Grog and his wolves arrived at his camp about an hour later. The wolves had done a great job scouting ahead, enabling him to avoid both parties of players and monsters. Grog quickly examined the camp and found nothing disturbed. He set a timer for three and a half hours, then climbed into his thus far unused bed and fell quickly asleep.
When the alarm woke him, Grog popped out of bed and readied his camp for his visitor. He lit the fire and set a pot boiling over it. Soon after, Juan arrived.
Grog looked at the other orc and said, "Any friend..."
Juan looked back at him smiling, "Of Joe's..."
"Is a friend of mine." Grog completed as the orcs gave each other a bear hug.
Joe had given his guys a passphrase to identify each other.
Grog thought. That man has saved more lives than Spiderman and Superman together.
"Okay," he said. "Joe told me you may be willing to be our inside man. Looks like you have already changed your alignment."
"Yeah. I am still not totally comfortable with all of this, but I got a message from Joe as I was walking here that says that if you are fighting a just war, the Bible teaches you are allowed to lie to the enemy and deceive them in other ways. Joe mentioned Elisha lying to the Syrians and the midwives lying to the Pharaoh."
Grog nodded. "Yeah, he told me the same things. I don't know if I can sort it out, but when Joe tells me something is taught in the Bible, I tend to believe it."
Juan nodded. "Yeah, I'm good to go on this. I did swap my alignment, and I have also been helping out at the temple. That place is super gross, but I have lived with worse."
"Can you get us in there?" Grog asked.
"I have all of one day of service there so not much seniority, but I have seen lots of humans and even orcs come and check the place out. Borgakh seems to have an open-door policy, at least in the main areas of the temple. I have been in a little deeper but getting further is going to be hard.
"The causeway is a narrow strip of land through a swamp, I am guessing you have at least seen that?"
Grog nodded. He had seen the entrance at least while shopping in Khigar.
"Good, that runs through the swamp, which is filled with the craziest creatures. They are all made up of at least two other creatures. For example, I once saw a huge monster lift itself out of the water and howl. The thing must have been twenty feet long! It was too far away to identify properly, but I could feel the oppression, so I know it was high level and, more importantly, a different alignment from me. It looked like a werewolf covered in green scales at first, but as it dove back into the water, it revealed long snake-like hindquarters where it should have had legs. Bro, that was terrifying."
Grog shuddered involuntarily and shook his head.
Juan continued, "The temple itself is an enormous black building shaped like a medieval cathedral. But it is carved all over with scenes of greed, lust, wrath, gluttony." He paused, "All of the seven deadly sins are there. More guards outside, high level, but no oppression since I share their alignment.
"Inside is the main area where Dajixian appears sometimes. I guess this is only one of his temples, and he splits his time between them. I was there once when he showed up. Everyone bowed down to him, but he seemed pretty relaxed and not so militant as Borgakh, so everyone was up on their feet pretty quickly. He invited people to come and ask a boon and a disorderly scramble to reach the front happened, which seemed to please the god. Those who were most violent in getting to the front were rewarded, and soon a super violent mosh pit formed.
"The god himself looks weird, to say the least. His head looks like an orc's but the body is continually rotating around. He is covered in what looks like moving tattoos but you never see what you saw before. It is pretty gross. Stab wounds, money bags, a face being stuffed with food, lustful scenes, lazy people, I mean you just can't even guess what may be coming next, but it is all just awful. I don't think any of the players actually like looking at him, or it, or whatever. But they are willing to because he gives some crazy good boons if you are able to actually get to the front and get his attention."
Grog shook his head. "Nasty!"
"And then there are the side rooms," Juan continued, "These are places of lust, violence, gluttony, sloth, each of the seven deadly sins. The players have less of an objection to these."
"Okay, so this is basically the outer areas of the temple. What else is there?" Grog asked.
"Oh, I almost forgot," Juan added. "Let me tell you about this first. Outside the temple, there is a sort of village. All of the commerce happens across the causeway in Khigar, but lots of people want to be near the temple, so they have built a shanty town and stay there. There is also a barracks where a bunch of weapons are stored, better stuff than most players have right now. That is what the orcs use when they go to war with Traville."
"I suppose this is all built of stone like the temple?" Grog queried.
"Actually, no. This has only been built since the game launched, it is all wood and quite ramshackle." Juan said.
"Okay so inside the temple, where do we find Borgakh?" Grog asked.
"I don't really know, I haven't been in much deeper. There is a door behind the dais where the god appears and you can sign up to be a temple guardian. I have done that already but beyond that, there is a guarded door, supposedly that goes to Borgakh's audience chamber. I am guessing you would have to go through there to get any deeper and you need to have the approval of one of her captions to even get in that deep."
"How do the locks look on the doors?" Grog said.
