Terramyr Online: The Undiscovered Country: A LitRPG Adventure Page 23

“Well, actually, I would have to say that I am,” Rhonda was taken a little off guard but also looked somewhat flattered.

  “It isn’t often I find someone I am inclined to share my more precious potions with, let alone the secret of their contents,” he pocketed the money and stood with his hands on his hips, regarding each member of the party in turn. “I am inclined to help you. What god do you serve?” He was only addressing Rhonda now.

  “I have an allegiance to Kyra,” Rhonda replied. At the sound of the goddess’s name, Little Man popped his head out of Rhonda’s satchel and yipped happily at the trader.

  “Ah! A moondust wolf!” The trader threw his hands into the air. “You not only serve her, but you carry the dark-eyed goddess’s blessing as well!” He laughed appreciatively and gave the pup a pat on the head. “Your goddess will not brook an act of treachery. I agree to share the secret with you, for I see you have honorable need of it.” He offered Rhonda a slip of paper, which she added to her inventory.

  Nodding a friendly goodbye to each of them in turn, the trader turned to his saddle and seemed to be searching for a stirrup or other means to mount the llama. The tipsy manner seemed to be returning to him, as he inspected first one side, and then the other of the animal, and finally returned to where he’d started, consternation on his face.

  “My friend, could you possibly…” he mimed holding his hands together with the fingers interlaced and lifted them quickly toward his shoulder.

  “Oh, yes, sure. Of course.” Rhonda adjusted her posture, spreading her legs wide so she was a little lower to the ground and interlaced her fingers. The trader stepped into her hands and fumbled his way to the seat, leaning heavily into Rhonda’s face as he did so. When he was finally settled, he waved happily and set off down the bridge, disappearing into the forest on the opposite side.

  Having chuckled quietly to himself throughout the encounter and while the trader had ridden away, Augustin clapped his hands together once and sighed with satisfaction. “That fellow is my favorite so far,” Augustin said decidedly, a broad smile on his face as he pointed in the direction the trader had gone. “I’ve never seen an NPC scripted or animated so well. I must say though, your manner of conversation was most strange to me, Rhonda. What was all that about commanding dozens of drab grunts, and your ‘new friend’ having strong hands?”

  “Yeah, and you gave away the one and only manticore heart any of us have come across.” Brian was a little miffed now that Augustin was bringing up the weird negotiations.

  “Different NPCs like to hear different things. They can respond to everything from bribery to intimidation, jokes to flattery, romantic advance,” she gave a significant look to Brian, who flushed involuntarily, “and sometimes just quiet communing around a shared object. My HUD shows me an interface that indicates how effective my persuasion is as I try various tactics. There is also a limited amount of time to work to put the merchant in an agreeable frame of mind. The longer I spend waffling between options, the less effective the persuasion will be. I’ve needed to train my perception skill as well as speechcraft to get good at it, but I’ve never gotten an NPC to a 100% compliant mood until this guy. All that luck definitely paid off I think!”

  “I see, that’s why you took the leap on the final act of bribery for information,” Mike said, realization dawning in his voice.

  Rhonda nodded her head and sighed, a look of extreme satisfaction spread across her features.

  “So what’s in that elixir, now that you have the ingredient list?” Augustin asked.

  “I’m not actually allowed to share it,” Rhonda said. Brian was sure she was joking, but she didn’t crack a smile. When no one seemed to accept that as an answer, Rhonda continued, “The ingredient list carried Kyra’s symbol and a warning that any who would share it with those who do not have an honorable need for it would forfeit her blessing and incur her wrath. It may be possible that I can ask for leads on a single item here and there, but I can’t actually tell you what is in it.”

  “Fair enough,” Mike said. “Honorable enough to respect your chosen deity, but still threatening to leave a friend rotting on the side of the road when angered.” He nodded with his tongue in his cheek.

  “Oh, speaking of having friends in a position to be rotting on the side of the road,” Brian began, remembering something Rhonda had said, “what was all that about being in a battle way over our party size and ability level? This quest was a lot harder than I thought it would be.”

