Leaving the west gate of Tharis Isaiah gave the guard who told him yet again that elves were only allowed through the west gate an impolite gesture.  The guard being an NPC did not respond at all.  The road west of Tharis, or rather the road between Tharis and Azha had forests to the north and mountains to the south.  He typed west a few more times and the rooms mostly read exactly the same.   They alluded to a large empire to the south.   Something about a Tsarven empire existed south of the mountains.    Eventually he came to a path leading north from the road.   He peered north and it appeared to be some kind of barrow.  One of the rooms was named ‘burial mound’.   He wanted to check it out.  But the area screamed of undead.  He was no Cleric or Paladin who could turn undead.   He was looking for an alchemist to identify his bone dagger not his death.    He didn’t see any monsters from the peer but he also knew this game had invisible enemies.   That goblin assassin proved that something may look safe from a distance but it really wasn’t.  

 

West west west

 

Isaiah continued west.   The next fork in the road leads to a ruined keep.  It was just one room with a gate.  He tried to open the gate and expected it to be locked.   To his surprise, the gate opened.   There were a couple rooms inside.   Isaiah didn’t think this was another adventure area because it was so small.   He decided to risk a quick look around.   One of the rooms had the title of ‘Keep of the order of Metallic Dragons.’  Isaiah’s player remembered this from somewhere.   Order Of Metallic Dragons… where had he heard that before?   Ah yes, the website.   There were four guilds listed there.

 

The Order of Metallic Dragons

The Legion of Lost souls

The Iron Fist

The Illuminati

 

Maybe this used to be some kind of a guild hall?    The way this small area was written definitely came across as an abandoned guild hall.   It just felt so sad.   Literally sad, the text wrote out on the screen 

 

“You feel a sense of sadness as you walk through the gates of this once great and noble bastion of past heroes.”

 

Past Heroes… this must have been an old good aligned guild that disbanded.   Isaiah explored the few rooms.   There was a courtyard on the other side of the ruined, unlocked gates.   There was a treasury room that had an open and empty vault.   There was a war room with a round table that some knights might sit at.   The last room was a membership office.   There once was a desk and a list of members.   On the floor was a golden brooch.   It was the emblem of the order of metallic dragons.  

 

Isaiah cast detect magic and picked up the brooch on the floor.   He checked it out and it had a very vague description of being a metal emblem of dragons.   It didn’t seem to be magical so he could use it without getting cursed.   It was jewelry so he could equip it over his armor without it conflicting.   It was a nice little thing.   Isaiah wasn’t really thinking much about presenting as a member of a disbanded guild but a shiny trinket was a shiny trinket.   Might as well equip said trinket and smile proudly.

 

What great heroes walked these halls?   Would Nightfall fear them?   Isaiah’s player imagined a fight where Nightfall missed his stab and a holy blade of a Paladin struck true, sending him to have an awkward conversation with a god and a wall of souls. “Oh well, it doesn't hurt to have fantasies” Isaiah’s player said to himself from behind the keyboard he was typing on.  He didn’t even consider trying to get revenge against Nightfall.   There was no way, Isaiah was likely dozens of levels lower than him and didn’t know the first thing about player killing.   Nightfall was invisible when he attacked.   How would he even find him even if he was suicidal enough to try to play the ‘warrior of justice.’   

 

Maybe that is what happened to this guild.   People got together to play the warrior of justice and battle the evil team and it ended up like this.   Isaiah’s player wondered what the deal with the other guilds listed on the website was.   Were the guilds all defunct?   Were guilds no longer a thing?   Was there a guild you could join that didn’t involve dying over and over again?   Such big grandiose thoughts were distracting.   Why was Isaiah here standing in a ruined castle that he didn’t belong in.  Oh that was right he was on a much simpler quest.   The quest for owl feather.   