"Juan thought for a moment." I am not sure I have seen any locks besides those in the temple, but overall they look super beefy and complex."
Grog was pensive for a moment, "Okay, so thoughts on an frontal assault by a party of six level 10 players on Borgakh?"
Juan shook his head. "Nope."
"Just nope?"
"Yep."
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First thing in the morning, Lance went down to grab a bite of something to eat. Food had never been terribly important to him, but the food here was absolutely amazing. He hoped weight gain wasn’t something the game devs had factored in. As he descended into the common room, he noticed that it was empty except for something white huddled near the faintly glowing hearth. As he neared, he realized it was Sparky. His friend looked up when he walked by to sit at the table. "Morning," Sparky greeted, but he was clearly still groggy.
"Good morning to you, friend," Lance replied with genuine enthusiasm. "Did you sleep there last night?"
"You know," Sparky replied, "I should probably spring for the 5 coppers a night to grab a room, but old habits die hard. I've slept on the ground for so long that a bed just feels weird."
He got up and joined Lance at the table.
"Any chance you can take a look at an item for me and maybe identify it?", asked Lance.
"Sure, I can give it a try."
Lance pulled the belt out of his inventory and handed it over to Sparky.
He looked over the belt for a bit and then squinted at the inside of the buckle for a little while, finally giving it up and handing it back to Lance. "No good, that one is just beyond my ability."
"I know that if you have enough intelligence and wisdom combined you can identify some items, but how does it work for mages?"
"There is a written language that they call mage script. It takes different forms, but it is a real language or maybe set of languages. The first step is to find the script on the item, for example, this one is on the inside of the buckle, then you stare at it for a bit, and, if you are high enough level, you get the translation of the item name in your HUD. Once you say it out loud while holding the item, the rest becomes available for anyone holding the item to perceive."
"Seriously?" Lance turned the inside of the buckle to face him. The small inscription there read, "ζώνηγίγαςἰσχύς" which Lance translated out loud as, "Belt of Giant Strength". Suddenly he heard a chime.
"You have identified a Belt of Giant Strength. Plus 6 strength. Once per day you are able to add an additional 25 strength for 15 minutes."
Sparky looked at him incredulously, "How did you do that? You are a level 3 Thief; you should not be able to do that!"
"It’s just ancient Greek, I studied it in seminary. And it is not even very good Greek, just 3 nouns strung together, I added the ‘of’"
Sparky just stared at him for a minute. "Seriously?"
"Yeah, my guess is that someone among the devs has a classical education, studied Aristotle or something like that, and thought this would be cool."
"Feels like cheating to me. But since I like you, I am willing to let it pass." Sparky winked at him.
"Any reason not to put this on?"
"Nope, when you identify an item, any curses will be made evident as well."
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
Lance popped up and put the belt on, he immediately felt stronger. "Nice."
Lance waved over to the barmaid and ordered a pot of coffee and a hearty meal. Sparky followed suit. As the pair were finishing up their meals, Polly and Lucinda walked down the stairs together looking ready for the day. Polly called out for some coffee and both of them joined the group. Lucinda began picking at Lances food but he didn't mind since it was too much for him to finish anyway. A few minutes later Casian came down the stairs, looking rather bedraggled. He too ordered coffee, but while Polly sipped at hers, he gulped coffee like a man afraid of drowning gasping for air.
"I am hoping that Grog will be back soon," Lance said. “Is there any way to communicate with him directly?”
Casian looked up from his mug, "Lucinda and I tried it, but messaging between players is blocked for now. Even if you message or talk to a third party, they are blocked from messaging any other player for an hour. So turn-around time on that is too long for most things."
"Okay," Lance said, "Then we can fill Grog in later. I have a plan for leveling us up."
He looked around to see that they were alone in the common room and then withdrew the map, the chest, and the sword from his inventory and placed them on the table.
He pointed to the X on the map and said, “This is where I spawned. There were four level 1 goblins and a level 3 goblin sergeant here when I did. When I killed them, the sergeant was wielding this sword and wearing the belt I just identified as a Belt of Giant Strength.”
Casian picked up the sword and whistled. "Nice stuff, seems a bit overpowered for a level 3."
"Exactly my point. In his tent, I also found this chest." Lance opened the chest and withdrew the paper, unfolding it. "I translated this last night..."
"Wait a minute," Polly said, "You what?"
Sparky laid a hand on her arm and said, "We can explain that later."
Polly just nodded, "What does it say?"
Lance repeated his translation to them and continued. "I think that the group of goblins were there to meet a higher-level creature and to do something for it, maybe move the stone." He pointed to the red X on the map and said, “There is a huge stone right here.”
"Did you get a quest when you translated that paper?" Sparky asked.
"Yes, when I read it out loud I got a quest. It said something about it being unique." Lance replied, gathering up each of the items and putting them back into his inventory.
