Ember Wind: Starlight City

Back to the Council

"Passed out again? This kid has no endurance," sighed a chainmail soldier, setting his heavy iron maul on the ground. "Do you want to drag him or shall I?"

The tall and brown gnoll in studded leather armor towered over the fallen body of a steel plated Emporian soldier. He spoke with a calm and light-hearted voice, "Can't blame him. Even though this place is just a simulation, you made it have adverse effects. Can you imagine what it's like carrying that armor and jumping around like he did?"

"This is why I stuck to chainmail, durable and lightweight. Why does he insist so much on that heavy crap? I like the idea of having a dedicated tank but still-"

"I'm sure there's reasons for it, just ones he's never told us." The gnoll glanced up towards the ripped open and empty cocoons. "What are you going to tell him, Cro?"

"Nothing for the moment. I'd rather he forget entirely."

"When he wakes up, he's gonna be asking questions about it."

"We'll deal with it when it comes-"

"YOU will deal with it." the gnoll angrily pointed at the chainmail human. "It was an unnecessary move."

"You saw that ability, I knew how it functions. I had to deprive Judas of a food source, otherwise, the fight would've dragged on and she would've suffered a worse fate. I did her a favor-"

"You just hastened a fight we were already gonna win by being reckless."

"I did what I needed to do to ensure our victory. Damn it Falcher. If we lost that fight, how many more would die from those glitches?"

"Is that-"

"Shush damn it! Let me speak. It is better to lose two than it is to lose a thousand."

"Says who? Who decides that?"

"Any man with half a brain. Why was she so important? She was a buffer that was never around and only served to take him away from everything else." Creoft gestured to Tangurple.

"All right fine, she wasn't around but it's not like she had a choice, your damn game bugged out all over the place!"

"An unfortunate side-effect of getting hacked by some unstable third party"

"Side-effect? Is that really what it is?"

"What else would you call it?"

"A failure of protocol, the inability to predict the most obvious threat."

"Falcher, I don't want to argue about this now. There are better times and places for this-"

"And you're just gonna shrug this off, just like that?"

"Stop trying to assume that I am some ungrateful asshole who deliberately destroyed lives. I'll tell Tang the truth, all right? I want to get out of here before some other ugly thing rears its face"

"And what about these?" Falcher pointed to several leather bags within the cave.

"Pop them open and take it back as mementos." Creoft knelt down and opened the bag left behind by Judas. Inside it was an object he had long forgotten about. The object was an inky black pearl roughly the size of a human head. Creoft held it up and read the flavor text it displayed on his HUD.

Orb of Other Wordly Chatter

"This large pearl is a creation form Odis, the God of Time. A gift from Aetherius that allows the beholder to make contact with others from another world. Legends say that only one was ever made, these legends have been lost to time."

Creoft's eyes lit up, "Holy shit! This... this is it!"

Falcher glanced over his shoulder, "What is it?"

"Back in Uskor, remember when word about the external communication rune went around?"

"Is that it?"

"It is! This is the mysterious orb that has eluded us for so long, the object I can use to make contact with my developers."

"Are you sure it's going to work?"

"I haven't a damn clue," Creoft began to play with it, trying to figure out how it worked but was quick to stop. "Better do this in front of the council. They'll call bullshit otherwise."

"Why should we tell the council? So far, I've only seen them, primarily that German girl, get pissed at you. Frankly, I'm surprised it's still together."

"That's because I'm the glue but that's beside the point. If we are to progress and get out of here, we'll need the council to support us because our guild can't stand on its own anymore. This orb will act as proof that we won and that the way forward is open. Now pick up Tang and let's get going!" Creoft seemed very eager to show off his newfound trophy as he pranced around the cave making headway towards the tunnels.

Falcher sighed and rolled his eyes. "Tang, when you wake up, you're buying me a beer... nope, you're buying me a damn bar," he grumbled, grabbing Tangurple's arms and dragging his heavy body behind him.

Creoft was stopped at the tunnels, puzzled by the three options for routes. "I don't recall there being three entrances when I got here."

"Well pick one and go, I'm getting tired."

Creoft stared at the three tunnels doing some weird mathematical evaluation in his head, all while mumbling, "eenie, meenie, minie, moe..." After about two minutes of nonsensical thinking and gibberish, Creoft walked into the right tunnel and immediately tripped over something, landing face first into the ground.

Falcher rolled his eyes in disappointment. "Again? What is with you people and falling?"

