So the week after the homecoming dance at our school, Panarena Fantasy Online launched its first holiday event: Hallow's Eve. For two weeks, practically every major region in the area would have its own spooky or mysteriously themed quest-chain, and we were determined to do at least two of them, maybe even three. Lizzy's playtime has a new curfew, courtesy of her working at the Fun Castle up at the mall, but she vowed to get on for at least one of our escapades.
By Wednesday, a lot of players, parties, and guilds have already gone through many of the festival quests. Those hardcore players, man. Ariana and I had gone with Maryn and Anhe to do Xuanpu's on Tuesday; in a completely expected turn of events, their quest chain started off in the Forest of Lost Dreams. And then it took us to the Forsaken Caverns in the west on the border of Kunlun. The premise of the quest was to uncover the source of a sudden surge of Jiangshi. Well, after fighting through several waves of these undead creatures in the caverns and returning to the forest (with Fyu's help of course) we discovered a couple map fragments.
Neither of the fragments corresponded to the areas we had been to. So we followed the quest marker to a third area, which had another fragment--courtesy of a really tough Elite Jiangshi--and with this third piece we began to see the general area the map was meant to show. A few Panarena hours later, we had the complete map (seven pieces in all), depicting a location west by northwest of Heaven's Mountain.
We rushed to the place at once (having already decided to pull our all-nighter trick that evening), and found a hidden valley of catacombs. And what was in them but witches, ghouls, more Jiangshi, bats, a couple of corrupted wolves, and an ultra-rare elite boss labeled as a Taotie. This, Anhe told us, was one of the Four Perils in actual Chinese mythos, which made me wonder if the other three were around somewhere.
Anyway. After a long and arduous battle, we managed to defeat it, and we turned in our quest for a special holiday reward: cosmetics, and some experience boosters. In typical trope fashion (no pun intended), the cosmetics were black and orange witch outfits, complete with an item of our choice: hat, scarf, or cloak. I took the cloak, naturally. Ari and Maryn took the hat, and Anhe choose the scarf.
Then Wednesday came along. Ellie was still wrapped up with her evening shifts, but she promised to be on for Thursday. But we managed to persuade Andrea to get on so we could run through the Aldholt's special event.
It felt like years had passed since we had been running through the Aldholt, but we were able to run around it like we had never left--which was a help for Anhe, who hadn't been there at all.
Appropriately, the Aldholt's quest was in the Ghoulwood. Here, we found a quest from an Arch Mage at an out-of-the-way tower to retrieve a series of books, an ancient staff, and a magical artifact of unknown origin from a variety of different locations. And by that I mean they literally had us running all over the Aldholt to find stuff. In Ipping Forest we crossed paths with Jannie and some of her guild-mates on the same quest, and in Seacrest we encountered a few players from †SOVEREIGN†, who were living up to their second leader's promise to give the guild a better name. They pointed us to one of the archives, where we found two of the books we were looking for (after finding one in Ipping), and then we were off to the Mountains of Night.
Here we ended up on a sub-quest involving the King of the Werefolk and his seven lords (what is it with this area and the number seven?) that ended up leading us to a secret chamber below a mountain that was sacred to the werefolk, where we found the magical artifact of unknown origin: an amulet of gold and silver set with a ruby that had been meticulously shaped into the likeness of a werewolf-dragon, along with a set of spiraling arcane runes on the reverse side. We carried on to Varkstania, where Wildeye and Tyman met us with a group of their guild-mates, and after exchanging some quest info we went north while they went south.
In Varkstania we found the remainder of the books we were hoping to find -- well, except for one. But I had a feeling that the last book would either be with the staff or in a location very near to it. And so we continued to the eastern end of Woody Heights, near the border of the Southern Plains.
After a brief (yet somehow all too long) encounter with Angelfire, we found a hidden grotto guarded by two elite ghouls. We made our way inside, finding the passageway growing larger as we went further in. Eventually it opened up into a large cavern with a single boss: Nighean Dorchadas. A witch-ghoul ultra-rate elite. Later I looked the name up, because it sounded Irish to me. I wasn't completely right. It was Scots Gaelic, and it meant “daughter of darkness”, which was all too appropriate for this boss.
She gave us trouble for nearly an hour (Panarena time, of course). Every time we thought we were on the right track to defeating her, she pulled out a new trick that made it even more difficult than it was the previous few minutes of fighting. Finally, Ariana pulled out one of her custom spells, an omni-magical beam that knocked her down to less than one-percent health, which allowed Anhe to strike the finishing blow. We received the staff and the final book as a reward, and then returned to the Arch Mage at his tower to claim our quest-reward.
