The Roasted Troll Tavern was not what Jace expected. It reminded him of a Texas steakhouse or barbeque joint. The location of this module was on another continent that was set up purely for five different tower defense games. Gracie told him the Torrintank Keep module was one of the favorites, with over a hundred instances here. After the match, the initiator could keep it as a stronghold, but since the castle was usually trashed, few did, and most of the keeps were left abandoned and open to the public. Some players who took the game more seriously would visit old models to practice.
Esther had asked Jace if people would know her here, and he hated saying yes. But this staging area where the tavern was would be a non-PVP zone, so she wouldn’t be attacked. She chose to wear her black dress instead of her armor and weapons, as it was a little more comfortable. Draya wore a long-sleeved light green dress that was tight around her hips but fell loose past her knees. She had a silver chain vest that hugged her slim figure and offered some protection. With an Armor skill of four, chain mail was all she could wear. As soon as Jace got his crafter, he could make sure everyone was kitted out to the fullest extent, but for now, she was a bit vulnerable.
Through the front gate of the tavern was an open courtyard with dozens of tables. Covered pavilions surrounded the diners on three sides and housed the bar and several cooking stations where meat was roasted on rotating spits. Jace assumed it smelled great but wasn’t going to elevate any of his settings this close to a battle where he was expecting foul play.
“I’m hungry,” Esther said, clinging to Jace’s arm and pressing against him. It was her way of asking if she could go off independently and explore the offerings.
“Be careful. Don’t spend all our money.”
She pecked him on the cheek and then scampered off to the bar.
Draya looked after her uncertainly, but Jace helped her out. “You should stay with me. This is your first time in an area like this, and you don’t know what to expect.”
He was right. The tavern had a mixture of reality and virtual reality common to the public areas. The characters all looked real. They moved and interacted with each other in a way familiar to Draya, but they were the most eclectic collection of individuals she had ever seen. All races and classes were present, with dwarves in full armor, elven sorceresses in fabulous dresses, and half-orc barbarians wearing hardly any clothes at all. There were no children. There were no elderly people. There were no families. She was used to cities like Gershire and Crestfall, where life was homogeneous. Now she clung to Jace’s arm, not to ask to go exploring but to be protected. Snowy walked on the other side, easily smelling her new companion’s uncertain fear, and was determined not to let anything happen to her.
It was still 30 minutes before the game would start, and the tables were only half full, with 3-5 players around them talking and planning their strategies. Jace saw hologram images on the tables that he assumed were maps of the game area, and he was eager to learn more. Once he started looking, it didn’t take him long to find Wallace sitting alone at a table, and he walked over to her.
“Glad you could make it,” she said, standing briefly to bow at Draya’s presence as the woman took her seat. It was a very knightly thing to do. “We have a few minutes before my associate arrives, and I know from experience he likes to cut it close.”
“Can we trust him?” Jace asked, still wary of anyone a former employee of Drescher might consider an informant despite his high opinion of Wallace.
“No,” she replied honestly. “I don’t trust anyone in this game. Do you?”
Jace shook his head. In the silence afterward, he got a prompt.
[Sir Wallace Wilhelm has invited you to join his party.]
“William Wallace?” Jace asked. “Braveheart? Are you from Scotland?”
“I don’t think you understand our arrangement,” she replied, sipping at a colorful drink. “I find you something, and you let me look behind the curtain. I want to learn who or what you are. You can see mine too.” Her body flinched as she sent the invitation again.
[Sir Wallace Wilhelm has invited you to join his party.]
“Do I have to agree to this invite in order to work with you?” Jace asked. He motioned to the rest of the crowd in the tavern. “I can’t believe all of us will be in the same party. We’ll be on the same team regardless, right? I believe the deal was that you get to watch me liberate the goblin from this module. Not that you get to learn everything about me. I could probably auction off a peak at my character sheet for 5,000 gold and have a hundred takers. But that’s not what you are asking for, are you? You join my party, and you get to see Esther and Draya too.”
Wallace took another drink, staring daggers at Jace before shifting her eyes to the nervous woman sitting beside him, only now knowing her name. “So,” she started, trying another angle. “You come from Gershire? Were you a student there?”