"Can you share the quest with the party?" Polly asked.
Lance pulled up his HUD, found the quest, and shared it with the party including Grog.
Sparky whistled and leaned his chair back, "Looks like you stumbled upon something big. I am guessing all of us have been dropped into the game around the valley, but kind of randomly. Looks like you just dropped in on something very interesting."
Casian and Polly nodded.
"As I was fighting the sergeant, he kept looking behind him; almost like he was waiting for something, and then, as I was leaving the area, I had a tingly feeling that Cletus told me meant there was an enemy much higher level than me nearby. You know like when Borgakh is near."
Casian leaned forward and smiled. "I haven’t been this excited about anything in this game yet. Most of the quests here are pretty grindy and boring, but this sounds really good. Some people who were in the beta test have come back from outside the starter area and it sounds like the quests get a lot better out there."
Lance nodded, "So I ran into the woods and waited, the first thing that showed up was a level 8 elite wraith and it looked pissed, Borgakh showed up a few minutes later and likewise looked very bent out of shape. This clearly has something to do with her so I think it will be worth our while to pursue it."
"Problem is," Sparky noted, "We are no where near high enough level to be messing with a level 8 elite anything. We need to level up before we even think about heading to this canyon of yours."
----------------------------------------
About two hours later, Grog walked into the Bird and Baby and took a seat at the party's table.
"Lance," Grog said, getting right to the point, "Here is what I found out from Juan. There is no way we are going to be able to take a party deep into that temple. Getting to Khigar is easy, and there are enough humans of every stripe that it would not be a huge problem, especially without a god listed. Polly may be an issue, but we could figure that out. Getting a party like ours down the causeway to the Temple of Dajixian is going to be tough but not impossible. Then you hit the shanty town around the temple. That is just going to be a dice roll as to whether the orcs there will take offense or let us pass. If we were fortunate enough to get to the temple, getting past the first door is possible after that is a big fat 'Nope.'"
Lance looked thoughtful for a moment, "Okay, what else did Juan say?"
"Well," Grog continued, "He got into the main area of the temple and then into a hallway beyond that, but then there are guards." He paused for a moment, "I just don't know how we can get an entire party in there without fighting a massive battle. As soon as some guard raises an alarm, you are just in the middle of a ton of enemies. Juan also thought that the locks looked extremely hard to bypass."
"Hmm." Lance thought for a minute again. "I think we just need to keep moving forward, you never know what skills may be offered at level 8. Maybe 'Pick insanely hard locks' will be on the list."
Everyone grinned.
Grog spoke up again, "Juan has built up a little reputation already and is working on getting more, but it takes the approval of a captain to get anywhere in that temple."
"Two things we can work on. First, we need to level up and become more powerful. Second, we are going to need an insider for sure. Great to have Juan on the team, but we clearly need a captain helping us. Normally that would not be possible, but with God, all things are possible. Now, where can we..." Lance snapped his fingers, an idea clearly having jumped into his head, "Anyone need any magic items?"
----------------------------------------
As the party followed Lance out of the Bird and Baby Grog grabbed Lance's elbow. "I am feeling like I missed something back there. Why are we going to the witches? I didn't get the impression that this is just about magic items."
Lance smiled and stopped the group, "I think our best bet to find a captain will be among these witches. If I understand right all three of them took part in the beta test."
"But if some of them are Borgakh's Capitans, they will be on her side, right?" Asked Lucinda.
"For now, yes." Lance had a sparkle in his eye as he turned to lead the party again.
Asking for directions to where the witches had set up shop, they were pointed to an area just north of what was left of the town. They quickly found the place hidden from site by a stand of pine trees. It was an A-frame-style building, looking as if it were built in the 1960s. It faced away from the village toward the snow-capped mountains in the distance. They walked around to the front of the shop and were greeted with a plethora of idols and arcane symbols. Lance did not think that these were game related but were things that the witches had created themselves from memories they had brought in from their previous lives.
Caisin stopped dead in his tracks, the party bunching up behind him on the narrow path they were following. "I can't go in there."
"That's perfectly fine, Caisin," Lance said, "If your conscience is pinching at you or if you think you would be tempted to sin if you went in there, then you should really not go in. In fact, it would be a sin if you cannot do it in faith. That goes for everyone else here, if you can't do this believing it is acceptable in God's eyes, you need to stay out."
"I am going to head back to the Bird and Baby." The dwarf said.
"Me too," Lucinda said, "I may be tempted if I go in there. I have a history with that sort of stuff and am not comfortable around people like that any longer."
Lance nodded. "Good then, we will see you guys back at the inn as soon as we are done here."
As he was preparing to head into the shop, Lucinda put a hand on Lance's arm. “Can you trade some stuff for me in there? You would know what would be useful to me." A small window popped up with several items that Lucinda had replaced with better gear.