Once again we got experience boosters, and we also received our choice of a decoration set -- appropriately themed to “spooky” or at least “autumnal”. Maryn chose a set of autumn-leaf rugs, Heali took a set of spooky chairs ornamented with bats and spiders, Anhe chose a very nice set of paper-lanterns with eerie silhouettes that would show around the room when lit, Ariana selected a set of cat-eye curtains, and I settled for a rocking chair that had wolf-head armrests and runic inscriptions on the back of the headrest.
We debated on where exactly to put all these things up for about thirty minutes, finally deciding that Ari and I would put ours up at Cloverbell while the others set theirs up around Queen's Haven. It was then I noticed that we had won a lot of special event tokens that we could use to get more furniture or goodies. I suspected that this was the reason a lot of hardcore gamers and pros had been logged in for nearly three real days in a row.
After sending a message to the others to check their currency, Ari and I went down to Aldholt city to get more furniture and goodies of the autumn or Halloween variety, and returned to Cloverbell with a couple of nice rugs and a set of curtains before joining the others at Queen's Haven to help decorate there with the rest of what we had gotten, mostly small ornaments like black cat statues or garden gnomes in a spooky or silly costume. When we were quite satisfied with our shenanigans for the night, we gave Fyu a treat for his help and then went to take a rest in-game, setting an alarm to wake us up before it was time to wake up in real life. Logic, man, logic.
Anyhow. So that brings us to Thursday.
It was the same old bus ride, the same old flick and parting quip from Ty... and then the same but always welcome morning hug from Rachel before sorting out our stuff for morning classes. Rachel, by the way, has settled in quite nicely at Andrea's. She fit right in straight off the bat, of course, and now it's almost as if she was Andrea's little sister. Rachel's actual brother Joshua was still in the area, and he had visited her at the Summers' residence a couple times already. He got on with them pretty well too, from what Rachel told me. Of course, I'd believe that guy could hold a friendly conversation with a rock and then go away leaving the rock feeling like it lost its best friend...
But it was very true that Rachel had become brighter, in a way. Now that she was truly convinced that she wasn't going anywhere and that there were no need for painful goodbyes, she became twice as enthusiastic about everything -- including play tryouts. Those will be coming up in a couple of weeks, so I don't have to worry about them too much for the moment.
Anyway. Morning classes passed like a breeze, and then as usual we zipped off to the club room for lunch, where we found Ellie semi-pouting as Andrea and Mary told her about our adventures last night. Anhe softly giggled every time Ellie let out a groan of frustration at not having been able to be with us, but I thought I could discern a hint of satisfaction in her eyes that we were doing pretty okay even when she wasn't around.
“Boo!!” she said when we talked about all the fancy Halloween stuff we had picked up for the houses. “I'm definitely getting on tonight. The boss wants me to have a rest before the weekend when we'll be super busy, so I'll join you tonight for sure!” she declared.
“Yay!” Andrea said at once, patting her on the back. “We're going to the Marshes this time, right?” she asked, adjusting her glasses.
“Hmm? Oh yeah,” I nodded back. “Now that one sounded fun.” I added with a grin.
“You hear one little rumor from Ty and suddenly you're all gung-ho...” Rachel quipped with the hint of a smirk.
“I mean, we already knew that place was weird; a Halloween quest there has gotta be even better than last night's,” I said with a shrug.
“True!” she nodded. “Though it would be fun to check out the Wastes as well...” she remarked.
“Hrrmm... that's true...” I had to agree, suddenly wracked by indecision.
“We can do that one together next week,” Ellie then said. “I'll have Monday and Tuesday off after our big weekend.”
“Cool!” Andrea smiled.
“Sounds good,” I said with a relieved smile, and Rachel nodded.
“Let's finish up with our lunches quick,” Mary then said, looking at the time. “We'll have plenty of time to talk about this at club -- and then to jump-start our homework!” she added with a smile.
Taking the hint, we refocused our attention to our lunches, and after finishing them we talked lightly about our upcoming assignments and stuff before finally heading off to afternoon classes. These too passed by fairly quickly, and before we knew it we found ourselves in the club room again. We talked a little bit about the game some more, deciding for sure that we would try the Marshes tonight and then the Wastes next week, before pulling out our homework so we could work on that and assist each other as needed before heading home.
