The waystone flared in Rich's hand, and abruptly he was gone from Kai-Tan. The lavish inn room he'd teleported from was replaced by the smell of sweet, mild summer, and clean mountain air. He was in a high wooded valley, with peaks clutching skyward in five different directions. The trees around him were short, obviously trimmed, and the scent of flowers pervaded the small meadow.

“They call it something that translates into the palm of heaven's hand,” a voice remarked from behind him, and Rich spun around to see Blackbinder stepping out of the shadows of a stone obelisk.

The Shadowcaster resembled a pile of torn cloth with only a few patches of skin showing. He looked thoroughly out of place among these obviously-tended trees and cultivated grounds.

“I have an hour left on this form,” Rich said, indicating his currently-human body. “Is that going to be an issue, here?”

“Not if we hurry,” the darkness manipulator said. “The tomb itself is enormous. Once we get you inside there, we'll be safe from the patrols.”

“Patrols?”

“C'mon and see for yourself. Manipulate Shadow.”

Rich glanced down, to see darkness gathering around him. He glanced back up at the sun. “Wouldn't this be more effective at night?”

“Which is why we're going to stick to the shadows of the trees, and you're going to follow me precisely. If you get spotted, run. Fighting only draws more.”

“More what?”

“You'll see.” Without another word, Blackbinder started moving from tree to tree, darting into the shadow of each one like a kid playing shadow tag.

Rich followed, rolling his eyes. There was no time to waste on drama. But Blackbinder liked being mysterious and sinister, and he was one of the best PVP assets the guild had.

But still, dealing with him face to face was like pulling teeth. There was a reason Rich left most of the guild's operations to Pat. His friend had a level of patience for it that Rich knew he'd never attain.

They moved through the valley, dodging from tree to tree. It seemed needless...

...up until the point that they passed a group of statues, and one of them moved.

Rich froze, eyes flickering downward to check that he was in shadow. The wind blew, and he eased over a step towards Blackbinder, hoping that the swaying shadow wouldn't desert him.

He looked back up at the sound of heavy footsteps.

It was a clay statue of some sort, fired in a kiln and brown with age and grime. Moss grew in the cracks of the five-foot-tall image of a man. A simple monk's robe was molded to the statue, but it wore a leather toolbelt that held various gardening implements, and carried a rake that seemed to be a separate item, made of metal and wood.

Both tool belt and rake looked to be in better condition than the statue itself. Rich filed that fact away in his mind as the animated construct turned to the left and right, searching through the forest and looking directly at and then past Blackbinder and Rich. After a time it turned away, walked back to the patch of grass it had been at, and resumed leaning on its rake.

Glancing over to Blackbinder, Rich saw the man take a tentative step, then resume darting from tree to tree.

He's not even waiting for me? Oh come on now!

Rich did his best to stay quiet. Thankfully, black words in his field of vision told him that he was being at least moderately successful.

Your Stealth skill is now level 6!

Rich waited until they were up a hill, well away from the statue, before he risked whispering to his guide. “What the hell was that?”

“I don't know but there are a ton of them throughout these gardens. We smashed a few, but then soldier-types started teleporting in. We had to go and hide for a few hours before they calmed down.”

Cresting the hill, Rich looked down into the center of the valley.

There was nothing there.

Nothing save for a vast, open spot where high grass grew wild, and unkempt trees stretched skywards in stark contrast to the neatly tended grounds about them. Smallish, humanoid statues moved slowly around the open space, sticking only to the trimmed parts. As Rich watched, a stick from a fallen tree that had breached the border of the wild and kept sides got neatly crushed beneath a ceramic heel, and picked up, severed at exactly the point where it had breached the harmony of the garden.

“What's with this?” he asked Blackbinder.

“Beats me. But we'll be safe once we get in there. And there's an entrance to a tomb on the other side. Ready?”

“Ready for what?” Rich asked, but Blackbinder was already running across the open space, the shadows around him fading as he broke cover, with nothing left between himself and the sun.

