As the haze cleared before his eyes, Lee vaguely realized he was laying upon his back. Cold, damp earth pressed against his naked spine. Above him, a completely grey sky drizzled with light rain, stinging his eyes.
Confusion came next.
Where was he? He couldn’t form a coherent thought within his head. His mind was a void, as blank and gray as the sky above him. As he sat upright, he took in the unfamiliar surroundings. A rocky outcropping of some kind, adorned with a few dead trees and all around him, damp gray sand.
His heart beat faster as the confusion grew into panic.
Where am I? he thought. Who am I?
Lee. His name was Lee. That much he knew. But that was all he knew.
He looked down upon himself. His pale skin stretched thin across a boney chest. About his waist, a dirty scrap of stained leather covered him just barely. Shriveled legs shivered in cold and he hugged himself for warmth.
What is this place?
He touched his face and felt a thick beard upon his jaw.
How old was he?
That thought seemed secondary compared to figuring out where he was however. Or even who he was. As he continued to study himself, he noticed a marking etched onto the back of his left hand. A circle with a single dot in the middle. He traced it with his finger, pondering what it was.
As he did so, words formed before his eyes.
Name: Lee
Level: 0
Essence: 0%
Strength: 1
Dexterity: 1
Agility: 1
Vigor: 1
Constitution: 1
Will: 1
He blinked perplexed. He could read and make sense of what was before him…and while the experience seemed odd, it was not unfamiliar. Like a memory almost. He looked at the word Strength and more words appeared.
Strength
Your ability to affect the world physically through the raw power of your body. Large weapons benefit greatly from this attribute.
He focused on the other words in turn.
Dexterity
Your ability to manipulate fine instruments, weaponry and aim with ranged weapons.
Agility
Your ability to move quickly and nimbly, avoiding damage and detection by foes.
Vigor
Your ability to recover from exertion as well as endure physical strain. Determines both your stamina pool and your maximum burden allotment.
Constitution
Your ability to recover from illness and heal wounds. Determines your natural defense and health pool.
Will
Your ability to focus your mind and wield the arcane arts. Determines your mana pool.
Attributes? The arcane arts?
Lee blinked. What did this all mean? What kind of place was this?
As he glanced about himself, he noticed a large curved bone at his side. A bone far too large to belong to a human. A horse perhaps? As he touched it more words appeared.
Bone Club
Attribute: Strength [B+]
Minimum: STR:1
Speed: D
Damage: E
Weight: 1.5 lbs
The bone was slick from the misty rain, but it gave him comfort as he gripped it. A faint yellow glow came from beneath where the bone had been, something shimmering in the gray sand. He uncovered whatever it was, revealing a small sliver of yellow crystal.
As he looked at it words appeared again.
Tiny memory fragment
Contains a message or memory from the past.
That seemed very useful at the moment. He plucked the crystal from the ground. It suddenly popped between his fingers in a flurry of yellow sparks and two words appeared.
“Move! Now!”
He stared perplexed at warning, his insides filling with dread. A low growl came from behind him. Lee tuned his head to look over his shoulder and his heart leapt with fright as what he saw. Just a feet behind him was a huge black lizard the size of a large dog, slithering towards him. Its skin was patched and mottled, peeling like a snake sheading its skin. It let out a horrid shriek as it leap at him and Lee released a terrified scream.
* * *
Lee awoke with a haze clearing from his vision. He was upon his back, staring up at a slate gray sky, drizzling with light rain. His mind drew a blank.
Where was he? Who was he?
As he sat up he studied himself bewildered. He spotted a strange circle tattooed upon his left hand. As he touched it words and numbers appeared like a hallucination before his eyes, but he could make little sense of what they meant. He studied them and more words appeared, revealing the meaning of each one.
A strange sense of familiarity consumed him as he read the definition of each…attribute?
He spotted a large bone that lay at his side. Grabbing it another message appeared.
Bone Club
Attribute: Strength [B+]
Minimum: STR:1
Speed: D
Damage: E
Weight: 1.5 lbs
A bone club? He frowned. Better than nothing, I suppose.
As he stood Lee noticed a glimmer of something in the sand next to his foot. He was about to reach down and grasp whatever it was, when a low growl came from behind him. Lee turned his head just in time to see something large and black dashing at him. Releasing a cry, he managed to jump to the side, avoiding the snapping jaws of a very large, black lizard. He swung the bone club the same time and managed to hit the thing on its head.