***
Upon logging in to the game that night I found myself the third to arrive. Lizzy and Anhe had gotten on before I did, and they were helping Fyu to get ready for our new adventure. Healina and Ariana arrived next, followed by Maryn, and when we had readied ourselves we set off for Honeyton, a settlement of Hauflins north of Berrydell.
Jannie had pointed out to us the other night that wayports could transport waggons, if you had the right kind of special item needed to make that happen. Luckily we had inadvertently collected the raw materials for that kind of item during the last several days, and Ariana used her Mystic Crafting to create it. Thus we were able to use the wayport from Queen's Haven to get to Berrydell, and from there we headed north to Honeyton.
“Ohh, it's no good, adventurers, it's no good at all! See now, there's been many of our folk gone missing now at that place, and we dursn't go near it for all the brew ye could fit in an alehouse thrice as big as our own!” the hauflin quest-giver wailed.
Apparently, the quest here involved the mysterious disappearance of several hauflins from Honeyton, all of whom had seemingly vanished around an old castle-town west of the village. From what I remembered we hadn't been near that particular area at all.
A castle in a swamp, huh? I thought to myself.
“B-but iffens ye were likely to head that way... n-n-n-not necessarily to go into the place, mind, but even if y-y-ye could just s-scout it out a bit, see if anyone's gotten l-lost or so, that'd be a big 'elp, for sure!” the quest-giver then said.
“We'll see what we can do!” Ariana said with a smile, and the hauflin heaved a sigh of relief and then bowed. We headed off, and our quest-log updated.
A Mystery in the Marshes: go to the abandoned castle-town west of Honeyton and uncover the reason for the strange disappearances. Optional: rescue the hauflin villagers.
“It's a ghoul.” Lizzy said.
“Something like that.” Healina agreed.
“Hmm... I say goblins.” Maryn remarked as we got aboard the waggon.
“Why is rescuing the villagers optional?” Ariana wondered with a sad tone.
“N-not sure,” I replied uncertainly.
“It's a boss of some kind, I bet... a ghoul boss.” Lizzy grinned.
“Or a goblin warlord of some kind.” Maryn smirked back.
“Hmm...” Anhe sighed thoughtfully as she read over the quest.
“Westward, masters?” Fyu asked us.
“Westward, Fyu!” I said, giving him a pat on the back as I hopped in with the others. We set off at a brisk pace, and in no time at all we found ourselves at the weathered and withered castle-town.
The first thing we noticed was that the castle itself sat upon a rocky and barren promontory overlooking the swamped remains of its village. Our maps updated with the name of the area: Wyrdcrag.
How appropriate, I mused as we got out of the waggon to start investigating. Most of the buildings that were left were made of stone, though there were some petrified wood remnants now overgrown with lichen, mushrooms, or moss. Dead trees clustered about the area in rows or groves. At the center of the village there was a moldy old well, and not far away was a gallows with a couple of skeletons hanging around. Sorry, bad pun. The vista was completed with the obligatory worn-out scarecrows and several actual crows hanging around the place.
As to the castle itself, it stood just beyond the remnants of a stone church. Both buildings were as dilapidated as the town was. There was a cemetery we could see in the distance, with a couple of once fancy yet now decayed mausoleums garnishing the corners. Back to the castle. Even in its ruinous state, it had a proud and regal bearing, and it was at least three-quarters the size of the town itself in terms of area. The remnants of a banner clung defiantly to a spire that seemed more likely to collapse than the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It had a Germanic flair to it, though there were elements of English castle-building woven in to the design as well.
“And here is where the quest marker abandons us.” Lizzy proclaimed as we reached the well.
“Hmm?” I stopped, looking for myself. “Well, what fun would it be if the marker was around all the time? It's a mystery quest, remember?” I then smiled.
“That's the spirit!” Ariana smiled.
“All right, Lana, then we'll leave it in your capable hands.” our smith grinned back, and a slight wince creased my smile.
“W-we're counting on you, too, you know! This is your one night of fun, after all...” I said to her in turn.
“Hahh... fine... but minus ten for the reminder.” she returned with a shrug as my face crinkled up further, but I refrained from making further comment. Ariana smiled at me again.
“Come on, Lana!” she said, and the two of us set off in one direction while the others headed off to explore as well.
“Still... why is the rescue optional? Shouldn't it be the main focus of the quest?” I wondered as we walked around, keeping an eye out for signs or clues that might cross our paths. Ariana nodded in reply.
“Maybe it's like the big quest we did in Xuanpu, where you have to fulfill certain conditions to get it and complete it,” she noted.
