Heralds- The Proving Grounds, page 14
Even Poe was out and about. It was the first Jen had seen his name light up since they had all signed on and went their separate ways the day before.
He hadn’t said a word to any of them… and then Sam and Bulorn had tried to kill each other right in front of him. Maybe not the best first impression.
Sam was already leaning over the table when Jen arrived. Her hands shifted the surface back and forth, zooming in and out.
Jen leaned against the door jamb just inside. “Hows it going?”
“I’m not sure where they’re recruiting from… the fan site forums were vague, but I got some names. Too many names, in fact. It’s like no one is sure who can invite, or everyone can. Sent tells to a few. And a few more to guild members who are online. The ‘Kingsmen.’ Pfft. Super egotistical. A new one has popped up as well, something about a ‘Reserve Corps,’ but there are not many of those running around. I think the main guild is the way to go.”
“You don’t think the other side knows who we are… do you? I mean, we know about Tobin because of the announcement. The other five are a mystery.”
“Good question. No answer.” Sam shrugged. “Word was some of them were seen rolling over by… huh. Green dot instead of blue dot. One of ours?”
Jen leaned forward to look down at the table as she flicked open her interface. “Where?”
“Middle of nowhere. Some graveyard. I was looking for the Kingsmen… lots of blue there, too. Did Bulorn beat us to them?”
Jen shook her head. “Friends list says he’s still in that Freeport town, doing whatever it is they do there now. Recruitment drive, training montage, I don’t know. Kail maybe?”
“Could be, I guess.”
A light green string of text appeared on the lower left side of Jen’s vision.
Poe: Hey, anybody? I could use a hand.
Sam stood up from the table. “I forgot all about that guy.”
Bulorn: Busy, maybe later.
Jen tapped the green dot amongst the blue. A nameplate popped up. Poe.
She brought up the virtual keyboard to respond in kind.
Jeneve: I can help. What’s up?”
Poe: Not sure how to explain it. I was leveling and… now there’s an event.
Sam rolled her eyes. Her fingers flashed across the open air much faster than Jen could ever hope to type.
Samara: Yeah, that happens. Pretty normal. Enjoy being lucky.
There was nothing new for a few moments.
Poe: No. I mean, it’s not normal. They aren’t attacking me. And now the Tobin guys is here fighting them.
Sam stood up straighter. “So he is there… huh.”
Jen frowned. “That’s what you got out of that? What about the abnormal event?”
“He’s probably like you, a nub that doesn’t know what events are about. Events are different to normal play, so now he’s confused.”
“Maybe… so I take it we’re helping?”
“Ironblood is there. I’m going.”
“We haven’t gotten permission to take them on yet. This is only day two.”
“Hank said a few days, right? Two is a few.”
“No, two is a couple. Three or more is a few.”
“Details.” Sam waved dismissively. “We go, help out Poe because we’re super nice, and just happen to be very close by if we can get the go ahead from Hank.”
Jen shrugged. “Agreed, though I doubt that second part will happen.”
“Shh. Don’t ruin my dreams.” Her fingers flicked through the air. “Asked Hank. Hopefully he gets back soon.” She leaned back in over the table.
Jeneve: Alright, we’re on the way. Try to get somewhere safe where we can appear without causing problems.
Poe: Safe as I’m going to get. Hiding for awhile now.
Sam shook her head. “Scardy cat. Can’t be that many of them. Looks like… two or three groups, tops. Did he forget he’s immortal?”
“That’s still a lot compared to three of us. Especially if all six of their Herald types are there.”
“If that’s the case, we bail. Simple. But I want to go anyway. Even if I can’t take him out, I’ll take the time to study my mark.”
Jen rolled her eyes. “You do that.”
“And the people he keeps close. Are all the abnormies in one group, or did they spread them out with one leading each group? So many questions. Useful stuff down the road.”
Jen stared at Sam over the table. “I can’t believe you latched onto that word.”
