Chapter 192: The Meeting
Aegis sat in a chair at a large, round, dark brown wooden table with thin swirling vines engraved into a border that went around the edge of the table. Standing tall behind him stood Chax on one side, and Lina on the other. A meter away on either side of him sat other players, leaders of guilds that Aegis didn’t recognize. This continued every meter, all the way around the table. Each guild leader had two of its members standing behind them.
He recognized Artaphernes in his chair across the table, but not the two members standing behind him. Quinn had Trexon and Tullan standing behind her, while Christoph had Miranda and Quiver standing behind him. Most uncomfortably, though, Aegis spotted a familiar face that he had not seen in a long time. Keldan sat with Vriflow and Swiftstar behind him, wearing a tabard of a large blue flame on a black background. Aegis caught Keldan desperately waving at Miranda, attempting to get her attention but failing as she was busy awkwardly whispering to her livestream audience of 1,621 viewers.
There was chatter amongst the players, some stuck to talking just to their guildmates, but other guild leaders were discussing things like grind spots with one another. The group was waiting for the last few seats to fill, with the large doors into the room remaining open. Aegis looked to the doors and saw them being under the guard of Herilon and Sapphire, who were instructing new comers where they were to be seated.
Aegis, in an effort to not draw any unwanted attention, tilted his head back and looked up at the ceiling, taking in the architecture of the Night Hunter’s guild hall of which they were currently inside. It was only a day since the events in the underrealm that resulted in Aegis acquiring the giant’s heart, but a lot had changed since then.
Most of the chatter was discussing the rapid change in NPC behavior - the aggressive complaints had stopped, as had the in-fighting and discrimination that had begun to rise up. The players, too, had become more relaxed knowing now that all but one of the Blacklion guild members had been apprehended and would remain locked up for a month within the Kordas prison due to their repeated crimes against the allied Kingdoms of the Shattered World.
Still, Aegis felt somewhat uneasy about the situation. His mind continuously ran over the events that had transpired in the Red river, and how Joltblade had acted. His instincts, which he had been recently advised to trust, were hinting something at him. As he fell deep in thought about it, he was snapped back to reality by the sounds of the doors closing.
Aegis quickly brought his head back down, paying attention now to the other players and noting that all of the seats were now filled, with a variety of colorful guild tabards on display from each of the players present.
“Welcome.” Quinn spoke loudly, causing all the chatter to quickly quiet down. “Before we begin, I’d like to ask that the three players present that are currently livestreaming, please turn off your streams.” Quinn motioned to Aegis, Miranda and Keldan. The three awkwardly glanced at each other.
“Is that really necessary? I mean, if people really wanna figure out what’s going on here, they’ll just scry anyway, won’t they?” Keldan sighed, motioning to his viewership of 56 viewers.
“Trexon will prevent that, he’s a skilled sage. Please, the meeting shouldn’t take long.” Quinn insisted with a smile, and a slight nod to Trexon who bowed politely. Miranda and Aegis had already turned their streams off without hesitation, and seeing this, Keldan reluctantly followed suit and disabled his stream. Following this, Trexon waved his staff and caused a light blue dome to expand from the tip of it, engulfing anyone in the room.
“It’s done. No one from outside this room will hear or see anything that transpires inside it.” Trexon confirmed.
“Good, thanks.” Quinn gave him a nod. “Now, I’m sure most of you already know what reason we have for calling this meeting. All of you represent the guilds of Kalmoore. I know many of you have no interest in PvP combat, and some of you even lack interest in fighting monsters. Representatives from Tavern, Bard, Brothel, Crafting, and Merchant guilds are all present. But, that won’t stop you from being affected by the abyssal invasion that we strongly believe will be coming to Kalmoore in the next weeks.” Quinn announced. Following this, there were quite a few anxious murmurs that broke out through the room.
“Can’t you do something to prevent the invasion from happening?” One of the guild leaders asked her, breaking through the murmurs. Following his question, all eyes turned to Quinn and silence came with it.
