“First thing’s first,” Jace said, looking Quaron in the eye. “Nothing that is said here gets repeated until after my mission. Understood?”
The dwarf nodded emphatically, his beard brushing against the table. “That is fine. After you are slaughtered, I will tell everyone I told you everything I knew.”
“It can’t be that impossible,” Jace said.
The dwarf chuckled. “When I was there, we had anywhere from 50 to 100 thousand gold worth of gems and precious metals depending on our mining and shipping schedules. When our customers discovered our location’s wealth, some decided to sell that information to less ethical adventurers. We had to fight off multiple attempts to invade our fortress, and nobody ever made it to the front gate.”
The ale he had ordered was delivered, and he took a long drink before telling the serving girl that they needed a few more minutes to decide what to eat. Jace saw Draya staring intently at their guest, and he thought he knew why. Almost every dwarf she had ever met was probably an NPC, and they were all programmed to talk in a thick Scottish accent. From exploring his settings, Jace understood that he could make himself sound however he wanted. Quaron was a PC, and while he might initiate an accent when engaging with NPCs that would expect it, he wasn’t using any of those theatrics with Jace and wanted to be as precise and understandable as possible.
“Maybe they didn’t have a good strategy,” Jace said, searching for more.
“Then you’ve not really researched your assignment. Unless you can fly, there is only one side to approach, and it is flanked by two lightning towers that are manned at all times. They will zap you for 600 damage, and the save is ridiculously high. All the mana for the attack comes from lightning storms constantly churning over the tower, so the shamans can use their own mana to raise the difficulty. There are lookout wards along the mountain path up to the hold, so there are no surprise visitors, and everything is fully charged for your arrival. To access the fortress, you need to cross a narrow bridge that is coded only to allow one person at a time, and if you try to move any faster than walking, you need to make a Dex check every round or fall off. If you are nimble enough to make it across quickly, you won’t have the HP to survive even one attack, and if you are knocked unconscious, you fall off the bridge 500 feet to your death.”
He took another drink. “I saw one group use an ogre priest with impressive Magic Defense and 1300 HP to cross the bridge and try to drain the mana banks before they raced across. He failed the first save, took 900 damage, and fell to his death. Everyone else just turned and left.”
“But they let visitors in,” Jace reasoned. “If they were expecting me for a negotiation, they would have to let me pass unharmed.”
Quaron nodded. “Aye, yes, they would, but they have a magic detector. It’s basically like an X-ray machine at the airport. You have to walk through it after you cross the bridge. They will know if you are trying to smuggle any weapons or wands in there, and if you refuse to disarm yourself, they will zap you.”
Draya didn’t understand the part about the airport, but she understood how secure the place was. “If it is such an amazing stronghold,” she said, “and you were making so much gold, why did you leave?”
“Same reason all mining expeditions fail, miss,” he chuckled. “We found the Balrog in the Basement.”
Draya screwed up her face. “The what?”
He laughed at her confusion. “Still a little green, are we? Well, your leader can explain what that is.”
They both looked at Jace, and he had just enough time to remove the confused look from his face. He had no idea what the dwarf was talking about, either. Since he had done so well in the game and was so highly regarded, no one knew he’d only been playing for a little over a week. Right then, the waitress showed up and was ready to take their orders. Jace passed, but Draya and Quaron both ordered a meal. Gracie took the time to fill Jace in.
{You can play this game like Minecraft if you want,} she said. {Just like in that game, the deeper you dig, the higher concentration of precious stones and metal you will find. Diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and all kinds of gems have extraordinary value in the game. If you want to enchant a weapon or armor, you need the raw materials. But you can also find gold, silver, mithril, and adamantium, which are even more valuable. Minecraft has bedrock designed into it, so you can only dig so deep, and the concentration of rare blocks only goes so high. The realms have no limits, so you could theoretically excavate miles down and find untold riches. So the designers took a page out of the Lord of the Rings and the Mines of Moria and put hundreds of deadly monsters underground. If you get greedy and dig too deep, you release a horrific monster that is usually more powerful than a dragon. Remember, you have a demon in your basement because the gnomes dug too deep.
