated the bottom of the paper. I looked back to the dagger and then my hands. It seems that during the scare I nicked a finger and the blood dripped onto the paper. Not wanting to think about how spilling blood would make a letter visible I started to read.