 

Isaiah left the Order of Metallic Dragons.  He continued down the Tharis-Azha road until it made it to the gates of Azha.  The first impression of Azha was that the layout was confusing.  One would expect just heading west on the road would eventually lead straight into the center of town but it wasn’t laid out that nicely.  Right before the city the room was called ‘Crossroads of the empires.’  There was a temple right there as well. He checked it out but no one was home.  From his experience with Lathander’s temple it was mostly just a place to hang out and talk.   The temple was dedicated to the god Tyr.  It had a bit of a fortress look.  Maybe Tyr was a deity for knights.  Isaiah’s player started to ponder but chastised himself.  “Stop getting distracted, focus on what you are really looking for,” He silently told himself.  Who cares about rumors of a Tsarven empire to the south and a grand elven civilization hidden in the forest.

 

Here was the tricky part, the west gates were southeast of the temple and east a few rooms.  Someone goes west… expects east gates, passes the town and has to double back a bit and enters through the west gates.   Isaiah’s player discovered he was directionally challenged and struggled to orient himself correctly.   The town was bustling.   It had no gate that could be closed at night like shadow city did.  

 

The people had a bit of an arabic theme going on.   One room was called a ‘custom’s office’.  There was a custom’s officer there named Samir al-Emir.  There was a barber shop as well.  Though the barber was actually a healer.  Isaiah’s player thought this odd.  What did barbers and healers have to do with one another?

 

There was a couple vendors with a few things for sale in the market square (which was helpfully 6 rooms that made a square).  There was a guy named Vishnu Bokara selling some estranged and mystical wares.  Isaiah checked what was for sale.   Some key on a cord that they wanted 900 gold for, nope, a golden ring they wanted 24 gold for.   Hmm that might be helpful.  There was a tarnished band of metal they wanted 120 gold for.  He wondered if any of this stuff did anything useful.   But he didn’t want to spend money on anything but owl feathers right now.

 

Isaiah found a room that said it was a south gate.   There were no doors or any way to keep heading south.   It looked like the game dead ended here.   After walking around in circles a few times Isaiah finally found the components shop.  

 

Carbon     15 gold    21 stored

Copper     5 gold        87 stored

Fur        1 gold        47 stored

Feather    1 gold        62 stored

Gum arabic    20 gold    50 stored

Nitric acid    72 gold    89 stored

Owlfeather     10 gold    4 stored

Water         1 gold        89 stored

 

And there it was, the owlfeather he quested so hard for!  Isaiah noticed that the feather was much cheaper.   He tried buying a feather and put it into his components bag.  

‘You do not have the components to cast this spell.’

 

 It mocked him as he tried to cast identify on his bone knife.   He broke down and spent the money for the shop’s entire inventory of owl feathers.   Well that is 40 gold down the drain it was a bit of a bummer.   He cast the spell.

 

Blinking several times, you chant a short phrase.

You touch the Bone Knife and reveal its magical nature.

 

Isaiah’s player cheered to himself for completing his quest that he assigned to himself.  He was proud that he was now the owner of a +1 Sword of Insanity and a +1 Bone Knife.

Isaiah was proud that he had two magical items. He was hoping that he’d get some better armor sometime and find other useful things this world had to offer. Incremental improvement was the path to power after all. The ‘limbs’ command revealed that he had many places on his body where he could equip things. It listed:

 

Head:

Neck:

Torso: leather armor

Waist:

Left leg:

Right leg:

Left foot:

Right foot:

Left hand:

Right hand:

 

That was how many limbs? It looks like 10 things can be equipped. If he could get even a +1 item on everything that would be as good as full plate mail. He was assuming plate mail was AC10. He also wished he was small. Those goblin boots might give a better armor class as well. Well the downside would be wearing sinky goblin boots though. Oh well, one can’t have everything. He had yet to see a goblin player online and figured there was likely a good reason for that. There had to be some enchanted armor or clothes in the realm somewhere he just had to find them.