Draya was shocked and glanced between Jace and this new paladin. “Yes, I did. I mean, I was. How did you know?”
“Do you know whom you joined up with?” Wallace continued. “Jace here is quite the celebrity. If he enters a new town, half the realm knows about it in minutes. If he leaves with a new companion, people debate who it might be for days. Everyone wants to know more about you, too. Some are convinced you are actually a master at the Magisterium, and Jace only had you wear student clothing to fake people out. Others think you are part of a hidden quest that Jace unlocked. But I know who you are. You were the sacrifice, weren’t you? When I did that module, you were a male elf named Tel’Avanor, but you have a look that reminds me of him.”
Draya’s mouth was open, and she continued to look between Jace and Wallace in confusion. “Jace, what is she talking about? How does she know these things? What is happening?” Jace momentarily looked away from the table and spotted Esther sitting at the bar by herself, looking at a menu and munching on appetizers. He glanced at the other tables. Most of them were huddled up talking strategy. A few were looking at him or throwing glances at Esther, but no one had approached her yet. It was probably safer here than he assumed.
“Draya, why don’t you go see what Esther is doing? Take Snowy with you. Sir Wallace and I need to talk.”
She was a weak-willed NPC and did what her leader asked without complaint most of the time. Snowy heard what her master said and got off the floor to let the young woman know she was there to protect her. “Okay.”
When they were gone, Wallace spoke first. “You set a record for the most damage with a single spell.” It was a statement, not a question, so Jace remained silent. “It had to be against the mummies. It had to be a lightning spell. No one can figure out how you built it. Not at level 9. Did you use the crystal again? I don’t know how; no mummy will voluntarily pull mana from a random crystal like Gwennifer did. By the way, I’ve watched that video a dozen times. The look on Drescher’s face is priceless.”
Jace wished he had a drink but just sat back and listened.
“So, back to the mummies, if you killed them, that means you got the mana stone. Did you bargain with the lich? Did you kill him?” She paused in thought. “You got all the stones, didn’t you? You switched them on the lich, right? Esther disguised them like she did with Diamond Etcher, so he loaded them backward. No, that wouldn’t work. She pretended to betray you by being a vampire. Yes, that makes more sense. She faked out the lich, got him to trust her, and loaded them backward herself.”
The tavern must have sensed what Jace wanted because a barmaid came by and plopped a mug of honey ale in front of him. Jace took a long drink and continued to listen.
“So, what, that innocent young woman is walking around with 40 levels of undead energy in her? No, if she had drank the holy water, it might have purified her, or the stones would have purified it first. But what did she do with the mana? She’s only level 13, like you. Did it boost her stats? Does she have 20s for everything?”
Jace took another long drink. “See, why do you need to see my character sheet? You already have all the answers.”
Wallace frowned. “That’s not it. She has fewer HP than me, and I’m still level 9.”
“She’s a dragon,” Jace said.
Wallace leaned back in her chair. “A what?”
“She has a level 42 dragon core inside her. If this wasn’t a Non-PVP zone, she could probably wipe out everyone here in a single fireball, save maybe a few of the priests, and still have enough mana to do it three more times if she wanted.”
Wallace opened and closed her mouth in shock before gathering herself and taking another drink. “You did the dragon quest? I was sure it was the lich.”
“I wanted to do the dragon quest. Gandhi knew I wanted to do that quest, so she killed the dragon and told me by giving me a vial of dragon elixir instead of holy water before I faced the lich. Draya drank it and then used the mana from the lich to stabilize it. You got most of it right.”
A thousand questions raced through Wallace’s mind, but she started with the first one. “Gandhi is a she?”
Jace had a lot to tell her, so he started from the beginning.
----------------------------------------
Draya found Esther at the bar drinking a pink cocktail and talking with the dwarven bartender.
“So, there is no troll in this, right?” She held up a breaded piece of meat that looked like a chicken finger.
“No, missy, it’s just the name of me tavern. I wouldn’t serve that to the weak guts that come in here.”
