I blink and find myself in an entirely new environment, the light clearing from my eyes and allowing me to observe our fresh surroundings with no small bit of eagerness, this is an entirely new planet after all!
My eyes roam excitedly, at first, but the new tableau reveals something a bit less interesting than I would have hoped, if still alien.
I suppose I have just gotten what I deserve after my remark on that now distant mountain to Belina about terrains to deal with…
The area around me is taken up by a vast swathe of desert, not formed from sand and stone, but large crystals with dunes and sweeping plains of infinitely tiny and numerous shards of the multi-colored crystals filling the ground as far as the eye can see. The strange geological forms come in all of the lighter colors of the rainbow, vibrant reds, emerald greens, blushing pinks and even more besides!
Vast mountains reach toward the sky in the distance far to the front of me, while everywhere else around me seems to be just more stretches of desert, making our initial heading a pretty obvious choice.
With a sigh at the barren landscape and a pang of longing for our Great Forest, I set off toward the distant mountain peaks, Artemis in step next to me and Horus perched on my shoulder to keep him close before we learn more about the threats on offer here.
As we hike over one crystalline dune after another and slide down the gritty, crushed pieces on the other side, I remember to check in on the location of the top treasure in this starting region.
--Welcome to The Garden! You are currently in Desert Zone I!--
My PAID fills with a small, mostly blank map with only the desert and the visible mountains marked with the rest left fogged out for me to discover on my own. All except for a small, golden treasure chest icon about halfway between our current location and the aforementioned mountains.
“Nice! Game to check it out you two?” I say aloud, using our bond to send a crude image of the map and a sense of my curiosity as I do.
Artemis’ curiosity flits over our bond and is a match for mine while Horus just sends a feeling of acceptance as he dozes off and on while I chauffeur him around.
Nearly an hour later the sun has about reached its highest point and I am sweating buckets through my armor, advancements or no, these crystals heat up like crazy in the scorching daylight!
My armored boots keep my feet comfortable enough but Artemis is forced to cast and continue to channel her Arctic Claws as the journey drags on to keep her paw-pads from harm.
Finally, we near the spot marked on my map which reveals itself to be indicating a narrow ravine stretching some hundred feet wide between two of the huge crystal dunes, its depth roughly 50 feet below and filled with a small stream embanked by a few feet of crystal sand on both sides.
“See anything?” I ask my Companions, peeling my own eyes into the gloom below as I do.
We all scan carefully, looking for any sign of a treasure or even a cave that could lead to it.
“Woof!” Artemis barks aloud suddenly a moment later, peering intently at one spot before telling me over the bond, “I see a form! Slumped against the canyon’s far wall there!”
I move over to her and look below, catching the faint glint of light off of steel and the gleam of exposed bone.
It seems we have found a clue!
Taking advantage of our advantages, we leap to the ravine floor, barely needing to flex our legs to absorb the impact with our power level these days. I hop the stream like I would’ve as a boy, eagerness giving my steps an extra bit of pep as I approach the fallen warrior, for that is now quite evident what he is.
A closer inspection reveals what once was likely good steel armor encasing his torso, forearms, shins and loins with a worn leather pack tucked behind him, rough boots covering his feet and a rusted longsword strapped to his hip.
Steady Steel Armor Set(Un): Grants moderate protection against damage. Warning! Poor Quality will impact bonuses and durability.
Set bonus: +1 Con, +1 Strength.
Basic Backpack(C): Holds stuff. If you really need an explanation, how have you survived this long? 100-pound capacity.
Longsword of the Discerning Gentleman(Un): A longsword of high quality that does moderate damage. Grants +1 Int and the ability Discerning Gaze: May use once per opponent to find weak point in their body. Warning! Poor Quality will impact bonus and ability.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Hmmm, all pretty decent and a far cry from anything outside the above average tier from the Shop, Although, these pieces are clearly a long touch up job away from returning to the battlefield. My fellow Earthlings have pretty much not come close to this in anything they owned when I left. I imagine that will come with time though, not everyone has had the lucky breaks I have, after all.
I pull the backpack gently off the remains, only breaking a few of the brittle bones with a wince before managing to pull it away and peer inside.
Besides some rotten bits of food or rations, I pull out a rolled-up parchment and a small jar, the top tightly secured with some sort of primitive tape, the clear material of the container revealing a small, bright purple flower inside.
{Tempering Tulip: A natural treasure that can be eaten to moderately temper the body of a being. +2 to all Physical Stats}
“Sweet.” I say with satisfaction, before turning to give it to the member of our team most in need of such an increase.
