Filpin and Frank started following the wall and moved out of the area behind the houses and onto a street in front of them. The houses had an even more noble look to them now, with framed windows, glass panelling, and ornate door.
“Hey Frank, don’t think this street is a little more, you know, European than the place we started?”
“Yeah, kinda looks that way. I’m getting mixed messages about the setting of this game. This street looks like something from medieval times, but the other place had this Japanese feel. Like that Nyx fella was a Yakuza boss or something.”
“Yeah, I get you. Where we headed though?”
They tried to find a way along the streets with Filpin following along with Frank. The only thing he was sure of was that they were keeping the wall of the city on their right side.
“I want to find one of the city gates. There’s sure to be a lot of them. I’m wondering about fast travel, or even if it’s possible to get anywhere else. This is alpha too, so things might be missing.”
“The level of detail in this place is amazing though, look at those curtains blow in the wind.”
The streets were well-paved but appeared to have little traffic on them. A cool breeze was blowing and some sounds carried to them on the wind. But there wasn’t the bustle of NPCs that they expected. It took them just a little while to find a road that ran along the wall, and soon they were standing before a gate. There wasn’t any more traffic around, but two guards were lounging against a wall on either side of the gate, facing away from where the two were coming from.
The gate itself was raised, an iron portcullis that they could see the bottom of in the stonework that spanned the top side of the gate. The road they were on continued out the gate but gradually became less paved until it was just a track of hardened dirt. What struck them the most when they looked through was the giant wall of fog that stood in the mid-distance.
There were some buildings on either side of the road, and they went towards where the fog was, but the closer they got the more run-down they began to look. The two craned their necks upwards, but the wall of fog just curved up and became the sky.
“Reckon we can go anywhere, Frank?”
At the sound of their voices the guards quickly stood straight and looked back at the two of them.
“Oh, just a couple of townsfolk,” one of them said to the other, then they both rested their shoulders against the wall again.
“May we ask you fine gentlemen a few questions?” Frank took a step forward, “We’re just wondering about the fog.”
The guard closest to them turned around to face him.
“What? You don’t know about the fog?”
“We just got here, we don’t know anything yet.”
“Got here? From where? No one gets in or out of the fog. Haven’t had travellers since I’ve been alive.”
“Um, huh,” Frank appeared a little taken aback by this, maybe he had been expecting a different response, “Well, um, how bout we say I hit my head and have forgotten stuff?”
“Well then, good sir, welcome your ass back to Hiddenwall City. The finest city this side of the fog!”
“How do we get to the other cities, um, this side of the fog?”
“You daft? Must have hit your head pretty hard then. Hiddenwall is the only city this side of the fog. The fog stretches all around the city, even out into the bay. There’s no way to get out, or none we know of. People have ventured into the fog before. There’s a group that does it on the regular. But some people never come back out. No one ever mentions seeing the other side, and the ones we haven’t seen, well, we just assume they died in the fog. What with the creatures and all.
“Haven’t had a new merchant for some time. Good thing the city makes a lot of its own goods. We even found a mine under the city, so we aren’t short on ores or the like.
“If you’re acting like this though, I reckon you don’t belong in this part of town. You may have lost your memory but your garb, and the fact you know nothing, likely means you come from the north end of town. This is the Southern Gate. Just out there,” he hikes his thumbs to show the buildings outside the gate, “Is where the farmers that look after the crop on this side of town live. But inside the walls here you’ve got the district of Upper Town. Full of nobles, knights, and high-level workers, like your lawyers and stuff. People with more than two crowns to rub together, unlike what the two of you look like. I recommend you run off back to Farcrest before someone thinks you stole something from them and gets you got. They won't care if you did it or not.”
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He raised his hand and gave Frank and Filpin the international shoo motion, then went back to looking out the gate. Frank turned away from him with a bit of shocked look on his face.
“Damn, the AI scripting here is amazing, they must have put a lot of work into this. I can’t believe THIS is Alpha!”
Something in the distance caught Filpin’s eyes, and he gazed at the fog in the distance. The two guards became more alert, but only slightly more so. Filpin pointed over Frank’s shoulder and soon the two of them were watching as a giant shadow was striding across their vision, a shadow within the fog. The sheer scale of it was enough to make both their jaws drop.
