When Boyd happened upon the next Harpy, he re-initiated almost the exact same conversation he had earlier. He took a slightly different turn at the point he ended up having to kill the last Harpy though in order to avoid a similar outcome.
“Wait, you can understand me?” the Harpy said.
Boyd held his hands out, “Yes, it seems like I can. I am as surprised about this as you are.”
They went through the standard conversation about how and why this occurred before ending back up on the topic of her father.
“Do you know about my father, The Harpy King?”
“No, I certainly don’t,” Boyd lied.
“He has imprisoned us all here. I do care for him, but I am bored to death just yelling at adventurers all day. But I just don't understand how all adventurers are bad. I just wish there was a way I could reach them.”
The new Harpy spun towards the edge of the Cliff and clasped her claws to her chest,
“Look at these Cliffs. Aren't they neat? Wouldn't you think my life is complete? Wouldn't you think I'm the Harpy who has everything." She hung her head before looking skyward. "I’ve killed Rock Rocs and critters a-plenty. I’ve killed Combatants and heroes galore. You wanna talk townspeople? I’ve killed twenty.” She giggled a bit. “But who cares… No big deal... I want mooooore.” The Harpy spun in a circle towards Boyd. “I wanna be where the people are. I wanna see, their heads on lances.” She paused, “Perhaps you can help me?”
“I might be interested in trying,” Boyd said. “Can I ask you name?”
“Sure, it’s Lisa.”
Boyd was taken aback yet again. “Your name is Lisa? That’s… not surprising to me at all because I didn’t know what your name was.”
Lisa answered, “Yea, almost everyone here is named Lisa actually. Dad gets to pick the names and he only knows like three names. So we are all either Lisa, or Annie, or Screamy. That’s our mom’s names. Dad’s not real bright.”
Boyd realized helping might be a safer means to get what he needed. “What do you need me to do?”
SYSTEM: Quest Accepted: Help the Harpys: Yay for Harpys. The Angry Harpys are apparently being held captive by their Dad/husband, the Harpy King. Figure out a peaceful solution to their problem and you might receive a substantial reward from the Harpy community. Not compatible with “Don’t help the Harpys”. Not compatible with “Matriarchy.”
SYSTEM: Quest Accepted: Don’t help the Harpys: Fuck Harpys. You know how many adventurers they kill every year? Five. Sometimes more. That’s a lot over time. Genocide the colony. That means every single one. This Quest leans Republican, so that means the eggs count as full grown Harpys, so you gotta smash them too. You might receive a reward from the nearby town of Caveswall if you complete this. Not compatible with “Help the Harpys”. Not compatible with “Matriarchy.”
SYSTEM: Quest Accepted: Matriarchy: Yea, he’s got a big dick but he’s not good for anything else. Kill the Harpy King and free his poor wives from his oppressive reign. You might receive a very large reward from the Harpy community if you complete this quest. Not compatible with “Don’t help the Harpys”. Not compatible with “Help the Harpys.”
Boyd looked over the Quest updates. It appeared like he had a choice. The best choice was obviously to Help the Harpys as it offered the largest reward. That wasn’t what he had agreed to with Merlot though. He needed more information.
“So what do you recommend I do next?” Boyd asked.
“Dad is a nice guy, but he’s dumb as a post. No one is asking you to fix the whole situation. We just need to talk some sense into him. Mom says if we can get him an Intelligence potion and get him to drink it, we can get him to agree to some new rules around the place while he isn’t such a dunce. Bring me back an Intelligence potion and I can take care of most of the rest of it. I just need the potion. DON’T poison the potion though.”
Quest update: Help the Harpys - bring Lisa 2 (not the one you killed) an Intelligence potion.
Quest update: Don’t help the Harpys - bring Lisa 2 (not the one you killed) an Intelligence potion, but poison it first. Probably don’t tell her if you poison it.