“Hmm... or it could be that the rescue is further down the story-line... but then that might be at odds with the optional part of this quest to begin with...”
“Let's try and -- oh! What's that?” Ari suddenly said as something to the left caught her eye. I turned to look as well; there was a cloak just big enough for a hauflin lying on the ground. Just a half-step or so from it was a walking stick.
“Clues, that's what,” I said as we knelt to examine them. “They've been lying here a couple days; now, where are the footprints... there,” I then noted as I activated a tracking skill I picked up, examining the prints.
“What do you see?” Ari asked me.
“A definite hauflin set of prints; looks like something tried to get them from behind around this point. The prints are a bit scuffled. Then the hauflin took off towards the castle, looks like, and...” I examined the other prints carefully, “Something big chased after them. Well, her, I guess, from the size,” I noted.
“Hmm... something big...” Ariana mused, taking out one of the lorebooks we had on the area.
“It... looks goblin-ish, but it's so faded it might also be some kind of werebeast or even...”
“A shapeshifter,” Ari read, showing me the page she had turned to.
“It's definitely not ghouls, though.” I returned with a slight grin.
“Poor Lizzy.” she smirked back.
We stood up, and began following the prints, betting that one of the others would find a similar clue. As we made our way through the ruined and musty village, a rotten sort of smell, barely kept in check by a more marsh-like scent, reached our noses. I looked to the right. There was a bog nearby, intermingling with the marshes further north.
“Yuck.” I grimaced.
“I wonder why they ventured this way at all...” Ariana wondered.
“The hauflins?” I said, and she nodded. “They could have been lured here while trying to do something else... that's usually the story.”
“There were an awful lot of edible plants and mushrooms on the way here...” she recalled suddenly, and I snapped my fingers.
“Right! I wonder if some sort of special fungus grows here, too, and maybe that lured them over this way...”
“Oh! And then whatever is around here woke up and started... kidnapping them, I'll hope,” Ari said, trying to keep a cheerful expression.
“D-definite kidnapping.” I replied.
“You're not very convincing.” she softly teased me.
“Just some Molek flashbacks...” I returned.
“Ooh... gotcha...” she said, her face scrunching up in bemusement. One of the quests in that game involves destroying a demon kidnapper who slaughters their victims. I probably mentioned its name before: the Slaughterer.
Suddenly I stopped. No... they wouldn't. It can't be. I thought to myself. But then the makers of Molek and the people running Panarena had more than a few people in common, from what I knew. I knelt down, enhancing my tracking skill with a couple of rogue skills to look more closely at the larger prints. Fortunately we had reached a patch of ground that was more conducive to retaining prints.
I examined the print closely. It was about fifty-centimeters long. Way too big for a goblin, or even a hobgoblin. It could have been an orc, but orcs weren't in this area, not even renegade players. And that wouldn't make sense anyway, having a player or more be the antagonists of a major quest chain. My hunter-tracking skill showed nothing in the area, but there were certain creatures that could elude it. A prime example, of course, being demons.
“No way,” I said aloud this time. Ari, by the way, had stopped a couple seconds after I had, and was looking curiously at me.
“No way what?” she said. I stood up, and looked around again. I took Ari's hand, and ran straight for the castle.
“Come on!” I said as we ran. The others apparently saw us, for they came running our way; we regrouped at the wreckage of the castle doors, and I stared at them in disbelief.
“Lana?” Ari asked me again. Then her eyes widened also. “No way...!” she remarked.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“What is it?” Anhe wondered.
“It's the Dark Castle... it's the Dark Castle from Molek...!” I said.
“Oh wow!” Lizzy remarked. “They re-branded it for our game, huh?”
“Must be some sort of nod.” Maryn said.
“To one of the greatest Gothic-horror games of all time,” I agreed. Then I shook my head. “No time to stand here, come on!” I said, and we ran inside, seeing a partially disused stairwell to the far left that led downwards. My face lit up in delight. I always wanted to do this!!
However it had come to be featured here in a slightly different form, it was definitely the castle-labyrinth I remembered. Except there weren't that many monsters, if any. There were a few imps, and one or two goatmen with bardiches that got in our way, but other than that it was mostly empty. Well, except for the random champion skeletons that would suddenly be there when we turned a corner or tried to use a lever.
It wasn't long before we heard a wail. It was not some unearthly creature; it was the terrified wailing of a hauflin. We picked up our pace, and found a young hauflin girl curled up in a ball near another descending staircase. She looked up as we approached.
“Adventurers! It's horrible! They've all been kidnapped, and the beast is going to--to... oh, no, it's too horrible!” she lamented.
