CH.40 Lusell_Gaming on a MUD is difficult.

Gabrielle doesn’t even bother talking to the guards at the toll booth who block the passage further northeast. The black-haired green-eyed elf just starts spelling up preparing for a fight.

Gabrielle starts casting a spell.

Gabrielle caresses the ground and several sticks transform into snakes.

Boa appears before you.

Viper appears before you.

Amphisbaena appears before you.

Boa appears before you.

Isaiah looked over the snakes. The boa and the viper appeared like normal snakes. The former being a big thick snake, and that latter being a smaller poisonous snake. Isaiah’s player had no idea what an Amphisbaena was. Apparently it is a snake that has a head at both ends. Weird.

Gabrielle says in an eerily soothing voice: “Never pay these gate guards. They are from Tonovi a city whose motto is the only good elf is a slave. They even have an auction block in the town square where elves are sold to the highest bidder.”

Isaiah nods.

Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: “How terrible, I hope the place burns.”

Gabrielle agrees.

Gabrielle starts casting a spell.

From above, the gods grant power to Gabrielle as her god strikes guard with divine lightning from the clouds.

Guard hits snake.

Guard misses snake.

Snake misses guard.

Gabrielle starts casting a spell.

From above, the gods grant power to Gabrielle as her god strikes guard with divine lightning from the clouds.

Guard drops dead before you.

Guard hits snake.

Gabrielle starts casting a spell.

From above, the gods grant power to Gabrielle as her god strikes guard with divine lightning from the clouds.

Guard misses Gabrielle.

Snake misses guard.

Guard hits snake.

Gabrielle starts casting a spell.

From above, the gods grant power to Gabrielle as her god strikes guard with divine lightning from the clouds.

Guard drops dead before you.

Snake drops dead before you.

The two elves left the tollbooth. Now that the guards were dispatched they were able to take the exit to the northeast without impediment. They passed a few patrolling guards. Isaiah peered northeast along the road and it looked like some of the guards were fighting an elven ranger along the road. Before Isaiah could say anything Gabrielle led him north along the road to Tonovi and they went a little bit before arriving at the temple of Lovaitar. About the time that they made it to the temple of Loviatar the snakes following them around had turned back into sticks. The temple of Loviatar was a little bit disturbing. It looked like a place of worship with high ceilings and pews for followers to kneel in prayer. There was an altar on a raised part of the room and against the walls were instruments of torture. There were whips, bamboo canes and a rack with straps for securing and stretching arms and legs. A human knight was also present in the temple when the two elves arrived.

The whole idea about losing an eye and returning it of course flew in the face of what was possible in the real world. Considering this was a game, there could at least be a mechanic built into the system for something like this. Because there was not, Isaiah’s player was completely baffled that to be presented with a situation like this. The whole thing was improv roleplay. The fact that Goldeneyes was tortured and maimed like this was sickening. Nevertheless, Isaiah trying to play his role as a peacemaker was exciting. His goal was to bring peace and harmony and unity to the elven players in these murderous lands. Ech, harmony might be the wrong word for his motto. That half-elf was a jerk who just killed people he met for the first time.

There was a moment of silence while the two elves stood in the temple of torture with the female human knight. Isaiah was caught up in the past few minutes. He was kicking himself for not attacking the guards along with Gabrielle. Humans supporting a regime that normalized enslavement of an entire race deserved the worst kind of punishment. There were his cousin elven rangers fighting the very same regime along the dagger road. He wanted to go back and help them by fighting alongside them. However, his thoughts were interrupted.

An armored female human says in a stern tone: “Greetings High Priestess.”

An armored female human bows deeply.

Gabrielle says in an eerily soothing tone: “Greeting Lady Lusell.”

Gabrielle curtseys.

(Isaiah’s player quickly typed ‘recognize human as lusell’ because reading speech from unrecognized players was annoying to read. Seeing himself getting addressed snapped his attention back from where it has been wandering about.)

Lusell says in a stern tone: “This elf you bring is Isaiah?”

Gabrielle nods.

Isaiah says elegantly with elven poise: “Greeting Knight Lusell. I am Isaiah.”

Lusell says with a stern tone: “The high priestess says you wished to speak with me.”

Lusell looks you over.

(Isaiah felt really nervous about this, like Lusell was sizing him up to see if he’d be an easy kill. Considering his gear she was likely to come to that conclusion, he mused in his head.)

Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: “Yes, it is because of my cousin Goldeneyes.”

Lusell scowls.

Lusell says with a stern voice: “Goldeneye. A nasty beast of an elf.”

Isaiah clears his throat.

Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: “I wish for him to have his eye back.”

Lusell says with a stern voice: “And what do I get?”

Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: “I can ask him to leave you alone.”

Lusell says with a stern voice: “He did not agree to this meeting?”

Isaiah shakes his head.

Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: “No, I asked him and he said I would be wasting my time and likely end up being attacked.”

Lusell smirks.

Lusell speaks sternly: “How like that bastard Goldeneye.”

Lusell speaks sternly: “I would have liked his word, but what good is the word of a savage anyway? I’ll agree to the possibility of a truce in exchange for returning the eye.”

(Isaiah couldn’t believe it. He was sure that someone being the evil anti-paladin would want to rub it in every elf’s face that she maimed another elf. She was taking the risk for a chance of peace? Maybe she was more afraid of Goldeneyes than he thought.)

Isaiah holds out a hand to shake.

Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: “Allright, I will deliver his eye along with your missive for peace.”

Lusell shakes your hand.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Lusell smirks.

Lusell takes an eye in a jar out from between her breasts.

Lusell hands you the jar.

Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: “Er… thank you.”

Lusell says sternly: “Have fun with that.”

(Isaiah didn’t want to hang around the temple of Loviatar and could take a hint that it was time to leave.)

Isaiah speaks elegantly with elven poise: “I will give this back to my cousin and we’ll see if we can find a healer to help him. Thank you for being reasonable Lady Lusell.”

Lusell nods.

Isaiah waves.

Gabrielle waves to you.

Gabrielle says with an eerily soothing voice: “Take care of yourself cousin.”

Isaiah teleported away with a quick typing of ‘cast teleport to shadow’. The blue light fades as the teleport lands Isaiah back outside the city of shadow.

(Isaiah arrived at the spot where he had teleported in. It was a small clearing with a pile of rocks and a large tree stump in the middle. He looked around for any signs of trouble but there was nothing except for the sound of running water nearby.)

Isaiah stands still.

(He wasn't quite sure how to find Goldeneyes. Usually he just ran across him outside of shadow or some place laying in wait to set an ambush for a drow or an antipaladin. Gabrielle could have cast telepathy to contact Golden eyes but he didn't ask her. Also, trying to rely on an evil priestess didn't do much for his self image.)

Isaiah thinks: "Well, I know he's been in the area recently so I'll just keep an eye out for him. If he comes by here then I'll try to talk to him."

Isaiah sits down.

(He sat down on the rock that was in the center of the clearing. He had no idea what he was going to say to Goldeneyes, and he doubted he'd get much out of him.)

Isaiah poses sitting on a rock in the clearing.

Isaiah ponders the conversation between him and Goldeneyes in his head. He'd say something like "Hi Goldeneyes. Here's your eye."

Isaiah gets up and walks around the clearing. He headed to the quiet forest road and peered to the west and east seeing if there were any other adventurers nearby.

(Isaiah walked around looking for any sign of danger. He didn't see anything and started to wonder why he even came out here. He knew he was wasting his time and was just getting frustrated with himself. He could go into shadow and see who was around. If there was a priest of high enough level they could cast telepathy to contact Goldeneyes. )

Isaiah sits down on a rock.

Isaiah poses sitting on a rock in the clearing.

Isaiah thinks: "Why am I doing this? I'm sure Goldeneyes was sure that I'd fail and Lusell would keep the eye just to make him suffer more. He said that I was foolish for trying to reason with a bunch of cultists that worship pain."

Isaiah gets up and starts walking towards the road.

(Isaiah figured that he might as well get back to town and see what was happening there. There was no sense in staying in the middle of nowhere when he would just idle and be auto logged out after 10 minutes.)

Isaiah walks to the road.

(The road was pretty empty. There were a few farms on the way back to Shadow but that was nothing new. He walked east past the goblin stronghold and the temple of Mystra and arrived at the city gates.)

Isaiah walks through the gate.

(There weren't many people around. The sun was setting and only NPC gate guards could be seen in the rooms that he could peer into.)

