Mia stayed behind, tending to those wounded in the Strangers’ raid that she hadn’t yet healed. Meanwhile Vala and the rest of her party, along with Dhek, followed Khaddar and Oden outside. The chilly night air invigorated Vala even though the smell of smoke still lingered in the compound’s central courtyard, thin plumes continuing to rise from the gatehouse just below the plateau on which they found themselves.

A swift strike to the back of Patterson’s knee forced the tall man to crouch, enough so that he could enter through the short doorframe leading into the windowless, two-story building nestled at the base of the mountain. Once inside, Oden ran ahead as the rest of them made their way towards Goldur’s office. As they reached the half-opened door, trails of blood leading in and out, the captain took one look inside and frowned.

“This way,” Khaddar said, heading down a flight of stairs into the lower levels.

As she walked by, Vala peeked through the crack, spotting a half-dried pool of blood at the center of which laid the decapitated corpse of a dwarf. She then followed after the captain, hearing the others wince and gag behind her.

The young guard soon caught up to them, handing the captain a small ring of keys as they then veered left into a narrow corridor lit up by small, glowing crystals trapped inside glass bulbs. They passed by several empty cells before Khaddar stopped. He then opened the sturdy metal door, shoving Patterson inside as he placed the control rod tethering the lanky man’s cuffs into a receptacle next to the cell’s entrance, locking it and the door in place with one of the keys that Oden had brought him.

They then reached the end of the corridor where another cell awaited. Sighing, the captain went inside and grabbed the pair of cuffs placed neatly on the short, wooden bed, fastening them around his wrists and then handing the control rod to the young dwarf.

Ignoring the look of confusion on Oden’s face, Khaddar glanced at Drake as he spoke. “Lock it up and hand him the key. Then make yourself scarce.” A few seconds passed as the guard simply stared at the rod the captain had given him.

“B-but sir…”

“That’s an order,” he said drily, narrowing his eyes as he plopped himself down on the thin, hay mattress. Oden finally obeyed, closing the door and locking the mechanism keeping it and the rod in place, as he then reluctantly offered Drake the key. Taking another look at his captain, the guard finally left, turning the corner at the end of the hallway. “Alright, fine,” Khaddar groaned, leaning back against the stone wall, “this should be quiet enough for us to talk.” The captain’s frowning gaze then fell on Dhek who was standing next to Bane and Lilly.

“Cap, if you’re waiting for me to leave,” the dwarf mocked, rubbing his wrists, “then you might as well just get on with it. I’m not budging ‘til you explain.”

Straightening her back, Vala beheld the captain’s stout, short frame. On the way back to the compound, Drake and Bane had filled her and Lilly in on what had gone down in the clearing prior to their arrival. How they had found Pike. How they had saved him and Dhek from getting killed. And how Khaddar eventually gave up, promising to take the blame for everything along with Goldur. While the dwarf’s posture certainly displayed his resignation, his eyes showed only a look of dutiful seriousness that Vala had only seen in her own commanding officer before. ‘This was supposed to just be an NPC inside of a game…?’ The thought itself was enough to make the raven hair on the back of her neck stand on edge.

Drake nodded, unclasping his sword’s sheath from his belt and taking a seat on the tiled floor below. “Right,” he said, holding the palm of his hand up as his Link Sphere appeared inside of it. “A faint, blue glow took hold inside of the crystal orb for a few moments before going out just as quickly. “Still nothing,” he sighed as he closed his hand around the Sphere. “Seems like it’s just going to be the six of us, captain. Why don’t you start by telling us what happened before we arrived yesterday?”

Khaddar’s expression remained unchanged. “There’s not much to say. I got word from Dhek that two adepts from the Mages Guild had come wanting to ask questions. Now, given the fact that Goldur had already roped me into his little ploy of buying our passage back into Troria, you can imagine that I wasn’t thrilled about anyone poking their nose into our business.” Probably catching the puzzled look on her face, the captain turned to Vala and clarified. “Without getting too much into the details, anyone kicked out of Troria can never return. And those sent out on permanent assignment can only get back in by paying a large fee to the Merchants Guild.”

“Is that really it?” a voice came from behind, causing Vala to whirl around and see Dhek glaring at the captain, his lips pursed into a thin line. “That’s why you had those adepts killed? Is THAT why you dragged me and Pike into the woods? Just so that you and Goldur could get back into that… oppressive, rank-obsessed… SHITHOLE of a place?!”