“We’re still looking into it and doing everything we can, but the reality is…” Quinn briefly looked between Artaphernes, Christoph, and Aegis, “We still don’t really know what causes the invasions. Only a select few players seem to be behind it.” Quinn replied, and this was followed by a few more murmurs which she silenced by standing up out of her chair.
“Luckily, we’ve identified quite a few of them already.” She pulled out of her inventory three bounty posters which she threw into the air behind her, and Trexon promptly casted a spell on them to enlarge them for everyone to see. The wanted posters displayed a picture of Joltblade, Simon, and Emerill. Emerill’s bounty was crossed out with the word ‘claimed’ on it, however.
“That assassin, he got caught already, didn’t he?” One guild leader asked.
“Yes, but he’s finished serving his sentence. Since then, he’s only been loitering around Kordas, but we’re keeping a close eye on him just to be safe.” Quinn explained as Aegis looked over the table and saw everyone carefully staring up at the three bounty posters. “We know there’s at least one more, a player by the name of Vagosh that is at least level 150. For time being, I’d like you all to keep an eye out for these three, and any suspicious individuals at level 150 or above.” Quinn explained, which was followed by a few more murmurs.
“That’s it?” A guild leader wearing a fancy, Yuki-made suit and large pieces of jewelry stood up. “That’s all you're doing to protect us?”
“Do you know how much real money I’ve invested in this island? I make more money from my in-game tavern than my job in real life!” Another guild leader shot up and complained to her. Following these words, a few other guild leaders and their members shouted similar complaints.
“That's not all, we’ve fortified the island stones.” Quinn replied into the shouting, but was barely heard.
“What’s a wall and some NPC guards going to do to protect the stones? We all saw how endless those abyssling armies were in the last invasion!” One shouted back.
“The juggernauts aren’t going to care about any wall!”
“We’re going to be there to defend the stones too, obviously.” Christoph stood up and shouted on Quinn’s behalf.
“Oh yeah, like you defended Kordas from the Blacklion guild?”
“Like you coulda done any better. I don’t see you contributing to the islands safety, all you're doing is profiting off if it!” Christoph shouted back, starting a side argument with one guild leader in particular that went back and forth, while others began bickering with each other.
“ENOUGH!” Quinn shouted finally, her voice overpowering all of the other shouts and bickering, causing them to quiet down and look to her. “You think you are the only ones who have something to lose on this island? I have spent the last year building up Kalmoore to be the best, most peaceful island for new players to enjoy this game world. Rest assured, I’m going to be doing everything. Absolutely everything, in my power to keep it safe.” Quinn declared firmly. Her words were followed by a long silence until one of the farming guild leaders, still seated, leaned forward.
“What about him?” He pointed at Aegis, who was caught off guard and looked back at him in confusion. “He’s the reason they targeted Kalmoore in the first place, isn’t he?”
“There’s no way to actually know that. He’s not the reason they targeted the other two islands. It’s random for all we know.” Artaphernes quickly jumped to Aegis’ defense.
“Yeah, but, he’s a shattered healer with Eirene. You’re supposed to fight against the darkness, right? That’s what your class does? Surely you know something about how to stop them?” He continued, and suddenly all eyes fell onto Aegis. He turned to look at Artaphernes, then Quinn, Tullan, Christoph, and finally landed his eyes on Trexon as they all had a look of hope in their eyes, waiting for him to speak.
“Well…” Aegis briefly looked back to Lina and Chax behind him and saw Chax, too, looked concerned. Seeing this, he took a deep breath after seeing Quinn giving him a nod, as if asking for him to speak.
“The players seeking to invade Kalmoore were utilizing orbs, not unlike what this once was.” Aegis pulled out the shards of his orb of suffering. “Some of you’ve probably seen orbs like this if you’ve ever done quests against evil cults and what not.” Aegis placed the shards on the table. “They’ve probably used more than one, to absorb a specific form of darkness and gather strength for the invasion. The moment we figured out what they were doing, or possibly earlier than that, they retrieved the orbs from where they’d hid them within the settlements on this island. So, we don’t know exactly what type of orb they were using.