Annoyingly the gates would be closed at night. This made sense in the real world because who would want someone sneaking around while most of the citizens were asleep. However in a game, it mostly just made it so that players would mash 'east' and get the message. 'You bumped into a closed gate' as many times as they sent that repeat command. It could turn into an annoying wall of text if another player was not there and a moment of much embarrassment if someone was watching your character repeatedly bump into the gate that was obviously closed. Someone who tried to walk through a closed door once and bumped into it could just be unobservant. Someone who did that 6 to 10 times in fast succession could be perceived as something else.

(Isaiah got tired of pondering the mental implications of walking into closed doors and decided to look for a tavern. He wanted to sit down and cross paths with a cleric who could cast telepathy to get ahold of Goldeneyes. At this point he was kicking himself for not asking Gabrielle to contact Goldeneyes. The thought of going back to the temple of Loviatar and asking for help finding the other elf had crossed his mind. However, asking an evil priestess for help as what was basically a messaging service seemed like he would really be pushing his luck.)

Heading down the road south of Shadow, Isaiah sees a sign for a tavern called 'The Rhapsody Inn'.

Isaiah heads to the Rhapsody Inn.

(It was a simple inn with two floors. A single large room with a bar and tables and chairs on the first floor. There was a stage on the far wall where bards or other performers could ply their trade. Two NPCs were present in the room. One was the bartender named Dionisus and another was a drunken bard named Alinbar. Both of these people were human.

Isaiah walks up to the bartender and asks: "Do you have a cleric in here?"

The bartender, being an NPC, did not respond.

Isaiah goes up to the bard and asks him: "Do you know where I can find a cleric?"

Alinbar is drunk and does not answer.

Isaiah approaches the bartender again and asks: "Is there a cleric in here?"

After fruitlessly getting no response from the NPCs in the tavern Isaiah sighed. Of course it would not be that easy. Maybe if he waited long enough other adventurers might stop by. If he was lucky they might be able to help him contact Goldeneyes.

Isaiah sat down at a table near the stage and watched the bard perform. He had never been to a bard concert before. Alinbar was drunk and likely would be a better clown than a bard. He kept playing songs that were all about love. These were not songs that Isaiah knew and so he found himself listening to them out of politeness. He was actually enjoying the music until he noticed that Alinbar was singing a song that was supposed to be about a beautiful girl that he talked with once then never saw again.

Isaiah got up and went to the bar.

"Hello?" Isaiah says to the bartender.

Dionisus turns around and looks at Isaiah.

Dionisus says: "Hello, Welcome to the Rhapsody Inn. Be sure to read the drinks menu and the food menu."

Typing gave out a list of things.

Pheasant 10 gold

Elven steak 20 gold

Story stew 10 gold

Riddling Pretzles 6 gold

Leg of Lamb 10 gold

Likewise, typing also returned a list.

Sparkling Melody 5 gold

Rhapsody 10 gold

Raging Tempo 10 gold

Languishing Lyre 10 gold

Mug of Licorice Lager 10 gold

Evermeet Tea 5 gold

Cooked Cocoa 5 gold

Destroyers Draught 20 gold

Glass of Feywine 100 gold

Ode to Torment 500 gold

There were a couple of things that were of note on the menu. First, Feywine seemed like an elven drink. Maybe he would try that. However, elven steak. . . well it was either poorly named or Isaiah eating it would be cannibalism. Also, Ode to Torment is the most expensive thing on the menu. Calling something 'Ode to Torment' sounds more like a poison than a drink. Perhaps that is what it is.

Isaiah decides to order a Sparkling Melody.

Dionisus says: "I'll be right back with your drink."

Dionisus hands you Sparkling Melody.

The drink swirls as if dancing to it's own beat. Isaiah takes a sip of the drink.

It tastes like a fizzy cocktail. As a side effect his head started pounding to a raging tempo after finishing the drink.

Isaiah sits back down at the table and tries to think.

Isaiah has been sitting in the tavern for several minutes. No one has entered. Maybe he had just come at a slow time? Or maybe the tavern was always this empty. Isaiah tried to take a sip of the Sparkling Melody but found that he could not bring himself to do so.

Isaiah stands up and walks over to the door.

He opens it and steps outside.

Isaiah sees that the sun is starting to set.

Isaiah closes the door behind him and walks around. To the north was Shadow city and to the South was Tharis. He peered both ways but didn't see any other adventurers.

Isaiah sighs and heads back inside.

Isaiah goes back to the table and sits down.

He starts to type: "Where is Goldeneyes?"