“It works.” Sam shrugged and double tapped the green dot on the map. It was well away from most of the blue dots scattered around the map’s outline of buildings and what looked to be a fence. He was hiding in a green section nearby, no doubt trees or tall grass.
There were two green dots there now. She would need to be more careful with her offhand comments. Sam latched onto the strangest things.
She tapped the green circles.
“Stop babbling.” Sam was standing a few feet away, facing down the shrinking form of Poe. He was crouched down with his head in his hands, his back to a large tree trunk.
He just mumbled. “I didn’t mean to.”
His voice was… higher than Jen would have expected.
Jen frowned and shooed Sam away with a gesture. The other woman rolled her eyes but backed up a few steps and turned to face the nearby buildings. “Fine, I’m going to see what I can learn about Tobin and his Kingsmen. Scream if you get into trouble. Talking to him, not you.”
“Yes, thank you.” Jen repeated the shooing gesture more swiftly. Once Sam was out of sight she knelt down in front of Poe. “Hey. It’s alright. What didn’t you mean to do?”
He shook his head. “I broke it. I screwed it all up. It’s my fault.”
“Poe, I want to help, but I don’t know how. You need to tell me what’s wrong. Please. I won’t tell anyone, I promise.”
His eyes turned up to her for a moment, shining bright spots deep inside his hood. He nodded a few times and and stood up slowly. He really wasn’t very tall, barely taller than her. “The event over there…” he gestured toward the graveyard, “I was trying to clear it. Bonus against undead, commanding them to fight each other… trying to stay away from everyone else. I don’t like playing with other people.”
“Okay…” Jen stood tall and tried not to look threatening. The guy seemed a bit on edge. “I guess that’s reasonable. What’s the problem?”
“Something…” His hood hid all but his chin with his face turned away from Jen. The thin beard he wore didn’t fit with the voice, his height, or his build. He was trying to look older than he was. “Something is wrong. I almost had it clear, but then it… glitched out and reset. The level jumped a lot. It added another phase. I could see the event’s details changing before my eyes with the window up.” His voice became a whisper. “I think it’s my fault…”
Jen tilted her head as she glanced the way he was looking. Tobin and the Kingsmen had thinned out the zombies milling around. Jen and Poe were hidden away by dense foliage and shadows. The graveyard was painted with moonlight. It wasn’t quite dark outside her dorm, but that didn’t matter here. The game kept its own timezones. “Well, I mean, some buggy stuff probably made it through the beta. That’s to be expected. They’re strong, I doubt they’ll die from an event this early on.”
“It’s not… normal. Its too strong. Like its supposed to beat them.” He turned the dark hood back to her. “I didn’t meant for it to happen, I don’t want to be the guy that ruined everything and-”
A piercing wail split the night.
Poe’s face shot back to the graveyard. “Oh no.”
14
The ground shook as the wailing echoed away, bouncing off the trees. Jen lurched to grab hold of a nearby trunk, only to nearly trip over her unseen bed.
She cursed and stood up straight, inching back a few steps and closing her eyes.
The shaking was all a visual effect. She was standing on perfectly level ground that wasn’t moving. She was still in the midwest, nowhere near the west coast and all its earthquakes.
She could hear the earthquake… but not seeing it meant she didn’t feel as though she was moving anymore.
Stupid brain.
Her eyes shot open as echoing laughter followed the rumbling dying away.
Soulshine was in her hands before she had even realized she had drawn it. Dim light filled the space within the trees as she held it aloft.
Poe’s hood was facing her, but she couldn’t see his face.
She held up the dimly glowing sword. “Paladin thing. What was all that about?”
“They made it to phase two.” He moved up to stand beside her, looking out at the buildings. “I was hoping they would just give up and leave.”
“Why? It’s just some undead.”
“No, it’s a hoard of undead. That’s what I was trying to say. I was getting ready to leave, only a few more to finish off. I had been turning undead against each other to save resources, but the last ones resisted the ability. So I had to summon a few skeletons to get the job done, right?”