{It sounds like a tired cliché on the surface, but it has turned into a good push-your-luck mechanic. The more you mine, the better your profits, but the deeper you go, the greater your chance of uncovering a horrific evil. Once you have discovered your balrog, the mine isn’t safe anymore. The standard practice is to collapse the deepest tunnel and trap it, but once the beast is there, it can burrow anywhere else in your mine, and even if you only dig laterally at a shallower depth, you run the risk of releasing him. As far as I know, the “balrogs” will never free themselves, so you can continue to live there without fear of it bursting through your bedroom wall, but your mining is over. Your gnomes are still only fixing what their ancestors collapsed ages ago. But when that is finished, they won’t be able to dig without the risk of freeing your demon.}
“And they can’t be killed?” Jace muttered into his hand as his dining companions were finishing their order.
{I’ve learned never to say never when it comes to you, but no, they can’t be killed. They are level 40-60 beasts that are always gigantic. There is a rumor that a mining operation in an icebound land once unearthed some enormous arctic creature, and they trapped it in a room with a fountain of lava and killed it. But the next week, when they kept digging, they unleashed two more beasts, and their entire operation was wiped out.}
Jace had enough information to proceed with Quaron, and the dwarf was done ordering. The shaman wondered if the miner expected him to pay for the food. Draya had tried to order pancakes since Esther had gotten her hooked, but the Captain’s Nest didn’t have any, and she was forced to have fish.
“What kind of beast did you find?” Jace asked.
“The other guys called it an armadillion, but I don’t have a name for it. It was a giant armadillo 20 feet tall, with stone-scale armor that repelled our attacks. It vomited lava and was immune to just about everything. We didn’t try to fight it very long. We commanded two NPCs to run past it and back into its lair. It gave chase, and we used a gnome to cast a Replicate Stone spell to mimic the surrounding walls and created a barrier 20 feet thick laced with raw mithril. It left us with a massive cavern deep in the ground that we couldn’t touch. The walls are covered in mithril, like streaks of tinsel on a Christmas tree, but nobody in their right mind would ever raise a pickaxe toward it.”
“What about the NPCs?” Jace asked.
“They respawned in their beds an hour later, screaming their heads off about a horrific nightmare they had just had. Once they got their bearings and realized what had happened, they left our party instantly and tried to kill us. It turns out that commanding a party member to commit suicide by suffocating on lava spewed from a hell beast in the dark really does a number on your relationship score. One of them escaped but probably hasn’t slept since. That was six weeks ago. We sold the place to the NKs a week later.”
Jace understood he meant the North Koreans. “And you told them about the armadillion?”
Quaron nodded. “Yeah. They didn’t care. They weren’t interested in mining; they just wanted a defensible stronghold. We got a good price for it, so everyone’s happy.”
“Well,” Jace said, “now they are holding four players hostage, and I need to get them out or . . .” he glanced at Draya, “free them another way.”
The dwarf smirked at Jace’s coded speech. It would be much easier to kill the PCs so the humans could log off than trying to guide four mentally tormented characters out of the stronghold. Draya wouldn’t understand. “You started your report by saying, ‘Unless you can fly . . .’ Is that a valid mode of attack?”
“Not really,” Quaron replied. “Three of the lighting towers overlook the cliff and the valley far below. They seemed useless at first, as no one could ever approach from that side, but two dragons attacked from the mountains while we were there. I don’t know if it was random or a distraction by some innovative thieves. It took two or three blasts from the lighting towers, but eventually, we ripped their wings to shreds. One of them was a black spewing acid, and the other was an ice dragon that froze our walls and made them brittle for a while, but they were so big we saw them coming from a long way off, and the shamans were ready with defensive totems to reduce the magical damage. We lost one to the black dragon, but the mountains around the fortress spawn them quite frequently, and we were able to replace him the same day.”
The food came, and Jace leaned back from the conversation to allow the serving girl to place the meals on the table. With his eyes up, Jace saw someone entering the diner and held his breath. It was a Mongorian woman and a male bondmage. She was dressed in a Khan’s attire, wearing a dark blue coat with tails that reached the back of her knees and tight pants tucked into tall, black boots. She had a red, broad-brimmed hat on top of long black hair that framed a heavily made-up face. Gold jewelry hung from her ears, nose, and neck. If she had additional guards, they had been left in the street. Her eyes found Jace immediately but continued to scan the crowd as if she were surveying everyone. The shaman wasn’t fooled. She was there for them, and as much as he wanted to press Draya’s past, he didn’t want to push it too far.
