Nal Saikol Gladekin, more commonly known as Psycho, had been an obsession for Jason Hawthorne since he logged out of the game after his first 24+ hour session. The first thing he did, after sleeping and eating, was log into the game’s chat rooms and message boards and read everything the other users had to say about him. He went to the game’s wiki page and spent hours reading all the tips and tricks. There was one resounding consensus: The archer’s quest couldn’t be solved.
Jace wasn’t willing to accept that answer. Every puzzle had a solution. He started at the beginning. The module itself wasn’t that difficult.
Psycho had been part of a vibrant elven community that lived on the western shore of the continent. They had a few troubles with goblins and ogres over the years but lived mostly undisturbed. But then the orcs had come. Their leader was a half-orc, but instead of the other half being human, it was elven. He insisted he should be included in the elven village and wanted to unite the two tribes together. The orcs had no problem with this. The elves were excellent fighters and even more excellent winemakers, and the rowdy orcs could do with a bit of refinement. The elves, however, wanted nothing to do with the vile creatures. They went to war, and while the elves would surely win, the forest was burned and destroyed beyond recognition.
Even before the orc invasion, many elven elders felt the realms no longer had a place for them. Everything was violence, excess, and debauchery: a Realm of Infamy. They had the ability to return to their mystical homeland, but it was a land of sanctuary and stasis. No children were born there, and no progress or expansion was possible. They would live in total isolation from all other sentient beings. They could grow and prosper here in the realms, but some no longer wanted that. This half-orc’s insistence that elves and orcs should live together was seen by most as the ultimate perversion and the last straw.
Before the war with the orcs ended, the elves decided to retreat. Their priests opened the portal and brought everyone inside. Everyone except for two elves: Nal Saikol and his sister, Mur Calumis. These elves were to stand guard, and the priests blessed them so they could not be killed. They were each given the stone keys to reopen the portal and bring the elves back to the realms once the land was made pure.
The quest was simple: Kill the orcs, repair the forest, and find the sister. The first two were easy. The orcs’ army had dwindled in the years since the elves retreated, and a party of 6-8 warriors could, with a good strategy, kill the remaining band of about 50 orcs. The second task was more difficult, but Jason read of druids, rangers, and priests who had brought the forest back to its former glory. Doing these two things would please Psycho, but until you found his sister, he would not join your party. Without the sister, you only had one of the elf stones and couldn’t open the portal.
While the last of the elves were still entering their homeland through the portal, the orcs had attacked to try and stop them. Psycho and his sister had been separated. The elven archer had returned to the location and found the portal closed and many dead orcs, but not his sister. That was the last he had ever seen of her, and players had scoured the lands looking for the elf maiden. Jason had read countless theories about where she might be and potential clues the orcs left behind. Most felt she was kidnapped and taken to another continent. Others thought she was killed, and the orcs had buried the elf stone. It turned into a treasure hunt, and some players had dug up the entire module, often doing more damage to the forest than the orcs.
Ultimately, Drescher broke the quest by hiring a mage to cast an illusion on a female elf NPC and had her pretend to be Psycho’s sister. Jace would have thought an elf with a divine blessing would have been able to see through such an illusion, but it worked, and even without the elf stone, the archer had pledged allegiance to the gun runner. Once Psycho left his module, all the other instances of it that countless players had created disappeared, and only Drescher’s version remained. He hadn’t even bothered killing the orcs, but everyone had access to it now, and the orcs were quickly dealt with. Multiple druids and rangers had come to restore the forest, and Jason read that it was a lovely place to visit.
But no one ever found the sister. Some wondered that if they did find her, would Psycho go back on his word to Drescher? But the theory was never tested.
After Jace killed the arms dealer, Psycho reverted to his old, surly self. His home in his module had been turned into a lovely rose garden, and all the orcs he had used for target practice were gone, so he had found himself a solo tower defense module, evicted its former resident, and took control. Now he sat at the top of a tower on the other side of lava filled gorge and shot arrows at anyone who dared approach him.
Jason had hoped that the slight bond he had created with the archer would influence how the two might interact post-Drescher, but Gracie assured him it wouldn’t work like that. As woke as Psycho appeared to be, he was still an NPC, and a script guided him. Perhaps if his real sister walked across the bridge, he would hold his arrows in check, but he wasn’t going to fall for another illusion this time, and Jace shouldn’t expect preferential treatment.