"There is actually something here," Creoft then opened his inventory and pulled out a torch and lit it. The light from the torch revealed a small collection of loot bags left behind from mobs and players alike. "The hell? Whose shit is this?"

Falcher let go of Tangurple and opened one of the bags. "It's mismatched gear, raiders probably. Couple piles of ash as well. Maybe there was a battle here, it would explain why it was only Judas and his guards."

"Cannon fodder killed cannon fodder? Interesting idea. Yet these players had good gear, their stuff ranges from forty to eighty. They weren't weak."

"Perhaps there's more further in? Maybe they got swarmed. Armies will attack but individuals could slip by unnoticed, remember what Tang mentioned about the Uskor boss?"

"He went in alone and soloed it. Do you think that because we got split up in the tunnels, we were recognized as individuals rather than a group?"

"And that prevented the spawning of trash mobs? I think so."

Creoft grabbed a loot bag and combined it with his own. "Might as well loot it all since we're here. No one else will ever find this, probably."

"More spoils for the victors?" Falcher replied questioningly. To him, this felt like a trap, something that shouldn't be but this loot wasn't fresh. It had been there for a while but the mystery of whom it belonged to still lingered whilst they searched and plundered what they could carry and wanted to carry.

Then they found one loot bag in particular. Creoft pulled out an olive green robe with a hood counterpart with the logo of the long dead guild plastered to it; a depiction of a green apple bleeding red blood. "Holy shit..." Creoft immediately turned around and grabbed Falcher's attention. "Look at this!"

Falcher grabbed the robe and stared at the logo curiously. "A bleeding apple? Ok?"

"Don't you get it? This belonged to the old murder guild, Poisoned Oath."

"I thought all the associated items were destroyed."

"All but one, the person who fled."

"The psychotic woman who called herself the Mother of darkness or something?"

"Precisely. This must've been her old robe that she kept in memory of Reztri." Creoft then chuckled.

"What's so funny?"

"Karma. She loved Reztri, both of them were in Tullus' guild but there was some falling out and Reztri ran with her. When the council hunted down and erased Poisoned Oath, she ran and started anew with a vow to erase us. But here are her remains and she's the one that's been erased."

"I'm not sure I follow, but I'll just nod and pretend I understand," and Falcher nodded.

"You don't have to. I'm definitely taking this though."

After much looting and pillaging of the loot bags, Creoft and Falcher filled their own inventories to max capacity leaving behind only the low level, near shattered and useless gear. They continued their hike through the empty and quiet tunnels. Falcher continued to drag Tangurple despite his exhaustion setting in. Then they reached the mouth of the cave where the big boulder still remained and served as a blockage. Creoft cursed the griffon under his breath and sought another tunnel despite Falcher's heavy panting.

Unfortunately, all the tunnels looped around in a giant circle, constantly bringing them back to the starting area. Creoft kicked the ground and grabbed Tangurple's shield.

"And what are you doing with that?" Falcher asked, quickly taking a moment's rest on the clay soil.

"I'm gonna move a mountain," Creoft replied as he tried to mimic Tangurple's movements and bashing style. He charged forward and slammed himself and the shield against the giant boulder.

The slam echoed throughout the cavernous entrance as Creoft flopped onto his back and groaned in pain, quickly regretting the idea in the first place. Then came a series of squishing noises often heard when someone steps in mud, only this was much larger. Falcher raised his head and looked around but saw nothing.

However, nothing new was coming but instead, the big boulder moved. Creoft's body slam created enough imbalance to cause the mud and clay beneath it to disperse and like a large tower, the boulder rolled over and slammed the hardened stone floor of the quarry. The frozen wind rushed in without hesitation, blasting the three of them with bitter stiffness at frostbite temperatures. Frost warnings appeared on their HUDs but Creoft stepped outside. It was midday and cloudy, dozens of miniature tornadoes made of loose snow circled around the area for brief moments. Many breaking down as quickly as they were formed and visa versa.

The clouds and snow however only made the brightness worse for them as the world around them was made ten to twenty times brighter than normal as the day's light reflected off every surface, every little snowflake, and icicle. Creoft raised his arm trying to shield his eyes from the blinding light but it was all around him and it burned. He quickly turned his back to the outside and focused on the inside of the cave where Falcher was already reluctantly preparing for another long journey of dragging Tangurple's body.

They dragged themselves and Tangurple across the frozen wastes of the Ashua to the city of Randstad where the city guards were acting normal again. Through the Transit Shrine network, the three of them ported back to Empora and the Town of Initiation.