Hiring the coach cost ten gold, leaving me with only two gold coins. I spent the journey sitting next to an old elf and three young elves that I assumed were his grandchildren. They conversed happily in rapid Elvish, and none paid me any mind.
As the coach continued north, I thought about Gurnil, the Light Magic specialist. Would the letter of recommendation from the Enclave be enough? How much would she charge? Would she send me on further tasks? Did she know anything about Palomir?
A large swamp appeared to the west. According to the Global Map, this was the Baildril. Minutes later, the circled star approached the marker labeled Gurnil’s House. As soon as the star came even with the house, I slapped the side of the coach twice.
“Stop, Coachman! I’ve reached my destination.”
⚔
Gurnil’s house was pentagonal and made entirely of sun-bleached stone. It had a single story and only one door—a ponderous iron slab without knobs or latches.
I unfolded the letter of recommendation I’d received from Antero. Then I cleared my throat and knocked.
“Hello, Gurnil! I’ve come from the Enclave and I seek your tutelage.”
The door didn’t move, and I couldn’t hear any movement inside. I waited for a time and then tried again, but the door never opened.
I checked the Global Map, which confirmed that I was at the right place. Where was Gurnil?
I thought about prying the door open with Ebonclaw, but breaking into a wizard’s home was likely to be a fatal mistake. Was Gurnil running an errand? Had she been kidnapped?
Before giving up, I decided to explore. Walking around the building’s perimeter, I found no windows or hatches leading downward. Just more masonry.
On the eastern side, I noticed an bulge in the stonework. It was spherical—as though something inside had exploded. Whatever it was, it had struck with enough force to warp the wall without destroying it. Had she fought another wizard and lost?
I folded my letter and returned it to my pack. Then I unsheathed Ebonclaw and whispered.
“I’m not going to steal anything, Motiacca. Just going to check on the wizard.”
The bricks that made up the bulging part of the wall came loose, and after a few minutes, I pried enough away to form a hole large enough for me to enter. I squeezed inside and found myself in a study filled with overturned bookcases. Books and torn paintings lay strewn on the floor. The walls bore blackened circular marks as though they’d been struck with fireballs.
STOMP. STOMP. STOMP.
Pressing myself against the wall, I turned and looked into the nearby corridor. The approaching creature was as tall as an orc, its arms and legs as thick as my waist. But it had no skin or hair or anything resembling a face, and its body was made of slabs of multicolored crystal.
STOMP. STOMP. STOMP. STOMP.
By the time the creature entered the study, I had climbed the wall and pressed myself into the corner. From my perch, I watched the living statue walk through the study with mechanical footsteps. It had to be a golem, yet it was unlike any golem I’d ever heard of.
After a few minutes, the golem stomped out of the study and continued down toward the front door. I lowered myself to the ground and ran silently in the opposite direction.
I passed a kitchen and entered a laboratory. From the look of it, Gurnil had been both an alchemist and an enchanter. Shelves of broken jars and flasks lined the near wall, while the far wall was taken up with a furnace like the one Antero had used at the Enclave. A stone table dominated the center of the laboratory, and given its size and shape, I presumed this was the golem’s birthplace.
The last room of the house was a bedroom, with a four-poster bed next to a wardrobe and chest of drawers. A chandelier of multicolored crystal hung from the ceiling. Unlike the other rooms, everything in the bedroom appeared to be undamaged.
As soon as I took a step into the bedroom, a horn blared. The chandelier whirled around and a shrill female voice cried out: “Intruder! INTRUDER!”
I leapt back into the hallway. The floor of the bedroom, which had been black a moment ago, now glowed angry pink, like an oven’s burner. Heat filled the area, and if I hadn’t moved so quickly, I likely would have been burned to a crisp. Moments later, the heat disappeared and the floor returned to its regular black color.
A metallic, high-pitched shriek sounded from the other end of the corridor—the golem had heard the alert. STOMP. STOMP. STOMP.
From far down the corridor, the golem reached a fingerless hand toward me, and a burst of light, like a laser beam from a science-fiction movie, flew outward. I tried to dodge, but the strange missile hit me in the shoulder. It didn’t burn me or pierce my armor, but it stung badly, and my health dropped from 36 to 31.
STOMP. STOMP. STOMP.
Now it was my turn to attack. I assumed golems were immune to poison, so I loaded a bolt of fire and hit the monster square in the chest. The bolt exploded in flame, but the golem’s health bar didn’t change. This was going to be tricky.
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STOMP. STOMP. STOMP.
Next, I fired a bolt of acid and hit the golem in the center of its head. The creature didn't even slow down.
STOMP. STOMP. STOMP.
The golem walked faster now, though it was still much slower than I was. I fled into the study and made my way through the hole I’d made in the wall. The golem shrieked, but it was too large follow me outside.
⚔
Frustrated, I stood outside the house and thought about Gurnil. If she was away on an errand, why had the house been torn apart? Was she hiding? Had she been killed?
I needed to search the house, and that meant neutralizing the golem. But how? It was too heavy to be caught in a snare, my crossbow bolts had proven ineffective, and even with a backstab, I doubted Ebonclaw could pierce its crystalline skin.
I examined the two rings that I’d taken from the gnolls. I assumed they were magical, but I had no idea what enchantments they held. Gurnil could have told me, but she was nowhere to be found.