It was unfortunate because Jason believed that he had solved the riddle of Psycho’s quest; he just needed to convince the archer to go along with it. However, before he could have that conversation, he needed to walk across the bridge and survive.
Jace, Esther, and Snowy arrived at Psycho’s new home after a brief shopping trip. It was a module called Sniper’s Refuge, and they were not impressed. A wasteland of rocky crags and dirt filled their vision as they materialized next to the travel node. No plants grew, and the sky was a constant dull gray. Nothing could be seen on the horizon as the jutting stones rose 30 feet in the air and clustered together, leaving only a narrow path to walk. “Any predators?” Jace asked.
Snowy whined a negative but sniffed at the ground anyway, not trusting that there wasn’t some portal to hell around the corner and a devil cat wouldn’t jump out and attack them. Jace agreed that caution was the best course of action. Each bend in the path was another blind corner where an ambush could occur, and every mound of rock had cover on top for an assassin to lay in wait. Jace knew Psycho was at the end of this, but this module was open to the public, and anyone could be lurking about.
“Why would Psycho want to live here when he could live with us?” Esther asked.
“He has a complicated past,” Jace replied.
“More complicated than mine?” Esther challenged.
“Probably not,” he agreed and then spent fifteen minutes explaining what he knew. The walk was about a mile before they exited the maze of crags and found themselves on an open clearing at the edge of a gorge.
The bridge lay before them. It was narrow, barely three feet wide, and made of stone. It arched over a 300-foot gap. Lava flowed beneath it, 50 feet below on their side, but the bridge angled down, and the molten rock lapped at the island’s edge on the far side. The small plot of land in the distance wasn’t even 200 feet in diameter and held a slim tower a dozen stories tall. Jace knew from his research that a crafter in the base of that tower made arrows for the resident. He wasn’t even half as good as Corrin Goldhamer, so Jace hadn’t considered him, but he had access to unique materials.
Along the edge of the island, against the lava, grew fireweed, a stiff fibrous plant that could easily be crafted into arrows. It came enchanted with fire, so it did two damage for every five mana you put in instead of the normal one. But it could only be used for fire. Next to the tower’s base was a bubbling pool of sulfuric acid, and the green bamboo that grew along its bank could be turned into acid arrows. Above the domed roof, a swirling storm raged, and lightning struck a spike at the top once every few rounds. That electricity was carried down the other side of the tower and fed a grove of silver shoots that could be made into lightning arrows.
The crafter was only skilled enough to make level seven +2 arrows, but they could do 60 magical damage with each hit from their bonuses. The game allowed protection from multiple kinds of magic damage at once, but you could only have immunity from one at a time, and the archer at the top of the tower could choose between three.
Pieter, Drescher’s old mage, had rejoined the game after Jace had killed him and offered the information from Psycho’s character sheet to anyone willing to pay. A few people who had attempted this module had forked over gold, but once someone had successfully walked across this bridge and gotten a chance to see Psycho’s character sheet, he proudly shared a screenshot with everyone. He didn’t keep Psycho as a party member for long, and soon the archer was back in this tower. As far as Jace knew, nearly thirty people had tried to cross this bridge, and only two had made it. Most of those players knew precisely what Psycho could do, and they still failed. The strategies the two successful players used weren’t public knowledge, but they failed to keep the archer as a party member, and they weren’t saying why.
Psycho had a ranged attack bonus of 78. His bow was a level eight, +5 weapon, just like Diamond Etcher, and with the +2 arrows, he had a total hit bonus of 85. If he used his Aim feat, he could add +10 to his shot but only fire once per round. If he rolled a 20, he would have an attack of 115 with a critical. Psycho appeared to roll a lot of 20s when taking the aim action, and no one knew why. Three of the eight levels of his bow were used to increase damage, and the other five were used to improve the base distance by 50 to 150 feet. Any shot attempt less than 150 feet was considered close range, and Psycho could use his Point Blank feat. This allowed him to take the difference between his bow’s max range and the actual shot and use them as criticals for other abilities or damage multipliers. So, if he shot someone at 100 feet, he would have five free criticals to work with.