The creature flinched, startled by the blow. In that moment of pause, Lee struck again, bashing the lizard repeatedly in the head. The thing hissed and snarled with each hit and on the third blow, the bone club imbedded itself into the lizard’s skull.
You killed the Dusk Lizard.
The thing grew silent and fell over.
Lee breathed heavily as he stared at the words before his eyes, his heart racing with adrenaline and fright. A white mist formed over the creature’s body and then was somehow magically drawn towards him. The mist entered the tattoo symbol on his hand and the dot in the center grew larger, doubling in size and nearly filling the circle.
You regained 90% Essence.
A new vigor filled him and he felt strangely energized.
What was that? He thought. Did I just consume its power?
The white mist continued to coalesce and formed a yellow crystal similar to the one he’d seen before, right on top of the lizard’s head.
Small memory fragment
Contains a message or memory from the past.
Lee took the glowing crystal into his hand and as he crushed it in his palm a rush of memories flooded his mind. He relived himself awaking on the cold damn ground over and over again. Each time he would grab the bone club just moments before the lizard struck. Sometimes he wouldn’t even have a chance to see it and defend himself. Other times he got a hit in or two before the beast tore through his body with its razor sharp jaws. His heart raced as he experienced the memories in real time, wincing with the muted pain of his prior demises for over a hundred times.
He fell to the ground upon his knees.
This is insane…How long have I been trapped in this hell?
He’d been extremely lucky this time, he now realized; stunning the lizard with a quick opening blow to the head. It had allowed him to finally kill the thing when it had apparently killed him many times before.
He at least had some concept of time now. Some sense of where he was as well.
He’d been here before.
This was the start.
Something else came to his mind. A door. He looked about but didn’t see a door of any kind, but somehow this place reminded him of one. He needed to remember. Hungrily Lee reached for the small sliver of crystal he’d seen before, eager to gain more memories. New words appeared.
“Move! Now!”
A warning?
Lee chuckled. Perhaps it was a message to avoid the lizard.
“A bit too late now,” he said and turned to examine the lizard’s body once more, but he didn’t see it.
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His heart stopped.
Where is—
Sharp pain entered his side as the beast suddenly reappeared, latching onto his ribcage with its crushing jaws. Lee released a howling gasp, his recent memories mixing with those happening in present time.
How did it survive? Had he not truly killed it as he thought? But no. The words had appeared to confirm that he had. Unless it could live again after death.
Just like him.
Lee tried to batter the beast with his club but his strength was sapped by a dark toxin spewing from the beast’s mouth and now coursing through his veins. He knew what was coming next—a quick moment of oblivion, followed by awakening on the cold damp sand without a memory or thought in his head. How many more cycles would it take before he got lucky enough to kill the lizard again?
Ten? Twenty? A hundred? A thousand?
No, he thought. I can’t go through that hell again.
He cried out with frustration and desperation, trying to kill the lizard before it killed him.
A thought formed in his quickly clouding mind.
Someone had left that crystal message for him.
There was no one else here.
It had to have been himself.
Lee pressed his hand against the sand and willed his thoughts to coalesce into a glowing yellow stone.
It’s behind you, he thought.
You lose 45% Essence.
Memory Saved.
The world went blank as the lizard tore his body apart.
* * *
Lee awoke upon his back, a haze clearing from his mind. A gray sky drizzled light rain above him, stinging his eyes. He blinked and sat up upright, confused.
Who am I? he thought. Where am I?
As he glanced about, Lee noticed a large glowing crystal that lay next to his hand and words appeared in his vision.
Small memory fragment
Contains a message or memory from the past.
As he took hold of the glowing crystal, it shattered with a pop.
“It’s behind you!”
Behind me? What’s behind—?
Before he could even complete the thought, a rush of memories came flooding back into his mind. The Lizard. The deaths. And just moments ago his victory over the beast right before it somehow resurrected to kill him for what had to be more than the hundredth time.
Lee blindly grasped the bone club that he knew lay on his opposite side and swung it behind him, spinning on his knees.
It connected with the Lizard just as it was about to pounce.
The club struck its jaw and the beast stumbled to the side, allowing Lee to rise to his feet.
“Die you beast!” he cried, raising the club high above his head.
The Bone Club flashed.
Weapon skill: Savage Cry!
Strength and Damage temporarily increased.
Club Skill increased by 1!
He ignore the message as he brought the club down upon the lizard’s back. It hissed with the blow, stunned. Lee wasted no time following up with a strike to its head and then another. The beast died after three swift hits and as before mist formed on its body and drew towards Lee’s hand.