“Are they down there?” I asked her.
“Down in that horrid maze!” she nodded.
“The way to the outside is clear if you want to run for it,” Ariana told her.
“Oh, thank you! Hurry and save the others, please!” she replied, and then got to her feet, dashing off for the entrance. Our quest log then updated.
Optional: rescue the hauflin villagers, 1/13.
“Twelve more...!” Ari breathed as she began dashing down the steps. I followed her quickly, and the others came after us.
“So what's down here waiting for us?” Lizzy asked as we hastened down the spiraling stairs.
“Some sort of flesh-eating demon, I think,” I replied.
“Yikes!” Healina said.
“And we'll probably find more monsters on the way!” I added.
“Oh definitely.” our halberdier-smith returned. “Wouldn't be fun otherwise!”
“As long as it's not like the demon from the Flame Dungeon!” Maryn quipped.
“Nah, not this guy,” I returned, a faint grin on my face as I recalled the days when the original version was one of the most terrifying things to me in the entire world. Now... now it would almost be like meeting an old friend. A friend who would try to kill you and eat you, but hey.
On our way further down through the maze-like corridors and rooms, we encountered two more hauflins hiding in a side-room together. This made us consider that at least most of them were probably hiding in similar spaces, so we scoured every nook and cranny of the dungeon, turning up three more, and then another on the next floor down.
Optional: rescue the hauflin villagers, 7/13.
“That's most of them!” Lizzy said as the one just rescued took off to head for their home.
“Six more, huh...” I softly remarked, gazing at our map data. “Looks like this floor is definitely cleared... actually, there's one spot left. I'll check it out and meet you back at the stairs.” I said to the others.
“Got it!” Maryn nodded.
“I'm going with you.” Ariana told me. I nodded back to her, and we dashed off while the others made their way back to the descending staircase we had located.
“It's probably just a dead end,” I shrugged as we made our way to the semi-unexplored spot.
“Maybe, but there could be something dangerous,” she returned.
“Hmm... true.”
“I played a little bit of that game recently, I know how rude it can get,” she said to me with a grin.
“That was half the fun!” I smirked back, and we laughed.
After passing through a hallway filled with creepy gargoyle statues lurking in the alcoves, we found the edge of the unexplored area, advancing cautiously. We used our vision skills; there was nothing lurking around and no traps waiting to be sprung. At the end of the corridor we had somehow skipped there was a door. The two of us approached it, and then I picked the lock to get inside, where we found a circular room with a magical orb of some kind sitting, or floating, rather, upon a Gothic-styled pedestal. It gave off an eerie blue and violet glow.
“Th-that's both creepy and pretty at the same time. I don't know how to feel about it.” Ari said with a look of bemusement.
“T-true...” I agreed. “Huh... there was something blocking the stairs down, wasn't there?”
“Hmm? Oh, right... we said we'd meet up at the stair-room but we weren't entirely sure it was the stair room, though those slabs looked suspicious.” Ariana recalled.
“None of the other rooms had a stairwell, at least.” I shrugged.
“You think the orb might do something?”
“I think so. You can probably put it in Mystic Storage.”
“Gotcha. I'll do that, and we'll see if it does anything in that room.” she said, using telekinesis to take it and place it in her special inventory.
We dashed back to the others at the place most likely to be the stair-room, where we found the others taking a second look around the room to investigate for any sort of secret lever that might activate the descending stairs.
“Nothing... nothing... nope...” Lizzy grumbled as she felt the interior of a suspicious looking alcove.
“Hmm... oh! Lana and Ari are back!” Healina said, turning to us.
“Find anything?” Maryn asked us.
“This weird orb thing,” Ari said, pulling it out of storage and holding it up carefully.
“Ooh, creepy.” Lizzy remarked as she and the others joined us. “Hey, Anhe, doesn't that look about the right size for that one spot you noticed?” she then said, turning to the other girl.
“Hmm... I think so!” she agreed, and beckoned us to follow her over.
In the middle of the room was something like a giant sarcophagus. There wasn't really any ornamentation to speak of upon it, though it did have some sort of faded artistry around the bottom edges. More importantly, there was a spherical imprint on the near side of it that was a good match for this mysterious orb. Ariana set the orb in that spot, and all of a sudden the floor started parting. We all jumped back, and the staircase revealed itself, a faint glow of red-orange color coming up from the depths.
“S-scene change,” I remarked, heading down the stairs cautiously.
“Hm?” Ari wondered.