Quest update: Matriarchy -Tell Lisa’s 2 mom, Lisa 3, about Lisa 2’s offer. A side note – Lisa 3 is just a naming convention for your sake. Actually Lisa’s mom would be Lisa 1 and Lisa 2 would be Lisa 38. I know you struggle with “big numbers” though so I am trying to simplify things for you.
This meant some significant backtracking, but he thought he should bring this to Merlot’s attention. He started back down the Cliffs.
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“Do you guys have any Intelligence potions then?” Boyd had carefully explained the results of his little adventure to see the Harpys.
Merlot’s Foray looked between them before Pinot spoke up, “I’m not sure I follow. Why didn’t you just kill the Harpy King as we planned.”
“Well I got all these Quests and it seems like it might be better if we did it the other way. Maybe we get some sort of reward according to my Quest log.”
The group looked between themselves again. “Sir Boyd, I am intrigued by your proposal, but I need to be clear. We are here for something very specific. I don’t know if it is worth it to risk a change in reward based on a hunch. While I respect your interest in your own gain, I don’t think anyone has ever tried to do things your way. If we were to go with your route, it seems we might miss out on our purpose, or miss out on the Mana Node array. I have to decline.”
“Right then,” Chard stood up and began casting Bend Light around himself to start his Stealth mission.
“No, wait,” Boyd ran ahead. “Listen here, I’ll get you the thing you need. You said you want the Harpy King’s Feathers right? I’ll get ‘em for you. Chard, they saw me, they know people are around. If you go, you are gonna die. Let me do this. All I need is an Intelligence potion and I can do this.”
“I can brew one quite easily,” said Pinot. “Simple recipe, just give me a few minutes. It won’t be powerful, but it should satisfy the Quest system. I even have the reagents handy.”
“Deal,” said Boyd.
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He had the potion stowed away safely in his belt inventory. It clanged around a little as he climbed, but Pinot had assured him it wouldn’t cause him any troubles as the flask was magically prevented from breaking from anything short of extremely intense pressure. Likely the only thing that would leave it broken was him falling from the Cliffs, whereupon it wouldn’t really matter anyway.
He made it back to Lisa in a few hours. He had encountered a few more Rock Rocs and had gained enough experience to increase another Rank, but he got the same message as earlier.
You cannot Assign Ranks until you resolve Broken Swordsoul.
He made it past the corpse of Lisa 1. He had covered in however many stones and sticks he could find laying around to obscure the corpse, hoping to avoid any sort of alarm that might go off at the site of a dead Harpy. Since he had passed Lisa 1’s corpse, that also meant that the Harpy King could be around any minute, so he started to be extra careful moving in and out of the shadows of the Cliffs of Agony. He thought he could take a single Harpy, but he was sure he couldn’t handle the Harpy King. After around fifteen more minutes of climbing, he heard the Harpy song yet again about jumping off the Cliff and whatnot. He recognized Lisa 2’s voice and turned the corner to see her looking just as lackluster as ever as she carelessly sung her song.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“Jump, jump, jump off the Cliff. Oh my God this is boring. Oh hey! You’re back, did you bring it?”
Boyd looked toward the sky for any signs of the King, and then ran towards Lisa 2. “Yea, I got it here. What do we do with it?”
“I’ll give it to my Mom. She’ll know what to do.”
Boyd panicked for a second, He wasn’t sure what would happen and didn’t want the Quest to fail. He’d promised Merlot he could carry it out. The Matriarchy Quest seemed like it had the best reward, but he was afraid it wouldn’t result in the Harpy King dying.
“Sure, take me to your Mom,” he said.
“What about my sisters though?”
“They shouldn’t be a problem if you aren’t,” he said. Boyd smiled and tried to be as Charismatic as possible. He knew that it affected NPC response, but wasn’t sure if it was something you had to actively pursue.
Boyd began climbing up an adjacent Cliff wall, but Lisa 2 stopped him with a bird claw. “Want a lift?”
Boyd thought about it. “You think you can carry me?”