You killed the Dusk Lizard.
You regained 80% Essence.
The circle on his palm filled and then suddenly reduced to a quarter full, but a smaller solid black circle affixed itself to the outer rim of the circle now.
Essence: 125%
Lee pondered the figure. 45 plus 80. 125. Makes sense. He supposed it was possible to go over 100%...whatever this thing was actually measuring.
10 percent less this time though, he thought. Perhaps that was to be expected. He’d already killed the lizard once before. Lee waited with his club held high, seeing if the beast would indeed resurrect again. To his surprise, the body didn’t reanimate but simply vanished before him. A few seconds later a hiss came from across the patch of gray sand, and there was the lizard again.
It was whole and lively, indeed returned to live the same as he had before. Not resurrected, but as if respawned from the ether.
The lizard was still a distance away. He didn’t want to risk fighting that thing and dying again so he turned and ran. He wasn’t certain if the lizard simply had not seen him or if it was still in a haze from its respawned state, but the thing didn’t follow him.
Small mercies, he thought.
Lee left the rocky alcove where the lizard was and ran along a rugged pathway hewn through walls of natural slate gray stone. After a while, the path ended at a wide clearing. The ground transitioned from sand to hard granite and Lee stopped at the edge. There was no other exit as far as he could tell and in the center of the clearing was a single stone structure.
It was roughly circular in shape and consisted of equally spaced pillars that held archways in between them. Perhaps it had held a roof at some point, but that seemed to be missing now—along with several of the archways. In the center of the structure, two more stone pillars and a single archway formed the frame about a large, onyx black door.
There is was…the door he had recalled before.
Apprehension filled him. The door was ominous and dark, but his need to recall what this place was pushed him forward. Lee approached the door and its abnormal height became evident. It was at least twenty feet high and upon its obsidian surface, strange etching formed a language he couldn’t understand. The script encircled an indentation that was in the pictogram of a sun; a circle made of outward pointing triangles. Cautiously Lee reached towards its surface.
Door of the Unknown [Sealed]
You do not possess the key to open this door.
The message prompted him to push against the door, but not surprisingly it didn’t budge.
Sealed? Lee thought. By some kind of magic perhaps?
It was likely so, especially with it being a door to seemingly nowhere. He wasn’t even certain if these things should be common to him. Were they a normalcy here? To him even? Was he accustomed to magic doors and creatures that came back to life? He had no memories, but he was certain he still had some sense of what was normal and what was not. He supposed it was the same way he still knew how to read or speak. He still had knowledge and understanding, just no specific memories to give anything context. He’d have to take what he found here at face value until he could find some way to remember exactly who he was. Then perhaps what seemed odd and out of place would be far more clear cut. For now, he would have to consider everything here as being as it should.
Lee glanced around the edge of the pillar to confirm there was nothing more than the same black material on the other side. But when he did so, he spotted a small figure curled up in a ball against the back of the door.
Lee jumped back startled.
The person didn’t move, apparently asleep, or perhaps…even dead? The latter thought caused his stomach to tighten as he peered closer. It appeared to be a woman, her head bowed and resting on her knees with her arms wrapped around them, completely hiding her face. She wore a tattered robe that at one point might have been white, but now was stained a dark gray. The material was soaked from the light rain that Lee noticed had now stopped. Her hair was matted from the drizzle as well, dark and stringy.
Her frame was small and while she didn’t look like a threat physically, after his encounter with that lizard, Lee didn’t put any kind of trust in the re-animating beings of this world. He lifted the end of his bone club and standing back, prodded the woman on the shoulder.
He half expected for the body to tip over, revealing the woman to be dead, but to his somewhat relief, the woman didn’t snarl and hiss at him like a crazed fiend, but instead stirred slowly and raised her head to look at him.
Lee’s breath caught as a pair of magnificent blue eyes met his own. He stood there mesmerized as a warm smile drew across her youthful face. She was stunning, with elegant features that contrasted sharply with her disheveled hair and attire.
His heartbeat sped as he gazed upon her.
He’d never seen a woman so beautiful.
Although truthfully, he couldn’t remember seeing any other woman right now.
“Welcome, chosen one,” the woman said in a calm voice as she stood and then dusted off her robes. “I’m sorry I was not awake to greet you. It has been so long since one of your kind has visited to me.”
Chosen one? One of my kind? Was this the norm too? Just accept it, Lee reminded himself and stepped back as the woman approached him.
