— CHAPTER NINETEEN —

In the Depths of the Sky, Part 1

  -Fritz-

 In the morning... well, I'd be lying if I didn't say I felt refreshed. Vomiting my guts out last night left me so exhausted I was down like a rock for a solid nine hours. Not my recommended sleep aid, but... I don't know, could be worse. I choose to look at the silver linings.

 Anyway, with an early start, we continued snaking our way toward the Star Marsh. We ended up hitting 5 of the seven bonus locations. The sixth one took longer than expected, and we had to leave partway through to keep our schedule, then we skipped the seventh entirely.

 It was a shame we were in such a rush, because we crossed the border of the Deep King's Woods and entered into the Celestial Forest. The bark of the trees grew darker, down to a blue-black, but the shadows around them got lighter. Bright shining specks streaked across the trunks and leaves and grass, letting the depths of the forest glow with constellations and milky spills. Falling dewdrops shone like comets, and ferns rustled like cloudy nebulae.

 For the final leg of the journey, we had to leave the roads. That meant getting off the wagon and going on foot. It was impossible to tell what time it was - there was no sign of the sun, only the night sky all around us. I couldn't even tell where the ground was with the black-blue-purple shade of the grass. I didn't recognize the void of the cliff until my foot hit open air.

 "Woah!" I tumbled forward.

 Brynn grabbed the back of my shirt, stopping me from plunging, but she couldn't hold my weight. I steadily felt myself dropping as Brynn's heels slid toward the edge. Percy and Lowe rushed over a split-second later and pulled us both back onto solid ground.

 That was the real sky we were looking at there. Beyond where we stood, the stars of the sky blended into their reflection in the distant ocean, and the ocean disappeared behind a sea of starry trees at the bottom of the cliffs below us.

 Brushing myself off, I said, "I think we should hunker down for the night - this place feels a little treacherous in the dark."

 "We'll have to finish things here early tomorrow if we want to get back to Hope in time." Percy said. "What are we looking for? Can we see it from the cliff?"

 Brynn shrugged. "I don't know; I've never seen the marsh in person before. It's a fern, so it will be under the canopy."

 "We'll see what it looks like in the light, then." Percy said.

 We set about setting up a camp. Lowe and Brynn began to assemble the tents, giggling to themselves over jokes. I moved around the perimeter to check for mob spawns, careful to poke my spear at the ground ahead of me to avoid any other cliffs.

 Then something caught my eye - a faintly glowing, pale bluish-green plant growing at the base of a tree. It stuck out from the rest of the star-patterned environment - it was the only solidly-colored thing around. So I poked it, and an information window popped up.

 'Dreamleaf'

 Aw yeah.

 It was a harvestable herb, but my herbologist level was still behind the curve, and I was worried I'd ruin it. I wasn't going to take a chance on this.

 Instead, I called out, "Brynn, could you pick this plant for me?"

 "Sure thing!" She came over and knelt beside me with a small knife.

 "Be gentle with her." I pleaded.

 She carefully cut off some of the leaves and handed me a small pile. "There you go!"

 "Oh yeah, baybee! We're in the money now!"

 Making sure the leaves were well and safe in a corner of my inventory, I kept patrolling until I circled back to where Percy was sitting near the edge of the cliff. He was checking his map against Brynn's and looking for something in the darkness.

 "The coastal ridge we're on goes for several miles in either direction with no obvious descent points." he said. "Looks like we're going to have to climb down."

 "Then it's a good thing we bought all that rope!" I stood there a moment, listening to Brynn and Lowe working on the tents. Their laughter floated through the air as she showed him how to tighten the ropes. "... Just what are the NPCs in this game? How intelligent are they?"

 "They're robots following instructions." he said.

 "Ok sure, at their base they've got their basic routines and rules on aggro and whatnot. But what about the ones that do more? Maybe they're not intelligent at an individual level, but there's something making choices for them - some part of the game is capable of reacting and adapting to players."

 "A smart computer is still a computer - it's still a far cry from something that is capable of feeling. An algorithm calculating that a situation requires an emotional response and taking steps to display that emotion doesn't mean that it is feeling it. The game is essentially a DM playing the NPC characters. The technology is impressive, but it is still a machine running calculations."

 "Some people will tell you that's all a human is - a complex machine run by chemicals and reflexes. Where's the line between us, do you think? Is it empathy? There are plenty of certifiable humans that don't have empathy."

 "We don't have a reliable tool for determining that." Percy said. "All we have is our instincts and prior knowledge. What we know is that the NPCs are pieces on a game board being moved by a machine."

 Brynn was now helping Lowe adjust the tent poles. "Then it's downright creepy how well that machine can play Brynn. ... Well, if we've got to move fast tomorrow, we should get to sleep early. See you in the morning."