“I don’t expect you to get it,” Khaddar returned, tilting his head back to stare at the cracked, stone ceiling. “You’re young and…” He stopped himself for an instant and chuckled. “Heh, no. That’s not it. You still have things that you care about on the outside. Like finding Loke.”

No Good Deed

Update: Having refused to accept the Conclave’s offer at the start of your journey, you were instead helped by Loke, one of the blacksmiths living in Alissey’s Trade District.

It would seem that Loke’s brother, Dhek, is currently trying to get in touch with him. Return to Alissey and assist his brother in whatever way you can.

Quest Difficulty: C

No sooner had Vala finished skimming through the unexpected notification, than she heard Bane blurting out the question that was already on her lips.

“You know Loke?”

The dwarf blinked a couple of times before finally gleaning the meaning behind the lycan’s words. “Y-you’ve met my brother?” he stammered, rushing towards Bane and grasping him by the arms. “Is he still in Alissey? Is he doing okay?!”

“Last we saw him a few days ago, yes,” Vala answered, wrenching Dhek’s attention towards her. “He helped us out when we first arrived in Enoa, so we kind of owe him.”

A long, drawn-out sigh of relief escaped the dwarf, tears beginning to well up inside his eyes as the captain then spoke out from within his cell. “You actually met his brother?”

“Yeah,” said Bane. “He’s a blacksmith in the capital.”

“Small world,” Khaddar whispered, drifting off into his own thoughts for a moment.

Leaning against the wall next to Vala, Lilly cleared her throat and smiled understandingly. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news,” she said, glancing apologetically at the trembling dwarf, “but you guys will have all the time in the world to talk more about that later.”

As Dhek nodded in agreement, the captain continued. “Right. The adepts… We weren’t sure how much they knew, so we locked them up. But since Dhek was trying to get information from them about his brother, he refused to drop the matter. Which led to Goldur locking him up next to the adepts. After we failed to get any information out of them, Goldur hoped that maybe the two had opened up to Dhek, so we interrogated him as well.”

Vala’s gaze immediately shifted to the day-old scars, scabs and bruises covering the body of the dwarf sitting next to Bane. “That’s one way of calling it,” she said, a slight frown creasing her brow.

“Indeed,” Khaddar replied, glossing over the point she was trying to make. “That entire affair was a dead end, and then you two showed up,” he said, looking at Drake and Lilly. “Goldur lost it after that. Ordered me to clean up this mess and get rid of anything still connecting us to the healer.”

“And then the raid happened,” said Lilly, the captain groaning in agreement.

The short bedframe creaked underneath Khaddar as he tried to settle on a more comfortable position, echoing throughout the empty corridor of cells.

“What stopped you?” Drake asked, causing the captain to raise his brow in question. “You were willing to go all the way and kill Pike and Dhek for the sake of Goldur’s plans. But before that Stranger with the axes attacked us, you stopped. Why?”

Silence befell the group as Khaddar lowered his head, trying to collect his thoughts. However, before the dwarf could answer, Vala found herself answering in his stead.

“He was never going to kill them,” she explained, the image of her own captain flashing inside of her mind. “But you and Bane? Definitely. Two adepts he didn’t know? Why the hell not?”

“You can’t be serious…” Dhek scoffed. “He tortured those two adepts for hours on end before he ordered the jailer do the same to me!”

“Where are those two adepts then?” asked Vala.

“What do you mean where? They’re dead!” Dhek snapped as he then stopped to consider her question for a moment.

“So, they just killed them,” she continued. “Then why would he go through the trouble of hauling you and Pike all the way into the forest if he could have killed you both here, like the adepts?”

“Maybe he was trying to make it look like the Strangers did it,” reasoned Bane, although it seemed like he didn’t really believe his own argument either.

Lilly sighed, flicking the lycan over the head. “Think, will you? They had no way of knowing when the attack was going to happen.”

“Yeah,” Bane sighed. “I know.”

Khaddar laughed weakly, quelling their harmless bickering. “Your horned friend is right,” he said, staring at Vala before he turned his attention towards Drake. “I had to get them out of town without Goldur finding out. And you showing up changed everything. I couldn’t just let you inform your guild about our hand in all of this. But how are you supposed to keep a Stranger from talking?” the captain asked, smiling defeatedly. “Trying to match anything that the Mages Guild could offer you would already be a fool’s errand. So,” he said, his smile turning grim, “that meant that heads had to roll. Though it looks like Goldur’s already beaten me to it, heh.”