“Drop the Iron Boots spell and I bet I can,” she said.
Boyd did as he was told and mentally removed the Iron Boots spell. Lisa 2 grabbed him gently by the shoulders and began to ascend. Boyd felt the air flow briskly by him. She couldn’t carry him very quickly but she was moving up the Cliffs far faster than he could on his own. He looked up at his newfound bird-based transportation unit and for the first time, he felt some confidence. He was doing it. He was actually having some success. He felt like he might be able to live through all this craziness.
Then Lisa 2 dropped him.
She squawked angrily and he felt himself immediately start to fall. He looked straight down and realized he had an extremely long ways to fall and no way to solve the problem. It was a dramatic change of pace, the feeling that he might have this place figured out for the first time, followed immediately by the feeling it was going to kill him. He closed his eyes and prepared for the impact.
You take 102 falling damage.
Life 9/111.
She had underestimated him. He had underestimated himself for that matter. He was alive, but barely. He could feel broken bones inside him, and couldn’t move his legs.
SYSTEM: You have a mortal wound. You are bleeding internally. You will lose 5 life per minute for the next 10 minutes.
Your legs are broken, you cannot walk or run.
You have a severe spinal injury, your movement speed is reduced by 92%.
He looked up to see the Harpy swooping down towards him and he rolled towards the left. It took everything he had, but he dodged the fatal blow.
He slammed his Manatap skill as hard as he could. It sent a wave of nausea threw him.
Life 33/111
Mana 0/57
SYSTEM: You are bleeding internally. You will lose 1 life per minute for the next 5 minutes.
Your legs are damaged, movement speed while walking reduced by 50%.
You have a spinal injury, movement speed while walking reduced by 20%, this is multiplicative with other sources of reduced movement speed.
Movement speed reduction currently 60%.
The points he had put into Manatap were the only thing that saved his life. He might die anyway, but being able to heal critical wounds allowed him to fix his spine and legs enough to move.
He stood up to face Lisa 2. She was snarling, her back against the wall of the Cliffs of Agony.
“Do you think I can’t smell the poison in that Intelligence potion? What sort of blind fool tries to trick a Harpy with Saltroot?”
Lisa 2 flew off the edge of the wall towards him. Boyd was out of ideas. He was in extreme amounts of pain, had little Life, and was dramatically out-Ranked by his opponent who he no longer had the drop on. He decided to try to get behind her and strangle her like the last Lisa. He steadied himself for her descent, planning to dodge and leap atop her back.
A random Rock Roc dived into her body and grabbed her in its talons and then flew away. He watched it tear her skin away in its claws as she shrieked and moaned. Boyd stood there, startled before backing against the Cliff of Agony and hiding his face. His Mana slowly started to tick up. He Manatapped it back into Life as fast as he could.
SYSTEM: Quest Accepted - Rock Out for the Rock Rocs: It appears like there is a war between the Rock Rocs and the Harpys. Speak to Queen Granitehide of the Rock Rocs to learn more. If you complete this Quest without failing “Matriarchy” or “Help the Harpys” you may receive a Unique reward.
SYSTEM: Quest Accepted – Birdhunting: It appears like there is a war between the Rock Rocs and the Harpys. War has two things – winners and losers. Make sure the Rocs are the latter. This one is pretty simple so you only get a minor reward and I haven’t figured out who would give it to you yet. This shit is getting overly complicated. Pick a fucking side already.
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Pinot was camped out by the fire in a low-slung chair. Boyd was furious and seeing Pinot just enraged him that much more. Boyd limped back up to the group and threw the Intelligence potion at Pinot’s feet. He knew he should just walk away at this point, but he couldn’t let it slide. That wasn’t who he was.
“Ya set me up ya fucking dick. I ought to come over there and whoop your ass.”
Chard started to step forward with his blades drawn, but Merlot placed his Longstaff in his way. “Indeed, we decided to see how you would react to this situation.”
