“Marty! Thanks for coming on such short notice!” Though I had only met him a few times, Frank was as boisterous as ever. “How goes the rehab? Pull up a chair, make yourself comfortable.”

“Pretty well, Frank. I’m anxious to get back into the game and got the go ahead for tomorrow morning.”

“Great. So you are probably wondering why you are here, right?”

“Partly. Knowing upper management’s love of meetings, there is probably some good news and some bad news. Because y’all can’t ever just let us have good news, right?” I said with a slight smile.

“Bwahahahaha, he got you pegged Frank.” Mike said, and he actually slapped his knee a few times. I didn’t think people did that.

“Ahem. Anyway. Yes, as you guessed we do have some good and some bad news. What would you like to start with?”

“Always hit the bad first. At least we can end on a good note, unless what you have is going to ruin my day?” I asked, raising my eyebrow at the end of that.

“No, nothing that bad. Just some minor alterations.”

Letting out a massive sigh, I gave in to the inevitable. “So, what have I done that needs nerfing?”

“You pull off the put upon act so well, Marty.” Mike said before Frank could respond. “You knew this was beta testing, and that things would get balanced. Are you really that surprised?”

When I shook my head no, Frank continued. “Well, it’s your crossbow. The use of the monster parts in it was a fantastic idea, one that many of the higher ranked guilds have been doing for a long while. The game tried to balance it with a longer load time, as it was doing similar damage to your scaling weapon. Basically, we want any weapon that powerful from range to be either a trump card or something that opens the fight with a devastating blow.”

“That, makes sense. You are thinking that being able to reload it while in combat is too much?”

“Not necessarily. The thing is, you have managed several times to reload it while moving around. We thought about forcing you to stay still in order to reload, but that would interfere too much with gameplay. Instead of that, we found a workaround. Ever hear of an arbalest?” Shaking my head no, he continued, “Well, pretty much it is a crossbow that has such a high draw strength it needs an assist mechanism. So in order to load it, you need to wind a wheel near the stock. It will take about two seconds, but you might be able to do it while moving. With enough practice.”

“Well.” I said with another sigh, “That was much less troublesome than what I was anticipating. What else have you got for me?”

“Beer?” He asked, reaching down into a mini fridge he had behind his desk.

“No thanks. Ever since the incident, none of us have really felt the desire to drink.”

“Oh god, I’m so sorry! I had forgotten completely about that!”

Waving off his concerns, Emily decided to speak up. “Frank, just drop it. Marty and his group are dealing with it just fine, so let’s move on to the movie.”

“Movie?” I said, perking up a bit. “You wouldn’t happen to have popcorn, would you? And what flavor? The flavor is the most important part.”

Emily started immediately chuckling. “Ha, you and Mike are too much alike sometimes. Don’t worry, we have Kettle Korn. Extra butter.”

“Your popcorn offerings are acceptable.” I said with mock seriousness, taking a large bowl from her. “So, what’ve we got queued up?”

“Well, we are going to use it for a promo video, but it’ll get you up to speed with some of the changes that have been happening. Ready?” When we all nodded yes, Frank hit a few buttons on his desk to kill the lights and highlight a screen on the wall.

The movie started as a high aerial view of the entire main continent, with a light melody of woodwinds. As the view started to descend, closing in on one of the southwestern mountain ranges, the brass and percussive sections started in with an ominous undercurrent, swelling to overwhelm the woodwinds. With a resounding clash of cymbals, an entire mountain disappeared in a large pillar of darkness, that we could see flattening out on top as we descended off to the side. From the corners of our vision, spots across the land started resonating with a dark glow.

“Peace has been shattered. Magic, thrown in upheaval.” A deep voiced narrator broke in. “Divine objects, long since lost to the memories of even the elves, have been tainted. Drained of their holy energy, forced to aid the foul evolution of a monster instead of helping civilization. A new race, long since exiled from our peaceful plane, has now made their way back. Will the Shadow-Walker Drakelings come in peace? Or do they come as conquerors?”