  “Well...” Mike began. “To be honest, it recommended a party size of ten with a minimum player level of five to join.”

  “Ten?” Brian asked.

  Mike shrugged. “We don’t even have ten people to begin with, and we haven’t hired any NPCs yet for House Bob to bring with us. Plus, no one knows where Barry is, and I think Chris is still a level three or four. He’s mostly just running around exploring things and dying before he can reach a save point.”

  “And Meredith is focused on the glitches,” Rhonda put in.

  “And Rojas doesn’t really play much other than using the software to communicate with us. So...” Mike didn’t really need to explain more than that. Brian got it. It was the four of them against the world.

  Getting up, he went to the pile of dust and rubble and looted what was left.

  [+2 gargoyle dust]

  [+Bohotes gargoyle eye]

  “I got dust and a Bohotes gargoyle eye... but it doesn’t look like an alchemical ingredient,” he said. He examined it in his inventory. “Ah, the dust is used in stone-skin potions, and the eye is a quest item. I think we just found out how to collect on our mission.” Brian smiled wide.

  “I’ll take the dust,” Rhonda said. Brian tossed it to her as the others looted the remaining gargoyle and gnome corpses.

  “I collected four hundred and fifty gold from the gnomes,” Augustin said.

  “More dust from the first gargoyle, but no quest item this time,” Mike put in.

  “Got some crossbows and daggers too,” Mike said.

  Rhonda gave Mike a few mana potions and Mike used them so he could heal Brian and Augustin a bit before they set off again.

  Crossing the bridge, they found a pile of littered bones, broken wagon wheels, and rusty swords and shields piled on the other side just inside the tree line, a few items also strewn about the clearing where the road met the bridge.

  “Previous conquests?” Mike guessed.

  Brian nodded. It would fit with the quest line. They examined the pile, but found nothing of value except for a stinkhorn mushroom, which Rhonda promptly picked.

  The road went eastward for about a mile, littered with skeletons, pieces of broken armor, and abandoned wagons until they came up to a set of pike barricades. Four guards stood behind the barricade, their heavy crossbows aimed at the group.

  “Oh man,” Augustin declared.

  Just then, one of the guards stood up straight. “Wait, you’re Greencaps!” he said. “We are the Bohotes city guard, or what’s left of the patrol unit, anyway. We tried to retake the bridge yesterday, but we were pushed back by a pack of gray gnomes and three gargoyles.”

  “Three?” Mike asked, looking to the sky.

  “We killed one gargoyle, but I lost fifteen men, and our captain was carried off by the surviving two gargoyles,” the guard said.

  “We killed the gargoyles,” Brian said. He pulled out the Bohotes gargoyle eye and walked forward.

  The guard came out around the barricade and took the eye in his hand. He stared at it with an open-mouthed expression at first, and then he glanced to Brian and back to the eye, smiling so big that Brian could see every tooth the man had.

  “It’s true! They killed the gargoyles!”

  “We’re saved!” another guard shouted.

  “Huzzah!” shouted a third.

  “Come, we will escort you to Bohotes,” the first guard said.

  Brian was pulled out of his avatar as if his camera angle was floating back and up.
For a brief moment he saw all of the players’ avatars walk toward the guard. Then horses were brought out, and the group galloped along the road as it turned due south. The camera angle flew just above the treetops, allowing Brian to see the galloping procession as well as scan the area around. To the left about a hundred yards beyond the road were four Paratheracerium munching on branches. To the right there was a giant two-legged monster with small wings and long, thin forelegs it used like arms to hold down a gargantuan Brachiosaur as it bit down on its neck.

  None of the large creatures seemed aware of the group during the cut scene though.

  The group galloped faster as city walls and towers became visible to the south, as did a sweeping inland sea of vast proportions. Way out in the distance some strange leviathan broke the water’s surface and tore into a ship, cutting it in half and sinking it easily. For a moment Brian thought it might be the fire kraken, but this beast was a silvery blue color and was much more serpentine like, though it did have spikes along its body that Brian could just make out from this distance.