Esther glanced above the short bartender at the massive troll head mounted on the wall behind him. “But you would eat troll?”
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“Aye, I’ve had it a time or two. A bit chewy, but it restores your strength somethin’ fierce. Make sure you cook it good, though, don’t want it growing back inside ya.”
Esther munched her appetizer slowly. “I had orc the other day.”
The dwarven bartender was scripted to accept virtually anything his customers might say, but this made him take a step back. “Did ya now?”
Esther nodded. “It was enchanted to look and taste human, but it had an earthy, almost iron quality that I quite liked.”
“So I’ve heard,” the dwarf lied.
“If you don’t serve troll, why call the tavern that? Seems misleading.”
“Did ya want to eat a bit o’ troll?” he asked, trying to tell if he was reading disappointment in her voice.
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
The dwarf didn’t respond but eyed Draya, who had kept her distance during the conversation but now sat beside Esther.
“A friend of yers?” the dwarf asked.
Esther was pulled from her contemplation to see the woman sit beside her and Snowy plop down behind them, watching the other patrons. She glanced back to see Jace talking with someone at a table but didn’t recognize the knight from behind. “Yes,” Esther replied. “Can she have a drink too? And another for me.” The woman drained her cocktail and handed the empty glass to the dwarf. She turned to Draya. “He can look in your eyes and see exactly what you want.”
Draya had never been to a bar like this and had no idea what she wanted, but she stared at the bearded face and let the bartender do his thing.
“Aye, but there’s a fire in ya, lassie, and a fierce one at that. I’ve got just the thing for ya.”
He turned to a collection of bottles, worked some in-game voodoo, and had a martini glass cradled in his rough hands when he turned back around. A deep red liquid filled it halfway, with a thin layer of clear alcohol floating on top. Draya reached for it tentatively, but the dwarf held up his hand to stop her. “Not yet.” He snapped his fingers, and a tiny burst of mana exploded above the drink and lit it on fire.
“Oooh,” Esther said appreciatively at the minor trick.
Draya lowered her head to look under the fire to see how the red liquid fizzed and bubbled from the heat above it. Before either of the other two could stop her, she picked up the glass and drained it while it was still on fire.
“No, lassie,” the dwarf said, but it was too late. “It’ll burn ya!”
It didn’t, and Draya’s face changed dramatically as the concoction continued to magically burn deep inside her, awaking her spirit and casting away her timid nature. “Amazing,” she said. “I’ll have another.”
The dwarf wasn’t sure what to do, but Esther gave him a look, and he complied, producing a second flaming drink for the young woman and a purple cocktail for Esther. This time Draya sipped at the glass, the flames licking the underside of her nose as she inhaled the aroma. Esther wasn’t surprised by much, but the unique image enthralled her.
“What is this place?” Draya asked. “I mean, do you two do this kind of thing often? What are all these people doing here?”
“Normally, Jace helps people,” Esther said. “He said this is more like a game. I don’t really know what that means, but I think we are going to fight people while Jace is looking for something.”
“Fight people or monsters?” Draya asked as she drained the rest of her glass.
“Many of the people in this realm are monsters,” Esther said, not really answering the question.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” The young woman’s voice was starting to slur, and Esther worried they might be taking things too far. As if to confirm this, Draya demanded a third drink from the dwarf and was soon inhaling more burnt alcohol. “These are amazing!”
Snowy growled at their feet, and Esther was drawn away from her drunk friend to see a man walking toward them. He was tall and strong, clearly a fighter. He didn’t wear armor like most in the tavern but had a longsword on his hip and a confident smile. He was handsome and charming, but Esther was on guard. She didn’t recognize him from her previous life, which was a good sign, but she wasn’t naïve enough to think he didn’t know her. He gave Snowy a wide berth as he approached the bar, six feet from the women.
“You’re gorgeous!” Draya blurted at the man, almost falling out of her chair.
He smiled at her but shifted his gaze to Esther after he ordered a few drinks from the dwarf. “Good day, ladies. Are you looking forward to the game?”