In the case of the orb of suffering,” Aegis motioned to the shards, “The cultists were torturing people and using painfully violent poisons on NPCs in order to draw out suffering and absorb it into the orb. Therefor, it’s my theory that whatever was setting off the NPCs of our cities the last few months, it was a form of darkness that these orbs were absorbing. The first thing that might help us out with the invasion, is if we all put our heads together and think about what form of darkness it was that the NPCs were exhibiting. Unfortunately, I spent the majority of the time in the underrealm…” Aegis explained, looking over the other players who began whispering amongst one another.
“What forms of Darkness are there?” Vriflow asked.
“Well, the ones I saw in Hrath’mir were Death, Hatred, Anger, Fear, Suffering, and Jealousy. There’s likely mo-” Aegis was interrupted.
“Thaz easy. Jealousy.” Tullan immediately replied, and a few players quickly nodded in agreement.
“That makes complete sense.” Chax whispered to Aegis. “The NPCs disguised it as hatred for Arallian’s or Kalmoorians, but the root of all their complaints was that someone had something they didn’t.” Chax explained and got many nods from the other players.
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“Yeah, I’m in agreement there. Had the same sort of complaints in my territories.” Christoph announced to the others.
“We’re all in agreement, we’re dealing with Jealousy?” Quinn spoke loudly to quiet down the whispers as she looked over the group.
“But what does that mean? If the orbs were absorbing jealousy?” Artaphernes asked Aegis, and all eyes quickly turned back to him.
“It’s just a theory, but… when I encountered that orb, it was being used to empower an Avatar. So we can only assume those guys were doing the same.” Aegis motioned to the enlarged posters.
“The Avatar of Jealousy is coming to Kalmoore?” One of the guild leaders anxiously called out, followed by numerous other whispers.
“Nah, no way. There was no Avatar present in the other invasions. That can’t be right.” Quiver spoke loudly and confidently, silencing the whispers.
“Yeah, he’s right. You would’ve seen one back in Arallia.” Christoph motioned to Quinn. “All you saw was Juggernauts, and that weird black mist thing that wrecked your airship.”
“Oh, oh no. I forgot about that mist thing. That thing will be coming here too, right?” another guild leader replied.
“Does Eirene know how to stop that thing? You know, right? You fought it?” One quickly called out to Aegis, causing all eyes to fall upon Aegis once more.
“Well, no, not exactly. But we’re close to forging mithral, that outta be strong enough to take on anything the invasion brings.” Aegis replied timidly.
“But those guys already have Mithral!” The farmer guild leader motioned to the bounty posters, and following this, the bickering and shouts of concerns began to build up once more.
“Look. Guys.” Quinn shouted loudly to silence them. “We have several tricks up our sleeves. For one, our fifth island stone’s location is completely hidden. Only the Kalmoorian Royalty knows its location. We’re all strong, and our top guilds are organized. If the invasion comes, we’ll take out the juggernauts together. So, if you’d like to help, prepare any mercenary NPCs to assist in the defense of the cities, and keep an eye out for these three as well as any suspicious individuals. Report anything you find to me, or one of my guildmates. Any other questions?” Quinn spoke firmly, panning her eyes over the room, and was met with only silence.
“Thanks. Stay calm, and work together, and we’ll get through this. That’s all for the meeting. You’re all dismissed, except you three.” Quinn pointed at Aegis, Christoph and Artaphernes. From there, the murmuring began, and there was an ominous mood amongst the guild leaders as they stood up out of their chairs and headed out of the room one by one. Aegis overheard a few of their murmurs, words like ‘we’re doomed’, or ‘let’s start putting our stuff in storage just to be safe’.
Once the others had all left, the doors were shut, but this time Sapphire was on the inside of the room.
“Okay, give it to me straight. How screwed are we?” Christoph sighed as he looked across the room.
“Joltblade’s items were seriously powerful. We can assume all of Vagosh’ company are equipped like that.” Quinn replied as she put her head down. “Even if we set up a strong defense, they’ll be easily able to disrupt our backline using hit and run tactics. We need to be able to fight those guys in PvP before we need to worry about the PvE side of the invasion.”
