~Prologue~
Marissa
Once Marissa had boarded the carriage and the two Dullahan started moving, she took a minute to just appreciate the landscape as it passed by. And then the carriage picked up speed.
“You know,” Kieran said, “a carriage helmed by a Dullahan is supposed to be a bad omen? It traditionally means your death is approaching.”
Marissa laughed as the carriage quickly approached the edge of the starter area - which was an island. “You don’t say?”
“Mhm. I don’t remember which story it came from, but it’s a thing.”
“Okay, but what about a carriage drawn by Dullahan? Not helmed by?”
“Not sure.” Kieran laughed.
“Maybe it’s a joke? Haha, you’re video game players, you’re all gonna die. Probably a lot, too. Haha.” Marissa joked flatly.
And then she watched on the screen as a rather sinister, dark, and shadowy portal opened up before the carriage and then drove straight into it.
“Well, alright then.”
“‘Well, alright then,’ what?” Kieran asked.
“Just rode through a dark portal to get off the starter island. Looks like the automatic travel paths aren’t always actually full travel times.”
“Hey, that could be good if you pick to travel somewhere that would actually take a long time. No reason to sit in a carriage for half an hour.”
“True.” She agreed, spinning her mouse around to view the new landscape. The Dullahan carriage had reappeared in a forested area on a path. Marissa could see the break in the trees ahead that they were headed toward, but the forest around her was far more interesting at the moment.
The game’s graphics were good. Not astoundingly so, but they were very aesthetic, and stylized just enough that the art style would probably age really well.
But what continued to blow her away were the seemingly random little details. As she blasted through the forest path on the carriage, she passed critters and animals doing animal things in the woods. Deer were grazing, some rabbits were chasing one another, more than once she saw a fox dart back into the darkness. Birds flew between the branches overhead, and the whole thing was represented in the suddenly lively soundscape the game provided.
It wasn’t something new - not really. Games had done flora and fauna like this before, but something about it felt different, though she couldn’t really pinpoint what it was.
When she noticed two deer that were standing side by side watching the carriage go by, it finally clicked. Their stances were different. They had slightly different colors and patterns on their fur. They were both clearly female, but they looked different.
The models were all different in subtle ways. That was new. The animations weren’t simply canned loops, and the models were varied enough that nothing looked like it was copy and pasted.
As she marveled at the variation in critters that she would probably never interact with, the carriage finally passed the edge of the trees. As Marissa recentered her camera forward, the carriage zoomed up and crested a hill, giving her a clear view of what she assumed had to be the city of [Falias].
It was impressive - no doubt about that. The city was large, surrounded by a huge wall of stone. Embattlements were clearly prepared for any sort of attack, despite the huge swath of gorgeous green fields being clearly empty of danger.
The thing that stuck out the most by far, however, was a massive stone pillar in the center of the city. It didn’t look crafted or shaped much by hand, but rather had the look of a natural, massive pillar that had been eroded over time. From a distance at least, it looked rounded and smooth, but also very imperfect. The stone had dips and divots throughout, which is what gave it the natural appearance.
“Falias has a massive stone pillar in the middle of it. The whole city looks like it was built around it. Any thoughts, O great lore master?” Marissa asked.
“Wow, really?” Kieran asked, sounding excited. “Lia Fáil. It was one of the four legendary treasures brought to Ireland by the Tuatha Dé Danann, specifically the one brought from Falias. So I would assume, anyway.”
“I understood about half of that. Neat.” Marissa joked as the carriage approached the city quickly and turned into a stable looking area just inside the wall. Hibiscus climbed from the carriage, and Marissa regained control.
The soundscape of the city, even on the outskirts, was pretty impressive. All kinds of sounds were layered in, from chatter to wagon wheels on cobblestone, to random thumps and bumps that were who knows what.
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As Marissa started to move forward through the city, she opened her map of the area, dreading what she would find. She expected there to be a multitude of symbols and quest markers and other crap marking points of interest all over the map. Instead, the opposite was somewhat true, and that scared her a little.
“Uh, Kieran?”
“Yeah?”
“Mind minor spoilers?”
“Nope. Shoot.”
“The city map scares me.”
“And why’s that?”
“It’s fucking. Huge.” Marissa said. “And more empty than I would’ve expected.” She added, as she zoomed out and panned across the map. When she finally found the Artisan’s Quarter and [Lugh’s Courtyard], the map was dotted with various merchants and services as she had expected. Her questline also wanted her to head that way.
“Oh. Oh shit.”
“What now?”
“Kieran, I think they tried to make the city like…a realistic size? All of the expected shops and trainers and things seem to be concentrated in one or two places, while most of the city is basically unmarked.”