Jen had never played a necromancer… it was all Greek to her. “Sure, okay.”
“They didn’t appear! Like, at all. Nothing. I had the event panel open to track how many were left, and it started freaking out. Numbers flying, the whole thing started over but worse. Somehow I did this. At least, I think I did.”
Jen frowned. “Okay… so how do we fix it?”
“I don’t know.” He shook his head. “I don’t know what I did. I didn’t mean to do it.”
“Yes. We covered that.” She sighed. “Don’t do anything stupid, Sam.” She mumbled under her breath. “The event has… rules, right? Guidelines? A goal? So we do whatever that is and it’s over, yeah?”
“I don’t think I can help. I was in the middle of the buildings when things broke, and he zombies that showed up just ignored me. I walked right out without them looking at me once. I was trying to figure out what I did. Someone must have found the event. I was still digging through all the stupid useless gray buttons in the GM menu hoping I could fix this, when they showed up.”
The laughter continued to bounce around as skeletons appeared in droves. Tons of the things. Enough to make it impossible to push through the crowd. Black Friday levels of skeletons.
“What about me? Can I hurt them?”
“I don’t know. You could try? I might be able to get a few to fight the others…”
The underbrush rustled and Jen held up her sword, ready to strike.
Sam raised an eyebrow. “I know if I was them, I would be suspicious of people showing up out of the blue. But I’m kinda paranoid, what with being a premiere assassin and all.”
Jen let out a breath and lowered her sword. “Don’t do that.”
“Can you douse that thing? It’s going to give us away.”
She sheathed Soulshine. “Does it matter? If they get caught up in this the early access event is over anyway.”
“Oh please.” Sam rolled her eyes. “We can’t be killed by mobs. What makes you think they can?”
She hadn’t thought of that. “Well, not all of them are immortal. Only six, at most.”
“The way things look? It’s Tobin, Celan, Kelara, Amos, Amallia, and Killian. That’s the party. Everyone else is much less organized and seems to be doing their own thing. Still trying to decide if keeping all the power in one place is genius or moronic. Arguments on both sides, really.”
“So, what, we let the rest die?”
“It would make for some openings in the guild roster… if you catch my meaning.” Sam wiggled her eyebrows. She was still working with the intent to infiltrate them, then.
Poe stepped up close, his hood shaking back and forth. “No. I don’t want them to die because I screwed something up. It’s not fair.”
Sam tilted her head. “News flash, kiddo. We’re on the other side. Screw them.”
“This wasn’t supposed to happen. This is a bug. A mistake. It’s not what the developers intended.”
“Well good for us, then.”
Poe stood as tall as he could. She wasn’t very tall, so he found the height to look down on Sam. “I don’t know why I asked for help. But you are the only one I didn’t want to hear it.” He shook his head and stepped past her, his hand flicking the open air. “Go away. I’ll find a way to fix this myself.”
Sam stood staring at the space Poe had occupied a few moments before. “What the hell was that supposed to mean?”
Jen glanced after him. He was behind the buildings, out of sight of the event and clearly moving about the interface. He was right, the skeletons seemed to be ignoring him entirely.
“He doesn’t know you. All he has seen is you starting a fight with Bulorn for no reason, then showing up to his cry for help and acting like what’s happening is a positive thing. I can see his side of it.”
“Well he’s a jerk.” Sam crossed her arms. She was almost… pouting? Huh. “I’m awesome.”
“Right now, I’m inclined to agree with him for the sake of the mission. We can’t let this end here. It’s not how the event is supposed to go down. If it’s really broken, that’s a problem.”
“So, what, we put in a GM ticket? Hank isn’t answering.”
“I don’t know.” Jen shook her head. “Hank said he would hear if we tried to get a hold of him, right? So just keep trying. This seems important enough to bug him. In the meantime, maybe we can help thin them out or something.”