The Death Shot required the archer to spend one critical to activate, and then one more for every five levels of the target rounded up. No level 21+ players had yet tried to cross the bridge, but a few at 16+ had. That would require five criticals. If he shot a level 15 player at 100 feet, he would need the physical damage of the arrow to exceed 50 over their Death Save to kill them. Though if he at least Stunned them, they would be sitting ducks for his next attack.
Arrows usually did five damage, but his bow added eight, and the arrows were plus two, so they each did 15. An average level 15 character had a death save around 50-60. Paladins and priests were higher, and fighters and rogues were lower. But if you had a high Death Save, that usually meant you had low AC and HP, and Psycho could choose to kill you with damage instead. After a roll, you could assume someone’s Death Save would be close to 70. Psycho needed to do 120 damage with his Death Shot to kill you. That required seven criticals to multiply the 15 damage of the arrow by eight. With an attack of 115 with a free crit, he would need to exceed the target’s AC by 60. That meant the target had to have an AC of at least 55 to survive. You couldn’t Dodge or Parry an arrow, and raising a standard shield didn’t help either. That left players with only one defensive option: a tower shield.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
When Jace, Esther, and Snowy entered the clearing, they saw they were not alone. Two other players stood on the flat stone, staring at the distant tower. One was a dark-clad human leaning against a rock and flipping a knife in his hand. He wore a long trench coat with a black hat and looked like he belonged in a Western. He was smiling and laughing, and Jace believed he was in the middle of chiding the other player who stood in front of the bridge. He shut up when the three new arrivals emerged from the stone maze, and the other player turned to see what silenced him.
The second player was a dwarf in full armor holding a shield larger than he was. He stood before the bridge, trying to get up the courage. He was level 17 with 629 HP. With the full plate, boots, helm, shield, and probably a magical bonus, Jace guessed he was close to 45 AC, though if he raised that tower shield, he would be immune to arrow attacks. It was probably level 10, so it had 500 HP.
“Ah, I was wondering if I would ever see you here,” the dagger-wielding man said, pushing himself away from the rocks and smiling at Jace. Any player camping out in Psycho’s module would know that Jace had challenged and killed Drescher and had met with Psycho beforehand. He tipped his hat to the new arrivals. “Well met, friends.”
Esther braced for action, but the tug on his brim didn’t initiate a spell like it did for her hat. Either way, she suddenly wished she had her armor and weapons. The man laughed at the reaction. “Easy, Miss Xerxes; I don’t want any trouble.” He sheathed his knife and raised his hands away from his weapons. “My name is Victron. I’m a big fan.”
“Is there a queue?” Jace asked, looking from the dwarf to the human.
Victron laughed. “Oh, no. I’m not stupid enough to try that bridge with Psycho up there.” He motioned to the top of the tower over 400 feet away. “You are only waiting on our brave priest here.” They all looked at the dwarf. He thought about letting Jace go first, but the general consensus in the game was that Jace cheated, and he would probably be successful. If the dwarf wanted any chance of getting Psycho for himself, he had to go now.
He released a battle cry with renewed vigor and raced onto the bridge. The game didn’t actually let you sprint while holding a tower shield, and dwarves weren’t that fast, but it still looked impressive. As soon as his second foot hit the stone, three green arrows streaked out of the top of the tower. Psycho was using his Rapid Shot ability, which let him take three shots in a round, but each at a -10 penalty. It didn’t matter since once the arrows were halfway, the dwarf slowed to a walk and raised his shield. Attacking a raised tower shield was literally like hitting the broad side of a barn door, and Psycho only needed to beat an AC of 10. All three arrows thudded into the shield and exploded for 180 points of acid damage. The dwarven priest felt all three hits, lowered the guard, and ran 50 more feet before raising his shield again. Acid did half damage each successive round until you saved against it. A tower shield had no saving throw, but for the second round, the priest’s own magic ability kicked in, and he saved against two of the acid attacks, so only 30 damage carried through. However, three more arrows thudded in right after that and did 180 more.
If Jace was right, and it was a level 10 shield with 500 damage, it only had 110 left and wouldn’t last another round. The dwarf ran another 50 feet and stopped again. Instead of raising his shield, he tossed it over the edge of the bridge.
“This is where he kills you,” Victron said.