“Well the Harpy tried to kill me, I damn near died, and I broke both my legs. Then I had to crawl all the way the fuck back down here with what feels like a nail in my spine and two legs that barely work. All of this because your buddy over there lied to me about the potion. This whole thing would be done by now if not for this chucklefuck. Fuck you dude! Fucking dick.” Boyd spat on the ground in Pinot’s direction.
Rosey approached him and cast a healing spell. Sarah followed with the same. He felt his legs heal and his Life vault back to full. He was happy to receive the healing, but resentful that someone from Merlot’s party was going to help him. He wanted to attack them, but he knew he had no chance.
Merlot walked slowly toward Boyd. “Do you understand what we were trying to show you? Do you understand the purpose of this exercise?”
“No, I don’t understand the purpose of this fucking exercise. I’ve been jacking around with this God damn Harpy camp for half a day now, climbing up and down this fucking mountain over there and I haven’t made shit for progress. Now I gotta go find Queen Graniteface or some such shit and learn how to talk to a god damn Roc bird or something and figure out their side of the story. If ya’ll had made the right potion, then this would be over. ”
“Would it though?” Merlot asked. “You saw what happened with the Harpy when she decided you weren’t doing what she wanted. If you had given her the potion as you wanted, it likely would’ve resulted in her Mothers all trying to kill you. If you had given them the potion, they likely would’ve used it kill the daughter or just used it as proof for the Harpy King to kill all the daughters, or God knows what else. The truth of the matter is that I, we, need those Harpy feathers and no matter what you think you know, you don’t know what will happen in here. The Maze will make things harder and harder and more and more complex until you end up killing yourself chasing some piece of equipment you may not even need. Many learn this the hard way, and most of the time that results in death. You have a distinct advantage for this fight in that you are possibly the first person to ever actually speak to the Harpys and not just kill them. You are naive if you think this is going to be that simple though. Please, allow us to return to the original plan. I would prefer not to ask Chard to do things the harder way, but we will do so if we must.”
“No God dammit, I started this shit and I’m finishing it,” Boyd said.
Merlot threw his hands up in the air, “Then feel free. Help anyone you want. But you are falling into a classical trap. It may be six hours or six days or six months until you finish that Quest. At any point, if you take the wrong turn, it could all fall apart. If I had to guess, the entire thing is linked to CavesWall, the nearby town. The most likely optimal solution would involve you somehow getting the Queen of the Rocs to marry the King of the Harpies which would almost certainly trigger a Sub-Quest where the nearby town is now afraid of the two units as a combined power, and then you are forced to either save the town or save the Harpys/Rocs to avoid a war. At that point, you would probably end up spending weeks if not years brokering a peace. You would be a hero to the Rocs and a hero to the town. You would probably receive a very strong item for this. But at the end of the day, it all resets. This isn’t real. You usually get to keep the item, but how far does that get you outside The Maze. What happens here doesn’t have permanency. And it won’t help you get back to this Oklahoma you love. Figure out a way to resolve this soon, or Chard resolves it the old-fashioned way and we move on. I understand your interest, but the fact of the matter is we have a job to do and it’s getting to the point where you are standing in the way.”
“Sure. How about you just give me a few hours and then I’ll back off.”
Merlot sighed, “Fine, boy, fine. But do hurry.”
Boyd realized Merlot had a point and set down to consider the problem. He certainly wasn’t any sort of relationship councilor and he didn’t have months to complete the Quest. At the same time, he definitely needed some new items or he was going to die. He knew he couldn’t compete in his current status. If nothing else, he needed some money for food.
“Hey Merlot, quick question, if I can understand the Harpys do you think I can understand the Harpy King”
“Probably. It seems like the only reason you can understand the Harpys at all is because you aren’t seduced by them. If you can get the King to talk to you without eviscerating you first you could probably have a conversation.”
“Cool. Any chance ya’ll got whiskey here?”
Merlot laughed and snapped his finger. “This is certainly one thing I can provide with ease.”