Rich bit back an angry shout and chased after him.

Immediately the statues that he could see turned and charged after them, running an intercept course and moving oddly fast for ceramic figures.

Blackbinder cleared them easily, darting into the woods.

Rich wasn't so lucky, as the two who had been chasing the Shadowcaster missed their target by a few dozen feet, and immediately whirled to cut him off.

A whistling noise filled the air, and instinctively Rich ducked... but not fast enough, as a thrown rake slammed into his side. At least a third one was close enough to attack, and by the feel of it that would leave one hell of a bruise.

I'm in hot water here. They're just too fast.

He whirled, found six of them approaching him in a semi-circle, while the two ahead of him spread out to block avenues of escape. The seven who hadn't thrown their rakes were twirling them like martial artists with staves, and the one who'd evidently nailed him was holding his hands up, Kung-fu style.

“Wait a minute,” Rich breathed. “I'm a fucking Cleric. Bless my agility two hundred!”

Time slowed, and he burst into motion, darting past the two that had cut off Blackbinder before they could close the gap.

Rakes whistled overhead and he ducked, managing to avoid both of them.

Your Dodge skill is now level 16!

Then he was past and into the thicket, skidding to a halt once he was out of the range of errant hurled gardening tools.

He checked his status, winced at the damage he'd taken. “Greater Healing,” he muttered, putting it right. It was a little bit of overkill, but easier than stacking lessers.

“Not bad, boss,” Blackbinder said, strolling up.

Rich tensed. “What did you just call me?” he turned, studying the Shadowcaster with an intensity that made the seemingly older man step back in surprise.

“Boss?”

“That. Why did you choose that word?”

“Because... it felt right? I'm sorry. You want me to call you Rutger instead? Or buddy? I'm down for anything, man, except baby or sweetheart. I don't swing that way.”

Rich studied him, then did his best to push his paranoia down. “Sorry. I used to know someone who used that term a lot. Fucker betrayed me at the worst possible time.”

“Okay. Okay, no problem then?”

“None. Sorry again. Lead on.”

Rich followed him, trying to calm his nerves. It took less effort than he thought... even shapeshifted, his borrowed form had more self-control than his body back at home. Which raised some serious questions about the true boundaries between mentality and physicality, but dwelling on that for too long seemed counterproductive.

The tangle was far larger than Rich had expected. The true scale of this place was starting to make itself clear. He desperately wanted to view it from above, but knew that would certainly trigger every guardian that the garden could bring to bear against him.

And if the gardeners had hit him that hard, he didn't want to see what they'd haul out against a dragon.

“We're back,” Blackbinder called ahead.

“About time,” Suzy Reign grumped, as she stepped out from behind a cluster of ferns.

Suzy was one of the Resistance's highest leveled Mercenaries. She'd entered the game for one sole purpose, and that was to rule her own empire.

And she'd almost gotten it.

Using wit, combat skills, and charisma, she'd led a revolt against a tyrannical kingdom in the jungles of the east, fighting from rice paddy to village and uniting players and NPC's alike to her cause.

But she'd made the fatal mistake of streaming it.

So when she'd finished a legendary thirty-seven hour siege and final battle, and claimed the crown of the Camwhorian empire from the severed head of the last monarch, she'd logged out for a four hour nap...

...and logged back in to find herself surrounded by a ring of the Bharstool Warmers' best killers.

They'd swooped in like vultures, beaten down the weakened remnants of her army, destroyed the country, put all her subjects-to-be to the sword, and killed her in a messy, needlessly-drawn-out fight to rub salt in the wound.

She'd had the Ruler job. But it had gone out of her grasp in a matter of seconds. Alone among the Tier one jobs, it could be lost if the Ruler was slain in the proper manner, and the right steps were taken afterward. Her crown had gone to another, and Suzy had gone straight to the Resistance.

She dressed simply enough now, in scaled armor with a zweihander carried over one shoulder. Unlike Vae her helm was visible, and had a notch for every Warmer she'd personally slain since the fall of her unborn empire.