Folding her hands before her, she then bowed with a curtsey. “It is an honor.”
“Who are you?” Lee said. “And why did you call me chosen one? Chosen for what?”
“You were chosen to come here,” she said with a smile. “I suppose.”
“And where is here?”
“The land of Moerdraan”
Moerdraan…the name didn’t seem familiar to him.
“Why? Who brought me here? Why do I have no memories? And why can I see these ghostly words before my eyes?”
“So many questions,” the woman said as she stepped towards the front side of the door and Lee followed her. “I do not have the answers to them all, but as the Keeper of the Gates I will aid you in any way I can.”
“Keeper of the Gates?” Lee said. “You guard this door?”
“No, the door needs no guarding. Only you can open it, after all. I am here to open the gates.”
She then raised her hand towards one of the arches between the pillars. In an instant, a shimmering portal appeared within it. As the image cleared, Lee peered at what looked like a dense forest beyond.
“What is this?”
“You are within the place between worlds,” the Gate Keeper said. “From here I can send you to another location within Moerdraan.”
“How are you able to do this? Are you a sorceress?”
Sorcery…he apparently seemed to know what sorcery was.
“It is my purpose,” she said. “As is yours to unlock this door.”
My purpose? he thought. “So you know who I am then?”
“I know only what you are, not who.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I know that I am to aid you as a chosen one, but as for who you are, that will be for both you to remember and perhaps also to decide.”
She then gestured to the back of her hand and Lee looked down at the tattoo upon his own.
“The mark of the chosen,” she said. “When the circle is complete you may offer it to me in exchange for greater power. I see you already have a filled circle to offer. Spend it wisely, though. You will become what you choose to be.”
Lee recalled the attributes he’d seen before and just with the thought they appeared again before his eyes.
Name: Lee
Level: 0
Essence: 125%
Strength: 1
Dexterity: 1
Agility: 1
Vigor: 1
Constitution: 1
Will: 1
125% percent…Could he truly make himself stronger if gave her 100 of that percent?
“What about my memories?” he asked. “I found a crystal that allowed me to remember my past. Are there more here?”
“Perhaps.” The woman then nodded towards the portal. “The chosen can choose to save their memories in crystals as you said. But be wary. A memory can sometimes take on a life of its own, if left unrecalled for too long.”
Lee didn’t like the sound of that.
“How many have come before me? How many Chosen Ones?”
“I believe a great many,” she said.
“Have I been here before? Do you remember me?”
“I cannot say that I recall you, but as I said, many others have tread your path.”
“And what path is that? What am I expected to do here?”
She then gestured towards the large door. “To unlock the seal. At least, that is what I believe you are here to do.”
“Why? What’s beyond it?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. Perhaps only you will know.”
“Me? I don’t know anything!” Lee shouted, becoming suddenly angry. “I don’t even know who I am! I don’t know why I’m even here!”
The Keeper smiled and again gestured towards the portal. “Perhaps the memories you seek will tell you all that you wish to know.”
“You’re saying my memories are out there?”
“The chosen return here upon death. Although I don’t recall you specifically, it is possible you passed here some time ago and have only now returned.” She then chuckled. “Perhaps I’ve lost some of my memories as well. It’s hard to be certain.”
Lee frowned inwardly. Could he truly trust this woman? Devils did masquerade as angles didn’t they? But what choice did he have? There appeared to be no other way out of this place other than through that portal.
“There is one more thing,” the Keeper said. “This land is cursed. Nothing truly dies in Moerdraan. And nothing truly lives either.”
“What do you mean?”
“You will not age or hunger here. Nothing does. Creatures killed in Moerdraan will return after death…sometimes even stronger than before.”
“So I found out already,” Lee said, recalling the lizard. “How do I keep them from coming back? Is there a way?”
The woman chuckled. “I like your spirit, chosen one. Already seeking a way to end the curse. If I knew the answer myself however, then perhaps even I would be able to leave this place. The curse of undeath plagues all. Even me.”
Lee furrowed his brow. “Who exactly are you? What is your name?”
“I have no need for a name,” she said. “I am simply the Gate Keeper. If I did once have a name, I regrettably do not remember it. I only know that I am to help you travel through this world and perhaps…to open this door and finally end this curse.”
A curse of undeath. Lee felt strangely like a prisoner now. This whole world was some kind of hell. And he needed to escape.
He eyed the door. “So how am I supposed to open it?”
“Again, I do not—”
“Right, you don’t know.” He exhaled in frustration, looking to the portal and the dark forest beyond. “What happens if I go through there? What will I find?”