In all the fantasy games I’d played, there were only two ways to identify a mysterious ring. You can use magic, such as an Identify spell, or you can just put it on. The second option was easier, but it was almost always a bad idea because so many magic items had terrible curses. When you put on a cursed item, you couldn’t take it off without a Remove Curse spell.
I decided to experiment. I slipped the shaman’s sapphire ring onto my right finger and took a deep breath. I didn’t feel any new abilities or curses. According to my character sheet, I was wearing a Ring of Swiftness, which allowed me to quadruple my running speed once per day for ten seconds. This explained why the gnoll shaman had been able to sprint so quickly.
It occurred to me that this game might not have cursed items. If so, winning would be easier than I’d expected. Optimistic, I put on the copper ring I’d taken from Nalkak, the gnoll chief. But my blood froze as its copper surface transformed into the face of a tiny gnoll, with two furious black eyes and a mouth with fanged teeth.
“You are not Nalkak!”
I tried to pull the ring off my finger… but it wouldn’t move. According to my character sheet, I was wearing the Cursed Ring of Nalkak, which granted the wearer the strength of an orc. But unless the wearer was Nalkak, the curse inflicted two points of damage per minute. A chill of despair passed over me. Unless I could find healing or a way to break the curse, this ring would kill me in a matter of minutes.
My finger bled as the angry ring bit into it, and my health fell to 29. Because of the pain and the likelihood of my impending death, it took me a moment to notice how large my muscles had become. Thanks to Nalkak’s ring, I had the strength of an orc. I felt like I could lift a horse or snap a sword in two with my bare hands.
Could I fight a golem?
I closed my eyes, blocked out the pain, and did my best to come up with a plan. Then I squeezed back into Gurnil’s house.
⚔
Gritting my teeth, I hid behind a bookshelf as the golem walked through the study. Finally, the monster turned and stomped toward the front door.
I ran to the bedroom and touched its floor with my foot. Once more, the black surface turned pink as blistering heat filled the area. Then I sprinted back down the corridor, and as I reached the study, the alarm sounded.
“Intruder! INTRUDER!”
My finger was bleeding more profusely now, and my health fell to 23, but I didn’t make a sound as the golem stomped toward the bedroom. After it passed the study, I counted to five and ran up behind the construct. I activated my Ring of Swiftness, which increased my speed fourfold.
Normally, I wouldn’t have stood a chance of tackling a golem. But with my newfound strength and speed, I felt like a professional linebacker. I rammed my shoulder into the golem’s lower back and knocked it off its feet. The two of us slid down the corridor until we entered the bedroom. Then I leapt off the golem, which continued sliding onto the black surface.
The house didn’t seem to recognize the golem as an intruder, so once I got out of the bedroom, I touched the bedroom floor with my hand. The floor turned a sizzling pink, and the golem’s crystal body glowed red with heat. The monster shrieked louder than ever before, and then dissolved into the floor. +2,000 XP!
The heat vanished, and the bedroom floor went black again.
The golem was gone, but if I didn’t get Nalkak’s ring off, I’d be dead in nine minutes. I searched frantically through the house, hoping to find a secret door.
“Gurnil? Gurnil? Are you there?”
The drawing room was across from the front door, and as in the other rooms, most of the furniture had been thrown against the walls. The only undamaged item was a silver mirror on the far wall. It was the first mirror I’d encountered since entering the game, and I couldn’t help but glance at my reflection. I had an unkempt mop of brown hair, a round face, and eyes that were a little too far apart. My two bandoliers and snakeskin armor gave me an air of danger, but aside from that, I was unimpressive. A solid 6 out of 10.
Suddenly, the mirror spoke in a high-pitched female voice.
“And who might you be, human?”
I stepped back. “My name is Dylan and I’m looking for Gurnil. Do you know where she is?”
The voice sounded annoyed. “She’s down here.”
I looked down and saw a halfling whose head came up to the middle of my thigh. She had white hair over large round spectacles, and bore the same stern expression as my sixth-grade math teacher. Her dark blue robe marked her as a senior wizard.
“What precisely are you doing in my house?”
“I was told to come here for training in Light Magic, and I have a letter of introduction. When no one answered the door, I found the crack in the wall. I thought you might be in trouble, so I came in.”
Gurnil narrowed her eyes. “How did you get past the golem?”
“I burned it on your bedroom floor.” I held out my hand, showing her the blood seeping from Nalkak’s ring. “I apologize for breaking in, but this ring is killing me. Could you help?”
Gurnil stepped out of the mirror and levitated until her head came even with mine. Then smoke billowed out of her mouth as she cast a spell. Nalkak’s ring fell to the ground, its angry face transformed back into a plain copper surface. I put the cursed ring in my pack with a shudder. That had been close.
The halfling wizard looked around the drawing room, hands on her hips. “Serves me right. I was so proud of myself for building the first crystal golem. Of course, it turned out to be impervious to my spells. The blasted thing mistook me for a thief and nearly drove me out of my home. Now then, show me your letter from the Enclave.”
After catching my breath, I unfolded Antero’s letter and handed it to her. She squinted at it, holding it an arm’s length away from her face.
“You want to learn Light Magic. Hmm. I can train you, but in return, I’ll require your assistance in returning my house to an acceptable condition. Have we a bargain?”
I smiled, relieved. My two gold coins probably wouldn’t have been enough for magical training.
“We have a bargain.”