“It sounds like you’ve pretty much resigned us to our fates. You’re sure we’re being invaded?” Artaphernes asked her.
“Yeah. We’re on the backfoot, we still don’t know the specifics of how the invasions happen, so whatever they need to do, they’ll be able to do it without us stopping them. Unless you’ve got some insight into it?” Quinn sighed, looking up at Aegis.
“No. I agree, I think it’s all but confirmed we’re being invaded. Joltblade didn’t really care that we got the heart, he’s either confident we won’t find mithral in time, or doesn’t care. If he really wanted to stop us from getting it, he would’ve used his real weapons from the get go. He didn’t even use them to protect the Blacklion guild members…”
“Meaning, they weren’t essential to their plan.” Artaphernes nodded along with Aegis.
“Exactly. He only drew out his weapons when he was at risk of dying to me and Rakkan, because he didn’t want to drop any items. Otherwise, he didn’t care what we did. So we can assume we have not succeeded in interfering with their plans in any way, whatsoever, yet.” Aegis replied while crossing his arms.
“Logical conclusion…” Trexon sighed in response.
“Anything from Emerill?” Quinn turned to Artaphernes.
“Aside from vague threats, no. He’s patiently sitting around in taverns, wasting my spy’s time.” Artaphernes shrugged.
“They’re just playing with us.” Quinn suddenly, and angrily, slammed her fist into the table, which was followed by more silence from the others.
“Well, I have something that may help us.” Christoph spoke up, clearing his throat. “Or rather, Quiver does, don’t you?” Christoph turned to look at him, and he anxiously looked from Christoph to the others.
“Well, I scouted out a high level dungeon awhile back. Level 180 enemies.” Quiver explained.
“Not just that, what else did you say you saw?”
“I can’t be sure, but, I think some of the enemies were wielding mithral weapons.” Quiver shrugged.
“Meaning they might drop mithral items?” Trexon asked.
“Exactly.” Christoph snapped his fingers excitedly. “Of course, 180 enemies would take awhile to grind efficiently with just one of our guilds. But if we formed a joint raid, we’d surely get some good loot and experience in a short amount of time.” Christoph said excitedly. “What do you guys think?”
“Sending both of our top guilds into a dungeon weeks before we expect an invasion could be a bit risky…” Tullan replied.
“I agree.” Quinn nodded. “What about you two, how likely are you to find Mithral?” Quinn motioned to Tullan and Aegis.
“We’re not even on that step yet, we still need to finish the eternal flame, else we can’t even smelt the ore. And for that, we need a dragon.” Tullan replied.
“Oh, right.” Chax cleared his throat excitedly. “Aegis had me tracking ‘em down. I used my merchant skills to track sales of Silver dragon scales, a few were sold on the Kordas auction house. I managed to find a couple of the players that had sold them. They were all low level players, and told me that they'd found the scales all in the same area - Kiepalt Forest.” Chax explained.
“Kiepalt Forest? That’s a low level 40 area, isn’t it?” Miranda asked.
“Yep. But, well, it’s the only lead I’ve got. Silver scales keep appearing there from time to time.” Chax shrugged.
“Even if you somehow find a silver dragon on Kalmoore, which no one has ever seen before - you’ve still got to find mithral which no player in the entire game world has ever found despite millions of players desperately looking for it. It’s too far-fetched. We’re better off chancing a grind in the high level dungeon.” Christoph replied. His words were followed by silence as everyone went in thought, looking around at each other.
“I think Christoph is right. Grinding in the dungeon is the best option.” Quiver joined in with confidence.
“Will your guild be able to handle things in Kordas while we’re away?” Quinn looked to Artaphernes.
“Yeah… with the Blacklion guild in prison, it shouldn’t be too hard.” Artaphernes shrugged reluctantly.