The general shape of it was similar to what you would expect of a giraffe, or maybe even a long-necked dinosaur. It was bulkier, but the most important thing was that it was massive. Even from this distance they could tell how big it was, since they had to shift their gaze upwards to see where the head of it might be.
A slight rumbling came to them, and the ground itself shook a little. They matched the footsteps of the giant creatures. And with this, it was the sign for the two of them to turn around and start making their way deeper into the city. Neither of them felt like asking about it, nor being anywhere near if it decided it wanted to leave the fog.
They made their way down the street and as they got further into the city the sounds and smells they associated with a bustling city started to come to them. Different than they were used to though. Gone was the screeching of tyres to be replaced by the sound of metal clanging on metal. The sounds appeared to be coming from more to the left, or west if they were sure of their compass points, but to the right a large building started to fill their field of view.
They were torn about where to go next, but the lure of the large building was too much to resist, so they made their way towards it. Before it was a large square filled we trees surrounded by wooden seats and several water features. The building itself was one of the largest they had seen so far, standing twice as tall as the ones around it.
Further east they could see another large building looming over the house not too far away. The sound of cheering came from this direction.
“Arena?” Filpin asked pointing to the structure.
“Arena,” Frank just nodded.
But the two of them made their way into the building before them. It was ornate, marble columns everywhere with yellow painted walls, and gold trim. Everything about the place shouted luxury to them. So they could not help themselves and made their way into the large double doors that stood open. The doors were massive, towering above them, and opened into a high ceiling with a glass domes roof that shone light all through the room.
A large desk filled the centre of the room, with staircases curling up on either side of it to go to the next level. The smell food and sound of frying oil came from a door to the right, a glance showing people seated at tables and enjoying drinks. This way was a restaurant. A glance the other way showed tables with various games happening on them, cards, dice, the works.
As they were looking around a well-dressed man walked up to them. He was solid looking, but slightly shorter than they were. He wore a fancy suit that looked like some sort of uniform, with black and gold trimming the crisp white shirt. His face was covered in a full beard and the smile he gave them showed gleaming white teeth with a single gold tooth among them.
“Hey there lads,” he spoke to them in a gruff and deep voice, but his tone was nothing but respectful, “Welcome to the Casino. Now, you don’t exactly look like the usual clientele. Mind if I ask what you’re business is here?”
“Oh, um, we’re looking for someone,” Filpin chipped in, “I think her name was Mo.”
“Is she expecting you?” Filpin shrugged and he continued, “Well, do you have an appointment? No? Well, let’s see if we can make one for you then. Just follow me,” he led them over to the desk where a couple of similarly shaped and bearded men were sitting, writing things down in various books as they talked to different people. The man with them got the attention of one of them.
“These two fine gentlemen would like to make an appointment with Miss Vilsi.”
The man behind the desk lowered his glasses, then pushed them back up on his face.
“Let me see... What is the nature of the appointment?” He was looking at Frank and Filpin waiting for a reply.
“We just wanted to have a chat with her.”
“A chat?” He let out a heavy sigh, “Miss Visli doesn’t just see anyone. She is an important woman, and frankly neither of you humans look like you are important enough for me to even think about wasting her time on!”
“Humans?” Interjected Frank, “Aren’t we all humans?”
All the men behind the table laughed heartily, as did the man who had brought them over.
“Listen to this one. Thinks dwarves are humans? Surely it’s as clear as the rather dapper beard I have on my face,” his demeanour quickly turned out, “I think the two of you had better leave before you say something you might regret.”
The man... Dwarf... Who had taken them to the desk smiled warmly at them and led them back over to the front door.
“My apologies, but not only does it seem like you don’t have an appointment, but it also seems like you can’t make one. And you also don’t look like the kind of people to have more than a few crowns, so you likely couldn’t afford the restaurant, the hotel, nor the casino here. Please come back when you have an appointment, if you manage to make one.”
With a last push they were out in the plaza, amid the bustling crown that was going into and out of the building, and generally moving around the plaza as if it was a major hub.
“What’s next Frank? That didn’t go too well.”
“Arena?”
“Arena...”