  There were also smaller fishing vessels on the water, but those stayed within a couple hundred feet of the shore, within the bounds of rock jetties that had been erected in what Brian assumed was an attempt to keep larger monsters away.

  He turned his focus back to Bohotes as the road veered just slightly more eastward. The city had massive stone walls towering at least fifty feet tall with evenly spaced towers that were taller still. Atop the towers were crews of guards that manned heavy ballista launchers.

  “Looks like they’ve fended off some very large beasts here,” Mike called out over the cut scene.

  The group stopped at the gatehouse, but the camera zoomed over thick walls with ten-foot-wide battlements and displayed the sprawling, bustling city of Bohotes in all its splendor. Human and elven construction could be seen in the houses. Some were one story, others two or three stories tall, but all of them were made of stone. Even the roofs had stone or clay tiles.

  A central keep stood in the middle of the city, with a secondary wall around it and heavy ballista launchers facing all directions. This city might have trade as its primary business, but it was obviously no stranger to danger.

  The camera swept out over the southern wall and down to the docks, which were curiously also made of stone instead of wood. The piers were spaced farther apart than any Brian had ever seen before—in real life or in games. Perhaps another sign of regular attacks. Splitting up where the ships docked would lead to fewer losses in case some monster got into the bay and past the jetties.

  The jetties themselves were not simply made of piled stone as Brian had thought from farther away. They had outward facing spikes and also sported several catapult and ballista stations. Brian looked down to see a group of merfolk swim up and snatch a fisherman from his boat that had ventured outside the safety of the jetties. In the distance a massive shark broke the surface, jumping and flipping its tail wildly, just in case the merfolk and leviathan hadn’t instilled enough respect for the dangers the inland sea possessed.

  The camera then swooped back around to retrace its path over the docks. An eagle circled around one of the keep’s four towers and then appeared to take over the perspective of the cut scene as it zoomed down into the streets, passing by throngs of humans, elves, and dwarves. Curiously, it also showed a couple of satyrs in the marketplace, something not usually seen in Terramyr’s books or games. Then the camera zoomed through the gatehouse and spun around once more to place Brian back into his avatar.

  Standing before him was a tall, wide-shouldered man with a green beret that sported two feathers and a metal badge, like the officer in Fezhik.

  “I am Brax,” he said. “You have done the Greencaps proud in clearing the road. We can once again resume trade with Fezhik and make sure both settlements have the supplies they need to fortify against the horrors of Prirodha.” He glanced at the party and then smiled briefly before giving them a nod and gesturing to the city gates. “You will find lodging at the Pink Quill Inn. No need to pay for the beds—we Greencaps own it and have a room ready for you. Once you are rested, come and find me in the gatehouse. I have another mission for you.”

  [LOCATION DISCOVERED: BOHOTES]

  [+1,000 XP]

  [QUEST COMPLETED: ROAD TO BOHOTES]

  [+5,000 XP]

  [You are now level 6]

  [Greencap reputation +50]

  Brian found the Pink Quill Inn had been added to his map, so he set a marker. The four of them walked through the gates. One of the guards looked up and caught sight of Little Man.

  “Awww, that’s adorable,” the burly guard said.

  “Looks like your charisma charm is working on the guards,” Mike said.

  “Don’t get any ideas, Mike. You go out burglarizing houses in Bohotes, and you’re on your own.”

  Mike laughed.

  Brian led them straight for two blocks. They passed stone houses with stone or clay shingle roofs. Each house had a little patch of lush, green earth around them, giving life to small vegetable gardens. A few people were in the street, most of them seemingly rushing to their houses with arms full of items they had bought at shops. Occasionally an NPC would exit a house and move along their way, but there were no kids to be seen in this part of town.