“The labyrinth in Molek changes environments as you get lower, though you don't have to do anything special to get to those specific floors,” I explained.
“Ahh! Neat!” she said.
“Meaning that was a more PFO mechanic,” Maryn noted. “Think we'll need to find another orb or so?”
“Probably; but let's hope we find more of the hauflins as well!” I said, and with that we entered into the second major part of the underground labyrinth.
This part was more cave-like, though elements of the castle and its macabre Gothic look continued to be present. My initial conclusions on the matter of the castle were being at least partly thrown off; the Slaughterer was an early boss. So what was waiting for us at the end of this dungeon? I had to stave off that thought for now, as more present monsters began to come after us.
They were all demons, of one sort or another. There were pig or boar-like things of great girth, tusks in their mouths and heavy weapons in their hands. Smaller ones like dinosaur rats also came after us, but they were easier to handle. A few succubi came onto the scene, but we were immune to their more peculiar effects. Except when an elite-champion one arrived. That one's powers had an effect on female characters. Fortunately, it could only affect one of us at a time, leaving the rest of us free to attack it while our poor comrade was under a daze. Well, except Anhe, whose auras kept the effects off of her nicely.
After that fight we found some Minotaurs and horned-demons with bat-like wings, both groups led or focused around two champions. We managed the fight well enough, and then we found another hauflin hiding in a barrel. That gave us eight of thirteen. This one clued us in on finding a couple more, and after fighting off more of the rat things we had saved them as well. Now we were at ten of thirteen.
“Ah! Adventurers! I almost forgot; I'm sure it's nothing important, but there was a strange glow coming from behind one of the doors around here. Anyway, I'm going home as quick as I can -- ta!” the tenth one remarked before they fled the place.
“Hmm...” I scratched my head, pondering the words. Our quest log dinged.
Optional objective updated: save the remaining three hauflins from the Vile Sacrament Ritual.
“?!?!” the six of us looked at the log with suddenly heightened senses, our nerves dialed up to eleven.
“S-stairs! Were there stairs!?” I said quickly.
“Not a one!” Lizzy shook her head.
“I saw nothing,” Anhe sadly added.
“Let's find that room!!” Ariana said, and we dashed off to look for the strange room the hauflin had mentioned.
It took us around five minutes to locate it, finding the door in question near the middle of a row of doors along one of the more narrow corridors. The color of the glow from inside was a sickly bright green. There was a humming sort of sound, and a faint but steady vibration.
“Portal.” Lizzy said confidently.
“Agree this time.” Maryn nodded. I tried the handle; it was locked.
“Of course it is...” I sighed, getting out my picks as I knelt down to fiddle with it. It took me over twenty tries and there was a lot of impatient grumbling from both me and the others, but on the twenty-seventh attempt it clicked satisfyingly, and I opened the door in glee before something else happened.
We dashed inside, finding a green portal at the far end of a small room. There was a lectern with two books upon it nearby. Nothing else was in the room. The green energy of the portal was bordered by a large arcane ring with grotesque designs and malevolent orange runes inscribed upon it.
“Let's see what those are,” Healina nodded towards the lectern with the tomes, and we went to examine them.
One was mostly green of color, with gold runes and bordering set upon it. The other was black, adorned with silver characters and trimming. Ari and Heali looked at them carefully, using some lorebooks they had to translate what the covers said and conferring with each other softly. After a moment, Healina looked back towards us, a cautious look on her face.
“They're definitely relevant, insofar as I can guess. This black tome is the 'Book of the Vile Archbishop', and the green one is called 'Dyal'avar'.” she told us. “Apparently it means something like 'demon-book', which is appropriate, to say the least,” she continued, glancing over at the book with a slight unease.
“Hmm.” I returned, thinking. “Similar, but not totally alike. Maybe these--oh! I get it! One or both of these books are needed to stop the ritual thing!” I suddenly realized.
“Ooh, there you go, Heali.” Lizzy said.
“Should've guessed!” she grinned back. “Ari and I will have to use them, then.” she added, and my partner nodded.
“Definitely. I'll take Dyal'avar and you can take the other one.” Ari said, picking up the green tome.
“You sure?” our healer asked her.
“It's a hunch!” the other girl grinned back.
“Sounds reasonable to me,” I agreed. “The green one is likely more of a mage tome, while that black one sounds more like a support tome.”
“Hmm... I agree in principle, at least. We'll try that, then.” Heali nodded back, taking up the black tome. Then our objective updated again.
