Silver Peak, page 2
part #2 of Sky Realms Online Series
Leigh, the fourth member of their party, was an NPC: a non-Player character, generated from the code of the game. But she was not like any NPC Hall had ever encountered in any game before. Her AI was like that of a real person.
Which is what Hall thought of her as.
He also thought he was developing feelings for her and her for him.
“Do they even have Guilds now?” Sabine asked.
“Why wouldn’t they?” Roxhard responded. “Leigh?”
The Druid, as an NPC, had become their unofficial Wikipedia. She still found their lack of common knowledge strange, and Hall was afraid it would become too strange at some point. He feared the day she would think them too crazy and leave. But she answered their questions as best she could.
“Of course,” she said. “That is how Factions are created. They start out as Adventuring Guilds, align with other like-minded Guilds and soon enough, a new Faction is born.”
“Like the Greencloak Rangers?” Hall asked.
“Exactly,” Leigh answered.
The Greencloak Rangers had been a Faction that Hall had joined in the previous game, before the Glitch. Their headquarters was on Edin, further north, near a town called Timberhearth.
“There are not many Guilds now,” Leigh continued. “It’s like the Skirmisher in Land’s Edge Port said, there isn’t much need for Adventurers. Most are Traders Guilds or Merchants Guilds. And as we saw in Land’s Edge Port, the Class Guilds are still somewhat existing.”
“I can see the benefits for a Merchants Guild,” Sabine said. “But what are the benefits for others?”
“Allies, shared resources,” Leigh replied with a shrug.
“How is a Guild formed?” Roxhard asked.
“Visiting a Councilor of Deeds and signing a Charter.”
“There’s one in Silver Peak Keep, right?” Roxhard asked excitedly.
Leigh nodded. “What would we call ourselves?” she asked with a smile. He couldn’t see her, but Hall could hear it in her voice.
Hall could picture Roxhard smiling as well, glad that Leigh was engaging with him. The poor kid had a severe crush on her, where Hall was pretty sure she thought of him as a kid brother. Hall was just glad that she was including herself in the Guild idea of Roxhard’s.
The four of them made an odd party. Warden, Skirmisher, Witch, and Druid.
“I don’t know,” Roxhard said, his voice never losing the enthusiasm. “Just think we should have a name. What do you think, Hall?” he asked.
Hall stopped, hand resting on a large boulder as he looked south along the edge of the mountains. The ground was hilly, rising and dropping with the slopes of the peaks. Rocks littered the grass, small bushes here and there. No trees but there were many further out. Bare patches of gray and white stone broke through the thin grass.
The same landscape for as far as he could see.
“I don’t know,” he finally answered. “I agree with you,” he added when he really didn’t care but it obviously made Roxhard happy. “So come up with something by the time we get to Silver Peak Keep.”
CHAPTER TWO
The cave was dark, the light only penetrating ten feet or so into the dark opening. Not large, it was about ten feet wide and tall. Almost a perfect square, it was not a natural opening. Along the edges, there were hints of symbols carved into the rough face of the cliff, worn down by age and weather.
Hall ran his fingers over some of the symbols, not able to make any of them out. They were deep, large. The edges smoothed and rounded.
“I don’t remember there being a cave here,” Sabine said from the other side, running her fingers over the runes.
“Me either,” Hall said and looked over at Roxhard, who just shrugged.
Hall had explored every inch of Edin in the original game, but he was finding that their new version was vastly different. Skara Brae itself; along with the meadow, forest, and Grove; were all new.
“I’m from the far side of Edin,” Leigh said. “I have no idea about anything on this side of the island but that one there looks like a Firbolg symbol,” she added, pointing at one of the clearer symbols.
Etched on Hall’s side of the opening, it was about halfway up. Three inches tall, twice wide, there were two long lines over each other. Wavy, they looked to Hall like representations of a flowing river. Two more lines ran vertically at the third points, a break in each at the top to look like a lowercase i.