Heaving himself up, Drake took a deep breath and sighed. “That much I understand,” he said, knitting his brow. “What I don’t understand, however, is why would you torture Strangers? Wasn’t kicking them out enough?”

“Fear? Paranoia? Information?” Khaddar returned. “But I think you’re missing a small part of the picture here. We tried to get answers out of them, but anything we did simply didn’t affect them. And that wasn’t from a lack of effort, believe me. Anything we used on them just… passed straight through them. Either that or they just didn’t feel anything. Next thing you know, they start to vanish in thin air, restraints be damned. We even tried bleeding their mana dry first. Didn’t help at all. Whatever that ability of yours is,” said the captain, narrowing his eyes, “it definitely isn’t magic.”

“Seriously?” Bane asked via their party’s chat. “If that’s it, then they only got logged out for a day at most. That’s annoying, sure… but why not just leave?”

“Might’ve been a quest,” replied Drake. “Correy, the guy with the axes, was definitely on one.”

“Could be,” Vala agreed.

“Captain, one more thing,” said Drake, putting an end to their little conversation. “Do you know who could’ve sent a thug after Pike’s daughter?”

The dwarf’s expression darkened instantly. “Someone was after Anna?”

“Yeah,” Drake nodded. “It was a tall, black-haired asshole wearing some old leather armor. Definitely not a Stranger.”

“Couldn’t have been Goldur,” Khaddar muttered. “He didn’t like getting his hands dirty. If he had actually wanted to do that, then he would’ve just asked me to handle it.”

“So,” said Lilly, rubbing her chin, “that just leaves Paula as the obvious culprit, since I assume she’s the only other person that knew about Pike apart from the people here. But just as importantly… what did the Conclave actually want with those shipments? I mean, why go through so much effort just to tamper with a few Waterstones?”

“I don’t know,” Drake answered as he took out the small tablet that Pike had given him back in the clearing. “This might be able to tell us more once we have someone in the Guild take a look at it.”

“Finding that healer would also help,” said Bane.

As if reacting to their words, the familiar sound of another system notification chimed inside of Vala’s head.

The Culling of Harkon

Update: The Strangers’ attack on Harkon has claimed a slew of lives in its wake, leaving even more injured and maimed. And as the dust finally begins to settle, the motivation behind the Conclave’s involvement in Harkon is still unclear. Furthermore, Khaddar has confirmed that he has executed the two adepts sent over by the Mages Guild.

Deliver the tablet and the tainted Waterstone that the foreman gave you to Arthurus Cain in Bord and report your findings.

Quest Difficulty: C+

“My men are out looking for Paula,” said the captain. “They have been ever since your little visit to Goldur.”

“If they haven’t found her by now,” said Vala, straightening her back, “then she’s probably made herself scarce.”

“She’s probably right,” said Lilly. “I’ll see you all a bit later, alright? I’m gonna go check on Anna and Mrs. Ellie. Plus, I want to say goodbye to Wade.”

“Okay,” said Drake, taking a step towards the cell. “I should be off as well. We’ll talk again a bit later, captain.”

Confused, Bane hurried after his friend who had begun walking away. “Wait a second, where are you going?”

“To find Kim,” Drake answered. “We’ll have to leave for Bord later, so she might as well get things ready while we finish everything else up.”

“Fair enough,” the lycan sighed.

With the others already gone, Vala and Dhek took another look at the cuffed dwarf. “Captain, it’s been nice meeting you,” she said. Dhek, on the other hand, simply stared at Khaddar for a moment before taking his leave.

The captain leaned back and nodded. He then closed his eyes and sighed silently as Vala turned around, leaving him alone with his thoughts.

****

“Thank you for your business!” said the tailor as Drake and Bane left, closing the door behind them.

The chilly, morning sun had already passed, leaving way for the warmer, midday breeze. Throughout the shopping district and the central square, dozens of guards kept watch from a distance, on the lookout for any of the players responsible for the attack. And while they eyed any new players carefully, it seemed as if the dwarfs were content to just leave them be for now. The villagers, however, kept their distance as they passed by, scurrying off whenever a player so much as took a step towards them.

“Seriously,” said Bane as he took in the sight around them, “I expected things to still be pretty chaotic, but they’ve already gotten a pretty good handle on things. Quite the disciplined bunch.”

“They really are,” agreed Drake. The two of them then rounded the corner into one of the alleys leading towards the inn. Finally away from prying eyes, Drake took his new coat and added it into his inventory before equipping it from there.