New objective: use the Book of the Vile Archbishop to contain the Scion of Molek and free the hauflins; use Dyal'avar to defeat the Scion and his minions.
“Ooh...!” Lizzy exclaimed excitedly. “A challenge!!”
“Portal?” Anhe then asked.
“Let's go.” I said, and we stepped through the portal to face what was likely to be the final stage of the quest. As I stepped through, the thought struck me that Dyal'avar sounded a lot like Diabhal Leabhar; which, of course, is Irish for devil book.
***
When we emerged on the other side, we found ourselves in a large cavern. There were two pillars on the near side, one of them marked with a devil's head and the other marked with the symbol of the vile bishop. Further away was an islet in a lake of flames, where three hauflins were chained to a pillar, surrounded by five dark priests who were starting to chant some sort of ritual. And, at the far end of the room, there was a figure more monstrous than the footprints outside had suggested. I felt a shiver go down my spine.
“That's...!!” I started in disbelief.
“The Scion of Molek,” Anhe said, and I composed myself again.
“R-right... it's not the demon king, it's just a nod to him... that probably has a lot of the same attacks...” I mused.
“Like?” Maryn asked, readying her shield.
“Fire, lightning, minion-summons... and a freaking lazer-beam attack that has a chance of one-shotting you. It's fire and lightning damage combined.” I recalled.
“Lovely.” our shield-user commented dryly.
“Okay. I see what to do now.” Healina said. “Ari and I will get into position on those pillars, and I'll cast a spell from this book to mesmerize the dark priests over there; Lana, Lizzy, and Anhe, go rescue the hauflins. Maryn, go with them and get ready to grab the aggro of those priests.”
“That's a good start,” I agreed.
“We'll deal with the Scion after them,” the Sea Elf added, and I nodded back.
“He's not as big as the Lord of Flames, at least!” Maryn grinned.
“True!” I smiled back. “Let's go!” I then said, and our two mages headed off to their pillars to get things going.
Not twenty seconds later, Healina had cast her spell to daze the dark priests. I rushed over to the islet with Anhe, Lizzy, and Maryn, Ariana standing by with a flame spell of some sort to aid us from afar if necessary. Anhe let out a shout as she activated one of her battle auras, and when we reached the islet, Lizzy and I cut through the chains and ropes holding the hauflins, who did not flee but rather fainted on the ground.
“Snap! Quick!” I said, picking one up and heading for where the portal had been. Lizzy picked up two others, and Anhe and Maryn guarded the way as the two of us ran to set them down somewhere out of sight before returning to the others.
“Let's hope they stay safe!” Lizzy said as we dashed over.
“We just need to take out those ratty priests!” I returned, drawing out my daggers and entering Shadow World to deal some serious damage. Ariana's flame spell came hurtling towards one of the other priests, nearly devouring him all at once. Lizzy and Maryn finished him off, and Anhe started on another while I took care of a third. The last two then woke up, but their attacks weren't much and they were too focused on trying to get the hauflins back so we managed to take them out pretty quick.
As the last one fell to the ground, the vast chamber shook. I looked around, slowly turning my gaze towards the Scion of Molek at the far side. It had been in a statuesque posture for the past few minutes, but now it stood to its full height, red eyes glowing with wicked delight, its red hide covered with arcane tattoos and vile runes. No weapon was in its hand, but it needed none. Its claws on hands and feet were weapon enough, should it decide to use them. Two downward curved horns of obsidian color protruded from its head, gleaming in the fell light. It stepped out of its great alcove, and let loose with a dark chuckle in a deep tone, the sound echoing around the vast chamber.
“Here we go,” I said, readying myself.
The demon then stomped towards us; Maryn grabbed its aggro, and just before it used one of its deadly attacks on her Healina cast a binding spell from her book to hold it in place, and Ariana cast another on it. I looked at the bars. One debuff would hold it in place for twenty seconds, the other lowered its resistances by fifteen-percent.
“Go!!” I shouted, and the rest of us launched our assault upon the Scion. In those few seconds we managed to knock out four-percent of his health before he snapped out of the daze, and then he stomped on the ground to knock us back.
“Cooldown! Thirty seconds!” Healina called.
“Casting more debuffs!” Ariana said. “Heali, try a different one!”
“Looking!!” the Sea Elf returned anxiously. “Here!” she then said. In the meantime, the Scion had indeed used a couple of flame waves to try and dissuade us or finish us off. Then he was hit by a slow-spell, which hindered his movement by seventy-five percent, and another one which further debilitated his resistances.