---

 Expedition Day 3! The four of us were up and at 'em bright and early, double checking our supplies were in order and measuring out the rope. I did a quick check to see if the dreamleaf node had respawned, and oh boy did it! So Brynn harvested it for me again. We then looked out over the cliff in the daylight.

 Waiting below us was not just another segment of starry woods - it was a rainforest of massively overgrown plants shrouded in a nebula of fog - the Star Marsh. A thick blanket of fog swilled around the canopy, the neon lights of the forest casting shadows and shining through its surface. Like islands in a sea, exceptionally tall trees rose above the mist. Vines hung from their branches, dripping with colorful blooms that pulsed in the light.

 "Those trees look like good landmarks." Percy said. "Let's start there." He started to plot their locations on his map while Lowe and I tied a rope around a tree and let it down the cliff side. Several lengths of rope, actually - it was a tall cliff. We then tied another rope around all four of our waists - in case someone lost their grip - and made the descent.

 The air thickened with the smell of sea salt as we entered the fog, cool and humid and dark. Ghostly filaments of color drifted around us - pinks, blues, greens - swirls of lights that condensed only for a moment before scattering into nothing.

 "Whoa, I dig the effects!" I remarked.

 We hit the ground and started to untie ourselves.

 "It's a mana overdensity." Brynn explained. "It's so thick that the mana is dripping out of the air. The combination of that excess mana and the moisture blowing off the ocean creates the perfect conditions for all sorts of life, including our comet's tooth!

 Percy pulled up his map and pointed. "We want to go that-"

 A vine laying along the ground sprang to life, whipping around his ankle and dragging his legs out from under him. Percy slammed into the muddy ground with a yelp, his fingers digging ruts in the soft, wet soil as the vine reeled him in like a fish on a line.

 I stood frozen in shock as the massive, tulip-like maw of a plant snapped shut around Percy's waist. He drew his sword and started whacking at the plant's jaws.

 My brain finally kicked into gear. I ran over, sorting through my inventory as I went. C'mon, c'mon... there! I spawned the little amber bottle of syrup of ipecac and splashed it into the plant's gaping mouth.

 The reaction was immediate and violent. The plant convulsed, its maw flying open as it spewed out a geyser of sickly sweet ooze. Percy tumbled free, rolling away and coming up in a crouch with his wand drawn - a gnarled twig with a golden star on the end.

 "Flamethrower!" Percy shouted. A stream of fire erupted from the wand's tip, hosing the plant down until it burst apart in a cloud of glowing blue dust.

 Percy coughed and slumped back, panting.

 "You okay?" I asked.

 "Yeah, yeah. Nothing lasting." He used a minor fire spell to clean the slime off his pants.

 Brynn stood behind Lowe, who had his shortsword out in a protective stance. "Many dangerous things grow in overdensities." she said. "They feed on the oversaturated mana. It warps creatures, making them larger, harsher versions of themselves."

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 "Thanks for the warning." Percy said. "Anyway, we're going that way."

 He led the way through the fog, toward one of the massive trees.

 When it materialized out of the mist, I saw that calling it a 'tree' was an insult. The forest split around it, giving it a wide berth as its roots broke the ground around it. It was more like a skyscraper-sized pillar holding up the sky, absolutely covered in lush plant life. Vines as thick as my torso coiled around its trunk, studded with fist-sized flowers in eye-searing neon shades. Mosses and lichens carpeted every inch of bark in technicolor hues. Pods the size of cars hung from the branches, something glowing from within.

 The soft, bioluminescent colors, however, were marred by streaks of an inky purple corruption. Dark, oily slime oozed from cracks in the tree's bark and the seams of burst pods, pooling on the ground and contaminating the plants it touched.

 "Oh no!" Brynn ran over to the base of the tree and knelt down, brushing through the foliage with shaking hands. Nestled in the undergrowth was a fern-like plant with long, dark fronds. The stems of the leaves glowed a bright blue-white, like a tail coming out from the central bulbous leaf on the end.

 But the light was splotchy and stuttering, choked by the purple stuff. As Brynn let go of the leaves, it went limp, falling flat on the ground.

 "Is that the comet's tooth?" I asked hesitantly.

 She wilted herself, sitting and staring at the diseased plant. "It should be. But there's nothing we can do with this. We have to find another colony."

 I looked at Percy. He had his sword out, scanning the tangle of vines and branches above us warily. "Watch the trees." he warned. "We don't know what's out here." Every now and then, I caught glimpses of shadowy shapes shifting in the fog - creatures or plants or mana mirages, I couldn't tell.

 We went deeper into the gloom and found another massive tree, but it was the same case - sickly, corrupted plants, and that dark sludge. While Brynn examined another withered patch of comet's tooth, I stood next to Percy. He was squinting up at the oily blotches on the pods hanging overhead.