“What does it mean?”
It was Leigh’s turn to shrug.
“Don’t even know if it is Firbolg,” she said.
Hall stepped back, looking into the cave. It looked to turn about fifteen feet in, thinning down to a smaller tunnel.
Four days of hard travel out from Skara Brae had brought them to the trail that had led to the cave. They had found the trail along the base of a mountain. It had cut into the stone, leading up into the mountains and curiosity, the bane of adventurers, had led them to follow it. At the end was the cave, only a half-mile of path and a couple switchbacks later. Hall thought they had turned back around so they were facing the highlands of Edin and not out toward the island’s edge.
The passage had been smooth, both floor and sides, wide and level, gently sloping to the cave. The remnants of etchings lightly carved into the surface had been visible, designs that were worn down to be unrecognizable.
Someone, or something, had gone to a lot of trouble to carve the passage and the cave itself. In the original game, Hall knew it would have meant there was a dungeon within the mountain. That would mean quests and treasure. Did the same rules still apply?
There was only one way to find out.
“Should we?” Hall asked and pointed at the cave with his spear.
Sabine walked into the cave, just past the threshold and into the shadows. Taking a couple steps to the side so she could see down the turn, trying to look ahead, she shrugged.
“We need coin and experience,” she said. “And caves usually mean dungeons, which means coins and experience.”
“Is this a dungeon?” Roxhard asked. “You said this wasn’t here before.”
“It wasn’t,” Hall said. “Which means a new dungeon to explore.” New. Something that they had not encountered playing Sky Realms Online before. Which is what we’ve been dealing with on a daily basis now, he thought but didn’t say.
He had played Sky Realms Online since the beta testing and had been over every map in the game multiple times. He knew all the quest locations, all the dungeon locations. Ever since the Glitch, the new version of the game they found themselves trapped in was turning out to be something completely new and different. New skills. New quests. New and better NPCs, he thought with a glance toward Leigh.
Post-Glitch the developers had worked hard to give the trapped Players a new and more immersive experience. This cave had to be another example of that.
“There was a new patch coming, right?” Sabine said as Hall stepped further into the cave, taking the lead. “Maybe this cave was part of it.”
Pike spread his wings, the dragonhawk lifting off Hall’s shoulder to settle on Angus’ back. He mooed softly as the dragonhawk’s talons dug into the thick highlander cow’s fur. Curling his wings in tight, Pike settled down.
“Which means it’ll be high level,” Roxhard pointed out.
“If it looks too tough, we’ll back out,” Hall said.
He looked at Leigh, who was studying the runes around the opening. Hall had started to notice that whenever the three Players had a conversation about the world outside the game, or even the inner workings of the game world, Leigh’s attention would focus on something else. It was like she was ignoring the conversation.
Ignoring or programmed to ignore.
Hall pushed that thought away, not liking it. She was a person, the same as him, as far as he was concerned.
The doors were made of bronze. They stood twice as high as Hall’s height and each was as wide as Roxhard’s height. The tunnel had turned and continued for a hundred feet before ending in the great pair of doors.
Fitting tightly in the carved tunnel opening, there didn’t appear to be an obvious way to open them, the seam between the panels barely noticeable. Smooth shadows played across the surfaces as the torches the party carried flickered. They held them up, trying to see into the shadows at the top of the doors, moving them along the edges. Nothing. No runes, no markings, no handles. Not even any hinges that they could see.
Roxhard had tried pushing on the doors. The heavy metal had not budged or even vibrated from the pressure.
“Are they even doors?” Sabine asked, frustrated.
She had a point. With no hinges or handles, the bronze doors were just plates set into the tunnel wall. Doors wanted to open. These appeared to be just a barrier.
Hall ran his fingers along the edge where the bronze met the stone of the tunnel. There was a gap there, thin with a slight draft. The bronze was not cut into the stone, which meant it could be moved. Or removed.