We rushed in for a second attack, this time draining his health-bar to ninety-percent before he recovered. This time we were prepared for the stomp, and managed to evade its effect. The fight followed this pattern for what felt like quite a while; Healina and Ariana would debuff and-or bind the boss, giving us a window to attack him and whittle down his health until he recovered, at which time we went on the defensive until our two mages cast another spell on him from their books. Our little game continued until he reached ten-percent health. At that point, the spells from the tomes stopped working.
“Shoot!!” Healina cried out in disappointment as hers failed twice. After a third time she gave it up and came to join us. Ari did the same moments later. The boss arched back.
“Oh snap!!” my eyes widened. “Heali, Ari, defense spells, now!” I ordered quickly. The two of them hurriedly cast their shielding spells, and Anhe added in one of her defensive auras to help. Then the mega-attack beam of fire and lightning that I was worried about exploded towards us with all the force of a hurricane. We were just barely safe until it ended.
“Good call!” Maryn said.
“Three minute cooldown for both of us,” Ariana told us.
“Ugh.” Lizzy softly griped. “But... he looks...” she then remarked, looking at the Scion with a puzzled expression.
“… Stunned?” I wondered. We all looked at each other, and without a word we resumed our attacks with a frenzy. Ari and I focused on leaving bleeds and DoTs on him as we wailed on him, expecting him to snap out of it again fairly soon.
Seven-percent; six; five; four...!! SNAP!! I swore to myself as he began to recover. Ariana and I let loose with a few more of our DoTs before we retreated with the others. The Scion of Moloch shook its head to fully recover, and then arched its back again.
“Oh boy.” Maryn said nervously. “Ari? Heali?”
“No good!” our healer lamented. “Still a minute left!”
“So close!!” Lizzy seethed with frustration. But I kept my eyes on the health bar. Our bleeds were still in effect.
Three-percent.
Two-percent.
One-percent.
Dang it!! They're wearing off!! I cursed inwardly, and then when it got to a half-percent I saw him stagger to the ground.
“Ari!! Now!!” I cried out, and she sent several more flaming DoTs his way, finishing him off. His health went to zero, and he did the classic demon-king writhe before finally imploding and leaving behind a wealth of loot for us to take.
“Nice!!” Lizzy said triumphantly, and I wrapped Ariana in a big hug as she smiled back and hugged me too.
“Yes!!” Heali grinned. The rest of them then joined us for a group hug, and then we went to collect our winnings.
There was lots of gold, lots of tickets for furniture items or other knick-knacks, and and exclusive cosmetic token for each of us that we could use in Honeyton. Oh, Ariana and Heali were awarded two unique spell tomes similar to the ones we had found for the quest. The hauflins woke up when we returned to them a few minutes later, and we returned with them to Honeyton.
“Oh, thank you, adventurers! You've found all our townsfolk, and deserve every bit of what you found to take out of that horrid place! Have some of our special fall-treats as well, and don't forget to check out Luni's Tailor Shop on the way!” our quest-giver said happily, and then the quest marked itself as complete, granting us more tokens. We shared a victory high-five, and went to go collect on our other rewards.
The cosmetics were harvest-themed hauflin dresses. They looked really nice, I have to say. Anhe's was white and red in a plaid design, Ari's was a green and gold plaid with some grey woven in, Maryn's was a red one with leafy patterns, Heali got a plain russet one with some burgundy trim, Lizzy picked out a dress that was designed to look like a bunch of autumn leaves stitched together, and I settled for a simple one like Healina had, this one a soft brown with gold trimming. Once we had gotten these and collected some of those fall-treats that had been recommended to us by the NPC, we returned to Cloverbell for a change and had a quiet little celebration.
“So, Monday we'll hit up the Wastes for sure?” Lizzy asked as our mini-festivities quieted down.
“Definitely!” Ariana nodded back. “I want to see that one for sure, and I know Lana really wants to as well.” she said, running a hand through my hair as we sat together.
“True,” I softly grinned.
“Nice,” our halberdier smiled. “This was fun -- if a little cheaty! You took at least half the surprise out of it with your Molek trivia!” she then smirked, sticking her tongue out at me.
“B-blame the designers, not me!” I quickly said, and she thought about that for a moment.
“You know, you're right. It was all fun anyway. Plus forty points!” she beamed, and I sighed in relief.
“It never gets old!” Healina grinned.
“Nope.” Maryn agreed.
“Poor Lana,” Anhe said with a laugh.
Whatever, I thought to myself, as long as we can make as many memories like this as we can before life drifts us apart... that's all I want and hope for!