 "What do you think, Perce?" I asked quietly.

 He shook his head. "This isn't a puzzle to be solved. It's an entire investigation. We don't have enough time for this. Looking at the scale, it could be engineered so you'd never have enough time."

 "Then do we cut our losses? Head back to Hope?"

 "I think we should stay." he said flatly. "Her mother is one person - and one that will respawn. The lessons we could learn here are far more important."

 "Well, we don't have to do it in one trip." I said. "We can get Brynn back within the time window, then come back to figure out what's going on."

 "But what if she's part of the solution?" Percy argued. "This is her quest, after all."

 I dragged my hands through my hair. I didn't know what the right call was. So in the end... I didn't make it.

 "Brynn?" I called, walking over to where she kneeled in the undergrowth. She looked up at me. Her eyes were red-rimmed and exhausted with worry.

 I hunkered down next to her. "We don't have a lot of time left." I said gently. "Would you like to leave now, so we can get you back home in time to keep your mother alive?"

 She deflated, her shoulders slumping as she stared at the ground. In her hand, she cupped the wilted end of a comet's tooth, its once vibrant colors now sickly and faded.

 "I don't know." she whispered, her voice barely audible over the eerie creaks and groans of the corrupted forest. "Without these plants, all I can do is keep her on life support - prolong her pain. She's as good as dead already." Her fingers tightened around the ruined fern. "And more people will suffer if they die out completely."

 She squeezed her eyes shut, looking truly torn. "On the other hand... I've seen how creeping rot kills. I... I can't let my mother go through that. I would rather... help her myself."

 Lowe crouched down beside her, resting a tentative hand on her shoulder. "Why don't we go back to Hope and ask, uh ... the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate?" he suggested.

 Brynn just shook her head. "The government doesn't care," she said bitterly. "None of them care about what happens out here. We've been managing ourselves for decades."

 "Then... could you put out a quest?" Lowe tried again. "For adventurers? Now that we know there's a problem here?"

 At that, Brynn broke, silent tears streaming down her dirt-smudged cheeks. "We can't leave." she whispered, her voice cracking with emotion. "This is too important. I... I want to stay."

 Lowe wrapped his arm around her shaking shoulders, holding her close as she wept into her hands.

 I nodded. "Ok." I said simply, respecting her choice.

 I stood and made my way back over to Percy, who already had his menu up and was looking at his map. "These clusters seem to be affected more severely than the freestanding plants." he said. "If we visit several of them and compare the levels of corruption, we may be able to plot a gradient, then follow it towards the epicenter."

 "Sounds like a solid idea to me." I agreed, studying the map. It looked like he'd marked at least a dozen colonies scattered throughout this section of the forest. Hitting all of them would take time we might not have.

 "We should split up; there's a lot of ground to cover." Percy said. "Do you want to take Lowe or Brynn?"

 "I'm going with Brynn!" Lowe declared before I could respond. The two of them had stood back up, Brynn wiping away her tears with a resolute frown. There was steel in her reddened eyes now.

 "Neither of you are experienced fighters." Percy said. "And I don't trust this place."

 "Let the man go." I said. "He's gotta do what he's gotta do."

 Percy sighed, but relented. "Fine. But this is a terrible idea."

 Lowe just grinned, undaunted. "Don't doubt us!" he said, puffing out his chest a bit. "We'll get this done and still have enough time to get back to Brynn's mom!"

 "Alright, champ." Percy pulled up his map again, showing it to Lowe. "Here, copy down these locations."

 "Be safe out there." I told them. "And stick together, no matter what."

 "Got it!" Lowe said with a determined nod. Beside him, Brynn squared her shoulders.

 With one last round of nods and meaningful looks, we parted ways - Lowe and Brynn heading west while Percy and I turned east. We checked one colony after another, and it was always the same thing. Percy took pictures of the infected plants and bulges in the bark that leaked out the ooze.

 Lowe sent me pictures from their side of the marsh. Putting them all together, Percy did some very scientific analysis (I think he just guessed.) Plotting the levels of corruption on his map, he drew some arrows and showed me the results.

 "The ground contamination gets thicker toward the coast, coming from a spot directly north of our current location and east of Lowe and Brynn."

 As we made our way in that direction, I asked, "So this stuff, what do you think it is? Is it the same 'corruption' that got to the King?"

 "It looks too similar not to be. I mean, how many shadowy goops does one lore setting need?"

 I said, "I'd take zero, honestly."

 "What if we find out it's smokable?"

 "We should check that, actually - just in case!"

 "Fritz," he put his head in his hands, "we are not smoking the corruption."

 "Maybe it's safe - you don't know! When do you get a class that can conjure holy fire - that'll purge it! C'mon, I'll take one for the team! For science!"