While he had been speaking, the massive pillar of darkness had retracted, revealing he drastically changed landscape. Where there once was a mountain, base covered in forest, now there was a glimmering city of white and black stone. It rose up and covered all the sides of the mountain, and an enormous wall surrounded it. Standing at attention at regular intervals along the wall were gigantic statues, tall enough that they carried ballistae as crossbows. Carved of some jet black material, it had exquisitely carved scales. Mostly humanoid, there was a row of spikes leading down the spine and following onto a spear tipped tail. There were the beginnings of horns on its head, sloped backwards from the forehead and it split into three small nubs. The eye even had a slit pupil, and I jumped in my seat when the head suddenly swiveled and stared straight into the camera.

“Holy shit, that’s a golem!” I shouted, much to the delight of the others in the room.

“Plus one to perception.” Emily said stoically, as the view moved past the golems and onto a gorgeous city of soaring spires.

“Should the former be their goal, then they shall be welcomed.” The narrator continued, “But. Should they wish for conquest, they shall meet the new might of our heroes, who have used the upheaval to enhance their own spells.”

The view shifted, and started following different adventurers. A female mage with blazing red hair was standing in front of a group of trolls. “Consuming flames, ever hungry. Twisted by shadows most foul. Feast upon the flesh of my foes, and render them to ashes. [Hellfire Inferno]!” As she finished her chant, twin jets of reddish black flames shot forth from her hands, and in seconds reduced the five trolls to piles of ash, blowing away in the breeze.

A barbarian, decked out in a kilt made of pelts and a horned helm, intricately carved gauntlets on his wrists sat in the middle of a clearing of goblins, axe pointed forward and sword pointed back. As the goblins geared themselves up to attack, he somehow knew just when to start his chant so it would be finished in time to slaughter the first to arrive. “Ignore armor, cleave flesh and shatter bone. Cut through the very fabric of reality. [Rending shadows]!” Both blades were lined with a crackling dark energy, and left rapidly fading black slashes in their wake. As he became a whirling demon amid the goblins, nothing could stop nor even parry his blades. They simply slashed through everything, and the goblins looked like they went through a Cuisinart. Heaving for breath, the barbarian smiled as he wiped a bit of blood off his face, only ending up smearing it a bit.

A blue cloaked figure with a staff. Facing a training dummy decked out in plate armor. “Dark water’s corruption, consume the metal but touch not the flesh. [Disintegrating blast].” A sphere of nearly black water shot from his hand and swirled around the armor, and my eyes opened in shock at the speed that it rusted and fell off in useless chunks.

Three kobolds faced another mage, striking sparks from his shield that kept them at bay. Nonplussed, he calmly chanted. “Split and strike only to split and strike again, numbers mean nothing against your overwhelming might. Spasm muscles and poison the blood. [Black chain lightning].” Forking out from his hand, a jet black strand of lightning shot out, hitting the middle kobold before forking off and hitting his two friends. Bodies locking up under the electrical assault, you could see the necrosis spreading from the contact points.

A flock of griffons flew over a caravan, deftly avoiding arrows as they made bombing runs, trying to pick off guards. Jumping out of one of the middle wagons, a female mage with golden hair and light blue robe stared up at the sky. “Rend the day and split the skies. Faster than a diving falcon, mercilessly seeking your targets. [Air shadow slicer barrage]!” Rapidly slashing with her hands, blades of dark energy shot out at fantastic speed and split through the circling griffons.

Standing outside of a bandit compound with a wooden palisade, surrounded by knights in armor. “Sir, are you sure? We can assault this wall with no issues.” One of the knights asked a man with brown leathers.