Lance nodded to her with a smile and headed into the shop. He had expected to find a similar feeling inside the shop as outside, but instead, he found a very neatly ordered establishment with two patrons standing behind the counter looking at them.
"Aah," One of the patrons noted as they entered, "The crosses have finally stooped low enough to enter our shop."
Lance turned and smoothly replied, "Actually, we have not felt the need until now, we've been able to identify our own items."
The first witch, a very tall and thin woman with salt and pepper hair, raised one eyebrow. "How can we help you today, then?"
Lance examined her nameplate,
"Okay, so how did you guys get to such a high level? The game just opened." Polly asked.
"We were both in the beta test for this system, and they let us keep our characters at launch. There are quite a few outside of the starter area like us. We just decided to stay here and run the shop. This valley is beautiful, and none of us are the hardcore adventuring type."
Lance nodded, "I kind of thought you guys would be following Dajixian."
"I can see how you may think this, but really," Egwene replied, "His followers would rather tear down a shop and loot it than run one. But our partner does follow Dajixian, I think he does it to punish himself."
"Maybe out of a sense of morbid Justice," Sabrina added.
"He?" Lance asked.
Sabrina and Egwene groaned as if to say people are so ignorant of arcane things.
"Yes, there are men who practice arcane arts, and Saruman is one of the better ones, but he rejects the title of 'witch,'" Egwene continued, "He calls himself a 'warlock.' People think that those terms are gender specific, but they are not. 'Warlock' specifically denotes someone who has dedicated themselves to the darker arts. But while Saruman does worship Dajixian, he is a really nice guy. I really don't understand him most of the time."
Lance laughed, "You learn something new every day. I would love to meet Saruman someday, he isn't around is he?"
"No. He is on duty at the temple today."
Nodding, he popped his feet up on the counter and asked the ladies if his boots had any value.
Egwene, a little shocked having a customer's feet on her counter, gave them a once over. "These are solid boots, the curse is a simple one to remove, and they are good for enchanting. But we never pay for items. We only trade. These have a little value but not much. What else do you have to trade?"
“What kind of enchantment can you put on them?”
Egwene considered for a moment, "We could put a +10% movement speed on them, that would be the max for these."
"How much?"
"Three silver is our standard rate, but for you do-gooders, we will make it four."
Lance smiled, "I see your building was not burned in the recent raid."
"Yes," she said with a sparkle in her eye, "apparently, the goblins and orcs were too focused on getting to the Bird and Baby to make it this far out... I get your point. Three it is."
Lance smiled at her and handed over the coins. Egwene did something to the bottom of the boots, pulled them off Lance's feet, and took them to a back room, apparently to enchant them.
Lance removed several items from his inventory and placed them on the counter. Sabrina examined them, her head snapping up after a moment. "How were these identified? I have never seen an identification without an attached level."
Lance grimaced, "I identified them. When I studied to be a pastor, I studied ancient Greek and these items are all encoded in that language."
"Hmm, I always wondered." Sabrina said, "When you have the ability, you don't have to look too close, but it did always look like math letters to me."
"Look like frat boy letters to me," Egwene said as she returned, handing the boots back to Lance.
"Both are Greek letters, so you are both right," Lance smiled.
Sabrina looked over the items for a moment, "What do you need? We can enchant stuff you already have if you like." She said, twirling a small metal pen in her hand.
"These are for a friend who is also a thief. What can we get for these?"
Egwene walked out from behind the counter and pulled a length of rope off a rack. "Up," She said and the rope stretched up to the ceiling. "Attach" and the rope quickly tied itself around a sturdy-looking rafter. "Knots," She said in a slightly bored tone and the rope tied a knot, perfect for a handhold, about every foot and a half.
She offered the rope to Lance and he quickly climbed it to the top and then slid back down easily.
"Return," She said and the rope unknotted, untied, and coiled itself neatly in her hand.
"I think that will do nicely," Lance said. "Lucinda should be pleased."
Egwene handed the rope over and reached out to shake his hand.
"Hang on." He said to her. He looked at the rope, "Up."
When the rope did nothing, he glanced at Egwene, who had a sly look on her face. She shrugged, "We need to be a little evil to keep our reputation up." Then taking the rope back from Lance, she said, "Transfer ownership." And handed the rope to Lance.
"Up." He said and the rope obeyed this time. He reached out to shake her hand as he said, "Return"
By this time the others were deep in conversation with Sabrina.
"Can I get one of those too?" Lance asked, pointing at the pen in Sabrina's hand.
She shrugged and tossed him the pen which looked solid with no way to hold ink, but Lance had already guessed its function.
"When will Saruman be returning?" he asked.
"He will probably stay to the very end of the party after the raid which means he should be back tomorrow by noon."
Lance nodded as the others finished up their bargaining.