Jace understood why. The dwarf was 100 feet closer than when he started, meaning Psycho had to spend two fewer criticals to get his arrows that far. Now the priest had to enter his inventory to get another tower shield, and he would be flat-footed for a full round. At the current range, Jace guessed each arrow would do 60 physical damage in addition to 60 acid. Even if the priest saved against all the acid for half, that would still be 270 damage.
Jace winced in anticipation as the arrows streaked in, but a shimmering globe formed around the dwarf at the last second, and none of the shafts made it through.
“Ahh,” Victron said in appreciation. “Immunity to piercing. An expensive spell against a level 20 attacker. He must be some priest. Of course, he can’t move now.”
Jace watched as the dwarf entered his inventory and got a second tower shield. Psycho was smart enough to hold his fire for now and waited for the spell to end. It only lasted three rounds, and the dwarf was running again.
“How many shields can he hold?” Jace asked Gracie quietly. He figured that was something a seasoned player should know, so he didn’t want Victron to realize he was still a noob.
{With your carry ability, you can hold three,} Gracie said as they watched the dwarf run 50 feet and take three more arrows to his new shield. {Most players can hold two, maximum. With all the points this priest has apparently spent in Constitution, Wisdom, and Spirit, I doubt he had any left for Strength, but who knows?}
Psycho proved he was mortal and must have rolled a one, as one of the following three arrows missed, but the five that had hit during the last 100 feet, and the additional damage round two of them got, was enough to exhaust the shield. The priest tossed it away and enacted his piercing immunity spell again. He surprised everyone by pulling a third shield.
“Could he have a magical chest like Gromphy?” Jace asked. “I imagine he could keep 100 shields in there.”
{Those items are extraordinarily rare,} Gracie said. {Gromphy has to take the chest out of his inventory and put it on the ground to access the contents. Not only has this dwarf not done that, but I don’t think the narrow bridge would allow it.}
Jace watched as Psycho changed tactics and intentionally shot the next volley short. They hit the bridge five feet before the priest and exploded into fireballs. The wave of fire had no problem penetrating the shield, and each did 50 damage. The priest saved against two of them for half and took 100 total. Psycho did the same thing for the next two rounds. Soon the priest was at half health, and his shield was on fire. Jace saw him cast another spell at the end and guessed it was for fire protection.
“How much mana does this guy have left?” Victron said. “I’m starting to root for him.”
Psycho burned through the next shield in the final 100 feet of the bridge, and the dwarf stopped at the edge of the island, casting another piercing immunity spell. With the added fire damage the shield had taken, it had disintegrated before the priest had enacted this third spell, and his health was dangerously low.
“Impossible!” Victron shouted. “I love this guy.”
Psycho had his fire attacks ready and brought the dwarf under 100 health in the next round. The priest was 100 feet from the base of the tower, but it was the longest 100 feet of his life. He was out of tower shields but not out of tricks. He waited for the next volley, cut his spell short, and sprinted. With a tower shield, he could only run 25 feet each for his first two actions and needed his third one to raise the shield. Without the heavy guard, he could run 40 feet; if he used all three actions to run, he would make the tower’s base in one round.
The arrows exploded in fire behind him, only expanding to five feet in radius, and didn’t touch him. Victron cheered him on as he passed the halfway point and was almost at the tower. “Run, dwarf, run!”
A single black arrow left the sniper’s window, too fast to see. But its impact was evident as it struck the priest in the top of the head, and he dropped dead on the spot.
“Oh,” the animated spectator cried. “He was so close.” The human shrugged his shoulders and turned to Jace. “Next.”
Esther looked at her leader as he went into his inventory and pulled out the level 10 tower shield he had bought on the way over to this module. “Are you really going to do this?” she asked. “I don’t want you to die. I could sneak across.”
“Sorry,” Victron said. “No can do. The lava gives off magical light. No shadows. Plus, as cute as that dress is on you, it ain’t stopping arrows.”
Esther ignored him. Jace smiled at her. “Don’t worry, I won’t die,” he said as he turned toward the bridge.
“How many of those things do you have?” Victron asked, pointing at the shield. “I’m guessing, as an orc, you can carry a bunch.”
“Just the one,” Jace replied.
“You think that will be enough?”