There were a lot of notches on that helm.

But no matter how many she killed, she wouldn't win her kingdom back until and unless the Warmers lost power. The remnants of Camwhoria were well behind their line of conquest, and so long as they had a united front and were drawing in more marauders, the Warmers wouldn't break.

Suzy was also the guild officer in charge, here. Rich waved. “Where's Warper?”

“On the other side, holding the tomb entrance open. So we need to move fast.”

“Shit,” Rich cursed as she jogged off and he struggled to keep up. “Holding the tomb? What do you mean?”

“The door only opens on specific nights. Last night was the last one for this month. The next window is about a month away.”

“Wait...” Rich said, then amended his words as she slowed. “No, keep running. But tell me, was there a full moon last night?”

“There was. We're pretty sure this is a lunar month thing.”

“Just like the lost city...” Rich muttered.

“It gets better,” Blackbinder cut in, slowing to end up side by side with Rich. “We have to close the outer door to enter the dungeon part of it. That means we've got one shot at running this thing, and if we screw up we lose our gear, and it's a month before we get to try again.”

“You're sure this is a dungeon?” Rich asked. “The last breach wasn't.”

“I'm not even sure what a breach is, except for a super-dangerous game glitch. Seriously, Warper says that even getting near this thing could fuck up our characters permanently.”

“He's not wrong,” Rich said, thinking back to when he'd last visited what the elder god had termed 'dragonspace.' “If we find a weird starfield in a hole in reality, let me deal with it. Well, me and Warper, probably.”

“Aw hell,” Suzy groaned, skidding to a stop. “I was hoping you two would draw off more of them.”

“More of them? Oh,” Rich said, as he slowed and stopped, looking at the sea of terra cotta statues out in the open, clustered around an archway into some sort of mound. “Let me guess. That's the entrance.”

“Got it in one bos— uh, buddy,” Blackbinder said.

On a closer look, Rich could see it wasn't quite as bad as it looked. The coloration of the statues just blended into the trampled and muddy ground where a pitched battle had obviously been fought. But there were still a good few hundred out there.

“Think you can stealth us?” Suzy asked Blackbinder.

“Not a chance. I could maybe get through, but you two... no.”

“So we have to fight,” Suzy said. “I don't like our odds,” she continued, reaching into a pouch by her side and withdrawing a handful of gold coins. “But I'm willing to give it a shot. Rich, what can you do in this form?”

“Not much. I'm going to have to switch back.” he squinted at the tomb entrance, and nodded. It would be a tight fit, but doable. “So if I'm going to be doing that anyway, let me offer a third option...”

Three minutes later he launched himself out of the underbrush, flying low over the heads of the statues, doing his best to buffet and scatter them with wingbeats.

They were pretty heavy; the wind from his wings didn't do much, all told.

But they turned his way, and rakes and shovels started to fly into the air as they chased after him, hurling whatever gardening tools they had uselessly at his scaled belly. Their aim was lousy, and he led them a merry chase as he swooped around.

His elation faded, as portals started slamming open and larger things came spilling out. Ceramic soldiers, wielding pikes and bows. Clay horses, galloping with cavalrymen reading long lances. And even a chariot, with archers that immediately started firing arrows his way.

Their strength was considerable, and he could see that they would have his range in minutes.

Fortunately, he didn't need a minute.

“Hold on tight!” he rumbled, and turned hard into the wind.

It wasn't quite an Immelman turn, not this time, but it was a swift reversal and soon he was soaring over the statues he'd drawn away from the tomb entrance.

Rich dropped hard to the ground and folded his wings as he ran. “Get off and go first!” he bellowed, and his two passengers leaped down, and scampered ahead, disappearing into the darkness.

Rich dove, feeling the first arrows bounce off his ass and tail as he hit the ground and slid through the muddy field, sending a brown wave of dirt and water to either side as he sluiced through the entrance, found the stairs, and tumbled down them, jarring his head and chest with every bump.