 

A thought occurred to Isaiah’s player. Maybe some of the stuff sold by that sketchy mystical wares merchant was actually magical gear. Isaiah headed back and bought one of those golden rings for 24 gold. He eyed it and it just had a vague description of a golden ring. He gritted his teeth as he cast identification on it to see if it was cursed. Casting identify was not a painful experience but the fact that he was using up his precious components was painful. The golden ring didn’t appear to be a +1 ring of protection. Was it just a cosmetic item? It had no + to it. He equipped it and nothing happened at first. But after a few second.

 

Golden ring flashes.

 

Then a few seconds after that.

 

Golden ring flashes.

 

It did this a few more times then until the text appeared.

 

Golden ring flashes then vanishes.

 

So, someone can equip it, it starts flashing then eventually vanishes after a couple minutes. Isaiah’s player had no idea what in the world this was. Did it actually do anything at all or was it just some silly thing someone put in the game just for grins? It was only 24 gold so Isaiah decided to pick up another ring and not equip it. Maybe it might come in handy some time if he could figure out what it did or was even useful in some way.

 

Isaiah decided he was too poor to experiment with the keys. Maybe some other time he would come back and see if he could figure out what they did. For now he walked a few more laps around the streets because with how directionally challenged he was he was sure to have missed a few things in this slightly arabic town.

 

Eventually Isaiah found a tavern. It was called the Celestial Emperor Tavern. It was named after an ancient ruler of the Tsarvani Empire. Also it was a place of gambling which was outlawed in the empire. Such revelry is tolerated in the tavern though apparently (it even is written in the room description) There was a barkeep serving:

 

Purple Stuff 15 gold

Flame Strike 30 gold

Water 1 gold

 

One gold for water? That’s highway robbery as they say.

 

Isaiah looked at the barkeerp. He was a middle aged man who apparently spent a few decade in the army and was gifted a plot of land to farmstead. Instead of farming though he sold it and used the money to open this tavern. Again, how someone could tell this by looking at him was a bit of a mystery to Isaiah’s player.

 

There was another NPC in this in, some guy named Al-Radin. Isaiah looked him over. . .

“Excuse me, Isaiah, I think you were looking at me. . .

I wonder why . . .

I hope you weren’t planning to kill me.

I think I’ll just make sure by KILLING YOU!!”

Al-Radin wields Dagger of the Assassins.

You see Al-Radin reach into a small bag, from which he pulls out a handful of powder and throws it it in the air!

The cloud of dust formed by the powder billows towards you and your eyes are blinded by the irritants!

Al-Radin stabs you in the back!

HP: -15/45

You are at death’s door, your body is slipping from you.

HP -27/45

You are at death’s door, your body is slipping from you.

You die.

 

The grim reaper cackles happily as he receives Isaiah’s soul.

 

Your world spins and you find yourself standing on an outcropping in a barren hellscape. In the distance there is a red and black wall with many faces on it wailing in pain.

 

A black male figure appears from nowhere.

 

Bane says: “Ah another soul for the wall.”

 

A female figure with a divine radiance surrounding her appears next to him.

 

Ventri says: “No so fast, this one is new. We should give him another chance.”

Vetri says: “You have died 4 time.”

 

“Hello again death, my over-often visitor” Isaiah’s player said to himself from behind the keyboard.

Deaths

You have been brought low by:

Goblin King

Goblin Gate Guard

Nightfall

Al-Radin

 

Apparently the game still considered Isaiah a newbie. He needed to level up and try to not die so easily. After the cutscent Isaiah almost went back through the exit into shadow. He luckily caught himself before having to walk all the way back south to Tharis and along the west road to Azha. His ghost wailed a few times as he typed blocked commands. Then he went through the exit to Azha and found himself in a mosque. Isaiah prayed at the mosque and got his body back. He quickly headed back to the tavern and making careful not to look at Al-Radin again he got all of his things from his corpse and left the establishment. They really had some unfriendly customers that liked that place.