Esther leaned back from the prison bars when Delly finished her story. “And I thought I had a rough history,” she said. “To think your friends betrayed you like that.”
“They were never my friends,” Delly growled, her choker flaring to life.
Esther nodded, her eyes glued to the necklace restraining the barbarian. Since joining Jace, Esther had met some insanely powerful people and became a formidable warrior herself. But if everything Delly told her was true, she could be the most powerful character in the realms if she lost that necklace. “Have you ever tried to remove it?”
Delly shook her head in frustration. “Every day. I had a priest look at it once, and he said that because Pok and Kelrick attuned it to me specifically, it has too many bonuses for a normal person to disenchant. I can’t tell you how many clients at the Swan promised to come back with a solution to my problem. No one ever did.”
“And you couldn’t wander off and find your own crafter or powerful priest to do it?”
Delly shook her head. “Jezebel trapped me. As a fen witch, she could commune with the demon inside me, and if I ever wandered too far from the brothel, the hunger became insatiable. Even while there, I was forced to feed on people she discarded, or I would go insane.” She paused. “I know some of you enjoyed the work. I hated it.”
Esther shook her head. “No. I’ve spent the last few days rescuing our other sisters. We were all miserable; we just didn’t know it. Jezebel held us all prisoner. She didn’t use bars like these.” Esther tugged on the adamantium cage. “But we were captives nonetheless.”
Delly nodded. “Since you and Jace killed her, the hunger has been more manageable. I haven’t fed in over a week, and the cravings are only now starting to build.”
“In order to feed,” Esther started, “do you need to sleep with your victims?”
Delly nodded and couldn’t meet her friend's gaze. “I don’t have to kill them, but I don’t have it as easy as you. You can just suck on their necks. I need to . . .” she cursed. “I might be free of the Swan, but I am still a whore!”
“It’s okay,” Esther said quickly, motioning for her friend to keep her voice down. “I don’t judge. It isn’t you. It’s a curse that’s been done to you.” She paused. She didn’t want to add that she didn’t have to feed on people to satisfy her hunger. Pancakes and waffles worked just fine most of the time. She changed topics. “How did you end up here?”
“After we were freed from the Swan, I had to return. I need to kill Pok, Ferrick, Tenesta, and Kelrick. And I must find a way to get this muzzle off my neck.”
“Probably not in that order,” Esther frowned.
“Unfortunately, yes,” Delly admitted. “I probably need their help, and they won’t likely give it if I’m just going to kill them afterward.” Her face screwed up in confusion at the wrinkle in her plan. She shook her head, deciding to worry about it later. “I managed to sneak into the city without anyone noticing. By that time, I was . . . uh . . . starving if you know what I mean. I found an old associate of Kelrick and promised him the night of his life if he told me where I could find the alchemist. Well, it was the last night of his life, and he told me my old crew now works directly for Lord Vulder.” She sighed. “I knew it was a suicide mission, but I had to try.” She shrugged her shoulders. “They are too powerful, and I ended up here.”
“What are they going to do with you?” Esther asked.
Delly shrugged again. “Lord Vulder is stepping down and will be replaced by someone. At least, that is what they’ve told me. The three candidates have all been down to see me. I think they want to find out how they can use me as a weapon. None of them betrayed me, so I have no reason to hate any of them. If they help me seek revenge, I’ll probably agree to work with them. I don’t see a better option for my life.”
Esther nodded. She knew enough about the realms to understand that all powerful characters had a quest to complete. Delly’s seemed to be wanting revenge on Pok and the rest of her old crew. She would join any player who helped her with that. “Well, Jace has a knack for helping people in your situation, and I’m sure this will be no different.”
Delly sighed. “He sounds great, Esther, but I don’t think you appreciate what you are up against. It would be impossible if it were just Vulder and Paltine; however, he also has my whole crew, plus Dreller. They’ve all become more powerful since I last saw them. Then you have the three players and their crews. They aren’t just going to sit back and let your leader take whatever he wants. On top of all that, I won’t be much help. I don’t have any of my weapons or items from before.”
“Oh, right,” Esther said. “I forgot about that.” She went into her inventory and came back with the axe and shield Jace always used when he pretended to be an orc fighter. She added a few magical rings and arm bracelets. She also remembered the bracers Vithium had given her. They were gold, with beautiful blue diamonds set in the center. Even when the monk had given them to her, she thought they would be perfect for Delly.