Running his fingers along the seam, he crouched low, examining the floor. Up close, he could feel a slight gap at the bottom edge of the bronze-like sides, and now that he felt it, he could see it. Barely. A quarter-inch, if that, he judged. Staying crouched, he shuffled to the middle where the joint between the doors was.
He had to bend down closer to make out what he was now seeing. Four grooves, only a half-inch wide, were cut into the smooth floor of the tunnel. An inch between each pair, a couple inches between each set. They were only an inch or so past the face of the door, which was why they had not been noticed before. The grooves were smooth, the edges rounded, as was the bottom. An arc.
“Here,” he said drawing the other’s attention.
“What is that?” Leigh asked.
“Tracks,” Hall answered standing up and looking at the door again. “They open inward,” he added, sure of it.
He was positive he had guessed right. If they could have gotten to the top of the doors, used the torches to drive away the shadows, he knew they would have seen a duplicate set of grooves. Top and bottom tracks.
Knowing the doors could move still didn’t open them. But now, they were more motivated. There had to be a way to open them from the outside.
Torches moved about the tunnel, up and down the length, as they looked for anything out of the ordinary. No matter how small, they examined it. A rock outcropping alone in a span of smooth wall, each tried to move it someway. Any way. They crawled on their knees, moving the torches down low. Hall, the tallest, stretched as high as he could, moving the torch at Firbolg height.
An hour stretched into two and still nothing. Each was on their second or third torch.
“Give up?” Sabine asked, leaning against the wall.
She had given up a couple minutes before. The others, except Pike and Angus, who had fallen asleep in a corner, had kept searching, but Sabine had leaned against the wall and not moved. She was frustrated, angry.
“Time to move on,” she said. “Silver Peak is still days away.”
Hall knew she was right. This was pointless, but he still did not want to give up. Not yet. This cave, these doors, they existed for a reason. It could be simply that they did not have the quest associated with the doors. If that was the case, they would not find the quest here in the tunnel.
“I think she’s right,” Leigh said a minute or two later. Sighing, she stood up, stretching her back. “We know where this place is. We can try again on the way back home to Skara Brae.”
Hall smiled. Leigh had called the village home. He knew she would live there, like him. As the Custodian of the Grove, she would need to. He could leave for lengths of time, but could she? He didn’t like the idea of adventuring without her. It had only been weeks since they had met, but he had grown fond of her. The four of them were turning into a good party.
But she had called the village home. His village. Her home.
Roxhard stood in front of the doors, his own torch out and the light from the others barely reaching, rapping on the bronze plate with an iron-mailed knuckle. The metal on metal sound echoed through the tunnel, bouncing off the stone walls. Tap, tap, tap. The echo came back to them. The Dwarf tapped again, harder, leaning in closer.
“What the—” he exclaimed. “Check this out.”
Hall stepped forward, holding the torch close. Roxhard tapped again. Hall saw nothing.
“What am I looking at?” he asked.
“Weird,” Roxhard replied. “It’s not doing it now.”
With a shrug, Hall stepped away from the doors. He joined Leigh and Sabine further down the tunnel. The torches were all away from the Dwarf and the doors, the light not reaching, which was not a problem for Roxhard as he possessed Dark Vision from his Dwarven heritage. The two women gathered their travel packs from where they had been set down. Leigh was nudging Angus with a leather boot, trying to wake the cow. The tapping started up behind them again.
Hall was about to turn back, tell Roxhard to join them as it was time to go, when the Dwarf yelled louder.
“Get over here,” he said, his voice filled with excitement.
With a sigh, Hall turned back, bringing the torch with him. Roxhard kept tapping on the bronze doors. At the edge of the torchlight, the Dwarf’s whole fist struck the bronze, which seemed to ripple. A trick of the light.
“Dammit,” Roxhard cursed as Hall got closer, the light from the torch burning bright.
