Arianne looked up and around at the looming remains of the High Gate at the north end of the Gorian City of Newkeep. The quality of the workmanship in the salted stone and ivory inlay of the outer columns was breathtaking. According to the Conquests of the King, The Gorian Kingdom was home to the finest stonewrights and miners. As the central territory on the continent of Bairre, Goria had been forced by circumstance to develop an economy around its only major resource, and that was the royal quarries that bordered the mighty mountain ranges that separated the lowlands from the soaring ancient empire of Cair Bonne and the unseen heights of the Mountains of Despair.
Amy remembered Jordan’s story about the castle made of brass and the High Princess Kai-She, who was apparently imprisoned there high atop the brutal peaks of the most treacherous mountain ranges on the entire continent. Though they made life difficult for traders, the Kings and Princes of Cair Bonne and the Highland city masters were no lightweights when it came to pressing their strategic advantages.
Only a handful of viable routes existed between Goria and Cair Bonne, which left the southern kingdom with few options for conducting belligerent diplomacy under threat of military action. Every road was narrow and easily guarded, and each required almost continuous uphill travel. So Goria took the economic route, and within a generation, the northern kingdom and pretty much every other human settlement in both Aventar and Bairre was completely dependent on the mighty output of the royal quarries.
Apparently, Natsein had either enlisted the help of Gorian stonesmiths to build their cities, or the people of Goria had ventured east to establish their own colonies. Whatever happened, it apparently ended badly, as now all that remained south of the Blighted Forest were ruins and the ghosts of those whose dreams had perished among them.
But as fascinating as the tour was, Amy was on the lookout for a far more dangerous part of Gorian history. Even though she had two miniature adventuring companions with a variety of mysterious powers, the fact was these ghosts were level ten encounters with powers of their own and the demonstrated ability to make quick work of characters with single digit levels. She elected to leave Nickel at the entrance to the ruins. He was well enough trained he would neither follow nor wander off. But he was likely enough to retreat from strangers it would keep Arianne’s treasure and possessions safe.
She caught movement on the screen and instantly activated Arianne’s concealment ability. Amy’s character stopped and crouched behind an overturned section of a crumbled stone wall. Both her Littlekin companions winked out at the exact same moment. There, only a few dozen yards away, a spectral woman floated over a broken pile of cut stone. Roughly the same distance away behind a line of sapling trees, another ghost lurked. Amy couldn’t see many details through the leaves and branches, but the first was wearing a scuffed and twisted gold-colored chain around its neck.
The amulet!
Arianne didn’t move. She was somewhat confident the nearest of the two ghosts wouldn’t attack at this range, but the level difference still created the potential she would be detected even beyond a level ten ghost’s normal aggression range. Amy targeted the closest ghost, and Arianne drew her finely crafted knife. She was overcome by regret she hadn’t come up with some better combat skills by now. Getting close enough to a ghost to stab it with a knife was going to be dangerous in the best of circumstances, and there was no telling how many of these things she would have to dispatch to find the necklace with the missing setting.
“Well,” Amy said out loud, as if her imaginary fairy friends could hear. “May fortune favor the foolish.” She selected Bluebell and navigated to the Littlekin’s ability icons. She hesitated momentarily as her mouse hovered over the spell titled “Mortalform.” It wouldn’t take that long to level back to six, would it?
She clicked the icon. Bluebell faded into view and performed an adorably earnest series of arcane gestures. Tulishes appeared too, but was apparently content only to observe. The color of the ghost changed subtly. The vaguely humanoid creature howled in rage and charged at the animal trainer and her fluttery companions.
Arianne was on her feet in an instant. Amy selected a slashing attack, reasoning that if she kept some distance between herself and her opponent, she wouldn’t be as easy to hit with a damaging blow. The level six trainer lunged. A clean miss.
The ghost wound up its own spell, uttering powerful syllables in some long-forgotten mystic tongue. Then, as suddenly as it started, the sound was cut off. Tulishes brought her little hands together as if in prayer, and the universal icon for “Silenced” appeared on the ghost’s status bar.
Silenced! Amy thought. It can’t use Soulchill against me! It can’t take my levels!
Amy howled out loud as Arianne and her opponent circled, dodging and slashing against each other. The trainer’s attacks were both rapid and effective. 60 damage. Dodge. 47 damage. Miss. Critical strike for 111 damage. The ghost’s health was down by half. Then the undead apparition connected. Arianne stumbled as more than 180 points of damage registered. She was stunned.