Jace started to look away, but his eyes locked onto the bondmage. He was shorter than the Khan but broad in the chest and looked powerful. His blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail, revealing his entire face. He had dead eyes that only followed the movements of his mistress as she walked up to the bar and ordered a drink. He stood patiently behind her, not moving. It made Jace sick. He changed his mind. He wanted to interact with these two. With as large a portion of food as his two companions had just ordered, he didn’t think staying long enough would be a problem.
The serving girl left after receiving another order of ale from the dwarf and refilling Draya’s water.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
“How would you do it?” Jace asked. “If you had no other choice and had to break in and rescue the prisoners, what tactics have no one else tried.”
Jace could tell the dwarf wanted to give a sarcastic answer and say it was impossible, but he chewed his first bite of meat thoughtfully first. “You need a distraction,” he said. “You need to divide their attention. If you come straight at them, you don’t have a chance. I assume they expect you eventually to negotiate payment of some kind.”
Jace nodded, but he was only half listening. An important-looking man in a suit had just entered the diner. He had the city’s crest on his jacket and made eye contact with the female Khan before he and her started angling toward their table. The dwarf had been talking.
“. . . used to have merchants come multiple times a day. If you could arrange for other people to show up after you, like Esther in disguise or . . .” he trailed off as he saw the NPCs walking toward them.
“Jace Thorne,” the city magistrate said. “I am Derrin Hortch, Harversport’s chief trade advisor. Madam Yesugen Khan has leveled a complaint against you. She says you are in possession of stolen property and insists you relinquish it at once.”
Draya looked up from her food when she heard the word “Khan,” and her heart sank when she saw the three people standing at the empty side of their square table. They stood directly across from her. Her eyes went to Jace to save her, and he intensely regretted what was about to happen.
“Is that so,” Jace started, his mind racing about how to minimize this damage. “And what proof does she have of this? Where is this stolen property? I assure you, I have not met Madam Yesugen before.”
“Khan,” the woman corrected tersely, nearly spitting the word at Jace. “Madam Yesugen Khan is how you shall address me, you lying thief! The stolen property is sitting at your table. Do not insult me by . . .”
“Please, please,” the magistrate begged, “Madam Khan, please, we can handle this matter peacefully.”
“She has red hair,” Jace said, picking his words carefully. “We joined together in the east, in Gershire. Have you ever met the people from the southeastern islands? I do not think my companion belongs to you.”
Those statements were as misleading as Jace could make them without outright lying. He had never met anyone from islands to the southeast of this continent, but he was sure neither of them had either. It didn’t matter; his misdirection didn’t work. “Jace Thorne,” Derrin said before the Khan could interject again, “I have heard of you. Many who have visited our city speak highly of your exploits. It is an honor to meet you in person. I have heard that you are honest and fair. I must know for certain. Are you saying that your female companion is not a Celtigion?”
If ever an NPC had set themselves up for conditional bonuses to save against a bluff attempt, this was it. Gandhi was not playing fair. If Jace were talking to a PC, he could try to trick them with tons of double speak and riddles, but against an NPC, they were going to roll a die against anything said, and because he was an Honest character, he would receive a severe bane for lying, and they would know it. He would lose all bargaining power if they caught him in a lie.
“She is,” Jace said, barely a whisper. The shocked cry from Draya almost broke his heart.
The grin on Yesugen’s face was so sickening that she was lucky Non-PVP zones extended protection to NPCs. “Do you have paperwork showing that you own her legally?” the magistrate asked.
“Impossible!” the woman shouted. “It is illegal for any non-Mongorian to buy . . .”
The magistrate put his hand up again to stop her. He turned to look at Jace expectantly.
“You would favor her claim against mine?” Jace asked. “You support the enslavement of other people.”
Before the man could respond, the Khan exploded again. “Enslavement?” she shrieked. “Do you see any shackles on this young man?” she stood aside to reveal the bondmage standing behind her, motionless and expressionless.
“Yes,” Jace said impassively. “Around his neck. . . and his soul.”