Reinforced Trench Coat (Shortened)

A durable trench coat made out of a tightly woven material. The numerous pockets allow the wearer to store various things in an easily accessible manner.

Shortened for ease of use, the coat offers a decent amount of protection from the elements without actually hindering the wearer’s movement.

Equipment Slot:Auxiliary Chest ArmorEncumbrance:1.5

Durability:15/15Physical Defense:3

“Shame you had it shortened,” said Bane. “It would’ve looked a hell of a lot cooler if you hadn’t!”

“Well, I like it,” Drake grinned. True to his word, the tailor had done exactly as Drake had asked of him, shortening and streamlining the coat’s back. “Looking at it in the shop, I could’ve sworn it was gray.”

“Yeah,” the lycan nodded. “That dark blue is pretty sweet.”

“And hey, I can even tie the belt you gave me around it. Nice!”

“Glad you like it,” Bane smiled.

They continued down the dusty, cobblestone streets, meeting fewer and fewer people along their way the further they got from Harkon’s central district. It didn’t take long for them to reach Wade’s inn and as they entered, ignoring the small, wooden plaque that had the word “Closed” carved into it, the sound of Anna’s voice greeted them.

“They’re here!” she yelled, raising one of her tiny fists into the air as she used her other to hold onto Pike’s hand, who was busy giving her a piggyback ride atop his shoulders.

Getting up from their table, Lilly circled Drake, whistling as she inspected his new acquisition. “Looking sharp!” she grinned, her mocking tone causing Drake to roll his eyes at her.

“I think he looks nice,” Mia smiled, tilting her head.

Drake felt his cheeks warming up as Lilly then turned to face the blonde healer, clicking her tongue. “You’re no fun!” But faced with Mia’s disarming cheerfulness, she just sighed and sat back down. “So? You two done running around the town?”

“Well,” said Bane, “we went and talked to Kim, saw Khaddar again, gave the key to his cell to that Edan fellow, and picked up Drake’s order. So, yeah. I think that’s about it.”

“What did Kim say?” asked Vala.

“She still has a couple of things to do,” said Drake. “But we should be on our way before sundown. Said she’ll meet us here.”

The shiny, old floorboards creaked underneath Wade’s boots as the innkeeper approached the table, setting down a couple more flagons. “Good,” he chuckled. “You all could use some rest before the journey back.”

“That does sound like a good idea,” Drake sighed, checking the clock in his HUD. “Wade, do you mind if I go upstairs to lay down a bit?”

“Not at all,” said the burly innkeeper.

“Y’know?” mused Lilly. “You’re not wrong. We should all probably take a little break.”

“Alright then,” said Drake, waving at everyone as he climbed the flight of stairs leading up to Wade’s room. “See you all in like four hours or so.”

Once inside the room, Drake closed the door behind him and sat down on the bed.

“It’s been a long day,” said Zeph as he materialized in front of Drake.

“Yeah,” he yawned, shutting his eyes and taking the opportunity to stretch his arms for a bit. A moment later, he found himself in the stone antechamber of his lobby, his back facing the swirling blue portal inside the alcove that was just behind him.

Hello again, Drake, Zeph. I trust that you both are doing well.

“Hi, Aida,” said Zeph as he swirled around the blue bonfire. “I swear, I’m never going to get used to that feeling…”

“What feeling?” Drake asked.

“The feeling of being forced asleep and waking up here with you.”

“That… does sound rough. I just close my eyes and I’m here.”

“You’re lucky I like both you and Aida’s company,” the spirit sighed.

“Oh?” Drake grinned. “You two do a lot of talking behind my back?”

Just the regular amount.

He smiled hearing Aida’s little quip, not phased in the slightest by the assistant’s strikingly personable responses. He had already gotten used to having another voice inside his head. What was one more?

“Okay,” he said as he walked out of the circular antechamber and into the adjoining wooden room. “I’ll see you both later.”

And with that, Ryan found himself inside his dimly lit studio apartment. He groaned as he began to stretch, glancing at his otherwise comfy bed that now bore the imprint of his motionless body. “Damn,” he muttered. “I should really take Dan up on his offer and have him order me one of those VR capsules…”

He waited for a moment, expecting to hear Zeph ask him what that was, but he was only met with a heavy, uncomfortable silence. “Right…”

A few minutes later, having eaten a light snack, he washed himself up and got dressed. Ryan then slung his trusty, old duffle bag over his shoulder and stepped out, ready to face the city’s empty streets on his way to Dan’s place.