The ghost advanced as Amy fought her controls. The stun wore off just in time for her to back away. She recovered quickly. The ghost started trying to cast another spell. Amy glanced up. The Silence spell had worn off!
Arianne attacked again, slashing and pressuring her advantage. The ghost’s spell surrounded the girl in an obscuring shadow. The word “resisted” appeared in the combat log. Amy howled again. Another critical strike for 117 points! The ghost had only a quarter of its health left. It attacked aggressively and missed. Bluebell renewed Mortalform just in time. Amy used her “Clawed Strike” ability. It was a risk, as it used up what was left of her readiness, but it paid off. It hit critically for 226 damage. The ghost stumbled back, dropped to its knees and opened its mouth in a silent scream. The wind carried its form away, leaving only the amulet.
"1600 experience points granted”
"250 bonus experience points: challenging encounter”
Amy raised a fist. Then she turned her character quickly to see where the other ghost was. It apparently hadn’t noticed the battle or the three victorious interlopers. She checked her health and readiness. Both were returning to normal. She clicked the amulet.
Amulet of the Angry Dead Gorian Heraldry Unusual Item - Necklace Requires Level 3 Solid: 70 Base Material - Coal-Flecked Steel No Enchantment No Decoration Cracked Malachite Setting Value: 15 silver ven She would be able to sell the object, but because it had a setting, it wouldn’t satisfy the requirements of the quest. Amy couldn’t imagine being lucky enough to win many more battles with these ghosts. She did note, however, she was only a few percentage points away from dinging level 7.
The fundamental irony of the role-playing cycle made Amy smile. Wouldn’t it make more sense to give characters the powerful magic item before you send them out into the Gorian Ruins to battle ghosts nearly twice their level? But, she supposed, if the game were that easy, nobody would want to play. She had to admit the animal trainer vs. ghost battle was more than a little thrilling.
In fact, she had never had an experience quite like it in any other game, especially at such a low level. She wondered if she would have the stamina to face battles like these on a regular basis. It definitely gave her a healthier appreciation for what her fantasy heroes were up against when they set out to stare down the evil overlord.
Amy retreated to a safe location near her horse and stopped for a moment to consult the on-line help. One of the key features of Kings and Conquests was the formidable documentation. Despite the fact the No-Name-Games team had received a copy of The Conquests of the King within hours of the first servers going live, nobody in the guild had yet finished reading it. There were dozens and possibly even hundreds of spells, abilities, skills and useful items both normal and magical none of them knew about yet. What was on Amy’s mind at the moment was the possibility these Littlekin had some kind of offensive spell powers. If they did, the fact one was level eight and the other was level seven would work to Amy’s advantage in a rather powerful way.
She turned to the section on player character and NPC spells and briefly reviewed the relevant categories again. There were Elemental, Arcane, Healing, Illusory, Necromantic, Natural, Warding and Color Magic spells. Amy hurriedly devoured the section on amethyst color magic, which controlled time. Unfortunately the Littlekin were not practitioners of color magic. They were rather good at warding spells, however, and that gave Amy an idea.
One of the keys to warding magic was the use of glyphs, which could either be physically drawn on a surface or an object, or the could be conjured into existence. The conjured variety didn’t last long, but they did have the advantage of being hard to detect without advanced and rather expensive preparatory reagents. The glyphs available to the Littlekin were particularly formidable given the ancient nature of their language and culture. More than 80 varieties of fairy wards were available, none of which could be practically deciphered by any other race. Some, like the mischievous “Adversary Blooms” could even be grown on the spot. The target wouldn’t even know the flowers were meant to be barriers until they were beset by pollen, seeds, whirlwinds, bees and all kinds of other natural inconveniences.
Amy wasn’t completely sure, but it seemed a wall of wind might come in handy if she knew where it was and her opponent didn’t. What if Bluebell and Tulishes could grow a little garden of Adversary Blooms and make it so any attempt to step over them would force the ghost’s corporeal form back? It would at least give Arianne someplace to retreat to in the event the next battle went wrong.
One thing was certain, she wouldn’t be taking any chances. What she really wanted was a trip inside Shifting Irons Keep. According to the best information gathered about the Shattered Sword quest so far, the location of the weapon’s hilt would be visible if Arianne could arrange to be in the final boss’ lair at dusk.
Amy was hooked now. She had to find a way. But first, her assistance had been requested at a place called Shon Cloud.