“We’re gonna burn some monstrous people!” Draya said. All of her sentences had exclamation points on them now.
Esther put a calming hand on her friend, who was already halfway through her third drink. “This is our first one,” Esther said. She was intensely drawn to this man. His charisma and grace were overwhelming, and the fact that he hadn’t propositioned her yet had him miles ahead of most players who approached her.
“Well, I hope Jace treats you well and ensures you have a good time.”
The man was given a tray to carry his drinks back to the table, and it looked like he was just going to leave them. Esther went from being ready to repel his advances to not wanting him to go. “You know Jace?”
The man paused and smiled as he realized his hard-to-get strategy had worked. “Esther, everyone knows Jace. Most people know you too. They have many questions, but I only have one.”
Player magic was disabled in this tavern, but any observer would have sworn that the fighter had charmed the woman with several ciritcals. She leaned in toward him. “Yes?”
“Did it hurt?” he asked, his friendly smile betraying the cheesiness of the standard pickup line.
Esther had never heard it before. “Did what hurt?”
“When you fell from heaven,” he clarified, offering up his most winning smile.
“A little,” Esther responded deadpan. “But I’ve gotten over it mostly. Thanks for asking.”
This was not the response the man expected, and he nearly dropped his tray, stumbling back a step. As Draya tried to order a fourth drink, Esther grabbed her arm and hauled her away from the bar. Her desire to spend more time with the fighter was overcome by her desire not to have Draya pass out. “Well,” she said to the man, who was still quite confused, “it was nice meeting you. Perhaps we can talk after the game?”
The fighter only nodded mutely and watched as the two women hurried back to Jace’s table with Snowy in toe.
----------------------------------------
Jace had skimmed over his history but had told Wallace most of what she wanted to know about how he had become an orc shaman with a winter wolf, a vampire, and a dragon as companions. She had lots more questions, but time was getting on, and the game would start in under ten minutes. Motion to the side caught her attention, and she turned to see Esther returning with Draya stumbling behind her. Jace followed the paladin’s eyes and frowned. “You got her drunk?”
“It’s not my fault she can’t hold her alcohol,” Esther said. “She only had a few drinks.”
“I had four!” Draya slurred, holding up two fingers. “And they were on fire!” She tried a flourish with her raised hand, but nothing happened. “Uh oh, fire’s broken!”
Jace shook his head and rolled his eyes.
“Your magic won’t work until you leave here and enter the game,” Wallace said, informing Jace of something he had already guessed.
“Do you know of a spell to sober her up?”
The paladin chuckled. “Any healing spell will work. She’ll probably have a headache afterward, though.”
“Wallace!” Esther said, finally recognizing Jace’s partner after dumping Draya in a chair. The inebriated woman almost fell out of the seat, but Jace caught her. He maneuvered her upper body so it lay on the table as she repeatedly snapped her fingers, trying to produce a flame.
“Are you playing in this game too?” Esther asked as Jace dealt with the limp redhead. “What a coincidence. This is our first time. Have you done this before? Do you want to team up with us?”
“That would be great,” Wallace smiled. “Thanks.”
[Sir Wallace Wilhelm has joined your party.]
“Esther, no!” Jace cried, looking up from Draya. The redhead slumped off the table, and Jace had to work hard to prevent her from hitting the floor. “You can’t just invite people like that.”
Esther looked hurt. “But I thought she was our friend.”
“She is, but . . .” Jace couldn’t argue with Esther and hold up Draya. He looked down at the younger woman, who had stopped trying to snap her fingers and was pointing at the paladin across the table. Wallace’s stoic face with a salt and pepper goatee looked odd with her eyes rolled up in her head.
“That’s not a she,” Draya slurred. “Or I am thinker than I drunk.”
Jace gave up on the woman and let her slump to the floor, using Snowy as a pillow. The wolf resisted initially but eventually shifted to accept the mumbling woman. Gracie, who had been quiet through most of the exchange thus far, was laughing uproariously. Jace sighed and used Snowy’s chat feature to ask for help.