Twisting the cap off, I rip the flower into several small pieces and hold them in the palm of my hand as I let Horus peck them up.
Yes, perhaps I could get a better reward if I saved it for the end but really, the value is much more here and now for the better protection for our young friend.
As the flower disappears down his beak, his form visibly begins to grow and shift, a purple glow surrounding him for a second before the effect fades, revealing him to be slightly larger and sturdier looking with the changes.
Next, I unroll the small bit of parchment and look over the map contained within with rapt attention.
According to the annotations, the small stream runs for miles toward and then, via a valley amongst the peaks, eventually through the mountains!
Also, a mysterious X is marked at a point upon one of the range’s many peaks, perhaps the goal of this former Player?
Tucking the paper worth its weight in gold away into my storage ring for safekeeping, along with the rest of the looted items, I turn and, with a mental nudge to a sniffing Artemis, continue our walk in the much more palatable shade of the canyon.
Trudging on the crystal shard-like sand on level ground is a welcome boon of our new route but I keep up my vigilance around each and every bend the stream has weathered into the canyon after untold millennia. I have Artemis keep her ears trained behind us to prevent tails while I send Horus up for short reconnaissance flights above the ground to make sure we don’t pick up any stalkers there as well.
Hours later, the sun begins to dip below the canyon wall and cuts the ambient light significantly, forcing us to consider stopping for the evening.
Curiously, I trigger my handy Wilderness Survival once a day bonus and wait for it to come back with the nearest shelter, mostly to see if there even is anything close enough to make with the light.
A second alter, the ability sends me the image of a small sail boat-like vehicle crashed on one shallow bank of the small stream roughly a mile ahead!
My interest piqued at the possible use of the craft and at the possibility of a decent shelter for the night, I press our pace faster to reach it before the night can swallow us whole and introduce us to whatever nocturnal predators this alien world has in store.
Winding through the canyon’s sheer walls is a surreal experience, the crystalline walls reflecting and absorbing light in different places at random, revealing striations and strange shadowed silhouettes mysteriously encased within the mineral. My hatchet makes little effect on the material and I quickly move on from the curious phenomenon as we near the craft sometime later. Going through an arched tunnel formed at a spot where the ravine’s walls come together for a short stretch, we come back into the failing light of day to the sight of the strange vehicular device just ahead, its 15-foot-long frame laying at an angle along the shoreline of the small stream, clearly far too large to have sailed these waters in any time close to recent memory.
I hop up over the port side rail, Artemis leaping aboard and landing with the scrabble of claws on wood before she collects herself. Horus departs my shoulder and alights on the top- of the slim pole that seems to be the mast, a flimsy crossbar placed about 2/3 of the way up.
The deck wood seems of high quality, the sheen of some sort of finish still visible on its surface after who knows how long languishing in the elements. A small shed like structure takes up the back third of the deck, a door with an ornate, if antique, handle is placed at the front. Pulling open the door with one hand on my hatchet, I peer into the dank gloom beyond, dust billowing out into the open air only to be blown off by the gentle, end of day breeze streaming through the ravine.
Waving the dust away and holding back a cough, I make out the shape of a small cot, a chest placed at the foot, and a desk in the corner, all of the wood furnishings still in just as miraculous condition as the deck!
Ignoring the chest for now, imagining it to be mostly for valuable items, I turn to the desk for the likely more valuable information contained within.
Tugging open one of two drawers under the desk, I find a sheaf of blank paper and old style quilled pens complete with bottles of ink that I shamelessly send into my storage ring. Pulling open the other, I find a small, leather-bound notebook containing what seems to be a diary, the pages fitted in from the sheaf of blanks I found but missing several ripped away throughout.
I use our bond to have my Companions join me before closing the door tightly, settling onto the cot with Artemis curled around my feet and Horus tucking himself in amongst her furry bulk while I crack open the journal and begin to read the first entry.
After a half hour of reading, I begin to feel like dozing off and place the small book down for the night. I ponder my findings as I settle onto my pillow, Artemis’ soft snores lulling me toward dreamland.
The journal’s owner, from what I can figure out, was sent here by his nation or faction to search for a particular treasure. The author claimed his Master needed it to advance to some special or rare stage of growth that could only be achieved by utilizing the treasure in question but he seems to have been careful, never directly naming the object of value nor what his Master hoped to achieve with it.
As I finally let myself drift off, a slight gleam finds its way into my eyes as I consider the golden treasure chest on the map and the journal’s contents…
Seems a treasure hunt is in the offing!