Yesugen laughed. “This?” she asked, reaching to tug on the silver collar, ignoring the second part of his comment. “This is just to keep people like you from stealing him.”
“You cannot have stolen from you what you do not own. You cannot own another person without enslaving them.”
The woman stared icicles back at Jace but was wise to say nothing. At the moment, she still had Derrin on her side. Jace turned back to the magistrate. “You would favor her claim against mine?” he repeated.
“We have trade regulations we must follow,” the man said. “Rules to maintain the peace with our valuable trade partners. A Khan shall accompany all Celtigions in Harversport. All Khans shall keep a record of ownership with them for any Celtigion in their party.”
Yesugen produced a scroll from an inner pocket of her Khan’s coat and held it up triumphantly.
Derrin continued as if reciting a law he had committed to memory. “Any unaccompanied Celtigion or any Celtigion accompanied by someone who cannot produce a record of ownership will be considered a fugitive and shall be returned to the first Khan to claim them.” The trade advisor finished his recitation and looked sternly at Jace. “Do you have paperwork showing you own her legally?”
“Violation of the trade regulations would result in . . .” Jace prompted.
“Sanctions,” Derrin answered. “Embargos. Taxes.”
“War,” the Khan added.
“You would go to war over one young woman?” Jace asked.
The look on the magistrate’s face let Jace know the answer before Yesugen spoke. He had obviously been threatened with hostile repercussions many times at the negotiation table.
“Over someone as powerful as her?” the woman clarified. “Definitely.”
Jace refused to feel sympathy for Derrin. Yes, he was in a difficult position. Weighing the freedom of one young woman he didn’t know against the prosperity everyone in his city relied upon was not an easy choice for an NPC to make. Actually, Jace thought, in a Realm of Infamy, there was only one choice he could make. And Jace couldn’t break the law here. Derrin had made it clear that Jace’s reputation was being passed between the NPC leaders in the game. If it were known he was a criminal who had no respect for city magistrates or their laws, he would be as handcuffed as if Draya were actually taken from him. Well, no, not that bad, but close.
Jace sighed as he saw no other way around it. “And what shall my compensation be?”
“Jace!” Draya cried. “You can’t-”
He turned to her with a determined look on his face. She had never seen that look before. It was the same one he had worn when he had marched toward an invincible frost giant with Esther dying behind him. It was the same look he had used when facing off against Drescher and his companions. Most recently, it was the expression he had shown when he Stood his Ground against over 200 mummies before wiping them out.
Draya had never seen that look, but she understood it. Her leader would not be defeated. Circumstances might look impossible, and things might go downhill, but he would recover. He would rescue her. He had promised to leave this town with her at his side, and he would not fail. She nodded in response.
Jace turned back to Derrin and Yesugen. The Khan smiled broadly, completely misunderstanding the exchange she had just witnessed. “Compensation?” she repeated the word as if it were the vilest thing she could imagine. “For returning stolen property?”
“Do you have the papers showing that she is yours?” Jace asked. Obviously, she didn’t. “Then you will acquire something you did not pay for and keep her for profit or sell her to someone else. Either way, you will benefit from this arrangement at my expense. I am an innocent party in all this and demand some restitution.” He finished his plea with a look toward Derrin. “I think that is only fair.”
“Some compensation should be in order,” he agreed, looking back at the Khan.
She disagreed but knew she was still coming out ahead. “I have some crates of fruit that did not sell,” she said. “And two barrels of oil, but that will not go bad.”
“So, you offer me produce you would have to dump overboard anyway and costs you nothing?” Jace asked.
“It is not worthless to you,” she replied. “And the girl is far more valuable to me than you, trust me. You don’t know the first thing about regulating a Celtigion.” She turned to her male bondmage and carefully traced a fingernail down his muscled arm. “They can be quite unruly unless properly . . . harnessed.”
Jace wanted to throw up, but he had to see this through. “Very well. Three full crates of fruit. Anything but bananas. Have it ready in thirty minutes. I will meet you at the docks to make the exchange.”
Yesugen laughed. “You think me a fool, Jace Thorne? And if you should run late, how long should I wait? An hour? A day? A year? No. I take the girl now, and you immediately come with me for your payment. I do not have time to play games.”