{I’ll get right on it, boss.}
Jace turned back to Wallace, who was just now leaving her inventory, having only glanced at the character sheets of her new party members. “Everything you hoped for?” Jace asked. Esther looked on in confusion. She was used to Jace talking to Gracie in game-speak, and he wondered how she would understand this upcoming conversation.
Wallace tried not to laugh in the face of the frustrated man.
“I only had a glance. My brother will go over them in detail, and I’ll let you know if I have any further questions.”
“Is he your operator? What is he, 12 years old?”
“Sixteen,” Wallace corrected him. “But we both understand I’m the better player.” She could tell that this turn of events had a more profound impact on Jace than expected, and she decided to overshare in return. “My father was a software engineer and was given a VR set to give feedback on its effects and what kind of regulations our government should put on it. He, of course, became addicted to this game, and my mom couldn’t handle it. She unplugged him in the middle of a session, and he’s been in a psychiatric ward ever since. My mom then lost her mind, figuratively speaking, and left us. So we must pay Dad’s medical bills, or our universal healthcare system will lobotomize him.”
She said all that in a monotone voice after initiating a setting in the game to mask her emotion. She calmed herself by taking another drink. “Was that everything you hoped for?”
Jace was speechless.
“So please don’t judge me for trying to get ahead in the game or for wanting to learn your secrets. I’m not doing this to buy a new PlayStation or the latest fashion. I’m doing this to survive, and I will do anything it takes to get ahead. And if you offer me charity, I will kill you the first chance I get. And, yes, I do live in Scotland.”
Jace took a long drink before responding. “I work for the US government. Four players are currently held hostage in this game in an impenetrable fortress. They are being kept alive and awake in a state of constant fear and anguish. I need to do the impossible and rescue them before their operators decide they’ve had enough and unplug them. One of them is a South Korean, who I’m willing to bet has family in North Korea and is trying to help them escape. He is being tortured; if he breaks, they will imprison or kill his family. So please don’t judge me if I want to keep my secrets close to the vest. If people find out who I am or how I do what I do, they will find a way to defeat me, and real people will die.”
Despite her settings, Wallace’s face cracked from the traumatizing revelation.
“Was that everything you hoped for?” he asked. “Are we even now? Can I be assured that my secrets are safe with you?”
Before she had a chance to respond, Esther chirped up. “Sly, is that you?”
Jace and Wallace turned from their intense discussion, following Esther’s stare toward the courtyard entrance. A level 11 man walked toward them dressed in dark leather and a black cloak. Jace thought he looked like a cross between a thief and a ranger and would later find out that was mostly right.
“We are meeting lots of old friends,” Esther said. “Are you here to play the game too? Would you like to join us?”
“Esther, no!” both Jace and Wallace cried.
{Don’t worry,} Gracie said. {I fixed it. She won’t be doing that anymore.}
Esther’s face screwed up as she realized her ability to invite players into the party was disabled. Eventually, she shrugged her shoulders and turned to Jace. “This is Sly,” she said as the man stood next to the table, not taking a seat yet and smiling at the two PCs. “He helped me get to Safe Haven when we had to rescue Gracie and Conor.”
Jace nodded and turned to Wallace. “Sylvester is my informant,” she said. “He knows how to find Gromphy.”
“Did you tell him I would be here?”
Wallace frowned. “He refused to help until I did.”
Jace turned to look at the man who had tricked Esther into giving him access to one of their private MIMs and then sold that access to Drescher. He had effectively played both sides of that encounter, and the fact that he was only willing to share his secrets once he found out Jace would be here was clear evidence that he was doing something similar now. Thousands had watched the fight with Drescher, and this man had undoubtedly seen a recording. The beginning of Jace’s realization of what Esther had done had been captured on the video before Gracie had cut the feed. Most probably wouldn’t have understood what was happening, but Sylvester certainly would have.
“I believe everything worked out in your favor last time,” Sylvester said with a smile. “May I have a seat? We have much to discuss.” When neither player objected, the informant sat down and pulled up the hologram map of the game they were about to play.
{Never a dull moment with you,} Gracie said with a chuckle.
On the floor back in the Roasted Troll Tavern, Draya threw up.