He looked from the door to the torch in Hall’s hand, tapping on the bronze panel lightly. He studied the torch and the door while Hall stood there impatiently.
“Get rid of the torch,” the Dwarf finally said, his voice filled with a confidence it usually lacked.
With a shrug, Hall walked back to the women and handed Sabine the torch. He turned away stepping out of the limits of the light. He paused, letting his own racial bonus acclimate to the shadows. For him, as a Half-Elf, the Limited Night Vision turned the world into gray and black shadows. There were no details, everything just shadows upon shadows. Lighter gray on darker gray on lighter black on darker black. The ambient light from the torches enough to activate the sight so he could walk, make out the shapes, but not enough to truly know the details of things. Inside a dark tunnel carved from rock with barely any torchlight, it was enough.
Standing next to Roxhard in the dark, he watched as the shadowed shape of the Dwarf’s hand struck the black of the bronze door. He had expected nothing, just like before, but was surprised.
Ripples spread out from where Roxhard struck. The metal itself moved like a small wave. What he had thought a trick of the light before was something shifting within the bronze.
“The hell,” Hall exclaimed, running his leather-gloved hand over the area Roxhard had hit. It felt smooth, the same as before.
“See,” Roxhard said proudly. “I knew it was doing something weird. It was the light,” he added. “You couldn’t see it with the light.”
“See what?” Sabine asked, the torch coming closer.
“Stop,” Hall said, holding his hand out toward the women. “Don’t bring the torches closer.”
He reached out and struck the bronze with a leather-clad fist. He saw the rippling effect and felt it. The door gave way from his impact. It flowed away from his fist. There was resistance but not as much as expected.
Somehow, the lack of light made the doors less solid.
It was a puzzle. The doors becoming liquidy had something to do with how they opened.
But what?
Hall moved closer to the joint where the two panels of bronze met. He ran his hands over both sides where he imagined door handles would be for a Human or an Elf. The two races were essentially the same size, Elves being the taller of the two but only by a foot. Their door handles, tables and chairs were all functionally the same height as those of the Humans. The other races of Hankarth were all noticeably taller or shorter, which affected the height of their furniture and doors.
Tapping in the general area of where a door handle would be, Hall saw the ripple effect again but it was more pronounced. Instead of the small movements like elsewhere in the door, he could see the ripples were larger than before. A half-inch or so off the edge of the door the bronze waves moved away from the spot Hall had struck, flowed away. The liquid metal spread away from the impact zone, thinning the door and revealing a handle.
Built into the door itself, the handle was an inch in diameter. Made of a dark rock, onyx or obsidian, it ran up and down about six inches. Just long enough for a man to get his hand around, the metal flowing away on the back enough for fingers to slide around the handle.
“You should have the honors,” Hall said, stepping away and motioning Roxhard to take his place.
The Dwarf moved to where Hall had been. He had to stretch up but the area was not out of reach. Dwarves were shorter but not that short. He struck the area Hall had, the metal flowing away and revealing the dark rock handle. Grabbing it, his fingers barely fitting around in the armored glove, Roxhard pushed on the door.
With a groan, it started to slide, moving easily. There was no squeaking of wheels, the door moving back smoothly. Roxhard only pushed it open a foot or so, enough for them to squeeze through.
He stepped back, the room beyond in total darkness.
CHAPTER THREE
Hall led, stepping past the door and into the room beyond. Roxhard followed. They both moved in a different direction away from the door, weapons drawn and ready.
The torches were in the corridor behind the partially open door, Leigh and Sabine pulling further back with the light.
He looked around with his limited night vision, just enough light leaking through the open door to allow it to work. They were in a room, almost perfectly square. The walls were smooth, the floor and the ceiling were as well. About twenty by twenty, with a ceiling as high, there was a wagon wide opening on the far wall. Another corridor leading off from the room, lost in shadow too deep to see through. There didn’t appear to be anything on the walls, no writing or decoration.