“Truth, I hope. Dangers too. Many dark and powerful creatures roam the lands outside.”
“How am I supposed to defeat them?” He raised the bone club. “With this?”
She gestured again to the back of his hand. “Growing in strength would be my advice.”
He did absorb that lizard’s essence when he killed it. “If I gain power how can I return again to you to use it?”
“If you sacrifice all the power you have gained, you may return here instantly,” she said.
“That doesn’t sound very productive.”
“There are also passageways that lead back here. Or so I’ve been told.”
“Told by who?”
“Other chosen ones, but you will have to find such paths on your own. I know not where to find them. If you bring me back a visage of where you have been, however, I can create a portal back to the same place.”
“I see…” He had no idea what bringing back a visage truly meant, but perhaps it was something he had to learn—or perhaps remember— how to do in time. “So that’s it? No other way to return here?”
“Or you can simply die to return…but you will lose your memories if you do.”
“That sounds simple enough.”
“Be wary though,” she said. “If you die too often without saving your memories, you may lose them completely and become Forgotten.”
“Forgotten?”
“A Forgotten Soul. Chosen Ones who have lost themselves. You become a mindless shade of your former self, no better than the creatures you will face. To lose your memories is to lose your very soul after all.”
Lee could surprisingly relate to that at the moment. “I feel that’s what I am right now. I don’t remember anything. I don’t know who or even what I am.”
“Perhaps it matters less than you think,” she said. “What you choose to do will make far more of a difference than what you’ve already done. And besides, you still remember your name. That’s important. Once you lose it then you truly would become a Forgotten Soul.”
“But you said you don’t remember your name? Didn’t you?”
“That is true,” she said a bit sadly. “But, I do remember my purpose.” She then smiled as she looked down at the stone floor. “Perhaps that is the only thing that keeps me from becoming Forgotten as well. I remember my duty…but nothing else. ”
Lee’s heart softened as the woman’s smile faded into a frown. She seemed to be a prisoner here just as much as he was. “Do you perhaps have lost memories out there as well? Can I retrieve them for you?”
The Keeper looked up at him with a bemused smile. “Perhaps. But I don’t remember where they are.”
She laughed then and Lee realized she was making a joke.
He forced a chuckled along with her. “So I need to save my memories to keep from becoming Forgotten. Understood.”
“Yes,” she said. “Save them often. There are many chosen who now roam Moerdraan as Forgotten Souls because they did not. It will cost you some of your Essence, but you will always return to the place of your last memory. Choose where you save them wisely.”
Lee grimaced. He was naked in an unknown land; no memories of who or even what he was and his only way forward was through a portal into the unknown, guided by a woman who had barely more memories than he did.
He looked at the crude bone club in his hand. This wouldn’t do.
“You said you could make me stronger?” he asked.
The Keeper nodded. “Grant me the essence of the full circle upon your hand and I can grand your wish.”
“How do I do that?”
“Give your hand to me and will it.”
Lee did so, a warm filling his chest as she held his palm within her own. “What is your wish, Chosen One?”
“Make me stronger,” Lee said.
The Keeper closed her eyes and a wisp of white energy flowed from his hand as the small black circle disappeared. It flowed into her and through her hands he felt a warmth that flowed into his muscles and joints.
You have gained a Level!
Your Strength has increased by +1
Lee looked down at his chest. It was still as boney as before.
“That didn’t seem to do much,” he said and looked at his attributes next.
Name: Lee
Level: 1
Essence: 25%
Strength: 2
Dexterity: 1
Agility: 1
Vigor: 1
Constitution: 1
Will: 1
“You will need to gather far more Essence to make significant gains.”
Lee looked to the dark forest and then back the way he came.
He knelt and placed his hand to the ground, willing his thoughts into a memory.
“This is the Keeper. She seems to be a friend. You must find a way to end this curse to save her and yourself. She thinks you must open the door to do so. -Lee”
You lose 13% Essence.
Memory Saved.
13…an odd number. But roughly half of what he had. Perhaps that was the cost each time. Half his Essence. He was glad he decided to save, after gaining the point of strength.
As the tiny crystal formed Lee stood. “So…if I die again, I’ll reappear here, yes?”
“That is correct.”
“Fine,” Lee said and started towards the hewn stone pathway.
“Wait,” she said. “The portal is here. Where are you going?”
“To kill a lizard,” Lee said as he readied the Bone Club. “Many, many times…”