“Interesting.” Kieran said, clearly thinking about it. “I don’t know how I feel about that. If the map is actually just mostly dead space, then that’s probably just bad design choices or overreaching devs. But if there’s like…hidden shops or quests that could be squirreled away in NPCs just living in the city? That could be cool.”
“There better be some kind of fast travel system here.” Marissa said, already tired of holding the key to make Hibiscus jog up the street toward the Artisan’s Quarter. “If I have to spend twenty minutes to get from the city gate to the places I need to get to every time, I’m gonna be pissed.”
“That’s valid.” Kieran said. “Surely they’ll have something in place. They probably just want you to experience walking through the city at least once?”
“If they’re smart, yeah. But my 32 years of life have certainly not taught me to trust in people to be smart.”
“...Fair point.”
As Marissa slowly made her way through the city, she did begin to actually appreciate it. It felt like walking through a well designed single player game, and not an MMO.
The NPCs were clearly going about their own business - or at least it felt like they were - and once again, the variation in animations and models shocked Marissa. She easily counted at least 14 different walk cycles, but even then when she thought she found a duplicate there was actually a slight difference in the gait. And she even saw NPC parents walking hand in hand with their kids, and those animations differed too.
When Marissa turned a corner, finally getting near to her destination, she heard crying come through the chat.
“Kat’s awake. I’ll be back later.”
“Yup, go get your girl. See ya.”
The chat went silent as Kieran went to go comfort his youngest, and Marissa decided to give her ears a break and take off her headset. She transferred the audio output to her speakers instead, and sat back in her chair to relax as she moved around the city.
By the time she made it to the Artisan’s Quarter, she had gotten a little angry at how much she kinda enjoyed walking around the city. It was almost meditative, between the luscious soundscape and the interesting and varied animations and NPCs, there was enough happening that it didn’t feel boring.
Not that she would want it to be a normal thing, but once in a while maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.
She was met at the entrance to the Artisan’s Quarter by an NPC that stopped her as part of the quest she already had, to explain what was available here.
“Welcome, Hibiscus! The Artisan’s Quarter of Falias is glad to have you. I believe that you were sent here at the request of one Commander Frigg, yes? For new equipment? Well, let me show you where you need to go.”
“On the main thoroughfare here, you can find all of the shops you could ever need. Outside of food, of course, which has its own street. But there are armorers, weaponsmiths, jewelers, leatherworkers…whatever equipment you could need, you’ll find it here. And when it comes time to add enchantments or upgrades? That’s here too!”
“Now, the other important thing you need to know is about [Lugh’s Courtyard]. It’s technically located in the Royal’s Quarter, being run by Lugh and all, but the entrance is right at the end of Main Street here! The Courtyard is where you’ll find everyone you could ever need when it comes to learning and bettering your Path.”
“When you go in through the main gate, you’ll see the road branch into three paths, each leading to a different building. Each one houses a different group of [The Trinity] - [Defenders], [Benefactors], and [Warriors].” Marissa noted that those must be the in-game terms for tanks, healers, and DPS.
“As a [Warrior], you’ll want the right most building; it’s the largest, so you won’t miss it. Since you look like an [Arrow] to me, you’ll want to find [Deadeye Cillian]. He’ll get you to the right places.”
“Oh, and I’d advise you to go to [Lugh’s Courtyard] before you look for new gear. If you pick up some new skills at the Courtyard, it might change the gear you need. Just fair warning.”
When Marissa clicked through the last text box and ended the floating camera - which had been showing off the places in question very nicely. She leaned back in her chair with a big grin on her face.
“Sounds like it’s time for the Dedication pick. Level 15 is pretty early, which is nice.” She had read in the marketing materials for Mag Mell that the game’s level cap was 90. A weird number to pick for sure, but that meant that she would have her Dedication for the vast majority of the game, which was great.
Before she continued, Marissa Alt-Tabbed out to send a quick message to Kieran, since they were chatting about it before.
{Rissa} : Looks like you get your Dedication at 15, once you get to the city.
He replied quicker than she expected, so she responded again before going back to the game.
{Kieran} : Nice. Whatcha picking?
{Rissa} : Not sure yet.
{Rissa} : Aren’t you supposed to be busy with your girls?
{Kieran} : I am. But I don’t need my hands to cuddle and watch TV.
{Kieran} : Kat settled pretty quickly once I got her in my lap. And now we’re watching one of Aoife’s shows with her.
{Rissa} : Very nice.
{Kieran} : eeidnwhufmw
{Kieran} : sjwbbuvwk
{Kieran} : Kat says Hi.
{Rissa} : Cute.
{Rissa} : qwertyui
{Rissa} : I hope she understands.
With a smile on her face, Marissa returned to the game and strolled toward the entrance to [Lugh’s Courtyard], her mood thoroughly refreshed and her desire to play still undaunted by the hours she already logged.