Jace decided he didn’t need to answer any more questions and turned them back on the shifty human. “What are you here for anyway? You keeping stats? Just in it for the entertainment of seeing people die?”
“I’m in it for the arrows, man. Um, I mean, orc. The last guy who pulled Psycho out of here left the tower empty for a whole day. You know how many arrows that little halfling crafter can make in a day? I sold them and made a fortune. I just have to be smart and get out of there before Psycho gets back.”
“Do you know why he comes back?” Jace asked.
“Maybe I do,” he said, obviously angling for money.
“Maybe you don’t,” Esther replied. “You’re just a poacher, letting others do the work while you sit on your ass.”
“At your service,” he said, removing his hat and bowing low. “But, technically, we’re called campers, miss,” he corrected her once he put his hat back on. “And I’m standing, not sitting.” He smiled at her as he rested his back against the stone. “Well, leaning, actually, I guess.” He thought this was funny and laughed.
Esther turned to Jace. “Well, if you die or not, be quick about it. I don’t want to spend more time alone with this guy than I have to.”
Snowy growled to let her know she wasn’t alone. “You know what I mean, girl.”
Jace hugged her and walked toward the bridge. As soon as he put one foot on the cobblestone, he felt himself enter combat mode. His eyes stayed glued on the top of the tower, but no arrows came yet. He reached through the stone path and put his Armor totem underneath the middle of the bridge, upside down and invisible to anyone watching. Then he put a Damage Sink totem a few feet ahead of him, also under the bridge. That cost him 280 mana, and he waited for ten rounds, which was only a minute in combat mode. The game didn’t let him cast the same totem twice unless ten rounds had passed. If his plan worked, he wouldn’t need them, but better to be safe than sorry. He also gained 210 mana back, so it was worth the wait.
“Cold feet?” Victron asked.
Jace didn’t reply and moved fully onto the bridge. Three green arrows came flying toward him, and Jace didn’t flinch or raise his shield. Instead, he Stood his Ground.
His Armor totem gave him 14 AC. His boots and leftover Armor skill added another nine. Even though it wasn’t raised, the shield gave him five more, and against ranged attacks, it offered an additional five. That came to 33 AC. When he Stood his Ground to activate his Convict ability, he traded his natural AC of 10 with his Intimidation score of 14, multiplying it by any bonuses he got from his opponent’s alignment. Unfortunately, Psycho had the exact alignment as him, so he multiplied the 14 by zero three times and added it to the 33.
Psycho’s base attack was 85 after his bonuses from the bow and arrows. When using his Rapid-Fire ability, he suffered a -10 for each shot. To get the arrows to fly 400 feet, he needed to spend 50 points of his attack value, leaving him with 25. Against an armor class of 33, a roll of 18 would be a critical hit, an eight would barely hit him, and anything less would miss.
The first arrow was 19, and Jace had a critical protection stored in his necklace, which reduced it to a regular hit of 15 arrow damage. This was not higher than his Damage Reduction skill of 18. Thanks to his latest feat that Gracie had recommended, Jace also saved critically against the acid damage, taking nothing. The next arrow was a 15. Jace took no physical damage and saved critically against the acid again. The third attack was a six and missed. This triggered his Convict ability. Because it was a standard miss and not a critical one, he could only change one thing, but he only needed to change one thing. Jace saw Psycho’s settings and navigated to his Temperament. Not surprisingly, it was Combative, meaning he would attack everyone he saw. Jace thought about changing it to Hostile, which was what Gromphy was but took it down to Neutral. The next step would have been Friendly, but then it would hardly seem like Psycho.
Jace exited the screen and waited. Nothing happened. He took a few steps forward on the bridge. Nothing continued to happen. He tried not to look down at the lava bubbling beneath him while awaiting his fate. He was impressed that the dwarf had managed to run on this bridge without falling off. Of course, as an orc, he had a much wider stance. He took a few more steps, putting one foot in front of the other as if walking a tightrope. Still no arrows.
He turned to Esther and Victron. The human was slack-jawed. “See,” he said. “Piece of cake. Don’t let anyone else cross the bridge till I return.” Jace turned forward and noticed that his vision was no longer pulsing red, meaning he wasn’t even in combat mode anymore. He stored his shield, decided to turn himself into a human, and strode confidently across the rest of the bridge.