  Brian turned right at the next cross street and pointed ahead to the third building on the left-hand side. “The Pink Quill Inn,” he announced. He saw a sign that had what looked like the quill from a quillbear etched into it, as if it was stabbing through the words.

  They walked in and looked around. There were fifteen other Greencaps inside—some of them warriors wearing sets of plate mail armor and sporting various bladed weapons, some obviously mages in long robes. A pair of dwarf warriors were arguing loudly over which one of them had cheated during their game of cards, but the argument settled down once the serving girl brought out a pair of mugs and set them down on the table.

  A young man holding an empty food tray approached them and initiated a dialogue with Mike, despite the fact that Brian had been first in the door.

  Must be the assassin attire.

  “I am Fritt. I heard you would be coming and have already prepared your room. It’s upstairs. First door on your right.”

  One of the dwarves shouted at the other for getting more ale in his mug.

  “We had the same amount!” shouted the other.

  “Did not, she gave you two more!”

  “Well, that’s hardly my fault!”

  The first one punched the other and the two went tumbling to the floor, but none of the others in the inn seemed to pay them any mind.

  “I apologize for the Holdirk brothers, they are something of a nightly nuisance around here. Here is the key to your room.” Fritt then turned and started shouting at the Holdirk brothers to take it outside before they broke all the furniture again.

  “What about the guy over in the corner?” Rhonda said. “He’s been staring at us since we walked in.”

  Brian turned to see a muscular figure sitting in the far back corner, hood up over his head and a black mask on his face. The mask looked to be made of some sort of metal, but he couldn’t be sure. The figure seemed to be looking right back at him.

  “Well?” a familiar voice said. “You guys going to come and sit down or what?”

  The four of them shared a glance and then Brian turned back to the masked figure. It was Chris! “How did you get here?”

  Chris got up from the table and approached them. “It’s a little loud to hear you all clearly over the noise in here, but I take it this is the first time you’ve arrived in Bohotes?”

  “Yeah, but I wanna know how you made it here,” Mike said, repeating Brian’s question.

  “We will need to find a private place to talk,” Chris said. “I can’t discuss it openly or...”

  “Or everyone will pounce on you once you say the word or—”

  “DUDE! Shush!” Chris shouted, cutting Mik
e off.

  “Let’s go upstairs,” Brian suggested. “We were just offered a room here.”

  Chris shook his head. “Figures. I saw the message saying there was a quest about Bohotes. I’ve needed to pay for my room in order to save progress here.”

  The group went up the wooden stairs and opened the first door on the right. It was a room much like the room in Fezhik, twelve beds and a long table. A save point pillar stood in the middle of the room. Brian was eager to ensure he would keep his progress, so he quickly spent his ability point on the next armor mastery, adding an additional two base points to his armor rating. Then he interacted with the pillar and updated his file. The others did likewise.

  He then closed the door behind them and locked it. That would keep NPCs from entering and disturbing them.

  Chris removed his facemask. “This makes it so I can travel through human cities without being discovered as a half-orc,” he said, his gamer tag appearing over his head now that the mask was off. “Makes it a little easier, but it also makes it so no one can see I’m a Greencap.”

  “I couldn’t see your gamer tag either,” Brian said. “That’s why we didn’t realize it was you until you spoke.”

  “Ah,” Chris said. “Anyway, this game is pretty cool. I have officially gotten to level four now. I’ve been saving and everything.” He laughed a bit. “Probably should have saved a little more often, but my initial scouting paid off. I’ve been to Pythos, which I am willing to bet none of you have.”

  “Pythos?” Brian asked.

  “It’s the city of the orcs... or at least the orcs run the city now. From what I’ve gathered, before the orcs invaded Prirodha the city was inhabited by several thousand satyrs and centaurs. The orcs conquered it, killed the satyr king, and stuck his head on a pike in front of the city gates. Anyway, I have been able to trade with the orcs.” Chris pulled aside his cloak to reveal scale mail armor and a wickedly curved scimitar made of a silvery metal. “Got some good stuff like the mask, this armor, and my sword.”