The barbarian took the items through the bars, paying particular attention to the bracers. “They are amazing,” she said, strapping them to her forearms. After she had all the items equipped, she set them as accessories and vanished them into her inventory. “That’s one perk we got from working at the Swan,” she chuckled, acknowledging the Quick Change ability.
“I got several perks,” Esther said. “And they have been extremely useful in helping Jace.”
Delly cocked her head in interest. “So, what have you been doing since we parted ways?”
Esther had nowhere else to go until Jace told her the plan, so she sat down and regaled Delly with the tales of her adventures.
----------------------------------------
Jace exited out of his inventory, where he had watched the entire cinematic cutscene of Delly’s backstory. It had gotten a bit racy toward the end, but he had stuck with it. He sat in the back of a covered wagon rolling down the dusty trail toward Zamora. Psycho had promised to keep watch over him while he was in his inventory, but it hadn’t been necessary. Nothing had attacked them. The caravan had half a dozen wagons, and Jace had paid enough gold, so they got one without any other passengers. Other than sitting amongst the cargo, they didn’t experience any other inconveniences. No predator dared move about in the heat.
Even with the magical shielding on the wagon, Snowy lay in the center of the carriage, panting heavily. Gromphy attended to the canine as often as he could, but the winter wolf’s weakness to heat could not be fully countered by magic. Sweat rolled down Psycho’s face as the elf also struggled in the high temperature. Jace had turned his environmental settings down, yet got a notification that he suffered from a few heat-induced banes.
Draya, on the other hand, was used to a dress that dealt her 100 points of fire damage each round. She was fine. Jace imagined the dragon mage could have walked alongside the wagons if there wasn’t room for all of them.
Psycho noticed Jace had left his inventory. “Learn anything interesting?” he asked. The elf nursed a health potion, taking sips every other round.
“Quite,” Jace said. “It looks like Delly is the most powerful friend Esther has.”
“Meaning the other players aren’t just going to let you have her,” Psycho reasoned. Jace had explained everything he knew about the quest to his team before they had left the stronghold.
“Technically,” Jace argued, “our job isn’t to have Delly join our party. Just like with the others, Esther only wants us to rescue her from her quest so she can choose her own path in the realms.”
“So you would let her join with criminals from your world if that’s what she chose?”
Jace looked hard at his ranger, thinking, not for the first time, that the elf was far too aware for an NPC. “We’ll see,” he replied. “I’m still working on the plan.” He turned his voice inward. “Gracie, did Delly reveal anything else to Esther after the story?” Jace knew he had just watched the cutscene on “tape delay,” so the two women could have talked about the story for several minutes already.
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{Yes,} Gracie replied. {And she said something that’s troubling me. She told Esther that she’d been trying to remove the choker from her neck for a while and that several of her clients had promised to help her get it off but never did. There is no record of that in the game. I can’t find a single post about players discussing her choker. All the images I can find of her online from before you broke the module have her wearing the necklace. Frequently, that is all she’s wearing, but not a single player has talked about a quest to remove it.}
“Is it possible that most of her clients were NPCs? Didn’t you say Esther was the popular one?”
{Yes,} Gracie acknowledged, {But plenty of players spent time with Delly too. You had to “earn” your way to be with her. If you were rough with one of the lower girls, you were given to Delly. It takes a pretty rotten player to beat up a girl, but this is the Realms of Infamy, and plenty of people used it as a means to an end. None of them mentioned the choker as a magical item that she wanted to be removed.}
Jace nodded. “Gandhi gave her a backstory and tried to use as much preexisting material as possible, but she had to change a few things. She took Delly’s choker and made it magical. Before I met her, she didn’t have Sonan’s immense strength trapped inside her. This means that in the original iteration of the quest we are about to enter, Sonan never had the immense strength to begin with. He was only the game’s version of Conan, a powerful warrior. But now he is also Samson, someone gifted with supernatural strength.”
{So what does all that mean for us?} Gracie asked.
“What are you talking about?” Psycho asked at the same time. He was used to hearing only one side of Jace’s conversations and was usually bright enough to decipher the full meaning, but he was lost on this one.