“Hmm… if they even notice us. Wasn’t hard to slip by.”
“They don’t have eyes.”
“True. And I’m all for more experience, whether they fight back or not. Preferably not, honestly.”
Jen rolled her eyes as she drew her sword. “Hey, if it gets you helping, break the game. Go nuts.”
“There’s three groups of them out there. I guess we should split up? Just recall out if things get too bad.” Sam shrugged. “I’ll see about these guys.” She pointed to the closest building. “They seem weaker, need the help. You head over to Tobin’s group, they are farther but should hold out better. They’re healer heavy.”
Jen tilted her head as she looked out where Sam was pointing. She could barely see the building. “Wait, you made it there and back?”
“I can be sneaky when I want. And the zombies didn’t seem to care I was around. But no, I saw Tobin’s group fighting behind that building, then out in the open. I kept my distance. When this started up I turned back.” She raised an eyebrow at Jen. “We’re wasting time, if you intend to see this through.”
“Right, right.” Jen nodded a few times and hefted her sword.
Sam gave a nod and darted out into the open. She pivoted left and moved ahead at a dead run, more or less the way Poe had gone.
Which left Jen to handle the other side on her own… great.
The underbrush parted before her armored feet as she ran. She had her sword held high in both hands… when the old saying about not running with scissors popped into her head. Then again people had probably been running with swords for ages, right? Totally different thing.
The first skeleton she approached paid her heavy footfalls no mind. She kept her eyes on it as she ran on by. If she didn’t need to fight them, so much the better. There were a lot of them to get by if she was going to make it to the ruin Sam had pointed out.
It wasn’t long before they surrounded her. Empty eyes staring, pushing toward the buildings with Kingsmen in them. They would bump into her as they went, but gave it all the consideration they might for a rock… or a fellow skeleton.
It must have something to do with the Herald connection to Poe. It was for the best… this was another situation, like the bone giants, where she wasn’t sure immortality would be a blessing. An endless supply of skeletons wailing on you, unable to flee, unable to even move…
She shivered a bit. She didn’t care for them at all.
Soon she was barely able to move between them, slipping by sideways and elbowing them about to make room as they milled about aimlessly.
She made it to the building, her hand pressing against the stones just as someone appeared atop the wall in a burst of black smoke. She shoved a skeleton aside to keep the person up there from seeing her as she hugged the wall. The man was standing on the side, she was hiding around the back… with all her skinny “friends.” The smoke might have hidden her…
“They’re coming from somewhere.” The man atop the wall knelt down as he looked out over the skeletons. “We need to deal with that.”
There were sounds of someone else climbing… leather scuffing against stone. Hard to hear under steel ringing against bone from the other side of the wall.
“Hope the alternates group made it out of there.” A different voice. A bit higher, still clearly male.
“They’re tough. And without a healer or tank, they would have known to bail as soon as it started to look bad.” The first man again.
Odd. Concern for their fellows… might mean all the immortal ones were here. But they were holed up in this little building from the sound of the feet shuffling about.
“How far can you get with the teleport?” The higher voice.
“About ten feet?”
“Okay, how many times can you do it?”
“Until I run out of stamina. Six or eight maybe before I have to let it recharge… You want me to scout.”
“Kinda. But it’s risky. You misjudge the distance, or how many jumps…”
Jen frowned. This wasn’t adding up at all.
“And I die.” The man she had seen on the wall shrugged. “I’m expendable.”
“No one is expendable.” A new voice, muffled some by the wall.
“You got a better idea? We can’t stay here. They’ll run out of mana to heal you, and your shield’s durability won’t last all night.”
“I still don’t like it.” The man below, in the room. They couldn’t all be immortal then. At least a few of them were vulnerable to the broken event.
“I’m not helping much here. I don’t have a ranged attack. Not even the super convenient boomerang sword. We need to know what’s happening, or they won’t stop coming.”