“And I am in a business meeting,” Jace replied, motioning across the table to the dwarf who had observed this exchange in total shock. The woman acted like this was the first time she had seen Quaron. “You are the one wasting my time,” Jace added.
“Fine,” she said. “I will take the girl and will unload your compensation. Meet me at the docks in half an hour and don’t be late. I will be racing the sun to the west. I do not like sailing in the dark.”
She motioned with her hand, and the bondmage finally moved. He walked around the table to Draya’s side and firmly grabbed her upper arm. On instinct, she summoned fire, but the Peaceful zone prevented any offensive spells, and she was not strong enough to resist the young man. She gazed into his face as she was pulled out of her chair, but she didn’t recognize him. Though Draya didn’t know him, she did remember him. All the bondmages looked identical, and she had seen dozens like him. The same placid, dead expression; the same monotonous unwavering obedience to commands. She almost cried.
The bondmage brought her hands in front of her and tied them with a magical piece of rope. He then added an enchantment, and Draya felt the mana inside her blocked as if a dam was holding back her power. Her face went to Jace in panic. His eyes never left her. He had the same determined expression as before, and she clung to hope that he knew what he was doing.
“One final matter,” the Khan said.
[Yesugen Khan requests that you transfer Draeklynn Ember to her party.]
Jace managed a smile at the prompt. “Not until I receive compensation,” Jace said aloud. “And if you leave before I inspect the goods, I will not authorize the transfer.”
The bondmage had maneuvered Draya to Yesugen’s side of the table and waited patiently with his captive. The Khan scowled at Jace but had no comeback prepared. While her knowledge of game mechanics was instinctual instead of practical, she understood what taking possession of Draya without Jace’s approval would mean. The Mongorians were used to dealing with hostile Celtigions. If necessary, this would be no different.
She bowed slightly, and the three foreigners left the table and headed out of the diner. Derrin stayed a few seconds longer. “Thank you for your cooperation, Jace Thorne,” he said. “I will be sure to record our positive interaction.” He left in a flourish.
Jace returned his eyes to Quaron, who had allowed his food to go cold during the exchange. “Now,” Jace said, “where were we?”
“Hold on,” he said, trying to fathom what had just happened.
{Yes,} Gracie added. {Hold the #$%@ on! You did not just do that!}
“You are just going to let her go?” Quaron continued. “If she has a dragon inside her, she is worth three ships, not three crates. What are you doing?”
Jace shook his head at both of them. “Have a little faith. I promised Draya I would walk out of this city with her by my side, and I will not go back on that. Now, can we finish our original conversation?”
“You know she isn’t going to wait for you,” Quaron said, unable to drop it. “As soon as she gets to her ship, they will be gone forever. She will leave you three rotting crates of fruit, and you will never see them again.”
Jace managed a smile. “She would never do that,” he said, sarcasm dripping from his tongue. “Violation of the trade regulations would result in sanctions, embargoes, and taxes.”
“And war?” Quaron added, remembering the exchange from before.
“Over someone as powerful as Draya?” Jace asked rhetorically. “Definitely.” Jace took a drink before continuing. “Now give me your operator’s contact information so mine can send you a picture of how the prisoners are being held. I want to know if you can identify their location.”
The two discussed tactics and strategies for a few more minutes. If nothing else, the distraction of losing Draya had quelled the dwarf’s sarcastic insistence that any attempt to break into Stormhold was futile. When they were finished, Jace left a pile of coins on the table and rose from his seat.
“Off to get your fruit?” Quaron asked, draining the last of his ale. “You know that she didn’t even tell you which ship was hers. You’ll never find her. You’ll never see your dragon again.”
“I wouldn’t be too sure of that,” Jace said. “I have a pretty good feeling I’m going to know exactly where her ship is.”
“How’s that?”
Jace motioned toward the door of the diner. “Would you like to accompany me?”
The offer to watch the master at work was too much to turn down. The dwarf popped out of his seat. “Yes, I would.”
The two players strode out of the Captain’s Nest and onto the raised deck. They stopped and stared. Most of the rest of the patrons eating outside already had their eyes fixed on the docks in shock. “See,” Jace said, no need to point out the obvious. “I told you I would know where they were.”