Jace quickly brought Psycho up to speed on Delly’s history. “It is like a time travel story,” Jace added, talking to both Psycho and Gracie now. “When I broke the Gilded Swan, Gandhi sent Delly back in time into the module we are about to enter. Her presence changed things. All of the NPC characters were updated as if Delly was always a part of Zamora. Gandhi can insert memories into their minds and change them accordingly. This module is only a few months old, but its history goes back decades, so most of the things Gandhi had to change never really happened anyway.”
“However,” Psycho said, “the players didn’t change.”
“Exactly,” Jace said. “Three main players are trying to solve this quest. They’ve been working on it for months, and they all know the original parameters. Maybe they’ve noticed things have changed; maybe they haven’t. What we need to do is find out what’s different. Gandhi would only change things that were important to solving Delly’s quest.”
“Isn’t it as simple as freeing her from captivity and giving her vengeance against the people who betrayed her?” the elf asked.
Jace shook his head. “That will be necessary, but it has to be more than that. An original quest around Sonan existed that the players had to solve. Now Delly’s quest is intertwined with that, and it all ties in with what Lord Vulder is looking for in his successor.”
Psycho threw up his hands. “This sounds even more complicated than what you needed to do to free me. How are you going to figure it out?”
Jace shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m working on it.”
“Well, make it quick,” Draya said. She had only partially paid attention to their conversation. The mage was clever enough to understand what they said but also knew it wouldn’t be her responsibility to solve the riddle, so she didn’t pay extra attention to it. Instead, the young woman had been sticking her head out of the back of the wagon occasionally to check their progress, and she had just pulled herself back inside. “I think we’re here.”
No sooner had the words left her mouth than their wagon stopped. A few seconds later, one of the caravan drivers walked past each wagon, banging on the wooden sides. “Everyone needs to get off and enter the city on foot. The wagons will be searched. Everyone out.”
Gromphy cast another spell on Snowy, who whined at the prospect of stepping out into the sun but obeyed her leader and jumped off the back of the wagon with the rest of the crew. She didn’t have the strength to sprint toward the city gates but covered the 150 feet as fast as possible. Draya didn’t move as quickly, taking her time to pet the beasts who had pulled the caravan. Each wagon was yoked to a pair of giant lizards. The desert creatures responded positively to the attention from the dragon-kin woman, puffing bursts of fire as she passed.
Jace, Psycho, and Gromphy followed Snowy as fast as they could, all suffering from banes to their agility and speed. They longed to enter the city's protection, but the city guards held them up. “Halt! Declare yourself. Kamora is a place of trade for civilized beings. We don’t allow . . .” he paused as he looked at the winter wolf, goblin, and orc, “unauthorized individuals.”
“My name is Jace Thorne,” the orc shaman said. He found his voice came out in haggard pants. “I am a player of some renown and request access for my whole party.”
“Some renown, eh?” the guard said, checking his magical stone tablet. “We’ll see about that.”
As the group waited impatiently, Draya ran up to them. “What’s the problem?” Her voice was far too chipper, given the circumstances.
“They won’t let us in,” Psycho replied.
“What?” she said. “Jace isn’t famous enough?”
“I think he is too orc,” Psycho whispered back. “But they better hurry. Snowy is a few moments from passing out. And I’m not far behind.”
Draya punched him in the arm. “Wimp.”
“I guess it is all right,” the guard finally said. “I see some mentions of you as an honorable citizen. Just keep a short leash on your wolf and goblin.”
“What dost thou mean by . . .” Gromphy started.
“Thank you,” Jace interrupted, pushing the goblin forward. Gromphy had a mind to turn around and cast a spell on the rude guard, but Jace stopped him. “I’m sure Psycho has a length of rope we can use if you don’t behave,” he said. Gromphy wanted to keep fighting but obeyed his leader.
After walking through the city gates, the group felt relief instantly. Although the air inside the city was still hot, compared to the sauna-like temperatures outside, it felt positively refreshing.
{They use the water pumped from underground to power a protective dome over the city,} Gracie explained. Jace looked to the East at the rising sun well on its way to midmorning and could sense the lower intensity. The dome was invisible against the blue sky but had a clear effect.
“How’s Esther doing?”