Finally he ended up in a heap at the bottom, looking up at an elderly man wearing robes, goggles, and an aviator-style hat. He held a glowing compass in one hand, and a staff in the other, and he stood between two vast golden doors, each emblazoned with part of an interlocking yin-yang symbol.

“About time you showed up!” said WorldwarpR. “Give a man some warning next time, I barely had time to drop the wall of force.”

“You did good. Thanks, Warper,” Suzy said as she picked herself up from where she'd leaped to dodge Rich's falling form. “Binder, you alive?”

“Mostly,” came a groan from under Rich.

“Oh shit, sorry,” Rich said, rising and surveying the somewhat crushed Shadowcaster. “Greater Healing.”

Your Greater Healing skill is now level 20!

“Muchas gracias,” Blackbinder said, standing and turning his head as his spine cracked back into place. “Okay. We gonna do this thing?”

“Check yourselves first. Make sure you're ready. Potion up if you have to. And then we breach,” Suzy decided.

Rich nodded, and said “Status.”

Name: Rutger Royal

Age: 3

Jobs:

Cleric (Konol) 25, Cultist (Anjuuta) 25, Young Dragon (Stone) 23

Attributes Pools Defenses

Strength: 730 Constitution: 801 Hit Points: 1489/1531 Armor: 515

Intelligence: 135 Wisdom: 543 Sanity: 578/678 Mental Fortitude: 530

Dexterity: 36 Agility: 77 Stamina: 113 Endurance: 350

Charisma: 116 Willpower: 731 Moxie: 847 Cool: 190

Perception: 306 Luck: 183 Fortune: 489 Fate: 75

General Skills

Brawling – Level 23

Climb – Level 4

Dodge – Level 15

Fly – Level 28

Ride – Level 1

Stealth – Level 6

Swim – Level 2

Throwing – Level 3

Stone Dragon Skills

Burninate – Level 22

Burrower – Level 20

Chomp – Level 20

Draconic Tongue – Level N/A

Dragonseye – Level 20

Earth Resistance – Level N/A

Flameborn – Level N/A

Healing Hoard – Level N/A

Hoarder – Level 2

Limited Equipment – Level N/A

No Thumbs – Level N/A

Sandblast – Level 5

Scaly Wings – Level N/A

Slow to Age – Level N/A

Tail Slap – Level 5

Cleric Skills

Back You Fiend – Level N/A

Blessing – Level N/A

Curative – Level N/A

Dispel Magic – Level 17

Divine Conduit – Level 18

Divine Destiny – Level 11

Divine Transit – Level N/A

Faith – Level N/A

Godspell:

Greater Healing – Level 20

Holy Bolt – Level 16

Holy Smite – Level 33

Lesser Healing – Level 76

Party Heal – Level 25

Pray to Konol – Level N/A

Remove Condition – Level N/A

Shield of Divinity – Level 37

Cultist Skills

Conceal Status – Level 51

Curses – Level 43

Dark Augury – Level 15

Dark Bolt – Level 19

Dark Chant – Level 45

Darkspell: Fool's Gold – Level 49

Enhance Pain – Level 44

Fevered Zeal – Level 7

First Pact – Level 20

Heart of Darkness – Level N/A

Occult Experimentation – Level 1

Occult Eye – Level N/A

Second Pact – Level 15

Servant of Darkness – Level N/A

Transfer Wounds – Level 47

Unhinged Mind – Level N/A

Unholy Smite – Level 24

Unlocked Jobs

Archer, Berserker, Conjuror, Earth Elementalist, Fire Elementalist, Godbinder, Grifter, Knight

Gear:

(In Hoard) Mirror of Planar Contact, 293,021 GP worth of assorted coinage, 24910 GP worth of assorted gems, and three dragonslaying swords,

“I'm good,” Rich told her, echoed by the other two.

“Then let's party up and do this. We get one shot; no room for error.”