“Alright.” Quinn took a deep breath. “Tullan, you’ll stay behind with our crafting guild members. I want you to work with Aegis to try and find a silver dragon, and mithral. I’ll leave Yorgi behind with you for portals.” Quinn explained, and Tullan nodded.
“I’ll make sure to help Yorgi attune to Pakro’Vielle and the City of the White Tree before we leave.” Trexon added.
“Good. That okay with you Aegis?”
“Yeah, that’s fine. I was going to be doing that anyway.” Aegis nodded.
“Perfect. And, if we assume Aegis gets close, those guys might try to stop him…” Quinn looked at Artaphernes who nodded back immediately.
“Don’t worry, I’ll babysit the streamer.” Artaphernes rolled his eyes and smirked at Aegis.
“Good. We’ll have plenty of sages with us between our guild and the Blades of Kalmoore, so if anything happens, let us know, and we’ll be back in Kordas in an instant.” Quinn continued. “I’ll let my guild know we’re forming an emergency dungeon raid. How soon can the Blades of Kalmoore be ready to leave?”
“Give us 3 hours.” Christoph stood up excitedly, and following this the rest of them stood up.
“Let’s get to it then.” Sapphire cheered from the doors, quickly pushing them open and motioning everyone to leave.
“Aegis.” Quinn called out, causing him to stop as the others continued walking out of the room, save for Lina and Chax who stopped alongside him. “A word in private?” Quinn asked, causing Lina and Chax to look to Aegis who gave them nods, signalling them to leave the room. Quinn moved to stand near Aegis behind the now tucked in chairs in the round meeting room, waiting for all others to leave, and Herilon politely closed the door once Chax and Lina had stepped outside, to leave the two in peace.
“I know you started playing this game because you hate your dad, but… Is there any chance you could ask him to help us?” Quinn asked.
“You want me to ask Makaroth to come to Kalmoore and help?” Aegis replied with a hint of anger in his voice.
“I know... I know it’s rude to ask, it’s just…” Her voice trailed off into silence. Aegis could see the worry in her eyes as she turned to look down at her feet.
“Even if I asked, he wouldn’t come. He only cares about himself.” Aegis shook his head and let out a huff of air. Following his words, though, he saw tears begin to stream down her cheeks.
“Yeah, I figured as much.” She whimpered, but tried to cover it up with a cough as she wiped the tears away.
“Hey, we haven’t lost anything yet…” Aegis tried to comfort her.
“Oh c’mon.” Quinn forced a laugh. “Our island is weak compared to Arallia, and they didn’t stand a chance… I know for you this is just a game, to get back at your dad… but for me, for Ren... And so many of our guild, this is our job, our life. And… I can’t...” She began to sniffle, despite her efforts to try and stop her tears. “Please… the same way you did everything to save Clara, and the Arallians. Please don’t let them take this island from us.” She looked up at Aegis with a look of desperation in her eyes. Aegis wasn’t sure how to reply, and wasn’t given a chance to think. Immediately after speaking, Quinn shamefully lowered her head and walked around him quickly towards the doors of the room, leaving Aegis alone with his thoughts.
All Aegis could think of at that moment though were Makaroth’s words, when he’d explained to him how they were from completely different worlds. He thought on what he cared about and why he was playing, and compared it to Quinn, someone who he’d never considered her motives for playing. He only knew her to be nice, working hard to keep everyone in Kalmoore happy, and had never considered why.
“Aegis?” Lina called into the room, causing him to turn and see her and Chax standing in the doorway. “Everything okay?” She asked upon seeing his stunned expression, which managed to shake him out of it.
“Huh? Yeah…” Aegis replied calmly, nodding slightly as he began walking towards them.
“What did Quinn say?” Lina asked.
“She asked me to save the island.” Aegis answered.
“And what’d you say?” Chax asked.
“Nothing…” Aegis replied reluctantly as he moved to stand beside them, and together the three made their way out of the guild hall.
“So, you think it’s hopeless?” Chax continued.
“No...” Aegis turned to Lina. “We’re going to do everything we can to stop them.” Aegis said firmly, and Lina smiled back at him with a nod.