{I can only monitor one of you at a time,} she said. {When I’m listening to her, I can only see your activity on screen. I can’t hear what you say or monitor your character sheets. Last I checked, she was getting Delly up to speed on your adventures. She just finished chronicling your first encounter with Drescher. She has a long way to go.}
Jace nodded. “Keep an ear on her. I want to know if anything happens. I can handle myself. I’ll wave to you if I need help.”
{Roger that.}
While Jace talked to Gracie, the rest of the group downed more healing potions. They had already used half of their supply, and while Gromphy could make more, that took time. Well, most of them had been drinking healing potions. Draya had been clinging to Jace, breathing like she was hyperventilating. “What’s wrong?” he asked. “The heat finally getting to you?”
“Nobody said anything about snakes,” Draya replied through gritted teeth.
Jace looked around the large bazaar at the city's entrance and saw several vipers slithering about beneath carts and coiled around barrels. Based on his research, he knew none of them would attack.
“Why didn’t you tell me there would be snakes?” she continued.
“Because then thou wouldst not have come,” Gromphy answered for his leader.
“At least they aren’t ghost snakes,” Psycho said. Draya punched him in the arm again.
“They shouldn’t attack you,” Jace said. “And don’t throw any fireballs. We just talked our way in. I don’t want to get kicked out.”
Draya stopped complaining verbally, though physically, she hadn’t stopped clutching at the orc’s arm while Jace looked about expectantly.
“Were you anticipating a welcoming party?” Psycho asked.
Jace shrugged. “I’m not sure what to expect.” He looked around at the collection of characters milling about the shops and vendors. A few did double-takes when they saw the well-known party, and Jace identified them as players, but no one approached them. “We’ll give it another few moments. We are mobbed everywhere else we go; I assume someone in the city cares that we are here. I’m hoping at least one of the players vying for control will alert Lord Vulder and tell him we shouldn’t be ignored.”
“Where do expect we’ll be headed?” Psycho asked. “Underground? Into the desert? Fighting in the streets?”
Jace shook his head. “No, I expect we will find ourselves up there eventually.” He pointed toward the top of the pyramid-shaped structures before them.
Psycho followed the orc’s arm and looked for the first time with interest at the construction of the unique city. Buildings were staked upon buildings, climbing high into the sky. At the top, several large structures dominated the skyline, defying gravity and balanced precariously on the collection of stone pillars, iron beams, and wooden supports beneath them. As an elf, Psycho was used to elaborate dwellings built high into the tree tops. He had never seen anything like this. “Can’t wait,” he said.
“I’m scared of heights too,” Draya said, still clinging to Jace’s arm.
“Isn’t the eventual goal to give you the ability to fly as a dragon,” Psycho chuckled. “You better get over that fear real quick.”
Draya didn’t have an answer and wanted to punch him in the arm again, but that would require her to let go of Jace. She didn’t, and the group lapsed into silence. A minute later, a squad of human guards marched into view and headed straight toward them. Snakes scattered in front of the men, and Draya relaxed, hoping these newcomers would provide protection.
“Jace Thorne?” the lead guard asked the group skeptically. When his commander had sent him to pick up a famous guest, he assumed it would be a human. The guard chose to look at Psycho as he spoke, but Jace stepped forward.
“I am he. I would like an audience with Lord Vulder.”
The guard nodded, still unsure about this eclectic group. None of them looked like they belonged. Draya had the darkest skin, but her flaming red hair wasn’t native to the desert kingdom. “Those are my orders,” the guard confirmed. He still didn’t like it. “Can we find a cool tavern for your party members to wait?”
Jace shook his head. “No, they will come with me.”
The guard didn’t have orders to the contrary and shrugged his shoulders. “Very well, then. Follow me.”
The walk through the street was mercifully short. Jace had to practically carry Draya whenever a snake came too close, every little girl on the street wanted to pet Snowy, and every little boy tried to steal Gromphy’s top hat. Psycho nearly put an arrow in three children and one snake. After a minute, they arrived at a heavily guarded brick building that looked no larger than ten feet square. Once they entered, they found that’s all the bigger it was. In the center of the single room stood a travel node.
“Is everyone ready?” Jace asked. They all nodded eagerly, and he transported them off the city streets.