 Moving deeper, we found a large rock in our path. The thing was as large as any of the giant trees and occupied a clearing where the forest thinned around it, which also reduced the corruption, giving the grass a healthier sheen.

 "This could be a good waypoint." I said. "I'll tell them to meet us here." I sent the coordinates to Lowe, and we waited.

 "So what are the greater implications of this place?" I asked. "You know, on the game's lore as a whole?"

 "There's definitely something spreading across the world, and it's seeping into both the center and edges of civilization. This isn't a problem just with the King."

 "Do you think there's anything we can do to slow it down?" I asked. "Some world-changing stuff to affect the main story - make it easier down the line? You know, like how quests can change based on what you - or even other people - do?"

 "That's true..." Percy crossed his arms in thought. "Everyone is assuming the 'story' is Citadel raid progression, like something that's fixed. ... But the King is just a symptom of a greater problem."

 "We need to get the Protectorate in on this." I said. "Crowd-source a survey of the remote parts of the world."

 "And it would help if we could figure out how to remove it here." he added.

 A piercing scream cut through the air, making me jump. It came from deeper in the forest, back the way we'd come.

 "Was that Brynn?!" I asked, already moving.

 We sprinted through the trees, branches whipping at our faces. Shapes moved in the fog ahead - Brynn and Lowe, sprinting full-tilt toward us, eyes wide with terror. First of all, that was Lowe's scream I heard. Second, a massive stag bounded after them, its body writhing with pulsing black goo. Ropey strands of the stuff draped from its antlers like cobwebs. One eye glowed a sickly yellow. Charging alongside it was a wild boar, half its face overtaken by the corruption. The gunk glued its mouth shut on one side, leaving its jaw hanging askew. Its movements were jerky and unnatural, like a puppet with half its strings cut.

 It was the perfect time to bust out our new class abilities.

 "Blink!" Percy drew his sword and threw out his other hand. In an instant, he disappeared into threads of blue magic, reappearing right next to the deer, sword already swinging.

 He sliced clean through one of the stag's antlers. The severed point spun away in a spray of black ichor.

 I reached over my shoulder, pulling my spear out of the air and spun it through my fingers. The tip glowed as it activated a Soldier ability - Javelin. With a sharp breath, I launched the spear at the deer. It struck it in the flank with a meaty thunk. The beast stumbled, its leg suddenly refusing to take its weight. The skill left it with a crippled debuff.

 Percy seized the advantage and ran in to finish it off. With that handled, I turned my attention to the boar, still fixated on Lowe and Brynn.

 Reaching into my belt pouches I grabbed one of the ice crystals I'd picked up in town. The pale blue gem was cold against my palm. I threw it to the ground in front of the onrushing boar.

 The crystal shattered on impact, exploding into a wave of icy mist. Frost raced across the grass and the boar's front hooves were instantly encased in ice, freezing it to the spot.

 I respawned my spear and charged, using an armor-breaking pierce to impale the beast into the ground. As it writhed and squealed and glared at me with its sick eye, I drew a short sword from my belt with my off-hand, then got to work at the mob's head. It never got any less disgusting, killing that stuff.

 By the time I'd finished, Percy was looting the pile of dust that had been the stag. Brynn and Lowe peered out from behind a mossy pine.

 "You two alright?" I called, wiping monster goop off my cheek.

 "Yeah, we outran the rest of them, but that second one almost pincered us!" Lowe replied.

 Brynn emerged and approached the clouds of blue motes warily. "What... what happened to them?" she asked, horrified.

 "We might be able to find out." I said. "Come on."

 Percy led us through the forest in the direction of the epicenter. The fog thickened around us, but the darkness of the trees receded. The salt in the air grew more pronounced, and I didn't notice the chittering of small creatures had faded around us until I heard the distant crash of waves on rock.

 We entered a gorge cut out by the water and followed it toward the sea. Just as I was starting to wonder if we'd gone too far, the shadows of the cliffs parted ahead of us, and something new appeared in the fog.

 We were at the edge of the tide, on a narrow, rocky beach of large boulders where the water washed back and forth between the cracks, spraying up at us with every wave. Splayed out on the rocks was... well, it had the loose 'shape' of a squid. A long, tube-like head broke into a mass of writhing black tendrils glistening with ooze. Gelatinous and not bound by any skeletal structure, it pulsed and squelched, oozing into gaps and spreading across the stones like a fungus. Embedded in its surface were dozens - maybe hundreds - of dot-like yellow eyes that roamed across its surface independently.

 "I think it's safe to say this is our source." Percy said.

 "What in the hells is it?" Lowe asked, face pale.

 I said, "Whatever it is, we need a priest, 'cuz it ain't from God's green Earth."