“No need to risk it, I’ve been needing a suitable target for this spell.” He replied, before raising a hand and chanting. “Spirits of earth infused with darkest shadow, reduce this barrier to kindling. [Cursed stone shotgun].” Firing from his hand and spreading into scattered cluster, dark stones embedded themselves deep within the wood of the barricade, seeming to do little damage. When the bandits started laughing and taunting the mage, revealing themselves from the barricades once again, he simply opened his hand and the stones detonated. When the dust cleared, the barricade and a good portion of the walls were gone, and the soldiers were pale faced and slack jawed.

“Sir paladin! The mostly dead are advancing!”

“Mostly dead?” The warrior with glistening armor asked the out of breath scout. “So, they sent abominations to try and limit my effectiveness? It won’t avail them.” He said confidently, as shambling creatures erupted from the treeline and started their lumbering charge. Each of them covered in weeping sores and open wounds that leaked a black ichor, those with high perception could see the agony in their eyes as dark magics ravaged their bodies. Slamming his shield into the ground as he leapt from the wall, the paladin unlimbered a massive greatsword from his back. One side of the hand guard was a feathered wing, while the other was a leathery one. “Purity of light, seduction of shadow. Opposite faces on the same coin, ever in strife to emerge on top. As mortals, we straddle the chasm separating you, one foot on each side. I call forth both sides of my heritage, and unleash your chaotic dance of destruction to free these tormented souls from their agonizing bondage. [Annihilating smite]!” He shouted, thrusting his blade towards the heavens before letting it fall down and cleaving into the ground. A pillar of purest white parted the clouds while twisting shadows shot forth from the end of his blade. Where they met, a swirling chaotic orb rapidly grew before exploding in arcs of twirling energy, each one made of light and shadow. Whatever these touched, turned to ash instantly. “May you find the peace in death that was denied you in life.” The paladin said softly to the now empty field.

A line of archers facing a horde of orcs laying siege to a city. As the orc leader bellowed to start a charge, the captain on the wall looked nonplussed. “Adventurers, we thank you for your defense of our city. As such, first blood shall be yours. Let them know of our might.”

Stepping forward by his side, a ranger with some form of dual winged guild crest barked at them. “Begin chant!”

As one, twenty archers drew back and spoke, “As the storm rages, so our arrows shall fall down without mercy upon the field. Pierce armor and cleave the flesh beneath, shadows wreak havoc with no opposition. [Exploding arrow rain].” Streaks of darkness left the archers bows at the same time, splitting into multiple arrows at the apex of their flight. As they fell back down, shadow tendrils exploded out of the flesh of whatever they pierced, tearing open gruesome wounds.

The narrator continued once more, “Let them come, for we shall drive them back to whatever shadows spawned them. Come, join the heroes. Wielding bow, blade, and mystical energies, claim your path to glory!” The clip ended on an army of adventurers of all classes, charging across a barren field.

I hadn’t moved through the entire commercial, and Mike reached over and scooped a generous portion of popcorn from my bowl. “You weren’t eatin’ it.” He said as a simple explanation as I turned to stare at him. “So, what’d’ya think?”

“That. Was. Awesome.” I said, excited and anxious. “Though, did you really have to make what I assume is my new race the bad guys?”

“Don’t worry, we have another commercial in production calling for people to join the monstrous side. I hear you guys have cookies and bacon.” He said, chuckling at the last part. “So, what did you think of your new city?”

“You did a fantastic job. It looks gorgeous, and those golems look like they could take on an army. Do they look like I do now?”

“Pretty much. You’ll get a good bit of racial abilities, including all the skills you had previously. There’s another surprise in there for you, but you’ll have to wait to log in to see it.”

“Sounds good. Any way I can get the breakdown of abilities and such of my new race?”

“It’ll be there when you log in.” Emily said. “I think I speak for everyone when I say that we look forward to what you can do with this.”

“I can’t hardly wait. Now, if that’s all I think I’m going to try and get some sleep before tomorrow comes.” Shaking everyone’s hands, I headed off to my meager tester apartment for the last time.